84 courses with the subject ENVS, 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.
ENVS 001Introduction to Environmental Studies1
Built around four case studies, this course provides a broad introduction to the inherently interdisciplinary work of environmental studies by providing historical background and examining options for action using tools from a variety of perspectives, chiefly from the sciences and social sciences. Course themes include tragedy of the commons issues, and rights and environmental justice; sustainable development, including increasing urbanization of humanity, population growth, and Kuznets curve; global climate change science and debate; feedback loops and tipping points; and community adaptation and resilience. Non-division. 1 credit. Eligible for ESCH Spring 2027. Green and Pfluger. Spring 2028 STAFF.
ENVS 002FYS: Indigenous Art, Land, and Environment1
Cross-listed with ARTH001N This first year seminar introduces students to the ways that Indigenous art and cultural traditions center diverse relationships to the environment, land, and place. This course will examine how Indigenous artists of the Americas model and visually express a relationship to place as something inhabited equally by human and non-human beings across present and ancestral time. Throughout this seminar, we will examine maps, land art, monuments, and other visual material through an expanded field, considering other practices such as beading, pottery, and carving alongside contemporary Indigenous art as expressions of land relations that reframe the mainstream history of Euro-American art and environmentalist movements. Students will be asked to consider and evaluate art and the present landscape in terms of colonial histories, ancestral timescales, and changing Indigenous traditions, including a critical evaluation of the land and place upon which Swarthmore College is situated. This writing course will introduce students to forms of art writing such as the art review, the personal response essay, cartographic interpretation, and the research paper. Humanities. Writing course. 1 credit Eligible for ENVS Fall 2026. Green Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies
ENVS 005FYS: Environmental Impacts of Nobel Prize Winning Science1
(Cross-listed as CHEM 003D ) This course will discuss the environmental impacts and legacy of big science, as discussed through the lens of Nobel Prize winning discoveries. The course will introduce themes centered around plastics, GMOs, pesticides, climate change, etc and will discuss how key scientific discoveries have impacted human lives in both positive and negative ways. Along with reading and discussing the scientific literature, this course will also introduce popular scientific writing and reporting. Throughout the course we will also include discussions relating to diversity and inclusion in STEM, ethics, and politicalization of science. Natural science and engineering. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, GLBL-Core
ENVS 006First-Year Seminar: Apocalypse: Hope and Despair in the Last Days1
(Cross-listed as RELG 006C ) For millennia, speculation about the end of the world has fired the imaginations of western cultures. Today, environmentalists argue we are in the time of the “Sixth Great Extinction,” while religious communities assert we are living into the end of the world based on ancient prophecies. This course will ask how two seemingly unrelated modes of discourse - environmental science and religious studies - converge to shape productive responses to the world’s end; and the power of Earth-based spiritualities (with special reference to Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, and Indigenous worldviews) to give birth to hope and resilience in the face of the coming storm. Humanities. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH Fall 2026. Wallace. Fall 2027 Wallace.
(Cross-listed as BLST 007 for the fall of 2025) ChesterSemester is an interdisciplinary course on social change with an engaged scholarship internship component. Housed within the Environmental Studies Program and the Black Studies Program and supported by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, it consists of a weekly class facilitated by engaged faculty, staff, and community partners; a supervised internship in the nearby city of Chester; and a final research paper with a public-facing presentation. The purpose of ChesterSemester is to build strong relationships between committed students and community leaders on common projects of mutual transformation. In sum, the ChesterSemester Fellowship includes a Fall course with a 4-5 hr/wk internship (and Spring paid internship) in Chester City. Humanities. 1.0 credit. Eligible for BLST, ENVS, ESCH.
This course is a survey of interrelationships between plants and human cultures. Different cultural lenses, such as socio-economic status, cultural heritage, and residential environment (urban vs. rural) will be used to explore landscapes. Issues, such as invasive species, water management and societal benefits of gardens provide opportunities for exploration, discussion and problem solving. Students will complete a semester-long observation project and work in groups to discover more about gardens of different cultures. 1.0 credit. Eligible for ESCH
(Cross-listed as BIOL 009 ) The scale and efficiency of our food system is one of the marvels of the modern world. Yet in many ways this system is broken. This course will address the current state of our agricultural food system from scientific, humanitarian and sustainability perspectives, focusing on the U.S. Each student will grow crop plants and maintain a micro-garden plot on campus, as well as develop educational signage for the public that conveys information about agriculture and/or food systems. The scale and efficiency of our food system is one of the marvels of the modern world. Yet in many ways this system is broken. This course will address the current state of our agricultural food system from scientific, humanitarian and sustainability perspectives, focusing on the U.S. Each student will grow crop plants, maintain two micro-garden plots on campus with harvest giveaways, and visit a production farm(s). Three full hours of class/lab and one floating hour of asynchronous lecture/fieldwork per week. Please
A study of the complex interplay of factors influencing conditions on the surface of the Earth. Basic concepts from geology, oceanography, and atmospheric science lead to an examination of how the Earth’s climate has varied in the past, what changes are occurring now, and what the future may hold. Besides environmental effects, the economic, political, and ethical implications of global warming are explored, including possible ways to reduce climate change. Natural sciences and engineering. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH, GLBL-Core
ENVS 011Seeds to Systems: Design and Resiliency in the Landscape Medium1
How do we imagine and create a resilient world? Design disciplines like landscape architecture toe the line between art and science, unifying creative practices and scientific research and methodologies. Design itself is an act of transformation and translation that involves imagining, communicating, and manifesting alternative futures. In this course, practicing landscape architects will introduce students to the design process at a range of physical and temporal scales. Through the medium of landscape, students will engage layered systems of landform, water, plants, movement, human and non-human use, and time. Readings and lectures on design and planning history, theory, and practice will be coupled with guest presentations on real world case studies. In the first half of the semester, students will learn how to measure, map, and intervene on an imagined landscape, and will translate these skills, in the second half of the semester, to design a site-specific intervention on Swarthmore’s campus. Students will develop technical skills (topographic survey, site grading, watershed analysis, orthographic drafting) and representational techniques (analog and digital drawing, collage, physical modeling, material studies) as they gain familiarity with concepts such as aesthetics, sustainability, ecological restoration, urban ecology, green infrastructure, and more. Weather-permitting, much time will be spent on Swarthmore’s campus, sketching and observing plants in the Scott Arboretum, and doing fieldwork in Crum Woods. Non - Divisional. 1 credit Eligible for ENVS Spring 2027. STAFF.
The management of food, garden and other organic wastes has significant effects on anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This course focuses on understanding the environmental impacts of organic waste stream management practices. As part of the course, students will take part in assessing current practices and developing recommendations for organic waste management at the college. Multiple field trips. Natural sciences and engineering. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH
Our trash systems are designed so that throwing things away can be a thoughtless act. However, thought is required to effectively and ethically deal with the colossal amount of trash produced in the U.S. Waste disposal can have significant and often deleterious effects on vulnerable communities, local environments and the global climate. This course focuses on understanding the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of U.S. waste management processes and the science of decomposition. As part of this course, students will participate in a practicum “zero waste” waste prevention project in conjunction with community partners. Multiple field trips. This course counts as an Environmental nataural science course for the ENVS major/minor. Natural Sciences and engineering. 1 credit. Eligible for ESCH.
