Environment and Sustainability, Environmental Policy Track, (BA in Interdisciplinary Studies)

The Environment & Sustainability Program

The Environment & Sustainability Program (ENSP) seeks to provide students with the ability to recognize the complex environmental problems threatening our planet and create potential paths towards a more sustainable future. Taking courses in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, students majoring and minoring in ENSP develop an interdisciplinary toolkit to identify, analyze, and ameliorate the most pressing environmental issues of our time.

Majors have the option to pursue one of three tracks: Environmental Humanities (B.A.), Environmental Science (B.S.), or Environmental Policy (B.A.). Each track provides students with the opportunity to obtain more depth in their area of interest. ENSP graduates regularly find an array of employment opportunities in business, government, and non-profit organizations. In addition, many ENSP graduates go on to pursue advanced degrees in environmental science, environmental studies, business, law, and other disciplines.

For further information, updates, and additional descriptive visit https://www.wm.edu/environment.

Required Credit Hours: 36

Course Requirements

Introduction to Environment & Sustainability
ENSP 101Introduction to Environment and Sustainability3
Introduction to Environmental Policy
Select one of the following:3
Introduction to Environmental Policy
Intro to Public Policy
Methods in Environment & Sustainability
Select one of the following:3
Issues in Anthropology
Introduction to Conservation GIS
Quantitative Methods in Conservation
Principles and Methods of Statistics
Econometrics
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis
Research Methods
Topics in Government (Quantitative Methods)
Topics in Government (Qualitative Methods)
or other approved course
Speaker Series on Environment & Sustainability
ENSP 250Seminar Topics in Environmental Science and Policy1
Environmental Ethics & Justice
Select one of the following:3
Environmental Justice
Conservation Ethics
Emergent Ecologies
Earth Science for Environmental Justice
Issues in Environmental Ethics
or other approved course
Environmental Humanities
Select one of the following:3
Introduction to Native Studies
Environmental Anthropology
Art and Ecology
Seminar Topics in Art History (Art & Environmental Justice)
Studies in Contemporary Literature (Literature of the Anthropocene)
Topics in British Literature Before 1700 (Early Modern Ecologies)
Topics in Environmental Arts, Literature, & Film
Seminar in Film and Media Studies (Eco Cinema)
Environmental Cultures
American West, 1890-
Ecocritical Italy: Narrating the Anthropocene
Topics in Japanese Literature and Culture (Cultures of Catastrophe)
or other approved course
Environmental Social Science
Select three of the following:9
Students are required to take three courses on human-society relations from three different disciplines
The Anthropocene
Environ Archaeology
Archaeology of North America
Native Cultures of South America
People, Cultures, and the Environment of Polynesia
Consumer Behavior
Sustainability Inspired Innovation and Design
Political Ecology of Conservation
Sustainable Livelihoods
Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
Economics of Climate Change
Topics in Ed Studies (Educating for Climate Justice)
Topics in Environmental Social Sciences
Political Economy of Extreme Weather
Global Environmental Politics
Topics in Government (Political Economy of Climate Change)
Economics of US Health Policy
The Politics of Global Health
Environmental Sociology
or other approved course
Foundation in Environmental Natural Science
Select one of the following:4
Introduction to Organisms, Ecology, Evolution
taken with BIOL 204L
The Dynamic Earth: Physical Geology
taken with GEOL 160
Earth's Environmental Systems: Physical Geography
taken with GEOL 160
Geologic Evolution of VA
or other approved course
Environmental Natural Science Course with Field Lab Component
Select one of the following:4
Ecology
taken with BIOL 411
Intro to Ornithology
Population and Community Ecology
Aquatic Ecology
Wetland Ecosystems
Entomology
taken with BIOL 428L
Marine Ecology and Conservation
Watershed Dynamics
Hydrology
Environmental Geochemistry
Earth Surface Processes
Paleoclimatology & Paleoceanography
or other approved course
Capstone Experience
Select one of the following:3
Special Topics in Environmental Science and Policy
Independent Research
Honors
Internship
Major Computing & Writing Requirement 1
Select one of the following:
Special Topics in Environmental Science and Policy
Independent Research
Honors
Internship
Total Hours36
1

satisfies the Major Computing and Writing Proficiency Requirements by achieving a grade of at least C-.