The systems that make up planet Earth are simultaneously comprehensible and complex, predictable and chaotic, robust and fragile. Changes in one part of this system of systems may have far-reaching implications for other parts—and for the future of humanity.

This interdisciplinary major draws on social (economics, government and anthropology) and natural sciences (biology, chemistry and geology), as well as the humanities and arts. Faculty members are practicing scholars within their primary disciplines.

  • The environment and the outdoors
  • Interdisciplinarity—especially the intersection of environmental science and policy
  • Critical and complicated issues regarding environmental change and the future of humanity, including climate change
  • Environmental policy and its relation to politics, economics, and history
  • Hands-on research and filed trips in the U.S. and abroad
  • Plants, wild animals, natural habitats, and their relations with human and technology
  • Food, health, human development and wellbeing

 

Life After Lawrence

Lawrentians can enjoy careers in...

Environmental law, consulting, policymaking, technical innovation, wildlife management, international development, teaching, natural resource management, food science

Recent employers include...

Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Resource Conservation Alliance, G.E. Osmonics, Frontier Society for Environmental Exploration, Center for Earth Leadership, The Nature Conservancy, Organic Valley, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Protection Agency, Furman University, New York University 

Lawrentians can earn advanced degrees in...

Geological sciences, environmental management, landscape architecture, law, public & environmental affairs

Recent schools include...

Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Duke University Environmental Management, Northeastern, Wyoming, Stanford, Columbia, Vermont Law School, Wisconsin 

Experience the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society

This endowed lecture series is an integral part of the environmental symposium, a topic- and project-based course in which students embark on a group project guided by nationally-recognized experts in the field. The Sustainable Lawrence University Garden (affectionately called SLUG) is a product of this course.

Have environmentally-focused off-campus experiences

Fulfill environmental studies program requirements and engage in deep experiential learning through off-campus programs in Tanzania, Costa Rica and Italy, as well as the Lawrence Marine Term and our Sustainable China trip. Environmental systems experienced off campus can be explored in depth through Senior Experience systems modeling.

Make an environmental impact on campus and in our community

We encourage and support creative, ambitious students to initiate change on and off campus. Students have engaged in urban gardening, environmental education and the development of solar and wind power on campus.

Craft a curriculum that suits your interests and aspirations

Interested in policy? Choose a government focus in the major. Do you want to explore more deeply the scientific elements of the major? Choose a chemistry or geology focus. At Lawrence you and your advisor can craft a curriculum at Lawrence that focuses this flexible program to suit your aspirations and interests.

Components of the Major

  • Introduction to
    Environmental Science with Lab
  • Introduction to
    Environmental Policy
  • Symposium on Environmental Topics
  • Environmental Studies
    Senior Seminar
  •  
  • Statistics OR Integrative Biology: Experimental Design and Analysis OR Quantitative Analysis in Anthropology
  • Three natural sciences sources from at least two different departments (one of which must be lab-based
  • Two policy courses: Environmental Economics and Global Environmental Politics OR Introduction to Public Policy
  • One environmentally-focused course in history, education, ethics, or ecological anthropology
  • Three disciplinary-focused courses in anthropology, biology, chemistry, economics, geology, government, or physics
  • Field experience

Course descriptions and more courses

The Chandler Senior Experience

The Senior Seminar is the culmination of the environmental studies major and serves as the program's Senior Experience. Through discussions of primary literature and guest lectures, you’ll engage with cutting-edge scholarship in the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. You will also complete an individual project, which consists of developing models of environmentally relevant phenomena. In the course of this modeling work, you must find and acquire relevant data, determine functional relations between model elements, perform sensitivity analyses, and justify your choices and assumptions. Finally, you will present your results and conclusions orally and in a written document.
 

Recent Senior Experience projects include:

 

Meeting the new fuel efficiency standards with aluminum cars:  Where is the carbon break-even-point?

Policy Options for Nitrate-Contaminated Groundwater in California’s Agricultural Fields

Sociopolitical Interactions of Electrical Waste in Ghana, West Africa

Economic Feasibility of a Bike Share In Appleton, Wisconsin

Modeling the gray wolf population in Wisconsin: effects of the Wisconsin wolf management plan

Faculty

Chair(s)
Monica Rico (chair)
  • Marcia Bjornerud
    Marcia Bjornerud Profile Picture
    Walter Schober Professor of Environmental Studies and Professor of Geology
    Campus Phone: 920-832-7015
    Education: University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, B.S.; University of Wisconsin-Madison, M.S., Ph.D.
    Interests: structural geology, tectonics, rock mechanics, earth history
    Campus Address: Youngchild Hall Room 208 Geosciences
    Years at Lawrence: 1995-
  • Jason Brozek
    Jason Brozek Profile Picture
    Stephen Edward Scarff Professor of International Affairs and Associate Professor of Government
    Campus Phone: 920-993-6182
    Education: Wayne State College, B.A.; University of Wisconsin-Madison, M.A., Ph.D.
    Interests: Freshwater, international security, conflict bargaining, US foreign policy, International law
    Campus Address: Briggs Hall Room 207 Government
    Years at Lawrence: 2008-
  • Jeffrey J. Clark
    Jeffrey J. Clark Profile Picture
    Professor of Geology and Special Assistant to the President
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6733
    Education: Middlebury College, B.A.; Johns Hopkins University, Ph.D.
    Interests: geomorphology, earth surface processes, human influences on the environment
    Campus Address: Youngchild Hall Room 209 Geosciences
    Years at Lawrence: 1998-
  • Sigma Colon
    Sigma Colon Profile Picture
    Hurvis NEH Fellow in the Humanities
    Campus Phone: 920-832-7483
    Education: Yale University, Ph.D., M.Phil, M.A. American Studies; University of Arizona, M.A. History, B.A. English
    Interests: 19th through the 21st century environmental and cultural politics; cultural geography; environmental humanities; visual culture; intersections of environmental issues with systems of social injustice
    Campus Address: Main Hall Room 206 Environmental Studies
    Years at Lawrence: 2017-
  • Bart T. De Stasio
    Bart T. De Stasio Profile Picture
    Dennis and Charlot Nelson Singleton Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Biology
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6727
    Education: Lawrence University, B.A.; University of Rhode Island; Cornell University, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Postdoctoral Researcher
    Interests: evolutionary ecology, aquatic biology, predator-prey interactions
    Campus Address: Youngchild Hall Room 307 Biology
    CV: http://www.lawrence.edu/academics/study/biology/collaborative/professor_bart_de_stasio
    Years at Lawrence: 1988-89, 1992-
  • Israel Del Toro
    Israel Del Toro Profile Picture
    Assistant Professor of Biology
    Campus Phone: 920-832-7213
    Education: University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009-2014, M.Sc., Ph.D. University of Copenhagen, Denmark- 2014-2016, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    Interests: Community Ecology, Biodiversity Science, Biogeography
    Campus Address: Thomas Steitz Hall of Science Room 333 Biology
    Website: http://www.ideltoro.org/
    CV: http://www.ideltoro.org/cv.html
    Years at Lawrence: 2016-
  • Deanna L. Donohoue
    Deanna L. Donohoue Profile Picture
    Assistant Professor of Chemistry
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6533
    Education: Augustana College: B.A. in Chemistry, University of Miami: Ph.D. in Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry
    Campus Address: Thomas Steitz Hall of Science Room 133 Chemistry
    Website: https://deannaldonohoue.wixsite.com/website
    Years at Lawrence: 2013-
  • David Gerard
    David Gerard Profile Picture
    The John R. Kimberly Distinguished Professor of the American Economic System and Associate Professor of Economics
    Campus Phone: 920-993-6035
    Education: Grinnell College, B.A.; University of Illinois, M.S., Ph.D.
    Interests: Institutional & Organizational Economics, Energy & the Environment, Regulation & Public Policy
    Campus Address: Briggs Hall Room 210 Economics
    Website: http://faculty.lawrence.edu/gerardd/
    CV: http://faculty.lawrence.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2013/06/Gerard_CV-2016-July.doc
    Years at Lawrence: 2009-
  • Alyssa S. Hakes
    Alyssa S. Hakes Profile Picture
    Associate Professor of Biology
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6926
    Education: Ph.D. Louisiana State University B.S. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    Interests: spatial ecology, herbivory, plant defense
    Campus Address: Youngchild Hall Room 308 Biology
    Website: http://www.lawrence.edu/academics/study/biology/collaborative/alyssa_hakes
    CV: http://www.lawrence.edu/academics/study/biology/collaborative/alyssa_hakes/curriculum_vitae
    Years at Lawrence: 2012-
  • William Hixon
    William Hixon Profile Picture
    Gordon R. Clapp Chair of American Studies and Associate Professor of Government
    Campus Phone: 920-832-7172
    Education: Washington University, B.A.; University of Rochester, M.A., Ph.D.
    Interests: public policy, environmental public policy, Congressional politics
    Campus Address: Briggs Hall Room 209 Government
    Years at Lawrence: 2000, 2003-
  • Mark Jenike
    Mark Jenike Profile Picture
    Associate Professor of Anthropology
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6717
    Education: Harvard College, B.A.; University of California-Los Angeles, Ph.D.
    Interests: behavioral ecology, human biology, nutritional anthropology, human evolution, reproductive ecology, anthropological demography
    Campus Address: Briggs Hall Room 309 Anthropology
    Years at Lawrence: 2004-
  • Claire E. Kervin
    Claire E. Kervin Profile Picture
    Visiting Assistant Professor
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6610
    Education: PhD (expected 2017)--Boston University (English Literature) MA--Boston University (English Literature) BA--University of Wisconsin-Madison (English Literature; Spanish Language and Culture)
    Interests: Twentieth-century American literature; modern and contemporary fiction; nature writing; ecocriticism and environmental humanities; composition; tutoring; pedagogy
    Campus Address: Thomas Steitz Hall of Science Room 131 Freshman Studies
    Years at Lawrence: 2016-
  • Andrew Knudsen
     
    Professor of Geology
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6731
    Education: Hamilton College, B.A., University of Idaho, Ph.D.
    Interests: environmental mineralogy, low-temperature geochemistry
    Campus Address: Youngchild Hall Room 207 Geosciences
    Years at Lawrence: 2003-
  • Stewart C. Purkey
    Stewart C. Purkey Profile Picture
    Bee Connell Mielke Professor of Education and Associate Professor of Education
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6715
    Education: Stanford University, A.B.; Reed College, M.A.T.; University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ph.D.
    Interests: educational reform, professional development, community- and place-based education, sociology of education, environmental education, film studies, ethnic studies
    Campus Address: Briggs Hall Room 121 Education
    Years at Lawrence: 1985-
  • Relena R. Ribbons
    Relena R. Ribbons Profile Picture
    Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6611
    Education: University of Copenhagen, joint Ph.D. Forestry, Geosciences, and Natural Resources Conservation (2017) University of Bangor, joint Ph.D. Forestry, Geosciences, and Natural Resources Management(2017)
    Interests: Biogeochemistry, Soil biology, Forest ecology, Ecosystem and Community ecology, Dendrochronology
    Campus Address: Youngchild Hall Room 211 Freshman Studies
    Website: http://relenaribbons.weebly.com/
    Years at Lawrence: 2016-
  • Monica Rico
    Monica Rico Profile Picture
    Associate Professor of History
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6725
    Education: University of California-Berkeley, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
    Interests: early America; the American West; gender and environment
    Campus Address: Main Hall Room 418 History
    Years at Lawrence: 2001-
  • Jodi Sedlock
    Jodi Sedlock Profile Picture
    Associate Professor of Biology
    Campus Phone: 920-832-7058
    Education: Loyola University, B.A., B.S.; University of Illinois-Chicago, Ph.D.
    Interests: tropical diversity, conservation biology, ecosystem services, sensory ecology, bat ecology
    Campus Address: Youngchild Hall Room 305 Biology
    Years at Lawrence: 2002-
  • Claudena Skran
    Claudena Skran Profile Picture
    Edwin & Ruth West Professor of Economics and Social Science and Professor of Government
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6674
    Education: Michigan State University, B.A.; Oxford University, M.Phil., Ph.D.
    Interests: international relations, international organizations, refugees, social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, African politics, European politics
    Campus Address: Briggs Hall Room 214 Government
    Years at Lawrence: 1990-
  • Matthew R. Stoneking
    Matthew R. Stoneking Profile Picture
    Professor of Physics
    Campus Phone: 920-832-6724
    Education: Carleton College, B.A.; University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ph.D.
    Interests: Non-neutral plasma physics, magnetic confinement of neutral plasmas.
    Campus Address: Youngchild Hall Room 110 Physics
    Website: http://www.lawrence.edu/fast/stonekim
    CV: http://www.lawrence.edu/fast/stonekim
    Years at Lawrence: 1997-