Bangor University is participating in the SHAPE Sustainability Impact Projects, an initiative created by the British Academy and Students Organising for Sustainability Kingdom (SOS-UK).
SHAPE is used by the British Academy as a collective term for Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for People and the Economy/Environment. These disciplines are important for understanding the fabric of the world, and how people interact within it. While academics and leaders in SHAPE fields have already contributed to major social and environmental change worldwide, approaches to sustainability challenges still often rest solely on people in the fields of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The SHAPE project is meant to demonstrate not only that creative and unique solutions can be developed with the help of an interdisciplinary team, but that SHAPE disciplines can have a real impact on addressing social, economic, and environmental sustainability issues.
Bangor University is participating in this collaborative project with Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of East Anglia (UEA), with the goal of demonstrating the role that the disciplines of social science, arts and humanities can have on developing and implementing solutions for sustainability challenges. Conducted completely online, this project runs from November 2020 to February 2021. It will see Bangor University students from a variety of disciplines including Linguistics, Law, Literature and History form teams to develop solutions to 3 specific sustainability challenges. These challenges are sustainable energy use at Treborth Botanic Garden, supporting future generations at M-Sparc, and enhancing sustainability in the arts, humanities and social sciences curriculum. The projects developed by the groups will be implemented at Bangor University and their tangible impacts will be evaluated on an ongoing basis.
Those leading Bangor University’s SHAPE projects are Dr. Einir Young, the Director of Sustainability, Dr. Gwenith Elias, Sustainable Development Research Officer, and Dr. Tara Smith, Senior Lecturer in International Law and Human Rights and the School of Law’s Director of Research and Director of Impact, Sustainability and Equality.
The SHAPE Project will culminate in a conference where a panel of leading academics with the British Academy will evaluate the impact and potential of the projects to be established in the local community and university leaders will look at the feasibility of the projects’ long-term implementation. The SHAPE Project validates that everyone has a role to play in addressing sustainability challenges.
