We must find ways to feed a growing human population while maintaining the natural life support system provided by the Earth's ecosystems; to make built environments more efficient as urban areas continue to grow dramatically in size; and to meet the challenges posed by rising sea-level and increasing global temperatures. These challenges are complex, multifaceted and can best be solved with expertise from multiple, relevant disciplines.
To prepare students to meet these challenges, the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) offers two undergraduate degrees: an A.B. in Environmental Sciences and Studies and an Sc.B. in Environmental Sciences and Studies. The A.B. guarantees students have a holistic and interdisciplinary understanding of the environment, while the Sc.B. is a more in-depth treatment of a single field: Climate and Energy; Conservation and Natural Systems; Environmental Justice and Health; or Sustainable Development and Governance. Both degrees provide interdisciplinary exposure to the natural and social sciences, as well as public policy.
Through a rigorous set of core courses; track requirements; and a course, independent research, or project-based capstone experience; our students are primed to make meaningful contributions to environmental scholarship and outreach at local, national and global scales.
If you have administrative questions regarding these concentrations or wish to be added to the email directory listing upcoming events, then please contact Jeanne Loewenstein, the academic program manager.
Standard program in Environmental Sciences and Studies:
The Institute at Brown for Environment and Society administers two concentrations, one offering an A.B. degree in Environmental Sciences and Studies (requires 12-13 courses) and the other a Sc.B. degree in Environmental Sciences and Studies (requires 17-18 courses). Students pursuing an Sc.B. degree can further focus their study by selecting one 4 track offerings:
- Climate and Energy
- Conservation Science and Natural Systems
- Environmental Justice and Health
- Sustainable Development & Governance
Requirements for the A.B. Degree
| Core Requirements | ||
| ENVS 0490 | Environmental Science in a Changing World 1 | 1 |
| ENVS 0110 | Humans, Nature, and the Environment: Addressing Environmental Change in the 21st Century | 1 |
| Tools - pick one | 1 | |
| Courses focused on building qualitative or quantitative research tools | ||
| Ethnographic Research Methods | ||
| Introduction to Scientific Computing | ||
| Essential Statistics | ||
| Statistical Inference I | ||
| Statistical Analysis of Biological Data | ||
| Computing Foundations: Data | ||
| Accelerated Introduction to Computer Science | ||
| Statistical Methods | ||
| Introduction to programming | ||
| Data Science Fluency | ||
| Principles of Economics | ||
| Introduction to Econometrics | ||
| Computational Approaches to Modelling and Quantitative Analysis in Natural Sciences: An Introduction | ||
| Introduction to Geographic Information Systems for Environmental Applications | ||
| Global Environmental Remote Sensing | ||
| Machine Learning for the Earth and Environment | ||
| Narrating the Anthropocene | ||
| Methods of Social Research | ||
| Introductory Statistics for Social Research | ||
| Focus Groups for Market and Social Research | ||
| Principles and Methods of Geographic Information Systems | ||
| Electives - three courses | 3 | |
| Any ENVS Course, any course listed in AB focal areas, any course used as a prereq for a concentration requirement, or a Course FOCUSED on the Environment that is approved by the curriculum committee (an environmental section in a course will not count). AB students interested in focusing in a specific discipline are encouraged to take electives in the same category. | ||
| Capstone - one or two courses | 1-2 | |
| The College expects that a capstone will be completed in semesters 7 or 8 - with the intention of providing an opportunity for students to integrate many aspects of their course of study, or area of focus. This requirement can be met with a two-semester thesis (ENVS 1970 & ENVS 1971), one-semester research project (ENVS 1970 or ENVS 1971), or an approved capstone course. | ||
| Foundations in Earth Sciences and Technology - pick one | 1 | |
| Courses focusing on earth, atmospheric, engineering or water sciences. | ||
