Environmental Studies

ENST 1000. Introduction to Environmental Studies. (3 Credits)

This course is designed to fulfill major and minor requirements of environmental studies students. It provides an interdisciplinary overview of environmental issues and introduces students to methods in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and applied arts and sciences.

Attributes: ENMI, INST, ISIN, SOIN.

ENST 3000. Environmental Research Methods. (4 Credits)

Study of interdisciplinary and statistical research methods in environmental studies. Students complete a research project. Students have the option of coordinating their research project with an internship, GIS training, funding and publication submissions, and/or preparation for the senior research thesis course (ENST 4000) required for the environmental studies major. This course fulfills the environmental major requirement in Research and Statistical Methods and the environmental studies minor requirement in Electives. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

ENST 3070. Green Architecture. (4 Credits)

A studio course in sustainable design practices for public spaces, landscapes, furnishings, or buildings. A major design project is prefaced with environmental research, technical strategies and standards, and in-depth case studies. Portfolio layouts. Field trips, workshops, lab fee, and office hours visits are required. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: URST.

ENST 3307. Environmental Politics. (4 Credits)

The course introduces students to the history and evolution of environmentalism and environmental policy in the United States and abroad. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASSC, ENMI, ENST, ENVS, ESEL, ESPL, INST, IPE, ISIN, PJEN, PJST, POAP.

ENST 3308. Catastrophe and Human Survival. (4 Credits)

Pandemics, climate change, war, and resulting political and economic crises preoccupy narratives about human survival. As a result, our lives, societies, and political systems seem increasingly unstable and precarious—our futures, uncertain. Examining past natural disasters and pandemics, and how future threats therefore become imagined, this course explores the relationship between thinking about future disasters, and how humans seek to protect themselves from significant danger. Drawing on an interdisciplinary literature from critical and political theory, security studies, other social sciences, and the humanities, this course surrounds the phenomena of future catastrophe and human survival to ask: What does it mean to live in an age of extreme turbulence? Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASSC, ENST, ESEL, ESPL, HPSE, INST, IPE, ISIN, PJEN, PJST, POIP, POSC, SOCI.

ENST 4000. Senior Thesis. (4 Credits)

This capstone course is required for all environmental studies majors in their senior year, i.e., in one of the student’s last two semesters. Using methods in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and applied arts and sciences, students write an interdisciplinary research thesis on an environmental problem. An internship can be used as a case study in the thesis.

ENST 4999. Environmental Studies Tutorial. (1 to 4 Credits)

Individualized reading and research under the supervision of a consenting faculty member and with the director's permission.