Environmental Studies

Department Website: http://environmental.sewanee.edu/

Visiting Assistant Professor Carter, Program Director

Associate Professor Pond, Art

Professor Palisano, Biology

Professor Evans, Biology

Professor Haskell, Biology

Associate Professor McGrath, Biology

Associate Professor Zigler, Biology

Professor Bachman, Chemistry

Assistant Professor Sherwood, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

Associate Professor Shibata, Chemistry

Assistant Professor White, Chemistry

Professor Gottfried, Economics

Professor Gatta, English

Professor Potter, Forestry and Geology

Professor Shaver, Forestry and Geology

Professor Knoll, Forestry and Geology

Professor Torreano, Forestry and Geology

Professor Kuers, Forestry and Geology

Professor Smith, Forestry and Geology

Associate Professor Levine, History

Associate Professor Dale, Mathematics and Computer Science

Associate Professor Miller, Music

Professor Peters, Philosophy

Professor Hart, Physics

Professor Durig, Physics

Professor Smith, Religion

Professor Brown, Religion

Devan Allen McGranahan, Environmental Fellow

Program Mission
The Environmental Studies Program brings together students, faculty, and staff from 13 academic departments to study, discuss, and research environmental issues at local, national, and international scales. The goal is to expose the students to a variety of viewpoints concerning environmental issues, and to give them the interdisciplinary tools they need to become environmental problem solvers before they graduate from Sewanee. Five majors, two minors, and a certificate are offered in the Environmental Studies Program.

Majors:
The five majors include Environmental Policy, Ecology and Biodiversity, Natural Resources and the Environment, Environmental Chemistry, and Arts and Humanities. There are 11 required courses for each of the majors, including a senior capstone course.

Environmental Studies Minor:
The minor in Environmental Studies consists of six courses taken from the approved Environmental Studies course list. The minor requires EnSt 200 (Introduction to Environmental Studies), two social science/policy courses (from the approved list), two science courses (from the approved list), and an additional sixth course of their choosing (from the approved list).

Watershed Science Certificate:
The Watershed Science Certificate is designed for students interested in gaining a better understanding of the interactions among the physical, chemical, and biological factors that affect our watersheds and wetlands. Students pursuing the certificate take a range of courses that focus on water resources and watershed science. In addition to hydrology, students take at least one half-course in applied watershed science, and choose additional watershed science courses from a list that contains offerings in a variety of disciplines, including biology, chemistry, forestry, geology, and environmental studies. Each student completes the Certificate with the Watershed Science Capstone course, a multidisciplinary, project oriented course in which students address issues related to two or more of the following topic areas: the interaction of biological processes and watershed function, chemical processes in streams and watersheds, the relationship between forested landscapes and hydrologic systems, or geological processes in terrestrial aquatic systems. The capstone project may be a semester project created solely for the capstone, or  may begin as a watershed-related summer internship project that is further developed by the student during an academic semester.

Students who obtain the Certificate will be better prepared to pursue graduate training in watershed science and other hydrologic disciplines, or to begin careers associated with watershed science and management.

Students deciding to pursue the certificate should contact one of the faculty members of the Watershed Certificate Organizing Committee to develop his or her study plan. The Organizing Committee is also available to help a student identify his or her area of emphasis and primary faculty supervisor for the ESci 430 Watershed Science Capstone; together the student and primary supervisor identify the second discipline and arrange to work with a faculty member in that area.

• Professor Knoll, Forestry and Geology
• Associate Professor McGrath, Biology
• Assistant Professor White, Chemistry

• Geol 314 / Fors 314: Hydrology
• Either Geol 315: Watershed Contaminant Hydrology (half course, 2 hours) or Fors 260: Forest Watershed Measurements (half course, 2 hours)
• ESci 430: Watershed Science Capstone
• (Students who take Geol 314 / Fors 314 to fulfill a requirement for their major may take in its place a full course from the additional coursework list that follows.)

• Fors 262: Forest and Watershed Restoration
• Fors 270: Water Resource Policy and Law
• Fors 303 / Geol 303: Soils
• Fors 305: Forest Ecology
• Either Chem 101: General Chemistry I or Chem 103: Earth, Air, Water and Fire: An Introduction to Environmental Chemistry (103 recommended)
• Biol 210: Ecology
• Biol 235: Freshwater Conservation
• EnSt 217: Fundamentals of GIS or other GIS course, (half or full course, 2 or 4 hours)
• EnSt 240: Island Ecology (summer program; only 4 hours count toward the Certificate)
• EnSt 310: Comparative Watershed Studies (half course, 2 hours)
• EnSt 311: Comparative Watershed Studies Field Course (summer; half course, 2 hours)

