The Environmental Studies major is built on four basic components: core courses (breadth), focus (depth), cognates (breadth), and a senior seminar (integration).
1. Core courses: Each student is required to take the following four core courses by the end of her or his junior year. These courses provide students with a solid grounding in areas that contribute to the study of the environment.
ENVS 0112, Natural Science and the Environment
ENVS 0211, Conservation and Environmental Policy
ENVS 0215, Nature's Meanings
GEOG 0320, Geographic Information Systems 2. Focus: Each student selects a focus, a coherent set of seven to eight courses in which a student develops depth, strength, and exposure to certain methodological approaches. There are currently thirteen foci: architecture & the environment; conservation biology; creative arts; environmental chemistry; environmental economics; environmental geology; environmental history; environmental nonfiction; environmental policy; geography; human ecology; literature; and religion, philosophy, and the environment. Six foci make the student an automatic joint major: architecture & the environment, conservation biology, environmental chemistry, environmental geology, geography, and human ecology.
3. Cognates: Each student is required to take two cognate courses from a preapproved list. If a student's focus is in the natural sciences, the cognate courses must come from the humanities or social sciences; if her or his focus is in the humanities or social sciences, the cognates must come from the natural sciences.
4. Senior seminar: ENVS 401, Environmental Studies Senior Seminar, is an interdisciplinary course that serves to integrate student learning from the cores, cognates, and foci. The course focuses on a local or regional environmental issue.
Although not required for the ES major, many students study off-campus and undertake internships.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES. For students interested in concentrating in international environmental studies, we recommend the following approach:
(1) select the existing focus that most closely meets your academic goals (for example, environmental economics to work on environment and development or conservation biology to work on global biodiversity issues);
(2) undertake language training, if relevant, for the areas of the world in which you plan to study;
(3) study abroad for a year or semester to gain a deeper understanding of the issues and areas that most interest you; and
(4) weave some of the following courses, which explicitly deal with international and comparative environmental issues, into your academic career:
ENVS 0240 Global Climate Change
FREN 0315 Beyond Versailles: Encounters with Nature in French Literature
GEOG 0206 Human Impact on the Global Environment
GEOG 0210 Geographic Perspectives on International Development
HIST 0419 Readings in African History: African Environmental History
PSCI 0209 Local Green Politics
PSCI 0214 International Environmental Politics
RELI 0395 Religion, Ethics, and the Environment
SOAN 0211 Human Ecology
SOAN 0333 Africa: Environment and Society
SPAN 0384 Place and the Environment in Spanish American Fiction