The Environmental Studies Curriculum

class activity Antioch New England’s Environmental Studies programs provide a transdisciplinary foundation for environmental learning, while allowing students the opportunity to develop appropriate professional specializations.

During the first year, all students take two courses in each of three foundation areas—biosphere science, civic ecology, and natural communities. The purpose of these foundation courses is to provide students with a conceptual tool kit for interpreting contemporary environmental issues. We believe that an understanding of the interrelationship between biotic, abiotic, and human systems is at the core of environmental problem solving and insight.

Biosphere Science courses provide students with a substantive foundation in biospheric processes, including atmospheric, hydrological, and geological systems, biogeochemical cycles, and biome scale phenomena. We stress the ability to develop observational and interpretive skills in the spatial and temporal dimensions of environmental change, and to juxtapose local and global trends and patterns.

Civic Ecology courses draw from six broad areas—environmental policy and economics, power and citizenship, environmental history, values and ethics, environmental literature and nature writing, and the environmental arts. Each of these areas requires a depth of civic engagement, involving a deeper understanding of political economy, decision-making systems, cultural diversity, or questions of identity and meaning.

Natural Communities courses emphasize the flora and fauna of the New England region. They cover the ecological dynamics of diverse communities and landscapes, including an organismic, community, and population orientation. We stress the development and practice of basic skills in field ecology research and techniques, ecological interpretation, and field-based taxonomy and identification, all of which are skills that are transferable beyond the New England landscape.

These foundation courses allow all students to proceed into specific program tracks, allowing them opportunities to deepen their knowledge and create unique specializations. In the first year, in conjunction with the foundation courses, students take two program-based skills courses, specific to their fields.

During the second year, each of the master’s degree programs has its own set of specific substantive requirements, as pertinent to the skills, concepts, research, and professional applications of the field. Within these requirements, supported by numerous elective choices, students choose a suite of courses that meet both the needs of the profession and their own individualized interests. Students gain additional specialization and skill development through the practicum, as well as the thesis and/or master’s project (in relevant programs), and supervised independent studies.

Last Updated: 4/21/08