Emory University
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

1) The Office of Sustainability Initiatives Incentives Fund
The Office of provides an Incentives Fund to support research, campus-based projects, and the development of new rituals to promote sustainability on Emory’s campuses. All faculty, staff and students, including Emory Healthcare and Oxford College members, are eligible to apply. Funds may be used for supplies, materials, publicity, and travel costs (excluding equipment). Proposals are welcome in all areas, as long as projects support Emory's 2015-2025 Sustainability Vision and/or the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Research and rituals must be carried out on campus. From 2016-2019, OSI awarded $144,740 in sustainability and social justice Incentives Fund grants.
Website URL: http://sustainability.emory.edu/page/1036/Incentives-Fund

2) The Sustainability Minor Capstone

The Sustainability minor requires all students in the program to carry out a capstone research or outreach activity on sustainability issues for which they receive two credits. This research project may be part of Honors Research, study abroad, an internship, or other academic course. Student research within this department is incentivized by course credit and mentorships. Recent capstones have included the following:

• The Unnatural Disaster of Hurricane Maria Relief for Puerto Rican Women
• Atlanta’s Household Energy Burden
• Sustainability, Being, and Reconciliation: Decolonizing Nature and the Australian Imaginary
• Decolonizing Food; Food sovereignty among Native American tribes in the US
• A survey of food insecurity among undergraduate students on Emory University campus

Website URL: http://anthropology.emory.edu/home/undergraduate/sustainability-minor/

In addition, students take advantage of the following research programs to conduct sustainability research:

3) Environmental Science Research for Environmental Science Majors
The Department of Environmental Sciences encourages and supports student research. Undergraduate students may begin exploring research as early as their first year with faculty in the department. Resources to support undergraduate research are available through departmental funding. Our thesis-based master’s program in ENVS requires students work directly with their ENVS advisor to produce an original research project. Prospective students in the MS/ENVS program are required to identify faculty who have similar research interests when applying.

Website URL: http://envs.emory.edu/home/research/index.html

4) Sustainability Research for Medical Students
Doctor of Medicine students are incentivized to research sustainability by funding and mentorships.

Website URL: http://www.med.emory.edu/research/index.html

5) Students at the Turner Environmental Law Clinic are incentivized to study sustainability by mentorship (those who conduct research work closely with one of four full-time faculty members) and externships.

Website URL: https://law.emory.edu/academics/clinics/faculty-led-clinics/turner-environmental-law-clinic-work.html

6) Sustainability research in the Environmental Health department is incentivized by mentorships and course credit.

Website URL: https://www.sph.emory.edu/departments/eh/research/index.html

7) Epidemiology degree candidates are incentivized to research sustainability topics by mentorships and assistantships.

Website URL: https://www.sph.emory.edu/departments/epi/research/index.html

8) Masters in Development Practice students are highly encouraged to incorporate sustainability into their studies. Research into sustainability is incentivized by course credit, mentorships, and internships.

Website URL: http://web.gs.emory.edu/mdp/resources/index.html

9) Population Biology, Ecology, and Evolution
PBEE (Population Biology, Ecology, and Evolution (PhD)) research typically involves deep appreciation for environmental systems and the importance of preserving them. Such research is incentivized by funding, mentorships, and course credit.
Website URL: http://www.biomed.emory.edu/PROGRAM_SITES/PBEE/research/index.html

10) Research for Public Health Students
Students in the Rollins School of Public Health Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), and Environmental Studies and Environmental Health (BS/MPH) programs are strongly interested in sustainability and accordingly, often conduct research in the field. Sustainability research is incentivized by funding and mentorships for all three degree programs.