| Introduction to Oceanography | ||
| Natural Disasters | ||
| Understanding Earth and Environmental Processes | ||
| Earth: Evolution of a Habitable Planet | ||
| Water in Our World | ||
| Weather and Climate | ||
| Global Water Cycle | ||
| Dynamic Meteorology | ||
| Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering | ||
| Groundwater Flow and Transport | ||
| Historical Climatology and Global Climate Change | ||
| Ecology/Biological Sciences - pick one | 1 | |
| Courses focused on ecological or conservation biology | ||
| Diversity of Life | ||
| The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease | ||
| Principles of Ecology | ||
| The Evolution of Plant Diversity | ||
| Rhode Island Flora: Understanding and Documenting Local Plant Diversity | ||
| Coral Reef Ecology | ||
| Conservation Biology | ||
| Terrestrial Biogeochemistry and the Functioning of Ecosystems | ||
| Conservation in the Genomics Age | ||
| Biogeography | ||
| Environmental Justice and Equity - pick one | 1 | |
| Courses focused on environmental issues through a justice and/or equity lens | ||
| Reimagining Climate Change | ||
| Equity and the Environment: Movements, Scholarship, Solutions | ||
| Land Matters: Stewardship, Sovereignty, and Justice on the Ground | ||
| Clearing the Air: Environmental Studies of Pollution | ||
| Farm Planet: Hunger, Development, and the Future of Food and Agriculture | ||
| Climate Futures and Just Transitions | ||
| An Environmental Sociology for a Rapidly Warming World | ||
| Environmental Policy and Politics - pick one | 1 | |
| Courses focused on the policy, politics and/or governance of environmental issues | ||
| Reimagining Climate Change | ||
| Political Ecology | ||
| Ocean Resilience: Ecology, Management, and Politics | ||
| Environmental Economics and Policy | ||
| Local Food Systems and Urban Agriculture | ||
| Climate Policy Research: Organizations and Obstruction | ||
| Environmental Stewardship and Resilience in Urban Systems | ||
| Making Connections: The Environmental Policy Process | ||
| Ocean Governance and Policy | ||
| Energy Policy and Politics | ||
| Politics and Nature | ||
| Politics of Climate Change | ||
| Geopolitics of Oil and Energy | ||
| Environmental History and Humanities - pick one | 1 | |
| Courses focused on the role of history, culture, and the arts in the environment | ||
| Water, Culture and Power | ||
| Writing Climate, Writing Community | ||
| Nature Writing | ||
| Farm Planet: Hunger, Development, and the Future of Food and Agriculture | ||
| Birding Communities | ||
| Commodity Natures: Supply Chains From Extraction to Waste and Alternatives to Endless Growth | ||
| The Anthropocene: The Past and Present of Environmental Change | ||
| Animals and Plants in Chinese History | ||
| From Fire Wielders to Empire Builders: Human Impact on the Global Environment before 1492 | ||
| From the Columbian Exchange to Climate Change: Modern Global Environmental History | ||
| Amazonia from the Prehuman to the Present | ||
| Environmental History of East Asia | ||
| River Histories: Fishes, Floods and the Transformation of Freshwater Ecosystems | ||
| Imperialism and Environmental Change | ||
| Earth Histories: From Creation to Countdown | ||
| Power + Water: Material Culture and its Environmental Impact | ||
| Religion Gone Wild: Spirituality and the Environment | ||
| Total Credits | 12-13 | |
| 1 | The core requirement of ENVS 0490 can be waived for students with an AP exam score of 5 in Environmental Science. |
Requirements for the Sc.B. Degree
| Requires ALL 12-13 course requirements as listed in the A.B. Program | 12-13 | |
| Please note - courses already chosen to fulfill AB requirements cannot be used for an ScB focus area as well. | ||
| Additional Track specific requirements for the Sc.B. | 5 | |
| TRACK 1 - Climate and Energy | ||
| This track is intended for students interested in climate change science, energy systems, and energy/climate change policy | ||
| FOUNDATIONS - pick two | ||
| These courses serve as a foundation to understanding energy, climate systems, and data analysis 1 | ||
| Introduction to Scientific Computing | ||
| Computing Foundations: Data | ||
| Accelerated Introduction to Computer Science | ||
| Equilibrium, Rate, and Structure | ||
| Earth: Evolution of a Habitable Planet | ||
