Environmental Studies

In this course, students will analyze changing perceptions and uses of the environment in the United States from pre-contact time to the present. Emphasis will be placed on examples of sustainability and conservation practice.

Environmental awareness and ethics goes hand in hand. Environmental awareness develops with understanding of ethical relationships that humans share with the non-human world. This course will examine frameworks in environmental ethics, intergenerational justice, food justice, animal rights, land ethics, and ecological justice. This course will have a service learning component.

This course will introduce students to qualitative research methods in contrast to positivist research traditions. Students will examine different qualitative data collection methods including interviews, field notes, observation, and focus groups. They will also explore different approaches to analysis including grounded theory, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis.

Environmental studies is an interdisciplinary field and it borrows concepts from multiple disciplines such as environmental sociology, human ecology, geomorphology, development studies, environmental health, and environmental planning and design. This course will introduce the various dimensions of the field including environmental ethics, ecosystem studies, earth and atmospheric sciences, globalization and environment, environmental movements, environmental policy, political ecology, environmental health, environmental justice, environmental economics, environmental planning, and GIS.

This course introduces environmental studies through environmental ethics, ecosystem studies, earth and atmospheric sciences, globalization and environment, environmental policy, political ecology, environmental health, environmental justice, environmental economics, environmental planning, and GIS. It also engages with the natural sciences in considering the impact of human activities on varying ecosystems.

This class provides the necessary geographic foundations to build an informed view of global events in the developed and developing regions of the world. The physical environment includes the natural environment and climate while the human landscape is examined by political outlook, economic potential, religion and population characteristics.

Environmental awareness and ethics goes hand in hand. Environmental awareness develops with understanding of ethical relationships that humans share with the non-human world. This course will examine frameworks in environmental ethics, intergenerational justice, food justice, animal rights, land ethics, and ecological justice. This course will have a service learning component.

Students will receive an overview of the tourism industry and aspects of sustainable tourism business models. Topics include the cost on the environment of different manners of traveling and various eco-travel organizations. Course includes field trips.

GIS is being widely used in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Its use is increasing in popularity in academia, the public and private sector, health care, government services, industry, and others. In environmental studies, the use of GIS has increased in the recent years. This course will enable students to learn the basics of GIS theory, GPS, and remote sensing technologies; prepare and analyze maps using spatial analysis tools; and be familiar with the recent trends in the field.

To provide students with valuable and tangible experience in practical aspects of realizing UN sustainability goals, and transfer theory into practice, this course allows students to engage in real-world, sustainability-related action research projects that provide benefits for a target community. 3 credits

Intro to GIS and Geospatial Technology This course focuses on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and an essential interdisciplinary tool in environmental studies, business, art and other disciplines. Through practical applications of ESRI ArcView students learn GIS fundamentals and will become proficient in using GIS in many professional and academic fields. Topics include cartography, geodatabases, metadata and spatial analysis, as well as, building, editing, and analyzing GIS. Students will complete a final project with a topic of their choice.

The course focuses on physical and cultural regions and natural resources and their use in the central region of the United States. Each student shapes her own learning by selecting an environmental region and examining resource use in that region, including the role of governmental policies in shaping environmental management. The course concludes with a case study written to reflect three different policymaker perspectives on regional resource use.

Local, national and international issues and solutions concerning soil, water atmosphere resources. Fundamental concepts and hands-on fieldwork. Hands-on activities include sampling and analytical techniques, as well as a final project of the student’s choice.

The course explores the reciprocal relationship between economic development and resource and environmental conditions. Student interest determines the specific topical focus of the course. Potential topics include: economic growth and development, agriculture in developing countries, human capital in developing countries, international poverty, natural resources and the environment in developing countries, human capital as an engine of economic growth, and international trade. Each student selects a global region early in the semester and, with guidance from the course instructor, writes a series of analyses about her selected region, examining the relationship between economic growth and environmental conditions.

This course analyzes basics of the environmental planning process and how to create and foster development and redevelopment that meets social, ecological and economic goals. Students will become familiar with Environmental Impact Assessment and how it should be carried out. Topic covered include: architecture - environmental aspects; historic buildings preservation and adaptive reuse of the historic build environment; urban environmental and social issues; building gender equality in urban life; globalization and its regional and international impacts on urban processes; pressure on the environment caused by human activities and structures.

Environmental Justice will focus on the works of the first generation EJ scholars who were inspired by environmental racism; conceptions of environmental inequality formation by the second wave of EJ scholars; and how environmental justice activism and theory expanded to include new empirical spaces in different national contexts.

The capstone project is the culmination of the student's work in the major. Over a period of two semesters students will complete a thesis under the direction of a faculty member or professional expert. Regular meetings will guide and support the research/Outreach and thesis writing process. Students will present their results at the end of the semester.