Applications due June 1st
RISD | Public Engagement seeks candidates for an AmeriCorps*VISTA position that will run from 30 July 2009 to 29 July 2010. This AmeriCorps*VISTA position is sponsored through the Rhode Island Campus Compact and will be placed at Rhode Island School of Design. The VISTA member will work closely with the director of RISD | Public Engagement to advance the strategic goals of the Office.
Specific VISTA Responsibilities:
Communication
• Developing communication about public engagement across the College;
• Communicating with community agencies about RISD | Public Engagement’s existing work;
• Working with the director to communicate public engagement opportunities through existing student and academic services offices;
• Assisting with the development of content for the Office’s web site;
• Coordinating a weekly electronic newsletter for the office;
Community Outreach
• Building our database of community partners;
• Working with potential community partners to assess opportunities for collaboration;
• Meeting with community agencies to determine how RISD can support existing services and establish new long-term partnerships;
Academic Support
• Assisting with the development of our service-learning initiative;
• Coordinating information for faculty about service-learning resources;
• Coordinating meeting of RISD’s faculty forum on service learning;
• Assisting the development of new community-arts/design programs and coordinating existing partnerships;
• Supporting students and academic departments in the development of new, on-going initiatives;
Extracurricular Support
• Assisting the development of our campus sustainability initiative;
• Coordinating events open to students and faculty that promote community involvement;
• Advising students about possible service programs;
• Assisting the director to coordinate service programs;
Qualifications:
• Familiarity with community-based art and design programs;
• Familiarity with a four-year undergraduate institution;
• Strong organizational skills;
• Ability to communicate across difference and with a diverse set of constituents; a commitment to supporting inclusive learning environments and workplaces;
• BA degree
Questions and Application
Please direct questions and inquiries about the position to Peter Hocking, Director of RISD | Public Engagement – phocking@g.risd.edu or 401-413-0275. A formal application can be submitted at: www.compact.org/ricompact/vista/join.php
About AmeriCorps*VISTA
AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) is one of several full time national service programs. VISTA members who are interested in developing lasting solutions to the problems of poverty in America serve in nonprofit organizations and agencies to develop and expand services, strengthen programs and empower low-income individuals. For more information about the program, please visit the RI Campus Compact web site.
About RISD | Public Engagement
The Office of Public Engagement works with faculty, students, alumni, and community partners to connect art, design and scholarship with the public good. Reflecting the values of the College, RISD | Public Engagement believes that public participation is a central concern of a college education. Recognition of one's social responsibility and one's ability to affect public issues is intrinsic to understanding one's role in a democratic society and key to addressing the most pressing questions that face us -- locally nationally and internationally. For more information about us, visit our web site.
Showing posts with label sustainability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sustainability. Show all posts
Monday, May 4, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
All these conversations, heading...
I just returned from a conversation around collaborative research at RISD, which was sponsored by the Landscape Architecture Department in honor of the 10th anniversary of Innovation Studio. These past few weeks have seen a congregation of thoughts and actions around the ways in which RISD as a community is stepping up to the social, political and design challenges of our times. Some of these other events and occasions include the panels around David Orr's visit, Marjetica Potrc's talk to the Sculpture Department on interdisciplary practice around issues of self-articulated communities, and our own office's Student Visioning Gathering this upcoming weekend.
In all of these gatherings, there exist a number of emergent themes that belie the imagined divide between the fine arts and design disciplines and offer up a compelling vision for really "what we do" here at RISD.
Just briefly, themes I took away include:
1) While innovative, integrated learning and research is happening at RISD, people are operating in discrete pods, which decreases the impact of the work. How do we create nodes of knowledge gathering and dispersal for students and caulty to know how to approach cr0ss-departmental collaboration and resource sharing?
2) As an institution RISD needs to shift gears to recognize the rapid speed at which financial, ecological, social, and political reorganization is progressing, lest we be left out of the conversation.
3) Research at RISD is classroom & studio-based, ultimately tied to the interests and passions of the student body. Therefore the school has an obligation to students to find ways of accumulating and dispersing information about what research they are doing and support faculty who are formulating new seminars and studios to push this learning.
4) The ways that we work with communities, whether local collaborations or in system analysis of developing countries, there needs to be an acknowledgement of the informal strategies (informal cities, design solutions, high-low technology interfaces, etc) that are also impacting these investigations.
With all of the incredible creativity here at RISD, there are no shortage of ideas of how to best address these issues. However, I keep returning to a place of caution - that we don't need to wait for leadership (and its subsequent financial resources) to come from above. We can do more by learning to want less, to make concrete steps forward that fit current financial realities. As an institution of creative learning, I am confident RISD can put forth innovative strategies for moving the agenda of ethical and sustainable education into the new paradigm that lies ahead.
