College to host virtual Sustainability Symposium Oct. 19–21

Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture will host a virtual Sustainability Symposium Oct. 19–21, which will highlight, connect and amplify the sustainability research within the college to foster collaboration with the Penn State sustainability research community and beyond. Organized by Mihyun Kang, research professor and director for sustainability in the College of Arts and Architecture, the symposium, titled “Convergence,” will feature a keynote by Julian Chambliss, professor of English at Michigan State University and Val Berryman Curator of History at the MSU Museum. His research, teaching and writing explore how perceptions shape policy and action, creating our collective urban experience. “The symposium aspires to cultivate synergetic research collaborations that positively impact the challenges of sustainable development,” said Kang. The symposium will start at 9 a.m. on Oct. 19 with remarks from B. Stephen Carpenter II, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture, and Paul Shrivastava, Penn State’s chief sustainability officer and director of the Sustainability Institute. Following the keynote address by Chambliss at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 19, the symposium will feature presentations by College of Arts and Architecture faculty representing the Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design, Hamer Center for Community Design, Stuckeman Center for Design Computing, School of Visual Arts Studio for Sustainability and Social Action, Arts and Design Research Incubator, and Ecology+Design. The symposium will also feature presentations on sustainability initiatives in the College of Engineering and Smeal College of Business. For more information and to register, visit https://sites.psu.edu/aasustainability/.