It has been nearly a decade since Sandra Valnes Quammen, senior lecturer with the Department of Romance Studies, began exploring ways to integrate sustainability into her language teaching — largely thanks to the Trillium Sustainability Fellows Program. Created by Charlotte Clark, associate professor of the practice of sustainability (now emeritus) at the Nicholas School of the Environment, the program encouraged faculty from outside the environmental sciences to think of ways climate sustainability could intersect with their disciplines at Duke.
“Until Trillium, it never occurred to me that there was anything linking the study of French and sustainability,” Quammen admits. “As I learned more about how it [sustainability] touches all aspects of the human experience, I realized that nothing I do in the language classroom is neutral.”
As a 2023-2024 inaugural Climate and Sustainability Teaching (CAST) Fellow, Quammen revised several modules for her French 111: Intensive Elementary French course. The class already had an entry point to sustainability via the French environmental documentary “Tomorrow” (“Demain” in French). In addition to discussing the film’s content, Quammen added a unit exploring the various stories concerning climate change and sustainability presented in the film.
“The film was built on community responses to sustainability challenges, so students build case studies using the bigger themes and concepts,” she explains, “and we discuss news reports and short videos looking at community-based responses to environmental challenges in different areas of the world.”
She has also created a new course, French 313: Climate and Sustainability in the Francophone World, to explore the ways in which culture and language impact perceptions and responses to climate change and sustainability. “This class emphasizes how we can’t think about these environmental issues only from scientific and technical perspectives,” she says. “A lot is baked into history and culture and language.”
Taking the commitment one step further, Quammen and fellow senior lecturer Laura Florand received an Undergraduate Program Enhancement Fund from Global Education and a grant from the French Embassy to provide French language faculty with course development support when integrating sustainability-related content in their classes.
“Now, every level of French has at least one module that deals specifically with climate and sustainability,” she says. “Our goal is to keep building on that, so our materials meet our needs and allow us to engage with students in meaningful ways, no matter where they slot into the French language program.”
Quammen adds that the climate and sustainability work taking place among the faculty is a true collaboration. “I feel lucky to have a group of colleagues who are as equally passionate as I am and to learn their processes for engaging with climate commitment,” she says. “It’s been interesting to see how they are approaching this from different perspectives.”
One colleague bringing his perspective of what climate sustainability and French language learning can look like at Duke is lecturing fellow Germain Choffart. As a 2024-2025 CAST fellow, Choffart revised French 101 to focus on the environmental impacts of fast fashion: trendy, low-cost clothing that meets consumer demand and is often manufactured at the expense of environmental and ethical considerations.
"As consumers, we have a responsibility to understand the impacts our buying habits have on the environment,” Choffart explains. “Where we buy our clothes, how those clothes are manufactured and where they end up once we fall out of love with them have environmental consequences, and we need to be aware of that.”
Coursework includes the study of the French thrift corporation Emmaüs Europe and articles that address the myriad of issues with fast fashion, including excessive water use during production, microplastic pollution, added stress on landfills and the exploitation of labor during manufacturing. Students share their consumer habits while also learning how other countries buy and dispose of goods.
“Students discuss their own buying habits, where they purchase their clothing and what external influences are at work when making those choices,” he shares. “We also discuss thrift stores as an alternative to landfills and what they look like in other countries, while also including the drawbacks when charities cannot use donated clothing — and it ends up in a landfill anyway.”
Choffart is a huge proponent of the work being done at TROSA in Durham. Toward the end of each French 101 semester, students tour the TROSA organization and learn everything from the programming that helps community members to how donations are sorted for the thrift store.
Students are then tasked with finding two outfits with a price range of $10 to $12 dollars. They record each other describing the outfit, in French, and are given $10 to thrift an item for their personal use. In its fourth semester, Choffart shares that often students bring articles from their closet to donate, and many go back to volunteer and shop.
He is also launching a pilot in April, where students taking French 101 visit Duke Campus Farm. They will explore vocabulary around food by learning the importance of buying local produce and native plants.
“By bringing climate change into French language learning, I hope my students understand that they are global citizens and that we need to think critically about climate change and sustainability. It impacts all of us.”
French isn’t the only program purposefully bringing climate and sustainability into language learning classrooms. Yan Liu has included environment issues in her Chinese language classes since teaching her first Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) course in 2020.
The associate professor of the practice and director of the Chinese program with the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) was part of the team teaching Voices in the Environment: French, Chinese, Spanish, and enjoyed the collaboration across language programs. The work also made her think deeply about the importance of sustainability, especially when discussing China and the United States.
“We have these two ‘superpowers’ that also have the largest economies — and the largest carbon dioxide emissions,” she says. “I want the students to think not only about the geopolitical relationship between the two countries but also the common environmental challenges they share.”
Liu is also a 2024-2025 CAST fellow and was motivated to redesign her course Chinese 450 to focus solely on climate change. “I wanted to provide a platform for Duke students, who come to this Chinese language class with different backgrounds, native languages and majors, to think about and exchange ideas around the impacts of climate change in both countries. It’s opening the door, so they can think outside of their experiences.”
In addition to CHN 450, she incorporates climate sustainability in her Chinese 451 course: China and the U.S. in the Age of Climate Change. This semester, the class visited Duke Campus Farms to learn about the farm’s history and community outreach program, as well as the mitigation strategies and sustainable agricultural practices used to combat climate change.
“The students were inspired to learn what has been going on to combat climate change, and they were thrilled to find out the farm was an initiative led by a group of undergraduates,” Liu shares.
Back on campus, the class toured Duke Gardens to learn ways the garden staff addresses the challenges of creating and maintaining a manicured garden while minimizing the environmental impact of modern horticultural practices. Students took part in discussions, in Chinese, focused on composting, stormwater management and water conservation, the importance of pollinators and Duke’s Climate Commitment.
“When students have these immersive experiences, it strengthens their understanding of the environmental issues everyone faces on this planet,” Liu says. “Connecting classroom learning to the initiatives happening at Duke and within the community helps them see the intersections of climate action, language and culture.”