In all of these gatherings, there exist a number of emergent themes that belie the imagined divide between the fine arts and design disciplines and offer up a compelling vision for really "what we do" here at RISD.
Just briefly, themes I took away include:
1) While innovative, integrated learning and research is happening at RISD, people are operating in discrete pods, which decreases the impact of the work. How do we create nodes of knowledge gathering and dispersal for students and caulty to know how to approach cr0ss-departmental collaboration and resource sharing?
2) As an institution RISD needs to shift gears to recognize the rapid speed at which financial, ecological, social, and political reorganization is progressing, lest we be left out of the conversation.
3) Research at RISD is classroom & studio-based, ultimately tied to the interests and passions of the student body. Therefore the school has an obligation to students to find ways of accumulating and dispersing information about what research they are doing and support faculty who are formulating new seminars and studios to push this learning.
4) The ways that we work with communities, whether local collaborations or in system analysis of developing countries, there needs to be an acknowledgement of the informal strategies (informal cities, design solutions, high-low technology interfaces, etc) that are also impacting these investigations.
With all of the incredible creativity here at RISD, there are no shortage of ideas of how to best address these issues. However, I keep returning to a place of caution - that we don't need to wait for leadership (and its subsequent financial resources) to come from above. We can do more by learning to want less, to make concrete steps forward that fit current financial realities. As an institution of creative learning, I am confident RISD can put forth innovative strategies for moving the agenda of ethical and sustainable education into the new paradigm that lies ahead.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
David Orr @ RISD
The next two days are going to be jam-packed with events surrounding David Orr's visit to RISD.
Once again, Respond|Design has pulled together a timely and compelling series of conversations about the intersection between art/design and sustainability both globally as well as here on the RISD campus!
David Orr is Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his recent work in ecological design. Orr is the author of four books: The Last Refuge: The Corruption of Patriotism in the Age of Terror (Island Press, 2004); The Nature of Design (Oxford, 2002); Earth in Mind (Island, 1994); and Ecological Literacy (SUNY, 1992). For a full bio, you can check him out here: http://www.davidworr.com/
This week's events include:
Thursday, April 23
11:30am - 1:00pm BEB* room 106
Urban Eden Conversation:
Professor Anne Tate will present her sabbatical work. Come join in the speculation on the future of our sustainable city.
Panelists include:
DAVID ORR +
Damien White, sociologist
Charlie Cannon, landscape architecture
Lili Herman, landscape architecture
+ more...
6:30pm - 8:00pm Metcalf Audiotrium**
David Orr: Down to the Wire:
The activist-educator joins RISD to discuss how sustainability intersects art and design in an age of climate change.
Friday, April 24
11:30am - 1:00pm BEB* room 106
Curricular Change: A Dialogue on Sustainability at RISD:
Panelist will include:
DAVID ORR +
Liz Collins, Textiles
Dennis Congdon, Painting
Peter Hocking, Public Engagement
William Miller, Painting
Robert O'Neal, Industrial Design
Colgate Searle, Landscape Architecture
Damian White, Sociology
Once again, Respond|Design has pulled together a timely and compelling series of conversations about the intersection between art/design and sustainability both globally as well as here on the RISD campus!
David Orr is Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his recent work in ecological design. Orr is the author of four books: The Last Refuge: The Corruption of Patriotism in the Age of Terror (Island Press, 2004); The Nature of Design (Oxford, 2002); Earth in Mind (Island, 1994); and Ecological Literacy (SUNY, 1992). For a full bio, you can check him out here: http://www.davidworr.com/
This week's events include:
Thursday, April 23
11:30am - 1:00pm BEB* room 106
Urban Eden Conversation:
Professor Anne Tate will present her sabbatical work. Come join in the speculation on the future of our sustainable city.
Panelists include:
DAVID ORR +
Damien White, sociologist
Charlie Cannon, landscape architecture
Lili Herman, landscape architecture
+ more...
6:30pm - 8:00pm Metcalf Audiotrium**
David Orr: Down to the Wire:
The activist-educator joins RISD to discuss how sustainability intersects art and design in an age of climate change.
Friday, April 24
11:30am - 1:00pm BEB* room 106
Curricular Change: A Dialogue on Sustainability at RISD:
Panelist will include:
DAVID ORR +
Liz Collins, Textiles
Dennis Congdon, Painting
Peter Hocking, Public Engagement
William Miller, Painting
Robert O'Neal, Industrial Design
Colgate Searle, Landscape Architecture
Damian White, Sociology
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