The Climate School’s Earth Institute is seeking interns to support its Earth Networks program. This program provides a framework of support for interdisciplinary collaboration and networking across Columbia University, to promote fresh approaches to research, education and impact on themes related to climate, sustainability and the future of planet Earth.
Earth Networks are 3-year working groups formed around one interdisciplinary topic. There are currently nine active networks on a variety of topics. Each of these groups is seeking one intern to provide network coordination and administrative support. Tasks may include helping to organize and staff meetings, webinars and events; providing website and social media support; preparing communication and outreach material; managing projects and follow-up; developing and managing systems and processes to maintain network connectivity, and more.
The intern will play a strategic supportive role to the co-directors, helping to implement outputs, which may vary in size and scope depending on the Network (e.g. seminars, events, podcasts, articles, courses, research projects, exhibitions, etc.). This is an excellent opportunity to engage with researchers and practitioners across the University.
Unless otherwise stated:
- Candidates should be able to work 10-15 hours per week. Positions will involve some remote work and some work in-person.
- Positions will start in September 2021. The ideal candidate will be able to work into the spring term and possibly longer.
- The position pays $18 per hour.
The following describes each Network and instructions for the application process. Columbia and Barnard students (graduate and undergraduate) are eligible to apply. Applications are due Friday, August 6.
Details and Application Instructions
2021 – 2024 Networks
Climate Imaginations Network
Managing directors: Dean Sarah Cole (Columbia University Dean of Humanities) and Kate Marvel (NASA-GISS; Center for Climate Systems Research)
The goal of the Climate Imaginations Network is to create the time, incentives, and ethos for members of the Columbia community to bring their creativity and intellectual energy for these matters together at a communal table. Our focus is on climate storytelling and climate imagination in all its forms – in both the humanities and sciences. We will emphasise the development of collaborative “research design processes”, capable of moving beyond traditional disciplinary demarcation lines, in line with the University-wide emphasis on the Fourth Purpose of academic institutions and communities. We are keen to use the three years of Network funding to establish proof-of-concept for a set of larger grant applications to the Mellon, Sloan, Templeton and Moore Foundations, in order to institutionalise conversations around imagination, storytelling and climate change in our University community and beyond. The Climate Imaginations Network’s output over its first three years will be structured around conversations and collaborations concerning and producing imagination and narrative.
The intern will provide support to the network on all activities, including managing the network listserv and assisting with organization of events, as well as on internal organization, communication, and facilitation for the network. Depending on the interests of the student intern there is likely to be scope for the student to participate in designing specific events and activities of interest to them. The role would especially suit a student who is interested in environmental humanities and science-humanities collaborations. This position pays $18 per hour. For any questions about the network or to apply, please send a resume and cover letter with the subject line “Earth Networks Intern Application” to Ben Mylius at b.mylius@columbia.edu by Friday, August 6.
Decarbonization, Climate Resilience and Climate Justice: Developing New Research and Coursework
Co-directors: Joerg M. Schaefer (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences; LDEO), Nikhar Gaikwad (Department of Political Science)
This network focuses on the theme of “Climate Justice” as it applies to governments and societies grappling with the dual mandate of building resilience to climate change and decarbonizing their economies. The network, expanding on the successful and productive “Columbia Interdisciplinary Research on Climate” (CIRC) workshop, brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars who seek to conduct cutting-edge research and build innovative curricula on climate-related topics that speak to the theme of climate justice. This core group draws from a range of disciplines, departments, and units at Columbia University, serving as a discussion and learning platform for both network members and other interested students, postdocs and faculty across CU to connect and work on topics related to “Decarbonization, Climate Resilience and Climate Justice.” We aim to expand the scope, impact, and diversity of membership over the course of three years, with an eye toward advancing interdisciplinary climate research, outreach and education at Columbia. We propose developing new cross-cutting coursework, complementary to and coordinated with existing Earth Institute (EI) and Climate School education programs. The network intends to hold a Columbia-wide workshop on the theme of “Decarbonization, Climate Resilience, and Climate Justice” at the end of the second year and a broader conference open to stakeholders from across New York at the end of the third year.
The intern will provide support to the network on all activities, as well as on internal organization, communication, and facilitation for the network. This position pays $18 per hour. To apply, please send a resume and cover letter with the subject line “Earth Networks Intern Application” to Joerg M. Schaefer at jms2003@columbia.edu by Friday, August 6.
Adapting the Existing Built Environment: Evolving Education toward Decarbonization and Resilience
Co-directors: Erica Avrami (GSAPP; Center for Sustainable Urban Development), Feniosky Peña-Mora (School of Engineering and Applied Science)
This Earth Network centers on decarbonization and climate resilience of the existing built environment through interdisciplinary and justice-oriented education approaches to community-engaged research, design, technology, and policy. This network seeks to challenge traditional education paradigms in the professions dedicated to the design, construction, and management of the built environment — namely architects, engineers, preservationists, conservators, attorneys and urban planners – by advancing the interdisciplinary learning and community-engaged research needed to adapt and decarbonize existing buildings. Without intentional integration of social-spatial histories and analyses, climate justice, community development, law and public policy, design and engineering, and more, decarbonization and climate resilient adaptation of the existing built environment can perpetuate exclusion and inequity.
