(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

ENVS 2a Fundamentals of Environmental Challenges
[ sn ]

Provides a broad interdisciplinary introduction to environmental studies. Examines several key environmental challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, water issues, and pollutants through an array of lenses from the natural and social sciences. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 3b Environmental Social Science
[ ss ]

A broad-based introduction to the social science of the environment. We unpack how individuals and groups relate to the different parts of the environment; how historical legacies, social relations, and markets shape the environment, and diverse approaches to environmental protection. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 19b Evolution of the Earth
[ qr sn ]

Examines the natural history of the Earth starting from its formation 4.5 billion years ago through to the present day. Emphasis will be on how land, water, air, climate, and living organisms have interacted and evolved together over time. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 20a Introduction to Climate Change and Health
[ sn ss ]

Introduces students to various public health dimensions of climate change. Students will engage with tools for monitoring and evaluating climate and human health relationships while investigating more resilient measures for existing mitigation and adaptation strategies. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 21b Oceanography
[ qr sn ]

This course will provide an overview of the geology, physics, chemistry, and biology of the world's oceans, with an emphasis on current ocean issues like sea level rise, hurricanes, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, dead zones, changing habitats, and plastic pollution. Usually offered every year.
Sally Warner

ENVS 25a Environmental Dimensions of Sustainable Development in Puerto Rico
[ deis-us djw sn ss ]

Delves into the analysis of the environmental aspects most linked to the objectives of sustainable development. Topics related to energy, resource depletion, environmental pollution, among others, are studied. The course incorporates research exercises and immersion activities, and invites the student to actively reflect on the environmental dimensions of their environment in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. In addition, it stimulates knowledge of successful international environmental protection experiences and the management of solutions that incorporate elements of design, entrepreneurship, data analysis, and technology. Usually offered every second year.

ENVS 39b Climate Change: Causes, Impacts, Responses and Solutions
[ ss ]

Provides a broad overview of climate change science and policy through a spectrum of differing disciplinary perspectives from across the Brandeis campus, including causes, impacts, and responses. Guest lectures will be complemented by integrative classes to assess the full range of causes, impacts, responses, and solutions to the highly complex threat of climate change. The course will also cover solutions to the "climate threat," looking at the problem from multiple disciplinary perspectives to better help students understand the complex issues. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 42b Climate Science
[ oc qr sn ]

Recommended prerequisite: A high school course in chemistry or physics.

Provides an overview of the physical and chemical processes governing climate change. There will be an emphasis on quantitative problem solving using real-world climate data. Students will become adept at orally defending climate science to skeptics. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 49a Conservation Politics
[ djw nw ss ]

Examines theories and practices of nature conservation from interdisciplinary social science and humanistic perspectives. Surveys a range of moral, political, cultural and economic dilemmas facing conservationists. Explores ways to balance competing ethical imperatives to protect biodiversity and respect human rights. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 50b Environmental Monitoring
[ sn ss ]

Provides an introduction to environmental monitoring through an overview of the history of monitoring in the use, federal regulatory management, and hands-on curriculum to become familiar with monitoring techniques most commonly employed in participatory science programs. Together we examine the methods and strategies for monitoring and sampling the world around us. The course presents selected concepts of statistics, including methods to support decision-making, and to evaluate/interpret trends. Students will learn to identify monitoring goals as well as develop a sampling plan. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 60a Advanced Practicum in Environmental Studies

Corequisite: BIOL 39b, ENVS 21b, ENVS 107b, ENVS 111a, or ENVS 118b. Corequisite course may be taken as a prerequisite within the past year with permission of the instructor. The specific corequisite will be determined by the instructor offering the course in any given semester. Instructor permission required. Yields half-course credit. Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis.

Students participate in a 90-hour program designed to bridge coursework to practical experience in environmental studies. Hands-on experiences complement concepts and questions explored through the base classes regarding science research, policy implementation and negotiation, or other practical application. Practicum courses typically involve travel for the practical experiences. Students interested in the practicum courses should connect with faculty to learn more about the logistics during any particular semester. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 91g Introduction to Research Practice

Prerequisite: Student must complete online safety training relevant to the research group. Offered exclusively on a credit/no-credit basis. Yields quarter-course credit. May be repeated for credit.

Students engage in Environmental Studies research by working in the laboratory of a faculty member for a minimum of 3 hours per week for one semester. Students who have declared a Biology major must receive permission from the Biology Undergraduate Advising Head as well as the faculty sponsor to enroll in BIOL 91g. Students who have not yet declared a major must receive permission from their academic advisor as well as the faculty sponsor. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 97a Senior Essay

Usually offered every year.

ENVS 98a Independent Study

Usually offered every year.

ENVS 98b Independent Study

Yields half-course credit. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 99a Senior Research

Usually offered every fall semester.

ENVS 99b Senior Thesis

Prerequisite: ENVS 99a.

