Environmental Studies Major

This information is part of the Colgate University catalog.

The environmental studies major combines breadth in analytical perspectives, interdisciplinary courses in which students learn to combine analytical perspectives, and depth in a focus area of each student's choosing. The courses below are required for the major.

Major Requirements

Environmental Studies Courses (four)

All of the Following

One of the Following

One Additional Interdisciplinary Course Focused on the Environment

One full-credit course or two half-credit courses from the following list:

CORE 114S - Ecology, Ethics, and Wilderness
CORE 119S - Environmental Activism, Science, and the Arts
CORE 123S - Climate Change and Human History
CORE 128S - Global Change and You
CORE 154S - Caribbean Ecology and Environmental Concerns
CORE 159S - Ecology and the Quality of the Environment
CORE 178S - Water
ENST 233 - Global Environmental Health Issues (0.50 credit)
ENST 240 - Sustainability: Science and Analysis
ENST 291 - Independent Study (with permission of the program director)
ENST 391 - Independent Study (with permission of the program director)
ENST 491 - Independent Study (with permission of the program director)
ENST 309 - Australian Environmental Issues (Study Group)
ENST 313 /ASIA 313 /SOCI 313 Environmental Problems and Environmental Activism in the People's Republic of China
ENST 315 - Applied Natural Resource Conservation
ENST 316 - Nature, Technology, and the Human Prospect
ENST 321 - Global Environmental Justice (if it is not used to fulfill the Environmental Studies requirement)
ENST 490 - Seminar in Environmental Studies (if it is not used to fulfill the Environmental Studies requirement)
GEOG 105 - Climate and Society
GEOG 323/REST 323 - Arctic Transformations (PO)

Methods Course

One full-credit course or two half-credit courses from the following list, or with permission of the program director another methods course appropriate for the student's chosen field of study:

BIOL 320 - Biostatistics and BIOL 320L
ECON 375 - Applied Econometrics
ENST 250 - Environmental Policy Analysis
GEOG 245 - Geographic Information Systems
GEOG 250 - Research Methods
GEOG 251 - Media Frames and Content Analysis (0.50 credit)
SOCI 251 - Media Frame and Content Analysis (0.50 credit)
GEOG 347 - Satellite Image Analysis (0.50 credit)
GEOL 253 - Environmental Geochemistry and Analysis and GEOL 253L
HIST 199 - History Workshop
PHIL 225 - Logic I
RELG 352 - Theory and Method in the Study of Religion

Courses Providing Breadth of Analytical Perspectives (three)

Earth Systems and Processes

One of the following courses:

BIOL 181 - Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity and BIOL 181L
BIOL 203 - Ecology and BIOL 203L
BIOL 330 - Conservation Biology
BIOL 332 - Tropical Ecology and BIOL 332E
BIOL 335 - Limnology and BIOL 335L
BIOL 336 - Advanced Ecology and BIOL 336L
BIOL 340 - Marine Biology
BIOL 359 - Ecosystem Ecology and BIOL 359L
BIOL 328 - Field Ecology and BIOL 328L
CORE 101S - Energy and Sustainability
CORE 102S - Molecules, Energy, and Environment
GEOG 231 - Geography of the Physical Environment
GEOG 332 - Weather and Climate
GEOG 335 - Soil Geography
GEOG 336 - Biogeography
GEOG 338 - Earth System Ecology
GEOL 101 - Environmental Geology and GEOL 101L
GEOL 135 - Oceanography and the Environment
GEOL 335 - Hydrology and Geomorphology and GEOL 335L
GEOL 215 - Paleontology of Marine Life and GEOL 215L
GEOL 310 - Environmental Economic Geology
GEOL 450 - Paleoclimatology
GEOL 403 - Geochemistry
GEOL 416 - Marine Geology and GEOL 416L
GEOL 430 - Seminar on Acid Rain
An additional course that satisfies the Interdisciplinary Courses Focused on the Environment requirement with the permission of the program director

Social Science Investigations of Environmental Issues

One of the following courses:

Arts and Humanities Courses Related to the Environment

One of the following courses:

ARTS 271 - Architectural Design I (SA)
ENGL 204 - Native American Writers
ENGL 219 - American Literature and the Environment
ENST 219 - American Literature and the Environment
ENGL 336 - Native American Literature
ENGL 420 - Emerson and Thoreau
ENST 324 - Hunting, Eating, Vegetarianism
GERM 326 - Germany and the Environmental Imagination
PHIL 313 - International Ethics (VT) (with permission of the program director and the relevant instructor)
PHIL 333 - Topics in Environmental Philosophy
RELG 236 - Religion, Science, and the Environment
An additional course that satisfies the Interdisciplinary Courses Focused on the Environment requirement with the permission of the program director
Select Arts and Humanities Courses Related to the Environment may be used to satisfy this requirement with permission of the program director and the relevant instructor.

Focus in a Particular Field of Study

Four courses (or a combination of full- and partial-credit courses, not including labs, that add up to four full-course credits) that provide depth in a field of study. No more than one of these courses can be at an introductory level, and at least one must be at an advanced level. These courses are in addition to those used to satisfy the requirements listed above. With permission of the program director any four courses that combine to provide depth in a field of study may be used, but normally all of the four courses used to satisfy this requirement will be from the same department or from the same one of the lists of requirements in:

Earth Systems and Processes
Social Science Investigations of Environmental Issues
Arts and Humanities Courses Related to the Environment

With permission of the program director, this requirement may be waived if a student has a second major or a minor.

Environmental Studies Program

For more information about the department, including Faculty, transfer credit, awards, etc., please visit the Environmental Studies program catalogue page.