Environmental Science and Policy
ENV 101 Introduction to Environmental Science and Policy (4 Credits)
How do humans build a more just and sustainable world? What processes promote social-ecological flourishing? In this course, students explore these urgent questions, engage with real-world answers, and develop their own views. They also contrast individualistic and tech-centered solutions to environmental issues with systems approaches. The course examines complex social–ecological systems across the world—from local initiatives on the Indigenous lands now known as the Pioneer Valley to international examples of transformative action toward justice and sustainability. Students practice interdisciplinary thinking that integrates the social and natural sciences and the humanities, to embrace the complexity of climate and environmental change while respecting diverse values and worldviews. Enrollment limited to 50. {H}{N}{S}
Fall, Spring
ENV 108/ CHM 108 Environmental Chemistry (4 Credits)
Offered as CHM 108 and ENV 108. An introduction to environmental chemistry, applying chemical concepts to topics such as acid rain, greenhouse gases, air quality, pesticides and waste treatment. Chemical concepts are developed as needed. {N}
Spring
ENV 113 Colloquium: Organic, Mechanical and Digital Environments (4 Credits)
Beginning in the late 20th century, human organization and experience has increasingly been influenced by digital forms of communication, production, and integration with the environment. This is an environmental, technological, social landscape that will likely dominate the rest of people's lives, but how can people responsibly accept or use it without putting it in context with other forms of technology and communities? The course examines life and the relationship to nature in organic, mechanical and digital societies in order to understand the following: 1) How technology influences different types of people and 2) How technological change can be linked to social transformations. Because technology and its effects on society are multifaceted, the course draws from several disciplines. Sources from historians, anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, political scientists and ecologists are used to reconstruct these worlds and place this world in a clearer context. Enrollment limited to 18. {S}
Fall, Spring, Variable
ENV 150/ GEO 150 Mapping our World: An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (4 Credits)
Offered as GEO 150 and ENV 150. A geographic information system (GIS) enables data and maps to be overlain, queried and visualized in order to solve problems in many diverse fields. This course provides an introduction to the fundamental elements of GIS and applies the analysis of spatial data to issues in geoscience, environmental science and public policy. Students gain expertise in ArcGIS--the industry standard GIS software--and online mapping platforms, and carry out semester-long projects in partnership with campus offices or local conservation organizations. Enrollment limited to 20. {N}
Fall
ENV 201 Researching Environmental Problems (4 Credits)
While focusing on topical environmental issues, students learn how to gather, analyze and present data using methods from the natural and social sciences. Data are drawn from multiple sources, including laboratory experiments, fieldwork, databases, archival sources, surveys and interviews. Emphasis is on quantitative analysis. Environmental topics vary in scale from the local to the global. Corequisite: ENV 202. Prerequisite: ENV 101. Enrollment limited to 18. {N}{S}
Fall, Spring
ENV 202 Researching Environmental Problems Laboratory (1 Credit)
In this laboratory complement to ENV 201, students use a variety of methods to gather and analyze different types of environmental data (quantitative, qualitative, spatial). Corequisite: ENV 201. Prerequisite: ENV 101. Enrollment limited to 18. {N}{S}
Fall, Spring
ENV 215 Introduction to Environmental Policy Analysis (4 Credits)
How is actionable advice to decision makers about how to address environmental challenges best provided? What makes a policy effective or desirable? How are policy analysis documents best evaluated? This course introduces the frameworks and methodologies of environmental policy analysis. Working from a step-by-step approach to policy analysis, students practice defining problems, identifying policy alternatives, selecting appropriate evaluation criteria and producing well-supported policy recommendations. The course explores the strengths and limitation of this “rational” model of policy analysis as well as commonly used evaluation techniques including cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, environmental impact analysis and environmental justice analysis. {S}
Fall, Spring, Alternate Years
ENV 218 Colloquium: Environmental Policy (4 Credits)
Why has the U.S. Congress failed to address so many environmental issues since the heyday of the 1970s? How can one act on climate and environmental justice when blocked in some parts of government? Where is environmental policy being made if not in Congress? This course explores the political, economic, legal, ethical and institutional dimensions of the environmental policy making process. The focus is on understanding the real-world details of policy-making systems at a range of scales and how to influence and improve them. Prerequisite: ENV 101 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 25. {S}
