Recent Publications
Many of my publications are archived on CSUMB's Selected Works site. Recent publications are linked to the images above.
Research Interests
My teaching and research focus on the intersections between sustainable communities, place-conscious environmental education, and social justice, particularly in historically excluded communities. I am interested in children and youth participation in school and community settings as a means to foster sense of place, health, sustainability, and climate resilience. I am currently working in the following research areas:
Ultimately, I am interested in supporting research and work that promotes more biodiverse and healthy places, while also attending to the essential questions of equity, justice, and the realization of people's rights. I believe strongly in what AfroUrbanist Lauren Hood promotes, that "the root of reparation is repair... It's not so much the thing at the end, but the feeling you have along the way; how just is the process".
- Green schools in historically excluded communities of California and the Southwest U.S. - with interest in how people frame and enact ideas of care for the land and each other.
- Exploring the concept of querencia - care of the land and care of each other - in the U.S. Southwest and borderlands regions of U.S. and Mexico.
- Campus as a Living Laboratory (and Campus Nature Rx) for sustainability education, collaboration and wellbeing.
- How youth frame and realize climate justice in the Anthropocene, with the Children, Youth, and Environments Working group of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities Sustainable Landscapes Hub. Part I: birds, fish, rivers, trees. Part II: urban spaces
- Land trust approaches to conservation education and outreach, particularly with populations historically under-represented in conservation practice
Ultimately, I am interested in supporting research and work that promotes more biodiverse and healthy places, while also attending to the essential questions of equity, justice, and the realization of people's rights. I believe strongly in what AfroUrbanist Lauren Hood promotes, that "the root of reparation is repair... It's not so much the thing at the end, but the feeling you have along the way; how just is the process".
Forthcoming Publications
V. Derr, C. Edwards, C. Hackett, J. Johnson, B. Trezisi, K. Witten, and others. Inventive agencies and constructive hope: Interspecies poesis in contemporary youth arts pedagogies. (In development)
V. Derr, C. Molinelli-Ruberto, & R. Glines. (In Press). "Flying for the first time": Situating sustainability-in-place among children and youth within agricultural communities of California. K. Bishop and K. Dimoulias (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of the Built Environments of Diverse Childhoods.
V. Derr (In Press). Child Friendly Cities. B. Bereitschaft (Ed.), Equity in the Urban Built Environment. Studies in Urbanism and the City Series. Routledge Press.
Y. Corona, V. Derr, V. Medina, L. Ortiz y A. Rico (Eds.) ¿podemos cambiar el presente?: la participación de niñas, niños, y jovenes en el cuidado, la significación y la querencia del terruño. Forthcoming from a Mexican University Press.
V. Derr, C. Molinelli-Ruberto, & R. Glines. (In Press). "Flying for the first time": Situating sustainability-in-place among children and youth within agricultural communities of California. K. Bishop and K. Dimoulias (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of the Built Environments of Diverse Childhoods.
V. Derr (In Press). Child Friendly Cities. B. Bereitschaft (Ed.), Equity in the Urban Built Environment. Studies in Urbanism and the City Series. Routledge Press.
Y. Corona, V. Derr, V. Medina, L. Ortiz y A. Rico (Eds.) ¿podemos cambiar el presente?: la participación de niñas, niños, y jovenes en el cuidado, la significación y la querencia del terruño. Forthcoming from a Mexican University Press.
Recent Major Works
With Yolanda Corona from the Autonomous University of Mexico - Xochimilco, I co-edited a book released by Routledge Press in January 2021: Latin American Transnational Children and Youth: Experiences of Nature and Place, Culture and Care Across the Americas. This volume explores themes of young people’s connection to nature and place within a transnational and Latin American context. It diversifies, elaborates, and sometimes challenges the assumptions made in researching people and place. The book explores three central themes related to sense of place, identity, and environmental action: i) young people’s perspectives on place in contemporary contexts; ii) sense of belonging, homeland nostalgia, and transnational identities; and iii) learning and expressing care in diverse contexts, from Indigenous communities to global climate activism.
Click here for a review of the book by Karina Ruiz in the Children, Youth and Environments Journal
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Placemaking with Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities, co-authored with Louise Chawla and Mara Mintzer, is an illustrated, essential guide to engaging children and youth in the process of urban design. The book received the 2019 Environmental Design Research Association Achievement Award. See my participatory placemaking page for more information and reviews.
"Derr, Chawla and Mintzer’s book gathers from around the world useful methods and experiences of engaging youth in the design of their environments - an inspiring wave of progress in giving youth a positive approach to climate change and increasing city density."
-Stanley King,co-author with Susan Chung of Youth Manual |
"... the most thorough and comprehensive discussion of all facets of participatory design and planning with children and youth that I have ever read."
- Dr Kate Bishop, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Built Environment, University of New South Wales
- Dr Kate Bishop, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Built Environment, University of New South Wales