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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.

Environmental Studies News

iBerkshires: Professor Forte’s ‘Pluriverse’ Pavilion Example of Intersection of Disciplines

Local news service iBerkshires reports on the opening ceremony of the Pluriverse Pavilion, designed and constructed by Professor Giuseppina Forte and students in her “Design for the Pluriverse” course. Read more: https://www.iberkshires.com/story/76873/Williams-College-Pluriverse-Pavilion-Example-of-Intersection-of-Disciplines.html

Bart Jones ’68 Awarded

Bart Jones ’68 was awarded the Katchen Coley Award for Excellence in Conservation by the statewide Connecticut Land Conservation Council (CLCC) in June. Bart was among the student cohort who took the first environmental course offered by the Environmental Studies Program in the...

Pluriverse Pavilion Opening

We warmly welcome faculty, students, staff, relatives, and friends to celebrate this special occasion!

Prof Giuseppina Forte builds Pluriverse Pavilion on campus

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Art Giuseppina Forte is constructing the Pluriverse Pavilion with her students on campus! Watch this video for a time lapse of the early construction process. She says, “Exciting days as we begin assembling the...

Environmental Studies and Zilkha Center for the Environment Reorganization

Effective July 1, 2024, the Zilkha Center and the co-curricular components of the Center for Environmental Studies merged to become the new Zilkha Center for the Environment, while the Environmental Studies Program became a stand-alone interdisciplinary academic program that is...
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