Courses
Courses for fall:
The following courses can be counted towards the certificate requirement. Please note that this is not an exclusive list—if you have a course or a summer school session outside of your primary department that you’d like to count towards the certificate, please discuss with Amy or Anna. Also please note that in the case of more technical courses, you’ll need to contact the instructor to ask for permission to register.
STV 60522 GLOBES Seminar: The Two Cultures: interdisciplinary scholarship in action
Roy Scranton
Anna Geltzer
This seminar will focus on thinking through interdisciplinary approaches as a methodology for improving scholarship, both in the technical and the ethical sense. How do the humanities, the social and technical sciences approach key environmental challenges? What can they learn from each other and how?
GLOBES Climate Action Professional Development Workshop at Prairie Winds Farm
September 2-4.
This professional development workshop will take place at Prairie Winds Farm. We will camp at the farm for the weekend, and learn community organization techniques from experienced climate activists.
Register here: https://forms.gle/QzukzXRUKgYc8FTK7
ANTH 60300 The Commons
Luis Felipe Rosado Murillo
What could environmental anthropology offer to our current debates about climate change, degrowth, and sustainability? The debate on the "commons" has returned to the focus of socio-environmental politics and theorizing in recent debates of the climate crisis. From late 1960s debates about overpopulation and environmental degradation to the present debates about economic degrowth and climate change mitigation, the "commons" has figured as a constant topic of debate and a key symbol for political organizing. The idea of the "commons" of collective management led to its renewal with the discourse on the Internet as a force for positive social change with the circulation of intangible goods of information and knowledge. Most recently, we are back to square one in terms of our debate about the common in the "commons:" its urgency as an alternative for ecological collapse and corporate enclosures of intellectual property and natural resources. In this seminar, we will map out the field to discuss alternatives of the commons based on classic and contemporary references. Our goal will be to cover the literature and examine its contributions for addressing pressing issues of climate change and economic transformation. We welcome advanced undergraduates and graduate students working on climate change and sustainability issues to join the seminar.
ANTH 63204 Barn Stories
Ian Kuijt
William Donaruma
Visual Anthropology provides a powerful and engaging means of sharing historical and anthropological stories. This new course is based on the assumption that people think in terms of images, movement and sound and that film can be used to create powerful and important human narratives. This class is designed to train students in how to research, design, manage and produce short documentary film projects using both state of the art production equipment and accessible forms of media capture such as iPhones and GoPros. As a graduate/undergraduate elective, this course thematically focuses on understanding and documenting the historical, social, economic and personal stories centered on 19th through 20th century Indiana local barns, and placing these in a meaningful cultural and historical context. Students will work in teams of two to research an assigned farmstead, focusing on the barn as a material setting and documenting the past through the integration of historical research, oral history and digital video.Students will develop 2 minute videos for inclusion in a video book (as seen here https://islandplacesislandlives.com/) that touches on local history as well as a longer 8 minute video that explores the life, history and social context of the barn. The result will be a collaborative effort that creates a body of work by the class exploring local history and linking Anthropology with filmmaking to tell stories.
ARCH 40411 Environmental Systems I (Departmental permission required—contact the instructor)
Stephen Kromkowski
This course investigates the relationship between architecture and environmental systems. Lectures, readings, and exercises probe topics that include passive energy design, safety systems, water conservation and usage, vertical transportation, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning. Special emphasis is placed on sustainability issues, energy conservation, and public health and safety.
BIOS 40491 Current Topics in Environ Sci (Departmental permission required—contact the instructor)
Dominic Chaloner
Taught by the Director of the ES major. Environmental sciences first and second majors only. The course will be divided into various modules taught by experts on and off-campus. The modules will include environmental law, risk assessment, environmental ethics, advancements in environmental science, current topics of national interest in environmental science, and others. This course is required of all first majors and recommended of all second majors.
BIOS 40527 Stream Ecology (Departmental permission required—contact the instructors; has a lab component)
Jennifer Tank
Gary Lamberti
This course explores the interaction of biological, chemical, and physical features of streams and rivers. Human impacts on flowing waters are explored, along with current theory of stream ecology.
BIOS 60552 Topics in Ecology
Jason McLachlan
The subject of "Topics in Ecology" changes every semester and in each section. Prospective students should consult with the instructor to determine the course topic and credit number. Some, but not all, Topics in Ecology courses fulfill the requirements for the GLOBES (Global Linkages of Biology, the Environment, and Society) program.
BIOS 60610 Water, Disease & Global Health
Joshua Shrout
The main emphasis of the course will be to study the diseases important to both the developed and developing world. Basic principles of public health, epidemiology, infectious disease microbiology, immunology, and engineering application will be learned utilizing both local and global examples. Particular emphasis will be given to diseases transmitted by water. As a complement to environmental engineering design classes, this class will focus upon the disease agents removed in properly designed municipal water and waste systems.
