Williams College
AC-3: Undergraduate Program

"Environmental issues call upon citizens, organizations, and governments to grasp complex scientific concepts, address conflicting human values, and make difficult economic, political and ethical choices. The three curricular options in Environmental Studies—the major in Environmental Studies and the concentrations in Environmental and in Maritime Studies—are designed to prepare students to effectively address these issues by integrating perspectives and methodologies from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the arts and humanities. The program is administered by the Center for Environmental Studies (CES), located in the Class of 1966 Environmental Center. Founded in 1967, CES was one of the first environmental studies programs at a liberal arts college. In addition to the academic program described below, CES is the focus of a varied set of activities in which students lead and participate, often with other members of the Williams community. CES offers extensive resources including databases, funding for student-organizations, and student initiated activities, and generous support for summer research and internships. The Class of 1966 Center, a Living Building and the Program’s home, includes a classroom, living room, study rooms, kitchen, as well as student gardens. The Center manages the Hopkins Memorial Forest, a 2600-acre natural area located a bit to the northwest of campus, in which there are field-study sites and a laboratory, and where passive recreation opportunities may be found in all seasons. CES also operates the Environmental Analysis Laboratory in Morley Science Center. The Maritime Studies concentration builds on the course offerings of the Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies Program at Mystic Seaport. More information can be found on the Center for Environmental Studies site."

The major in Environmental Policy brings together core courses in Environmental Studies with relevant coursework in related fields including Economics and Political Science. The goal of the Environmental Policy major is to combine scientific literacy with an understanding of the economic, political and cultural structures involved in institutional decision–making on environmental matters.

The Environmental Studies concentration provides students with an opportunity to explore how humans interact with the environment, including physical, biological, philosophical, and social elements. The concentration is designed so that students will understand the complexity of issues and perspectives and appreciate that most environmental issues lack distinct disciplinary boundaries. The goal of the concentration is to educate students to be well–informed, environmentally–literate citizens of the planet who have the capacity to become active participants in the local and global community. To this end, the concentration is designed to develop the capability to think in interdisciplinary ways and to use synthetic approaches to solve problems while incorporating the knowledge and experiences gained from majoring in other departments at the College.

Understanding the oceans and our interactions with them is of increasing importance in this era of climate change, sea-level rise, fisheries crises, and the internationalization of the high seas. We encourage students to investigate our WaterWorld from the perspectives of the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences. Maritime Studies is an interdisciplinary, cross-divisional program that includes the literature, history, policy issues, and science of the ocean. Candidates for the concentration in Maritime Studies must complete a minimum of seven courses: the interdisciplinary introductory course (Geosciences 104 Oceanography), four intermediate core courses (at Williams-Mystic), an elective, and the senior seminar.