The environmental studies major provides students with an interdisciplinary opportunity to investigate the relationship between humans and their environment. As distinct from Environmental Science, the curriculum in Environmental Studies is based in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, emphasizing the political, economic, and social organization of human cultures in relation to the natural world, as well as the artistic, philosophical, and experiential responses to natural and built environments.

Major in Environmental Studies

A minimum of 37 credits required. Core requirements:
EST101 Introduction to Environmental Studies
ESC105 Environmental Science: Sustainable Communities
ESC209 Field Survey Techniques in Zoology
ESC490 Seminar
ENG244 Literature and the Environment
HST365 American Environmental History
PHR304 Environment Ethics
PHR378 Philosophy of Technology and Modern Culture
POL313 Environmental Politics

Choose one of the following:
ART222 Art History Survey III
ART243 Digital Photography

Choose one of the following:
COM355 Mass Media
COM404 Rhetoric of Protest and Dissent
ENG355 Mass Media

One additional course chosen in consultation with an Environmental Studies advisor.

ART222 - Art History Survey III

Semester: Fall
Semester hours: 3
This is a general survey of art historical periods and movements during the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Study focuses on the materials, techniques, style, historical context, aesthetics, and criticism of this wide variety of art. Traditional art historical methods of slide lecture, discussion, written exams, and papers are de rigueur as well as exploration of relevant topics on the Internet and via the course website. Though sequential, ART220, ART221, and ART222 may be taken separately.

ART243 - Digital Photography

Semester: On Demand
Semester hours: 3
This course introduces the process of digital photography. Camera handling, editing techniques, and the elements of design are covered. Students are encouraged to pursue this art form in the surrounding community and landscape.

COM355 - Mass Media

Semester: Spring
Semester hours: 3
This course explores how communication media, whether smoke signals, newspapers, television or the Internet, influence human communication. We are different people than in the past because we can instantaneously reach people around the globe. With each change in technology, communication changes. These changes alter what it means to be human. Students must be able to understand the power of media to better manage its influence in their personal and professional lives.
Prerequisite: COM 102

COM404 - Rhetoric of Protest and Dissent

Semester: Spring
Semester hours: 3
Throughout history, people have protested injustice, prejudice, inhumanity, and colonialism. They have tried, and even sometimes succeeded, in protesting without violence. Persuasion is an alternative to physical aggression. This course examines why and how protest occurs, the challenges protesters face rhetorically, and the available options from which protesters can choose. Students will emerge with an appreciation of how difficult protest is and how important it is for a vital society.
Prerequisites: COM 102, COM 240

ENG244 - Literature and the Environment

Semester: Spring
Semester hours: 3
This course is a comparative study of the environmental imagination as expressed in literature. By reading and discussing a wide range of literary texts, students investigate timeless and more urgent questions, such as “What is nature?”; “What is our responsibility to the environment?”; “How do various cultures express their relation to the natural world?”.

ENG355 - Mass Media

Semester: Spring
Semester hours: 3
This course explores how communication media, whether smoke signals, newspapers, television or the Internet, influence human communication. We are different people than in the past because we can instantaneously reach people around the globe. With each change in technology, communication changes. These changes alter what it means to be human. Students must be able to understand the power of media to better manage its influence in their personal and professional lives.

ESC105 - Environmental Science: Sustainable Communities

Semester: Fall and Spring
Semester hours: 4
An introductory course designed for students entering the environmental sciences and studies program and for other students who would like to take an ecology lab course. Topics address the central concepts of ecology including the physical environment in which life exists. Students will explore the properties and processes of populations and communities, ecosystem dynamics, biogeography and biodiversity, as well as issues in conservation and restoration ecology. In laboratory students will apply these concepts to ecological studies in the natural environment and learn how to present their results in a scientific report. Three hours of lecture and one two-hour laboratory session per week.

ESC209 - Field Survey Techniques in Zoology

Semester: Spring
Semester hours: 4
A field and laboratory course covering basic field techniques to survey and inventory areas to assess biodiversity, with an emphasis on Montana mammal, bird, reptile, amphibians and fish fauna. Topics include species identification, survey and trapping, experimental design, data analysis, and report completion. Once identification and survey skills are learned, field teams will be formed and assigned to survey and inventory local habitats of concern with the goal of helping guide local management and restoration of these habitats. Additional fee required.

ESC490 - Seminar

Semester: On Demand
Semester hours: 2-3
Selected topics in environmental sciences or environmental studies are explored.

EST101 - Introduction to Environmental Studies

Semester: Fall
Semester hours: 3
This course explores the complexity of environmental issues as approached from the perspectives of the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Since environmental issues are inherently complex, attention is focused on how human beings perceive, understand, and respond to environmental change. Emphasis is placed on developing students’ abilities to investigate matters critically and to respond in original, thoughtful, and imaginative ways.

HST365 - American Environmental History

Semester: Fall
Semester hours: 3
This course examines the interrelationship of human society and nature in American history. Topics will include ecology as it relates to European conquest of the Americas, Native American peoples, public lands policies, American national character, technological society, conservation, and the modern environmental movement.

PHR304 - Environmental Ethics

Semester: Spring
Semester hours: 3
This course examines the interrelationship of human society and nature in American history. Topics will include ecology as it relates to European conquest of the Americas, Native American peoples, public lands policies, American national character, technological society, conservation, and the modern environmental movement.

PHR378 - Philosophy of Technology and Modern Culture

Semester: Fall
Semester hours: 3
It is often a difficult task to understand one's own culture and age. Recent philosophical work offers profound insights into our age and places these insights within a much wider context.

POL313 - Environmental Politics

Semester: Spring
Semester hours: 3
Political problems associated with the human impact on the natural environment: pollution, natural resources, public lands, land use, energy, cultural/social justice, and population.