Environmental Studies Interdisciplinary Concentration

The Environmental Studies Concentration is designed to acquaint students with the knowledge necessary to understand and solve environmental problems: the operations of the physical, biological, and chemical systems of our planet; the impact of people on these systems; the cultural underpinnings of our current patterns of interaction with nature; and the substantive nature and institutional process of political and social change which impinge upon our environment.

The requirements for the concentration vary depending upon the major, but all students must take courses in both the natural sciences (including one lab and one course above the 100 level) and the social sciences (at least two above the 200 level), and complete the senior capstone experience for a combined total of 28 credit hours. In the areas of natural sciences and social sciences/humanities, the student is expected to draw from at least two and preferably three departments as follows:
Natural sciences (13 hours): BL 109, 109L, 111, 111L, 159, 160, 222, 223, 444, 444L, 479; CH 103, 103L, 105, 105L, 141-144, 151H, 153, 221-224, 261, 263; PH 101, 101L, 102, 102L.
Social sciences/humanities (12 hours): CO 455; EC 211*, 212*, 315; EN 299B (American Environmental Literature); PL 314, 315, 398 (Ecofeminism); PO 204, 312, 361, 363, 460, 464; RL 333, 365; SC 251, 290, 360, 380, 381, 383, 389, 475E, 484.

*Must be followed by an upper-division environmental course from the same department.

Coordinator: Dr. Wendy Wiedenhoft, Department of Sociology. Phone 216-397-4979; www.jcu.edu/sociology.

For more information, please refer to the Undergraduate Bulletin.