This class examines a trajectory of politics and practices past to present of western conservation in relationship to Indigenous Peoples lifeways and livelihoods. The course will focus on the complex and dynamic place-oriented land stewardship of Indigenous Peoples. Emphasis is placed on Native Americans and the U.S. context. This course counts as an elective for both the ENVS major and minor. This course counts as an elective for both the ENVS major and minor.
None. No designation. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS Fall 2026. Benally. Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 015Nature Rx: Wellbeing and the natural world1.0
A growing body of research demonstrates the positive effects of nature on mood, cognition, and social behavior. In this course, we will explore current research on these topics and develop nature practices that support individual and community wellbeing. As students attending college at an arboretum, incorporating such practices in your everyday life is both much needed and readily accessible. This course will include weekly discussions, outdoor activities, and reflections that empower you to care for yourself and your community throughout college and beyond. 1.0 credit. Eligible for ENVS Fall 2026. Ellow. Spring 2027. Staff.
Upscaled by global colonization, European cultural and scientific practices have left a devastating impact on the Earth. At the same time, global technological efficacy currently serves as a lifeline of empowerment. By working in concert with ages-old indigenous wisdom and the Western experimental idiom, this course equips students to achieve joy and sustainability in our changing world. Non - Division. 1.0 credit Eligible for ENVS.
Poets and artists, scientists and activists all attest to the power of walking. In this course we will explore what moving through the world on foot can teach us-about the natural and urban worlds we live in and about ourselves as products and producers of those worlds. The course is arranged around four broad themes: Walking and the Body, Learning from the Land, Urban Walking, and Walking for Change. From cognitive science to poetry, from wild-plant identification to urban exploration, each class meeting will include a period of walking. We will begin the semester exploring our campus, including the Crum Woods, and eventually move through spaces in Philadelphia and nearby natural lands. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS. Fall 2026. Holmes.
(Cross-listed as ECON 076 ) Introduction to the microeconomics of environmental issues with applications to the design of environmental policy. The course will cover the concepts and methods used in the valuation of environmental goods as well as the design of policy instruments and regulations to improve environmental quality. Specific topics include pollution and environmental degradation, the use of renewable and non-renewable resources, and climate change.
ECON 001 . Recommended: ECON 011 Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS Fall 2027 Peck. Spring 2028 STAFF. Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 021Disaster Politics and Policies1
(Cross-listed as POLS 045 ) How does the trauma of disaster influence political processes, institutions, and leaders? How do political processes, institutions, and leaders affect disaster events and their aftermath? Do disasters lead to meaningful policy change, or is their impact fleeting? This course examines the political and policy dynamics associated with disasters– those that are predominantly “natural” (e.g., hurricanes and tornadoes), and those that result mainly from human action or inaction (e.g., airplane crashes, mass shootings, building collapses). Using a variety of cases from different historical periods, different regions of the world, and different levels of political analysis (national, regional, and local), this course will examine the causes and consequences of disaster, policy-making and disaster, and the new professional field of disaster management. We will look critically at the role of NGOs and international aid in disaster relief, as well as international institutions. Not open to students who have taken POLS 010F: The Politics of Disasters. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, GLBL-Core
(Cross-listed as POLS 043 ) Topics in environmental politics, policy, and law. In the United States, we focus on national regulation and proposals for more flexible responses to achieve environmental goals; environmental movements and environmental justice; the role of science in democratic policy-making; courts and the impact of federalism, the commerce clause, and rights on regulation. The course also considers the role and efficacy of supranational institutions and NGOs and controversies between more and less developed nations. Topics include most of the following: air and water pollution, common-pool resource problems, toxic and radioactive waste, sustainable development, food, natural resource management, wilderness, environmental racism, effects of climate change. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, CBL, GLBL-Paired
(Cross-listed as POLS 048 ) The role of population and demographic trends in local, national, and global politics will be examined. Topics include the relationship between population and development, causes of fertility decline, the impact and ethics of global and national family planning programs, and contemporary issues such as population aging and the AIDS pandemic. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH, GLBL-Core
(Cross-listed as ANTH 033B ) This course offers students an introduction to Environmental Anthropology, a subfield of anthropology which encompasses the study of the interrelationships between humans and the ecosystems in which they are embedded as well as analysis and application of anthropological knowledge to contemporary environmental issues. Humans have transformed their environments for millennia, but in recent decades, have altered the global environment in ways that have no precedent in human history or in geological time. With contemporary environmental crises as its backdrop, this course examines some classic and contemporary anthropological approaches to the environment, exploring the value of anthropological theory, methods, and approaches in the humanistic study of the environment. In this sense, the course will expose students to diverse ways for thinking about the environment in its many dimensions and critical perspectives on contemporary environmental issues. We will review various theoretical approaches and their implications for our understanding of human relations to the environment, and explore how anthropologists and those they study are engaging with contemporary environmental issues including biodiversity conservation, deforestation, community-based natural resource management, ecotourism, and climate change. Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS
(Cross-listed as HIST 089 ) This course examines African history from an ecological and environmental perspective. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for BLST, ENVS Access the class schedule to search for sections.
(Cross-listed with HIST 023B ) This course is a comparative intellectual history of climate change. The first half of the course will trace a genealogy of “climate science” starting with the Enlightenment. The second half of the course will explore alternative frameworks - Indigenous, subaltern, theological, theosophic and poetic - for thinking about climate as a site of human action. Concentrations: Science, Medicine, and Environment Social Sciences.
Previous course in the department or social sciences, AP/IB credit, or permission of the instructor. Social Sciences. Eligible for Eligible for ENVS. Method/Theory. Concentrations: Science, Medicine, and Environment Fall 2027 Azfar. Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: Environmental Studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 027Environmental Law and Policy1
This course will provide an overview of environmental law in the United States. Students will learn about the underlying administrative law system that governs agency and regulatory action. The course will cover a variety of environmental statutes such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (hazardous substances), and the Endangered Species Act. Students will develop analytical skills regarding the purpose of environmental law in the US and the regulatory process at the federal and state/commonwealth (e.g., PA) levels. The course will also include a discussion of environmental law from the perspective of Native American tribes. Social Science Writing 1 credit Eligible for ENVS Spring 2027. STAFF.