Usually offered every spring semester.

(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students

ENVS 107b Foundations of Global Environmental Diplomacy
[ oc ss ]

Examines international environmental diplomacy through a historical lens up to 1992. Specific topics range from wildlife conservation and transboundary air pollution to the trade in hazardous materials and climate change—along with many others. The course primarily aims to answer the overarching question: What can international actors do to protect the environment and environmental amenities? Usually offered every year.

ENVS 110a Data Analysis for Environmental Studies
[ dl ss ]

People in environmental fields increasingly need career-ready technical skills for managing, analyzing, and representing diverse types of data. The goal of this course is to engage students in authentic work with environmental data through a combination of collaborative, hands-on Python programming and project-based learning. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 111a Environmental and Climate Justice
[ deis-us djw ss ]

The consequences of climate change are distributed unequally across different world regions, countries, and different social groups within countries. This course will introduce you to the major concepts and debates related to the unequal effects of climate change, including those of the ongoing efforts to combat climate change. We also explore several proposed programs and reforms meant to contribute to the goals of environmental and climate justice, including the social activists and movements working toward addressing social, economic, and political inequalities within ongoing efforts to address climate change. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 112b Governing the Environmental Commons
[ deis-us djw ss wi ]

Introduction to the diverse meanings, forms, and claims about commons; theories and debates about sustainable governance of the commons. Learn about the histories of dispossessions, and ongoing collective actions and mobilizations to reclaim the commons for environmental & climate justice and ecological stewardship. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 118b International Environmental Conflict and Cooperation
[ ss ]

Investigates environmental issues through the lens of international diplomacy from 1992 to the present day. Examines how diplomatic initiatives have—and importantly, have not—shaped the contemporary structure of international environmental relations as well as the severity of environmental threats. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 122a Our Local Waterways
[ sn ]

Prerequisite: ENVS 21b and permission of the instructor.

In this experiential learning course, students will go on weekly field trips to learn about the history, environmental issues, and management of waterways in eastern Massachusetts. Connections will be made with organizations and individuals working to improve the health and sustainability of our local waterways. There will be a strong focus on the Charles River which flows adjacent to the Brandeis campus. Usually offered every second year.

ENVS 130a Environmental Politics in Latin America
[ djw ss ]

Provides an overview of socioenvironmental issues in Latin America. Explores the relationship between nature and development, and specifically, what difference climate change makes and to whom in the region. Topics include conservation, colonialism, indigenous rights, gender, socio-environmental movements, and North-South and regional inequalities. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 131b The Political Economy of Global Climate Governance
[ djw ss ]

Climate finance and investment are usually treated primarily in the field of finance and led by international financial institutions. However, despite the promotion of large-scale investments in climate mitigation, adaptation and loss and damages, the larger political economy of climate governance and social justice implications are largely overlooked, as are perspectives and proposals from the global South. This course will map, compare, and systematize different proposals based on the green economy to public ownership and control over common goods proposals like just transition and buen vivir. Students are encouraged to discuss and apply concepts to their own creative proposals for social interventions, developing their practice and skills for climate activism, engagement, and leadership. Usually offered every year.

ENVS Digital Literacy

ANTH 121b Archaeology and Environment
[ dl nw ss ]

Provides an introduction to archaeological approaches to the environment. Explores how human history and prehistory have been defined by moments when political, cultural, economics, and ecological systems collide. Topics include climate change, food systems, plant and animal relations, and natural resources. Usually offered every second year.

ANTH 137a GIS: Mapping Culture from Land, Air and Space
[ dl ss ]

An introduction to the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sense (RS) technologies that are fundamental for mapping and analyzing spatial data. This course is grounded in archaeological applications, but provides training and research pathways for exploring urban landscapes, environmental dynamics, and more in modern settings. No previous knowledge of GIS or RS is required. Usually offered every third year.

BIOL 39b Biology of Global Climate Change
[ dl oc sn ]

Prerequisites: ENVS 2a, BIOL 16a or BIOL 17b.

Examines the biology of global climate change from how biology informs understanding climate change to the evolutionary and ecological responses to climate change. This course includes an exploration of the primary literature. Usually offered every spring.

ENG 113b Performing Climate Justice
[ deis-us dl hum oc ]

Considers justice in relation to our ordinary and collective actions as these recreate or transform our social and material realities as human drivers of the Anthropocene. How can the embodied creation and transmission of knowledge and skills, by creative workers and change agents, help us imagine and create new, translocal ways of being and acting together no longer driven by fossil fuels? What happens to notions of the human, human civilization, and human history if we adopt a non-anthropocentric and biocentric approach to climate justice and climate ethics? Usually offered every fourth year.

ENVS 110a Data Analysis for Environmental Studies
[ dl ss ]

People in environmental fields increasingly need career-ready technical skills for managing, analyzing, and representing diverse types of data. The goal of this course is to engage students in authentic work with environmental data through a combination of collaborative, hands-on Python programming and project-based learning. Usually offered every year.

