Courses
Environmental Studies Core Courses
Courses listed here are taught at Haverford college or are co-taught by Haverford faculty members. Other options are available at Bryn Mawr or Swarthmore Colleges.
ENVS 101 Case Studies in Environmental Issues NA or SO
N. Anand, H. White
A cross-disciplinary introduction to environmental studies. Tracing an arc from historical analysis to practical engagement, distinctive approaches to key categories of environmental inquiry are presented: political ecology, earth science, energy, economics, public health, ecological design, sustainability, policy and environmental ethics. Basic concepts such as thermodynamics, biodiversity, cost-benefit analysis, scale, modernization, enclosure, the common and situational ethics are variously defined and employed within specific explorations of environmental challenges in the modern world. Limited to 40 students, with preference given to juniors who are declared Environmental Studies minors, then to sophomores, then first year students (with a minimum of five spots reserved for first year students).
ENVS 397 (Bryn Mawr College): Senior Seminar in Environmental Studies
C. Hager, J. Wilson
This capstone Environmental Studies course is designed to allow Environmental Studies seniors to actively engage in environmental problem solving by bringing the perspectives and skills gained from their majors and applying them to collaborative interdisciplinary projects. Prerequisite: Open only to Environmental Studies students who have completed all introductory work for the minor.
Environmental Studies Elective Courses
The ES Minor Steering Committee determines the list of courses approved to meet the minor requirements and classifies the courses in two categories: core and cognate courses.
- Core courses are those within the Tri-College community that are centrally organized around environmental themes and devote at least 50% of the class time to studying environmental issues.
- Cognate courses are those that have less focus on the environment compared to core courses, but nevertheless build understanding and knowledge of areas of inquiry that are highly valuable to the study and solution of environmental problems. While the focus on the environment typically occupies less than half of the class time in cognate courses, there is some mention of how the main focus of the course can inform understanding of environmental issues.
The approved lists are subject to revision and the list published on the website immediately prior to each semester will govern which courses may be used to satisfy the elective requirements. The current approved list is as follows. An asterisk (*) indicates cognate course; no more than one credit of these may be used for each category. (L) indicates laboratory course; one of the courses in category A must be a laboratory course.
Category A) Environmental Science And Engineering
Haverford
- BIOL 123 * Perspectives in Biology: Scientific Literacy (half-credit)
- BIOL 124 * Perspectives in Biology: Tropical Infectious Disease (half-credit)
- BIOL 310 * Molecular Microbiology (half-credit)
- BIOL 314 * Photosynthesis (half-credit)
- CHEM 112 *(L) Chemical Dynamics
- CHEM 358 Topics in Environmental Chemistry
- PHYS 111b Energy Options and Science Policy
Bryn Mawr
- BIOL 220 (L) Ecology
- BIOL 225 * Biology of Plants
- BIOL 250 * Computational Methods
- BIOL 309 (L) Biological Oceanography
- BIOL 320 (L) Evolutionary Ecology
- GEOL 101 (L) How the Earth Works
- GEOL 103 (L) Earth Systems and the Environment
- GEOL 130 Life in Earth’s Future Climate
- GEOL 206 * Resources
- GEOL 209 Natural Hazards and Human Populations
- GEOL 230 * The Science of Soils
- GEOL 255 Problem Solving in the Environmental Sciences
- GEOL 302 Low Temperature Geochemistry
- GEOL 314 Marine Geology
- GEOL 328 * Geographic Information Systems
- MATH 210 * Differential Equations w/ Apps (Environmental Problems)
Swarthmore
- BIOL 016 *(L) Microbiology
- BIOL 017 *(L) Microbial Pathogenesis and Immune Response
- BIOL 025 *(L) Plant Biology
- BIOL 026 *(L) Invertebrate Zoology
- BIOL 034 *(L) Evolution
- BIOL 036 (L) Ecology
- BIOL 039 (L) Marine Biology
- BIOL 115E * Plant Molecular Genetics - Biotechnology
- BIOL 116 * Microbial Processes and Biotechnology
- BIOL 130 * Behavioral Ecology
- BIOL 137 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function
- CHEM 001 *(L) Chemistry in the Human Environment
- CHEM 043 *(L) Analytical Chemistry
- CHEM 103 Topics in Environmental Chemistry
- ENGR 003 *(L) Problems in Technology
- ENGR 004A (L) Environmental Protection
- ENGR 004B *(L) Swarthmore and the Biosphere
- ENGR 035 *(L) Solar Energy Systems
- ENGR 057 * Operations Research
- ENGR 063 Water Quality and Pollution Control
- ENGR 066 Environmental Systems
- MATH 056 * Modeling
- PHYS 024 (L) The Earth and Its Climate
Category B) Environment & Society
Haverford
- ANTH 252 * State and Development in South Asia
- ANTH 263 * Anthropology of Space: Housing and Society
- ANTH 281 Nature/Culture: Introduction to Environmental Anthropology
- ENGL 217 * Humanimality
- ENGL 257 * British Topographies
- ENGL 356 Studies in American Environment and Place
- HIST 119 * International History of the United States
- HIST 253 History of the US Built Environment
- POLS 261 * Global Civil Society
- POLS 260 Environmental Political Theory (temporary course, 2011-12)
- POLS 360 Global Environmental Politics (temporary course, 2011-12)
Bryn Mawr
- ANTH 203 Human Ecology
- ANTH 210 * Medical Anthropology
- ANTH 237 Environmental Health
- ANTH 263 * Anthropology and Architecture
- ARCH 245 The Archaeology of Water
- CITY 278 American Environmental History
- CITY 2xx Building Green
- CITY 325 Environmental History of the Body
- CITY 345 Advanced Topics in Environment and Society
- CITY 360 Brazil: City, Nature, Identity
- CITY 377 Global Architecture of Oil
- ECON 242 Economics of Local Environmental Programs
- EAST 352 China's Environment: History, Policy, and Rights
- EAST 362 Environment in Contemporary East Asia
- ECON 225 * Economics of Development
- ECON 234 Environmental Economics
- ENGL 204 * Literatures of American Expansion
- ENGL 268 Native Soil: Indian Land and American Lit 1588-1840
- ENGL 275 Food Revolutions
- ENGL 2xx Food for Thought
- HIST 212 * Pirates and Travelers
- PHIL 240 Environmental Ethics
- POLS 222 Intro to Environmental Issues
- POLS 278 * Oil, Politics, Society and Economy
- POLS 310 * Comparative Public Policy
- POLS 321 * Technology and Politics
- POLS 339 * The Policymaking Process
- POLS 354 * Comparative Social Movements
- SOCL 247 Environmental Social Problems
- SOCL 316 * Sociology of Science
Swarthmore
- ECON 076 Environmental Economics
- EDUC 065 Environmental Education
- ENGL 070G Writing Nature
- HIST 089 Environmental History of Africa
- LING 120 Anthropological Linguistics: Endangered Languages
- LITR 022 * Food Revolutions: History, Politics, Culture
- POLS 043 Environmental Policy and Politics
- POLS 048 * The Politics of Population
- RELG 022 Religion and Ecology
- SOAN 006 * FYS: Forest of the Symbols
- SOAN 023C Anthropological Perspectives on Conservation