Teaching Resources

Fair Trade Action Project 2019-2020

Are you interested in Fair Trade—products that are made with humane labor relations and sustainable environmental practices? Are you looking for some new class assignments that involve students in creating real-life impact for next semesters? Do you like to incorporate civic engagement component in your classes? Would you like your students to see how they can positively impact their community? Do you like collaborating with other professors? Do you like to let your students collaborate with students from other classes? If you say “yes” to any of these, please read on!

As part of the interdisciplinary Fair Trade Action Project spearheaded by Neriko Doerr (Anthropology) and Amanda Roberti (Political Science) for the AY 2019-2020, we are looking to coordinate class project assignments so that we can move together to bring more Fair Trade products to Ramapo and to New Jersey! Fair Trade involves a diverse range of things and here are kinds of projects we are looking for to make this project happen (and you can suggest more; and we can brainstorm with you further, too). Please see the list below for the projects that we would need and potential fields of study that may apply:

1) Fair Trade goods vs non-Fair Trade goods

—E: illustrate effects of non-Fair Trade goods on environmental sustainability (case studies on a particular commodity)

—Psy; S; SW; W: illustrate effects of non-Fair Trade goods on quality of life of those who produce it (case studies of labor relations involved in producing a particular commodity)

—B; IS; P; Psy; S; W: illustrate the local/global connection of consumer-based culture

2) Cost/benefit of stocking Fair Trade goods:

—B; IS; M; P; W: numbers that show economic impact on schools, communities, the state of NJ, etc. (comparison of non-Fair Trade goods and Fair Trade goods)

3) Structural aspect

—IS; L; P: list of existing regulations/legislations that encourages Fair Trade

— IS; L; P: analyses of existing regulations/legislations that encourages Fair Trade and how we can use them to model forward-thinking legislation on the local or state level

—E; IS; L; P: effects of existing regulations/legislations regarding the labor relations and environmental impact

4) Consciousness raising:

—A; B; C; E; Psy; W: market the importance of Fair Trade

—A; B; C; E; P; Psy; S; W: build campaigns on Fair Trade

Suggestions of the areas of study
A: Art	IS: International studies	Psy: Psychology
B: Business studies (marketing, etc)	L: Law and society	S: Sociology
C: Communications studies	M: Mathematics	SW: Social work
E: Environmental studies	P: Public policy & Political Science	W: Women’s and gender studies

The list above is not comprehensive—please add whatever you see fit! Even if you have vague ideas, we are more than happy to brainstorm with you. Looking forward to hearing your ideas!!

Neriko Doerr (ndoerr@ramapo.edu)

Amanda Roberti (arobert7@ramapo.edu)