Undergraduate & Graduate Program Summaries
The following programs all incorporate concepts from the field of ecological economics, or have faculty working in the field. We encourage students considering a career in the field to look into the programs below:
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS
UC Berkeley: Environmental Economics and Policy
The Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the College of Letters and Science jointly offer the undergraduate major in Environmental Economics and Policy (EEP). This major offers an opportunity to explore aspects of economic and political institutions that affect the development and management of natural resources and the environment. The program takes a problem-solving approach to issues involving renewable and fixed natural resources, and it is based on a foundation in micro-economic theory and the economics of resources and the environment.
https://nature.berkeley.edu/advising/majors/environmental-economics-and-policy
University of Maryland: Agricultural and Resource Economics
AREC is an applied economics Bachelor of Science program with a focus on natural resources, agriculture, and the environment. Students who declare an AREC major choose one of 3 concentrations: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Agribusiness, or Environmental and Resource Economics.
Sarah Lawrence: Environmental Studies
Environmental studies at Sarah Lawrence College is an engagement with human relationships to the environment through a variety of disciplines. Sarah Lawrence’s environmental studies program, a critical component of a liberal-arts education, is an intersection of knowledge-making and questions about the environment that are based in the humanities, the arts, and the social and natural sciences. Sarah Lawrence students seeking to expand their knowledge of environmental studies are encouraged to explore the interconnections between disciplinary perspectives while developing areas of particular interest in greater depth. The environmental studies program seeks to develop students’ capacities for critical thought and analysis, applying theory to specific examples from Asia, Africa, and the Americas and making comparisons across geographic regions and historical moments.
https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/undergraduate/history-social-sciences/environmental-studies/
Michigan State University: Environmental Economics and Management
The Environmental Economics and Management program prepares you for a career that requires balancing environmental sustainability and economic development goals. The major is a broad, integrated study of environmental economics, public finance, economic development, community and regional studies and environmental science. The coursework will help you develop economic analysis skills and basic environmental science knowledge and apply these skills and knowledge to analyze environmental considerations in economic decisions of governments, industry, consulting firms, environmental interest groups and households. The major also offers students the opportunity to prepare for graduate study in environmental economics or environmental policy studies programs.
http://www.afre.msu.edu/undergraduate/environmental_economics_and_policy
Michigan State University – Department of Community Sustainability
Sustainability is about choices made within specific environmental, economic, social, and cultural contexts. Sustainability scholarship involves creating, integrating and harnessing new knowledge to protect and improve social and natural systems and their interactions. The Department of Community Sustainability (CSUS) is an interdisciplinary department that addresses contemporary issues of sustainability in agriculture, recreation, natural resources, and the environment. The Department of Community Sustainability (CSUS) was formerly called the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies (CARRS).
Consistent with its mission to assist in the development of sustainable communities, the department offers three undergraduate majors linked by a common core in community sustainability. These three majors – Environmental Studies and Sustainability (ESS); Sustainable Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SPRT); and Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Education (AFNRE) – share a set of courses centered on community sustainability.
https://www.canr.msu.edu/csus/
Temple University – Environmental Studies, College of Liberal Arts
The Environmental Studies major, offered by the Department of Geography and Urban Studies, examines the nature, causes and consequences of human interactions with the environment. Students in Environmental Studies gain the intellectual and methodological tools to understand and address the crucial environmental issues of our time and the impact on individuals, society, and the planet.
The Environmental Studies gateway courses are designed to develop the theoretical and methodological frameworks and tools necessary to understand the relationships between people and their environment as they interact through local to global connections. Environmental studies majors are introduced to environmental processes, the geography of natural resources, geospatial technologies, and qualitative and quantitative social science research methods. In required courses and electives, students examine environmental policy and the role of political institutions; environmental decision-making; natural hazards and risk assessment; environmental ethics and legal issues; health and the environment, and environmental justice. The electives give students the opportunity to develop an area of emphasis around their particular interests.
http://www.cla.temple.edu/gus/undergraduate/environmental-studies/
Hawaii Pacific University – Environmental Science (B.S) and Studies (B.A)
The challenges of today’s environment — air and water pollution, deforestation and species loss, peak oil consumption and climate change — are complex and interconnected issues. The interdisciplinary fields of environmental science and environmental studies are both dedicated to the study of these critical problems with the aim of identifying feasible solutions. Environmental Science focuses on the study of natural systems and the application of technology to protect and improve the environment while Environmental Studies focuses on the interaction between human and natural systems and the connection between science and policy.
