290606 PS Open Minds (2025W)

Open Minds is guided by three central questions: (1) what kind of problem is the sustainability polycrisis? (2) how can systems thinking help us understand the problem and potential responses to it differently? (3) how might students go about positioning themselves in relation to the problem of (un)sustainability and efforts to address it? This course introduces students to geographic, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches for describing and analyzing complex systemic processes of global change and sustainability transformations while engaging the challenges that sustainability poses for policymaking, academic research, and education in general. Students will be confronted with a wide range of perspectives on the topic and asked to reflect on their individual academic and professional development path in the context of their studies. Coursework will primarily consist of reading, discussion, group presentations, workshops, and other forms of active participation.