Program in Environmental Thought and Practice

253 Clark Hall
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400123
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4123
http://tree.evsc.virginia.edu

Overview Environmental Thought and Practice is a new major developed by a diverse group of faculty from across the University who are committed to addressing current environmental issues within a broadly interdisciplinary framework. Environmental problems concern natural phenomena whose dimensions are appropriately described by environmental scientists. However, the "problems" themselves result from changes in public perception that are contingent upon cultural constructs and historical events. Attempts to solve these problems necessarily fall within the political sphere, but policy debates draw in principles and discourses from philosophy, economics, and ethics. In short, understanding and solving environmental problems demands the ability to connect ideas from such diverse disciplines as anthropology, literature, history, ethics, politics, ecology, the earth and atmospheric sciences, economics, and land use planning.

The objective of the Environmental Thought and Practice program is to produce students who can:

Faculty The co-directors of the program are Vivian Thomson, Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences and Politics, and Thomas Smith, Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences. The Program’s Advisory Committee includes Timothy Beatley, Associate Professor, Urban and Environmental Planning (School of Architecture); Ruth Gaare Bernheim, Executive Director, Institute for Practical Ethics; Jonathan Z. Cannon, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Environmental Studies (School of Law); James Childress, Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Religious Studies and Professor of Medical Education; Stephen Cushman, Professor, English; Fred Damon, Professor, Anthropology; Cassandra Fraser, Associate Professor, Chemistry; Michael Gorman, Professor, Technology, Culture, and Communication (School of Engineering); Ed Russell, Associate Professor, Technology, Culture, and Communication (School of Engineering); Hank Shugart, W. W. Corcoran Professor of Environmental Sciences and Biology and Director, Global Environmental Change Program; and, Mark White, Associate Professor of Commerce (McIntire School of Commerce).

Students The major is designed for students with a strong interest in the theory and practice of environmental issues. Each spring a maximum of 15 students will be selected for the program from a pool of applicants. Students will be chosen on the basis of prior academic performance, faculty recommendation, and an essay explaining the student’s interest in the field. The program will provide students with a background for continued study in graduate and professional schools or careers in business, government, NGOs, or advocacy groups.

Requirements for the Major The Environmental Thought and Practice interdisciplinary major requires four prerequisites, three core classes, and seven electives. Before enrolling in the major students must meet the College’s natural sciences and social sciences area requirements.

Prerequisites All four prerequisite courses listed below are required for Environmental Thought and Practice majors. In order to apply for the major students must be enrolled in, or have already completed, at least two of the four prerequisite classes:

Core courses The following core courses are required of all majors.

Electives Each student must also choose seven classes distributed across the three areas indicated below, with the restriction that at least two classes must be taken in Area I (Values, Culture, and History) and at least one class must be taken in each of Areas II and III (two classes are required in Area I because there are no such classes in the core curriculum). Once these distribution requirements have been met, an internship approved by the ETP program may be substituted for one elective class. Classes taken to fulfill the prerequisite or core requirements may not be counted as electives.

I. Values, Culture, and History

HIUS 271/
TCC 206 American environmental history

PLAN 554 Environmental ethics and sustainability

ANTH 334 Ecology and society

ENAM 482C Advanced studies in American literature:
Emerson and Thoreau

INST 352 Sally Brown Seminar in Environmental Literature

LAR 512 History of landscape architecture

LAR 513 History of American landscape architecture
(requires LAR 512)

LAR 514 Intro to theories of modern landscape
(requires LAR 512)

If approved by one of the ETP Program Directors, students may count one related 300-, 400-, or 500-level class in History, Anthropology, Philosophy, English, Religious Studies, Landscape Architecture, or Science, Technology, and Society against the two-class requirement for this area.

II. Policy, Planning, and Society⁽¹⁾

Students may fulfill their one-class requirement for this track by taking any one of the following specific classes (there are no prerequisites for these upper-level Planning classes):

ECON 443 Energy and environment (requires ECON 301)

EVSC 465 Environmental policymaking in the United States

PLAP 424A Special topics in American politics: Politics of the environment

PLAP 471 Resources and the environment

PLAN 303 Neighborhoods, community, and regions

PLAN 306 Land, law, and environment

PLAN 404 Planning in government: decisions and alternatives

PLAN 551 Sustainable communities

PLAN 553 Environmental policy and planning

If approved by one of the ETP Program Directors, students may take one related 300-, 400-, or 500-level course in Economics, Politics, Sociology, the Law School, Darden, or Urban and Environmental Planning to meet the overall seven-course elective requirement, but not to meet the basic one-class requirement for this area.

⁽¹⁾ The College allows students to count 18 credits of classes in other schools toward the 120-credit graduation requirement.

III. Natural Science

Any 300- or 400-level EVSC course. If approved by one of the ETP Program Directors, students may take one related 300-, 400-, or 500-level class in Biology, Chemistry, or environmental engineering (e.g., MAE 414, CE 205) to meet the overall seven-class elective requirement, but not to meet the basic one-class requirement for this area. (Upper level EVSC classes build on the classes listed above under "Core Classes." Upper-level biology, chemistry, and environmental engineering classes can have several prerequisites.)

Admission Students interested in becoming ETP majors should submit:

The above materials should be sent to either of the co-directors of the ETP program by March 1. Candidates will hear from the committee by the end of March.

The co-directors of the program are available to answer any questions about admission procedure and program requirements. Students may also obtain this information from the ETP website.

Additional Information For more information contact either Vivian Thomson, Clark Hall, P.O. Box 400123, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4123, (434) 924-3964, vet4y@virginia.edu or Thomas Smith, P.O. Box 400123, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4123, (434) 924-3107, tms9a@virginia.edu.

Course Descriptions

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ETP 230 - (3) (Y)
Politics, Science, and Values: An Introduction to Environmental Policy
Introduces a wide variety of domestic and international environmental policy issues. Explores how political processes, scientific evidence, ideas, and values affect environmental policymaking. This class satisfies the social sciences area requirement and not the natural sciences/mathematics area requirement, since ETP 230 is devoted to the subject of environmental policy. Cross listed as EVSC 230.

ETP 387 - (3) (Y)
Framing the Environment: Literary, Critical, and Philosophical Responses to Nature
Prerequisite: Instructor permission.
Close reading of literary, critical, and philosophical responses to nature and the place of the human therein; emphasis varies each semester.

ETP 401 - (3) (Y)
Environmental Decisions
Prerequisite: Declaration of ETP major.
This team-taught, capstone seminar for the Environmental Thought and Practice major helps students integrate the broad range of ideas and information employed in environmental decision-making. A case study approach is used to examine the scientific, historical, cultural, ethical and legal dimensions of selected environmental issues.