BA in Individualized Studies Program
I am passionate about learning, practicing, and sharing skills for sustainable, cooperative living. I grew up in a military family, and after college I served in the Navy for several years. My life changed course dramatically when I was discharged under the anti-gay policy, and became an activist for gay and lesbian rights. However, I grew tired of focusing on a single issue, and yearned to work in a more holistic way to create a socially just, sustainable culture. I found my calling in the intentional communities movement. For the past sixteen years I have lived at Heathcote Community, a small intentional community in Maryland, where we practice permaculture (ecological design) and cooperative processes such as consensus decision-making, Zegg forum, and nonviolent communication. I run the education program at Heathcote, which includes workshops and internships in sustainable community living. For me, living in community is a way of creating social change. I see intentional communities/ecovillages as powerful sites of learning, where people can create and experience systems and processes that are egalitarian and collaborative, gain practical skills in sustainability, and be supported in personal healing and transformation. My professional experience is mostly in the fields of education and the environment. In graduate school I studied the history of science, medicine and technology, with a focus on environmental history and the history of sustainable technologies. I wrote my dissertation on the history of technologies used to transform human excrement into fertilizer in the U.S. in the 19th century. After graduate school, I coordinated an environmental job training program at a Baltimore nonprofit organization where I developed an innovative curriculum in environmental technology and taught classes on ecology and Permaculture to unemployed city residents. I also taught college courses in environmental studies and U.S. history at several universities, and was a faculty member on a traveling academic program called The Scholar Ship that took students on a cruise around the world. I currently work as Development Director of a local watershed organization, and am the Registrar and an Advisor for Gaia University, a new university offering learning pathways in ecosocial regeneration. I would love to work with students who are studying sustainability/regeneration, Permaculture, the sciences, the history of science/medicine/technology, environmental history, U.S. history, women’s studies, feminism, gay/lesbian/bi/trans issues, intentional communities/ecovillages, land trust, cooperative group processes, activism, social justice, alternative education, alternative economics, business and non-profit development, grant writing, spirituality, and any other topics they wish to explore. Educational Background: PhD in History of Science, Medicine and Technology, Johns Hopkins University; BA in History and Science, Harvard University; Post Graduate Diploma in Organizing Learning for EcoSocial Regeneration, Gaia University.
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Karen Stupski, PhD