Minors in the Environment and Sustainability Studies (ENV) Program

The Environmental Sciences Minor provides students with knowledge of fundamental concepts in the natural sciences. This minor is a great option for supplementing a core major with science-forward environmental coursework relevant to understanding environmental issues.

The Environmental Studies Minor provides students with an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental issues. The minor is a great option for supplementing a core major with a focus on the humanities and social science aspects of the environment.

Environment and Sustainability Studies (ENV) Program

ENV 163. Environmental Ethics. (3 h)

Examines ethical issues concerning the environment as they arise in individual lives and public policy.  Also listed as PHI163.

ENV 201. Environmental Issues. (3 h)

Topics include environmental literature, environmental history, human populations, resource management, pollution, global change, environmental activism and environmental ethics.

ENV 202. Environmental Solutions. (3 h)

Learn how to improve our environment by identifying and exploring innovative environmental solutions. Counts toward Environmental Minor requirements.

ENV 203. Leadership for Sustainability. (3 h)

Develops knowledge and practice for effective change agency.  Students articulate their own emerging leadership perspectives, create fundamental elements of a peer education and/or outreach campaign, and identify a range of locally appropriate solutions to systemic problems contributing to global climate change.

ENV 210. Environmental Policy: The Washington Process. (3h)

Examines actors and organizations in the Washington arena who are involved in the making of environmental policy.  Addresses the processes by which environmental policy is made and the institutions in which this takes place.  Includes meetings with professionals in Washington, D.C. for in-depth discussions of their perspectives on how the process works in practice.  Also listed as POL 210 and SUS 610.

ENV 214.  Atlantic History to 1800: Science, Empire, Environment. (3h)

Explores the ways in which science and empire developed in tandem to create the understandings of knowledge and power that continue to shape our world.  With the linking of the Americas, Africa, and Europe in the fifteenth century, this course addresses the collisions of diverse attitudes toward knowledge and nature as people struggled to survive disease, warfare, and migrations of people, plants, and animals. Also listed as HST 214.

ENV 215. Atlantic History from 1800: Science, Empire, Environment. (3 h)

Explores the linked histories of the Americas, Africa, and Europe to reveal how colonialism and the practices of western science have shaped social, political, and terrestrial landscapes. Students will investigate the evolution of slavery, agriculture, and trade in the nineteenth century; and industrialization, decolonization, development projects, and environmental change in the twentieth century.  Also listed as HST 215.

ENV 220. Introduction to Earth Science. (3 h)

Oceans, weather, climate, earthquakes, volcanoes, soil, and space all play important roles in our dynamic planet. Students will explore the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere, and gain a deeper understanding of how the Earth operates as a whole.

ENV 250 Methods for Environmental Community Collaboration and Justice. (3h)

Provides approaches and experiential learning on how to work with communities on socio-environmental issues.  Draws from social justice work, participatory action research, citizen science, Indigenous methods, and anticolonial activism to build collaboration with community partners and cultivate a more equitable society.

ENV 301. Topics in Environmental Studies. (1-4 h)

Seminar and/or lecture courses in selected topics, some involving laboratory instruction. May be repeated if the course title differs.

ENV 302. Topics in Environmental Studies. (1-4 h)

Seminar and/or lecture courses in selected topics, some involving laboratory instruction. May be repeated if the course title differs.

ENV 303. Topics in Environmental Studies. (1-4 h)

Seminar and/or lecture courses in selected topics, some involving laboratory instruction. May be repeated if the course title differs.

ENV 304. Topics in Environmental Studies. (1-4 h)

Seminar and/or lecture courses in selected topics, some involving laboratory instruction. May be repeated if the course title differs.

ENV 305. Topics in Environmental Studies. (1-4 h)

Seminar and/or lecture courses in selected topics, some involving laboratory instruction. May be repeated if the course title differs.

ENV 306. Topics in Environmental Studies. (1-4 h)

Seminar and/or lecture courses in selected topics, some involving laboratory instruction. May be repeated if the course title differs.

ENV 321. Earth’s Dynamic Surface. (3 h)

Investigation into the processes responsible for the formation and subsequent evolution of Earth’s landforms. Course activities examine Earth surface features using maps, digital and/or field-based data collection and analysis, and the fundamental geologic constraints on environmental problems. P—ENV 220.

ENV 350 Ethnobotany. (3h)

Surveys the complex interrelationships of people and plants throughout space and time.  Uses experiential and embodied approaches to learning about plants in landscapes and labs.

ENV 350L Ethnobotany Lab (1h)

ENV 379 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS). (4h)

Introduces the concepts and use of GIS as a mapping and analytical tool with emphasis on applications environmental modeling, global change, sociodemographic change, and site suitability analyses. Also listed as BIO 379.

ENV 381. Wilderness, the Anthropocene, and Global Sustainability. (3 h)

Intensive, writing-centered, experiential field course focusing on the relationships between humans and the natural world in the context of sustainability issues. Field components of the course take place in Alaska. Permission of instructor required.

ENV 391. Individual Study. (1.5 h)

A field study, internship, project, or research investigation is carried out under the supervision of a member of the environmental program faculty. Pass/fail or for a grade at the discretion of the instructor. Pass/fail is not an option if used as an elective for the environmental science or environmental studies minor.

ENV 392. Individual Study. (1.5 h)

ENV 394. Environmental Internship. (1-4 h)

Supervised internships with governmental agencies, nonprofit organizations, and businesses.

ENV 395. Sustainability Lab/Clinic. (4 h)

Focuses on practical solutions to sustainability problems, and includes the use of makerspace, the fabrication lab, and the visualization lab.