This course introduces environmental science through the lens of systems thinking. Given the staggering level of complexity found around us, a powerful approach in science is to simplify complex systems into key components that influence processes and provide predictive power. But how do we choose which factors to focus on? How disconnected are causes and effects? Although not a laboratory course, students will actively engage in data collection, analysis, and interpretation of systems ranging from energy in ecosystems to environmental toxins and human health. (Note that students may enroll in either ES 100 or ES 101, but not both.)

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken ES 101.

Instructor: Davis

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.

Environmental problems are some of the most complex issues that we face today, and addressing them requires skills and knowledge from a variety of scientific and non-scientific disciplines. This course seeks to provide the scientific foundation for approaching environmental problems. Using a systems-approach to problem formulation and solving, we will investigate environmental issues including soil degradation, human and natural energy flows, stratospheric ozone depletion, mercury pollution, and the conservation of biodiversity. The combined studio and laboratory format offers diverse approaches for understanding, applying, and constructing models to investigate the behavior of environmental systems as well as testing hypotheses and drawing conclusions.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 13

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Open to First-Years and Sophomores. Juniors and Seniors may only enroll with permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken ES 100.

Instructor: Griffith

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course is a required co-requisite laboratory for ES 101.

Units: 0

Max Enrollment: 13

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Open to First-Years and Sophomores. Juniors and Seniors may only enroll with permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken ES 100.

Instructor: Griffith

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to Environmental Studies, with a focus on climate change. Major concepts that will be examined include: the state of scientific research, the role of science, politics, and economics in environmental decision-making, and the importance of history, ethics, and justice in approaching climate change. The central aim of the course is to help students develop the interdisciplinary research skills necessary to pose questions, investigate problems, and develop strategies that will help us address our relationship to the environment.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Open to First-Years and Sophomores. Juniors and Seniors by permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Davis, Turner

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Elements and molecules interact with the environment producing global challenges such as climate change, ozone depletion, and heavy metal pollution. This course is a general introduction to the chemistry of such environmental problems, focusing on the chemical principles that regulate the effect, fate, and transport of chemicals in the environment. It explores how the structure of a chemical relates to its environmental impact and how interactions can be predicted through chemistry. Assignments will include working with real data-sets of elements in the environment, such as records of carbon in forests, oxygen in the ocean, and heavy metals in soils. Chem 103 is intended for students with very little prior chemistry experience. This course does not count towards the chemistry major or minor.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: ES 10 3

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement.

Instructor: Stanley

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Geologic processes both rapid (earthquakes and landslides) and slow (mountain building and sea level rise) are intimately linked with sustaining the diversity of life on the planet. This course examines processes linked with the flow of energy and mass between the atmosphere, geosphere, and biosphere. Laboratory exercises, and field work provide authentic experiences to develop the skills needed to observe and model processes shaping our environment. Problem solving during class time fosters critical thinking and classroom debates between larger teams focus on research and communications skills by examining current issues in geosciences such as building and removing dams, and the science surrounding global climate change.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 30

Crosslisted Courses: ES 111

Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the Quantitative Reasoning (QR) component of the Quantitative Reasoning & Data Literacy requirement. Not open to students who have taken ASTR 120 or a 100-level GEOS course.

Instructor: Brabander

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Degree Requirements: DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRF); DL - Data Literacy (Formerly QRDL)

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences are indispensable to understanding the climate crisis. Drawing on perspectives from across the liberal arts, the course instructors will plumb the depths of the climate crisis and imagine the possible ways of responding to it. What can the role of climate in human history reveal about our uncertain future? How do social constructions, including race and gender, shape our understanding of this problem? How have diverse cultures of the world related to nature and climate and how can our own relationships to nature and climate inform our responses? Can the arts help us to reconceive the crisis? How can the sciences help us assess and adapt to our future climate? Can we leverage psychological processes to change individual attitudes toward the environment? By examining such questions, we aim for deeper knowledge, both of the climate crisis and of the power of liberal arts education.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 80

Crosslisted Courses: PEAC 125H

Prerequisites: None.

