University of Florida undergraduate students will have the chance to enroll in several new and revamped courses related to the Gulf of Mexico during the 2024-25 academic year.
With funding from UF Gulf Scholars, a new interdisciplinary program housed at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, eight faculty members from across campus will be creating and revising Gulf-centered courses. These classes, which range from general education to upper division, will expose students from various majors to complex challenges facing Gulf communities, such as sea level rise, increased urban development, and socioeconomic disparities.
“The challenges facing the Gulf and its communities are complex, and we will rely on a wide variety of skill sets to adapt and plan for the future,” said Becca Burton, UF Gulf Scholars program coordinator. “We’re excited to team up with these dedicated faculty members to help students from a wide variety of disciplines build a strong connection to the Gulf and a shared mission to protect the region for future generations.”
The new courses will serve as a foundation for the curricular requirements of UF Gulf Scholars. Funded by criminal settlement funds from the companies involved in the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, this program allows students to earn their degrees while doing meaningful work to promote stewardship, resiliency, and innovation in communities around the Gulf.
The following faculty will receive $4,000 for the creation of new courses.
- Alan Wiig, associate professor in the Department of Geography, will be teaching a new course focused on regional development in the Gulf. In this general education geography course, students will learn to identify the political and economic strategies and negotiations that private enterprise, government, and the civic sector have used over the last century to grow the region’s economy. Students will also gain experience accessing digital archives and conducting strength-weakness-opportunity-threat (SWOT) analyses of economic, social, and health policies. This course will include various field trips around Gainesville and Cedar Key and will be first offered in Spring 2025.
- Marc Hensel, research assistant professor at the UF/IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station, will be teaching a field ecology course focused on the diversity of biological and ecological processes that shape life in the Gulf of Mexico. The course will consist of a hybrid lecture/field trip format, where students will have the chance to visit the ecosystems they are learning about. Students will also participate in an overnight field trip to Seahorse Key Marine Lab to learn about field sampling techniques, collection methodology and research design. The second phase of the course will consist of an independent research project. This course will first be offered in Spring 2025.
- Jack Davis, distinguished professor of history and the Rothman Family Chair in the Humanities, will teach a new course about the history of the Gulf, pulling from his extensive research writing the Pulitzer-winning book The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea. Students will explore the social and environmental history of the Gulf from geological formation to the present. Presented within the context of the larger and more familiar historical experience, the course will offer a comprehensive overview of the relationship between people and their natural physical surroundings. The course will first be offered in Spring 2025.
- Onursal Erol, lecturer and international experiential learning coordinator at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service, will teach a course that compares the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico — the only two that are routinely and officially referred to as “the Gulf.” Through this course, students will acquire in-depth knowledge about both regions, develop a sophisticated comparative political geography framework, and cultivate an internationalized approach to Gulf studies as a discipline. Students will also gain archival research skills through field trips to the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Latin American and Caribbean Collections of the Smathers Library. The course will first be offered in Spring 2025.
The following faculty members will receive $2,000 for the revision of existing courses.
- William Kenney, an associate scientist in the Department of Geological Sciences, will revise a general education science course, GLY 2038 Sustainability and the Changing Earth. Through an interdisciplinary lens, the course will teach students about the fundamentals of sustainability, marine and freshwater issues, and climate change along the Gulf. The course also includes a field excursion to Cedar Key. This course will be first offered in Fall 2024.
- Charlie Hailey, a professor in the School of Architecture, will revise ARC 4323, an upper division design/build studio. Students will work alongside community partners in the Gulf to formulate, design, and build a project taking into consideration factors like climate predictions, material resilience, and stakeholder concerns. Students will also participate in field trips to Gulf communities. While geared toward students in the College of Design, Construction and Planning, students from other majors may request permission to enroll. This course will be first offered in Fall 2024.
- Katherine Serafin, assistant professor in the Department of Geography, will revise GEO 2230 Living with Rising Seas. Through this Quest 2 course, students will examine the complex relationship between humans and coastlines by asking the pressing question, “How will humanity adapt to sea level rise?” By using the Gulf Coast as a regional thread, students will be able to connect the science of sea level rise and coastal change to impacts on infrastructure, ecosystems, and communities close to home. This course will be first offered in Spring 2025.
- Amanda Subalusky, assistant professor in the Department of Biology, will revise IDS 2935 Water for People and Nature. Through this Quest 2 course, students will contemplate the pressing questions, “How much water do we need?” and “How do we balance conflicting demands for this critical resource?” While previous iterations of the course have focused solely on freshwater systems, the course revisions will include modules on coastal systems in the Gulf. Students will conduct a hands-on experiment at the Subalusky Lab S.T.R.E.A.M. facility where they will build living streams, vote on which pollutants to add to them, develop hypotheses about their impacts, and test them in a controlled environment. This course will be first offered in Spring 2025.
Faculty who would like to teach a Gulf related course will have the chance to apply for funding during the 2024-25 academic year.
In addition to Gulf-focused coursework, UF Gulf Scholars will have the chance to participate in internships, research projects, field excursions, and more; network with professionals and peers from many academic backgrounds; and work with faculty mentors and community partners on Gulf Impact Projects.
Enrollment in the program opens this fall. Students and faculty interested in becoming involved in UF Gulf Scholars can fill out this form to receive emails about upcoming opportunities.
Learn more by visiting the following link: UF Gulf Scholars