(Cross-listed as POLS 081 and GLBL 081 ) Global climate change, in particular, and environmental issues, in general, have moved to the forefront of public debates. This course examines the governance of these issues from an International Relations perspective. Topics include: multilateral trade agreements and the environment; United Nations processes, agreements, and institutions; climate change finance and environmental foreign aid; multilateral development banks (including the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) and environmental governance; non-state actors; social movements; and global environmental governance and great powers. The course will begin with a political-economic conceptualization of global environmental governance and also introduce students to some fundamental concepts in public policy and environmental regulation. Given this is taught primarily from global governance and International Relations perspectives, it is not suited to students looking to engage in particular countries’ environmental regulation, though student presentations will examine differences across some countries. It is ideal for students to have taken POLS4 prior to taking this course, and students should be ready to apply basic economic concepts to environmental regulation (without which their understanding of the governance of climate change cannot be advanced).
One political science course. Social Science. 1 credit. Eligible for GLBL-Core. ENVS, Fall 2026. Kaya. Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 029Environmental Justice: Ethnography, Politics, and Action1
This course offers students an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of environmental justice. It will draw on a range of research approaches and scholarship from the disciplines of environmental anthropology, political ecology, environmental science, history, geography, the environmental humanities, and social movement theory. Taking advantage of the special format of the J-term, the course will focus on a series of texts each week, offering deep engagement to analyze diverse environmental justice struggles and community activism in contemporary environmental issues. Moreover, given the immediacy of the current global situation, we will explore the intersections and linkages between environmental justice and other socio-ecological crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to focusing on the course’s core texts, the class will also explore the interlocking themes of social and environmental justice through other formats including podcasts, documentary films, and other digital media to provide a sense of what environmental injustice looks like in everyday life and how different people are rising up to bring about change. Students in this course will learn to analyze the social and political dimensions of environmental problems, how these entwine with scientific and technical dimensions, and to think creatively about possible solutions. Social Sciences 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, GLBL-core, INTP, PEAC
This course comprehensively introduces food policy, exploring its intricate relationship with social, economic, and environmental factors in food production, distribution, and consumption. Through lectures, discussions, case studies, and interactive exercises, students gain a solid understanding of key concepts, including agricultural practices, food supply chains, food access, and food justice. Students will also examine pressing issues like food security, climate change’s impact on agriculture, and food waste while learning to evaluate existing policies and propose solutions for more sustainable and equitable food systems. Designed for students in various fields, it equips students with essential knowledge and skills to engage in food policy and contribute to food system transformation. Social Sciences 1.0 Eligible for ENVS
ENVS 031Climate Disruption, Conflict, and Peacemaking1
(Cross-listed as PEAC 055 ) The course will examine several ways in which climate change is a driving force of violent and nonviolent conflict and creates opportunities for peacemaking and social justice. Already, climate change has been identified by the U.S. military as a threat to national security, offering a new rationale for expanding the military industrial complex. Demands on scarce resources generate and exacerbate regional conflicts and drive mass movements of refugees. Behind these dramatic manifestations of climate stress lie extensive corporate and national interests and hegemonic silences that emerging conflicts often reveal. Conflict also brings new opportunities for peacebuilding, cooperation, and conflict resolution. Climate crises have renewed and expanded local and global movements for environmental justice and protection, many of which have historical connections with the peace movement. In support of the college’s carbon charge initiative, we will dedicate part of the course to understanding what constitutes the social cost of carbon and how it is represented in carbon pricing, particularly with respect to increasing frequencies of armed conflict and extension of the military industrial complex. Social Science. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH, PEAC Spring 2028 Smithey.
(Cross-listed as PEAC 021 ) This course examines interactions between the environment, human politics, and conflict using a variety of concepts, theoretical frameworks, historical and geographical contexts, and methodological approaches. Moving chronologically and thematically, this course will draw on, and build up, your own expertise to study how nature has been historically framed, constructed, and contested, as well as how it intersects with other concepts such as power, violence, resistance, justice, and peace. Latin America, a region that is richly diverse in every sense, is an ideal setting from which to draw applicable insights about these open questions. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for LALS, PEAC, GLBL-paried.
This course explores water as the essential force shaping everyday life. From ethnography and scientific reports to film and fiction, this course investigates the multiple forms and meanings of water and its vital role in environmental studies. Beyond the classroom, we will observe and learn about water in Swarthmore and Philadelphia and discuss the kinds of (more than human) lives that water cultivates. Students will be tasked with selecting and observing a water site of their choosing and will produce a final report based on original analysis. Eligible for ENVS. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS Fall 2026. Habib. Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies.
(Cross-listed as SOCI 041C ) This course provides a sociological look at Indigenous Peoples from the local to the global, including Native Nations (and Tribes) of the U.S., Latin America, the Maori (New Zealand), Adevasi (India), and the many Peoples from East Asia, Africa and Europe. We discuss models for understanding Indigenous struggles in the 21st century, especially in line with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN DRIP), and levels of Sovereignty, Autonomy, and Minority status (world-systems analysis). We pay special attention to Indigenous peoples (tribes) who continue to survive and thrive in a modern world of global climate change, neoliberal capitalist hegemony and extreme cultural domination. The class provides students opportunities to view interdisciplinary global issues - environmental world threats, social change and refugees, hegemonic decline, regional warfare of nation-states, spirituality, food sovereignty - from Indigenous perspectives. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, PEAC, GLBL-core
Cross-listed with LING 048 Environmental linguistics is an emerging field at the intersection of linguistics and natural sciences. It recognizes the mutual relationship between cultural and ecological diversity, documenting linguistic structures and verbal practices by which speakers conceptualize, encode, and transmit knowledge about the natural world. Natural phenomena-as Indigenous experts explain-cannot be understood apart from the languages that encode them, and vice versa. Language diversity is thus the key to safeguarding biodiversity and a balanced human relationship with nature. Environmental linguistics works to decolonize linguistics as our field evolves to prioritize knowledge co-production over data extraction.
Intro to the history and theory of environmental justice, an interdisciplinary field that examines how inequalities based on race, class, ethnicity, and gender shape how people are impacted by environmental problems and how they advocate for social and environmental change. Drawing on the social sciences, natural sciences, and the arts & humanities, we critically examine the conceptual divisions between “nature and society,” “urban and rural,” and the “community and the planet.” We analyze the history of the widely used concept of “sustainability,” focusing on the ways it has been used in different cultural and urban contexts. We investigate some of the challenges facing cities as they implement sustainability initiatives and try to avoid “green gentrification.” We explore the promise of urban areas as important centers for supporting the flourishing of diverse, equitable, and ecologically sustainable communities. We will learn from grassroots leaders working to transform their own communities through initiatives including organizing for public health & wellbeing, urban agriculture & food sovereignty, renewable energy & community solar, and community arts & social change. Includes a community-based learning component working with a local environmental justice organization. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH, PEAC, GLBL-core Fall 2026. Di Chiro.
ENVS 036First-Year Seminar: Psychology and Sustainability1
Cross-listed as PSYC009 Environmental issues such as climate change and pollution are, at their core, issues with human behavior. Thus, psychology has a key role to play in addressing these problems. This seminar will explore several interconnections between psychology and environmental sustainability, including how psychological biases lead to climate inaction, how understanding morality and culture is important for encouraging environmentalism, and how people can develop more sustainable relationships between themselves and nature. And is eligible for ENVS credit. PSYC 009 does not serve as an alternate prerequisite for further work in the department. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS Fall 2026. Jacobs. Department website: Environmental Studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 037Water Policies, Water Issues: China/Taiwan and the U.S.1
(Cross-listed as CHIN 087 and POLS 087 ) Access to fresh water is an acute issue for the 21st century, and yet civilizations have designed a wide range of inventive projects for accessing and controlling water supplies over the centuries. Fresh water resource allocation generates issues between upstream and downstream users, between a country and its neighbors, between urban and rural residents, and between states and regions. This course examines a range of fresh water issues, comparing China and the U.S. Topics include dams and large-scale water projects (e.g., rerouting rivers); water pollution; groundwater depletion; industrial water use (e.g., for hydrofracking); impact of agricultural practices; urban storm water management; wetlands conservation; desertification; desalination. What role do governments, transnational organizations, corporations, NGOs and grassroots citizens’ movements play in these water decisions? Guest lectures will emphasize science and engineering perspectives on water management. Chinese language ability desirable but not required. 1 credit. Eligible for ASIA, ENVS.
ENVS 037AAttachment: Policies and Issues of Fresh Water Resources in China/Taiwan0.5
(Cross-listed as CHIN 087A and POLS 087A ) This is an attachment to ENVS 037 (. Students who complete the course have the option of adding a 0.5 credit field work component. Field work will be conducted in China under the supervision of Professors Nackenoff and Kong, and will include specific Chinese language training in the vocabulary used in the field of environmental studies. 0.5 credit. Eligible for ASIA, ENVS
(Cross-listed as RELG 022 ) Is the environmental crisis a scientific or spiritual problem? Is the crisis a matter of the head or the heart? Can spiritual worldviews - Deep Ecology, Green Christianity, Indigenous Animism, Earth-based Judaism, Eco-Buddhism, etc. - aid the development of Earth-centered philosophies of life? Humanities. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH, GLBL-Core, PEAC Fall 2026. Wallace.
(Cross-listed as ENGL 071E ) his course will survey nature poems as well as poems on other relevant topics written in English from the Romantics in the early 19th century up to the present, with particular emphasis on poems from the post-WWII era-that time when scientists began publishing evidence that human beings’ use of fossil fuels was altering the Earth’s climate in ways that might bring about the sixth Great Extinction in our planet’s history. Also emphasized: the primary role that women and/or writers of color have played in shaping ecopoetry, and in linking the climate crisis to historical trauma, social inequality, and why reparative justice is needed. The course will be taught in ways to make it welcoming to students who have not taken a literature course at Swarthmore, much less a course on poetry. Advanced students in cultural studies or poetry are also welcome. This course is cross-listed, which means that students should register for credit as either ENVS 041 or English 071E. Humanities. 1 credit. Spring 2027. Schmidt. Spring 2028 Schmidt.
(Cross-listed as ENGL 089E ) An introduction to the central themes and histories of ecofeminist theories and praxis. We will study ecological feminisms/feminist environmentalisms from global perspectives, and examine how these transdisciplinary discourses and movements develop social and cultural critiques of systems of domination, and construct alternative visions for more just and sustainable human-earth relationships. Topics include ecofeminist approaches to: human rights, environmental and climate justice, food and agriculture, animal politics, health and bodies, queer ecologies, economies of “care,” militarism and imperialism, and sustainable development. Readings and course materials draw on the works of Vandana Shiva, Donna Haraway, Laura Pulido, Octavia Butler, Joni Seager, Rachel Carson, Winona LaDuke, Julie Sze, Rosi Braidotti, Jael Silliman, Starhawk, Eli Clare, Audre Lorde, Silvia Federici, Wendy Harcourt, Betsy Hartmann, Wangari Maathai. Humanities. 1 credit. Eligible for CBL, ENVS, ESCH, GLBL - Core, GSST, INTP Fall 2026. Di Chiro.
(Cross-listed as ENGL 089 ) This course explores how ideologies and structures of race, gender, sexuality, and class are embedded in and help shape our perceptions of and actions in the “environment.” Drawing on key social and cultural theories of environmental studies from anthropology, sociology, feminist analysis, and science and technology studies, we will examine some of the ways that differences in culture, power, and knowledge construct the conceptual frameworks and social policies undertaken in relation to the environment. The course draws on contemporary scholarship and social movement activism (including memoir and autobiography) from diverse national and international contexts. Topics addressed include, for example, ideas/theories of “nature,” toxic exposure and public health, environmental perception and social difference, poverty and natural resource depletion, justice and sustainability, Indigenous environmentalisms, eco-imperialism, and disparate impacts of global climate change. The course offers students opportunities for community-based learning working in partnership with local organizations. Social Sciences. Humanities. 1 credit. Eligible for BLST, ENVS, ESCH, GLBL - Core, GSST
ENVS 044Environmentally Engaged Literature: Pollutants, Fossil Fuels, and Atomic Bombs1
(Cross-listed as ENGL 089B ) Pollutants. Fossil Fuels. Atomic Bombs. In many ways, pesticides, oil, and plutonium structure our lives; they impact our health, our politics, and may even threaten the existence of life itself. Ironically, because these materials permeate nearly every aspect of our existence, the human mind can struggle to comprehend them. In this course, we will read literature that engages with our environment to help us bring humans’ relationship to these materials into focus. Scientific, historical, and economic studies of these materials tend to focus on their scale and widespread impact. Reading poetry, plays, short stories, and novels will allow us to imagine these materials more intimately-through individual, cultural, and aesthetic perspectives. In this course, students will ask: How can literature help us to understand-and perhaps change-our material, economic, and social environments? How has our relationship to materials changed over time? How do environmental and material realities impact cultural production and imagination? Texts under discussion will likely include: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962); Terry Tempest Williams’ Refuge (1991); Mark Nowak’s Coal Mountain Elementary (2009); Lesley Battler’s Endangered Hydrocarbons (2015); Andrew Bovell’s When the Rain Stops Falling (2012); Adam Dickinson’s The Polymers (2013); and two films: Hiroshima mon Amour (dir. Alain Resnais, 1959) and There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Anderson, 2007). Course requirements include active participation; a close-reading paper; an engaged assignment; and a final research paper. All students are welcome. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH
ENVS 045‘Tis the Season: Festivals of Solstice, Yule, and Christmas1
(Cross-listed as RELG 058 ) What is time and temporality? What makes festival and holiday time different from other seasons of the year? This course investigates the complex of ritual traditions known today as the Winter Solstice, Yuletide, and Christmas. Through a combination of primary and secondary textual and multimedia sources, students will consider what these holiday traditions reveal about the ways in which humans make the experience of time meaningful. Students will encounter the long history of Christianization in Europe and its global spread via economies of colonialism during the Modern Period, and will analyze the ways in which Christian religious authorities and institutions negotiate(d) with indigenous, land/nature-based spiritualities. From conifer trees to flying reindeer and the cryptozoological legends of Krampus, students will consider December holiday rituals and lore as a special form of ecological knowledge that holds potential to relate humans to the earth, animals, plants, and the seasonal passage of time in more intimate and expansive ways. Humanities. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS
(Cross-listed as ENGL 070G ) This course uses the Crum woods as a laboratory setting for the production of multimedia poems and brief memoirs. Digital stories combine spoken words with images, sound, and sometimes video to create powerful short movies. We’ll spend time grappling with some of the stories inherent in the Crum woods ecosystem as well as the multifaceted story of our relationship to the woods. The class will conclude with a public screening of work produced. Humanities. 1.0 credit Eligible for ENVS. ESCH. Fall 2026. Bolton.
