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ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Students may complete a major or minor in Environmental Studies.

The Bi-Co Environmental Studies major combines the strengths of our two liberal arts campuses to create an interdisciplinary program that teaches students to synthesize diverse disciplinary knowledge and approaches, and to communicate effectively across disciplinary boundaries as they engage with environmental issues. In addressing these issues, ENVS students apply critical thinking and analytical skills within a holistic framework that includes social justice as an essential component.

The ENVS major incorporates praxis community-based learning as well as core courses that examine the theoretical and empirical approaches that the natural sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities bring to local and global environmental questions. In addition, ENVS majors pursue an individually selected area of environmental expertise - a focus area - in order to gain a depth of knowledge and to develop a sense of their own agency in addressing what most concerns them. The ENVS program also provides opportunities for independent and collaborative research, including co-curricular learning, via local, national, and international internships and opportunities to study abroad.

Faculty

Don Barber, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Geology on the Harold Alderfer Chair in Environmental Studies

Sara Grossman, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies on the Johanna Alderfer Harris and William H. Harris Professorship in Environmental Studies (on leave Semesters I and II)

Carol Hager, Professor of Environmental Studies and Political Science and Interim Chair, Environmental Studies

Kelsey Obringer, Lecturer in Environmental Studies

Major Requirements

Students are required to take a minimum of 11 courses in the Environmental Studies major. Six required courses constitute the core program:

• ENVS 101, Introduction to Environmental Studies (preferably in the first year)
• ENVS 201, Laboratory in Environmental Sciences
• ENVS 202, Environment and Society
• ENVS 203, Environmental Humanities
• ENVS 204, Place, People, and Praxis in Environmental Studies
• ENVS 397, Environmental Studies Senior Capstone (taken during fall or spring semester)

The 200-level core courses should be taken early in a student's course of study, preferably several in the second year.

Electives, Including Focus Area

A wide variety of environmentally themed courses offered by departments across the Bi-Co may serve as EMVS electives, but the five elective courses must fulfill the following requirements:

• At least three elective courses must articulate a coherent intellectual or thematic focus ("focus area") that students develop in consultation with their ENVS advisor;
• A minimum of one course must come from each of two broad divisional groups: natural sciences, math, and engineering; humanities, social sciences, and arts.
• At least two elective courses must be taken at the 300 level or equivalent.

A student's focus area may be organized by a specific perspective on the study of the environment, a particular interdisciplinary focus, or even a geographic region. Focus areas are designed in consultation with an ENVS advisor. Early planning for the ENVS major allows students to begin satisfying prerequisites for advanced focus area courses.

Sample focus area topics include, but are not limited to: Environment and Society, Environmental Policy, Earth Systems, Environmental Modeling, Environmental Art and Technology, and Environment in East Asia.

Courses taken as ENVS major electives need not be prefixed with "ENVS" in the course catalog. Advanced courses with appropriate thematic content offered by any program, from Africana Studies, through Mathematics, to Visual Studies, may be counted.

Upon declaration of the ENVS major, the coursework plan must be approved by a major advisor on the student's home campus. Courses approved for the Environmental Studies major at Swarthmore can be used to satisfy Bi-Co ENVS requirements contingent upon major advisor approval.

Minor Requirements

The Environmental Studies minor consists of six courses, including an introductory course. The six required courses are:

• A required introductory course to be taken prior to the senior year. This may be ENVS 101 at 91¿´Æ¬ or Haverford or the parallel course at Swarthmore (ENVS 001). Any one of these courses satisfies the requirement, and students may take no more than one such course for credit toward the minor.
• Four elective courses from approved lists of core and cognate courses, including two credits in each of the two categories below. Students may use no more than one cognate course credit for each category. (See the ENVS website for course lists and more about core and cognate courses.) No more than one of these four course credits may be in the student's major.

Environmental Science, Engineering, and Math: courses that build understanding and knowledge of scientific methods and theories, and explore how these can be applied in identifying and addressing environmental challenges.

Environmental Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts: courses that build understanding and knowledge of social and political structures as well as ethical considerations, and how these inform our individual and collective responses to environmental challenges.

•            An advanced elective in Environmental Studies (300-level or its equivalent at Swarthmore) that can be from either category.

ENVS 397 is no longer required or recommended for the ENVS minor.

Students interested in the ENVS Minor should plan their course schedule with their home-campus Director of Environmental Studies in consultation with their major advisor. In choosing electives, students should aim to include mostly intermediate or advanced courses.