17 courses with the subject ENV, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ENV 1100Introduction to Environmental Studies1/3
The study of environmental problems and their solutions requires an interdisciplinary approach. This course will examine current environmental issues from the intersection of several key disciplines including: environmental philosophy and history, environmental policy, and science. The course will develop these different approaches for analyzing environmental problems, explore the tensions between them, and present a framework for integrating them. Topics such as environmental justice, developing nations, globalization, and climate change policy will be explored.
ENV 2110Regenerative Sustainability: Living Landscapes, Planetary Resources, and Policies1/3
Sustainability traditionally focuses on reducing harm to the environment and maintaining balance by using resources responsibly. Regenerative sustainability goes further. Inspired by nature’s ability to heal and renew itself, it promotes systems that restore and regenerate – helping landscapes and communities co-adapt, grow, and thrive over time. This approach is systemsoriented, action-driven, and self-sustaining. It allows natural and human systems to continuously evolve and renew themselves. In this course, students will explore practical strategies for restoring ecosystems, strengthening resilience, and creating self-sustaining systems. Key topics include conservation, reforestation, combating desertification, restoring watersheds, mines, and fostering ethical resource management. Students will compare large-scale sustainability initiatives—such as Africa’s Great Green Wall and China’s Three-North Shelterbelt Program—to community-led efforts like agroforestry and agroecology in the Sahel and Sahara, which leverage local knowledge, participatory governance, and adaptive technologies. This comparison will highlight why topdown policies often fall short, while decentralized, community-driven solutions tend to succeed. Through case studies, workshops, and hands-on projects, students will examine governance models and restoration strategies, exploring both government-led approaches and grassroots solutions. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to apply regenerative sustainability principles across policy, governance, agriculture, hydrology, energy, business, and technology to tackle global challenges. This course equips students with the skills needed for IQP projects and future graduate studies.
ENV 2120Documentary Filmmaking for Advocacy and Policy1/3
This course leverages documentary filmmaking as a powerful medium for communicating change processes, disseminating information, advocating for action, and influencing policy at the local, state, and national levels. Students will develop the skills to craft compelling narratives that simplify complex issues for diverse audiences while driving social and political change. They will learn the art of designing and creating films strategically tailored to shape policy discussions and policymaking. Students will base their films on archival work, fieldwork in Worcester, IQP projects, or graduate research in the US and abroad. They will engage in collaborative research and filmmaking processes, gaining hands-on experience at every stage of production, from concept development to final editing. They will work in teams to explore environmental documentary genres, analyze case studies of impactful films, and create their own short documentaries aimed at influencing public opinion and policy decisions. The course covers storytelling techniques, advocacy strategies, ethical considerations, and the integration of audiovisual media into policy advocacy campaigns. By exploring how documentaries can inform and inspire actionable policy responses, students will develop a deeper understanding of the intersection between communication, activism, and governance. This course will be useful for students who wish to engage with digital communication and those who wish to make a documentary of their projects, such as MQP and IQP, for sharing with the broader community.
Sustainability planning seeks to anticipate and balance environmental, social, and economic impacts of human actions. This course presents an overview of how various perspectives can contribute to frameworks for environmental land use planning and management. Students are encouraged to think critically about problems land and natural resource use pose to society. Technical principles and analysis of sustainability planning are introduced and applied to challenges that communities currently face such as food, fiber and energy production, environmental conservation, hazard mitigation and resilience, water security, economic development, and waste management. Techniques to engage a diverse set of stakeholders in a collaborative planning process are examined along with the role of technology. This course will be offered in academic years ending in even numbers.
ENV 2310Environmental Governance and Innovation1/3
With global attention dominated by environmental catastrophe and despair, we will spotlight new work that has brought together scientists, environmentalists, engineers, and artists to tackle the most serious problems facing communities. We will explore the political ecology implications of control over essential resources and the positive consequences of rethinking and democratizing basic social needs for a more sustainable future. Recent exciting case studies will feature examples of simple solutions that inspire elegant, transferrable, and inexpensive applications of technological design. We will examine the role and obligation that scientists have to collaborate with interdisciplinary and public policy efforts that benefit people with sustainable approaches to architecture, food, energy, transportation, and infrastructure. Students may not receive credit for both ENV 230X and ENV 2310. This course will be offered in academic years ending in even numbers.
ENV 2600Environmental Problems in the Developing World1/3
Environment and development are often seen as incompatible, in part because many poor people in the developing world depend directly on natural resources for their livelihoods. At the same time, poor people are often seen as responsible for causing environmental degradation because they lack the knowledge, skills and resources to manage the environment effectively. The vicious circle is completed as environmental degradation exacerbates poverty. However, optimists argue that poor people can and do contribute positively to environmental outcomes, that states and organizations can facilitate their efforts and that environmental interventions can coincide with development. This course will examine these different perspectives on environmental problems in the developing world through the insights and critiques of social science. Subjects covered include sustainable development, population, environmental risks, gender, urbanization, environmental decision making, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The goals of this course are to think critically about the various links between environment and development and the role of governmental and non-governmental organizations in promoting sustainable development in the developing world. This course will be offered in academic years ending in even numbers.
