Sustainability Courses at UMass Boston
Contents: Vision of sustainability that informs this initiative |
Mission for Infusing sustainability into the Curriculum |
List of courses (see www.cct.umb.edu/efscoursedescriptions.html for
descriptions of the sustainability content of the courses listed)
Vision of sustainability that informs this initiative
Education for Sustainability at UMass Boston is driven by the vision of sustainable economic and social development expressed in the 1987 United Nations' Brundtland Commission report, Our Common Future -- development that "meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." In this spirit, we envision three interrelated strands of sustainability:
- a sustainable economy ensuring that members of future generations have equivalent -- or enhanced -- capacity for living, being healthy, making a livelihood, gaining environmental services, and harnessing natural resources.
- just and equitable governance -- decision-making procedures and institutions that do not permit one group's access to resources to be ensured at the expense of others.
(Equity is linked with sustainability because, if we are concerned not to degrade the conditions for people in future generations, it makes sense to be concerned with improving the conditions of other people with degraded conditions in the present. Movement towards a sustainable, equitable society impels us to resist any growth of the gap among the capacities of different groups.)
- an engaged populace, one in which people's commitment to sustainability and equity motivates them to understand linked social and environmental processes, to transform practices that makes those processes unsustainable and inequitable, and to cross boundaries and collaborate with others in the pursuit of understanding and transformation.
The Talloires declaration, to which UMass Boston is a signatory, identified the special role campuses can take in moving society towards this vision. Education for Sustainability captures the commitment of UMass Boston to conduct teaching, research, outreach, and operations that further the vision of a sustainable economy, equitable governance, and an engaged populace.
Mission for Infusing sustainability into the Curriculum
The teaching mission of Education for Sustainability is to help students become lifelong contributors to society moving towards sustainability, equity, and engagement. Curricula should seek to develop students' ability to:
- appreciate and monitor the state of the environment, social structure, human health -- "environmental literacy";
- understand and analyze the complexities of phenomena that link economics, politics, culture, history, biology, geology, and physical processes;
- be involved in dynamic, vigorous exchange across the traditional disciplinary boundaries within and between natural and social/human sciences; and
- work within specific communities to facilitate self-conscious, reflective engagement with linked socio-environmental processes.
In short, infusing sustainability into the curriculum involves content (in natural, social, and health sciences, ethics, and humanities), conceptual change, interdisciplinary exchange, and civic responsibility (through service learning and participatory action research).
Listing of courses having sustainability content
- See www.cct.umb.edu/efscoursedescriptions.html for descriptions of the sustainability content of listed courses
- See Course catalog for official descriptions and prerequisites
Sustainability concerns central to the course
AMST L246 Environmental History
ANTH 107 Introduction to Archaeology *Fall03*
ANTH G224 Rise and Fall of the Maya
ANTH 250 Hunter-Gatherer Cultures
ANTH 363 Cultural Ecology
ANTH 451 Development Anthropology
BIOL 109 Global Biological Change
BIOL 110 Conservation of Biological Diversity *Fall03*
BIOL 639 Conservation Biology
BIOL 646 Pollutants in Marine Food Chains
CHEM L111/ENVSTY L111 Environmental Concerns and Chemical Solutions *Fall03*
COMCTR 415 Community Strategy and Proposal Development *Fall03*
CORCTR 340-1 Global Plague
CRCRTH 640 Environment, Science, and Society: Critical Thinking
E&GSCI 101 The Global Environment *Fall03*
E&GSCI 378 Resource Management
ECON 345 Natural Resources and Sustainable Economic Development *Fall03*
ECON 349 Economic Approaches to Environmental Problems
ECOS L120 Intro to Environmental Sciences
ECOS 250 Today's Issues in Environmental Science *Fall03*
ECOS 260 Global Environmental Change *Fall03*
ECOS 605 Teaching Environmental Science and Technology *Fall03*
ECOS 616 Environmental Policy and Administration *Fall03*
ECOS 670 Environmental Economics
ECOS 675 Marine Resource Economics
ENGL 102 (D. Nelson's sections only)
ENVSTY 101 The Nature of Environmental Problems *Summer & Fall03*
ENVSTY L111 Environmental Concerns and Chemical Solutions *Fall03*
ENVSTY L120 Intro to Environmental Sciences
ENVSTY L246 Environmental History
ENVSTY L250 Introduction to Environmental Policymaking *Fall03*
ENVSTY 301 Internship in Environmental Studies *Fall03*
ENVSTY 364 Environmental Justice *Fall03*
ENVSTY 401 Environmental Problem Analysis and Policy Formulation
DISRES 627 Human and moral dimensions of environmental conflict
INTR-D 125 Science for Humane Survival
PHIL 220 Environmental Ethics
POLSCI 123 Political Ideals of the 20th Century
POLSCI L250 Introduction to Environmental Policymaking *Fall03*
POLSCI G260 Politics and the Environment
POLSCI 348 Science and Public Policy
SOCIOL 373 Population and Ecology
Sustainability concerns a smaller component of the course
ANTH 241 Archaeological Method and Theory
Anth 252 Urban Anthropology *Fall03*
ANTH 334 North American Prehistory
ANTH L336 Ancient Mesoamerica
ANTH L338 Ancient Peru
AsAmSt L-423 Boston's Asian American Communities
BIOL 101 The Basis of Life *Fall03*
BIOL 102 Evolutionary Biology *Fall03*
BIOL 105 Economic Botany
BIOL 108 Intro to Nutrition *Fall03*
BIOL 111 General Biology *Fall03*
BIOL 290 Population Biology
BIOL 328/329 Plant Life
BIOL 341 Marine Mammals
BIOL 342 Ecology
BIOL 628 Microbial Ecology *Fall03*
BIOL 638 Advanced Ecology
BIOL 641/644 Introduction to Population Models
BIOL 642 Biogeography
BIOL 645 Ecological and Evolutionary Aspects of Plant-Animal Interactions
BIOL 652 Biological Diversity and Evolution *Fall03*
CHEM 253/254 Organic Chemistry I&II *Fall03*
COMCTR 250 Community Needs and Resource Analysis *Fall03*
CRMJUS L262 Criminology
DisRes 600 /621 Negotiation *Fall03*
DisRes 602 /623 Theories of Conflict Resolution *Fall03*
E&GSCI 280 Economic Geography
E&GSCI 375 Urban Planning
ECON 100 Introduction to Economic Issues *Fall03*
ECOS 760 Environmental Biogeochemistry
ENVSTY 375 Environmental/Forensic Geochemistry
GERON 626 Economic Issues in Aging Populations
HIST G290 Globalization in historical perspective
HIST 605 European Agrarian Societies
INTR-D 280 Zoological Parks in the 21st Century
MATHQ114 Quantitative Reasoning *Fall03*
MATH 125 Introductory Statistics *Fall03*
PHIL 108 Moral & Social Problems (especially Klein's section) *Fall03*
PHIL G110 Equality & Justice
POLSCI 202 Comparative Politics of Transitional Societies *Fall03*
POLSCI 220 International Relations *Fall03*
POLSCI 371 Latin American Politics *Fall03*
POLSCI 372 Central American Politics
POLSCI 375 Third World Development *Fall03*
POLSCI 411 International Organizations I(B)
SOCIOL L-423 Boston's Asian American Communities
SOCIOL L262 Criminology
This publication/webpage (www.cct.umb.edu/efscourses.html) is neither a contract nor an offer to make a contract. All information provided is subject to change. Last update 21 April 2003. Please alert peter.taylor@umb.edu of errors or suggested changes. Consult also the undergraduate Environmental Studies Program, omega.cc.umb.edu/~envsty/index.htm, which has overlapping concerns.