Science, Technology and Environmental Justice: Addressing MIT’s Imperative of Justice at the Classroom Level

Although MIT’s Fast Forward: Climate Action Plan for the Decade has a section entitled: The Imperative of Justice, little is understood or planned regarding how to create new courses that center environmental justice (EJ). In addition, a recent research project from the Environmental Solutions Initiative identified that there is very little environmental justice content knowledge in the STEM departments. In response to this gap in the curriculum, we propose a new course entitled: Science, Technology, and Environmental Justice which will ask the question: How can science and technology be employed in the study of and fight against environmental injustice? This project will aid in building institutional knowledge for faculty and students on how environmental justice participatory epistemologies can provide a framework for STEM research, design, and innovation across departments and disciplines at MIT.