Course Requirements in Environmental Studies

13.5 course credits in addition to the pre-reqs are required for the major. They include 4 core courses, junior seminar, senior seminar, and 6 concentration courses. These courses must be taken for a letter grade.

See Yale University OCI for course availability, times and descriptions. Search under "Environmental Studies" for a list of current or recent course offerings in Environmental Studies.

Core Courses

Majors must take at least 2 core courses from both the humanities and social sciences (Group A) & the environmental and natural science (Group B). Core courses can fulfill Yale College distributional requirements.

Group A: EVST 120, EVST 226, EVST 255, EVST 340, EVST 345

• EVST 120: Introduction to Environmental History. (Paul Sabin) Survey of interactions between people and natural environments in North America from precolonial times to the present, including ecological, political, cultural, and economic dimensions. The rise of modern conservation and environmental movements; development of public policy.

• EVST 226: Global Environmental History. (Harvey Weiss) The dynamic relationship between environmental and social forces from the Pleistocene to the present. Pleistocene extinctions; transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture; origins of cities, states, and civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt; adaptations and collapses of early Old and New World civilizations in the face of environmental disasters; the destruction and reconstruction of the New World by the Old.

• EVST 255: Environmental Politics and Law. (John Wargo) Exploration of the politics, policy, and law associated with attempts to manage environmental quality and natural resources. Themes of democracy, liberty, power, property, equality, causation, and risk. Case histories include air quality, water quality and quantity, pesticides and toxic substances, land use, agriculture and food, parks and protected areas, and energy.

• EVST 340: Economics of Natural Resources. (Robert Mendelsohn) Microeconomic theory brought to bear on current issues in natural resource policy. Topics include regulation of pollution, hazardous waste management, depletion of the world's forests and fisheries, wilderness and wildlife preservation, and energy planning.

• EVST 345: Environmental Anthropology. (Michael Dove) History of the anthropological study of the environment. The nature-culture dichotomy, ecology and social organization, methodological debates, and the politics of the environment.

Group B: EVST 201 & 202 (Lab), EVST 223

• EVST 201 & 202L: Atmosphere, Ocean and Environmental Change. (Ronald Smith) Physical processes that control Earth's atmosphere, ocean, and climate. Quantitative methods for constructing energy and water budgets. Topics include clouds, rain, severe storms, regional climate, the ozone layer, air pollution, ocean currents and productivity, the seasons, El Niño, the history of Earth's climate, global warming, energy, and water resources.

• EVST 223: General Ecology. (David Vasseur and David Post) The theory and practice of ecology, including the ecology of individuals, population dynamics and regulation, community structure, ecosystem function, and ecological interactions at broad spatial and temporal scales. Topics such as climate change, fisheries management, and infectious diseases are placed in an ecological context.

Junior Seminars

Majors must complete 1 course from the offerings. You may take this seminar during any year, not just the junior year.

Junior seminars: EVST 200, EVST 215, EVST 285, EVST 290, EVST 367, EVST 398

• EVST 200: Earth System Science. (Jeffrey Park) A survey of geoscience. Interaction of lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and Earth's deep interior; natural controls on environment and climate in past, present, and future; rocks, minerals, glaciers, earthquakes, and volcanoes; natural hazards and natural resources.

• EVST 215: Writing About Science and the Environment. (Carl Zimmer) An intensive workshop in writing about science and the environment for a broad audience. Translating complex subjects into elegant prose, conducting interviews, handling controversies, researching articles, and finding one's voice. Readings include exemplary works ranging from newspaper articles to book excerpts.

• EVST 285: Political Ecology: Nature, Culture, and Power. (Amity Doolittle) Study of the relationship between society and the environment. Global processes of environmental conservation, development, and conflicts over natural resource use; political-economic contexts of environmental change; ways in which understandings of nature are discursively bound up with notions of culture and identity.

• EVST 290: Geographic Information Systems. (C. Dana Tomlin) A practical introduction to the nature and use of geographic information systems (GIS) in environmental science and management. Applied techniques for the acquisition, creation, storage, management, visualization, animation, transformation, analysis, and synthesis of cartographic data in digital form.

• EVST 367: Water Resources and Environmental Change. (James Saiers) The effects of variations in the hydrologic cycle on the global distribution of freshwater. The role of environmental change in regulating freshwater supply and quality. The influences of agriculture, industry, mining, urbanization, climate change, and energy-production alternatives on freshwater resources in the United States and abroad.

• EVST 398: Energy, Climate, Law, and Policy. (John Wargo) Overview of the legal norms governing patterns of energy use and associated adverse effects on climate stability, environmental quality, and human health. Focus on U.S. law and policy, with some consideration of relevant international treaties. Special attention to building efficiency and to land-use regulation and urban growth, particularly coastal prospecting and development.

Senior Seminar

Seniors are required to take two semesters of Senior Research. EVST 496a and 496b

• EVST 496: Senior Research Project and Colloquium. (John Wargo, Paul Sabin) Independent research under the supervision of members of the faculty, resulting in a senior essay. Students meet with peers and faculty members regularly throughout the fall term to discuss the progress of their research. Projects should offer substantial opportunity for interdisciplinary work on environmental problems. Students may choose to do either a one- or a two-term senior project.

Concentration Courses

Students plan their concentration in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the student's advisor. A concentration is defined as six courses that provide depth in a field of interest; four courses should be intermediate and upper level electives from a single department or program and at least two additional electives from relevant disciplines outside the immediate area of concentration forming a coherent area of study.

Suggested Concentration Courses

Supplemental Graduate Courses