Environmental Studies
Environmental Studies Department's Website
Environmental Studies Courses Offered
Faculty
Elizabeth Atkinson Ph.D.Nancy Broshot Ph.D.
James Diamond Ph.D.
Robert Gardner
Rob Gardner joined the faculty of Linfield College in 2004. His dissertation research examined the growth of temporary or “portable” communities cultivated within the vibrant bluegrass music festival scene in the Rocky Mountain West. In his other graduate research, he examined competing discourses framing urban growth related social conflicts along Colorado’s Front Range. Since arriving at Linfield, Rob has continued his research on music communities, scenes, and subcultures but has also branched into the study of community resilience. His current research examines the emergent organizational dynamics and political motives driving grassroots volunteer relief activity in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast.
Driven by a pedagogy rooted in service-learning and civic engagement, Rob's teaching interests include community sustainability, environmental sociology, community, social theory, and music subcultures. He has developed month-long travel courses to post-Katrina New Orleans to study disaster induced community change and to Mumbai and Varanasi, India to examine the role of NGOs in addressing persistent poverty. He has also led several groups of students serving the local community through studies of rural homelessness.
Ph.D.Randy Grant Ph.D. (Chair)
Jennifer Heath Ph.D. (Chair)
Thomas Love
Thomas Love joined the Linfield faculty in 1983; he teaches anthropology, environmental studies and Latin American studies courses, including human ecology, South America, global political economy, and socio-cultural change and collapse.
Working in the central Andes and the Pacific Northwest, he has written on energy, human ecology and rural livelihood issues in Anthropology Today, American Ethnologist, Ambio, and the J of Sustainable Forestry. He co-edited Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies (Left Coast Press, 2013), a reader in energy anthropology, with S. Strauss and S. Rupp, State, Capital and Rural Society: Anthropological Perspectives on Political Economy in Mexico and the Andes (Westview Press, 1989) with B. Orlove and M. Foley, and is completing a monograph The Independent Republic of Arequipa, with U Texas Press.
Ph.D.Jackson Miller Ph.D.
Joelle Murray Ph.D.
Janet Peterson Dr.P.H.
Michael Roberts Ph.D.
Alexander Runciman Ph.D.
Eric Schuck (Coordinator - Environmental Studies) Ph.D.
David Sumner Ph.D.
John Syring Ph.D.
Chad Tillberg Ph.D.
Lissa Wadewitz Ph.D.
Jeremy Weisz Ph.D.
Faculty
Liz Atkinson • Chemistry
Nancy Broshot • Environmental Studies (Coordinator)
Jim Diamond • Chemistry
Robert Gardner • Sociology
Randy Grant • Economics
Jennifer Heath • Physics
Tom Love • Anthropology
Jackson Miller • Communication Arts
Joelle Murray • Physics
Janet Peterson • HHPA
Mike Roberts • Biology
David Sumner • English
Eric Schuck • Economics (on sabbatical fall 2012)
Chad Tillberg • Biology
John Syring • Biology
Lissa Wadewitz • History
Jeremy Weisz • Biology
Laboratory Coordinator
Barbara Van Ness, M.S.
Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary arena of study in the undergraduate curriculum. It centers on understanding relationships between humans and the planet’s life support system. It seeks to develop in students a deep awareness of the complex, highly dynamic nature of the world we inhabit, including interactions among human population, the biological and physical environments, resources, technology, social organization and culture. The portion of the planet we occupy in the Pacific Northwest is exceptionally divers for its latitude and affords rich opportunities for study and involvement. Linfield is a member of the Malheur Field Station Consortium, operating a teaching and research facility in the high desert of eastern Oregon. Addressing environmental issues draws on almost every field in the liberal arts curriculum. An understanding of science human culture, and public policy is required for adequately resolving environmental problems. For this reason the core of the Environmental Studies major features a cross-disciplinary introductory course sequence along with requirements in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Thereafter, students select either a science focus or a policy focus. An integrative upper division problem-solving seminar serves as a capstone, drawing together the talents and experiences of students from both the science focus and the policy focus.
Goals for the Major
In successfully completing a major in Environmental Studies, students will be able to:
- Research and evaluate interactions among humans and their environments through interdisciplinary inquiry.
- Articulate and apply the basic tenets of scientific inquiry to environmental issues.
- Develop a foundation for making informed decisions about environmental issues on an individual and societal level.
Requirements for Major or Minor
The environmental studies major is available as a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree.
Students in the science focus will be expected to exhibit greater depth with respect to the technical aspects of the preceding goals. Students in the policy focus will be expected to exhibit greater depth with respect to the cultural and public policy aspects of these goals.