Instructor: Banzaert, Brabander, Kulik-Johnson, Morari, Shukla-Bhatt, Turner

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Problems in environmental, health, and sustainability sciences are inherently transdisciplinary and require a diverse skill set to frame, analyze, and solve. This course will focus on developing a toolbox of skills including systems level thinking, field and analytical methods, biogeochemical analysis (natural waters, soils, and other environmental materials), and modeling with a goal of building a science-based foundation for the analysis of complex issues at the interface between humans and the environment. Students will conduct semester-long research projects and will present their results in a final poster session.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 18

Crosslisted Courses: ES 20 1

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to students majoring in ES and GEOS, other students by permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Brabander

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course examines the intersection of politics and the environment in Africa. We will explore historical contexts such as the environmental aftereffects of colonialism and highlight ‘wicked’ environmental problems such as increased vulnerability to climate change. Using case examples from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Congo, and Egypt, we will analyze issues such as the water politics of the Nile River, the role of women in environmental movements, and the United Nations and other international organizations’ roles in addressing environmental issues. Finally, students will have the opportunity to engage in ongoing debates in African environmental politics.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: POL 2255

Prerequisites: None.

Instructor: Gatonye

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course focuses on the social science explanations for why environmental problems are created, the impacts they have, the difficulties of addressing them, and the regulatory and other actions that succeed in mitigating them. Topics include: externalities and the politics of unpriced costs and benefits; collective action problems and interest-group theory; time horizons in decision-making; the politics of science, risk, and uncertainty; comparative political structures; and cooperation theory. Also addressed are different strategies for changing environmental behavior, including command and control measures, taxes, fees, and other market instruments, and voluntary approaches. These will all be examined across multiple countries and levels of governance.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: POL 2214

Prerequisites: ES 102 or permission of the instructor.

Instructor: DeSombre

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

This course examines ecology’s intersection with cinema and media studies. Amidst climate change, ecological theorists have complicated boundaries between nature and technology and between humans and nonhumans. We will focus on the intersection of these ecological conversations with cinema and media studies. This course will consider a range of media, from mushrooms to cyborgs; explore cinematic innovations aimed at depicting nonhuman actors; discuss how media create their own environments; and cover topics like digital waste. Course readings will include a range of contemporary ecological perspectives, including texts from Feminist Science and Technology Studies, Black Studies, and Indigenous Critical Theory. We will apply these ideas in discussions of recent films.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: ES 219

Prerequisites: None

Instructor:  

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Humans and their environment make up a complex and dynamic system. As with all ecological systems, key components are the availability and use of resources and the interactions with other species - both of which have important impacts on the nature and stability of the system itself. This course investigates these far-reaching concepts by examining topics such as the broad implications of thermodynamics, energy and material flows through human and natural systems, natural resource management, and the conservation of resources and biodiversity. We will also explore the role of science and technology in surmounting previous limits (e.g. energy use and agricultural yields), as well as the implications of inherent limits that may never be broken. Laboratory work will focus on quantitative skills and modeling tools used to examine a range of systems.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: One of the following - ES 100, ES 101, GEOS 101, GEOS 102, BISC 108, or permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Griffith

Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving; LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course considers the economic aspects of resource and environmental issues. After examining the concepts of externalities, public goods, and common property resources, we will discuss how to measure the cost and benefits of environmental policy in order to estimate the socially optimal level of the environmental good. Applications of these tools will be made to air and water pollution, renewable and nonrenewable resources, and global climate. In addressing each of these problems we will compare various public policy responses such as regulation, marketable permits, and tax incentives.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: ES 228

Prerequisites: ECON 101 or ECON 101P.

