Environmental Arts and Humanities B.A.

Accessibility controls
Pause motion
Motion: On
Play motion
Motion: Off
Increase text contrast
Contrast: Standard
Reset text contrast
Contrast: High
Apply site-wide

Course Descriptions


EAH Courses

EAH 101

Intro to Environmental Arts and Humanities

(3 crs.) Introduction to EAH, an interdisciplinary field that foregrounds our relationship with the Earth by exploring ethical, aesthetic, social, and political relationships between humans and our planet's non human co-inhabitants. (Lec. 3) (B2) (C2)

EAH 490

Environmental Arts and Humanities Capstone

(3 crs.) Working with a capstone administrator and a faculty advisor and peers, students will create projects to demonstrate mastery of the EAH learning outcomes (theory, methods, and practice) developed during coursework. (Seminar) Pre: EAH101, and junior standing. Not for graduate credit. (C2) (D1)

Back to top

Science Courses

NRS 100

Natural Resource Conservation

(3 crs.) Introduction to humans' use and management of natural resources: land, food, forest, wildlife, water, minerals, and air, with a survey of contemporary resource-use problems in environmental pollution. (Lec. 3) (A1)


GEO 100G

Environmental Geology

(3 crs.) An introduction to geology with an emphasis on the interaction between the Earth and its human population. Evaluation of the solid earth, natural hazards (such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and landslides), natural resources (such as oil and coal), air and water pollution and the effects of climate change. (Lec. 3/Online) (A1) (C2) (GC)

Back to top

Communication Courses

COM 108G

Spaceship Earth: Communication and Sustainability

(4 crs.) Cross-listed as (COM), SUS 108G. Through in-depth study of films, social media and readings students will explore the principles of sustainability and the communication challenges linking scientific evidence, public policies and individual behavior. (Online) (B4) (C1) (GC)


COM 315

Environmental Dimensions of Communication

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (COM), SUS315. Investigation of individual and mediated sustainability messages, impact of communication on environmental knowledge, attitudes and behavior; design of communication campaigns to affect resource use, community engagement and ecological responsibility. (Lec. 3/Online) Pre: COM 100, junior standing in a degree-granting college or permission of instructor. (D1) (C1)


COM 455

Science and Communication in a Century of Limits

(3 crs.) Communication of scientific observations and projections of global resource and environmental limits is focused on persuading formation of publics and social movements needed for widespread action in the 21st century. (Lec. 3) Pre: seniors with varied backgrounds in science and communications.


COM 460

Environmental Communication: Local & Global

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (COM) SUS 460. Address local and global environmental issues through communication. Target key audiences and move them towards sustainable change and active involvement, improved environmental conditions and quality of life. (Lec. 1, Seminar 2/Online) Pre: junior standing. (C1) (B4)


ART 387G

Exploring Climate Change using Visual Design Tools

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (LAR), ART 387G. This course uses landscape architecture/art as a conduit to investigate climate change. While exploring the confluence of ethics and design, students will increase cultural consciousness and move toward civic responsibility. (Lec. 3) Pre: 12 credits earned at 100 level or above, and one of LAR 201 or LAR 202 or ART 105 or ART 214, or permission of instructor. Basic knowledge of climate change is expected. (D1) (C1) (GC)


MUS 301

Music as a Form of Social Protest

(3 crs.) This course surveys the music of those musicians who have been influential in focusing public attention on particular social causes. Students experience music through literature (books, journals, etc.), recordings and video. (Lec. 3) (A4) (C1)


WRT 303

Public Writing

(4 crs.) Writing in the public sphere, emphasizing civic literacy, democratic discourse, and writing for change. May include letters, public documents, activist publications, and legislative texts. Requires sustained fieldwork. (Seminar 3, Practicum 2/Online)


WRT 321G

Writing Disaster: The Ethics of Representation

(4 crs.) Explore how representations of disasters shape public perception and action; write real-world documents that prompt social and political change. (Sem. 3, Prac. 1) (B1) (C1) (GC)


WRT 334

Science Writing

(4 crs.) Learn scientific principles, ethics, and best practices for communicating science to a broad range of audiences and develop skills and confidence needed to write with strength and clarity across a variety of platforms in specific genres and contexts. (Lec. 4, Online) (B1) (B2)

