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Promoting Human Subjects Training for Place-Based Communities and Cultural Groups in Environmental Research: Curriculum Approaches for Graduate Student/Faculty Training

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Abstract

A collaborative team of environmental sociologists, community psychologists, religious studies scholars, environmental studies/science researchers and engineers has been working together to design and implement new training in research ethics, culture and community-based approaches for place-based communities and cultural groups. The training is designed for short and semester-long graduate courses at several universities in the northeastern US. The team received a 3 year grant from the US National Science Foundation’s Ethics Education in Science and Engineering in 2010. This manuscript details the curriculum topics developed that incorporate ethical principles, particularly for group protections/benefits within the field practices of environmental/engineering researchers.

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Acknowledgments

The NEEP Project gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation’s Ethics Education in Science and Engineering (EESE) Program Grant Geo-1032754. The author would like to thank these colleagues, scholars and graduate students for their contributions to the NEEP progress to date: for teaching, evaluation and program planning support, David A. Sonnenfeld, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Studies, SUNY-ESF, and subcontract principal investigator; Phil Brown, Ph.D., co-principal investigator from Brown University (2010–2012) and Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Northeastern University (2013); and Linda Silka, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, University of Maine. Also, for assistance with materials review/development and dissemination, NEEP thanks Thomas Amidon, Professor of Engineering, Neil Ringler, Ph.D., Associate Provost of Research, Russ Briggs, Ph.D., Director, Division of Environmental Science, Valerie Luzadis, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Environmental Studies, SUNY-ESF; Ernest Wallwork, Ph.D. and Phillip Arnold, Ph.D., Professors of Religion, Syracuse University; Sheila Bonde, Ph.D., Professor of History of Art/Architecture, Brown University; Janet Blume, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Engineering at Brown University, J. Timmons Roberts, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Brown University, and graduate research assistants, Monique Reeser and Kelly Bancroft from SUNY-ESF Environmental Studies; Soonki Lee, Dept. of Religion, Syracuse University; and Rebecca Keane, Deanna Talerico, Taryn Martinez, Brianna Craft, and Linlang He, Brown University Center for Environmental Studies.

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  1. Northeast Ethics Education Partnership, Center for Environmental Studies, Brown University, 135 Angell St., PO Box 1943, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Dianne Quigley

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Quigley, D. Promoting Human Subjects Training for Place-Based Communities and Cultural Groups in Environmental Research: Curriculum Approaches for Graduate Student/Faculty Training. Sci Eng Ethics 21, 209–226 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-013-9508-6

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