BA in Sustainability Studies

Introductory: 9 credits

• ENV-215 Sustainability (3)An introduction to the definitions and principles of sustainability, this course explores models and dimensions of sustainability in both the natural world and in human societies. Current examples of sustainable design and development in different parts of the world are offered to inspire students to think sustainably and to be alert to it in every aspect of their learning. Personal impact on the environment and personal sustainability are examined as aspects of developing a sustainable vision for the present and the future.
• ENV-370 Environmental Philosophy & Ecopsychology (3)This course serves as an exploration of the philosophical and psychological dimensions of the human/nature relationship. Deep ecology serves as the primary philosophical framework for this exploration, but other approaches, such as ecofeminism, social ecology, and cutting-edge theories are considered. On the one hand, deep ecology alternatives for addressing ethical and ecological problems are examined, along with options for effective and compassionate action. On the other, a basic tenet of ecopsychology is that personal and planetary well-being are inseparable, so that its theory and practice are directed toward enhancing the health of the human/nature relationship in order to understand, heal, and develop the psychological dimensions of the human/nature relationship through connecting with natural processes in the web of life. 

• ENV-350 Nature, Sacred & Contemplation (3)An exploration of the individual, cultural, and contemplative dimensions of the human/nature relationship. It provides the contemplative tools of mindfulness meditation, sensory awareness exercises, and other nature-based awareness practices in order for students to examine and refine their own experiences of nature and the sacred. A three-day residential retreat with a solo contemplative nature walk is a required part of the course.  
• ENV-361 Spiritual Ecology (3)Concerns about climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, genetic engineering and biodiversity have intensified in recent years. This course will examine the historical and contemporary attitudes and actions of spiritual traditions in responding to the societal impacts of environmental concerns. We will investigate four worldviews in particular: indigenous traditions, Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism, and also consider how these traditions interact with public policy debates and their position on social justice and environmental issues. This course will consider ethical and moral approaches, philosophical principles and social movements to provide tools for dialogue and critical thinking around ecological challenges. This course will also address climate grief and anxiety and introduce ways of working with overwhelm through earth-based practices and eco-therapy.