Instructor: Keskin

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Every religious culture regards the earth as a site of sacrality, whether understood as the creation of the gods and thus intrinsically sacred, or as an entity through and with which the sacred interacts. In our time of escalating ecological disaster and runaway global heating, humans can claim these traditions as one way of placing our human wreckage of the planet into a larger critical perspective than the scientific warnings, corporate denials, and governmental temporizing that currently inform the environmental crisis. This course will introduce students to ideas of the terrestrial sacred and how humans should relate to it from a range of religious and spiritual traditions, including Native American, Biblical, Christian, Transcendentalist, and today’s ecological thinkers. Together we will assess the value and applicability of these diverse approaches to sacred earth for today’s ever more urgent crisis of global environmental disruption. No prior knowledge of or course work in Religious Studies is required.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: ES 229

Prerequisites: None.

Instructor: Marini

Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course will train students to use philosophical methods to engage in rigorous investigation of ethical issues concerning the environment. Topics may include animal rights, climate justice, the rights of ecological refugees, obligations to future generations, and the ethics of environmental activism.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: ES 233

Prerequisites: Open to First-Years who have taken one course in philosophy and to Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors without prerequisite.

Instructor: E. Matthes (Philosophy)

Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course concerns a range of ethical and aesthetic questions about places, whether of natural or cultural significance. How should we understand the value of nature? Is it relative to human interests, or independent of them? What is nature in the first place, and how is it distinguished from culture? Is scientific or cultural knowledge relevant to the aesthetic experience of nature? Does “natural beauty” have a role to play in guiding environmental preservation? When we seek to preserve an ecosystem or a building, what exactly should we be aiming to preserve? Should the history of a place guide our interactions with it? How should we navigate conflicts between environmental and cultural preservation, especially as they intersect with issues of race and class? How should a changing climate affect our environmental values? We will investigate these questions, among others, in contexts from wilderness to parks, cities to ruins.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: ES 234

Prerequisites: Open to First-Years who have taken one course in philosophy and to Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors without prerequisite.

Instructor: E. Matthes

Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.

The world around us is rich with aesthetic qualities. It is beautiful, awesome, enchanting, and sublime. Places have moods, vibes, atmospheres, and ambiances. How can we think rigorously and systematically about the aesthetics of the natural and built environment? What role, if any, should aesthetics play in environmentalism, environmental policy, and our relationship with the world we live in? This course will focus on contemporary philosophical work that seeks to answer these questions. Themes may include the place of science, imagination, history, and culture in aesthetic judgment, the role of aesthetics in conservation, and the relationship between aesthetics and climate change.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: ES 235

Prerequisites: None.

Instructor: Matthes

Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course discusses the narrative challenges posed by the Anthropocene, the current era in history in which the impact of humans on the environment imperils the very future of our planet. Reading fictional and critical texts that have emerged in different parts of the world over the course of the last three decades, we will identify the fictional tools and aesthetic strategies that writers are exploring to address the climate catastrophe.  We will discuss what the traditions of writing about biocide are to which contemporary authors can turn when creating new narratives adequate to capture the environmental crisis. We will analyze the most prominent genres involved in “green writing” and will pay close attention to the ways authors deal with the tensions between the local and the global in their narratives.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: ES 238

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken GER 338.

Instructor: Nolden

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course meets with GER 338, which is intended for advanced German students and which has a third class meeting conducted in German.

From ancient pastoral poets to Amanda Gorman, how have writers made nature their subject? What can literature tell us about the diverse and changing ways in which humans perceive, construct, interact with, inhabit, and alter our environments? How do historical and cultural differences inflect writing about nature? Does the prospect of climate catastrophe impel writers to reimagine traditional genres? We’ll explore such questions through a broad selection of poetry and lyrical prose, countering circumscribed notions of environmental writing as a predominantly white or cis straight male realm and seeking to illuminate the vital connections between environmentalism and social and racial justice.

