The Cross-Disciplinary Classroom: Exploring Climate, Design and Community Resilience at the University of Florida

This paper explores University of Florida’s (UF) interdisciplinary coursework that centers student research on climate, policy, and design projects in coastal communities along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. The evolution of interdisciplinary pedagogy is addressed through case studies of the Florida Climate Institute’s (FCI) Spring Field courses, the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge, and the Historic Preservation program’s Preservation Institute Nantucket (PIN) summer program. In the FCI Field courses, the focus has spanned ecological systems, built environment, and community engagement frameworks with UF faculty from design, planning, historic preservation, engineering, law, communications, and science, among other disciplines. PIN’s 2020 and 2021 research and coursework focused on the development of an adaptation and resilience strategy for a portion of Nantucket Town—one of the nation’s largest National Historic Landmark Districts. The Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge, held in Spring 2021 and sponsored by ReMain Nantucket, was inspired by PIN and based in part on the Fieldcourse model. The case studies illustrate the evolving methodology of coursework at UF and the changing relationship between design and sciences/social science disciplines for the breadth of iterative, solution-based thinking for climate change. Concluding thoughts will explore the evolution of interdisciplinary design research at UF, potential gaps in disciplinary partnerships, and future project opportunities for addressing the critical complexities of climate change.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2021.33

Volume Editors
Jonathan A. Scelsa & Jørgen Johan Tandberg

ISBN
978-1-944214-38-8