Cross-listed as ENGL 070R The Delaware River is the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi: it is also a repository of American history, from Washington’s midnight crossing during the Revolutionary War through Indian massacres through the era of pollution and the effects of the Clean Water Act. Twelve upper-class students will have the opportunity to spend time on the river before the start of the semester: we’ll take 7-10 days to canoe and/or kayak, camp, explore ecosystems and natural history, visit water treatment centers, write, and gather media (photos, video, sound files). In addition to a traditional English paper and a research essay on environmental issues affecting the Delaware River, students will keep field journals and write poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction prose. One or more of these creative pieces will be turned into a digital story; several will be added to a communal memory map of the Delaware. Graded CR/NC. Limited to 12. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH
(Cross-listed as ENGL 009L ) “Natural history” is full of complicated stories of human beings in a larger-than-human world. This course invites students to build a creative community with one another and with the Crum Woods as they explore some of the various ways human beings have thought about and responded to “Nature.” Some class periods and much homework will take place in the Crum. Readings include contemporary poetry and natural history; student writing ranges from academic prose through creative nonfiction to poetry and digital storytelling. (Poets include Oliver, Mullen, Hillman, Heaney, Rich and others; essayists include Dillard, Pollan, Quammen, Sheldrake, Young.) Humanities. Writing course. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS.
(Cross-listed as DANC 014 , THEA 005D ) This introductory course focuses on creative opportunities for students wishing to explore ecology, environmental studies, and the performing arts, specifically focusing on eco-performance and design. Class goals will aim to support a better understanding of environmental studies via an artistic lens, allowing students to combine creative processes with environmental sciences. Emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary skills and experiences that raise awareness around environmental studies and simultaneously engage culture and community. Humanities. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS
ENVS 047Environment, Cultural Memory, and Social Change in Japan1
(Cross-listed as JPNS 036 and PEAC 036 ) This course will explore the history, contemporary situation, and future possibilities regarding the interlinked realms of the environment, historical trauma, and social movements in Japan. Topics will include the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings and the subsequent peace and anti-nuclear movements, the environmental movement in Japan, and the “triple disaster” earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima and Northeastern Japan. We will also discuss how environmental issues intersect with other current social issues such as rural depopulation, an aging population, and gender and economic inequality, and study a variety of contemporary approaches to addressing these issues. Under the guidance of Lang Professor for Social Change Denise Crossan, we will study the theory and practice of social entrepreneurship as a vehicle for social change and explore applications of this model in Japan. In addition, throughout the semester we will engage with community partners in Japan, particularly in the Hiroshima area, through online exchanges and collaborative projects related to contemporary environmental and peace activism. Humanities 1 credit. Eligible for ASIA, GLBL-Paired
Cross-listed as PHIL 029 The question of how we conceive of nature and our relationship to it is one that has become increasingly pressing as we deal with environmental issues that are rapidly reaching a critical point. There has been a resurgence of interest in views like process philosophy-a view that suggests that unless we take interconnected becoming into account we cannot explain the novelty of life; panpsychism-a view that suggests that consciousness may be a fundamental component of the universe rather than an emergent effect of brains; biosemiotics-a view that suggests that even at the level of cells and unicellular organisms life operates through meaning-making rather than merely as mechanisms; and “new” materialism-a view that suggests that even matter instead of being viewed as inert could be conceived as having a kind of agency of its own. These views, among others, in updated forms that take up again questions silenced at earlier points in time in new contexts-along with cross-cultural views that have never succumbed to the Western binaries of nature/culture, human/animal, and self/other-in light of the radical challenges facing us, are rich resources for rethinking our relationship to nature in ways that could foster the kind of shifts in self-understanding and investment in our relations to others and our surroundings that we need to survive.
First- and second-year students must complete one introductory level PHIL course before enrolling in this course. Humanities 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS. Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 049Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States.1
Indigenous lands and foodways are intrinsic to community health and wellbeing, cultural identity, and cultural continuity. This course will explore multiple dimensions of Indigenous food sovereignty in the United States that include: Native American political rights, land rights, impacts of colonization, access to traditional food sources, local economy, interconnected relationships, and traditional land practices and food systems based on Indigenous science. Case studies will be used to examine various topics and how distinct Native American tribal communities are framing and practicing food sovereignty. The course will use a framework of decoloniality and cultural and ecological sustainability centering Indigenous voice. This course is an elective ENVS course for both the major and the minor in ENVS.
ENVS 014 1 credit. Eligible for ESCH, ENVS Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 049ASense of Place: Indigenous Literature1
For Indigenous Peoples a sense of place represents a complex web of relationships with the natural world that shape and define culture, community, and identity. This course introduces a diverse body of literature produced by Indigenous writers and storytellers. Through a sampling of Indigenous literatures across genres, cultures, worldviews, regions, space and time, the class will engage themes and issues that include Indigenous identities, environmental and social justice, political and land rights, extractive capitalism, and contemporary Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. Emphasis will be placed on distinct cultural contexts, worldviews, histories, etc., while also considering shared or collective aspects of Indigenous worldview, lived experience, and resistance. This course is an elective ENVS course for both the major and the minor in ENVS. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS Spring 2027. Benally.
ENVS 050Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change Impacts1
Indigenous Peoples around the world are among the first to experience the direct impacts of climate change that pose serious threats to their contemporary livelihoods and cultural lifeways. Using illustrative case studies, this course will examine the impacts of climate change on Indigenous peoples and their communities globally and will examine Indigenous responses to climate change. Major themes and topics will include Indigenous relationships to land, cultural sustainability, food security, Indigenous climate adaptation and mitigation planning, and international forums concerning climate change policy and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. This course centers the lived experience and cultural perspectives of Indigenous Peoples. This course is an elective for both the ENVS major and minor. 1 credit. Eligible for GLBL-core, PEAC.