Fall, Spring, Annually
ENV 221 Colloquium: Native American and Indigenous Studies and the Environment (4 Credits)
The approximately six hundred federally recognized American Indian tribes in the United States are among the thousands of contemporary Indigenous groups in the world. Such a diversity of human culture, experience and history provides a unique vantage point for studying how people are connected to the environment. By surveying how indigenous people shape and are shaped by the environment on several continents, with a focus on North America, students gain a greater understanding of the variation and importance of human environmental relationships. Perspectives from Indigenous studies, history, philosophy, ecology, biology and anthropology are some of the disciplines used in the course. Enrollment limited to 30. {H}{S}
Fall, Spring, Annually
ENV 224/ ANT 224 Anthropos in the Anthropocene (4 Credits)
Offered as ANT 224 and ENV 224. Anthropology seeks to understand human life in all its complexity, but what constitutes the human is far from straightforward. This course examines the changing ways that Anthropos is being understood in an era of rapid global climate change and our planet’s sixth mass extinction event, both driven by human activities. We review perspectives on the relationship between humans and their environment from various cultural perspectives, considering how they engage notions of race, class, and gender, and what they imply for nature conservation. Topics include modernity, pets, cyborgs, kinship, symbiosis, extinction, species invasions, settler colonialism and the Anthropocene concept. Enrollment limited to 30. {S}
Fall, Spring, Variable
ENV 228 Colloquium: Introduction to Agroecology (4 Credits)
This course introduces students to research and application in the field of agroecology, with a focus on community-based approaches. The course covers both conceptual and practical content, including the evolution of the field of agroecology as it gained prominence in scientific, policy, planning, social movement, and farming practices. A special emphasis is placed in discussing the different expression of agroecology as a science, a social movement, and a practice across urban and rural regions. Integrating interdisciplinary approaches to addressing the challenges of our agrifood systems, the class covers community-engaged methods as an essential approach to agroecological research and practice. It also covers local, national, and international perspectives, through online conversations with agroecology practitioners faraway and through field visits to practitioners in the Connecticut River valley. Enrollment limited to 18. {S}
Fall, Spring, Annually
ENV 311 Interpreting and Communicating Environmental Information (4 Credits)
This course focuses on the interpretation and communication of environmental issues and solutions from multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives. Using contemporary environmental issues as a foundation, this course emphasizes careful assessment of both message and audience to design effective communication strategies for complex issues. Students develop the ability to read, interpret and critique environmental research from a variety of disciplines; to consider the needs and motivation of their audience; to develop evidence-based arguments tailored to a particular audience; and to articulate those arguments clearly and concisely. ENV 101 and ENV 201/ENV 202 are strongly recommended. Prerequisite: One statistics course. Enrollment limited to 18. Instructor permission required. {N}{S}
Fall, Spring
ENV 312 Seminar: Sustainable Solutions (4 Credits)
This course is designed to develop a student’s abilities as an environmental problem-solver through practice. The problems come in two forms: a campus or local problem related to environmental sustainability or resilience and the problem of what to do with one’s life. To address each, students engage in a semester-long group project that addresses a real-world environmental issue or question (projects vary from year to year) and a more individualized examination of the student’s own values, career aspirations and skills. Prerequisites: ENV 101, ENV 201, ENV 202, one statistics course, and ENV 311 (may be taken concurrently). Restrictions: Seniors only; ENV majors only. Enrollment limited to 16. Instructor permission required. {N}{S}
Fall, Spring
ENV 320 Seminar: Climate Justice-A Transformative Approach (4 Credits)
In this course students engage with climate justice– the social movements and fields of inquiry that deconstructs the injustices that foster climate change and the increased vulnerability of disenfranchised communities– as a transformative approach. Climate justice implies deep transformations beyond the kind of technocentric and ecosystem-focused innovations that usually characterize sustainability approaches. The course moves away from neoliberal, colonial and racist framings of climate change to embrace transformative approaches to climate justice. The course builds on non-western and non-white voices of scholars and activists to envision the transformations needed to create a climate just world. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {S}
