Environmental Studies (ENV)

Environmental Studies offers both an interdisciplinary major and an interdisciplinary minor, requiring an understanding of the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, designed to educate students in a broad class of issues related to the environment and humanity’s place in the natural world. Students employ this interdisciplinary approach to develop a comprehensive understanding of the causes, consequences, and solutions to environmental problems. This is not only an academic experience but also an expansion of the students’ capacities as citizens, allowing them to become aware of the scientific, ethical, and policy issues they will face in their local communities, their professions, and in the broader world community. The major consists of a set of required and elective courses designed to provide a broad platform of knowledge upon which to build a career and graduate study in the environmental area.

A variety of environmental courses are taught in other departments. See the elective courses listed in the Environmental Studies major leading to BA degree  or Environmental Studies minor  to understand the interdisciplinary nature of the program.

Environmental Studies minor is a series of related courses intended to both complement and enhance the student’s chosen major(s) in a different discipline. Interested students are encouraged to talk to the director of the program early in their academic careers in order to discuss which course of study is more appropriate to their academic needs and career plans.

HONORS: An Honors Program in environmental studies is offered for well-qualified majors; see department head for details.

Program Head: James R. Kahn

Core Faculty

First date is the year in which the faculty member began service as regular faculty at the University. Second date is the year of appointment to the present rank.

James F. Casey, Ph.D.—(1998)-2007
Associate Professor of Economics
Ph.D., North Carolina State University

Gregory J. Cooper, Ph.D.—(1999)-1999
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Mary Lisa Greer, Ph.D.—(2003)-2009
Associate Professor of Geology
Ph.D., University of Miami

David Jorgensen Harbor, Ph.D.—(1992)-2004
Professor of Geology
Ph.D., Colorado State University

Robert Humston, Ph.D.—(2008)-2012
Associate Professor of Biology
Ph.D., University of Miami

Lawrence E. Hurd, Ph.D.—(1993)-1993
John T. Herwick, M.D., Professor of Biology
Ph.D., Syracuse University

James R. Kahn, Ph.D.—(2000)-2000
John F. Hendon Professor of Economics
Ph.D., University of Maryland

James Perrin Warren, Ph.D.—(1984)-1996
S. Blount Mason Jr. Professor of English
Ph.D., Yale University

Degrees/Majors/Minors

Interdisciplinary Major

• •  Environmental Studies major leading to BA degree

Interdisciplinary Minor

• •  Environmental Studies minor

Courses

• •  ENV 110 - Introduction to Environmental Studies
• •  ENV 111 - Environmental Service Learning
• •  ENV 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar
• •  ENV 207 - Nature and Place
• •  ENV 210 - Biogeography and Sense of Place
• •  ENV 211 - The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Service Learning
• •  ENV 212 - Land Use and Aquatic Ecosystems in the Chesapeake Watershed
• •  ENV 250 - Ecology of Place
• •  ENV 295 - Special Topics in Environmental Studies
• •  ENV 381 - Global Environmental Governance: Law, Policy, and Economics
• •  ENV 390 - Special Topics: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Environmental Issues
• •  ENV 395 - Special Topics in Environmental Ethics
• •  ENV 396 - Pre-Capstone Research Seminar
• •  ENV 397 - Senior Seminar in Environmental Studies
• •  ENV 401 - Directed Individual Studies
• •  ENV 402 - Directed Individual Studies
• •  ENV 403 - Directed Individual Studies
• •  ENV 493 - Honors Thesis in Environmental Studies