Kayla Bellman (MDP 2020) Guest lectures on Climate Change and Specialty Coffee
In a two-part guest lecture series facilitated by Kayla Bellman (MDP 2020), “The Past, Present and Future of Specialty Coffee: An Integration of Historical, Market and Cultural Perspectives” undergraduate course wrestled with the complexity and uncertainty of climate change. In the first lecture, the students leveraged a series of grey and academic readings and their collective knowledge to generate a list of challenges that producers face and will likely face with increasing veracity due to climate change. In their second session students responded to a mock request for a proposal for a $20,000 grant to address some of the most pressing challenges that they identified in the preceding lecture. The outcome: audacious ideas that aimed to alleviate climatic challenges that small-shareholder producers.
Regarding her interest in teaching this series Kayla remarked, “It’s imperative that as we think about the future of specialty coffee, we situate our understanding of it in a messy, complicated world irrevocably marked by climate change”.
Kayla is the research assistant for Transparent Trade Coffee and Intern with Habitat for Humanity International on the International Housing Programs team. Upon graduation in May she intends to continue to explore the intersection of climate change and coffee with a community development lens.
Curriculum
The Emory MDP curriculum combines natural, social, health sciences and management.
FIELD PRACTICUM
The Field Practicum is a core component of the Emory MDP curriculum.