Back to top

History/Culture Courses

ENG 396

Literature of the Sea: The Rumowicz Seminar

(4 crs.) Studies of maritime literature and culture. Guest lecturers and field trips. (Seminar)


ENG 359

Topics in Literature, Culture, and the Environment

(4 crs.) Cross-listed as (ENG) EAH359. Study of the representation of the environment and related themes in literature and/or the relationships between literature, culture, and the environment. (Lec. 3) Pre: Junior or senior standing. May be repeated once under a different topic. (A3) (B4)


HIS 164

Global Environmental History

(3 crs.) A history of human interactions with the natural world from prehistoric times to the present. (Lec. 3) (C2) (A3)


HIS 300

(393) Topics In History

(3 crs.) Subject, course content, and years offered will vary according to expertise and availability of instructors. (Lec. 3) May be repeated for credit with permission of chairperson. Pre: sophomore standing or permission of instructor. (A3) (B1)


HIS 363

Applied History and Policy

(3 crs.) This course combines history and public policy and is built on the premise that every contentious policy issue today has a history. Historical understanding and methods are applied to contemporary policy debates. (Lec. 3) Pre: sophomore standing or permission of instructor. (A3) (B1)


HIS 364

U.S. Environmental History

(3 crs.) This course explores the historical interactions between people and nature from pre-Columbian America to the present, including environmental movements, agriculture, cities, water, land use, food, and pollution. (Lec. 3) Pre: sophomore standing or permission of instructor. (C1) (B4)


APG 201

Human Origins and Evolution

(3 crs.) The biocultural evolution of humans. An investigation into humankind's place in nature, including a review of the living primates, human genetics and development, evolutionary theory, and the human fossil record. (Lec. 3/Online) (A1) (C3)


APG 303

Archaeology of the Americas

(3 crs.) Archaeology of the Americas before and during the period of European contact, including evidence for the earliest human occupation, social complexity, and human impacts on the environment. (Lec. 3)


APG 304

Coastal Archaeology

(3 crs.) Exploration of issues and controversies in coastal archaeology, including human adaptation through time, oceanic colonization, the preservation and study of coastal sites, and relevance to current environmental and social issues. (Lec. 3) Pre: APG 202 or permission of instructor.


APG 413

Peoples of the Sea

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (APG), MAF 413. Examination of human sociocultural adaptation to the seas. (Lec. 3) Pre: APG 203 or MAF 100 or graduate status. Open only to juniors, seniors, and graduate students.



APG 319

Cultural Behavior and Environment

(3 crs.) Cultural adaptations made by traditional and industrial societies to natural and human environments using examples from prehistory and ethnography. (Lec. 3)


SPA 471

Topics in Latin American Literature and Culture

(3 crs.) Latin American topics or author not emphasized in other courses. (Seminar) Pre: SPA 325 or permission of instructor. May be repeated with a change in topic for a maximum of 6 credits.

Back to top

Justice Courses


GWS 308

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Cultures

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (APG), SOC, GWS 308. Comparative study of sustainable food systems and cultures focusing on the sociocultural dynamics of production, distribution, and consumption. Areas include comparative food systems, indigenous food cultures, gender and food, food equity, and food movements. (Lec. 3) Pre: sophomore standing.


EEC 205

Environmental Economics and Policy

(3 crs.) Economic approaches for understanding the causes and solutions to environmental problems. Design global and local policies to protect our natural environment for a more sustainable world. (Lec. 3) Pre: EEC 105.


EEC 355

The Economics of Climate Change

(3 crs.) Assessment of the economic and policy issues associated with climate change, including the causes of climate change, the economic and social effects, and alternative policy options to reduce carbon emissions. (Lec. 3) Pre: EEC 105 or ECN 201, or permission of instructor. (B3) (B4)


SOC 224

Health, Illness, and Medical Care

(3 crs.) Introduction to social factors in the occurrence, distribution, and treatment of illness in society; critical analysis of the social organization of medicine in contemporary American society. (Lec. 3) (A2) (C3)


SOC 333

(250) Social Movements and Change

(3 crs.) A foundational course that examines theoretical and empirical explanations for social change through social movements, collective action and policy. Focus is on contemporary and historical inequalities and social justice. (Lec. 3/Online) Pre: Completed two 100-200 level Sociology courses, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit in SOC 250. (C3)


SOC 336

Social Inequality

(3 crs.) Examines dimensions and dynamics of inequality and implicit bias in social systems. Foundational theories of class, status, race, ethnicity, gender, citizenship, sexuality, and intersectionality. (Lec. 3) Pre: Two 100-200 level SOC courses, or permission of instructor.