HS 263f Applied Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
[ dl ]

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit. Prerequisite: HS 297f or permission of the instructor.

Designed for students wishing to receive advanced training in GIS. Instruction includes geospatial data management and archiving, raster and vector analysis techniques, and basic GPS instruction. Emphasis is on 'hands-on' training using ARCView GIS software; qualitative skills in data gathering, analysis, and presentation; and understanding the potential of GIS as a tool for planning and evaluating development projects. Includes a computer lab. Usually offered every year.

HS 297f Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
[ dl ]

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

A primer for non-specialists on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and its capabilities as a tool for planning and monitoring. Students learn how to determine an organization's GIS requirements, focus on those requirements during planning, and apply the requirements to assess the size and scope of the system needed. Includes a computer lab. Usually offered every semester.

ENVS Oral Communication

AMST/ENG 47a Frontier Visions: The West in American Literature and Culture
[ hum oc ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took ENG 47a in prior years.

Explores more than two centuries of literary and visual culture about the American West, including the frontier myth, Indian captivity narratives, frontier humor, dime novel and Hollywood westerns, the Native American Renaissance, and western regionalism. Authors include Black Hawk, Cather, Doig, Silko, Turner, and Twain. Usually offered every third year.

ANTH 135b Culture and Horticulture: Gardens and Worldmaking
[ oc ss wi ]

Explores anthropological and historical perspectives on gardening and horticulture, with an emphasis on how gardening occasions forms of self-fashioning and world-making in diverse contexts. Topics include gardening and cosmologies in small-scale societies, divinity in microcosm; gardens, capitalism, and modernity; and gardens from the margins, including gardening in utopian communities, displaced persons’ gardens in military topographies, and homeless persons’ gardens in their places of abode. Usually offered every third year.

BIOL 39b Biology of Global Climate Change
[ dl oc sn ]

Prerequisites: ENVS 2a, BIOL 16a or BIOL 17b.

Examines the biology of global climate change from how biology informs understanding climate change to the evolutionary and ecological responses to climate change. This course includes an exploration of the primary literature. Usually offered every spring.

BIOL 134b Topics in Ecology
[ oc sn ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 23a, or permission of the instructor. Topics may vary from year to year. Please consult the Course Schedule for topic and description. Course may be repeated once for credit with permission of the instructor.

Annually, a different aspect of the global biosphere is selected for analysis. In any year the focus may be on specific ecosystems (e.g., terrestrial, aquatic, tropical, arctic), populations, system modeling, restoration ecology, or other aspects of ecology. Usually offered every year.

COML/ENG 21a The Literature of Walking
[ hum oc ]

Explores genres of pedestrianism—rambles, strolls, promenades, treks, pilgrimages, marches. Students will take and design walks as well as read major works on the subject. Usually offered every fourth year.

COML/ENG 191a Environmental Aesthetics
[ djw hum oc ]

Explores major schools of thought about nature, ecology, and art. Usually offered every third year.

ECON 57a Environmental Economics
[ oc ss ]

Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a.

Investigates the theoretical and policy problems posed by the use of renewable and nonrenewable resources. Theoretical topics include the optimal pricing of resources, the optimal use of standards and taxes to correct pollution problems under uncertainty, and the measurement of costs and benefits. Usually offered every year.

ENG 17b Climate Fictions
[ hum oc wi ]

Examines fictional narratives addressing climate change. Asks how authors from around the world imagine a future in which sea levels, animal populations, temperatures, access to food, and/or weather patterns are significantly different from those of the present. Usually offered every third year.

ENG 113b Performing Climate Justice
[ deis-us dl hum oc ]

Considers justice in relation to our ordinary and collective actions as these recreate or transform our social and material realities as human drivers of the Anthropocene. How can the embodied creation and transmission of knowledge and skills, by creative workers and change agents, help us imagine and create new, translocal ways of being and acting together no longer driven by fossil fuels? What happens to notions of the human, human civilization, and human history if we adopt a non-anthropocentric and biocentric approach to climate justice and climate ethics? Usually offered every fourth year.

ENVS 42b Climate Science
[ oc qr sn ]

Recommended prerequisite: A high school course in chemistry or physics.

Provides an overview of the physical and chemical processes governing climate change. There will be an emphasis on quantitative problem solving using real-world climate data. Students will become adept at orally defending climate science to skeptics. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 107b Foundations of Global Environmental Diplomacy
[ oc ss ]

Examines international environmental diplomacy through a historical lens up to 1992. Specific topics range from wildlife conservation and transboundary air pollution to the trade in hazardous materials and climate change—along with many others. The course primarily aims to answer the overarching question: What can international actors do to protect the environment and environmental amenities? Usually offered every year.

GECS 188b Human/Nature: European Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and What to Do About It
[ djw hum oc wi ]

Open to all students.

