How do we design environmental solutions that are just, equitable, and sustainable? How do we transform the systems and ways of life that have created the global environmental crisis? And how do we explain the values and ideas that people have used to make that crisis comprehensible?
The Environmental Studies Program is committed to answering these questions. Our core faculty conduct innovative research on topics that include environmental justice, design and climate change, and the politics of place, and our faculty affiliates teach in a wide range of fields across the college curriculum.
The major and concentration in Environmental Studies prepare students to put critical environmental thinking into practice. As one of the oldest environmental studies programs in the world, founded in 1967, we have alumni who are leading global conversations about the twin challenges of inequity and environmental degradation. With their support, we coordinate a summer internship program that enables dozens of students each year to work in leading labs, serve in government offices, learn the latest techniques in sustainable agriculture, write environmental fiction, and much more. The Zilkha Center for the Environment facilitates co-curricular environmental education and manages the Hopkins Memorial Forest, a 2600-acre long-term research site located 1.5 miles from campus. Faculty and student research is also supported by the Environmental Analysis Laboratory.
Students interested in the Environmental Studies major or concentration are encouraged to consult with members of the Environmental Studies Program and to contact the Environmental Studies Chair, Professor Sarah Jacobson.