IGERT - Coasts and Communities

The purpose was to establish new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment. We were a group of graduate students at UMass Boston, with a focus in transdisciplinary research. Our program, Coasts and Communities, trained a new kind of environmental problem solver, one able to think and act across disciplinary and geographic boundaries and to develop and implement sustainable solutions to pressing environmental problems facing coasts and communities. We were one of the National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeships (IGERT). IGERT's purpose is to establish new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary graduate programs. At UMass Boston, our fellows and associate fellows have earned degrees in Environmental Science, Environmental Biology, Marine Science and Technology, Global Governance and Human Security, and Organizations and Social Change. The program ended in 2019.