This course is designed to develop a student’s abilities as an environmental problem-solver through practice. The problems come in two forms: a campus or local problem related to environmental sustainability or resilience and the problem of what to do with one’s life. To address each, students engage in a semester-long group project that addresses a real-world environmental issue or question (projects vary from year to year) and a more individualized examination of the student’s own values, career aspirations and skills.

This course focuses on the interpretation and communication of environmental issues and solutions from multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives. Using contemporary environmental issues as a foundation, this course emphasizes careful assessment of both message and audience to design effective communication strategies for complex issues.

What is the relationship between gender, feminism and the environment? Ecofeminism unites scholars and activists who have asserted that environmentalism is a feminist issue, that nature is gendered or that gender liberation and environmental liberation are linked. This course introduces students to the theory and practice of ecofeminism from the late twentieth century to the present. While this course is titled “Ecofeminism,” some would consider it more apt to use a lens of “ecofeminisms,” foregrounding the considerable variation in theories, assumptions and activist movements.

How is actionable advice to decision makers about how to address environmental challenges best provided? What makes a policy effective or desirable? How are policy analysis documents best evaluated? This course introduces the frameworks and methodologies of environmental policy analysis. Working from a step-by-step approach to policy analysis, students practice defining problems, identifying policy alternatives, selecting appropriate evaluation criteria and producing well-supported policy recommendations.

This course offers an introduction to the methods and key debates in environmental history, the history of the relationship between humanity and the “rest of nature.” Since the 1970s, environmental historians have used an environmental lens to examine politics, economy, religion, gender, race, migration, art, music, literature and culture. In addition to typical archives of texts and other historical remnants created by people, environmental historians also avail themselves to “natural” archives, including the ice core, tree-ring and lake sediment samples collected by climate scientists.

In this laboratory complement to ENV 201, students use a variety of methods to gather and analyze different types of environmental data (quantitative, qualitative, spatial). Corequisite: ENV 201. Prerequisite: ENV 101. Enrollment limited to 18.

While focusing on topical environmental issues, students learn how to gather, analyze and present data using methods from the natural and social sciences. Data are drawn from multiple sources, including laboratory experiments, fieldwork, databases, archival sources, surveys and interviews. Emphasis is on quantitative analysis. Environmental topics vary in scale from the local to the global. Corequisite: ENV 202. Prerequisite: ENV 101. Enrollment limited to 18.

Offered as CHM 108 and ENV 108. An introduction to environmental chemistry, applying chemical concepts to topics such as acid rain, greenhouse gases, air quality, pesticides and waste treatment. Chemical concepts are developed as needed.

Earth has entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, characterized by the accelerating impact of human activities on the Earth’s ecosystems. All over the globe, humans have transformed the environment and have sometimes created catastrophic dynamics within social-ecological systems. Scientists have studied these phenomena for decades, alerting both the general public and policy-makers of the consequences of our actions. However, despite convincing evidence of environmental degradation, humans continue to radically transform their environment.