Catherine Calogeropoulos: 'My motivation has always been the quest for knowledge'

Shortly after completing her PhD at Concordia in the Department of Biology, Catherine Calogeropoulos was offered a part-time teaching job at the university. The first course she taught was Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment.

It wasn’t what she had been hoping for in terms of subjects, but she embraced the challenge. Looking back now, she says, accepting to take on courses outside of her own area has only made her a better teacher.

“The advantage is that after doing this for about seven or eight years, you’ve taught so many different courses, over two departments, that it makes you multi-disciplinary.”

A breakthrough came when Calogeropoulos was teaching Environmental Management (again, for the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment). In hopes of making the course better for her students, she decided to change her approach, replacing some of the hard science in her lectures with material drawn from her readings in the social sciences.

The course now begins with a history lesson on resource exploitation in Classical Greece, followed by lessons in environmental philosophy, comparing ideological environmentalism with the experiential approach. She then delves into the psychology of environmental attitudes and behaviour, highlighting that these are often diametrically opposed.

“In a way it was terrifying, because I had to straddle so many different fields, but necessary because all environmental issues are inherently multi-faceted.”

Then it happened again. While teaching a course in nutrition in the Department of Biology, Calogeropoulos saw another opportunity to improve a class, by straying from her original science-heavy lesson plan.

Calogeropoulos noticed that her students understood the importance of eating well, but they lacked the wherewithal to do so. (Again an example of the binary opposition of attitude versus behavior)

To drive that lesson home, Calogeropoulos decided to introduce a meal-preparation component into the course as a term project. The students take recipes home, cook meals and report back to their professor with pictures. “It’s a lot of fun, and a lot of students have told me that it’s the best term project they’ve had.”

Calogeropoulos still provides the students with the science behind good nutrition, but now they also learn how to apply that knowledge in their own kitchen. “They're all taking the course for that one reason, to improve their health. But knowing why fiber is important won’t make it appear on your dinner plate. Learning to cook from scratch is a necessary precursor to both eating well and sustainably.”

In March 2015 Calogeropoulos received a research grant from CUPFA. Her research will study whether the reproductive output of plants and other cellular level changes can be used collectively as metrics for environmental change, that can lead to a pragmatic approach to sustainable development.

Almost ten years have passed since Calogeropoulos began teaching part-time at Concordia. It has been a time of intense personal growth, she says, which she hopes will continue apace for the next decade.

“My motivation has always been the quest for knowledge. I think whether you’re a tenured professor or a lecturer, you always have that as a part of you — that desire to constantly learn and to transmit that knowledge onto students.”