Readings from the English pastoral tradition and its classical roots; Shakespeare, the Romantics, Gerard Manley Hopkins; foundational American poets Dickinson and Whitman; and a broad selection of 20th- and 21st-century poets such as Robert Frost, Jean Toomer, Richard Wilbur, A.R. Ammons, W.S. Merwin, Audre Lorde, Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver, Ed Roberson, Seamus Heaney, Lucille Clifton, Pattian Rogers, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Carolyn Forché, Joy Harjo, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Forrest Gander, Claudia Rankine, Annie Finch, dg nanouk okpik, Camille T. Dungy, Jennifer Chang, Ada Limón, and Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Prose by Dorothy Wordsworth, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Lauret Savoy, and Helen Macdonald.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: ES 242

Prerequisites: None.

Instructor: Hickey

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course is a combination of “What's that wildflower?” and “Why does it grow over there and not here?” We begin by examining large-scale patterns of plant diversity from an evolutionary and phylogenetic perspective and then shift to an ecological perspective. Along the way, we zoom in to specific concepts and processes that help us understand overall patterns. Laboratories will primarily be taught in the field and greenhouses and will include plant identification, observational and experimental studies, and long-term study of forest communities on the Wellesley campus. Laboratories will also include aspects of experimental design and data analysis. The goal of the course is not only to train students in botany and plant ecology, but to engage them in the world of plants every time they step outside.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 14

Crosslisted Courses: BISC 247

Prerequisites: One of the following - ES 100, ES 101, BISC 108, BISC 111, BISC 111T, BISC 113, BISC 113Y; or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken BISC 347/ES 347.

Instructor: Griffith

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: The course is offered at the 300-level as BISC 347/ES 347.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

The Environmental Studies program runs a weekly reading group on changing topics. Readings will be chosen based on the interests of the participating students and faculty members. Students who enroll commit to coming to each week's discussion, preparing a set of responses to the week's reading, and, in collaboration with other group members, selecting some of the weekly topics and readings.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Instructor:

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Mandatory Credit/Non Credit.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Addressing climate change means transitioning to a clean energy future by 2050. This course adopts an interdisciplinary approach to study the prospects for such a transition. What technologies can pave the way to a clean energy future? What policies can hasten this transition and ensure it is advanced equitably? Can such a transition help pull people around the world out of poverty? What policies are necessary to ensure that a clean energy future also promotes energy democracy? Is there enough copper, lithium, and rare earth metals to support such a transition? Could growing dependency on these resources precipitate future conflicts over limited resources?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: None. Not open to students who have taken ES 151H are not allowed to take this course.

Instructor: Turner

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

In this course we will consider the historical, social, and political life of nature in its many guises and from an anthropological perspective. What is the relationship between resource control and the consolidation of power? How have social movements and development agencies mobilized ideas of participatory conservation to achieve their goals, and how have these same concepts been used to exclude or to reproduce inequality? We will explore themes such as the relationship between race, nature, and security; intellectual property and bioprospecting; and the lived effects of the many “green,” “sustainable,” and “eco-tourism” projects now attracting foreign travelers around the world. Additionally, the course will introduce students unfamiliar with socio-cultural anthropology to ethnographic research methods, ethical dilemmas, and the craft of ethnographic writing.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Crosslisted Courses: ES 265

Prerequisites: None.

Instructor: Ellison

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Exploring the relationship between art and the environment, this course will focus on the land of the United States as it has been shaped into forms ranging from landscape paintings to suburban lawns, national parks, and our own Wellesley College campus. Among the questions we will consider are: What is “nature”? What do we value in a landscape and why? How are artists, architects, and landscape designers responding to environmentalist concerns?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: ES 267

Prerequisites: None

Instructor: Bedell

Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course examines the relationship between nature and society in American history. The course will consider topics such as the decimation of the bison, the rise of Chicago, the history of natural disasters, and the environmental consequences of war. There are three goals for this course: First, we will examine how humans have interacted with nature over time and how nature, in turn, has shaped human society. Second, we will examine how attitudes toward nature have differed among peoples, places, and times, and we will consider how the meanings people give to nature inform their cultural and political activities. Third, we will study how these historical forces have combined to shape the American landscape and the human and natural communities to which it is home. While this course focuses on the past, an important goal is to understand the ways in which history shapes how we understand and value the environment as we do today.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: HIST 299

Prerequisites: None

Instructor: Turner

Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.