Introduces European attitudes towards climate change as reflected in policy, literature, film, and art, with a focus on workable future-oriented alternatives to fossil-fueled capitalism. Usually offered every second year.

LGLS 132b Environmental Law and Policy
[ oc ss wi ]

Provides a basic survey of environmental law. You will learn essential tools of legal reasoning and argument. Through in-class discussion, cases, and reading on environmental history and ethics, we will cover a range of environmental issues, including: climate change, water rights, the Keystone XL pipeline, our national parks and monuments, and much more. You will reflect on the tradeoffs, contradictions, and inequities baked into our core environmental laws, and think about ways to apply those laws in more equitable ways. Usually offered every year.

ENVS Writing Intensive

AMST 30b American Environmental History
[ ss wi ]

Provides an overview of the relationship between nature and culture in North America. Covers Native Americans, the European invasion, the development of a market system of resource extraction and consumption, the impact of industrialization, and environmentalist responses. Current environmental issues are placed in historical context. Usually offered every year.

AMST 106b Food and Farming in America
[ ss wi ]

Yields four semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.

American food is abundant and cheap. Yet many eat poorly, and some argue that our agriculture may be unhealthy and unsustainable. Explores the history of American farming and diet and the prospects for a healthy food system. Includes extensive fieldwork. Usually offered every second year.

ANTH 135b Culture and Horticulture: Gardens and Worldmaking
[ oc ss wi ]

Explores anthropological and historical perspectives on gardening and horticulture, with an emphasis on how gardening occasions forms of self-fashioning and world-making in diverse contexts. Topics include gardening and cosmologies in small-scale societies, divinity in microcosm; gardens, capitalism, and modernity; and gardens from the margins, including gardening in utopian communities, displaced persons’ gardens in military topographies, and homeless persons’ gardens in their places of abode. Usually offered every third year.

BIOL 23a Ecology
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 16a, or a score of 5 on the AP Biology Exam, or permission of the instructor.

Illustrates the science of ecology, from individual, population, and community-level perspectives. Includes participatory science ecological research to contextualize theory. Usually offered every year.

BIOL 26a Plant Biology
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 14a and BIOL 15b.

Adopts a molecular and chemical approach as we explore various concepts in plant biology including plant metabolism, structure-function, development, genetics and taxonomy. Intended for students who are familiar with central dogma, structure-function relationship and genetic inheritance, but have not yet applied those concepts in plant systems. Usually offered every second year.

ENG 17b Climate Fictions
[ hum oc wi ]

Examines fictional narratives addressing climate change. Asks how authors from around the world imagine a future in which sea levels, animal populations, temperatures, access to food, and/or weather patterns are significantly different from those of the present. Usually offered every third year.

ENG 169a Eco-Writing Workshop
[ hum wi ]

Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. Enrollment is by instructor permission after the submission of a manuscript sample. Please refer to the schedule of classes for submission information.

A creative writing workshop focused on writing essays and poems that engage with environmental and eco-justice concerns. Readings, writing assignments, and class discussions will be augmented by field trips. Usually offered every second year.

ENVS 99a Senior Research

Usually offered every fall semester.

ENVS 112b Governing the Environmental Commons
[ deis-us djw ss wi ]

Introduction to the diverse meanings, forms, and claims about commons; theories and debates about sustainable governance of the commons. Learn about the histories of dispossessions, and ongoing collective actions and mobilizations to reclaim the commons for environmental & climate justice and ecological stewardship. Usually offered every year.

GECS 188b Human/Nature: European Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and What to Do About It
[ djw hum oc wi ]

Open to all students.

Introduces European attitudes towards climate change as reflected in policy, literature, film, and art, with a focus on workable future-oriented alternatives to fossil-fueled capitalism. Usually offered every second year.

LGLS 122b Indigenous Rights, Environmental Justice, and Federal Indian Law
[ ss wi ]

Provides a look at the intersection of indigenous rights, environmental justice, and federal Indian law. You will learn essential tools of legal reasoning and argument. Through in-class discussion, cases, and reading you will learn about conflicts over land use, climate change, and sovereignty. The course will be organized into weekly case studies where we will study contemporary and historical conflicts including: the Dakota Access pipeline, relocation due to sea level rise, fishing rights and dam removal, water rights in the face of drought, uranium mining, and Native Nation regulation of oil and gas extraction on reservation lands. Usually offered every second year.

LGLS 132b Environmental Law and Policy
[ oc ss wi ]

Provides a basic survey of environmental law. You will learn essential tools of legal reasoning and argument. Through in-class discussion, cases, and reading on environmental history and ethics, we will cover a range of environmental issues, including: climate change, water rights, the Keystone XL pipeline, our national parks and monuments, and much more. You will reflect on the tradeoffs, contradictions, and inequities baked into our core environmental laws, and think about ways to apply those laws in more equitable ways. Usually offered every year.