| Computational Approaches to Modelling and Quantitative Analysis in Natural Sciences: An Introduction | ||
| Introduction to Engineering | ||
| Introduction to Engineering: Design | ||
| Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering | ||
| Electricity and Magnetism | ||
| Fluid Mechanics | ||
| Basic Physics A | ||
| Foundations of Mechanics | ||
| ENERGY, ENVIRONMENTAL TECH, & INFRASTRUCTURE - pick one | ||
| Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering | ||
| Renewable Energy Technologies | ||
| Energy and the Environment | ||
| Sustainable Design in the Built Environment | ||
| Environmental Stewardship and Resilience in Urban Systems | ||
| CLIMATE - pick one | ||
| Water in Our World | ||
| Weather and Climate | ||
| The Chemistry of Environmental Pollution | ||
| Clearing the Air: Environmental Studies of Pollution | ||
| ENERGY & CLIMATE POLICY - pick one | ||
| Reimagining Climate Change | ||
| Economics of Global Warming | ||
| Climate Policy Research: Organizations and Obstruction | ||
| Energy Policy and Politics | ||
| Politics of Climate Change | ||
| Geopolitics of Oil and Energy | ||
| TRACK 2 - Conservation Science and Natural Systems | ||
| This track is intended for students interested in ecological and conservation sciences 2 | ||
| ECOLOGY | ||
| Principles of Ecology | ||
| CONSERVATION | ||
| Conservation Biology | ||
| ORGANISMAL DIVERSITY, ECOLOGY & CONSERVATION TOPICS - pick one | ||
| Invertebrate Zoology | ||
| The Evolution of Plant Diversity | ||
| Evolutionary Behavioral Ecology | ||
| Evolutionary Biology | ||
| Rhode Island Flora: Understanding and Documenting Local Plant Diversity | ||
| Terrestrial Biogeochemistry and the Functioning of Ecosystems | ||
| Conservation in the Genomics Age | ||
| Biogeography | ||
| POLITICS & HISTORY OF NATURAL SYSTEMS - pick one | ||
| Political Ecology | ||
| Ocean Resilience: Ecology, Management, and Politics | ||
| Land Matters: Stewardship, Sovereignty, and Justice on the Ground | ||
| Local Food Systems and Urban Agriculture | ||
| Ocean Governance and Policy | ||
| Animals and Plants in Chinese History | ||
| River Histories: Fishes, Floods and the Transformation of Freshwater Ecosystems | ||
| Politics and Nature | ||
| Politics of Climate Change | ||
| TRACK 3 – Environmental Justice and Health | ||
| This track is intended for students interested in exploring environmental issues through a justice/equity lens | ||
| RACE, CLASS, & GENDER INEQUALITY - pick one | ||
| Any class focused on race, class, or gender - these courses do not have an environmental theme 3 | ||
| An Introduction to Africana Studies | ||
| Health Inequality in Historical Perspective | ||
| Indians, Colonists, and Africans in New England | ||
| Race and Inequality in the United States | ||
| Introduction to American/Ethnic Studies | ||
| Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies | ||
| Refugees: A Twentieth-Century History | ||
| Sex, Gender, and Society | ||
| Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the Modern World | ||
| ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE & EQUITY - Pick 2 | ||
| These courses focus on environmental issues through a justice and/or equity lens | ||
| Reimagining Climate Change | ||
| Climate Futures and Just Transitions | ||
| Equity and the Environment: Movements, Scholarship, Solutions | ||
| Land Matters: Stewardship, Sovereignty, and Justice on the Ground | ||
| Clearing the Air: Environmental Studies of Pollution | ||
| Farm Planet: Hunger, Development, and the Future of Food and Agriculture | ||
| An Environmental Sociology for a Rapidly Warming World | ||
| FOUNDATIONS IN HEALTH & INEQUALITY - pick one | ||
| These courses offer a foundation or an additional tool to study environmental health and inequality | ||
| Ethnographic Research Methods | ||
| Introduction to Geographic Information Systems for Environmental Applications | ||
| Health Care in the United States | ||
| Introduction to Public Health | ||
| Public Health Policy | ||
| Intro. to Health Disparities & Making Connection btw Structure, Social Determinants&Health Equity | ||
| Race, Racism and Health | ||
| Social Determinants of Health | ||
| Methods of Social Research | ||
| Introductory Statistics for Social Research | ||
| Focus Groups for Market and Social Research | ||
