Concentration in Environmental Ethics and Justice (Bachelor of Arts in Environmental and Sustainability Studies)

Students on Summer 2019, Fall 2019, or Spring 2020 requirements ENVETJSCON

View Degree MapA semester-by-semester path to completing degree and major requirements

Requirements

The concentration requires at least 12 credit hours, including the requirements listed below.

Core Courses. Two (2) courses:
- ANTH-E 318 Nature/Culture: Global Perspectives in Environmental Anthropology
- ANTH-E 444 People and Protected Areas: Theories of Conservation
- GEOG-G 341 Ecological Restoration: Science, Politics, and Ethics
- GEOG-G 449 Political Ecology
- INTL-I 428 Social Justice and the Environment (Approved topics: "ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE" (TPC 1))
- SPEA-V 424 Environmental Law, Justice, and Politics
- SPH-O 313 Wilderness and Protected Lands
- SPH-O 360 Human Health and Natural Environments
ANTH-E 318 Nature/Culture: Global Perspectives in Environmental Anthropology

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
When we think of nature, what images come to mind? How are ideas of nature influenced by culture, history, and politics? By the end of the semester, students will recognize how environments represent a collection, not only of plants and animals, but also of meanings and relationships.
ANTH-E 444 People and Protected Areas: Theories of Conservation
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Seminar course that explores major theories and approaches to conservation, from "fortress conservation" to community-based and participatory strategies. Considers the implications of protected areas for local human populations and cultural diversity. Evaluates outcomes and unintended consequences of protected areas, and controversies over the "best" way to protect natural resources.
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SLcourse
GEOG-G 341 Ecological Restoration: Science, Politics, and Ethics
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Can humans restore ecosystems and undo the environmental harm they have caused? To what state/extent should ecosystems be restored? What drives the ecological restoration movement? Investigates the deeply interconnected history, philosophy, ecology, geomorphology, and political economy of restoration through readings, discussions, and fieldwork.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 449 Political Ecology
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
An introduction to political ecology, an approach which focuses on the political-economic context of natural resource conflicts with particular attention to issues of equity, justice, and power. Covers the theoretical lineage of political ecology, its development over the last twenty years, and current hot topics in the field.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
INTL-I 428 Social Justice and the Environment

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Interdisciplinary study of comparative environmental justice issues around the world.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 12 credit hours.

SPEA-V 424 Environmental Law, Justice, and Politics

Description
An introduction to U.S. environmental politics and policy, focusing on the institutions and political actors involved in environmental protection. It emphasizes the difficult political, economic, and social justice questions that arise in the context of managing current and future public health and ecological risks.
Additional information
Credit hour, prerequisite, and other information cannot be displayed for this course. If this is a course outside of the College of Arts and Sciences, please see the appropriate school's bulletin for additional information.

SPH-O 313 Wilderness and Protected Lands

Description
The philosophical turmoil of formal wilderness creation in the United States will?be?presented in this course. Discussion and debate of the European influences on wilderness thinking in the United States as well as examination of wilderness experiences of early European settlers to America will be addressed. The course traces the history of influential leaders in wilderness designations and the political climate of wilderness debates.
Additional information
Credit hour, prerequisite, and other information cannot be displayed for this course. If this is a course outside of the College of Arts and Sciences, please see the appropriate school's bulletin for additional information.

SPH-O 360 Human Health and Natural Environments

Description
Examination of the relationships among human health, quality of life, and natural environments from the perspective of cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and related domains. Experiential learning in local natural settings.
Additional information
Credit hour, prerequisite, and other information cannot be displayed for this course. If this is a course outside of the College of Arts and Sciences, please see the appropriate school's bulletin for additional information.
Elective Courses. Two (2) courses:
- ANTH-E 318 Nature/Culture: Global Perspectives in Environmental Anthropology
- ANTH-E 444 People and Protected Areas: Theories of Conservation
- ENG-L 389 Feminist Literary and Cultural Criticism program approval required; see academic advisor
- ENG-R 348 Environmental Communication
- GEOG-G 315 Environmental Conservation
- GEOG-G 341 Ecological Restoration: Science, Politics, and Ethics
- GEOG-G 448 Capitalism and Nature
- GEOG-G 449 Political Ecology
- GEOG-G 461 Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
- HPSC-X 340 Scientific Methods: How Science Really Works
- HPSC-X 342 The Secret Life of Trees: Scientific, Historical, and Psychological Perspectives on Forests
- INTL-I 202 Global Health and Environment
- INTL-I 428 Social Justice and the Environment (Approved topics: "ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE" (TPC 1))
- SPEA-V 424 Environmental Law, Justice, and Politics
- SPH-O 313 Wilderness and Protected Lands
- SPH-O 360 Human Health and Natural Environments
- Independent study, readings, research, or practicum in environmental ethics and justice from any department (3 cr.) with pre-approval of the Program
ANTH-E 318 Nature/Culture: Global Perspectives in Environmental Anthropology

