Mills College
AC-9: Academic Research

Robert Anderson, M.D. Anthropology/Sociology Lisa Urry Biology Lara Durback Book Art Kristina Faul Chemistry Molissa Fenley Dance Lorien Rice Economics Roger Sparks Economics Elizabeth Baker Education Greg Tanaka Education Kara Wittman English Cornelia Nixon English Déborah Berman Santana Ethnic Studies Carol Theokary GSB / MBA Program Bill Issel History Dave Meader Management / MBA Martin Benjamin Philosophy Carol George Psychology Mark Henderson Public Policy

A six-question survey using Google Forms was sent out to faculty members in November 2014 with an introduction from a faculty member. It asked for their name and department. It asked if their research included issues of sustainability, and if so, to briefly describe it. It asked if they taught any "sustainability classes" or "classes that include sustainability" and to list them. This enabled us to collect both quantitative and qualitative information.

Lisa Urry, Biology: I ran a workshop at the National Association of Biology Teachers in Dallas TX 10/31 - 11/3/12 that surveyed faculty as to their inclusion of sustainability in their curricula. In fields of biology, there were many ways the concept was included, without being mentioned by name. Lara Durback, Book Art: Letterpress printing using only reused items; studio practice which considers reuse and energy saving; presentation on panel "What Does Sustainability mean to Printers?" at College Book Art Association conference hosted at Mills. Kristina Faul, Chemistry: Investigation of whether urban reservoirs serve as sources or sinks for contaminants to the SF Bay with a focus on acid mine drainage impacted Lake Aliso on the Mills Campus. Research funded by SeaGrant for two years. Molissa Fenley (Dance) leads choreography classes in developing site-specific dances that are performed outside on campus. In presenting the dances, she says, “we are in conversation of our relationship to the outside environment: its beauty, our responsibility, our joy, the reciprocity.” Her current project, Water Table, is a response to freshwater issues including glacial melting and the use of spring water in coal extraction on the Black Mesa of the Hopi Nation. Yulia Pinkusevich (Studio Art) works with reclaiming and recycled materials to make art, organized a field trip bringing students to the Recology “dump” (resource recovery and transfer station) in San Francisco, and lead a project around sustainability. Roger Sparks (Economics) has studied the tendency of households and companies to require very high rates of return in order to make energy-saving investments, and has evaluated how the low carbon fuel standard will increase the diversity of fuel supplies and reduce the market power of a petroleum-based fuel sector.