UC launches Climate Resilience course

The University of California is introducing a new Climate Resilience course across all nine UCs, beginning Spring Quarter 2024.

The course — titled INT87AN: Building Psychosocial and Planetary Resilience — will be taught at UC Santa Barbara by environmental humanities professor Ken Hiltner and environmental studies assistant professor Summer Gray. 

UC San Diego associate professor of psychiatry Jyoti Mishra and UC San Francisco Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Vice Chair for Adult Psychology Elissa Epel led the course design with the goal of integrating “mindfulness practices” with discussing climate change action.

“The class aims to fill a critical gap in climate education and well-being, building on the science of personal and social resilience and climate change action, building a sense of belonging, and motivating empowerment and self-efficacy via actionable projects,” a statement on the course website read.

The course will include “in-person experiential sessions” in class and online lectures beforehand.

“This class will be a unique experience, where you watch some short videos of world leaders before class, and in-person class, you will have a small group led by a faculty member or an expert mindfulness teacher,” a statement from Mishra and Epel to the Nexus read. “You will meet other students on your campus and other campuses, as you learn from inspiring leaders like Jon Kabat-Zinn, Rebecca Solnit, Rhonda Magee, and climate leaders.”   

According to the website, the climate science and action leaders in the online lectures also served as board advisors for the course. In-person class sessions will serve to “build shared learning skills, process climate-change-related distress in a safe space, and build social support and community collaboration on individual and collective action, culminating in class climate projects.”

A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the March 7, 2024, print edition of the Daily Nexus.