An interdisciplinary seminar in which students work together in small groups to understand and develop solutions for current environmental problems. Each year, we focus on a given environmental issue of concern to our community, e.g., environmental implications of building design, energy use, or water quality. In particular, we work to understand its scientific background, the political processes that lead to potential solutions, and the ethical and environmental justice implications. Student-led research provides the bulk of the information about the issue and its role in our local environment; lectures and readings provide supplementary information about the local situation and the global context.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: A declared major in environmental studies and completion of six courses that count toward the ES major, or permission of the instructor. Open to Juniors and Seniors only.

Instructor: DeSombre

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Social understandings of the relationship between human health and the environment are visible and malleable in moments of crisis, from industrial disasters, weather-related catastrophes, and political conflict, as everyday events like childbirth and routine sickness. But these understandings vary dramatically across time and community. This course addresses the complex dynamics at work in the representations of and responses to health and the environment that emerge during moments of crisis. By studying the way these constructions are shaped by social, political, technological, and moral contexts, we will analyze the role of nature, knowledge, ethics and power in such contemporary problems as human migration, hunger, debility, and disease. The class will together consider the meaning of crisis and how it is shaped by social systems such as gender, sexuality, ability, class, and race.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: ES 30 2

Prerequisites: Open to Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors or by permission of the instructor. A 200 level WGST course is recommended.

Instructor: Harrison

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Environmental activism, from local to global, offers a viable and creative means to address environmental injustice beyond traditional policy strategies. This class will critically examine the range of strategies deployed by nonviolent grassroots environmental movements, drawing on lenses including global environmental justice, intersectionality, and design justice. This course will examine these movements in relation to their geographic, political, and cultural contexts. Case studies will be chosen based on student interests. Potential case studies include the Green Belt Movement, Greenpeace, Earth First!, Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People, World Rainforest Movement, the Chipko Movement, and Bahamas Plastic Movement. Students in this course will develop a theoretical understanding of environmental activist strategies, a comparative framework for analyzing activist campaigns, and an understanding of the political ecology of specific campaigns and the environmental justice issues they aim to resolve. Student work will culminate with the design of an activist campaign.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Prerequisites: Any 100-level ES course, or permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Hassey

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

The emergent structure and function of ecosystems are regulated by feedbacks between biological and physical systems from the microscopic to the global scale. We will study how ecosystems cycle carbon and nutrients and how the energy balance of ecosystems influences climate. We will also examine the role that humans play in managing, creating, and using services from ecosystems in our current era of rapid global change. Synthesizing these concepts, we consider the role of protected areas in preserving ecosystem functioning. Students will develop statistical skills working with authentic long-term ecosystem ecology datasets. Students in this course will develop independent data analysis projects that include scientific communication through presentations, writing, and visual displays of data.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 24

Crosslisted Courses: ES 30 7

Prerequisites: One of the following - BISC 201, BISC 202, BISC 209, BISC 210, BISC 247/ES 247, ES 220; or permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Staff

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course. Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course.

The world around us is rich with aesthetic qualities. It is beautiful, awesome, enchanting, and sublime. Places have moods, vibes, atmospheres, and ambiances. How can we think rigorously and systematically about the aesthetics of the natural and built environment? What role, if any, should aesthetics play in environmentalism, environmental policy, and our relationship with the world we live in? This course will focus on contemporary philosophical work that seeks to answer these questions. Themes may include the place of science, imagination, history, and culture in aesthetic judgment, the role of aesthetics in conservation, and the relationship between aesthetics and climate change.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Crosslisted Courses: ES 30 8

Prerequisites: Open to Majors and Minors in Philosophy and Environmental Studies, or by permission of the instructor.