Religion and Environment Minor:

• Professor Robin Gottfried, Director
• Offered by interdisciplinary faculty, in conjunction with the Environmental Studies Program and the Center for Religion and Environment

The ways we interact with the natural world reflect the deep-seated values of the society to which we belong and the experiences of nature we have as individuals. Religion, and the spiritual experiences of individuals that inform religious thought, provide profound insights into how we perceive the world around us and guidance as to how to interact with it. The minor in religion and environment encourages students to integrate religious insights and spiritual experience with the natural and social sciences to better understand how religion and the natural world affect one another. Accordingly, the minor includes coursework in natural and social environmental science along with coursework in religion. Because the minor encourages students to reflect on their own spiritual experience and beliefs as they relate to the environment, it culminates in a capstone experiential course involving environmentally related service or action along with reflection on the meaning of that engagement.

Five-and-a-half courses required

• Relg 125: Religion and Animals
• Relg 307: Religious Environmentalism
• Relg 341: Religion and Ecology
• Relg 350: Field Methods in Religious Studies
• Relg 353: Buddhism and the Environment
• Relg 393: Rural Religion
• Theo 360: Creation, Evolution, and God (three semester hours)

Environmental Studies: Policy — An interdisciplinary major designed to examine important environmental issues and the political, social, and biological ramifications of environmental policy.

Eleven Courses Required:

Environmental Studies: Ecology and Biodiversity — An interdisciplinary major that integrates coursework in biology, ecology, and evolution with other environmental disciplines.

Eleven courses required:

Biol 132: Cellular, Molecular and Physiological Biology or Biol 133: Introductory Cell and Molecular Biology
Biol 210: Ecology
Biol 211: Biodiversity: Pattern and Process
One capstone class: EnSt 400: Seminar in Environmental Studies –or– Biology 315: Advanced Ecology and Biodiversity –or– Biol 444A

Three biology classes from Ecology and Biodiversity list:
Biol 200: Entomology
Biol 201: Ornithology
Biol 202: Invertebrate Zoology
Biol 206: Plant Ecology
Biol 207: Biology of Lower Plants
Biol 209: Advanced Conservation Biology
Biol 213: Evolutionary Biology
Biol 215: Fungi AND Biol 216. Algae and Bryophytes
Biol 221: Environmental Physiology of Plants
Biol 222: Advanced Conservation Biology
Biol 232: Human Health and the Environment
Biol 235: Freshwater Conservation
Biol 241: Rainforests and Coral Reefs AND Biol 251: Field Study in Belize
Biol 250: Molecular Evolution
Biol 260: Cave Biology
Biol 309: Ecology and Biodiversity Seminar
Biol 310: Plant Evolution and Systematics
Biol 313: Ecosystems and Global Change
Biol 317: Wildfire in the Southern Appalachians
Biol 339: Studio Course in Microbiology
Biol 340: Microbiology
Biol 350: Environmental Physiology and Biochemistry of Animals
EnSt 220: Reading the Landscape
Students who have completed the Island Ecology summer program may count the program as one course in this list.

Three classes in the study of the environment from a non-scientific perspective:
EnSt 200: Introduction to Environmental Studies
Classes in humanities or social science from the Humanities/Social Science list

One class in the scientific study of the environment from a science department other than biology:
Chem 101: General Chemistry I
Chem 102: General Chemistry II
Chem 103: Earth, Air, Water and Fire: An Introduction to Environmental Chemistry
Chem 111: Advanced General Chemistry
Fors 121: Introduction to Forestry
Geol 121: Physical Geology
Phys 101: General Physics I
Phys 102: General Physics II
Phys 105: Environmental Physics
Phys 106: Foundations of Global Warming

Note that many graduate programs in ecology and biodiversity require one or more semesters of physical science (chemistry, geology, and/or physics)

Required for a B.S. (but not for a B.A.) in Ecology and Biodiversity:
Statistics, and three additional Math / Stat / science classes outside Biology, including at least two lab science classes.

Note: The major field is defined as all Biology classes listed above, Biol 130, EnSt 140, EnSt 200, EnSt 217, EnSt 240, EnSt 317, and EnSt 400. Study abroad courses count inside the major field if the majority of the work in the course concerns the scientific study of ecology and biodiversity; study abroad courses will count outside the major field if the majority of the work for the course concerns social science, humanities or other work outside the natural sciences.

Environmental Studies: Natural Resources and the Environment — An interdisciplinary major that integrates coursework in forest ecosystems and geology with other environmental topics.

Environmental Studies: Environmental Chemistry: An interdisciplinary major that integrates coursework in chemistry with other environmentally related disciplines.

Eleven courses required: