Kent Rismiller Lauds Project-based Learning
In an Inside HigherEd Academic Minute interview, Kent Rissmiller discusses how project-based learning helps students throughout their lives and long after they graduate.
Sarah Stanlick in WPI's Journal
As the new director of the Great Problems Seminar, Sarah Stanlick, assistant professor in the Department of Integrative and Global Studies, shares some of the items in her office that are especially meaningful to her.
Faculty
Email: mbakermans@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314910
I possess a strong commitment to student education, and a goal of mine is to stimulate students’ critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. Recently, students and I have been on a journey to open classroom content and discussions in an interdisciplinary and inclusive way. Students are challenged to rethink their role as active knowledge producers beyond the class as students become co-authors of open educational resources. ...
Email: mbelz@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316167
I am a geographer with a focus on the cultural landscape, meaning landscapes that are shaped by people. I am interested in development, how and why places change, and why certain traditions endure. I study this mainly through vernacular architecture (traditional regional design). My research was based in the Indian Himalaya and explores what connections forest policy and cash crop markets have with the decline in architectural woodcarving and vernacular design. I hope to better understand how modernization and preservation can be balanced to sustain culturally distinct landscapes. ...
Email: gburrier@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314893
Grant completed his Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of New Mexico with sub-field specializations in Comparative Politics and International Relations. His dissertation analyzed infrastructure investments and sustainable development in Brazil, focusing on the policymaking process in Brazil’s developmental state and the socio-environmental impacts of hydroelectric dams in the Amazon. His principal research interests include political economy, the environment, renewable energy, social welfare, democratic institutions, and populism. ...
Email: mbutler@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314849
I am a faculty member in the Integrative and Global Studies Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where I teach social research methods and advise students on their Interactive Qualifying Projects (IQPs). My work centers on guiding students as they design and carry out field-based research, helping them to recognize the humanistic and social dimensions of science and technology. I have had the privilege of advising student projects in diverse locations such as Hawaii, Czechia, Albania, Romania, Greece, Switzerland, and Acadia National Park. ...
Email: carrera@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316059
Fabio is the director of the Venice Project Center (VPC) and Santa Fe Project Center (SFPC). In addition to a number of scientific papers, his work has been repeatedly featured in National Geographic magazine, MIT’s Technology Review magazine, the Smithsonian magazine, Wired, New Scientist and Science. He was also featured on RAI play, BBC Radio and in a National Geographic video dedicated to his work in his hometown of Venice, Italy. ...
Email: jdavis4@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314902
John-Michael holds a diverse academic background with degrees in psychology, water management, environmental studies, and geography – which rightly embodies the interdisciplinary approach to research cultivated in the DIGS. His work follows a common theme that values community-driven and action oriented research to address complex development challenges related to sustainable livelihoods, informal economies, waste management, environmental contamination, community representation, and INGO legitimacy. ...
Email: cdehner@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314959
A public interest lawyer in my previous life, I was drawn to academia by its capacity to help facilitate attitudinal changes, foster dialogue, and inspire students to be ethically minded leaders. I thrive on the energy of students, particularly when I see them develop a newfound confidence and excitement for learning.
Drawing on my environmental policy knowledge, and awareness of the mental health aftermath of the COVID-19 induced shutdown, in 2022, I explored creation of a program that could facilitate student project work and increase student connections with nature. ...
Email: zeddy@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314949
Zoë Antoinette Eddy (she/her/hers) is a researcher, educator, and advocate dedicated to re-imagining learning. She received her joint-PhD in social anthropology and archaeology from Harvard University (GSAS Class of 2019). She has taught in a range of disciplines, including gender studies, environmental studies, history of science, literature, and critical media studies.
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Email: lelgert@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8315452
I joined WPI in 2011 as a scholar and teacher with training in public health, environmental policy, and international development studies. My research and teaching interests focused on the environment-development nexus, where tensions between sustainability and livelihoods often lead to contentious policy debates. ...
Email: kfoo@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316984
Katherine Foo, PhD MLA, is co-director of the Berlin Project Center and an assistant teaching professor in the Integrative and Global Studies Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her research focuses on urban environmental governance and landscape visualization for social and environmental justice. She is passionate about fostering institutional change to empower community groups by building academic-civic partnerships. Through engaged, inclusive practices like participatory mapping, scenario development, and d ...
Email: golding@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316463
For twenty years I conducted research at Clark University on the social aspects of environmental risks, with a focus on the topics of risk communication, public trust, and vulnerability. After a brief sojourn at the EcoTarium (a museum of science and nature located in Worcester), I began teaching at WPI in 2006. I have taught more than 600 students in ID2050 and advised more than 100 IQPs in the UK (London and Worcester), US (Nantucket, Washington, DC, and Worcester), Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, and Switzerland. ...
Email: hersh@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8315522
Before coming to WPI in 2004, Bob worked for a number of years as a Fellow at Resources for the Future, a non-profit organization in Washington, DC that conducts research and policy analysis on environmental quality and natural resources, and as the Brownfields Director at the Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO). His broad substantive interests include regional food systems, contaminated site cleanup and revitalization, community participation in environmental decision-making, ethnographic filmmaking, and more recently, development projects in squatter settlem ...
Email: ldh@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8315503
My field is rhetoric, and I teach writing as a form of inquiry and problem solving. One challenge in my teaching is to get students to see writing that way. It is not simply window dressing for ideas they already have; writing is a way to create and test ideas, to engage in a dialogue with a community of readers who need to know what they have to say and will likely have something to say back. Some students approach their first college writing assignment as an exercise in demonstrating they can quote from expert sources, organize paragraphs, and punctuate sentences. ...
Email: cbkurlanska@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316995
I am an economic anthropologist who conducts both interdisciplinary and applied research. I study global issues from an ethnographic perspective examining local phenomena and placing it within their global context. My work has covered a variety of topics from spirituality and health to remittance strategies of Peruvian migrants. My dissertation research, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, examined the use of microfinance loans on rural livelihoods in Nicaragua. My current work is on the social and solidarity economy and its intersection with sustainable development. ...
Email: tmasvawure@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314953
I am a medical anthropologist, global health researcher and feminist scholar, whose research focuses on issues of gender, sexuality and health. I am primarily interested in the HIV pandemic and have conducted research on HIV prevention and treatment in various countries in Africa. I have held teaching positions at the College of the Holy Cross (MA), where I taught undergraduate courses on global health (e.g., Intro to Global Health, Health and Development, Mixed-Methods in Health Research, HIV/AIDS in Global Perspective) and coordinated the health studies program. ...
Email: mccauley@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316164
Stephen McCauley is a geographer whose work focuses on exploring how cities change and how urban futures can be inclusive, green and resilient. His broad substantive interests include climate change preparedness, urban resilience, energy system innovation, community participation in environmental decision-making, citizen science, and GI Science for urban planning. His current work addresses urban heat island dynamics and green infrastructure and other planning interventions that can mitigate the vulnerabilities associated with extreme heat in cities. ...
Email: gpfeifer@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316791
My areas of expertise in philosophy and social theory are in social and political philosophy, Marxism, global justice, development ethics, and also Critical Pedagogies that help center Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in my teaching and research. I teach philosophy courses, global studies courses, and for the Great Problems Seminars program (currently I co-teach the Seeking Sustainability and the Climate Change courses for this program). ...
Email: kjr@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8315019
Kent Rissmiller completed studies in political science at Muhlenberg College (AB) and Syracuse University (PhD). Along the way, he also completed a JD at the University of New Hampshire Law School, where he worked in the Energy Law Institute. Professor Rissmiller also worked for three years as an attorney for the Public Service Commission of Nevada, where he was involved in setting rates and policies for electric and water utilities. At WPI, Professor Rissmiller teaches government, law, and public policy. He also directs the Pre-Law program and oversees the Law and Technology minor. ...
Email: lroberts@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316306
Laura Roberts is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Integrative and Global Studies department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Director of the Worcester Community Project Center (WCPC). The WCPC is one of 50+ WPI project centers around the world, where students engage in hands-on, community-based research projects exploring topics situated at the intersection of society and technology. In this role, Professor Roberts facilitates global learning opportunities with local community organizations where students investigate pressing global issues without stepping on a plane. ...
Email: drosbach@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8315826
The overarching goal of my teaching and research is to contribute to an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental governance and policy. More specifically, I focus on the building of individual, organizational and institutional capacities to participate in collaborative efforts to address complex social and environmental sustainability problems through the application of science and technology. ...
Email: wsanmartin@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314928
William San Martín (He/Him/El) is Assistant Professor of Global Environmental Science, Technology, and Governance in the Department of Integrative and Global Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. ...
Email: msheller@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316215
Dr. Mimi Sheller is the Dean of The Global School and is an internationally recognized scholar and higher education leader, with fifteen years of executive leadership across academic units, research centers, and professional organizations. Prior to joining WPI, she was tenured Professor of Sociology, Head of the Sociology Department, and founding Director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Dr. ...
