GCTA | University of Sussex (UK) & University of San Diego (US)

The Global Challenge 

Food systems sit at the center of the climate crisis. From industrial agriculture and land use change to food waste and inequitable access, the production and consumption of food contribute significantly to global ecological disruption while also shaping local livelihoods and community well-being. Climate change intensifies existing inequalities, deepens food insecurity, and disproportionately affects vulnerable communities. Addressing these intertwined social and ecological challenges requires approaches that move beyond disciplinary silos and national boundaries, foregrounding care, justice, and collective responsibility.

The Partnership Response

This collaboration connects Julia Cantzler’s Sustainability: Sociological Perspectives at the University of San Diego with Perpetua Kirby’s Forest Food Gardens: The Theory and Practice of Food Growing at the University of Sussex. Both courses interrogate rigid boundaries between nature and culture while centering experiential, interdisciplinary learning. Together, they examine how food systems operate in specific local contexts while revealing the global interdependencies that shape environmental degradation, inequality, and possibilities for repair.

The seven-week virtual exchange invites students to explore the global challenge of climate action through the lens of food justice and community-rooted sustainability. Through cross-institutional collaboration, students investigate how grassroots movements and local communities are working to transform food systems. They analyze structural pressures, identify opportunities for resilience, and reflect on how place-based action connects to global climate dynamics.

Module Design

The exchange combines guided discussions of shared texts, creative visual collaboration, digital storytelling, and reflective practice. Working first within their home institutions and then across borders, students co-create a global, multi-modal map of “mycelial food care networks.” Drawing on the metaphor of fungal networks—interconnected, adaptive, and place-based—students trace nourishments, blockages, stressors, and interdependencies across their respective regions.

A key design breakthrough was the integration of narrative and storytelling as a bridge between data and empathy. By grounding analysis in lived experience, students develop the capacity to move beyond abstract climate discourse toward relational understanding and collective action. The collaboration mirrors the very networks it studies: requiring attention, care, and collegial engagement across cultural and geographic difference.

Through critical engagement with both local and global food systems, students are challenged to see themselves not simply as observers but as agents of change. The module moves them from awareness toward envisioning future collaborations and concrete climate action.

Institutional Alignment

The partnership reflects complementary institutional commitments to global engagement and pedagogical innovation. Both universities prioritize Virtual Exchange (VE) and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) as frameworks for fostering intercultural connection and applied global learning.

At the University of San Diego, the initiative is supported through the Learning Design Center, which expands undergraduate awareness and incentivizes faculty participation. At the University of Sussex, the project contributes to cultivating a community of practice among faculty, with longer-term plans to link VE/COIL engagement to teaching recognition and promotion pathways as part of the university’s Global and Civic Engagement commitments.

Together, the institutions recognize VE and COIL as essential mechanisms for equipping students to navigate climate complexity through collaborative, cross-border learning.

Long-term Vision

The team envisions the module becoming a sustained feature of their courses and a model for future climate-focused collaborations. By linking experiential food system inquiry with global digital exchange, the partnership demonstrates how climate education can be simultaneously local, relational, and internationally connected.