CE 60330 Environmental Biotechnology (Departmental permission required—contact the instructor)
Robert Nerenberg
Environmental biotechnology is the application of biological processes to the solution of environmental problems. Applications include municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, drinking water treatment, remediation of soils and groundwaters, remediation of surface waters and sediments, and control of air contaminants.
CE 60340 Solid & Hazardous Waste Mgmt (Departmental permission required—contact the instructor)
James Alleman
Evaluation, characterization, assessment, planning, and design of solid and hazardous waste management systems, regulatory requirements, material characterization and collection, minimization and recycling, energy and materials recovery, composting, off-gas treatment, incineration, stabilization, and landfill design. Design of treatment and disposal systems, including physical, chemical, and biological treatment, solidification, incineration, secure landfill design, and final disposal site closure plus restoration.
CSC 33958 Sustainable Cities: Community Health (Departmental permission required—contact the instructor)
Amber Herkey
This one-credit, interdisciplinary course is an exploration of the question: What is the relationship between healthy, sustainable communities and the principle of the Common Good? Beginning with an introduction to basic principles of environmental justice, students will explore how the equitable and culturally appropriate distribution of environmental benefits and burdens serves the aim of community health and the common good. Reflective conversations and community visits will shape how students engage questions about the links between health disparities and disproportionate exposure to environmental pollution. Students will leave this course with a foundation of knowledge to address issues at the intersection of health, poverty, sustainability, and justice. Please note: This course satisfies the pre-requisite requirements for any of the Washington Policy Seminars.
ECON 70424 Adv. Macro: Climate Change (Departmental permission required—contact the instructor)
Nelson Mark
The course will cover the following topics. 1. The basics of climate science and become familiar with the current state of knowledge regarding feedback effects between human economic activity and climate. 2. Integrated assessment models by economists, used to estimate the social cost of carbon. 3. Empirical studies on the effect of climate change on economic activity within and across countries. 4. Empirical studies on the effect of climate change on asset prices. 5. Empirical studies on the economic effects of carbon taxation.
MGA 60206/GH 60206 Environmental Policy
Ellis Adams
Deforestation, Desertification, Drought, Unsustainable Agriculture, Pollution, Extinction, Invasive Species, Depletion of Fossil Fuels, Overpopulation, Wildfires, Oil Spills - the list goes on! These complex environmental issues are directly tied to Climate Change.Global climate change is one of the biggest environmental crises confronting the 21st century world. It is multifaceted and intricately connected to many environmental crises. The overarching goal of this course is to foster an interdisciplinary understanding of climate change, its intimate relationships with other environmental challenges, and policy approaches for mitigating and adapting to its impacts. The course will address questions such as: How are humans contributing to climate/environmental change? How do the social, economic, and political processes shape climate/environmental change across the globe? What policies can help society to mitigate or adapt to climate/environmental change? How do regulatory, market-based, and incentive driven policies influence climate change outcomes? How do state and non-state actors (governments, private sector, communities, activists etc) respond to climate/environmental change?
MGA 60201 Foundations of Sustainable Dev
Paul Winters
This course provides a cross-disciplinary examination of issues central to sustainable development, providing students with a firm grounding in the concepts, methods, frameworks, and findings of the field. The class will critically engage with the work of development scholars and practitioners on the measurement and determinants of sustainable development. We will examine efforts by policy makers, international organizations, and practitioners to promote human wellbeing in an inclusive and sustainable manner, with an emphasis on critical issues connected to research and practice. The course also provides opportunities to read and write about issues and areas that are distinctive in their own right, but which have particular relevance to sustainable development.
MGA 60742 Policy Lab: Sus, Eth & Nat Res
Ray Offenheiser
Modern civilization requires massive quantities of commodities to flourish. Those commodities must be cut, harvested or mined and require energy, inputs and technology to produce, process and transport. Can our planet sustain the processes of securing these commodities indefinitely to satisfy the demands of growing consumer driven economies. What is the path to sustainability? This course will focus on the ethical questions and challenges that arise in securing those commodities with a particular focus on policy implications in the extractive industries sector that create, or undermine, efforts to create a more equitable and sustainable economy and planet.
MGA 60837 Accountability Sustain. World
Peter Easton
This course is designed to develop future sustainability leaders by active engagement with key participants, critical synthesis of research on measurement of climate change effects and movement toward quantifiable achievable goals. The interdisciplinary course will focus on measurement and assurance of measurement (auditing) both of which fall within the clear purview of accountants. The course is offered for juniors, seniors, accounting honors and graduate students.