The environmental studies major provides students with an interdisciplinary opportunity to investigate the relationship between humans and their environment. Distinct from environmental science, the curriculum in environmental studies is based in the humanities, arts and the social sciences.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the Earth has been radically transformed by human beings, and the pace of this transformation continues to increase. This radical event raises profound questions concerning the relationship between humans and nature. For instance, how can we understand this event historically along with the rise of environmentalism and the need for environmental policy? Is there a pattern to this transformation, and if so, how does it hang together? What is the role of nature in the modern project? What role does the market play in this transformation? It would seem that if we do not understand what is going on here in the bigger picture, many of our efforts to make things better may prove futile.

Should the beauty of nature count for something, how can we communicate natural beauty and its significance in a world that often pushes aside and dismisses it? What of the differential impacts of environmental insults on historically vulnerable peoples of the Untied States and around the world? What are our ethical responsibilities toward nature? What is the place of nature in the human condition, an issue this transformation has also made questionable. These are just a few of the kinds of concerns that environmental studies addresses.