Sustainability & Ecological Regeneration: Choose 9 credits

• ENV-100 Earth Systems, Cosmology & Gaia (3)Deepening our natural understanding of the earth as a living system, this course explores Gaia Theory and the new cosmology of the earth that is emerging in science. Within this framework, we explore the formation of the earth—geomorphology and geophysiology—or one could say the digestion, circulatory, and other systems of Gaia. This new vision in Western science can reawaken understanding and reconfirm our commitment and reciprocity with the earth.
• ENV-207 History of the Environmental Movement (3)An examination of the history of the environmental movement from a U.S. and global perspective. Fundamental elements that inform and shape environmental movements around the world, and the impact on people and their responses, are studied.
• ENV-260 Introduction to Permaculture (3)This course introduces a core set of principles that help us to design human living environments that are increasingly self-sufficient, while reducing our society’s reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that are fundamentally damaging to the planet’s ecosystems. This design system, known as permaculture, covers basic agro-ecological design theory. We explore this in a hands-on way while creating edible landscapes, diverse gardens, and compost systems, and growing food on campus. This course also includes field trips and demonstrations.
• ENV-318 Deep Ecology (3)This course serves as an exploration of the philosophical dimensions of the human/nature relationship. While deep ecology serves as the primary framework for this exploration, other approaches, such as ecofeminism and social ecology, are considered. Deep ecology alternatives for addressing ethical and ecological problems are examined, along with options for effective and compassionate action.
• ENV-342 Permaculture Design (3)Advanced coverage of the Permaculture Design course curriculum. Students solidify their understanding of permaculture and build competence in using ecological design principles and practices to create regenerative human living environments. Students gain practical skills for building living soils, harvesting runoff rainwater, designing ecological pest control, and the development of sustainable food-producing landscapes. Each student designs a final project modeling permaculture principles and ecological soundness. Prerequisite: ENV-260.
• ENV-361 Spiritual Ecology (3)Concerns about climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, genetic engineering and biodiversity have intensified in recent years. This course will examine the historical and contemporary attitudes and actions of spiritual traditions in responding to the societal impacts of environmental concerns. We will investigate four worldviews in particular: indigenous traditions, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism, and also consider how these traditions interact with public policy debates and their position on social justice and environmental issues. This course will consider ethical and moral approaches, philosophical principles and social movements to provide tools for dialogue and critical thinking around ecological challenges. This course will also address climate grief and anxiety and introduce ways of working with overwhelm through earth-based practices and eco-therapy. 
• ENV-415 Ecopsychedelics (3)This course will explore the current resurgence of psychedelics from Ecopsychological and philosophical lenses. In addition to the traditional Western medical model from which this resurgence tends to view psychedelics, students will learn additional frameworks which will supplement and interrogate the dominant mode, in the hopes of discovering how alternative states of consciousness might be used to build a more just and sustainable society. Also, because of the fast moving and expansive nature of the disciplines of psychedelics at the current moment, students will engage in their own individual and group research projects.
• ENV-411 Science of Sustainability (3)Students will explore the science fundamentals of sustainability via the principles of ecology, climate science and systems thinking especially as they relate to human and other-than-human systems. Through lectures, case studies, and hands-on activities, students will explore the major concepts of Earth as a living system, along with the science behind successful sustainability research, trends and practices. Students will investigate how modern challenges stem from particular worldviews. By the end of the course, students will be able to discern, analyze, and explain the critical components of sustainability science, research, methods and practices, and examine their efficacy. This course will also provide students the opportunity to develop a self-directed research or action project that integrates the key learning strands in the major. The goal of this course is to equip students with the tools and resources needed to assess, encourage and implement sustainability initiatives within their communities and beyond.
• ART-355 Eco Art (3)This class explores ecological and environmentally related art. Studio work emphasizes recycled and natural materials, with a mixed-media emphasis. Students learn how to source art materials directly. Slide lectures, visiting artists, and trips to see, discuss, and reflect on eco-arts are included, as well as an experience with community-based art.
• SUS-310 Energy Policy (3)This course asks a single guiding question: what becomes possible for the human and more-than-human world when renewable energy is radically, abundantly cheap? Students begin with energy’s foundational role in physical law—entropy, dissipative structures, and the thermodynamic basis of all economic and ecological order—before turning to the philosophical grounding of human need and flourishing and the emerging science of “decent living standards” as a global, equitable energy floor. From there the course moves into the applied present: the unprecedented collapse in solar costs and rise of energy storage, the policy and land-use battles shaping the transition, the misinformation surrounding it, and the discipline of “energy sobriety” needed to guard abundance against waste. A career-pathways thread runs throughout, with guest speakers and assignments that allow students to explore career paths, alongside group projects exploring how Naropa uses and sources energy. Theory is complemented by hands-on exploration of energy technology.
• SUS-320 Global Environmental Challenges (3)This course investigates the legal, political, scientific, and cultural structures that attempt to address boundary-spanning planetary crises at international, national, regional and local scales. Students survey environmental action along the spectrum from local to global, from the historical Stockholm Conference to the modern Paris Climate Agreement and from municipal green energy efforts to UN Sustainable Development Goals, analyzing how policies at al levels attempt to address crises like climate disruption and rapid biodiversity loss. A core focus of the course is the evolving dialectic which includes science, law, politics, and culture, specifically examining the role they all play in shaping state liability, environmental risk governance, and social change.
• SUS-340 Sustainability Consulting (3)This applied professional course prepares students for sustainability professions, exposing them to the material assessments and carbon-reduction strategies in corporate, public, and non-profit sectors. Utilizing advanced Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies, students mathematically map and interpret the ecological footprints of product supply chains from raw extraction to end-of-life disposal. The curriculum introduces more traditional sustainability metrics like circular economy frameworks, training students to evaluate product stewardship practices and closed-loop supply networks, while also familiarizing students with the need to change business-as-usual paradigms both in terms of how organizations are structured and run as well as the role that consciousness plays in determining the mission and values of an institution and how that affects how “sustainability” is conceived.
• ENV-350 Nature, Sacred & Contemplation (3)An exploration of the individual, cultural, and contemplative dimensions of the human/nature relationship. It provides the contemplative tools of mindfulness meditation, sensory awareness exercises, and other nature-based awareness practices in order for students to examine and refine their own experiences of nature and the sacred. A solo contemplative nature walk is a required part of the course.
• ENV-361 Spiritual Ecology (3)Concerns about climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, genetic engineering and biodiversity have intensified in recent years. This course will examine the historical and contemporary attitudes and actions of spiritual traditions in responding to the societal impacts of environmental concerns. We will investigate four worldviews in particular: indigenous traditions, Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism, and also consider how these traditions interact with public policy debates and their position on social justice and environmental issues. This course will consider ethical and moral approaches, philosophical principles and social movements to provide tools for dialogue and critical thinking around ecological challenges. This course will also address climate grief and anxiety and introduce ways of working with overwhelm through earth-based practices and eco-therapy.