WGS 108a Ecofeminism and Climate Justice Activism
[ ss wi ]

From local activism to regional and national fights against militarization and deforestation to broader movement organizing, education, and international politics, this class aims to showcase how ecofeminists and ecowomanists nurture and grow resilience in times of multiple crises through employing “a radical political orientation grounded in solidarity, rather than sameness, as an organizing principle.” Usually offered every second year.

ENVS Core Courses

ENVS 2a Fundamentals of Environmental Challenges
[ sn ]

Provides a broad interdisciplinary introduction to environmental studies. Examines several key environmental challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, water issues, and pollutants through an array of lenses from the natural and social sciences. Usually offered every year.

ENVS Geographic Information Systems

ANTH 121b Archaeology and Environment
[ dl nw ss ]

Provides an introduction to archaeological approaches to the environment. Explores how human history and prehistory have been defined by moments when political, cultural, economics, and ecological systems collide. Topics include climate change, food systems, plant and animal relations, and natural resources. Usually offered every second year.

ANTH 137a GIS: Mapping Culture from Land, Air and Space
[ dl ss ]

An introduction to the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sense (RS) technologies that are fundamental for mapping and analyzing spatial data. This course is grounded in archaeological applications, but provides training and research pathways for exploring urban landscapes, environmental dynamics, and more in modern settings. No previous knowledge of GIS or RS is required. Usually offered every third year.

HS 263f Applied Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
[ dl ]

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit. Prerequisite: HS 297f or permission of the instructor.

Designed for students wishing to receive advanced training in GIS. Instruction includes geospatial data management and archiving, raster and vector analysis techniques, and basic GPS instruction. Emphasis is on 'hands-on' training using ARCView GIS software; qualitative skills in data gathering, analysis, and presentation; and understanding the potential of GIS as a tool for planning and evaluating development projects. Includes a computer lab. Usually offered every year.

HS 297f Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
[ dl ]

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

A primer for non-specialists on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and its capabilities as a tool for planning and monitoring. Students learn how to determine an organization's GIS requirements, focus on those requirements during planning, and apply the requirements to assess the size and scope of the system needed. Includes a computer lab. Usually offered every semester.

ENVS Natural Sciences Group

BIOL 16a Evolution and Biodiversity
[ qr sn ]

"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution," the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky said famously. Evolution is the unifying theory of biology because it explains both the unity and diversity of life. This course examines processes and patterns of evolution. Specific topics include the history of Earth and life, evolution and its mechanisms, phylogenetic trees, and the diversity of life. We will take time to read Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and end with a discussion of human evolution and the impact we are having on the planet. Usually offered every fall.

BIOL 17b Conservation Biology
[ sn ]

Prerequisite: BIOL 16a or ENVS 2a.

Considers the current worldwide loss of biological diversity, causes of this loss, and methods for protecting and conserving biodiversity. Explores the science of conservation focused on the biological aspects of the problems and their solutions. Usually offered every spring.

BIOL 23a Ecology
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 16a, or a score of 5 on the AP Biology Exam, or permission of the instructor.

Illustrates the science of ecology, from individual, population, and community-level perspectives. Includes participatory science ecological research to contextualize theory. Usually offered every year.

BIOL 26a Plant Biology
[ sn wi ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 14a and BIOL 15b.

Adopts a molecular and chemical approach as we explore various concepts in plant biology including plant metabolism, structure-function, development, genetics and taxonomy. Intended for students who are familiar with central dogma, structure-function relationship and genetic inheritance, but have not yet applied those concepts in plant systems. Usually offered every second year.

BIOL 32a Field Biology
[ sn ]

Introduces students to basic field research methods, the skills of species identification, and the use of dichotomous keys and field guides to identify the biodiversity of southern New England. Field explorations use campus as an outdoor classroom and are complemented with nearby local field trips. The course introduces the basic principles of natural history to understand how these principles are shaped by natural selection and evolution, and in turn, how they inform other biological fields, particularly ecology, behavioral and community ecology. Some flexibility with campus departure/return required for field trips. Usually offered every fall.

BIOL 39b Biology of Global Climate Change
[ dl oc sn ]

Prerequisites: ENVS 2a, BIOL 16a or BIOL 17b.

Examines the biology of global climate change from how biology informs understanding climate change to the evolutionary and ecological responses to climate change. This course includes an exploration of the primary literature. Usually offered every spring.

BIOL 50b Animal Behavior
[ sn ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 23a or BIOL 16a.

Examines a wide range of animal behavior, including mating and reproductive tactics, territoriality, and social behaviors. Why does an animal perform a given behavior? We will explore the approaches to answering this question and learn a logical framework to examine the various aspects of animal behavior. Class meetings will focus on understanding behavior from both an ecological and evolutionary perspective. We will start the term by understanding how to study behavior and end the term examining key topics in behavior. Usually offered every second year.

