Catherine Comiskey: Imagining sustainability, institutionalising change

A summer of scorching fires and devastating floods has made it all too apparent that immediate action must be taken against climate change. However we envision the transition to lower carbon emissions, it will take no less than a revolution of the global economy – including the higher education sector – to achieve this goal.

Under the aegis of the European Universities Initiative, the CHARM-EU alliance has emerged as one example of how to institutionalise and coordinate our shared climate ambitions across countries and curricula. Catherine Comiskey, Academic Director of the CHARM-EU Master’s Degree in Sustainability, joins this episode of the EAIE podcast to discuss the alliance’s aspiration to “reconcile humanity with the planet,” exploring some of the possible approaches to teaching sustainability and advancing the sustainability agenda.

About Catherine Comiskey

Catherine Comiskey is Professor in Healthcare Statistics at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin, and Academic Director of the Master’s Degree in Sustainability of CHARM-EU. Professor Comiskey has over 25 years of research and lecturing experience in statistics and mathematics applied to healthcare and her personal research interests are in substance use, child wellbeing and innovation. She has served as Head of School (2014–2017), Director of Research (2008–2011 and 2011–2014), Inaugural Director and Founder of the Trinity Centre for Practice and Healthcare Innovation (TCPHI, 2014–2017), and Inaugural and Founding Chair of the Children's Research Network of Ireland and Northern Ireland CRNINI (2010–2014).

Further reading

For further insights into the topics touched on in this episode, the following resources may be of interest:

→ About CHARM-EU

→ CHARM-EU Master's in Global Challenges for Sustainability

→ Universities and the global sustainability agenda: a view from Bologna (EAIE blog)

→ Taking action towards ecosystem restoration (EAIE blog)

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