This Network’s approach seeks to engage a range of disciplinary perspectives on evolving the curricular development of the built environment professions and to establish critical connections to allied fields in ways that integrate academic and community-engaged research, policy development, and professional practice.
The intern will provide support to the network on all activities, as well as on internal organization, communication, and facilitation for the network. This position pays $18 per hour. To apply, please send a resume and cover letter with the subject line “Earth Networks Intern Application” to Erica Avrami at eca8@columbia.edu by Friday, August 6.
Coastal Resilience Network
Co-directors: Kyle T. Mandli (School of Engineering and Applied Science), Kate Orff (GSAPP; Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes), Paige West (Center for the Study of Social Difference)
Changes in sea level have led to a combination of new threats. Rising sea levels are transforming tides, leading many areas to experience more extreme tidal flooding. Extreme storm surge driven flooding increases rapidly with mean sea level. Some places will also be impacted by more powerful storms driven by global warming. Rising seas also threaten infrastructure, undermining freshwater supplies, water quality and health, agriculture, power generation, roads, bridges and more. In certain locales, managed retreat from the shoreline may be the only means of coping. Communities that adapt- in-place will likely face more extreme sea level rise events, including floods, king tides, and storms. Moreover, these threats will disproportionately impact communities least likely to have the resources, information, and tools needed to make informed decisions based on their local contexts. How can the natural, economic, and human capital of a region be preserved – or reimagined – in the face of sea level rise?
The Coastal Resilience Network will coordinate work across Columbia and address these questions proactively and head-on. The network will gather social and physical sciences alongside expertise in the built environment and policy throughout the University to tackle the unique challenges from sea level rise, which society is facing now and the coming decades. This network will also research Coastal Resilience and develop teaching and coursework on the subject.
The intern will provide support to the network on all activities, as well as on internal organization, communication, and facilitation for the network. This position pays $18 per hour. To apply, please send a resume and cover letter with the subject line “Earth Networks Intern Application” to Kyle T. Mandli at ktm2132@columbia.edu by Friday, August 6.
2020 – 2023 Networks
Environmental Justice and Climate Just Cities
Co-directors: Christian Braneon (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies), Jacqueline Klopp (Center for Sustainable Urban Development), Kate Orff (GSAPP)
This Earth Network will engage Columbia researchers and faculty across disciplines, support co-learning with environmental justice advocates and community-based organizations, and share learning across national and global networks. The Network goals are to inform the underlying value system, operating model, research, and curriculum of the Earth Institute and the Columbia University Climate School, make our institutions more responsive to the critical, urgent social and environmental demands of this moment, and support direct application of climate just approaches to implementation of urban policy, advocacy, planning, and programs. This network will gather a diverse set of scholars and EJ partners, many already working on issues intersecting climate change and social inequities.
Roles and Responsibilities of the EJCJC Intern will include assisting in the review of existing EJ and CJ work at CU and within the wider New York City community, virtual resource development, as well as scheduling, coordinating, taking notes, and participating in all internal meetings and meetings with external partners that will help guide new collaborations and curriculum development. Responsibilities may also include workshop set up, documentation, and communications (e.g., note taking, downloading ZOOM recordings and chats, sharing of notes).
This position pays $20 per hour. To apply, please send a resume and cover letter with the subject line “Earth Networks Intern Application” to Dr. Christian Braneon at cbraneon@barnard.edu by Friday, August 6.
Habitable Planet
Co directors: Caleb Scharf (Astronomy Department), Linda Sohl (Center for Climate Systems Research)
This network will further the development of an active community of strongly interdisciplinary researchers and students across the EI and other Columbia departments, all of whom share a common interest in the breadth of questions encompassed by the concept of a ‘habitable planet’, and the role of this concept in providing unique and novel insights to fundamental questions of planetary sustainability.
The network has two major goals:
- Develop a set of interdisciplinary research endeavors that capitalize on and improve the strengths of Columbia’s work in planetary science and geoscience, exoplanetary science and solar system science, together with biological systems and ecological science—with the goal of making fundamental contributions to understanding and contextualizing Earth’s evolution and present condition as a complex integration of living systems, planetary systems, and human agency.
- Develop a strategic roadmap for guiding a notional Habitable Planet program as part of Columbia’s Climate School.
Lastly, and critically, this network will build a student-led (graduate and undergraduate) community to support student engagement in relevant habitable planet research opportunities, to provide access to pedagogical resources across departments, and to create pathways for upcoming generations to apply themselves to this interdisciplinary work.
This position pays $18 per hour. To apply, please send a resume and cover letter with the subject line “Earth Networks Intern Application” to Caleb Scharf caleb@astro.columbia.edu and Linda Sohl linda.sohl@columbia.edu by Friday, August 6.