BIOL 134b Topics in Ecology
[ oc sn ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 23a, or permission of the instructor. Topics may vary from year to year. Please consult the Course Schedule for topic and description. Course may be repeated once for credit with permission of the instructor.

Annually, a different aspect of the global biosphere is selected for analysis. In any year the focus may be on specific ecosystems (e.g., terrestrial, aquatic, tropical, arctic), populations, system modeling, restoration ecology, or other aspects of ecology. Usually offered every year.

BIOL 159a Project Laboratory in Microbiology
[ sn ]

Prerequisites: BIOL 12a and 12b or BIOL 18a and 18b.

A discovery-based laboratory to study the diversity of microorganisms in particular environments. Students will isolate microbes with ability to metabolize complex compounds from special environments, characterize their properties and identify them by DNA sequence analysis. After students learn foundational microbiology concepts and techniques, they will choose, design, and carry out a short research project. This project lab is primarily for seniors and master's students. Usually offered every year.

BISC 5a Pathogens and Human Disease
[ sn ]

Prerequisite: High school chemistry and biology. Does not meet the requirements for the major in Biology.

Recent advances in public health have led to declines in the mortality from infectious diseases. But surprisingly outbreaks, epidemics, pandemics, and other diseases continue to evade public health defenses and ravage populations around the globe. This course explores how external factors like environmental alteration, climate change, and human activity interact to shape disease transmission and emergence. Students will learn fundamental concepts of infectious disease spread, including basic concepts of disease ecology, transmission, virulence, immunity, vector, and host susceptibility in the population. Then focus shifts to how natural and human-driven activities (e.g., climate change, deforestation, travel, and development) affect disease transmission and emergence. Examples of diseases to be covered include COVID, influenza, Ebola, malaria, SARS, avian flu, etc. Students will draw on relevant case studies to explore how threats from previous outbreaks may shift under a changing climate, rising globalization, and environmental degradation. Usually offered every year.

CHEM 33a Environmental Chemistry
[ sn ]

Prerequisite: A satisfactory grade (C- or higher) in CHEM 11b or 15b or the equivalent.

The course surveys the important chemical principles and reactions that determine the balance of the molecular species in the environment and how human activity affects this balance. The class evaluates current issues of environmental concern such as ozone depletion, global warming, sustainable energy, toxic chemicals, water pollution, and green chemistry. Usually offered every year.

EBIO 33b Participatory Science: Bridging Science, Education, and Advocacy
[ sn ss ]

Citizen science (the public generation of science knowledge) from both a practical (through direct participation in research) and theoretical application will be explored as the basis for examining how research, scientific literacy, education, and advocacy projects are complementary. Usually offered every second year.

ENGR 13a Modeling and Simulation
[ sn ]

Prerequisites: MATH 10a and PHYS 10a or higher, or permission of the instructor. PHYS 11a or 15a is strongly recommended.

Building models of physical systems is a critical aspect of science and engineering. While models are expressed through the languages of math and physics, developing a good mental picture of the system at hand requires drawing on experience. Towards providing students with this experience, this course will build connections between the theoretical, the experimental, and the designed. They will be guided through a structured series of labs on a variety of system classes including nonlinear mechanical systems, infectious disease dynamics, mass transport, and coupled oscillators. In three of the labs, students will not only analyze and model a physical system but also use digital fabrication (3D printing, laser cutting, or CNC milling) to build and test physical versions of their models. This course is intended as a first exposure to modeling. Prior experience in programming is not required. Students will receive Python notebooks for each lab to be used for data analysis, numerically solving dynamical models, fitting models to data, and visualizing results. Practical coding skills, such as debugging, elaborating notebooks and learning to leverage open-source software, will be taught in a lab environment where students and the instructor can readily collaborate and solve challenges. Usually offered every year.

ENGR 22b Engineering a Circular Economy
[ sn ]

The way we produce, use, and dispose of materials and products today is unsustainable. Resource extraction destroys ecosystems and biodiversity worldwide; manufacturing is responsible for an enormous fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions; and waste plastics are now found in every corner of the earth, including our bodies, with as-yet unknown consequences to human and ecological health. The circular economy is a model of production and consumption that offers a potential solution to these problems -- where all materials and products are designed to be used, reused, and recycled again and again, minimizing environmental impact from resource extraction, manufacturing, use, and final disposal.

In this class, students will learn what is required to realize this vision of a circular economy from an engineering and design perspective. Based on a methodological foundation from industrial ecology, students will use life-cycle assessment and material flow analysis to characterize the profound issues with contemporary manufacturing and waste systems, and justify the principles of materials and product stewardship that underpin the circular economy model. Students will also learn to critique materials management and circular economy proposals at various scales, including materials and product design, so-called "circular business models," and municipal, national, and global materials systems. Finally, students will use what they have learned to propose new engineering design solutions to real-world challenges. Usually offered every second year.