Environmental and sustainability issues are overarching and complex; addressing these challenges requires a unique set of skills. Because of this, both majors utilize an interdisciplinary approach toward critical analysis and problem-solving while providing students with experience in the use of a wide range of tools. Students from both majors work together in many of the same upper division courses to foster respect for diverse perspectives and abilities and to build skills for working effectively within interdisciplinary teams.
https://www.hpu.edu/cncs/natural-science/env-sci-stud.html
Washington and Lee – Environmental Studies
At Washington and Lee, we take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the environment. Faculty and students from the sciences, the humanities, the social sciences, and law are involved in this approach through research, the curriculum, and a variety of co-curricular activities, including numerous public lectures, service learning projects, monthly luncheon seminars, as well as outdoor activities.
The program is the leader in the U.S. – Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program which coordinates a six-month or one year student exchange with Brazilian Universities, as well as the Chesapeake Bay Program which expands and enhances place-based learning in the upper Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The program curriculum allows students to develop interdisciplinary expertise and an understanding of how insights from different disciplines complement each other. This is not only a unique academic experience, but also one that expands the students’ ability as citizens to be aware of the scientific, ethical, and policy issues they will face in their local communities, their professions and in their broader world community. The faculty approved the program in environmental studies interdisciplinary concentration in 1998 and the major in 2007.
https://www.wlu.edu/environmental-studies-program
UMass Boston – School For The Environment
Environmental challenges don’t recognize disciplinary boundaries. Neither does UMass Boston’s School for the Environment. We are dedicated to addressing the most pressing challenges facing our planet and people and ensuring a sustainable world through our research and academic programs in urban planning, community development, environmental science, marine science, environmental studies, and sustainability. The program offers undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science (B.S., B.A.), Community Development (B.A.) and Environmental Studies and Sustainability (B.A.)
Grand Valley State University – Department of Biology
Grand Valley State University offers a bachelor of science degree in Natural Resources Management. Students learn to combine ecological knowledge with quantitative methods, economics, and policy, and address local and global natural resource-related situations. In the interdisciplinary NRM courses, students examine sources of conflict leading to environmental degradation and learn methods of sustainable resource management. Students have opportunities to develop expertise in ecosystem restoration, soil and water conservation, watershed management, recreation management, forest management, wildlife management, environmental economics and policy, conservation biology, fisheries, and applications in geographic information systems. NRM graduates pursue careers with conservation agencies and organizations including local, state, and federal government, education and advocacy organizations, environmental consulting firms, and non-profit.
https://www.gvsu.edu/biology/bachelor-of-science-in-natural-resources-management-16.htm
GRADUATE PROGRAMS
University of Vermont: Gund Institute for Environment (Graduate)
At the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, we integrate natural and social sciences to understand the interactions between people and nature and to help build a sustainable future. We are a hub for transdisciplinary scholarship, based at the University of Vermont and comprising diverse faculty, students, and collaborators worldwide. Together we conduct research at the interface of ecological, social, and economic systems, develop creative, practical solutions to local and global environmental challenges, and provide future leaders with the tools and understanding necessary to navigate the transition to a sustainable society.
University of Maryland: Agricultural and Resource Economics
The Department offers both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from one of the nation’s premier graduate programs in agricultural and resource economics. Both programs focus on the application of advanced microeconomic theory and econometrics to issues in environmental and resource economics, agricultural economics, and development economics. Courses are taught by leading researchers in those fields, who combine rigorous scholarship with extensive policy experience.