(Cross-listed as ARTH 010 ) In this mid-level seminar, students will learn how changing conceptualizations of nature have shaped the genealogy of art in Euro-American modernity. Special emphasis will be placed on the strategies developed by contemporary artists to make sense of the unfolding climate crisis. Humanities 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS
Some knowledge of Chinese culture or language is preferred but not required. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ASIA Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 053Land Art, Place, and Environment1
(Cross-listed as ARTH 062 ) As climate change brings about the breakdown of global ecological systems, humanity is faced with the urgent need to evaluate our place in those systems and reckon with our impact as agents of change. Art has long been a site through which societies have visually and materially expressed and explored their relationships to nature, both as a cultural-aesthetic construction and as a real site inhabited by human and non-human beings. This course will examine the changing nature of land, place, and environment in modern and contemporary art and its representation and deployment as a genre, theme, and medium over the last half-century, with special attention to the Eastern Woodlands as an ancestral and contested site. Approaching diverse art forms such as earthworks, painting, photography, installation art, and site-specificity from ecocritical and decolonial art historical lenses, we will consider “nature” as a cultural-aesthetic construction and as a politically embattled site inhabited by human and non-human agents and beings. With select local site and collection visits, we will examine the role of [the] E/earth in art as material, vibrant matter, pigment, place, and collective home of social, cosmological, and ecological relations. Humanities. 1 credit.
ENVS 054Resisting the Apocalypse: Activism, Theater, and Envisioning a Good Future.1.0
(Cross-listed as THEA 026 ) Many of us are just…tired. We’re exhausted, frustrated, or we’ve grown numb to the state of the world. It’s hard to continuously and repeatedly summon the strength and the will to practice optimism. How do we, as artists, as activists, as humans living on this planet, find ways to imagine a future where things work out? Where suffering and disaster aren’t the inevitable end-state? This course explores how we build emotional, collective resilience in the face of the many crises of our time. Working through the lens of climate crisis, students will engage with: 1) the work of local activists (e.g. The Sunrise Movement, PhillyThrive, the Earth Quaker Action Team), 2) the writings of facilitators/authors working on collective action and building a sustainable future (e.g. Joanna Macy, Adrienne Maree Brown, Robin Wall Kimmerer), and 3) the tools of theater (e.g. vulnerability, creativity, embodiment) to explore: How do we process our intense, exhausted, or numbed feelings? What do we mean by collective power, and how will we fuel movements for the future together? How do we begin to dream of our future with practicality, hope, and even joy?
No prior experience in activism or theater required. Humanities. 1.0 credit. Eligible for ENVS Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 055Sacred Plants, Holy Fungi, and Religious Experience.1
(Cross-listed as RELG 050 ) This course investigates the sacred meaningfulness and practical utility humans have discovered in plants and fungi. From pharmacopeia and herbalism employed to cure ailments and relieve pain, to psychedelic and entheogenic rituals that modulate the sensorium of one’s consciousness to “reveal the God within,” the intimate relationships worked out between humans, plants, and fungi reveal the human in all of its evolutionary-biological, mythic, poetic, and religious dimensions. Through primary and secondary scholarly readings, multimedia sources, and case studies highlighting the cultural histories of the African Diasporic and Indigenous Mesoamerican communities, students will encounter various healing rituals, wisdom traditions, and emerging scientific paradigms that place plants and fungus at the center of human health and wellness. Topics include: mystical and visionary circuits of consciousness; Cannabis sativa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade; Inquisition witchcraft trials and “witches’ ointment;” Mexican-Oaxacan psilocybin shamans and the 1960s Hippie Movement; and a potential fieldsite visit to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research. This course does not advocate the casual use of psychedelics or other substances. Humanities. 1 credit.
ENVS 056Arts and Culture of Indigenous Philadelphia: From Shackamaxon to the Present1
(Cross-listed as ARTH 061 ) For millennia prior to the signing of the “Great Treaty” by William Penn and Chief Tamanend of the Lenape under the Treaty Elm at Shackamaxon, Indigenous peoples have played a central role in the history of Philadelphia and the art and material culture of the region. This course will examine the visual and material histories of Indigenous communities, artists, and leaders of present-day Philadelphia and its surrounding ancestral territories, from pre-contact to the present. We will consider the history of the city and the land upon which it stands as an Indigenous place, one that has been occupied since time immemorial by Indigenous peoples and that has served as a gathering place and crossroads for the travelers, diplomats, and storytellers of many Native nations. We will consider how the Indigenous history of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania more broadly reflects on and is interrogable through present-day sites and constructions of civic identity, and how, to this day, a resurgent Indigenous community calls Philadelphia home. Among topics for close study are the archaeologyand material culture of the Eastern Woodlands and ancestral Lenape territory, including earthworks, mounds, and their environmentalrelations; Euro-American representations of Indigenous peoples and the landscape from early contact through the nineteenth century, including important scenes in the city’s history such as Benjamin West’s Penn’s Treaty with the Indians and portraits of Indigenous leadersand diplomats passing through the city as part of delegations to the nation’s capital in Washington, DC; Indigenous oral histories of andvisual representations of such histories, such as the Shackamaxon wampum belt; monuments and the memorialization of colonial history; and modern and contemporary Indigenous art and exhibitions that reflect Philadelphia as vibrant urban Indigenous center. This course will be taught in Philadelphia as part of the Tri-Co Philly Program. Humanities. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH Fall 2026. Green
cross-listed with ARTH 079 This survey course introduces students to Indigenous art and architecture of the Americas from time immemorial to the present. It selectively surveys the visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of Americas, with an emphasis on those whose ancestral territories reside in what is now known as the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Students will consider how different forms of Indigenous cultural production, including architecture, painting, sculpture, ceramics, carving, textiles, beadwork, photography, and new media, operate within the category of “art” in conjunction with a range of traditions and beliefs. The class is organized into six regional sections - Ancient Americas, Southwest, Northwest Coast, Woodlands, Great Plains and West, and Arctic - that will each focus on the major forms of art from each region, and will conclude with an examination of how these traditions continued and developed into the Modern and Contemporary period. Discussion classes will explore major historiographic questions, including the role of ethnography in the history of Indigenous art; the politics of museum display, ownership, and repatriation; and the decolonization of institutions and (art) histories in conjunction with visual sovereignty. The course will emphasize that different forms of Indigenous art represent continuous, dynamic, and living traditions which have preserved culture and resisted domination in the face of colonial conflict, assimilation, and oppression.
