The Environment & Community Program is a 2-year, interdisciplinary Master's Degree program.
Program Curriculum
The Master's Degree program is a two year program including the following coursework and requirements:
Required Seminars (18 units)
- EC 610 Environment and Community Research (Fall semester)
- EC 630 Natural Resource Use and Restoration in the Mattole Basin (Fall semester)
- In conjunction with the Mattole Field Institute (August, week prior to semester)
- 4 more seminars, at least 1 from each of the Curriculur Categories below
Required Colloquium (3 units)
- EC 615 Graduate Colloquium (1 unit, taken each of first 3 semesters)
Thesis or Project Units (6 units)
- Taken during second year in the program
Field Research (3 units)
- Taken during second year in the program
Elective Courses
- Research or general elective courses, from recommended course list or with graduate coordinator’s approval
Curricular Categories
Political and Economic (EC 620)
Seminars in this curricular category:
- Provide analytical frameworks for understanding the role of political and economic institutions, discourses, organizations, and movements;
- Study competing normative arguments about the role played by the state, markets, democracy, liberalism, globalization, technology, and participation;
- Cultivate recognition of diverse forms of power;
- Critically examine strategies, obstacles, and opportunities for change.
Topics may include:
- Political theory (liberalism, democracy, justice, property rights)
- Environmentalism
- Environmental policy
- Environmental security
- National and international environmental governance
- Environmental politics
- Conflict resolution
- Grassroots and transnational social justice movements
- International development
Sample Course Titles:
- EC 620 Political Ecology
- EC 620 Politics of Sustainability
- EC 620 Environmental (In)Securities
- EC 620 Globalism, Capitalism, and the Environment
Socio-Cultural: Race, Class, Gender, and Place (EC 630)
Seminars in this curricular category:
- Provide an understanding of the categories of race/ethnicity, class, gender, and place, including their social construction and varied intersections;
- Explore the role of culture and its production/reproduction;
- Cultivate critical reflexivity and a willingness to entertain multiple epistemologies and to explore other subjectivities/emic perspectives;
- Explore historical processes behind and the global dimensions of contemporary issues;
- Study how environmental perceptions and values are produced, reproduced, and changed by culture.
Topics may include:
- Race, gender, and the environment
- International development and post-development
- Rural communities and natural resources
- Subaltern studies
- Globalization
- Community formation
- Social movement theory
- Environmental health
Sample Course Titles:
- EC 630 Community and Place
- EC 630 Klamath River Issues
- EC 630 Natural Resource Use and Restoration in the Mattole Basin
- SOC 665 Community, Ecology and Social Action
- PSYCH 680 Social Influences and the Environment
Environmental
Seminars in this curricular category:
- Provide a basic understanding of ecological system function as key to planetary life support systems;
- Focus on human-environment interactions;
- Explore analytical and/or applied methods associated with socio-ecological adaptation and resilience to dynamic change in ecological systems.
Topics may include:
- Natural resource management
- Energy use and conservation
- Valuation and use of ecosystem services
- Biodiversity and conservation
- Adaptations to climate change
Sample Course Titles:
- EC 640 Ecosystems and Society
- EC 640 Conservation Ecology and Society