A blog by a Kapiʻolani Community College professor has received an honorable mention for the John Lovas Award for an outstanding online project devoted largely to academic pursuits. The Lovas Award is presented annually by Kairos at a conference on computers and writing.
Krista Hiser’s blog, “Teaching Climate Change Field Notes,” is part of a formal research study by the University of Hawaiʻi Office of Sustainability, which has been working to understand what faculty think, feel and do about teaching climate change in their classrooms.
“John Lovas was an inspiring influence on my forms of scholarship—I applied for a tenure track position at a community college, based on the model of John’s long career at De Anza College,” said Hiser. “I am honored and humbled to be acknowledged for this award, and hope that it can help to bring awareness to the urgent topic of teaching climate change in higher education.”
Each post profiles a different academic and how they are meeting the challenges of teaching climate change across all academic disciplines. Each blog post is associated with a formal interview, which has been transcribed for qualitative analysis. Then, Hiser writes a pseudoanonymous public post to simply see what ideas and associations arise.
The blog can also help faculty to learn from their peers’ approaches to sustainability and climate change.
- Related UH News story: Kapiʻolani CC faculty member named to 2 national posts, March 21, 2019
Interview subjects include: two climatologists, a biologist, an artist, an economist, a philosopher, an environmental historian, a sociologist and several other academics in both four-year and community college settings in and outside of Hawaiʻi. The blog has been very well received across several academic networks.