ENVS 19b Evolution of the Earth
[ qr sn ]

Examines the natural history of the Earth starting from its formation 4.5 billion years ago through to the present day. Emphasis will be on how land, water, air, climate, and living organisms have interacted and evolved together over time. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 20a Introduction to Climate Change and Health
[ sn ss ]

Introduces students to various public health dimensions of climate change. Students will engage with tools for monitoring and evaluating climate and human health relationships while investigating more resilient measures for existing mitigation and adaptation strategies. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 21b Oceanography
[ qr sn ]

This course will provide an overview of the geology, physics, chemistry, and biology of the world's oceans, with an emphasis on current ocean issues like sea level rise, hurricanes, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, dead zones, changing habitats, and plastic pollution. Usually offered every year.
Sally Warner

ENVS 25a Environmental Dimensions of Sustainable Development in Puerto Rico
[ deis-us djw sn ss ]

Delves into the analysis of the environmental aspects most linked to the objectives of sustainable development. Topics related to energy, resource depletion, environmental pollution, among others, are studied. The course incorporates research exercises and immersion activities, and invites the student to actively reflect on the environmental dimensions of their environment in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. In addition, it stimulates knowledge of successful international environmental protection experiences and the management of solutions that incorporate elements of design, entrepreneurship, data analysis, and technology. Usually offered every second year.

ENVS 42b Climate Science
[ oc qr sn ]

Recommended prerequisite: A high school course in chemistry or physics.

Provides an overview of the physical and chemical processes governing climate change. There will be an emphasis on quantitative problem solving using real-world climate data. Students will become adept at orally defending climate science to skeptics. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 50b Environmental Monitoring
[ sn ss ]

Provides an introduction to environmental monitoring through an overview of the history of monitoring in the use, federal regulatory management, and hands-on curriculum to become familiar with monitoring techniques most commonly employed in participatory science programs. Together we examine the methods and strategies for monitoring and sampling the world around us. The course presents selected concepts of statistics, including methods to support decision-making, and to evaluate/interpret trends. Students will learn to identify monitoring goals as well as develop a sampling plan. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 110a Data Analysis for Environmental Studies
[ dl ss ]

People in environmental fields increasingly need career-ready technical skills for managing, analyzing, and representing diverse types of data. The goal of this course is to engage students in authentic work with environmental data through a combination of collaborative, hands-on Python programming and project-based learning. Usually offered every year.

ENVS 122a Our Local Waterways
[ sn ]

Prerequisite: ENVS 21b and permission of the instructor.

In this experiential learning course, students will go on weekly field trips to learn about the history, environmental issues, and management of waterways in eastern Massachusetts. Connections will be made with organizations and individuals working to improve the health and sustainability of our local waterways. There will be a strong focus on the Charles River which flows adjacent to the Brandeis campus. Usually offered every second year.

ENVS Social Sciences Humanities Group

AMST 30b American Environmental History
[ ss wi ]

Provides an overview of the relationship between nature and culture in North America. Covers Native Americans, the European invasion, the development of a market system of resource extraction and consumption, the impact of industrialization, and environmentalist responses. Current environmental issues are placed in historical context. Usually offered every year.

AMST 106b Food and Farming in America
[ ss wi ]

Yields four semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation.

American food is abundant and cheap. Yet many eat poorly, and some argue that our agriculture may be unhealthy and unsustainable. Explores the history of American farming and diet and the prospects for a healthy food system. Includes extensive fieldwork. Usually offered every second year.

AMST/ENG 47a Frontier Visions: The West in American Literature and Culture
[ hum oc ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took ENG 47a in prior years.

Explores more than two centuries of literary and visual culture about the American West, including the frontier myth, Indian captivity narratives, frontier humor, dime novel and Hollywood westerns, the Native American Renaissance, and western regionalism. Authors include Black Hawk, Cather, Doig, Silko, Turner, and Twain. Usually offered every third year.

ANTH 55a Anthropology of Development
[ nw ss ]

Examines efforts to address global poverty that are typically labeled as "development." Privileging the perspectives of ordinary people, and looking carefully at the institutions involved in development, the course relies on ethnographic case studies that will draw students into the complexity of global inequality. Broad development themes such as public health, agriculture, the environment, democracy, poverty, and entrepreneurship will be explored. Usually offered every second year.

ANTH 120b Ecology and Society in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula
[ ss ]

Examines how humans interact with the world around them. The course covers the main theories of the relationship between ecology and society, and explores issues related to the environment and agriculture in the Middle East, with a focus on the Arabian Peninsula. Usually offered every third year.

ANTH 121b Archaeology and Environment
[ dl nw ss ]

Provides an introduction to archaeological approaches to the environment. Explores how human history and prehistory have been defined by moments when political, cultural, economics, and ecological systems collide. Topics include climate change, food systems, plant and animal relations, and natural resources. Usually offered every second year.