ENVS 056BLand Back!: Visual Expressions of Global Indigenous Sovereignty1
Cross-listed as ARTH 065. The “Land Back” movement is an Indigenous-led campaign that in recent years has emerged as a prominent focal point for establishing Indigenous political authority over territories once claimed and controlled by Indigenous nations. This course examines how Indigenous artists and activists have expressed “Land Back,” or sovereignty over land, culture, and representation, in visual and material forms across time. It will consider Land Back and decolonization movements within a history of generational efforts to reestablish Indigenous sovereignty over ancestral territories around the world, and seek to understand how cultural expression imagines, shapes, and informs debates around return and sovereignty. It will examine the intertwined nature of Indigenous arts, land rights, and issues such as environmental protections, land loss, and language; material expressions of place-based knowledge; cultural property laws such as NAGPRA; the relationship between federal and state recognition and arts, crafts and copyright laws; and global Indigenous sovereignty movements. Eligible for ENVS and GLBL- core. Cross-listed as ARTH 065. Humanities. Writing Course. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS
ENVS 057Afro-Futurism: Astral Mythologies of Creation and the Afterlife1.0
(Cross-listed as RELG 047 ) In his 1974 film Space is the Place, avant-garde jazz musician Sun Ra announced his mission to rescue Black earthlings and shuttle them in his spaceship to the safety of a newly-discovered planet: “I come to you as a myth. Because that’s what black people are, myths. I come to you from a dream that the black man dreamed long ago.” In many ways, Sun Ra’s prophecy parallels variants of the Dogon creation myth of Mali, West Africa (recorded in the 1940s) that details the fateful voyage of the Nommos demiurge deities, who traveled to Earth in a sky vessel from a planetary point of origin some observers speculate may orbit the Sirius star system. Through primary and secondary readings, interactive classroom activities, and multimedia sources – including a bevy of music and film recordings – this course investigates Afrofuturism as a radical imaginary within the broader corpus of Black Astral Mythologies. By tracing a throughline between topics such as 16th-century astronomical observations at the University of Timbuktu, U.S. Underground Railroad fugitive navigations according to the ‘North Star,’ and recent cosmogonic speculation by quantum physicists into the elusive nature of Dark Matter, students will consider this premise: when the safe harbor of the earth no longer offers itself as habitation, Blackened celestial futures constellate the cosmic horizons. Possible field trip to the House of Future Sciences, headquarters of the Philadelphia collective AfroFuturist Affair. Humanities 1.0 credit. Eligible for BLST, ENVS
(Cross-listed as ENGL 058 ) Climate fiction responds to the immensity of climate change through a variety of modes including journalism, dystopia, speculation, black comedy. As we read climate fiction that grapples with crises from the Dust Bowl through imaginary (yet not implausible) apocalypses, we will hone skills of thinking, writing, and speaking critically about cultural forms and social structures entangled with our changing climate and environment. Authors include John Steinbeck, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, Junot Diaz, Richard Powers, Kim Stanley Robinson. Humanities Writing course. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS
Cross-listed with ARTH064 The Eastern Woodlands has long been an international territory and gathering place for the Native nations of North America. Stretching from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the boreal forests north of the Great Lakes, this huge geographic area has been home to diverse groups of Indigenous peoples since time immemorial whose stories, art, and ways of life reflect an intimate relationship with the varied ecologies and non-human inhabitants of the region. As the site of first contact with Europeans in the present-day United States and now one of the most densely populated areas in the continent, the Woodlands has also seen great environmental and socio-political upheaval over the course of the last 500 years. This course examines the history of the Woodlands from pre-contact to the present through the art and material culture of the Indigenous peoples who call the region home. We will explore how Indigenous ancestral and ecological relations to place have changed over time and how they are expressed in diverse visual and material cultural forms, from ancient earthworks to basketry, quillwork, beadwork, painting, sculpture, multimedia installations, and other forms that transcend the artificial divide of the traditional and contemporary. With an emphasis on Lenape, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee art, histories, and traditional ecological knowledge, students will be asked to consider Swarthmore’s place on these Indigenous lands and within a nexus of contested territories. The course will include visits to Philadelphia-area museums and collections and coincides with the exhibition The sky loves to hear me sing: Woodland Art in Transmotion at the List Gallery, the art which will anchor key discussions alongside visiting artists and speakers. Humanities 1 credit Eligible for ENVS Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies
ENVS 059AReligion and Nature in the African Diaspora: Wonder Signs & Portents1
Cross-listed with RELG 041B Wonder is the province of the wide-eyed child in the woods, and the wild-eyed scientist in the lab. Wonder at the world is prompted by the odd and uncanny, the strange and novel, the transcendent and sublime, as well as encounters with the monstrous and horrific. This course centers the experience of natural wonder and awe as a primary religious impulse of the African Diaspora. Through an affect theory frame that approaches religious experience through embodied emotions, this course chronicles several spectacular cosmic-planetary events across the African Diaspora that so overwhelmed their observers they formed the basis for religious expression. Additionally, students will contextualize these events and interpret their religious expressions as an ecocritical commentary upon the Black Diasporic experience. Topics covered include: Annular Solar Eclipse of 1831, Meteor Storm of 1833, the Great Comet of 1910, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, Atlantic basin hurricanes, etc. Humanities 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS
(Cross-listed as CHEM 015 ) The course covers selected aspects of atmospheric chemistry, aquatic chemistry, and soil chemistry. There will be a specific focus on the environmentally important element cycles for C, N, O, P, and S in the absence and presence of current human activity. The chemistry of organic pollutants across the three zones will also be examined. The course content will involve a discussion of relevant current events.
CHEM 010 or CHEM 011 ; or discretion of the instructor. Natural sciences and engineering practicum. One laboratory period weekly. 1 credit. Eligible for Eligible for ENVS, GLBL-core Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 061Climate Change Science and Communication1
(Cross-listed as BIOL 042 ) Climate change is shaped by and shapes biological processes from the individual to the biome. In this course, students will develop a foundational understanding of the physical and geochemical factors underlying Earth’s changing climate, the impact of such changes on the biological systems, and the consequences for human-environment interactions. Students will also develop strategic communication skills for sustainability through practice with research-tested science communication tools. Course meetings will be split between lecture, hands-on activities, paper discussions, and workshops.
BIOL 001 or BIOL 002 and one additional NSE course or permission of the instructor. Natural sciences and engineering. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, GLBL-Core Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 063Conservation Biology1
(Cross-listed as BIOL 037 ) This course provides an overview of the foundational concepts and future horizons of biodiversity conservation in the era of global climate change. Class materials and discussions illustrate central issues in contemporary conservation with case studies from around the globe. Using an active learning approach the class will include: 1) critical reading of primary literature, 2) field trips inside and outside campus, 3) hands-on experience in the field and laboratory on how to conduct conservation research, and 4) applying quantitative methods and R programming to real data. Previous experience in those areas is not required, but students should be motivated to learn new skills. Because conservation involves every member of society, readings will include content produced by science communication outlets, policymakers, news outlets and personal stories. The class will explore and discuss the role that diversity, equity and inclusion plays on conservation efforts, and we will hear from invited speakers from indigenous communities working on conservation projects. **Multiple accessible all-day field trips will be offered outside the class schedule. These will mostly take place during the weekends. Attending ONE of those field trips will be required as part of the final grade. Attending more than one is encouraged but optional.**
BIOL 001 and BIOL 002 or permission of the instructor. For Haverford College: BIOL H200 and BIOL H201 or permission of the instructor. For Bryn Mawr College: BIOL B110 and BIOL B111 or permission of the instructor. Natural sciences and engineering practicum. One laboratory period or field trip per week. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, GLBL-Core Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: Environmental Studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 067Introduction to Environmental Engineering1.0
(Cross-listed as ENGR 067) This course introduces students to problems and solution approaches in environmental engineering. The course includes critical analysis of problems from both engineering and science perspectives through case studies in air, water, energy, climate and waste resources. In this course, students will be introduced to problem solving and research methods including spreadsheets, technical writing, and use of scientific instrumentation. The course meets weekly for 2 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab, and integrates lecture, discussion, problem solving, student projects, and hands-on laboratories involving computation, air and water quality sampling, electricity, and outdoor field activities. Natural sciences and engineering practicum. 1.0 credit Eligible for ENVS
Natural sciences and engineering practicum. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS Spring 2027. Vergara. Catalog chapter: Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/ Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 068Energy and the Environment.1
Cross-listed as ( ENGR 068 ) This course is an introduction to quantitative concepts related to energy and the environment. It covers current and future demands for energy; methods of power generation including fossil fuel, nuclear, and renewables; associated detrimental by-products; and advanced strategies to improve power densities, efficiencies and emissions. The course covers the critical issues facing energy extraction, cultivation, transformation, transportation, consumption, disposal, environmental impacts and policy. Natural Sciences and engineering practicum. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH.