Instructor: E. Matthes

Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Tropical forests and coral reefs are among the most fascinating and diverse ecosystems, but unfortunately face multiple threats. In this seminar, brief lectures will provide a baseline understanding of these ecosystems and the key processes that shape them. However, the main focus will be the discussion of important papers in the field. Students will present papers from the primary literature that illustrate how these ecosystems function, why they are struggling and what can be done to preserve and restore them. We will pay particular attention to the observational, experimental and analytical approaches that are used in this field of study, and how the science informs conservation decisions. The final project involves writing a research proposal.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: ES 30 9

Prerequisites: One of the following - BISC 201, BISC 202, BISC 207, BISC 210, o BISC 214.

Instructor: Koniger

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

This course will focus on the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. As greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased, the oceans have absorbed more than 93% of the excess heat and roughly ¼ of the carbon dioxide. The triple threat of warming temperatures, depletions in oxygen, and drops in ocean pH have led to dramatic effects on ocean ecosystems. Students will analyze the primary literature to examine 1) how these stressors are affecting physiology, demography, phenology, and distributions of marine species separately and when acting together, 2) the potential for adaptation/evolution, 3) what lessons can be learned from the paleorecord, and 4) the impacts on coastal communities and nations. The course incorporates student-led seminar-style discussions, and a final synthetic project where teams will present evidence for the impacts of climate change on a particular marine ecosystem.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: ES 310

Prerequisites: One of the following courses - BISC 201, BISC 202, BISC 209, BISC 210, BISC 214, BIOC 219/BISC 219, ES 201, ES 220, EXTD 225, EXTD 226 or permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Selden

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

Focuses both on how to make and how to study environmental policy. Examines issues essential in understanding how environmental policy works and explores these topics in depth through case studies of current environmental policy issues. Students will also undertake an original research project and work in groups on influencing or creating local environmental policy.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Crosslisted Courses: POL 2312

Prerequisites:  Either ES 214 or a 200-level course in political science. Permission of the instructor required.

Instructor: DeSombre

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

For international environmental problems, widespread international cooperation is both important and quite difficult. Under what conditions have states been able to cooperate to solve international environmental problems? Most international efforts to address environmental problems involve international law-how does such law function? What types of issues can international environmental law address and what types can it not? This course addresses aspects of international environmental politics as a whole, with particular attention to the international legal structures used to deal with these environmental problems. Each student will additionally become an expert on one international environmental treaty to be researched throughout the course.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Crosslisted Courses: POL 3325

Prerequisites: ES 214/POL2 214 or POL3 221 or permission of the instructor.

Instructor: DeSombre

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Topic for 2023-2024: Biodiversity in the Built Environment

How do other species interact with landscapes and habitats that people have modified or even completely restructured?  Which species live in human-dominated environments, and how does the diversity of species in these habitats affect the function and health of these ecosystems?  In this course we will build our scientific understanding of biodiversity and its consequences, and explore how this understanding can inform the design and management of spaces we occupy.  We will consider habitats from agricultural landscapes to suburban parks to buildings, with special attention to the opportunities afforded by Wellesley’s remarkable campus, including the Global Flora greenhouse.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Crosslisted Courses: ES 327

Prerequisites: Two courses from the following - BISC 201, BISC 202, BISC 204, BISC 207, BISC 209, BISC 210, BISC 214, ES 201, ES 220, or ES 247/BISC 247; or permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Jones

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This is a topics course and can be taken more than once for credit as long as the topic is different each time.

Topic for 2021-22: Biodiversity in the Built Environment

How do other species interact with landscapes and habitats that people have modified or even completely restructured? How does biodiversity in human-dominated habitats affect the function and health of these ecosystems, and resilience with respect to climate change? In this course we will build our understanding of biodiversity and its consequences, and explore how this understanding can inform the design and management of spaces we occupy. We will consider habitats from agricultural landscapes to suburban parks to buildings.

Not open to students who have taken BISC 327/ES 327 with the same topic.