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
When we think of nature, what images come to mind? How are ideas of nature influenced by culture, history, and politics? By the end of the semester, students will recognize how environments represent a collection, not only of plants and animals, but also of meanings and relationships.
ANTH-E 444 People and Protected Areas: Theories of Conservation
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Seminar course that explores major theories and approaches to conservation, from "fortress conservation" to community-based and participatory strategies. Considers the implications of protected areas for local human populations and cultural diversity. Evaluates outcomes and unintended consequences of protected areas, and controversies over the "best" way to protect natural resources.
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SLcourse
ENG-L 389 Feminist Literary and Cultural Criticism
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Selected critical approaches to the issue of gender over time and in various cultural settings. Topics vary, but may include feminist criticism and popular culture, the history of feminist expository prose, or deconstructionism and feminism.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 348 Environmental Communication
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
This class is grounded in the perspective that symbolic and natural systems are mutually constituted and therefore, the ways we communicate about and with the environment are vital to examine for a sustainable and just future. The focus of the class may vary to engage topics such as environmental tourism or environmental disasters.
Repeatability
Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 348 or ENG-R 348.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 315 Environmental Conservation
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Explores the environmental impact of global population growth, natural resources utilization, and pollution. Examines current problems relating to energy consumption, farming practices, water use, resource development and deforestation from geologic and ecological perspectives. Strategies designed to avert predicted global catastrophe will be examined to determine success potential.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SLcourse
GEOG-G 341 Ecological Restoration: Science, Politics, and Ethics
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Can humans restore ecosystems and undo the environmental harm they have caused? To what state/extent should ecosystems be restored? What drives the ecological restoration movement? Investigates the deeply interconnected history, philosophy, ecology, geomorphology, and political economy of restoration through readings, discussions, and fieldwork.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 448 Capitalism and Nature
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
How has nature been appropriated, reworked, and produced under capitalism; conversely, how does the materiality of nature shape the conditions of capitalism? In this seminar, we will investigate how relations between capitalism and nature have evolved from the end of feudalism through the current neoliberal era.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SLcourse
GEOG-G 449 Political Ecology
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
An introduction to political ecology, an approach which focuses on the political-economic context of natural resource conflicts with particular attention to issues of equity, justice, and power. Covers the theoretical lineage of political ecology, its development over the last twenty years, and current hot topics in the field.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 461 Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Introduction to global environmental change (GEC), focusing on the human causes and consequences of biophysical transformations of land systems. Emphasis on socioeconomic, political, institutional, and environmental dimensions of land change; tropical forests, grasslands, and urbanizing areas; international environmental regimes; spatial methodologies in GEC research, and integrated approaches.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
HPSC-X 340 Scientific Methods: How Science Really Works
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Science is governed by methods: methods for performing experiments, analyzing data, testing hypotheses, and writing scientific papers. This course frames the philosophical and historical debates about scientific methods and introduces the conceptual tools to discuss and reflect on the rules and procedures that make the pursuit of knowledge scientific.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
HPSC-X 342 The Secret Life of Trees: Scientific, Historical, and Psychological Perspectives on Forests
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Examines trees and forests as conspicuous natural objects that play a multivalent role in human imagination, thinking, and emotion. Explores the intertwined natural and cultural trajectory of trees along scientific, historical, and psychological dimensions. Topics include ecosystem services, human uses and attitudes, deforestation, IU\'s woodland campus, and ecological ethics.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE AHcourse
INTL-I 202 Global Health and Environment
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Examination of pressing health and environmental challenges around the world, such as deforestation, climate change and the spread of infectious diseases. Focuses on the interaction of health and environmental problems that cross national borders and require a multinational or global effort to solve.
- Summer 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
INTL-I 428 Social Justice and the Environment

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Interdisciplinary study of comparative environmental justice issues around the world.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 12 credit hours.

SPEA-V 424 Environmental Law, Justice, and Politics

Description
An introduction to U.S. environmental politics and policy, focusing on the institutions and political actors involved in environmental protection. It emphasizes the difficult political, economic, and social justice questions that arise in the context of managing current and future public health and ecological risks.
Additional information
Credit hour, prerequisite, and other information cannot be displayed for this course. If this is a course outside of the College of Arts and Sciences, please see the appropriate school's bulletin for additional information.

SPH-O 313 Wilderness and Protected Lands

Description
The philosophical turmoil of formal wilderness creation in the United States will?be?presented in this course. Discussion and debate of the European influences on wilderness thinking in the United States as well as examination of wilderness experiences of early European settlers to America will be addressed. The course traces the history of influential leaders in wilderness designations and the political climate of wilderness debates.
Additional information
Credit hour, prerequisite, and other information cannot be displayed for this course. If this is a course outside of the College of Arts and Sciences, please see the appropriate school's bulletin for additional information.

SPH-O 360 Human Health and Natural Environments

Description
Examination of the relationships among human health, quality of life, and natural environments from the perspective of cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and related domains. Experiential learning in local natural settings.
Additional information
Credit hour, prerequisite, and other information cannot be displayed for this course. If this is a course outside of the College of Arts and Sciences, please see the appropriate school's bulletin for additional information.
Concentration GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
1. At least 9 credit hours in the concentration must be completed at the 300–499 level.
2. Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the concentration.
3. A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the concentration—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
4. Exceptions to concentration requirements may be made with the approval of the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.