Courses
Below are the core Environmental Studies courses. See the college catalog for a full list of current courses that apply to the Environmental Studies program.ENV 200 - Introduction to Environmental Studies Research Methods
This course is designed to provide an introduction to environmental studies research methods and design, including widely used techniques in natural and social sciences. Specific topics include spatial analysis, statistical modeling, document coding, case study, and archival research; students will also learn about and practice field study design and oral and visual data presentation. This course is designed for first- and second-year students.
ENV 300 - Junior Seminar
This is a project-based course for ES majors that gives students an opportunity to experience and practice the way environmental themes can be analyzed from interdisciplinary perspectives by working on a stakeholder-identified environmental problem related to climate change.
Unit(s): 1
Prerequisite(s):
Completion of or concurrent enrollment in ENV core requirements
Restriction(s): Environmental Studies majors only
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
ENV 470 - Thesis
Unit(s): 2
Instructional Method: Independent study
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Notes:
Yearlong course, 1 unit per semester.
Examples of ES300 Class Projects
- Bringing Negawatts Home: a weatherization program proposal for the Portland Climate Action Plan (2013)
- Biomass to Boardman: a feasibility assessment of replacing coal with agricultural waste (2014)
- Reed College Climate Impact Assessment: reducing Reed's carbon footprint, one watt at a time (2015) (GIS data files)
- Vulnerability and Climate Change Adaptation Planning: Heat and Floods in Portland, Oregon (2017)
- Green Infrastructure Distribution in Portland, Oregon (2018)
- A Two-Part Investigation: Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Portland's Urban Forests (2019)
2017 fieldtrip to the Boardman power plant and wind energy farms.
Past Environmental Courses that have Satisfied ES Major Requirements
Anthropology (catalog)
- Anthropology 201- Topics: Global Polit Ecology (Sullivan/Vaidya)
- Anthropology 360 - Country & City in Latin America (Sullivan)
- Anthropology 377- Labor, Value, Land in India (Vaidya)
- Anthropology 378 - Nature, Culture, and Environmentalism (Brightman, Sullivan)
- Anthropology 442 - Ontological Politics (Sullivan)
Biology (catalog)
- Biology 263 - Molecular Ecology (Karoly)
- Biology 301 - Ecology (Fey)
- Biology 303- Leaves to Landscapes (Ramirez)
- Biology 308- Restoration Ecology (Michaels)
- Biology 315 - Evolution (Schlenke)
- Biology 332 - Vascular Plant Diversity (Karoly)
- Biology 342 - Animal Behavior (Renn)
- Biology 366 - Population Ecology and Evolution (Kaplan)
- Biology 431- Global Change Ecology (Fey)
- Biology 431- Socio-Ecology of Wildfire & Drought (Ramirez)
- Biology 431- Forest Canopy Research (Ramirez)
Chemistry (catalog)
- Chemistry 201 - Organic Chemistry I
- Chemistry 202 - Organic Chemistry II
- Chemistry 212 - Intro to Inorganic Chemistry (Bowring)
- Chemistry 230 - Environmental Chemistry (Fry/Grieman)
- Chemistry 311 - Analytical Chemistry (Fry/Grieman)
- Chemistry 315- Physical Chemistry Laborary (Ahuja)
- Chemistry 316- P-Chem Lab: Diatomic Spectra (Gerrity)
Economics (catalog)
- Economics 348 - Economics of the Public Sector (Netusil)
- Economics 353- Ecological Economics (Klain)
- Economics 351- Environmental Economics (Netusil)
- Economics 352 - Natural Resource Economics (Netusil)
- Economics 358 - Urban Economics (Rork)
- Economics 371 - Law and Economics (Netusil)
History (catalog)
- History 240 - World Environmental History (Howe)
- History 270 - Nature, Culture, and Society in American History (Howe)
- History 302 - Indigenous People and Environmental Change (Dougherty)
- History 310 - Water and the American West (Howe)
- History 311 - Food in American History (Venit-Shelton)
- History 312 - The Environmental History of the American West (Venit-Shelton)
- History 313 - Wildlife in America (Tyrell)
- History 314 - Health, Disease, and Medicine in American Society (Finger)
- History 317 - The American Earth (Howe)
- History 323- Rice in East Asia (Fix)
- History 338 - Crisis and Catastophe in 18th- and 19th-Century Europe (Miller)
- History 345 - Whole Earths, Globalizations, and World Pictures (Lazier)
- History 398 - Animals: An Intellectual and Cultural History (Lazier)
- History 421- Topics in Historiography: The Power of American Things (Howe)
- History 516- American Things (Howe)
Political Science (catalog)
- Political Science 336 - Natural Resource Politics (Musthaq)
- Political Science 362 (formerly 331) - State and Local Politics (Koski)
- Political Science 368 (formerly 338) - Environmental Politics and Policy (Koski)
- Political Science 344 (formerly 372) - International Environmental Politics (Montgomery)
- Political Science 375- Disaster Politics & Policy (Manson)
- Political Science 469 (formerly 420) - Food Politics and Policy (Koski)
Courses of Interest
The following courses do not count as ES courses for the major requirments, but do address environmental topics that may be of interest to students.
Division of the Arts- Art 172 - Painting I - Imaginary Worlds (Harrower)
- Art 174 - Decolonial Natural History Illustration and Printmaking (Harrower)
- Art 274 - Painting II - Naturecultures (Harrower)
- Art 301 - Ecocritical Art Histories (Katz and Sud)
- Art 350 - Oceans, Rains, Rivers, Pools: Histories of Water (Sud
- Art 370 - Environmental Art (Harrower)
- Music 251 - Music, Sound, and Climate Change
- Music XXX - Acoustic Ecology (Luker)
- English 201 - Fables of Warning: Rachel Carson’s Ecological Imagination (Wagner-McCoy)
- English 206 - EH Collaboratory: Writing Reed (Wagner-McCoy and Waller)
- English 242 - Introduction to Drama: Irish Drama and the Politics of Place (Wagner-McCoy)
- English 333 - Postcolonial Hauntings (Rajbhandari)
- English 341 - Nature Writing, Ecocriticism, and the Problem of Social Justice(Wagner-McCoy)
- English 341 - Humanity at Sea: Personhood from Moby Dick to Moby Doll (Wagner-McCoy)
- English 341 - Literature of Reconstruction: Post Bellum, Pre Harlem (Wagner-McCoy)
- Russian/Literature 394 - Arctic Awakenings (Caffee)--offered Spring 2025
- Russian/Literature 392 - Nuclear Literatures: a Comparative Approach (Caffee)
- Philosophy 208 - Introduction to Environmental Ethics (Scharle)
- Religion 374 - Entanglement: Environment, Ethics, and Religion (Scheible)