Apply to the field school to secure your place in the 2020 field school.*

>>If you are a student at an American university
you must also apply through Western Washington University here<<

Redfish 2020
Now in its 11th year, this five-week intensive program will take a cohort of 10 Canadian and 10 U.S. students to a number of outdoor classrooms in the Salish Sea. Students will engage in coursework with and in community focusing on policy development, programming, and activism within the Salish Sea.  The program will start with a canoeing adventure and finish with a hiking trip. Students should expect to have weekends off and be in class from 9-5pm, Monday to Friday, but have most weekends off – other than when on trips. 

Redfish School of Change Program Objectives and Overview
The overall program objectives are as follows. Individual course objectives are included in individual course syllabi.

Students will be able to demonstrate:

  • A recognition of some Indigenous resurgence processes in and around the interior Salish communities.
  • The capacity to develop effective strategies for a broad range of social and environmental challenges.
  • An appreciation for pluralism in ways of knowing and among scientific and cultural perspectives toward creating social change.
  • The capacity and confidence to employ leadership skills for effective community action.
  • The ability to participate collaboratively in finding solutions for social and environmental challenges.
  • An appreciation the relevance of place — and the features that distinguish regional and local contexts and thus approaches to social and environmental change.
  • A renewed focus on environmental hope and imagining positive futures.

Each of the courses in the Redfish School of Change will be taught by a lead instructor (or instructor team). Students from the University of Victoria will receive credit through their home institution, and students from Western Washington University will receive credit through their home institution.

Students are expected to have housing in their home community during this course.  You will be staying there most evenings when we are on campus and it will be a place to go on weekends.

The course schedules, instructors and course numbers are as follows:

Community Building and Leadership in the Salish Sea
Main instructors: Dr. Nick Stanger (WWU) and Joy Beauchamp (WWU)
UVic: ES 370 Community Building and Leadership in the Salish Sea (1.5 credits)
WWU: ENVS 437/SALI 437* Community Building and Leadership in the Salish Sea (5 credits)

Centering Indigenous Futures in the Salish Sea
Instructor: TBD – Indigenous instructor from Coast Salish territories
UVic: ES 380 Centering Indigenous Futures in the Salish Sea (1.5 credits)
WWU: ENVS 437/SALI 437* Centering Indigenous Futures in the Salish Sea (5 credits)

Ecology and Hope in the Salish Sea
Instructors: Dr. Elin Kelsey, University of Victoria
UVic: ES 381 Ecology and Hope in the Salish Sea (1.5 credits)
WWU: ENVS 437/SALI 437* Ecology and Hope in the Salish Sea (5 credits)

*WWU course numbers are pending approval

Draft Schedule:
Precourse: April 14: Western Washington University (and through Canvas). This will be an orientation day ensuring that people are ready, have the reader, and are oriented to the syllabus.
Precourse Conference: April 19-22: Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. This is optional but very encouraged. WWU students can get extra credit for this by signing up for SALI 490 (The conference is the entire course)
May 4-6th – University of Victoria, Victoria BC – orientation and prep for trip
May 6-8th – Trip down Finlayson Arm
May 11-15th – based in Victoria – students will be on day trips in and around the Capital Regional district and have some class time.
May 18 – 22nd – Salt Spring Island. We continue an integrated study of restoring and re-indigenizing landscapes at Xwaaqu’um (Burgoyne Bay). Some of the rarest ecosystems in the region abound here, where a cultural resurgence is taking place.
May 25 – 28th – Students will be centered around Bellingham – class time and day trips to local projects.
May 29th – Travel to Vancouver BC for a climate student rally and leadership event in Stanley Park
June 1-5th – Lopez Island, WA. Looking at settler-colonial landscapes, permaculture examples, and environmental leadership within the complex ecosystems of the San Juans.
June 8-11 – Final trip on Olympic Peninsula, Howe Sound, or somewhere else in the Salish Sea.

Questions?  email joy@schoolofchange.ca