ChooseWhy Choose This Program?
Why Study Environmental Studies at Goucher?
Goucher’s Environmental Studies Program is designed to encourage thinking across disciplinary boundaries in order to prepare students for meaningful engagement with central environmental questions and challenges facing current and future generations. The Environmental Studies Program offers students the opportunity to major or minor in a curriculum that bridges social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences. After completing a series of core courses in various disciplines, environmental studies majors must choose either the environment and society concentration or the environmental science concentration to complete remaining coursework.
LearnWhat Will You Learn?
What Will You Learn?
As a field, environmental studies seeks to understand the interrelationships of natural phenomena and social structures, systems, and institutions that govern society. To do so, it must engage in the scholarship of particular disciplines and the scholarship of integration. Environmental studies major and minor students with an environment and society concentration take courses grounded in critical social theory, such as Political Ecology and Environmental Justice, just as they also engage with economic theories of the environment as well as physical and biological sciences. Environmental studies courses encourage students to think critically about pressing environmental problems, while also advocating for political and social change.
DoWhat Will You Do?
What Will You Do?
Goucher environmental studies majors address environmental problems at a local level, including in Baltimore City, as well as those on a global scale. To do so, many students conduct internships with organizations like Food & Water Watch, Black Yield Institute, and the National Aquarium. Moreover, environmental studies students with a concentration in environment and society often choose to study abroad with the semester-long program at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica or the three-week Intensive Course Abroad called Spanish and Environmental Studies in Ecuador and the Galápagos.
Course Curriculum
Faculty
Environmental Studies Major & Minor Program Chair
Germán Mora, Department Chair, Professor of Environmental Studies: Biogeochemistry, climate change, unequal distribution of
environmental services
Full-Time & Half-Time Faculty
Peggy Eppig, Lecturer in Environmental Studies: Environmental history and sustainable agriculture
Germán Mora, Professor of Environmental Studies: Biogeochemistry, climate change, unequal distribution of environmental services
Akana Noto, Assistant Professor of Biology: Ecology and species interactions
Jennifer da Rosa, Director of M.A. in Environmental Sustainability & Management Program, Assistant Professor: Environmental education, gender discrepancies of environmental outcomes, behavioral economics
Gina Shamshak, Professor of Economics: Applied microeconomics, environmental and natural resource economics
Christopher Torres, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies: environmental philosophy, policy studies, public administration
Study Abroad
By choosing three-week intensive courses led by Goucher faculty or semester programs suited to their academic plans, environmental studies students gain a global perspective that enhances their course of study.
Explore the study abroad programs on offer:
Veritas University - Environmental Science, Policy, Sustainable Development, Ecotourism, Resource Management, Ecology, Conservation, Eco-Photography
ISEP Direct Summer in Costa Rica - Sustainability & Service-Learning
Opportunities & Internships
Summer Research Program
Environmental science students have the opportunity to participate in the Goucher
College Summer Science Research Program.
Honors & Awards
Departmental honors and awards are given to students who have shown outstanding academic
achievement. Find more information on the Environmental Studies Honors and Awards page.
Internships
Internships help students explore possibilities, apply classroom learning, and gain experience. Explore internships and credit options.
Student Employment
Student employment connects students to both on and off-campus opportunities. The Career Education Office provides resources and support to students with or without Federal Work Study to find jobs, submit applications, and learn more about the job search process. Students have access to Handshake — a website for job postings, events, resumes/cover letters, and career management.
Major & Career Exploration
Exploring career options, choosing a major, and making career decisions is a multi-step process in which all students are encouraged to engage early and often. Goucher students have a variety of resources available through the Majors and Career page to assist them in this process.
Job Search
A Goucher education prepares students for today’s job market and beyond. Students can explore job opportunities and access job search resources through the CEO Job Search page.
Graduate & Professional School
Students access resources for searching and applying to graduate and professional school through the CEO Graduate and Professional School page, through faculty and staff members, or utilizing their own resources, network and tools.
M.A. in Environmental Sustainability & Management
This program is designed for individuals seeking to lead in the fields of environmental management and sustainability. Environmental injustice, species extinction, climate change, and resource depletion are all increasing concerns for humanity. A graduate degree in environmental sustainability & management equips you to tackle these challenges using the tools of science, policy, system dynamics, and environmental management.
Alumni Spotlight
Todd Troester ’15
Environmental studies major
Read My Story“I like being on the ground floor of things and being a trailblazer.”