Schools, Departments & Programs
Environmental and Sustainability Studies
Major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies
Purpose
The B.A. Major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies is an interdisciplinary, liberal‐arts degree designed to provide an introduction to the complex system‐scale challenges of sustainability as well as the tools needed to address problems that transcend solely social or environmental domains. Students pursuing this degree can expect to integrate experience in the humanities with the natural and social sciences. The major offers the opportunity to develop skills in communication and creative expression, data collection and analysis, environmental science, and economics. Although this is designed as a stand‐alone major, students are encouraged to pursue this degree program as a second major opportunity. Pursuing two majors enables students a combination of depth in a core discipline and breadth across the range of topics that are inherent in environmental and sustainability studies. Potential career areas include environmental planning and coordination, environmental education and communications, sustainability coordination or consulting in the private or public sector, green design, environmental law or public affairs, or further academic pursuits with graduate study.
Requirements
Students must complete at least 30 credit hours, 18 of which must be at the 300-400 level, to include:
-
One Introductory Sustainability course (3 cr.)
- ANTH-E 101 Sustainability and Society
- BIOL-L 222 The City as Ecosystem
- GEOG-G 208 Environment and Society
- GEOL-G 105 Earth: Our Habitable Planet
- SPEA-E 162 Environment and People
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One Human–Environment Systems course (3 cr.)
- ANTH-E 328 Ecological Anthropology
- ANTH-E 418 Globalization and Consumer Culture
- ANTH-E 444 People and Protected Areas: Theories of Conservation
- GEOG-G 315 Environmental Conservation
- GEOG-G 341 Ecological Restoration: Science, Politics, and Ethics
- GEOG-G 343 Perspectives on Environmental Decisions
- GEOG-G 411 Sustainable Development Systems
- GEOG-G 444 Climate Change Impacts
- GEOG-G 448 Capitalism and Nature
- GEOG-G 449 Political Ecology
- GEOG-G 453 Water and Society
- GEOG-G 478 Global Change, Food, and Farming Systems
- POLS-Y 313 Environmental Policy
- SPEA-E 332 Introduction to Applied Ecology
- SPEA-E 457 Introduction to Conservation Biology
- SPH-O 305 Integrated Resource Management
- SPH-O 343/CLLC-L 300 (Approved topic: Fundamentals of Sustainable Agriculture)
- SPH-O 360 Human Health and Natural Environments
-
One Communication and Creative Expression course (3 cr.)
- ARTH-A 290 Architecture for Planet Earth
- BIOL-L 322 Writing Workshop in Biology
- CSCI-A 348 Mastering the World Wide Web
- ENG-R 212 Communicating Sustainability
- ENG-R 348 Environmental Communication
- ENG-W 311 Writing Creative Nonfiction
- ENG-W 321 Advanced Technical Writing
- ENG-W 350 Advanced Expository Writing
- HPSC-X 240 Engaging Science: Communication and Public Understanding of Scientific Research
- MSCH-C 226 Visual Communication
- MSCH-J 360 Journalism Specialties (Approved topic: Web Design)
- MSCH-P 351 Video Field and Post Production
- MSCH-P 435 Documentary Filmmaking: Theory and Practice
- SPEA-E 311 Introduction to Risk Assessment and Risk Communication
- SPEA-E 412 Risk Communication
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One Data Collection and Analysis course (3 cr.)
Qualitative Methods
- ANTH-E 302 Laboratory in Ethnography
- ANTH-E 431 Ethnography as Cultural Critique
- ANTH-E 485 Art and Craft of Ethnography
- GEOG-G 388 Qualitative Methods in Geography
Geospatial data analysis
- GEOG-G 237 Mapping Our World
- GEOG-G 336 Environmental Remote Sensing
- GEOG-G 338 Geographic Information Science
- SPEA-E 418 Vector-Based Geographic Information Systems
- SPEA-E 419 Applied Remote Sensing of the Environment
Statistical and computational techniques
- GEOG-G 250 Computing in the Geospatial Sciences
- GEOG-G 488 Applied Spatial Statistics
- POLS-Y 395 Quantitative Political Analysis
- SPEA-K 300 Statistical Techniques (or equivalent)
- SPEA-V 475 Database Management Systems
Field methods
- BIOL-L 307 Biodiversity
- BIOL-L 465 Advanced Field Biology
- GEOG-G 350 Field Methods in Physical Geography
- GEOL-X 479 Geology, Hydrology and Geochemistry in the Rocky Mountains
- SPEA-E 442 Habitat Analysis--Terrestrial
- SPEA-E 400 Topics in Environmental Studies: Plants and Plant Communities
- SPEA-E 443 Habitat Analysis--Aquatic
- SPH-O 244 Natural History and Field Ecology
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One Environmental Science course (3 cr.)
- BIOL-L 111 Foundations of Biology: Diversity, Evolution, and Ecology
- BIOL-L 350 Environmental Biology
- GEOG-G 107 Physical Systems of the Environment
- GEOG-G 109 Weather and Climate
- GEOG-G 185 Environmental Change: The End of the World as We Know It?
- GEOG-G 304 Physical Climatology
- GEOG-G 305 Environmental Change: Nature and Impact
- GEOG-G 307 Biogeography: The Distribution of Life
- GEOL-G 111 Physical Geology
- GEOL-G 118 Sustainability in Water Resources
- GEOL-G 122 Introduction to Atmospheric Science: Weather and Climate
- GEOL-G 131 Oceans and Our Global Environment
- GEOL-G 225 Earth Materials
- SPEA-E 272 Introduction to Environmental Sciences
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One Economics course (3 cr.)
- BUS-G 316 Sustainable Enterprise
- BUS-G 456 Non-Market Risk Consulting
- BUS-L 302 Sustainability Law and Policy
- BUS-P 316 Sustainable Operations
- ECON-E 201 Introduction to Microeconomics
- ECON-E 321 Intermediate Microeconomic Theory
- ECON-E 370 Statistical Analysis for Business and Economics
- GEOG-G 448 Capitalism and Nature
- SPEA-E 340 Environmental Economics and Finance
- SPEA-V 361 Financial Management
- SPEA-V 372 Government Finance and Budgets
- SPEA-V 401 Financial and Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Four courses from one of the following concentration areas (12 cr.) selected as specified therein:
Note: One course that is required for the major (with the exception of the Introductory Sustainability course) may count toward two degree requirements.
Students must also satisfy all requirements for a B.A. degree in the College of Arts and Sciences.