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Peter Cranston
(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
DAVIS—In response to Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef’s “internationalizing the campus initiative,” two entomology professors at the University of California, Davis are heading to the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, to teach a Jan. 3-March 23 course on South African biodiversity.
And going with them will be 17 UC Davis students enrolled in the 10-week program.
Professors Peter Cranston and Penny Gullan will teach the biodiversity and conservation course, emphasizing southern African issues, through UC Davis Quarter Abroad. The program also will include lectures and field studies led by local faculty and their graduate students.
The university, located in Stellenbosch, near Cape Town, “hosts a very strong Center for Excellence in Invasion Biology,” Cranston said.
“The strongest lesson we wish our students to understand,” Cranston said, “concerns issues of conservation in a developing but very diverse country. Sustainability and development are real issues for most people in their everyday lives.”
Cranston said the course offers great opportunities to see conservation in action across the full spectrum of biodiversity in South Africa. Topics include alien plant removal, water conservation, restoration of fynbos and renosterveld (native plant) communities, wildflower trade sustainability, and “of course, the famous big vertebrates.”
He added: “Not least, Stellenbosch is the center of the well-developed South African wine industry, and students will be exposed to issues associated with biodiversity conservation in such a landscape, including the movement to organic wines, and holistic vineyard management.”
The 17 students include seniors with already developed interests in conservation and biodiversity, and students exploring their opportunities. Others are undeclared majors who have taken previous undergraduate classes taught by Cranston or Gullan.
The professors said they considered teaching a similar course in their native Australia, but realized that it wouldn’t that much of an “overseas” experience like that in South Africa.
Both Cranston and Gullan have been involved in South African collaborative research on biodiversity since the end of apartheid.
The University of Stellenbosch, founded in 1866, is one of the oldest universities in South Africa. It is located in the university town of Stellenbosch, founded in 1679.
The two entomology professors are already planning to offer the course again in 2008, capping the enrollment at 20.
Further information is available at http://quarterabroad.ucdavis.edu or by contacting Cranston at pscranston@ucdavis.edu or Gullan at pjgullan@ucdavis.edu.
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