At the heart of Southwestern’s Environmental Studies Program lie a list of provocative and urgent questions, awaiting students who are up to the challenge of investigating them: What is humankind's relationship to our environment? How do natural systems operate? What are some of today's most pressing environmental issues? How do we address the complicated issue of environmental justice? What are key environmental issues on the Southwestern campus and in Central Texas?
From these starting points, Environmental Studies students begin an examination of the world around them that can carry on through their time at Southwestern and into their lives beyond the classroom.
Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary program that examines the numerous connections between humans and our environment from a wide variety of perspectives. The program’s courses span the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and fine arts and expose students to the power of social activism related to environmental degradation and justice.
The Environmental Studies faculty represents a wide range of disciplines on campus. Faculty members are consistently engaged in research, service and activism, often conducting their work across diverse areas of study that include U.S. environmental history; conservation and development in Central America; the place of non-human animals in religious traditions; environmental chemistry; the impact of invasive species; and the role of conventional economic texts in promoting values that are harmful to the environment.
Students often choose to focus on either policy/society/cultural studies or on environmental science. The program is designed to allow for selection of a minor to provide this focus. So, for example, students particularly interested in environmental issues and the natural sciences are encouraged to minor in biology, chemistry, or physics. There are opportunities to explore an endless array of possibilities.
Southwestern’s Environmental Studies students are a diverse and engaged group, noted for their scholarly achievements as well as their involvement in real world environmental issues. Most majors study abroad in order to develop a better understanding of the global nature of environmental issues. All students complete an internship requirement to provide real-world application of their academic program and to further clarify possible life-long goals for continued study, activism, and employment.
