Check out the new Check Sheet and ES Minor Declaration Form

All students are invited to take these Environmental Studies courses

 

MAY TERM 2013

ES 310: Environmental Laws and Policies - Local, National and International Perspectives (3  credit hours)

This course is designed to provide students interested in pre-law, political science, business, the hard sciences and environmental studies a basic understanding of both why and how environmental law and policy are formulated and implemented. 

Cross-listed with POS 303, HNRS 309, and MG 460. 

 

SOC 411: Rural Environments, Communities, and Well-Being (3 credit hours)

Introduces participants to the sociological study of rural communities and environments.  Students will spend 20 hours working in the Shoal Creek-Prentice Village neighborhood in Montevallo; service activities include site clean-up and maintenance, neighborhood beautification, assistance to families and community members, and establishment of a new organic community garden. 

Counts as Social Sciences requirement on ES Check Sheet.

 

SUMMER II 2013

This interdisciplinary course is designed to teach students about the basic issues of food insecurity, food distribution, and food equality while actively addressing these issues by providing both assistance and home-grown food to a local social service agency that seeks to reduce hunger in Shelby County.  The course will consist of labs in the UM Organic Community Garden, lectures from course professors and guest speakers, field trips, online content, working at a local food agency, and donation of fresh vegetables and fruits.  

Cross Listings: BIO 475 and SW 301.

ART 405: Landscape to Land Art [art history] (3 credit hours)

This course explores the conceptual and pictorial development of landscape as a genre in Western art with special focus on the development of Land Art as a contemporary art movement.  Tracking the emergence and development of pictorial representation of the landscape through major historical periods and then focusing on Land Art—a variant of public art that initially developed in the 1960s—students in this course will study how humans have interacted with the land and how they have conceptualized and commented upon their relationships with it through artistic practice.  We will also consider how Land Art has transformed over time and will address the development of “eco-art” as an emergent art trend.  Prerequisite: consent of instructor

Counts as Arts and Humanities requirement on ES Check Sheet. 

 

FALL 2013

            ES 200: Introduction to Environmental Studies (1 credit hour)

An exploration of issues, methods, and terminology essential to contemporary environmental thought.  This interdisciplinary course taught by UM professors in a variety of fields will entail readings, projects, and lecture-based study of the relationships between human culture and ecological systems.  Required for the minor but open to everyone! 

Cross-listed with HNRS 308.

ES 300: Economics of Environmental Toxicology (3 credit hours)*

This interdisciplinary course will be designed to teach students about the harmful effects of chemicals on populations and ecosystems, how chemicals are regulated to prevent such harmful effects, and what economic factors control how businesses manufacture, distribute, and consume potentially harmful chemicals. The course will consist of lectures from course professors and guest speakers, field trips to local businesses faced with environmental concerns, and detailed case studies involving real life examples.

                    Cross-listed with BIO 475, FI 475/476, and HNRS 309.

            ES 300: The Celestial Environment (3 credit hours)*

This course emphasizes the human origins, development, and ramifications of astronomy. Weekly outings (weather permitting) will involve naked eye and telescopic observation of celestial objects. The observational component of the course is designed to teach the students the configuration of the night sky and its relationship to ancient religion and culture, the empirical basis of modern astronomical theory, and the variety of celestial objects which can be studied by the amateur astronomer. The lectures will be self-contained accounts of a variety of issues which center around the relationships between mathematics, physics, astronomy, and other fields of human endeavor.  The course will underscore the extent to which the major fields of human inquiry and indeed, human survival itself, have depended on the development of astronomy.

                    Cross-listed with Math 295, PHIL 300, and HNRS 309.

            ES 310: Religion and Ecology (3 credit hours)

                        Cross-listed with PHIL 302.