Among Bowdoin's major programs, the coordinate major is unique to the Environmental Studies Program. An environmental studies major must also have a disciplinary major, either in a department major such as biology, economics, history, etc, or in a program major such as Asian studies, gender and women's studies, etc. Courses taken to satisfy the College's distribution requirements or to fulfill the requirements of the second major may be double-counted toward the environmental studies major requirements, except as noted. A grade of C- or better must be earned in a course to fulfill the major requirement.
Completion of the ES major requires the following courses:
1. Introductory, interdisciplinary course: ES 101 Introduction to Environmental Studies, preferably taken as a first-year student.
2. One 100-level or higher course in biology, chemistry, earth and oceanographic science, or physics.
3. One Environmental Science course: ES 201 Perspectives in Environmental Science (same as Biology 158 and Chemistry 105).
4. One Environmental Social Science course: One of the following courses will satisfy this requirement: ES207/Gov 207 Building Healthy Communities; ES218/Econ 218 Environmental Economics (Spring 2012); ES 228/Econ 228 Natural Resource Economics (Spring 2013 tentative); ES 236/Gov 235 Comparative Environmental Politics (Fall 2012); ES263/Gov 263 International Environmental Policy (Spring 2015 tentative); ES 240 Environmental Law and Policy (Fall 2013), ES 264/Gov 263 Climate, Energy and Air Quality (Spring 2013 tentative), ES272/Anth272 Contemporary Arctic Social and Environmental Issues (Spring 2013). Note: If you have already taken ES 231, 257, 264, 266, 272 or any other of the above social science courses you have met this requirement.
Note: Social science core course offerings for the 2012-2013 academic year are as follows:
- Fall 2012 - ES 236/Gov 235 Comparative Environmental Policy (prerequisite: none)
- Spring 2013 (tentative) ES/Econ 228 Environmental Economics and policy (prerequisite: Econ 101)
- Spring 2013 (tentative) ES 264/ Gov 264 Climate, Energy & Air Quality (Prerequsite: one ocurse in ES or Gov or permission of instructor)
- Spring 2013 (tentative) ES272/Anth272 Contemporary Arctic Social and Environmental Issues
5. One Environmental Humanities course: ES 203 Environment and Culture in North American History (same as History 242).
6. Senior seminar: A culminating course that provides an opportunity for exploration of a topic or a senior capstone course experience of one semester is required of majors. Such courses are multidisciplinary, studying a topic from at least two areas of the curriculum. It is preferable to take this course during the senior year. Please check with the program for an updated list of courses staisfying this requirement.
7. Beyond the core courses, students must choose a concentration.
Requirements for the Minor in Environmental Studies
The minor consists of five courses: Environmental Studies 101 and two courses in the disciplinary area outside a student's major:
~ for natural science majors: ES 203 Environment and Culture in North American History and one social science course , or from the following:ES/Gov 207 Building Healthy Communities (Spring 2014); ES/Econ 218 Environmental Economics (Spring 2012); ES/Econ 228 Natural Resource Economics (Spring 2013 tentative); ES 236/ Gov 235 Comparative Environmental Politics (Fall 2013); ES/Gov 263 International Environmental Policy (Spring 2015); ES 240 Environmental Law and Policy (Fall 2013), ES 264/Gov 263 Climate, Energy and Air Quality (Spring 2013). Note: If you have already taken ES 202, ES 221, ES 257, ES 264, ES 272 or any other of the above social science courses you have met this requirement;
~ for social science majors: ES 201 Perspectives in Envionmental Science and ES 203 Environment and Culture in North American History;
~ for humanities majors: ES 201 Perspectives in Environmental Science, and one social science course or from the following: ES/Gov 207 Building Healthy Communities (Spring 2014); ES/Econ 218 Environmental Economics (Spring 2012); ES/Econ 228 Natural Resource Economics (Spring 2013 tentative); ES 236/Gov 235 Comparative Environmental Politics (Fall 2013); ES/Gov 263 International Environmental Policy (Spring 2015); ES 240 Environmental Law and Policy (Fall 2013), ES 264/Gov 263 Climate, Energy and Air Quality (Spring 2013). Note: If you have already taken ES 202, ES 221, ES 257, ES 264, ES 272 or any other of the above social science courses you have met this requirement.
