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Course Criteria
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4.00 Credits
This course (1) discusses major topics and schools of thought in environmental education, (2) analyzes the ethical, practical, and conceptual implications of this, and (3) assesses these various approaches for clarity and practicality. Students address four primary questions: What forms does environmental education take? What values inform environmental education? What might an ethically defensible, effective form of environmental education look like? How much do concepts and arguments matter in better understanding and implementing environmental education? The course aims to advance our integrative and practical thinking about complex and multifaceted environmental topics, as well as to understand environmental values as they relate to education.
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4.00 Credits
Students study human interaction with both food and animals, as well as the environmental impacts and ethical issues that arise from such interaction. Focus is on the moral standing of animals, animals as food, and the environmental impacts of agriculture, transportation, and consumption. The course Program in Environmental Studies also surveys major thinkers in the field, including Michael Pollan, Peter Singer, Jim Mason, Wendell Berry, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Martha Nussbaum. Students engage in collaborative research projects, and we hope to schedule field trips to local agricultural sites.
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4.00 Credits
An intermediate course for students in the major or minor in environmental studies in the environmental values and society track. The aim of the course is to advance understanding of a specific topic concerning the social aspects of environmental problems. Familiarity with social aspects of environmental problems is assumed. Topics include Thinking Globally, Acting Locally; Economics and the Environment; History of Ecology and Environmentalism; Environmental Education; and Food and Animals.
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4.00 Credits
This course offers an introduction to European environmental policy. The European Union (EU) is often seen as a leader in environmental policy, and it is a major player in international environmental policy making. But how does the EU, a unique economic and political union of 27 states, actually make and implement environmental policy? In this course, we explore these questions by focusing on different aspects of European environmental policy. The first part provides a historic overview of the emergence and development of European environmental policy and law. Who are the central actors? Which institutions are involved in policy making? What are the basic regulation principles? The second part concentrates on the EU policy-making process, and on the implementation of environmental policy in the Member States. A third part deepens these aspects by discussing case studies such as the regulation of chemicals, waste management, air pollution, and GMO. A fourth part concentrates on challenges for European environmental policy and sets it into an international context: How to cope with the enlargement of the EU? What is EU Climate Change policy, and how does the European Emissions Trading System work?
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4.00 Credits
An intermediate environmental studies elective about how societies understand and respond to climate change. We analyze the values, assumptions, and perceptions that contribute to our understanding of climate change. The main topics are: ethics, justice and responsibility; definitions of nature; cost-benefit analysis and the precautionary principle; geo-engineering; contrarianism; framing and communication; social engagement; and education. Central questions include: Is climate change a technical or social problem? What makes climate change uniquely challenging to understand and respond to? Which ethical and perceptual frameworks are best suited for both understanding and responding to climate change? Who is responsible, and what moral implications does this have? What assumptions about values, behavior, economics, and nature do we make when discussing climate change? How does climate change challenge our conceptions of nature, morality, society, and economics? Does climate change pose a special challenge to society, or does it simply amplify existing challenges?
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4.00 Credits
As Web-based platforms increasingly dominate mass media, what specific forms should the "new" environmental journalism take? This course traces the development of traditional environmental journalism from John Muir to John McPhee and looks closely at how the field is adapting to a fastchanging media landscape. With the help of guests and timely readings, we confront thorny questions about environmental advocacy, citizen media, issue framing, risk balancing, and the scientific process. We produce stories that matter on the biggest news beat of all. This advanced seminar includes intensive journalistic writing assignments, as well as extensive readings for in-class discussion.
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4.00 Credits
An introduction to the emerging field of ecocriticism and an exploration of some of its main Program in Environmental Studies questions, issues, methods, and texts. We trace the origins and development of key tropes of ecological thought-such as wilderness, pastoralism, pollution, and catastrophe-in literary and cultural texts ranging from the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh to the Hollywood eco-blockbuster Avatar. We apply the lenses of environment and species to classics like Euripides' The Bacchae, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Thoreau's Walden, as well as to works that exemplify new conjunctions between ecological thought and contemporary discourses on globalization, environmental justice, and queer theory, such as novels like Animal's People by Indra Sinha and Lives of the Animals by J. M. Coetzee, and films like Brokeback Mountain and The Yes Men Fix the World.
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4.00 Credits
Analyzes the ways that animal and human lives intersect. Specifically, this course examines how relationships with animals both reflect and shape social life, culture, and how people think about themselves. We explore the myriad and contradictory positions that animals occupy in society (e.g., as pets, pests, mascots, and food) and deconstruct the social origins of these seemingly natural categories. (After all, one society's pet is another society's dinner.) We also take a grounded look at what actually happens when humans and animals interact, which sheds new light on the nature of human and animal consciousness and troubles some of the assumptions we make about the necessary role of language and symbols in interaction. Fundamentally, students learn how the roles that animals take on in our lives, and the ways that we think about and relate to them, are inherently social processes that are patterned by geography, culture, class, gender, and so on. Central questions include: How do ideas about, and relationships to, animals vary across time and space? What roles do science, literature, and media representations play in shaping how we think about animals? How and why did pets become honorary members of the American family? Why are some animals, but not others, granted moral status and legal protection in society? How do humans and animals coordinate interaction without language?
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4.00 Credits
Provides an overview of public policy with respect to the somewhat contradictory treatment of animals by humans, with a focus on how public policy is created and how social change occurs. We consider what public policy consists of and what actors and factors play a role in the creation of public policy; how society views animals; the capacities of animals; how ethics relates to animal treatment; how animals are currently utilized by our society; and political and other efforts to improve or alter the current treatment of animals, including the influence of science, government, business, and nongovernmental organizations in defining and influencing animalrelated policies. We focus on legislation, litigation, regulation, and ballot initiative and consumer campaigns and their effectiveness, as well as other strategies that relate to improving animal welfare. We also discuss the meaning of "animal rights" and the success and impact of the modern animal protection movement.
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4.00 Credits
The internship, which is only completed during the junior year, prepares students for their professional lives by providing them with experience in environment- related organizations such as nonprofits, research institutes, and governmental organizations. At the beginning of the internship, students and the internship adviser agree to a learning contract that establishes specific goals and a schedule for achieving them. Interns meet collectively during the semester to share their experiences and present brief reports.
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