Data Literacy for Social and Environmental Justice (PGCert/PGDip/MSc) - online 2024 entry

>> Those who work or aspire to work in non-governmental organisations and policy institutes and even in governments often feel like with the right training they can make more of an impact on social and environmental justice issues.

This program emerged from my experience in that world and my passion to make change happen.

Our Data for Justice postgraduate program trains you in the three key areas that you 
need for success.

First we cover the conceptual foundations.

What does it even mean to work for social and environmental justice?

Second data literacy and spatial data science.

How do we create compelling evidence from data?

Finally science communication and data visualization.

How do we communicate that evidence in a clear scientifically sound and engaging way?

Join five world leading social and environmental researchers from four continents and a small island and our invited guests for informative and interesting panels and podcasts.

>> Several institutions, governments and individuals have already collected a massive amount of data about people, societies, animals and environments across the world.

But which data sources can we trust?

And how do we establish the quality of data that's already been collected?

And once we feel confident in the quality of our data, how do we summarize patterns in these data in ways that they are not just visually appealing but also helps us to achieve the desired impact?

We will answer these questions and more in two distinct yet complementary courses on this program.

One of them is the advanced data visualization course and the other one is the welcome to the data course.

What makes these courses unique is that they involve a lot of critical thinking and have the potential to unleash the creativity of our students.

There are lots of hands-on exercises that can help our students develop a mastery of both theoretical and practical application of data to achieve social and environmental 
justice.

In addition, these practical exercises can form part of a great collection for our students and can uniquely position them to be more impactful for any data-related position on the job market.

>> What is science communication?

Fundamentally, science communication is about communicating the outputs of scientific research to a target audience in an accessible way.

When we are thinking about science communication, there are three key elements that we need to consider.

First of all, audience.

Who are the individuals within our audience?

Number two, framing our story.

How can we make our story the most engaging for our audience?

A good place to start is to think about what our audience cares about and linking our story to those themes.

Number three is mode of communication.

How can we communicate most effectively with our target audience?

That might be through a Twitter thread, or a podcast, or through creating a leaflet that we can put through letterboxes.

But aside from just communicating the science, we want to share the benefits with the people in our communities.

We'll be learning how to generate mutual benefit from our justice-led research by exploring some of the theories and practices of public engagement.

>> I find research on prediction, attribution, and health and socioeconomic impacts of the sharp edges of the climate change to be a fascinating and critical subject.

The outcome of this work can provide actionable information for the benefit of the adaptation and sustainability of our society.

Specifically, I explore how modern anthropogenic activities modify the intensity, likelihood, and nature of extreme weather and climate events and their impacts on multiple human dimensions of our civilization.

For example, I collaborate with the World Bank on how the extreme events impact development projects around the world.

One such example in Niger reveals critical water cycle changes like floods and droughts and their impacts on the risk and resilience of investment projects in the development of water infrastructure in the country.

Such multidisciplinary and multisectoral activities benefit our understanding of the balances between environmental benefits and burdens.

We will be in position to study such key elements of environmental justice in our program on data literacy for social and environmental justice.

I am excited to work on a program for data literacy for social and environmental justice.

>> My broad research interests relate to the sustainable use of marine resources.

One of my main areas of research is to develop methods to represent small-scale fisheries in space in a context of increasing maritime activities and the blue-growth agenda.

I spend a lot of time developing methods to understand the spatiotemporal distribution of fishing activities.

This is important to protect the livelihoods and food security of millions of people around the world.

For this, I use a range of geocomputational tools and techniques and spatial data science.

I can't wait to start the Masters to show you what amazing developments there have been in the field of spatial data science and how we can use these techniques to secure a more just world.

>> The whole Data for Justice program is designed to increase your impact potential by building skills and to fit flexibly into your life.

Regardless of your background training, we have opportunities to increase your skills.

So for example, if you don't have training in statistics, we provide introductory statistics modules that take you from the very beginning.

At the same time, if you have a background in statistics, you can go straight into an 
advanced quantitative methods course or, for example, spatial data science.

In addition, we will increase your skills in science communication and public engagement.

We'll also help you enhance your science communication skills through data visualization as well.

One of the elements that we're super excited about is offering a one- to two-week residential component here in St. Andrews.

This is an optional component of the module, but we're really excited about getting people together to work with other justice scholars on the program as well as local PhD students and faculty and practitioners from around the area.

You can find out more about the program, the modules we're offering, and the faculty who will be leading the program if you visit the St Andrews website.

We look forward to seeing you online.