ANTH 135b Culture and Horticulture: Gardens and Worldmaking
[ oc ss wi ]

Explores anthropological and historical perspectives on gardening and horticulture, with an emphasis on how gardening occasions forms of self-fashioning and world-making in diverse contexts. Topics include gardening and cosmologies in small-scale societies, divinity in microcosm; gardens, capitalism, and modernity; and gardens from the margins, including gardening in utopian communities, displaced persons’ gardens in military topographies, and homeless persons’ gardens in their places of abode. Usually offered every third year.

ANTH 150a Environmental Justice in Global Perspective
[ djw ss ]

Explores anthropological and humanistic approaches to understanding human-environment interactions, the global climate crisis, and environmental justice and climate justice movements highlighting how ecological crises have disproportionately impacted the poor, women and children, and Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Key themes include: cultural understandings of “nature” and the “environment;” the cultural politics of race, indigeneity, and nature; militarism, empire, and the environment; feminist, queer and decolonial ecologies; Asian American and Pacific Islander environmental justice movements; and perspectives on the global climate crisis and the Anthropocene from the Global South. Usually offered every second year.

ANTH 151b Nature, Culture, Power: Anthropology of the Environment
[ ss ]

Examines the relationships among human and natural worlds. Topics include: the politics of food insecurity and famine, forest, hurricanes and disaster capitalism, forest fires and theories of degradation, climate injustice, and environmental justice/racism. Ethnographies based on research in the United States, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia will enable students to explore how anthropology offers insight into the pressing environmental issues of today. Usually offered every second year.

CLAS 161a The Corrupting Sea: Cities and Communities of the Ancient Mediterranean
[ hum ]

Examines the relationship between people and the natural and built environment in the ancient Mediterranean. A primary aim is to study the ecological and environmental diversity and history of the Mediterranean region over the long durée, from prehistory to the early Medieval period. The course will be broken into thematic sections; firstly, it will consider the geographical and historical conceptualizations of the Mediterranean, particularly questioning an outdated paradigm that it can be understood as a unified region. The second part of the course will study the ancient environment and microecologies through a regional survey. We look at the effects these had on settlement patterns and the development of different types of urban communities. We will also consider connectivity on land, riverways, and on the sea itself. The role of the Mediterranean Sea, its archipelagos and islands will be considered. The third part of the course will focus on the subsistence strategies of Mediterranean communities and cities; this will comprise an analysis of change in agrarian practices and seafaring overtime and the impact of technological innovation, along with studying the history of food systems more generally. An essential part of this will examine the effect of environmental disasters on agrarian societies and the subsequent socio-political effects, including the rise and fall of some of the ancient Mediterranean’s cultures and civilizations. Usually offered every third year.

COML/ENG 21a The Literature of Walking
[ hum oc ]

Explores genres of pedestrianism—rambles, strolls, promenades, treks, pilgrimages, marches. Students will take and design walks as well as read major works on the subject. Usually offered every fourth year.

COML/ENG 70b Environmental Film, Environmental Justice
[ djw hum ]

Examines films that address nature, environmental crisis, and green activism. Asks how world cinema can best advance the goals of social and environmental justice. Includes films by major directors and festival award winners. Usually offered every third year.

COML/ENG 191a Environmental Aesthetics
[ djw hum oc ]

Explores major schools of thought about nature, ecology, and art. Usually offered every third year.

ECON 36b Climate Change Economics and Policy
[ ss ]

Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a.

Examines essential concepts economists and other social scientists use to consider the link between climate change and human society. We will explore specific topics of climate impacts and justice, as well as how to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Special one-time offering, spring 2021.

ECON 57a Environmental Economics
[ oc ss ]

Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a.

Investigates the theoretical and policy problems posed by the use of renewable and nonrenewable resources. Theoretical topics include the optimal pricing of resources, the optimal use of standards and taxes to correct pollution problems under uncertainty, and the measurement of costs and benefits. Usually offered every year.

ECON 175a Introduction to the Economics of Development
[ djw ss wi ]

Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a or permission of the instructor. Does not count toward the upper-level elective requirement for the major in economics.

An introduction to various models of economic growth and development and evaluation of these perspectives from the experience of developing and industrial countries. Usually offered every second year.

ENG 17b Climate Fictions
[ hum oc wi ]

Examines fictional narratives addressing climate change. Asks how authors from around the world imagine a future in which sea levels, animal populations, temperatures, access to food, and/or weather patterns are significantly different from those of the present. Usually offered every third year.

ENG 28a Environmental Literature in an Age of Extinction
[ deis-us dl hum ]

Explores literature's role in shaping modern understandings of environmental change and damage, as well as the possibility of ecological restoration. Works include environmental classics by Thoreau, Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson as well as contemporary genres including dystopia, the thriller, and climate fiction. Usually offered every third year.