ENV 2700Social Media, Social Movements, and the Environment1/3
Social media platforms are changing the world of social movements, giving rise to a new generation of social activism. Social media can enable local actors to link with others from across the globe to incite social and environmental change. Social media has enabled people to document and share injustices (e.g., violence; dumping of toxic waste) in places where freedom of the press is limited or non-existent, and it has enabled people across different social groups (race, class, etc.) to engage with one another on issues of shared concern. Social media has also allowed people to share resources (financial, expertise, and organizational) with other social actors across the globe, empowering communities in novel ways. This course introduces students to the phenomena of social and environmental movements, theories on why they succeed and fail, and how social media has changed the landscape of social mobilization. This course will draw on interdisciplinary readings, concepts, and case studies from the social sciences, with emphasis on geography, public policy, sociology, and media studies. Course work will include small group projects, analyses of current social movement cases, and a final project. The final project will consist of interviewing members of a current social movement (potentially using social media), evaluating whether particular social media applications have helped to enable social mobilization, and designing new or revised social media tools to further enhance social mobilization.
ENV 2710Designing for Climate Resilience and Justice1/3
Resilience is the capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to bounce back after a disaster. Through resilience we can live, and even thrive, in the face of natural disasters. Resilience involves adaptation to the wide range of regional and localized impacts that are expected with a warming planet: more intense storms, greater precipitation, coastal and valley flooding, longer and more severe droughts in some areas, wildfires, melting permafrost, warmer temperatures, and power outages. Resilient design is the intentional design of buildings, landscapes, communities, and regions in response to these vulnerabilities. In this course, we will work to better understand what is at risk in a changing climate with more extreme and frequent disasters, the role people/companies and policies play in these disasters, who is most at risk and why, and develop resilient designs focused on practical, innovative, on-the-ground, and just solutions. Students may not receive credit for both ENV 271X and ENV 2710 This course will be offered in academic years ending in even numbers.
ENV 2720Artificial Intelligence and the Environment1/3
This course examines current and potential uses for artificial intelligence (AI) in conservation, climate action, and to accelerate and scale sustainability efforts. It also examines current and potential negative environmental impacts, from energy and water consumption to electronic waste and environmental injustice. This course uses a case study approach and diverse theoretical perspectives to examine and analyze current and emerging uses of AI in forestry sustainability, firefighting, flood and pollution prediction, climate modeling, biodiversity cataloguing, and more. Cases will also be used to understand current community and environmental impacts associated with mineral extraction, water and energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions. Students will consider debates and relationships surrounding data capitalism, AI, climate change, and social justice. In a rapidly changing and developing AI landscape, students will choose a topic on AI and the environment to explore the current benefits and harms of the use of AI in their context of focus for humans, ecosystems, and the planet, They will also research and analyze ways to reduce harm and enhance the social and environmental benefits of AI in their context of focus.
ENV 2800Special Topics in Environmental and Sustainability Studies
(Credits will be assigned by the instructor ranging from 1/6-1/3 unit) This course provides an opportunity for students with little to no background in Environmental and Sustainability Studies to learn about a special topic in the area. This course may be repeated for different topics.
ENV 2900The Green Economy and Models for Alternative Forms of Development1/3
This course examines the limitations of traditional economic models and charts a new course for current policies and practices. To chart this path we draw upon and synthesize examples from existing alternative economies (e.g., different forms of dematerialization, hybrid organizations, solidary economy, sharing economy) .The course critically examines current paradigms of greening and seeks to expand thinking that will encompass new, alternative, and socially just conceptions of economy and economic development. A particular emphasis is laid on the spatial implications of de-growth oriented activities which partly challenge existing models and research methods in economic geography. This course will be offered in academic years ending in even numbers.
This course will take students on an adventure, both in the class and in the field. Students will examine the history of sustainable development, its antecedents, the factors that have influenced its evolution, and how the sustainable city came into existence. Students will be invited on a number of virtual field trips to sustainable cities from around the world. The goal will be to explore the underlying factors of sustainable urbanism, why it looks the way it does in different places, and how students can exercise their own agency in developing alternatives. Students will also develop their own field trips for publication on the course website. This course will be offered in academic years ending in even numbers.
This course examines the perceived, existing, and potential links between women and the environment with an emphasis on the roles of women in environmental movements, climate change, climate justice, forest conservation, water management, disaster recovery, womenperceptions of environmental risk, and other environmental issues. Through reading, discussion, documentary films and research project, we will explore how social, economic, political and cultural systems that shape women’s environmental experiences and their resistance and strategies for social change.
ENV 4800Special Topics in Environmental and Sustainability Studies
(Credits will be assigned by the instructor ranging from 1/6-1/3 unit) This course provides an opportunity for students with a solid background and interest in Environmental and Sustainability Studies to learn about a special topic in the area. Recommended background: one 2000-level Environmental and Sustainability Studies courses (or equivalent). This course may be repeated for different topics.
