Dr. Brown's goal was to spend time in the Summer of 2024 revising two of her syllabi to center the UN SDGs. As it is an institute-wide commitment to raise awareness to the SDGs and encourage their realization, sociology as a discipline is well-positioned to assist in this effort. Since the subject matter of sociology often centers issues of inequality -- and environmental sociology focuses on the human side of sustainability -- she decided that these two courses in her regular rotation would be a good place to teach the SDGs.
Dr. Brown states that she did not make any changes to the original plan. Sociology already engaged knowledge related to the SDGs, so centering them seemed fairly natural. The only change she elected to make was that she chose not to include any environmental SDGs in her intro class, despite the fact that she used to teach a section on environmental sociology. After adding Health and Well-Being, she no longer had time for environmental sociology in Intro. However, since she was also revising her Environmental Sociology syllabus, she put the remaining SDGs there.
Dr. Brown will be teaching both of the revised syllabi in Fall of 2024. She will be assessing the impact through student assignments. In SOC 1101, she will be requiring short reflection essays where the students consider the relevance of sociological theory and knowledge for addressing the UN SDGs. Although this will involve a lot of work on her end, this was deemed the best way to assess student engagement with the SDG material. Students in environmental sociology will also be writing three papers engaging the SDGs and applying sociological knowledge. She will also have them make presentations on an SDG in lieu of a final exam.
"I think that centering the SDGs in Introduction to Sociology and Environmental Sociology helped streamline the flow of the course. It also gives students a sense of practical relevance for what is otherwise abstract material.”