The IEA: Promoting an Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Issues

1
The IEAPromoting an Interdisciplinary Approach
to Environmental Issues

• Michael A. Reiter
• President

2
The Origins of the IEA

• Conceived By Demetri Kantarelis and Kevin Hickey
  of Assumption College, MA in the early 1990s as
  a way to provide a presentation, publication, and
  networking hub for people with interdisciplinary
  interests in environmental issues
• The original mission of the IEA
• To bring together all disciplines so that
  environmental knowledge is enhanced though
  interdisciplinary communication
• To inform the educated public about research,
  current concerns, plans, and prospects for a
  cleaner future
• Goals
• To enhance understanding of environmental issues
  by educating each other in an interdisciplinary
  format
• To present disciplinary perspectives of
  environmental problems to people outside those
  disciplines, and to those outside academia, in a
  clear, understandable fashion

3
The IEA Today

• Originally an informal organization of
  like-minded individuals, it has transformed over
  10 years into a formal organization with a
  constitution and an elected leadership
• True focus on the interdisciplinary part of
  interdisciplinary environmental issues and
  education
• Organized to maximize, and benefit from, the
  exchange of information, viewpoints, and
  approaches
• Participants extend over two dozen primary
  specializations (lots of subdisciplines) and two
  dozen countries
• Networking, information exchange, national and
  international contacts, and a consulting list
• Primarily located in the US during the early
  years, the IEA is becoming more aggressive in
  enhancing its national recognition and
  international exposure
• Ex. the current VP is Anthony Lumby, an economist
  from the University of Kwazulu-Natal

4
The International Interdisciplinary Conference on
the Environment

• Organized by the IEA as a venue for the
  discussion and dissemination of environmental
  research, activities, and ideas arising from an
  interdisciplinary perspective
• Open to people of all disciplines, political
  perspectives, and points of view in order to
  maximize the flow of information
• Presentations must be understandable to people
  from beyond the presenters discipline
• Moderators, other presenters within a session,
  discussants, and audience members are often from
  another discipline and/or country
• A conference format that encourages and promotes
  the exchange of ideas, viewpoints, and approaches
• The 12th IICE is June 22nd - 24th in Kona, Hawaii

5
Interdisciplinary Environmental Review

• An international, interdisciplinary journal for
  environmental science/studies
• Now in its seventh volume
• Publishes work on interdisciplinary environmental
  issues from any perspective or approach
• Papers must pass peer review from both within and
  from outside an authors primary discipline
• Recently, two issues per volume
• Acceptance rates Conference Proceedings Issue
  50, Standard Issue 30
• Special/Themed Issues considered

6
Kappa Alpha Omicron, ???

• Student chapters and honor society in
  Interdisciplinary Environmental Science/Studies
  for the IEA, a new honor society called for in
  the IEA constitution
• The Greek letters of the organization stand for
  the perspectives that can be used to address
  environmental issues kosmos (the universe),
  anthropos (humanity), and oikos (household
  ekos)
• Goals
• Give high school and college/university students
  (and faculty) working on interdisciplinary
  environmental issues an academic home, support, a
  hub for networking across disciplines and
  countries, and much-needed recognition for
  outstanding interdisciplinary work being
  performed
• Help promote and encourage new students to enter
  environmental fields while providing a foundation
  to support the expansion of environmental
  research and contacts both here and abroad
• Presently under organization
• The IEA welcomes inquiries concerning ???,
  notifications of interest, and suggestions for
  the organization and its initiation

7
Near-Term Goals of the IEA

• Initiate ??? (already mentioned)
• Seek a new administrative home for the IEA
• Assumption College MA is relatively small, with
  limited staffing, environmental offerings, and
  international programs of their own
• Seek to move to an institution with a broader
  perspective and a more developed
  interdisciplinary environmental program
• Fund infrastructure of the Association to help
  the IEA weather political storms (ex. visa
  restrictions after 9/11/01 have impacted IICE
  attendance)
• In short, things common to a relatively young and
  energetic organization early in their transition
  from informal bunch to formal organization

8
The 12th International Interdisciplinary
Conference on the Environment

• June 22nd 24th, 2006
• Sheraton Keauhou Hotel
• Kona, Hawaii
• www.ieaonline.org for information and
  registration materials