Email: ishockey@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316635
Ingrid Shockey is an environmental sociologist whose work concerns natural literacy and the interplay of human-wilderness relationships. These domains include topics in biodiversity loss, climate change perceptions, and our sense of place and identity with respect to the landscape. Her work has focused most recently on mountain ecologies and economies in the western Himalaya. ...
Email: sstanlick@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314929
Sarah Stanlick, Ph.D., is the Associate Dean of the Global School and Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative and Global Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She is a social scientist and community-engaged researcher who studies how technology can empower, connect, and support populations experiencing vulnerability and/or marginalization. ...
Email: eastoddard@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8314871
Prof Stoddard is a human-environment geographer who is interested in the intersection of nature, society, and justice, particularly in the context of climate change. She looks at the ways in which we can design for climate resilience, in terms of infrastructure, location specific practices, and through community resilience. Stoddard also looks at the vulnerability and resilience of food systems to disasters (climate, disease outbreaks, etc.), and the impacts for humans, animals, and ecosystems. ...
Email: sstrauss@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316883
Sarah Strauss was born and raised on the east coast. During high school and college, she was deeply involved in biomedical research, and expected her career path to lie in this direction. She enjoyed the philosophical traditions, though, and so although she worked in molecular biology laboratories, she also majored in comparative religion. During her final year in college, she discovered medical anthropology, and that changed everything. A career in anthropology would allow her to pursue all of her research interests, from health and human biology to myth and religion. ...
Email: stuler@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316444
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Email: kwobbe@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8315375
Project-based learning is an enormously powerful approach to education. I’ve been changed by it; I’ve watched students be changed by it. I’ve seen faculty develop a renewed sense of joy in teaching from using it. And now, after over a decade of using PBL with students, I’m embarking on a new phase of helping faculty implement PBL through the work of the Center for Project-Based Learning. The good news - working with faculty on PBL is as much fun as working with students!
Staff
Email: raalicea@wpi.edu
Rosie supports key operations in WPI’s Global Experience Office, serving as a friendly and knowledgeable first point of contact for students, families, and partners. She provides day-to-day support for a range of office functions and helps ensure a smooth experience for those engaging with the Global Projects Program (GPP). ...
Email: dfusaro@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316941
Deb implements and administers outreach, admissions, review and enrollment processes for the Global Projects Program for the Interactive Qualifying Project, Major Qualifying Project and Humanities and Arts Projects. She is the primary point of contact for student advising and support in project search, application and placement. She leads eProjects database management for the Global Experience Office, and provides support for pre-departure preparation and off-campus travel.
Email: khead1@wpi.edu
Kathleen serves as Director of the Global Experience Office (GEO) which administers WPI’s Global Projects Program (GPP). She, along with the Dean and Associate Dean of the Global School, Chair of the Department of Integrative and Global Studies, and Director of the Great Problems Seminar, form the leadership team for the Global School and the GPP. Kathleen leads a team of five professional staff to manage operations, logistics, and student learning/experience within the GPP. ...
Email: rmckeogh@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316699
Ruth’s work spans the WPI campus from advisors to researchers to the classroom. Providing guidance to students, faculty and researchers in the community on the ethical conduct of human subjects research and advising IQP’s.
Email: kmiller3@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316183
As an Assistant Director in GEO, Krista is responsible for the administration of the project center arrangements, the management of exchange programs, the development of program budgets and student fees, and the maintenance of program information in eProjects. Krista also acts as liaison to the Office of Accessibility Services to assist students who may need housing accommodations while on project. Prior to WPI, Krista worked in the education abroad offices at both the University of Connecticut and the Pennsylvaina State University. ...
Email: ccruta@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8316209
Retired Faculty
Email: sjiusto@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8315393
My teaching, research, and community engagement is integrated through my participation in WPIs Global Projects Program, where I help students prepare for and conduct projects in places such as London, Venice, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Washington and Worcester. Through the WPI Cape Town Project Centre (2007-15), my work was an exercise in Shared Action Learning (SAL), which as described to students and others is a way to think about and engage in partnerships for sustainable community development. ...
Email: vaz@wpi.edu
Phone: +1 (508) 8315344
As a Senior Fellow in WPI’s Center for Project-Based Learning, which I established in 2016, I work with colleagues across campus to help advance project-based learning at colleges and universities around the nation and the globe. We also support project-based learning here on the WPI campus. Most of my scholarly and professional activity has centered around experiential and international education. ...