UC Berkeley: Energy and Resources Group
With its four-decade history of transformative teaching and research, the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) has reframed ecological and social problems in terms that borrow from, and yet can be understood across, many traditionally separate disciplinary cultures. The ERG model combines a rigorous core curriculum, a shared learning environment, and the freedom to access the entire Berkeley faculty. The core curriculum provides students with relevant analytical tools from ecology, economics, engineering and the social sciences. ERG research is strongly evidence-based and hypothesis-driven; its interdisciplinary culture equally encourages student‐ and faculty‐led research. The value of such a culture is hard to quantify: it has evolved through the commitment to systemic thinking, and the vision of a just and sustainable planet, over generations of ERGies.
University of Massachusetts Amherst: Resource Economics
At the Department of Resource Economics, we tackle complex questions about how to use our environmental, natural and human resources. By researching important societal problems and gathering and analyzing data, we offer policy solutions that move the needle on today’s most pressing issues. Our undergraduate and graduate programs focus on industrial organization, environmental economics, natural resource economics, and consumer and family economics. And our award-winning faculty produces groundbreaking research that impacts how we approach our world.
The Department of Resource Economics offers programs of study toward the Master of Science Degree and the Doctor of Philosophy Degree. Major fields of study are (1) Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, (2) Marketing/Industrial Organization of the Food System, and (3) Applied Econometrics. A strong foundation in economic theory and quantitative methods is emphasized for students in all fields.
https://www.umass.edu/resec/academics/graduate-program
Michigan State University: Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics
We offer internationally acclaimed M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics as well as dual degree options. Access four major Ph.D. fields of study, along with strong training in microeconomic theory and empirical methods. M.S. students study courses in the same areas, but do not select a major field. The fields are; Development Economics,Environmental and Resource Economics, Food & Agribusiness Management, and Food & Agricultural Markets.
http://www.afre.msu.edu/graduate
Tufts GDAE
The Global Development And Environment Institute (GDAE – pronounced “gee-day”) was founded in 1993 to combine the research and curricular development activities of two Tufts programs: the Program for Sustainable Change and Development in the School of Arts and Sciences (directed by economist, Neva Goodwin), and the Center for Environmental and Resource Policy (directed by William Moomaw, a chemist and environmental policy specialist). The combination creates a center of expertise in economics, policy, science and technology. The Institute has produced more than a dozen books and numerous articles, policy documents, and discussion papers. These materials are being used in academic settings, to enhance the teaching of economics and related subjects, and in policy circles, where GDAE researchers are recognized leaders in their fields.
Michigan State University – Department of Community Sustainability
Sustainability is about choices made within specific environmental, economic, social, and cultural contexts. Sustainability scholarship involves creating, integrating and harnessing new knowledge to protect and improve social and natural systems and their interactions. The Department of Community Sustainability (CSUS) is an interdisciplinary department that addresses contemporary issues of sustainability in agriculture, recreation, natural resources, and the environment. The Department of Community Sustainability (CSUS) was formerly called the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies (CARRS). The CSUS graduate program offers two graduate majors: Community Sustainability (MS and PhD) and Sustainable Tourism and Protected Areas Management (MS and PhD). In both undergraduate and graduate programs, CSUS embraces international as well as domestic applications, engagement, and opportunities.
https://www.canr.msu.edu/csus/
UMass Boston – School For The Environment
Environmental challenges don’t recognize disciplinary boundaries. Neither does UMass Boston’s School for the Environment. We are dedicated to addressing the most pressing challenges facing our planet and people and ensuring a sustainable world through our research and academic programs in urban planning, community development, environmental science, marine science, environmental studies, and sustainability. The program offers graduate degrees in Environmental Sciences (M.S. , PhD), Marine Science and Technology (M.S., PhD), and Urban Planning and Community Development (M.S.)
Bard College Center for Environmental Policy
The Bard Center for Environmental Policy’s graduate programs combine an intensive course of study with practical training in preparation for environmental careers in nonprofit organizations, government, and the private sector. The programs emphasize methods of critical inquiry and provide the practical knowledge necessary to understand the legal, political, socioeconomic, cultural, and ethical forces that influence the decision-making process. Bard offers MS degrees in Climate Science and Policy, and Environmental Policy.