BA.EN.HU - Environmental Humanities (Major)

Total credit requirements for an Environmental Humanities major: 51 (26 specific to Environmental Humanities and 25 in required coursework for all Environmental Studies majors)

Common Requirements for all Environmental Studies Majors

• Required Courses

  • Introductory Coursework: Environmental Studies 120 and 207

  • Foundation Coursework: Fulfill the following requirements for the two areas outside of your area of concentration (arts and humanities, natural and physical sciences, or social sciences).

    • Environmental Humanities: Take two elective courses from the list below.

    • Environmental Natural and Physical Sciences: Take 7 credits in elective courses from the list below from at least two departments, including at least one course with a lab.

    • Environmental Social Sciences: Take two elective courses from the list below.

  • Interdisciplinary Coursework: Take one interdisciplinary elective from the list below.

  • Senior Coursework: Environmental Studies 479

• Additional Requirements

  • Fulfill all of the requirements for a major in a specific area of concentration, chosen from:

    • Environmental Arts or Humanities: Art-Environmental Studies or Environmental Humanities

    • Environmental Natural and Physical Sciences: Biology-Environmental Studies, Chemistry-Environmental Studies, Geology-Environmental Studies, or Physics-Environmental Studies

    • Environmental Social Sciences: Anthropology-Environmental Studies, Economics-Environmental Studies, History-Environmental Studies, Politics-Environmental Studies, or Sociology-Environmental Studies

• Senior Requirements

  • Environmental Studies 479

  • Further requirements as specified by the chosen major

• Honors

  • Specified within each major

• Notes

  • Up to 8 transfer credits may be applied to a major in Environmental Studies.

  • No courses taken P-D-F can be applied toward the major.

Requirements for Environmental Humanities Majors

• Complete the Common Requirements for all Environmental Studies Majors (25 Credits)

• Required Courses

  • Creative Production: One approved elective course that focuses on a mode or modes of environment-oriented creative production and develops students’ ability to represent environmental issues in creative modes of communication

  • Ethics: One elective course that equips students to engage with the ethical stakes of human engagement with the other-than-human world

  • Paradigms: Two elective courses that introduce students to diverse assumptions and paradigms for understanding concepts related to nature and/or the environment. One paradigm course must focus on ancient or underrepresented perspectives.

  • Two additional Environmental Humanities courses, at least one of which must focus on a historical period predating modern environmentalist movements.

  • Environmental Studies 490

• Senior Requirements

  • Environmental Studies 490, in which students execute a scholarly and/or creative project focusing on an Environmental Humanities topic of their design.

  • One-hour oral exam with a committee of Environmental Humanities faculty that addresses the thesis as well as the major experience as a while.

• Honors

  • Students do not apply for admission to candidacy for honors.

  • Accumulated at least 87 credits

  • Completed two semesters of residency at Whitman

  • Major GPA of at least 3.500

  • Complete a written thesis or research project prepared exclusively for the satisfaction of this program. Theses may take a variety of forms, both scholarly and creative.

  • Earn a grade of at least A- in the thesis course.

  • Pass the senior assessment with distinction.

  • Director of the program will notify the Registrar of students attaining honors no later than the beginning of Week 12.

  • An acceptable digital copy of the honors thesis must be submitted to Penrose Library no later than Reading Day.

• Notes

  • Up to eight credits of transfer or study abroad credit may be applied toward the major, with consent of the Environmental Humanities faculty.

  • Students are highly encouraged to take Environmental Studies 480 in the fall of their senior year.