Website URL: http://www.sph.emory.edu/research/

11) Undergraduate Research Program
For undergraduate students who would like to participate more fully in meaningful research early on in their academic careers, Emory College offers Undergraduate Research Programs (URP). URP promotes undergraduate research projects through grants, faculty-student research partnerships, and summer research stipends. Many students take advantage of this research and funding opportunity to engage in sustainability-focused research. Recent theses for the URP include:
• Determinants of Sustainability in Community Development: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities
• Determinants of Sustainability in Community Development: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities
• Sustainability, Being, and Reconciliation: Decolonizing Nature and the Australian Imaginary
• Cultivating the grassroots: Deep ecology and community networks in Latin America
• From Cotton to Clothing: Unpacking Sustainability in the Fashion Industry
• A Recipe for Sustainability: Serving Plant-Based Food to Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions at U.S. Colleges and Universities
• A Carbon Offset Program for Emory University
• Sustainability Mindset: Practical Implications of an Existential Analysis of Freedom, Flourishing, and Ecological Interdependence
• Essays on Sustainability, Marketing Capability, and Firm Performance
• The Breathe Easy Telehealth Program: A Project-Based Grant Proposal Thesis to Improve Asthma Management among Elementary and Middle School Children in Louisiana

Website URL: http://college.emory.edu/undergraduate-research/index.html

12) The Scholarly Inquiry and Research Experience (SIRE) Program
The Scholarly Inquiry and Research Experience (SIRE) Program (Formerly Research Partners Program) is a hands-on research experience designed for undergraduate students who are entering research for the first time. Students in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and sciences are connected with faculty mentors who are seeking research assistants.
Students have a unique opportunity to work closely on a faculty’s research project before the student undertakes her/his own independent research. This is a program that is geared towards students who are entering research for the first time and have minimal research experience. Students can be compensated through a work study stipend or have research count for credit. This program can place undergrads under professors working the field of sustainability or humanitarian projects.
Website URL: http://college.emory.edu/undergraduate-research/opportunity/research-partners.html

13) Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program
The Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program is a ten-week summer program during which undergraduate research fellows conduct full-time independent research under the direction of a faculty mentor. Summer researchers receive a housing award for residence on the Emory campus and a stipend to support their full-time attention to research training and professional development. Student researchers benefit from hands-on research, mentorship, networking opportunities, and graduate school preparation. SURE provides an opportunity for students to discuss research and start building their professional network with world-renowned researchers and the best and brightest peers from Emory and other institutions. SURE students come from all backgrounds and disciplines including the humanities, arts, social sciences, natural sciences, physical sciences and engineering.

Website URL: http://college.emory.edu/undergraduate-research/summer/index.html

14) The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry
The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry provides a variety of grants to faculty and students for various projects in the humanities, including issues of social justice, equity, and diversity.

Website URL: http://chi.emory.edu/

15) The Global Health Institute Individual Field Scholars Program

The Global Health Institute Individual Field Scholars Program promotes student learning by linking academic study with practical experience in the field. Individual scholars conduct short-term global health projects focusing on under-served and/or vulnerable populations around the world. Applicants can conduct projects either abroad or within the United States, however, they must demonstrate a significant need in the population with whom they propose to work. Scholarship recipients receive up to $3,000 to conduct their projects.

Website URL: http://studyabroad.emory.edu/programs/research/global.html

1) Emory Office of Sustainability Initiatives
The Office of Sustainability Initiatives provides an Incentives Fund to support research, campus-based projects, and the development of new rituals to promote sustainability on Emory’s campuses. All faculty, staff and students, including Emory Healthcare and Oxford College members are eligible to apply. Funds may be used for supplies, materials, publicity, and travel costs (excluding equipment). Proposals are welcome in all areas that support Emory's 2015-2025 Sustainability Vision and/or the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Research and rituals must be carried out on campus. From 2016-2019, OSI awarded $144,740 in sustainability and social justice Incentives Fund grants.
Website URL: http://sustainability.emory.edu/page/1036/Incentives-Fund

2) Piedmont Project
The Piedmont Project is a curriculum development effort that seeks to foster an invigorated intellectual community to address global and local sustainability issues and awareness. Faculty workshops, graduate student work, new course and module development as well as cross-disciplinary dialogue are key efforts for the project, and these sometimes result in research collaborations and grants as well as teaching innovation.
Website URL: https://sustainability.emory.edu/programs/the-piedmont-project/

3) The University Research Committee
The University Research Committee (URC) offers seed grants and many sustainability-related projects have benefited from their support. The URC is a standing committee of the Faculty Council of the University Senate and awards competitive small research grants, especially in fields for which there is little or no external funding or to explore new areas of research that are likely to attract outside support. All regular, full-time faculty members of the University are eligible and proposals are reviewed by five broad discipline-based subcommittees.
Website URL: http://www.urc.emory.edu/about/index.html.

