Lily Fessenden
Professional Title: Assistant Professor
Areas of Academic Focus and Expertise:
The relationship between belief systems and resistance to change.
Area of Work and Concentration at Lesley: Science, ecology and ecosystems, action research
Representative List of Recent Courses Taught:
Action Research Methods for Teaching and Learning
Special Topic in Ecology Through Action Research
Ecological Education in Action
Ecological Interactions in the Urban Ecosystem
Teaching for Change: The Ecological Practice of Diversity
Education: Ph.D., California Institute for Integral Studies, San Francisco; M.A., Goddard College; B.A., Bowdoin College
Representative List of Recent Publications / Exhibitions:
Dr. Fessenden’s most recent publication was her fictional story Subversion and the Suburban Lawn in the spring 2009 issue of Hawk and Handsaw: Journal of Creative Sustainability. Her most recent presentations were Sustainable Practices through Action Research at the 8th International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability (2011) and Education as the Practice of Freedom at NextStep Integral (2010).
Dr. Fessenden teaches in the M.S. in Ecological Teaching and Learning. Her Ph.D. in the Humanities focused on transformative learning and change and her dissertation was a cooperative inquiry exploring the experience of interbeing. Dr. Fessenden has practiced transformative learning and change through homeschooling, teaching conflict management, and by serving on the boards of PeaceAction Maine, the Center for Consensual Democracy and the Maine Earth Institute. She was faculty and Executive Director of the Geocommons College Program, a study abroad experience focused on communities working towards a sustainable future and Dr. Fessenden also directed the Northeast Initiative, an outreach program of The White Mountain School helping secondary schools integrate sustainability into their school improvement efforts. Her commitment to a just and sustainable future is evident in the courses she teaches and on the farm where she lives.