Environmental Humanities Minor

The minor in environmental humanities (EH) complements environmental science and policy with a focus on cultural expression and analysis. EH is an interdisciplinary field of study, where students learn environmental history, storytelling, critical thinking, philosophy, and the arts. In EH, we understand that ecological well-being relies on cultural solutions as well as scientific and technical ones.

EH students can explore international approaches to sustainable living, including philosophies and lifeways of the global south and of Indigenous nations worldwide. EH embraces the arts as a means of storytelling and advocating for environmental health, and it embraces philosophy and history as means of better knowing where we are and how we might best live as humans in a changing climate. This is a minor that works well with science and technology majors, to help students cultivate a broad cultural vision, imagination, and vocabulary for change.

Minor in Environmental Humanities

Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements must be taken for a letter grade and passed with a grade of C- or better.

ENVS 203Introduction to Environmental Studies: Humanities4
Electives 1
Lower Division Electives:4
Introduction to Environmental Literature
Food in World History
Introduction to Global Environmental History
Global Environmental Issues and Alternatives
Introduction to Environmental Law and Policy
Upper Division Electives:16
Experimental Course: [Topic]
Special Studies: [Topic]
Literature of the Northwest
Literature and the Environment: [Topic]
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Leadership: [Topic]
Environmental Justice
Native Americans and the Environment
Environmental Racism
Society, Culture, and Place
Experimental Course: [Topic]
GEOG 461
Nature, Culture, and the Environment
American Environmental History to 1890
The American West
The Pacific Northwest
American Environmental History: [Topic]
Introduction to Philosophy of Science
Environmental Philosophy
Science, Technology, and Gender
Gender, Environment, and Development
Total Credits24
1

Undergraduate students must take 24 credit hours, 20 of which come from an approved list of electives (listed below). Students must take ENVS 203, Introduction to Environmental Studies: Humanities, for a maximum of 4 credit hours. No more than two courses for the Environmental Humanities minor may have the same subject code with the exception of ENVS, which can be two courses beyond the required ENVS 203. All courses must be at the 200-level or above.

All upper-division courses for the minor must be taken in residency at UO. Up to 4 lower-division credits may be taken elsewhere, with the approval of academic and career advisors in Tykeson Hall.