Santa Clara University

Patrick Archie

Lecturer, Director of Campus & Community Programs

Office Location: 874 Lafayette St. Rm. 207
Phone: (408) 551-6006
Email: jparchie@scu.edu

B.S., UC Berkeley
Ph.D., In Progress, UC Berkeley

Teaching and Research Vision

My goal in teaching is to facilitate students’ ability to think critically and to apply what they are learning to complex real world problems. I am particularly interested in helping them to develop practical skills and intellectual tools that they can use for the rest of their lives.

Environmental problems are enormously complex. Understanding them and attempting to solve or resolve them requires comparative analysis of information from a vast array of knowledge bases, much of which is contradictory. The contradictions include very difficult ethical dilemmas faced by past, current and future generations. I like to present my students with multiple contradictory perspectives and “solutions” to environmental issues and work with them as they struggle to sort through these issues and form their own ideas about the “nature” of environmental problems. I do not expect my students to agree with my perspectives. I do expect them to work hard at forming whatever opinions and ideas they develop through our collective study. I also expect to learn a great deal from them. I always do. I know it’s a bit selfish, but learning from my students is probably my favorite aspect of being a teacher.

Most of the courses that I have designed and taught have been focused on urban and sustainable agriculture and community development and most have had a service learning component. I believe that service learning is an excellent addition to traditional university education, particularly in environmental studies. When students actively engage in the real world with environmental problems it grounds their understanding of the issues by making the problems they struggle with more tangible. Service learning exposes students to ideas and experiences that they won’t get from a lecture, a textbook, or a university forum.

I believe in a life of service and I think it is important for young adults to have some experience of service in the context of an educational environment because it gives them a chance to reflect together on what it means to work collectively for the common good and to think deeply and carefully about what the common good might be. 

I am an agroecologist. My current research is in agroecological land use policy with a focus on alternative land tenure strategies for small and medium scale farming operations in California. I was initially drawn to the study and practice of sustainable agriculture because of my interest in environmental justice. I see agriculture and food as an ideal nexus for studying human environmental dilemmas and opportunities. Over the next several years I will pursue research on models for sustainable human development, with a particular focus on food systems, agriculture, and agricultural land use planning and management. I will also be conducting agricultural field research on dryland farming, agroecosystem restoration, and environmental education with my Santa Clara University students.

Teaching

ENVS 12    Introduction to Environmental Studies
ENVS 131  Environmental Education
ENVS 144 Natural History and Political Ecology of Baja
ENVS 198 Environmental Internship