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 16

Crosslisted Courses: ES 327H

Prerequisites: Two of the following course - BISC 201, BISC 207, BISC 209, BISC 210, ES 220, BISC 247/ES 247; or permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Jones

Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This is a topics course and can be taken more than once for credit as long as the topic is different each time. Mandatory Credit/Non Credit. Students taking BISC 327H/ES 327H in the academic year 2021-2022 may combine with BISC 150H/ES 150H, BISC 350H or BISC 350 taken any year to fulfill either the 300-level course without lab requirement or the elective course requirement for the BISC major.

The stories we tell about the world make certain futures possible, while foreclosing other imaginable ones. This course reveals how Western historical, theoretical, and scientific ways of knowing understood both women and nature as inferior and thus needing to be controlled. Pushing back against the ideas of any inherent binary separations between sex/gender and nature/culture, we will examine feminist ecological possibilities for planetary futures. Learning from the intertwined histories of environment, race, and gender, that have led to both personal and global inequity and disaster, we will also engage solutions that imagine different futures. Recognizing that solutions to environmental problems require a feminist attunement, we can start to understand the implications that our ethical commitments have to the future of life on the planet.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: ES 328

Prerequisites: Any WGST 200-level course or ES-200-level course. Juniors and Seniors only.  

Instructor: Subramaniam

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

Poor sanitation, inadequate waste management, contaminated water supplies and exposure to indoor air pollution affect millions of people in developing countries and pose continuing risks to their health. The objective of this course is to provide students with a set of theoretical, econometric and practical skills to estimate the causal impact of environmental policies and programs with a particular focus on less-developed countries. Examples from the readings will explore the effect of laws, NGO programs or natural experiments on environmental quality and sustainability. Students will learn to critically analyze existing studies and to gauge how convincingly the research identifies a causal impact. Students will use these skills to develop an evaluation plan for a topic of their choice at the end of the term.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 20

Crosslisted Courses: ES 329

Prerequisites: ECON 201 and ECON 203.

Instructor: Keskin

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

The lushness of the mangroves, the flora and fauna of tropical landscapes, the intricacy of the rhizome, the flow of great rivers, the crashing waves of the Atlantic, the heights of mountainous lands, and expanse of the plateau—the natural world is an important site of Caribbean art in general and, more specifically, the francophone Caribbean novel of the 20th and 21st centuries. Applying eco-criticism to the field of francophone Caribbean literature, the goal of this class is to examine the ways that fiction explores the relationship between human activity and the environment. How does the novel inhabit Caribbean ecologies and topographies? How does it represent nature? In what ways do Caribbean texts meditate on nature and culture together or against one another? As the earthquake in Haiti demonstrated in 2010 with calamitous force, and the cycles of Caribbean hurricanes have shown over the years, natural disaster is also a political crisis. In view of this, we will also consider the legacies of slavery and colonialism in terms of class, gender and race politics. This investigation of the dynamics of natural and cultural phenomena will also have a theoretical frame rooted in critical texts of Caribbean literary and political movements such as Indigénisme, Négritude, Antillanité, and Créolité.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: ES 331

Prerequisites: FREN 210 or FREN 212; and one additional unit, FREN 213 or above.

Instructor:

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

Equine cultural studies has become one of the most exciting fields to emerge out of Critical Animal Studies for how it looks at the intersection of humans and horses across histories, cultures, and the humanities. This seminar will provide an introduction to Equine Cultural Studies through the lens of feminist studies in its focus on the boundaries between horses and humans. Some of the questions we explore include: Did Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty (1877) inspire the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention Against Cruelty to Animals as well as the backlash against Victorian women’s corsets? Is there a feminist way to ride a horse? How does feminist thought offer a unique interrogation of race, flesh, and femaleness that sheds new light on equine studies? How has the horse been an integral partner in therapeutic healing in both Native and Indigenous communities as well as in non-Native communities?

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: ES 343

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. At least one course in either WGST or ES or ANTH 240 is recommended. This course is intended for juniors and seniors.

