Rebecca Crocker
Note: Titles and affiliations appear as they were at time of award.
2026 Spanning Boundaries Challenge | Tumamoc Rising: Situating faculty learning in the Desert Lab
Place-based pedagogies—high-impact, experiential practices that situate university learning in meaningful local contexts—offer a host of benefits and also implementation challenges. Grounded in critical pedagogies of place and situated learning theory, Tumamoc Rising is both a (1) four-semester faculty learning community (FLC) in the University of Arizona's Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, and (2) a multi-methods qualitative case study of how this unique place-based FLC experience shapes teaching, interdisciplinary connections and sense of emplacement. Situated within a 860-acre natural oasis with an astonishing depth of cultural and natural history, the Tumamoc Rising FLC will uniquely cultivate faculty peer support, local knowledge, and pedagogical know-how to successfully implement regenerative place-based learning. Key results and faculty-created resources will be shared in multiple ways and formats, including via a summit on Tumamoc Hill, a learning module, conferences and scholarly articles.
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Land, Heritage, and Place Attunement Spanning Boundaries Challenge 2026 Team
From left:
- Rebecca Crocker, Health Promotion Sciences, College of Public Health
- David Garcia, Health Promotion Sciences, College of Public Health
- Elise Gornish, Natural Resources & the Environment, College of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences
- Aurora Sartori, General Education, W.A. Franke Honors College
- Aresta Tsosie-Paddock, American Indian Studies, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
- Robert Villa, Interdisciplinary Center, Arizona Institute for Resilience
- Mackenzie Waller, Landscape Architecture, College of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Architecture