ENVS 070Introduction to Geographic Information Systems1
This course is designed to introduce the foundations of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with emphasis on applications for environmental analysis in both proprietary and open-source software. It deals with basic principles of GIS and its use in spatial analysis and information management. Laboratory exercises provide practical experiences that complement the theory covered in lecture. By the end of this semester students should be capable of analyzing and managing environmental geospatial data. Non-distribution. 1 credit. Spring 2027. Staff.
Cross-listed with PHYS 022 This course surveys the full range of sustainable energy technologies, including wind, solar, hydrogen, batteries, and pumped hydro, and examines how they work and how they are deployed at scale. Students will compare the effectiveness and impacts of these solutions across different regions, using Australia’s energy transition as a central case study to highlight real-world successes and challenges. Emphasizing the urgent role of sustainable energy in combating climate change, the course provides students with a comprehensive understanding of how diverse technologies can work together to shape a cleaner and more resilient energy future. Natural Sciences and Engineering 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS Fall 2026. Smith.
(Cross-listed as MATH 056 ) An introduction to the formulation and analysis of mathematical models. This course will present a general framework for the development of discrete, continuous, and graphical models of diverse phenomena. Principles of modeling will be drawn from kinetics, population dynamics, traffic flow, diffusion, continuum mechanics, cellular automata, and network science. Mathematical techniques for understanding models will be emphasized, including dimensional analysis, phase plane diagrams, stability analysis, bifurcation theory, conservation laws, steady-state solutions, and computer simulation. Specific applications from chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, and neuroscience will be discussed. A primary goal of this course is to give insights into the connections between mathematics and real-world problems, allowing students to apply the course concepts to applications that excite them.
A grade of C or better in MATH 027 or MATH 028 ; in one of MATH 034 or MATH 035 ; and in MATH 043 or MATH 044 ; or permission of the instructor. Natural sciences and engineering. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, COGS Spring 2027. STAFF. Spring 2028 STAFF. Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
ENVS 085Urban Environmental Community Actions1
This course explores the theories and methods of social action and community engagement focusing on social and environmental change. Drawing on the work of scholars and activists from a wide variety of disciplines in the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities, we critically examine the conceptual divisions between “nature and society,” “knowledge and action,” the “local and the global,” and the “community and the planet.” We will analyze the history and diffusion of the widely used concept of “sustainability” focusing on the diverse ways it has been embraced, transformed, and implemented in different social and cultural contexts. Exploring the relationship between theory and practice, the course includes a community-based learning component working in collaboration with a local organization or action research project. 1 credit. Eligible for ESCH
ENVS 089President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship
In the President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship (PSRF) at Swarthmore College, students learn by leading: by taking stewardship over vital sustainability challenges. The program matches motivated students with small teams of staff and faculty mentors to research, develop, and implement projects in a fall-semester course and associated paid internship that spans both semesters. Students conduct wide-ranging research and write reports, proposals, and/or white papers relevant to their sustainability project. Students will hone their skills in collaboration, gain valuable leadership and project management experience, and make meaningful contributions to advancing campus sustainability at Swarthmore and in the surrounding community. Eligible for ENVS Fall 2026. Di Chiro & Habib. Fall 2027 TBD Fall 2028 TBD Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies
This course helps students develop skills in a wide range of research-related skills, ranging from theories of change and content-specific research strategies, through self-management, project management, communication, engagement, and presentation skills. Guest presenters will help students understand the growing field of sustainability from a variety of different perspectives. This course supports the President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship. This course is only open to PSRF students, who have to apply for the program and be accepted in the preceding spring. Students enrolled in ENVS 089A will automatically be enrolled in ENVS 089B in the spring semester. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH, GLBL-paired.
ENVS 089BPresident’s Sustainability Research Fellowship1
This course helps students develop skills in a wide range of research-related skills, ranging from theories of change and content-specific research strategies, through self-management, project management, communication, engagement, and presentation skills. Guest presenters will help students understand the growing field of sustainability from a variety of different perspectives. This course supports the President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship. This course is only open to PSRF students, who have to apply for the program and be accepted in the preceding spring. Students enrolled in ENVS 089A in the fall semester will automatically be enrolled in ENVS 089B in the spring semester. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS, ESCH, GLBL-paired.
The culminating experience of the environmental studies major is the capstone seminar course. Under the direction of a faculty member, students with a variety of backgrounds come together to participate in the Environmental Studies Colloquium Series, a multidisciplinary lecture series exploring pressing environmental topics. The class members jointly prepare for and host the colloquium speakers for closed discussion in the capstone seminar, attend the public lunchbag talks, and respond to the lectures individually and in group conversation. Additional capstone experiences include site visits, peer-led research topics, and a practicum component. Recent speakers and lecture topics include land recuperation and climate change, food justice, contemporary environmental art, and Indigenous land rights and cultural sovereignty. 1 credit. Spring 2027. Benally. Spring 2028 Benally. Spring 2029
(Cross-listed as ECON 176 ) This seminar examines the microeconomics of environmental issues with applications to the design of environmental policy. The seminar will cover the concepts and methods used in the valuation of environmental goods as well as the design of policy instruments and regulations to improve environmental quality. Specific topics include pollution and environmental degradation, the use of renewable and non-renewable resources, and climate change.
Cross-listed with BIOL 132 “We protect wildlife for many reasons. It is integral to the balance of nature. It is a source of inspiration. It nurtures a sense of wonder.” -World Wildlife Fund Students will explore the field of wildlife conservation in this course. The seminar will include 1) a student-driven discussion of primary literature, 2) hands-on experience about how to study wildlife in the Crum Woods, and 3) practice on how to use wildlife data to promote conservation initiatives.
Natural Sciences and Engineering. 1 credit. Eligible for ENVS Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/environmentalstudies Access the class schedule to search for sections.