For a major: 63-65 credits distributed as follows:
Common Core: 21 credits including ENVS 030 or 040 or 090, 201, 203 or 250, 385, and 485; Policy‐Track Majors: Choose two from ENVS 300, ECON 341, ECON 342, or POLS 335.
Science‐Track Majors: Choose one from ENVS 300, ECON 341, ECON 342, or POLS 335.
Required Supporting Courses: 16 credits including:
Quantitative Courses: MATH 140 or MATH 340; and MATH 160 (Policy Focus ) or MATH 170 (Science Focus) or higher. Distribution Courses: ECON 210; ENGL 304 or HIST 152 or PHIL 306.
Note: One course from among RELS 110, 355; TCCA 340; or ENGL 250, 301, 319 can substitute for ENGL 304 or HIST 152 or PHIL 306 by permission of the Environmental Studies Coordinator. For either focus courses may count once toward the major. With the exception of the Upper-Division Requirement in the Linfield Curriculum, courses that satisfy the major and the Linfield Curriculum may be counted toward both requirements.
Science Focus: Common Core and Required Supporting courses, plus BIOL 285, and 26 to 28 credits as follows:
16‐18 credit science requirement: BIOL 210 and 211, and one additional 2‐course sequence of laboratory science consisting of
either CHEM 210 and 211, or PHYS 210 and 211.
3‐credit social science elective from among: ANTH/BIOL 105, 290; ANTH 111, 112, 202; ECON 341, 342, 351; ENVS 230; SOAN 450; SOCL 101, 250, 370.
8 credits of natural science electives from among: ANTH/BIOL 290; BIOL 204, 225, 235, 250, 260, 270, 280, 300, 330, 350, 361,
385, 400, 410, 450, 480; CHEM 321, 322, 330, 335, 350, 361; ENVS 302, 303, 305, 306, 307, 308, 380, 440, 450, 487, 490;
PHYS 210, 211, 220, 252, 253, 303, 325.
Policy Focus: Common Core and Required Supporting courses, plus 27 credits as follows:
7 credits science; one physical science from among: CHEM 100, 120; 210, 211; IDST 210; ENVS 380, 450, 480; PHYS 107, 210;
and one biological science from among: ANTH/BIOL105, 290; BIOL 104, 106, 107, 108, 210, 225, 235, 240, 250, 260, 280, 285,
330, 450.
16 credits from the following social science disciplines with at least 8 credits from a single discipline and at least 2 disciplines
represented. Choices among: ANTH 111, 112; ANTH/BIOL 290; ECON 332, 351; ENVS 230; HIST 252, 268, 353; POLS 362;
SOAN 250, 330, 365, 375; or SOCL 101, 370.
*Please note that not all courses in each department will meet the ENVS requirements and students should examine the Linfield Catalog before choosing any course.
*Please note that not all courses in each department will meet the ENVS requirements and students should examine the Linfield Catalog before choosing any course. Given the interdisciplinary nature of environmental studies, other courses may sometimes be approved to count toward the major.
There are two routes to this end:
- The student may petition the coordinator of the Environmental Studies Program, expressing a rationale for the substitution. This rationale must include a signed agreement between the student and course instructor that the student’s major project counting for at least 1/3 of the course grade, will be devoted to an environmental issue. The petition must be approved by the Environmental Studies coordinator before the Registrar will accept the substitution.
- Instructors of special topics courses, including travel courses, may from time to time produce a syllabus that deals predominately with environmental issues. For such one-time offerings, an instructor may request that the Environmental Studies faculty approve the course as a substitute for one of the course requirements in the major. Approval of such credit on more than a one‐time basis requires action by the Curriculum Committee and Faculty Assembly.
For a minor: 24‐30 credits, distributed as follows:
1. 201 and 203 or 250;
2. four courses (12‐20 credits) from among those courses counting toward the major; one of the four courses must be a natural science field course (380, ANTH/BIOL 290, BIOL 240, 260, 285, 350 or 385); one must be a social science course from among ANTH 203, ECON 341, 342; POLS 335, or SOCL 250; and at least one must be at the 300 level or above. 480, 487 or 490 may be counted as an elective within the minor. (At least one of these four courses must be from outside the department of the student’s major);
3. ENVS 040 or 090; and
4. ENVS 485. Only two courses counted for the minor may also be counted toward Linfield Curriculum or major requirements.
With the permission of the ENVS program committee, onetime offerings may be substituted for courses already approved.
Such courses must pertain to the environment directly, or the instructor must agree to supervise an independent project on an
environmental topic.
Any Questions? If you are interested in learning more about the curriculum at Linfield, please contact the Office of Admission at (800) 640-2287 or email admission@linfield.edu. An admissions counselor will be happy to answer your questions or put you in touch with a faculty member.