Undergraduate
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Undergraduate

We motivate and prepare students to rise to the challenges and opportunities associated with human-environment interactions. Environmental degradation is an escalating problem from local to global scales. Training students to understand and address these environmental problems is our core mission and is why we believe that environmental studies is an essential component of a modern liberal arts education.

  • ENVS 31_Fall 2024

    Students in Professor Tumber-Dávila’s Forest Ecology & Management class traverse the Fullington Farm Forest for their study of root classification and morphology. 

  • Students in Professor Webster’s Marine Policy class traveled to the Boston area to visit the New England Aquarium, the Nahant Tide Pools, and Rumney Marsh Conservation Area.

  • Students in “Energy and the Environment” visit the Dewey Field parking lot to evaluate its potential for photovoltaic solar collectors with Bill Bender, ’78, President of Solaflect Energy and Dan Schneider, ’07, Th ’08, Senior Engineer at SE.
Undergraduate

Overview

The field of Environmental Studies views the earth, and our place in it, as a set of complex, interacting socio-ecological systems. To understand this complexity, ENVS draws on concepts and methods from the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, as complementary lenses through which to view these systems. But we also seek to overcome the limitations of any one of these perspectives by applying innovative approaches that integrate the traditional disciplines in new and productive ways. Research and teaching strengths in the program include environmental governance, ecosystem science, environmental and ecological economics, biodiversity conservation, climate change, and sustainable food systems.

A defining element of environmental studies is active engagement with real-world environmental problems. One contemporary concept we employ to frame this practical engagement is sustainability. The quest for sustainability asks the difficult question, how can humans live well on the planet without compromising the ability of current and future generations to do the same? A number of our courses have a specific focus on "hands-on" engagement with sustainability (ENVS 3: Environment and Society: Towards Sustainability, ENVS 50: Environmental Problem Analysis and the Africa Foreign Study Program).

To meet the needs of our students, we offer a major in Environmental Studies and two minors: Environmental Studies (tracks available in Environmental Studies, Sustainability, or Sustainable Energy) and Environmental Science. We also offer the Africa Foreign Study Program that travels to South Africa and Namibia where we explore the themes of environmental studies within the particular environment, culture and history of the southern Africa region.