Fall, Spring, Alternate Years
ENV 323 Seminar: Climate and Energy Policy (4 Credits)
This course examines climate change and energy policy from several perspectives including scientific, economic, equity, political and practical considerations. The course examines sources and trends of greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts and then focuses on a specific sector (e.g., electric power) to consider existing policies, market structures and the spectrum of approaches to reduce emissions. Students work in small groups on projects in an active policy area and prepare a briefing and memo. Prerequisite: ENV 101 or equivalent. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {N}{S}
Fall, Spring, Annually
ENV 326 Seminar: Environmental Justice and Natural Resource Management (4 Credits)
This course examines the connections between natural resource management and environmental justice in the US and the Global South. The class studies the benefits and limits of traditional top-down approaches to the management of forests, land, fisheries, biodiversity, underground resources, water, food and genomes in different parts of the world. By discussing case studies of environmental justice issues from tar sands mining in Alberta to the impact of biofuels and GMOs on local populations in Mexico, students question and rethink the management of natural resources. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {S}
Fall, Spring, Annually
ENV 327 Seminar: Environmental Justice & Decolonial Aspirations in an Urbanizing World (4 Credits)
This course explores global environmental justice and decolonial planning issues, debates and policies in the context of an urbanizing world marked by race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, caste, class and other lines of difference. The course draws from scholarship in urban studies, anthropology, sociology, geography and other related fields to develop an appreciation of global environmental injustices. With particular attention to decolonial planning approaches, students learn about efforts to redress environmental injustices, whether through formal planning and policies, social movements, community organizing or everyday environmentalism. The course covers environmental issues at multiple scales from around the world and explores the interrelatedness of themes. Prerequisite: ENV 101. Priority given to ENV majors. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required.
Fall, Spring, Variable
ENV 335 Seminar: Well-Being and the Environment: Landscapes of Health, Happiness, and Pleasure (4 Credits)
Often, academic disciplines focus on environmental problems and the perceived moral shortcomings which produce them. This can overshadow positive experiences with nature. To better understand how people derive health, well-being, and sensual pleasure from interacting with nature through recreation, food, and the aesthetics, this course uses research from the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. Starting with a survey of the scientific literature on pleasure, happiness, and health, the course turns to contemporary perspectives in environmental psychology and epidemiology. After exploring how the arts and humanities have understood the environment and pleasure, the course ends by covering the emerging literature on the environment and human flourishing. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {S}
Fall, Spring, Alternate Years
ENV 340 Seminar: Finding Your Voice for Climate Action (4 Credits)
What can one do to address climate change? How can one develop their own voice and fight for change? This course explores how students can write about climate change, grow as part of a supportive class, and find hope for a brighter future. Students practice being a public writer and an agent of change. Students work as writers and editors on a series of writing pieces and create individual portfolios for climate action. From an op-ed, to a blog post, to a policy brief, and to a policy memo, students learn the secrets of powerful public writing. Students build on the interdisciplinary toolkit of environmental science and policy to explore and develop their own voice for climate action. This course may be taken in place of the required environmental integration course ENV 311. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {N}{S}
Fall, Spring, Variable
ENV 400 Special Studies (1-4 Credits)
Open to qualified juniors and seniors and, in appropriate cases, to sophomores. Students are encouraged to contact the instructor in advance of the semester they intend to take this course. Instructor permission required.
Fall, Spring
ENV 430D Honors Project (4 Credits)
Full-year course, 4 credits each semester. Please consult the director of honors for specific requirements and application procedures. Department permission required.
Fall, Spring