Environmental and Sustainability Studies

IN THIS SECTION

Develop skills to protect the world.

Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ESS) is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary minor that offers you the opportunity to explore and critically examine issues related to the environments we share with other humans and with other species. You will consider how the scientific, social, cultural, cognitive, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of human-ecological relationships relate to the natural world and how these relationships affect the well-being of human, non-human, and shared communities alike. In addition, you will develop the tools to form, evaluate, and act upon environmental questions at the local, national, and global levels.

PROGRAM MISSION

The mission of the ESS program is to bring together faculty and students to explore human-environment relationships. Environmental degradation produced by human activity poses an existential threat to humans and other-than-humans. Communities around the world are creating alternative social, political, economic, and ethical structures and worldviews to transition to a just and sustainable future. The ESS program prepares you to become part of this transformation.

In this minor, you will:

  • Understand the critical urgency of threats to our ecological communities and systems
  • Deepen your understanding of the connections between individual and community well-being and the integrity of the places we inhabit
  • Deconstruct systems of privilege and power to examine how they threaten natural systems and environments
  • Explore the rich variety of existing practices and perspectives that represent sustainable alternatives to dominant socio-economic structures
  • Focus on the interconnected socio-cultural, economic, political, and ethical systems that lead to environmental degradation and/or environmental sustainability
  • Explore sustainable alternatives to human ecology and communities
  • Reflect on the meaning of being human in a more-than-human world
  • Engage in a community stewardship project and/or creative expression that combines environmental theory and practice

Explore sample courses in this program.

EN-230 Environmental Themes in Literature

This class explores environmental issues as presented in poetry, essays, and novels, including such writers as Thoreau, Hemingway, and Anne Tyler.
3 credits

GE-258 Global Environmental Change

An introduction to the science, political economy, and ethics of global environmental change.
3 credits

GE-285 Sustainable Communities

Exploration of changes in US and global economic landscape, 1970 to present. Approaches to sustainable economic development.
3 credits

GE-307 American Public Lands: Environmental Issues

Exploration of the environmental management issues on US public lands such as national parks, national forests, and BLM lands.
3 credits

GE-308 Environment and Development

The global ecology of rich and poor, environmental implications of poverty, economic development, mass consumption, globalization, and demographic change.
3 credits

GE-312 Sustainable Food Systems

Overview of the structure, evolution, costs, and benefits of the global food system. Exploration of local and global alternatives.
3 credits

GE-341 Fundamentals of Renewable Energy

Analysis of renewable energy concepts, policy, and politics. Technologies and methods for renewable energy capture, storage, and distribution.
3 credits

GE-342 Sustainable Housing and Techniques

Principles of green design with an emphasis on building construction. Material and energy flows, choice of materials, designing for sustainability.
3 credits

HE-390 Environmental Health

Examination of the issues affecting the environment and their impact on our health.
3 credits

SO-403 Environmental Sociology

This course explores the relationship between environment and society through a focus on political ecology, sociological dimensions of environmental crisis, and dynamics of social change.
3 credits

UR-360 Environmental Systems and Public Policy

Examination of urban ecosystems, focusing on land uses designed to effectively utilize water, open space, and other natural resources.
3 credits

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