Denison University
AC-3: Undergraduate Program

Program Guidelines and Goals

Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the relationship between humans and the environment. Both a major and a minor are available to students with an interest in the rigorous study of these issues. The major requires students to develop a specific environmental focus as a concentration in addition to the environmental core and distribution courses. The minor in ENVS allows students to integrate an environmental perspective with their major field of study.

As an interdisciplinary area, Environmental Studies draws on work in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts. It endeavors to bridge these many intellectual approaches and perspectives in the hope that students will gain a deeper understanding both of the environmental concerns facing the world and of proactive opportunities for change. Among issues of concern and investigation are resource utilization, the impact of technology on ecosystems, relationships between the environment and sociocultural systems, geographic analysis, environmental economics and policy, conservation of biological diversity, nature writing, alternative dispute resolution, environmental psychology, political ecology, environmental photography, sustainable agriculture and environmental ethics, among many others.

Departmental Guidelines and Goals

We seek to understand how Earth and the environment have evolved and continue to evolve, how Earth systems, including human agents, interact to produce the environment in which we live, and how present and future changes may impact the habitability of Earth.

Access information from a cross-section of disciplines as you learn about the Earth and environmental sciences. Earth science, physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, computer science, anthropology, and data analytics provide evidence-based, robust knowledge to understand the processes that shape the Earth, and the impacts those processes have on humans, other organisms, and the environment.

Majors are encouraged to conduct primary research with their faculty. Commonly these research projects culminate in presentations at national and international scientific meetings. Some projects even result in peer reviewed publications with student and faculty co-authors.

Outside the Classroom

Each semester, the department takes multi-day trips to explore earth and environmental science concepts and issues in the field. These trips include regional, national, and international destinations. Recent regional trips include New England, the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and the central and southern Appalachians. We also regularly travel to the western US (e.g., Arizona, California, Nevada) and Hawaii. Recent international field trips have visited the Bahamas, Costa Rica, and Canada.

Our field trips, which involve spending several days together off-campus, working on a common problem, give our students opportunities to develop close bonds with each other and with our faculty. Denison alumni have recognized the importance of these field studies to their own careers and have provided generous funds to help subsidize these life-changing experiences, making them financially available to all Earth and environmental science majors and minors.

During the summers, students have opportunities to conduct paid research with faculty mentors on geologic and environmental research projects. students can also take part in internships in a wide variety of industries, including state and federal agencies (e.g., National Park Service), natural history museums, and private environmental firms. All majors participate in a senior seminar that focuses on a specific Earth and Environmental Science question or subject area under collective guidance of members of the department’s faculty.

Global health majors are uniquely positioned to evaluate the patterns and societal issues associated with understanding and responses to diseases. They will have the ability to understand, evaluate, and critically assess health from a global perspective and can contribute to multiple sectors of society.

The global health major is geared to provide critical exposure to applied and experiential-based learning to understand health from a local yet global context. Interdisciplinarity is at the core of the discipline of global health. Students will examine critical problems and methodologies that are specific to global health as well as additional fine arts, humanities, social and natural science disciplines.

Students are immersed in the field through a core set of six global health courses, two elective courses, two consecutive language courses (beyond the general education requirement), and an experiential learning component, during which students apply ethical approaches in global health research and practice, and display critical self-reflection, cultural humility and ongoing learning in global health.

Central to the global health major is a critical examination of health disparities, the interaction between health and the environment, and the burden of disease and mortality. Global health majors will analyze quantitative and qualitative data in order to inform policy and programmatic change. Upon completion of the major, students will be competent in addressing global health issues with a critical lens and from a culturally relevant perspective.

Program Guidelines and Goals

Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the relationship between humans and the environment. Both a major and a minor are available to students with an interest in the rigorous study of these issues. The major requires students to develop a specific environmental focus as a concentration in addition to the environmental core and distribution courses. The minor in ENVS allows students to integrate an environmental perspective with their major field of study.

As an interdisciplinary area, Environmental Studies draws on work in the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the arts. It endeavors to bridge these many intellectual approaches and perspectives in the hope that students will gain a deeper understanding both of the environmental concerns facing the world and of proactive opportunities for change. Among issues of concern and investigation are resource utilization, the impact of technology on ecosystems, relationships between the environment and sociocultural systems, geographic analysis, environmental economics and policy, conservation of biological diversity, nature writing, alternative dispute resolution, environmental psychology, political ecology, environmental photography, sustainable agriculture and environmental ethics, among many others.

We seek to understand how Earth and the environment have evolved and continue to evolve, how Earth systems, including human agents, interact to produce the environment in which we live, and how present and future changes may impact the habitability of Earth.

Access information from a cross-section of disciplines as you learn about the Earth and environmental sciences. Earth science, physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, computer science, anthropology, and data analytics provide evidence-based, robust knowledge to understand the processes that shape the Earth, and the impacts those processes have on humans, other organisms, and the environment.

Majors are encouraged to conduct primary research with their faculty. Commonly these research projects culminate in presentations at national and international scientific meetings. Some projects even result in peer reviewed publications with student and faculty co-authors.

Outside the Classroom

Each semester, the department takes multi-day trips to explore earth and environmental science concepts and issues in the field. These trips include regional, national, and international destinations. Recent regional trips include New England, the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and the central and southern Appalachians. We also regularly travel to the western US (e.g., Arizona, California, Nevada) and Hawaii. Recent international field trips have visited the Bahamas, Costa Rica, and Canada.

Our field trips, which involve spending several days together off-campus, working on a common problem, give our students opportunities to develop close bonds with each other and with our faculty. Denison alumni have recognized the importance of these field studies to their own careers and have provided generous funds to help subsidize these life-changing experiences, making them financially available to all Earth and environmental science majors and minors.

During the summers, students have opportunities to conduct paid research with faculty mentors on geologic and environmental research projects. students can also take part in internships in a wide variety of industries, including state and federal agencies (e.g., National Park Service), natural history museums, and private environmental firms. All majors participate in a senior seminar that focuses on a specific Earth and Environmental Science question or subject area under collective guidance of members of the department’s faculty.

Global health majors are uniquely positioned to evaluate the patterns and societal issues associated with understanding and responses to diseases. They will have the ability to understand, evaluate, and critically assess health from a global perspective and can contribute to multiple sectors of society.

The global health major is geared to provide critical exposure to applied and experiential-based learning to understand health from a local yet global context. Interdisciplinarity is at the core of the discipline of global health. Students will examine critical problems and methodologies that are specific to global health as well as additional fine arts, humanities, social and natural science disciplines.

Students are immersed in the field through a core set of six global health courses, two elective courses, two consecutive language courses (beyond the general education requirement), and an experiential learning component, during which students apply ethical approaches in global health research and practice, and display critical self-reflection, cultural humility and ongoing learning in global health.

Central to the global health major is a critical examination of health disparities, the interaction between health and the environment, and the burden of disease and mortality. Global health majors will analyze quantitative and qualitative data in order to inform policy and programmatic change. Upon completion of the major, students will be competent in addressing global health issues with a critical lens and from a culturally relevant perspective.

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