SOC 340

Environmental Sociology

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (MAF) SOC 340. Introduction to environmental sociology, which studies the human-nature relationship and underlying causes of environmental problems. Particular attention given to applications of theory to marine and coastal issues. (Lec. 3) Pre: SOC 100 or MAF 100.


SOC 428

Institutional Racism

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (SOC), AAF 428. Critically examines the origin, nature, and consequences of institutional racism in the US. (Seminar) Pre: one 300-level sociology course or permission of instructor.


SOC 452

Class and Power

(3 crs.) Critically analyzes class-based identities and inequalities in contemporary societies. (Lec. 3) Pre: One 300 level SOC course, or permission of instructor.


AAF 484

Global Equity, Justice, and Social Media

(4 crs.) Cross-listed as (PSC) AAF 484. Leverage critical lenses to analyze global inequalities and injustices using critical perspectives. The course will explore how systemic biases affect individuals' opportunities across diverse socio-demographic factors worldwide. (Seminar) (C3) (D1)


MAF 350

Global Issues In Sustainable Development

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as MAF 350 and NRS 300. Examines context, concepts, and processes of global effort towards sustainable development and the role of global governance and international institutions such as the United Nations. (Lec.) (C2) (A2)


MAF 373

Environmental Injustice

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (MAF), HIS373, GWS373. Examines environmental issues through a social justice lens. Looking at historical and global contexts, topics may include public health issues, environmental social movements, and 'natural' disasters. (Lec. 3) (C3)


PSC 402

Environmental Policy and Politics

(4 crs.) Seminar in the politics and public policy associated with environmental pollution. (Lec. 3, Project 3) Pre: PSC 113 or 210 and junior or senior standing. (D1)


ECN 381

Radical Critiques of Contemporary Political Economy

(3 crs.) Radical right and radical left critiques. Radical views on values, methodology, production planning, income distribution, economic power, the military-industrial complex, imperialism, and racial and sexual discrimination. (Lec. 3) Pre: ECN 202 or permission of instructor.


ECN 386

The Economics of Race, Gender, and Class

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (ECN), GWS, AAF 386. An economic examination of the historical interrelations of race, class, and gender issues. (Lec. 3) Pre: ECN 100 or 201 or permission of instructor. (C3) (B1)


PHL 346

Existential Problems in Human Life

(3 crs.) Discussion of ultimate questions of human existence such as meaning in life, personal commitment, human relations, suffering, despair, hope, freedom, authenticity, self-deception, death, God, and immortality. (Lec. 3) Pre: PHL 101 or 103 or one 200-level PHL course or permission of instructor.


SAF 383

Food Justice

(3 crs.) Examines the production, distribution and consumption of food through a social justice lens focused on identifying intersecting inequities and activating strategies to dismantle their root causes. (Lec. 3) Pre: Sophomore standing. (A2) (C3)


SUS 306

Sustainability & Service Leadership

(3 crs.) Cross-listed as (CSV), SUS 306. Students will learn to identify and examine critical sustainability issues and develop communication skills, campaigns, and peer education events that lead to behavior change and a shift in campus culture. (Online) Pre: Junior Standing.


WRT 371G

Write Now: Language Communities, Culture, and Power

(4 crs.) Learn how language shapes identity, community, and culture; communicate authentically and ethically in personal, public, and professional settings. (Lec. 3, Field Study 1) Pre: 200-level WRT course (or above), minimum sophomore standing. (B1) (C3) (GC)


APG 370

Decolonial Ecologies

(3 crs.) Examines Afro-descendant and Indigenous lives, cultural ecology, local ecological knowledge, environmental justice, and initiatives and organizing efforts to resist on-going threats to coastal livelihoods throughout the Americas. (Seminar) Pre: Sophomore standing and APG 200 or APG 203; or permission of instructor


Back to top


Explore our disciplines


Contact Us