4) Center for Faculty Development and Excellence
The Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, an office of the Provost, offers small grants to support Academic Learning Communities and other activities that foster faculty collaboration and often lead to future research efforts. Currently, CFDE has supported work in both Climate Change and Sustainable Food Studies areas. Also available are mini-grants to support engaged scholarship in teaching which have been used by faculty for sustainability-related efforts. The CFDE has a focus on Public Scholarship, and it also supports faculty with subvention funds for publication.
Website URL: http://cfde.emory.edu/index.html

5) Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry
The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry provides a variety of grants to faculty and students for various projects in the humanities, including issues of social justice, equity, and diversity.
Website URL: http://www.chi.emory.edu/.

Interdisciplinary scholarship is specifically listed in the Emory College Tenure and Promotion Principles and Procedures Appendix on digital scholarship. When asked about the recognition of interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research in tenure and promotion proceedings, Emory’s Senior Associate Dean for Faculty verified the accuracy of Emory’s previously-approved STARS explanation that scholarship is evaluated based on its advancement of knowledge and is not restricted by departmental or disciplinary boundaries. Reviews of candidates whose research is interdisciplinary tend to be expanded by seeking input from experts from multiple fields, including those outside the department or outside the school/college, as appropriate. The promotion and tenure process has shown that Emory values and rewards research efforts that impact multiple fields and cross disciplinary boundaries. The university-wide committee that advises the president and provost on promotion and tenure issues is itself multi-disciplinary and seeks additional input in its decisions from a broad spectrum of experts to ensure that interdisciplinary research is adequately reviewed. Special mention is made of encouragement for interdisciplinary research in the Principles for Promotion and Tenure, but Emory's size and strong history of support for interdisciplinarity in hiring, retention, and funded programs speaks for itself.
Dean Freeman adds that “it would be the exceptional case of a faculty tenure or promotion case that does not highlight interdisciplinarity. I can think of very few faculty for whom the methodological, analytical, and/or empirical reach of their scholarship does not extend across disciplinary boundaries. This is something that is not, at this point, necessary to ask about, it is a feature (and a touted one at that) hailed by reviewers, department and College wide committees, and by the Dean and Provost. . . . [O]ur faculty are interdisciplinary scholars more as a rule than exception, and this is one dimension of what makes them such stellar and highly recognized scholars.”

http://college.emory.edu/faculty/documents/tenure-track/tp-principles-and-procedures.pdf

Several specialized librarians cooperate to build the university’s collections in sustainability-related fields. There is a dedicated Environmental Studies librarian, as well as Anthropology and other related fields. Collections in Theology, Law, Business, and Public Health also support sustainability-related teaching and research.

Specific Library Resource Guides Currently online:

Anthropology Librarian: Lori Jahnke
• ANT 190: Indigenous Lives and Lands
• ANT 385: Energy, Environment and Culture
• Readings in Anthropology
• Concepts and Methods in Biological Anthropology (ANT 201)

Environmental Sciences Librarian: Kristan Chilcoat
• Ecology
• Environmental Honors & Independent Research Guide
• Environmental Sciences Field Studies
• Environmental Sciences Films
• ENVS 225: Institutions & the Environment
• International Environmental Policy
• Math & Computer Science Honors Research Guide
• U.S. Environmental Policy
• WaterHub & Wastewater management

Peggy Barlett Papers, 1976-2015 (https://findingaids.library.emory.edu/documents/eua0292barlett/?keywords=sustainability)

Sociology and Developmental Studies Librarian: Melissa Hackman
• Developmental Practice Research Guide

Data reported for 2017, 2018, and 2019 academic years.