A Dedicated Team
The faculty at SFS comprises an international team of dedicated, hardworking, and fun academics with a commitment to education, research, and to addressing environmental issues.
The core functions of the Resident Lecturer position are teaching, research, and service, as at any university.
- The primary function is to teach undergraduate students about local environmental issues based on a challenging, problem-based, interdisciplinary curriculum. The teaching at SFS should be high-quality, innovative, and experiential. You are not only teaching in your discipline, but you are teaching students about the process of scientific inquiry and research.
- You are also doing research. SFS instructors design research projects that are linked to the Center or program’s Strategic Research Plan. These projects should be designed in a way that undergraduate students, under your guidance, can conduct the research in an ethical and rigorous manner.
- The third core function is service—to actively foster good community relations, lead community outreach projects with students, and engage in residential life on campus. The relative emphasis on each area is perhaps different from university positions, and your engagement in each area may vary over the course of your tenure at SFS.
The Life of an SFS Faculty Member
“I appreciate how CSDS approaches environmental justice holistically by exploring the intersection of Costa Rica’s environmental policy and social issues. Faculty and students contribute to social justice in action by developing meaningful research with local stakeholders. Current collaborations with local municipalities on urban park development and plastic reduction strategies have produced data that communities can use to facilitate positive change. Through these partnerships, students get firsthand experience of the complexity of development issues while contributing to solutions.”
MARY LITTLE, LLM
RESIDENT LECTURER IN ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AND DEVELOPMENT, COSTA RICA