Environmental Studies

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  • Our Environmental Studies program is really blossoming. This summer, we re-planted the campus garden behind Glen Rowan House and continued our blog to share news about the garden. The College is already taking advantage of fresh vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

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The campus garden, founded and managed by Liz Birnbaum, has become integral to our curriculum through Biodiversity and Agriculture and Botanical Imperialism courses, both taught this Fall semester. Also, students who felt passionate about connecting more deeply with their food started a Slow Food Club in response to the Agriculture course and the garden.

Whether it’s as a natural system that determines the health of the planet or the variety of ways humans have influenced the world around them, we study the environment through diverse lenses. The Environmental Studies faculty value the perspectives of many disciplines and guide students through an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing and addressing a number of environmental issues.

Environmental studies students take advantage of the variety of excellent off-campus resources for study and internships, including the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Field Museum, and the many environmental organizations in Chicago.

Our Mission Statement:

Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary program that looks at the environment in many different ways. The environment can be studied as the set of natural systems that determines the health of the planet, or as the variety of ways humans have influenced the environment around them. The program values the perspectives of many different disciplines from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Its majors learn a variety of ways to address environmental issues and the value of using an interdisciplinary approach to these topics. However, students are encouraged to build a set of disciplinary skills in addition to the broader exposure required by the major.

Program News

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    ES Senior Recaps “Semester at Sea” Experience
    Environmental Studies Senior Alex Gilbert ‘12 spent the Fall (2011) Semester on a “Semester at Sea” Program. Here are some of Alex’s many tales from his whirlwind trip to twelve countries in four months. More »
  • Introducing the Lake Effect Archive
    The Lake Effect Archive contains resources relevant to the environmental, historic, political, public health, and scientific issues surrounding Waukegan Harbor. Lake Effect(Island Press, 2008), an environmental memoir written by Nancy Nichols, recounts a childhood in Waukegan during an era when Waukegan Harbor was heavily polluted with toxic substances. More »
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    In Defense of Mantises
    The Environmental Studies Program was given a gift of four praying mantis egg sacs by Nada Finn of Green Town Waukegan in April. The mantis nymphs hatched on May 18, 2011, the same day that garden intern Xander Agosta ‘12 had his 21st birthday. Having pet praying mantises has been an unexpected joy for the Garden Crew of 2011. The lesson, in brief, is that when someone offers you praying mantis egg sacs (oothecae) to care for, you just say yes. More »

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