Instructor: Creef

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes:

This course meets along with BISC 247/ES 247 and offers an opportunity for students to engage more deeply with the material and perform independent research. Students will be expected to more thoroughly review and reference peer-reviewed literature and assist in leading in-class discussions. Additionally, each student will develop and conduct an experiment (or observational study) over the course of the semester that examines mechanisms of plant diversity and coexistence.

Units: 1.25

Max Enrollment: 14

Crosslisted Courses: BISC 347

Prerequisites: One of the following - BISC 201, ES 220, BISC 207, or permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken BISC 247/ES 247.

Instructor: Griffith

Distribution Requirements: LAB - Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory; NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as BISC 247/ES 247.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to Juniors and Seniors.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

Units: 0.5

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

The first course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research project, culminating in the preparation of a thesis and defense of that thesis before a committee of faculty from the Environmental Studies department. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with thesis research (365) in the second semester. This route does not lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring; Fall

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

When we talk about food, we think about personal passions, individual diets and eating behaviors, but we might also think about cultural traditions, consumption disparities and food insecurities, about public health and sustainability, animal rights, deforestation, and genome edited crops. Clearly, the topic challenges us to address difficult questions of intersectionality (of the personal and the political, the local and the global, the human and the non-human). In this seminar we will learn to translate academic discourses into public writing formats that might include op-eds, social media posts, (cook) book reviews, Wikipedia entries, restaurant reviews, and portraits of food activists.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Crosslisted Courses: ES 362

Prerequisites: Open to Juniors and Seniors, or by permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken GER 362.

Instructor: Nolden

Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature

Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes: This course meets with GER 362.

The second course in a two-semester investigation of a significant research project, culminating in the preparation of a thesis and defense of that thesis before a committee of faculty from the Environmental Studies department. This route does not lead to departmental honors.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: Permission of the department.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes:

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: ES 360 and permission of the department.

Instructor:

Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring

Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.

This course examines the politics of environmental issues in the United States. The course has two primary goals: First, to introduce students to the institutions, stakeholders, and political processes important to debates over environmental policy at the federal level. Second, to develop and practice skills of analyzing and making decisions relevant to environmental politics and policy. Drawing on the literature of environmental politics and policy, this course will consider how environmental issues are framed in political discourse, various approaches to environmental advocacy and reform, and the contested role of science in environmental politics. The course will be organized around environmental case studies, including endangered species conservation, public lands management, air and water pollution, and toxics regulation.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 16

Crosslisted Courses: POL 1381

Prerequisites: A 200-level ES course or POL1 200 or permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Turner

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered

Notes:

This course will delve into the complex interrelationship between migration and the environment. We will examine how environmental changes influence migration patterns and, conversely, how migration contributes to environmental changes. Through a combination of theoretical discourse and real-world case studies, participants will develop critical thinking abilities and the capability to propose sustainable solutions for pressing issues at the intersection of migration and the environment.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 15

Crosslisted Courses: ES 395

Prerequisites: ES 214 or POL3 221.

Instructor: Ssekajja

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Spring

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring

Notes:

Tax carbon? Label genetically modified crops? Ban endocrine disruptors? In this course, an interdisciplinary capstone experience for the ES major, we will engage with such questions and related environmental sustainability issues as public writers. Students will choose one environmental issue, which will be the focus of their environmental “beat” during the semester. They will draw on an interdisciplinary toolset from environmental studies to analyze and communicate the scientific, economic, political, and ethical dimensions of pressing policy issues. Students will conduct independent research to produce weekly articles, such as op-eds, blog posts, press releases, book reviews, policy memos, and interviews with environmental professionals. Class sessions will be organized as writing workshops focused on the interdisciplinary analysis and content of student work.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 12

Prerequisites: A declared major in environmental studies and completion of six courses that count toward the ES major, or permission of the instructor. Open to Juniors and Seniors only.

Instructor: Turner

Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall

Notes: