Curriculum
The College's Environmental Studies program offers students an inter-disciplinary introduction to environmental studies including unique opportunities for students to engage in service learning that benefits organizations in Brunswick and the larger Maine community.
In addition, the Environmental Studies Program and Institute for Coastal Studies at Bowdoin College have begun a long-term ecology and environmental science study in the mid-coast region of Maine. The College also maintains a research facility on Kent Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia.
Student Project Focuses on Bike Shelter Design
Students explore the issues and challenges relating to the design of bike shelters on campus. Learn more »
Environmental Studies
Environmental Studies at Bowdoin reflects the college's recognition that humans must learn to live in harmony with nature and that human activities are dependent upon natural processes. This recognition, coupled with an aspiration to present and future human well-being, provides a critical perspective from which to interpret history, science, politics, law, economy, religion, and the arts. A liberal arts education should promote environmental literacy: an understanding of the world around us - the built and the natural, the local and the global, our role in it, and our effects upon it.
Arctic Studies
A concentration in Arctic studies, offered through the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Department of Geology, and The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center, provides students with opportunities to explore cultural, social, and environmental issues involving Arctic lands and peoples. Students interested in the Arctic are encouraged to consult with the director of the Arctic Studies Center in order to plan an appropriate interdisciplinary program, involving course work and field work at Bowdoin and in the North.
Coastal Studies Center
The Coastal Studies Center (CSC) offers facilities and resources that support student and faculty research, and courses, focused on coastal settings and issues. The scope of studies supported by the CSC is inter- and multi-disciplinary including humanities; arts; social, natural and behavioral sciences; and mathematics. All viewpoints, separately and in combination, provide insight and understanding to the multiple facets of coastal studies.
Merrymeeting Bay Kennebec Estuary Research Program
The Environmental Studies Program and Institute for Coastal Studies at Bowdoin College have begun a long-term ecology and environmental science study in the mid-coast region of Maine. The Kennebec estuary is an important source of freshwater, nutrients, and pollution to Casco Bay and has been implicated in the harmful "redtide" algal blooms that periodically close the shellfish industry up and down the coast.