| Principles and Methods of Geographic Information Systems | ||
| ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH - pick one | ||
| These courses focus specifically on public health and the environment | ||
| Public Health and the Environment | ||
| Global Burden of Disease | ||
| World of Food: Personal to Global Perspectives on Nutrition, Agriculture and Policy | ||
Future course offerings from Professor Rachel Backer and Allan Just | ||
| TRACK 4 - Sustainable Development & Governance | ||
| This track is intended for students interested in the interplay between environmental governance and economics on the global stage, with an emphasis on the non-Western world | ||
| GLOBAL GOVERNANCE & DEVELOPMENT - pick one | ||
| Courses focused on global governance or development (some are non environmental) | ||
| Ocean Resilience: Ecology, Management, and Politics | ||
| Foundations of Development | ||
| Economic Development in Latin America | ||
| Economic Development of China and India | ||
| Introduction to Comparative Politics | ||
| Introduction to International Politics | ||
| Politics of Climate Change | ||
| Security, Governance and Development in Africa | ||
| The International Law and Politics of Human Rights | ||
| Geopolitics of Oil and Energy | ||
| Political Economy of Development | ||
| Power, Knowledge and Justice in Global Social Change | ||
| ENVIRONMENT, JUSTICE, & NON-WESTERN PERSPECTIVES - pick two | ||
| Any class focused on the Environment and the Global South and/or other non-Western perspectives | ||
| Reimagining Climate Change | ||
| Equity and the Environment: Movements, Scholarship, Solutions | ||
| Climate Futures and Just Transitions | ||
| Land Matters: Stewardship, Sovereignty, and Justice on the Ground | ||
| Farm Planet: Hunger, Development, and the Future of Food and Agriculture | ||
| Environmental Stewardship and Resilience in Urban Systems | ||
| Commodity Natures: Supply Chains From Extraction to Waste and Alternatives to Endless Growth | ||
| Indigenous Laws, Environmental Racism, and LandBack | ||
| Amazonia from the Prehuman to the Present | ||
| Power + Water: Material Culture and its Environmental Impact | ||
| ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES - pick one | ||
| These courses are intermediate-level economic tools courses | ||
| Intermediate Microeconomics | ||
| Economics of Global Warming | ||
| Environmental Economics and Policy | ||
or ECON 1350 | Environmental Economics and Policy | |
| Environmental Issues in Development Economics | ||
| Urban Economics | ||
| Current Global Macroeconomic Challenges | ||
| Health, Hunger and the Household in Developing Countries | ||
| Economic Growth | ||
| FINANCE & ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES - pick one | ||
| These courses are either intermediate-level economic tools courses, courses focused on sustainable investing and finance, or the social science of economics systems | ||
| Intermediate Microeconomics | ||
| Economics of Global Warming | ||
| Environmental Economics and Policy | ||
or ENVS 1350 | Environmental Economics and Policy | |
| Environmental Issues in Development Economics | ||
| Urban Economics | ||
| Current Global Macroeconomic Challenges | ||
| Health, Hunger and the Household in Developing Countries | ||
| Economic Growth | ||
| Eco-Entrepreneurship | ||
| The Theory and Practice of Sustainable Investing | ||
| Finance and the Environment | ||
| History of Capitalism | ||
| Climate Change, Power, & Money | ||
| Ethics, Economics, and the Future | ||
| Total Credits | 17-18 | |
| 1 | Students can use a prerequisites for any of the courses selected to fulfill an "Elective" requirement. |
| 2 | Most students with an intention of going to grad school in this field will also need: At least one semester of calculus and a statistics course |
| 3 | Many AFRI, ETHN, and GNSS classes count with IBES Curriculum Committee approval. |
Honors
Students interested in graduating with honors in their concentration must complete a thesis determined to be of the highest quality and must have excelled in their coursework required for the concentration, which is defined here as receiving a grade of "A" in the majority of courses taken to fulfill the concentration. You can learn more by visiting the honors page on the IBES website.