On August 8, 2021, we hosted our Sustainability Symposium at the University of Jordan in Amman. Our Texas and Jordan teams collaborated to put on a successful international conversation between experts, students, and community members in Amman and Texas. The Symposium had two segments: Investing in Sustainability on Campus and Educating for Sustainability. The first segment, moderated by Dr. David Eaton from UT, featured Dr. Osama Ayadi from UJ, Mr. Jim Carse from UT, Mr. Juan Ontiveros from UT, and Dr. Khaldoun Shatanawi from UJ. The second segment, moderated by Noorah Alhasan from UT, featured Dr. Deyala Tarawneh from UJ, Dr. Jayme Walenta from UT, Sumaya Daghestani from UT, and Rahaf Zorba from UJ. Visit our Digital Pamphlet to learn more about our speakers and the Symposium.
Overview
The purpose of this symposium is to explore cross-cultural approaches to sustainability among institutions of higher education. Universities occupy a critical role in furthering sustainability because they work “like small cities in terms of resource use and environmental impacts” (Zellner 2014). And as laboratories for innovation, universities possess the economic and social capital to generate solutions and provoke change. Because universities in different parts of the world work with differing approaches to sustainability owed to variations in culture, politics, and geography, establishing cross-cultural exchanges has the potential to identify innovations in education, investment, and campus operations that can be shared across institutions.
Drawing on the experiences of the University of Jordan and the University of Texas, this symposium is a site of cultural exchange, with the expressed goal to share approaches toward sustainability in the realms of investments in sustainable campus operations and education and learning. Divided into two panels, the first panel, entitled Investing in Sustainability on Campus brings together key operations staff and researchers at the University of Jordan and the University of Texas to discuss water and energy investment priorities using specific examples of past and ongoing campus projects. The central objective of the second panel, entitled Educating for Sustainability: Faculty Approaches and Student Perceptions is a cross-cultural exchange that shares student perceptions of sustainability documented in recent surveys and focus groups alongside faculty approaches toward teaching sustainability, underscoring what they see as key challenges and identifying pedagogical innovations to overcome those challenges.
