Middlebury California Climate Semester: Resilience, Solutions, Justice

Spend the winter and spring at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey learning from climate leaders at the graduate level.

Through this program, students have the chance to access the extraordinary resources of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS), which features a Master of Arts in International Environmental Policy, Center for the Blue Economy, and connections with hundreds of environmental and non-governmental organizations.

Academic Structure

Winter Term Course:

Students arrive in Monterey in January for orientation and a Winter Term course. This will include an introduction to California, its cultural and natural history, and its climate issues, and will be led by two Middlebury College faculty members. The course will include some travel within California.

When the spring semester begins at MIIS, students will take a full semester of courses:

A core course taught by the Middlebury program director, Professor Dan Brayton, which will provide an integrative approach to climate issues in California through a deep dive into the environmental, cultural, and literary history of the region
An experiential learning course
Eight MIIS credits of IEP approved electives from the existing curriculum at MIIS

The combined winter and spring terms will grant students a total of five units of Middlebury credit.*

*3-4 MIIS credits = 1 Middlebury College credit;
1 Middlebury College credit = 4 semester credits, for students from institutions on a semester credit system

Sample Electives

Note: this is not a comprehensive list. Use the course catalogue to find details about each elective from the International Environmental Policy degree program.

IEPG 8507 Governing the Global Commons
IEPG 8591 Applied Conservation Science
IEPG 8606 Contemporary Environmental Campaign Strategy
IEPG 8625 Land Use Planning and Environmental Review
IEPG 8628 Corporate Sustainability Management and Strategy
IEPG 8663 Ocean and Coastal Economics
IEPG 9632 Advanced GIS
IEPG 8609 Environmental Justice
IEPG 8671 Renewable Energy & Policy
IEPG 8608 Beyond Plastic: Business Innovation
IEPG 8519 Foundations in Financial Management
IEPG 8609 Conservation Finance