The new doctoral course in Environmental sustainability and wellbeing, centred on interdisciplinarity, will be inaugurated in the next academic year.
To be honest, we do not have much time left, given that according to a recent study in just 31 years 90 per cent of humanity could become extinct as a result of climate change. Nevertheless, drastically reducing our environmental impact is a priority, which is why in recent years the number of degree courses and other educational offerings organised by universities and focused on environmental sustainability has been growing. The University of Ferrara is also moving in this direction: the university has in fact presented a new doctoral course in Environmental sustainability and wellbeing.
The distinctive feature of the course, which will be inaugurated in the next academic year, is interdisciplinarity: lessons in both scientific and humanities subjects are planned, including social, economic and legal sciences, as well as biological and chemical sciences. The aim of the doctorate is to provide researchers with the tools to reduce the impact on ecosystems and improve quality of life, combining conservation with productive activities.
So-called green jobs, that is professions linked to the environment, are helping to create new employment and represent, as reported in the GreenItaly 2018 report by Fondazione Symbola and Unioncamere, 13 per cent of total national employment. This percentage is set to increase, and the University of Ferrara's new course of study will help to train new "green" professionals. Among the career opportunities the course aims to offer are the roles of researcher, lecturer and science communicator, in sectors ranging from public bodies and research institutes to environmental associations.
The doctorate in Environmental sustainability and wellbeing was born within the international university network for sustainable development Routes towards sustainability. Founded in 2012 on the initiative of the University of Ferrara, the network brings together universities from around the world that have distinguished themselves through their commitment and expertise in the field of sustainability. "The network has a strongly international and interdisciplinary character, fostering dialogue at a global level between the natural sciences and the humanities, both in research and in excellence teaching," reads a press release from the University of Ferrara. "African, Asian, European and South American universities take part in it, committed to carrying out joint research projects capable of generating innovative perspectives and promoting them in social dialogue, in university education and in postgraduate education."
The programme of the new course is therefore the fruit of international and interdisciplinary dialogue. "Initially we wanted to incorporate Ecological minds in the title of the doctorate," declared Paola Spinozzi, coordinator of the doctorate and scholar of literature and the environment at the Department of Humanities, "then we chose a denotative title, which announces the content directly. Ecological minds is connotative, it evokes and prefigures. Connoting is important — attributing qualities means being creative and innovative. Imagining and embarking on paths of environmental sustainability and wellbeing is exactly what the doctorate aims to do with the ecological minds of Italian and international lecturers and students."