University of California, Santa Barbara
IN-4: Innovation 4

The Interdepartmental PhD Emphasis in Environment and Society (IEES) is a new PhD emphasis, approved in spring 2014 and accepting its first cohort in fall 2014, which has the goal of providing UCSB doctoral students in participating departments an opportunity to receive training and mentorship in interdisciplinary environmental studies and sciences beyond the normal scope of their degree programs. Students that join the emphasis and complete all of the requirements will receive a certificate analogous to an undergraduate minor. IEES is guided by an advisory board of faculty from diverse departments across campus, representing social sciences, humanities, and the natural sciences. The administrative home for the emphasis is the Environmental Studies Program. To earn the emphasis certificate, students must complete the following requirements: 1. All students in the emphasis must register for a Core Seminar, offered each fall, which will bring together that year’s cohort for an interdisciplinary discussion with faculty from across campus about key issues, concepts, problems, and methods in interdisciplinary environmental studies and sciences. 2. All students in the emphasis must take three elective courses in departments and disciplines other than their own. Students may choose these electives from a standing list, or they may design a more tailored elective curriculum, with proper justification. 3. All students in the emphasis must have one outside member on their dissertation committees, selected from the list of faculty affiliated with the emphasis. 4. All students must attend the IEES annual symposium, where beginning and continuing students will present their research. 5. All students must include some aspect of interdisciplinary environmental studies as a substantial component of their dissertations. There are many ways to fulfill this final requirement. The following departments helped to form the emphasis and are participating in the emphasis now that it has been launched: 1. Anthropology 2. Bren School of Environmental Science and Management 3. Earth Science 4. East Asian Languages Cultural Studies 5. Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology 6. English 7. Environmental Studies Program 8. Film and Media Studies 9. Geography 10. Global International Studies 11. History 12. Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine Science 13. Political Science 14. Psychology 15. Sociology

UCSB is proud of achieving campus approval for the emphasis and successfully structuring a joint emphasis across fifteen diverse departments. This required faculty votes in every participating department and gathering support letters from departmental chairs and graduate students.