Overview
Faculty
Priya Chandrasekaran
Heather Kropp
Aaron Strong
Program Committee
Catherine Beck (Geosciences)
Mackenzie Cooley (History)
Onno Oerlemans (Literature)
Todd Rayne (Geosciences)
Aaron Strong (Environmental Studies)
Andrea Townsend, director (Biology)
This interdisciplinary program includes its own faculty and is also supported by contributions of faculty members from a number of other departments.
The Concentration in Environmental Studies
Note: For the Class of 2021 and Class of 2022, requirements are those appearing in the course catalog of the year in which you declared the concentration, with the exception of being able to fulfill the Senior Program with ENVST-520 or a single semester thesis (ENVST-550) and with the exception of requiring only three electives and not four electives. These adjustments provide more flexibility to those in Class of 2021 and Class of 2022 than the original requirements.
Starting for the Class of 2023, the Environmental Studies concentration consists of 11 courses: 4 required core courses, 4 foundational breadth courses, and 3 electives, and the Senior Program.
There are four core required courses for concentrators: ENVST-110 Intro to Environmental Studies, ENVST-206 Environmental Data Science, ENVST-212 Climate Change, and ENVST-234 Environmental Justice. These are normally taken in the first or second year. ENVST-234 fulfills the Social Structural and Institutional Hierarchies requirement for the concentration.
Students are required to fulfill four breadth requirements by selecting ONE course from each of the following four categories. 1. Earth Science: Any 100-Level Geoscience course; 2. Life Science: Any BIO-100 course; 3. Environmental Social Science: Any one of the following: ENVST-285 Environmental Politics, ENVST-287 Environmental Political Theory, ENVST-235 Globalization and Agriculture, ECON-380: Environmental Economics, ENVST-218: Landscape: People, Place and Past; 4. Environmental Humanities: Any one of the following: ENVST-157: Introduction to Environmental History, ENVST-266: Global Environmental History, ENVST-255: Gender and the Environment, LIT-267: Literature and the Environment, PHIL-235: Environmental Ethics. We strongly recommend that at least two foundational breadth courses should be taken during the first year: an introductory (100-level) Geosciences course and Biology-100.
All concentrators must also take three electives from the approved list below of ENVST and other environmentally related courses. Upon declaring their concentration, students should meet with their concentration advisor to discuss a focal area of study to help guide the selection of elective courses in the major. Students are encouraged to align their electives thematically around a topic, but the requirement is simply three courses from the list.
• No more than one 100 level course
• At least one 300 level course
• May include up to two transfers from study abroad programs
• Additional foundational course options for Environmental Social Sciences and Environmental Humanities listed above CAN be counted as electives toward the major
Approved ENVST Electives
Note: Courses not appearing on this list but which were previously designated ENVST at the time that the student took them will count as electives.
ENVST-155 Religion and the Wild
ENVST-157 Introduction to Environmental History
ENVST-158 Climate and Migration
ENVST-160 Carbon Footprints and Sustainability
ENVST-218 Landscape: People, Place and the Past
ENVST-220 Culture and History of the Adirondack Park
ENVST-235 Globalization and Agriculture
ENVST-236 Culture and Politics of Food
ENVST-237 Intro to the Science of Food
ENVST-250 Interpreting the American Environment
ENVST-255 Gender and the Environment
ENVST-266 Global Environmental History
ENVST-285 Introduction to Environmental Politics
ENVST-287 Political Theory and the Environment
ENVST-290 Nature and Technology
ENVST-302 Architecture and the Environment
ENVST-305 Climate Risk and Resilience
ENVST-307 Environment and Technology in Africa
ENVST-310 Seminar in Native Ecologies
ENVST-318 Environment and Natural Resource Conflict
ENVST-340 Changing Arctic Ecosystems
ENVST-373 Conservation Biology
ANTHR-272 Anthropology of Food
BIO-237 Ecology
BIO-238 Community and Ecosystem Ecology
ECON-380 Environmental Economics
GEOSC-306 Soils and the Environment
GEOSC-380 GIS for Geoscientists
GOVT-360 Politics and Theory of Place and Space
HIST-225 Science and Revolution
HIST-245 Environment and US Global Expansionism
LIT-260 Human Identity in the Natural World
LIT-267 Literature and the Environment
PHIL-221 Philosophy of Food
PHIL-235 Environmental Ethics
The Senior Program in Environmental Studies is fulfilled through one of two options
• Option 1: ENVST-520 Senior Practicum Capstone
• Option 2: Senior Thesis Comprising ENVST-549 (Fall) and ENVST-550 (Spring)
Honors: Students who have earned at least a 3.5 average in courses toward the concentration may receive honors in Environmental Studies through distinguished work on the Senior Project – either the capstone or the senior thesis.
Note that for the Class of 2023, the requirements are the same as those listed above, with the exception that ENVST-210 Gateway to Environmental Studies can be counted in place of ENVST-110 Intro to Environmental Studies.
The Minor in Environmental Studies
Starting with the Class of 2023, the minor in Environmental Studies consists of five courses: ENVST-110 Intro to Environmental Studies, a 100-level Geoscience course, and three other ENVST core or elective courses, with at least one of those 300-level course.