Environmental Justice & Collective Liberation: Choose 6 credits)

• ENV-253 Solidarity Economies (3)Democracy, cooperation, environmental sustainability, and social and racial justice are core principles of solidarity economy projects across the world. Tools of conventional and alternative economic analysis are gained, as well as the cultivation of visions of a more just, verdant and peaceful world. Innovative research on solidarity economy projects like cooperative enterprises, community financing, food sovereignty, and many more, provide insight and inspiration to our visions of collective prosperity for all people and the planet.
• ENV-257 Food Justice (3)An introduction to the food justice movement, this course examines it from the local, national, and international levels. Topics include food policy, grassroots movements and action, food production and food access as they relate to the systems of privilege and oppression that shape them. Equally, this course explores the actions of various communities working towards empowerment and liberation. Students engage with relevant theory, hands-on service-learning site visits, as well as contact with professionals, activists, and impacted communities in the food justice movement.
• ENV-355 Environmental Justice (3)An examination of contemporary issues of environmental justice and racism in the United States and throughout the world. The environmental justice movement is based on social justice and multicultural issues.
• ENV-363 Indigenous Environmental Issues (3)An exploration of the historical relationship between indigenous peoples and their environment in each of the ecosystems under consideration; change in the relationship as a result of European contact; modernization and development; and the current integration of these areas into the present global market economy.
• PSYB-373 Social Psychology (3)How do attitudes form and change? How do group dynamics influence decision making? What factors influence altruistic behavior? This course examines concepts and research evidence from areas of social psychology, such as the social self, social influence, cultural variation, attraction, and humanitarian behavior, among others. The underlying variables of mindfulness and arousal are examined as a bridge to the contemplative perspective.
• POJS-400E Justice in a Multiracial Society (3)This course examines how processes of racialization shape, and are shaped by, the state and the criminal justice system. Students will engage with and compare explanatory frameworks from geography, criminology, political economy, and American Studies, as well as insights and analysis from social movements and system-impacted communities. Topics include the origins of the modern prison, the systemic causes of mass incarceration, the rise of the contemporary carceral state, and efforts to reform these systems or create alternative approaches to addressing harm. Students will analyze, compare and apply different theories of the state, race, and social change. The course also considers visions for building a more just, equitable, and life-affirming society.
• POJS-303E Environmental Politics (3)This course examines how humanity’s relationship to the environment is shaped by political forces especially in either enabling or deterring environmental protection and human thriving. Students will critically engage environmental politics at the intersection of three key areas: 1) environmental and climate science; 2) the relationship between diverse cultures and ecosystems; 3) political systems, prevailing political and economic conditions, and geopolitics.
• PAX-340E Conflict Transformation: Theory & Practice (3)An exploration of theories and practices of conflict transformation in a range of settings and locations. The course examines interpersonal and structural dynamics of conflict, building skills to work effectively with individuals and small groups, and studying attempts to end cycles of violence, revenge, and trauma at the national and international level. We investigate our own assumptions about conflict, the potency of cultural and religious differences, the complexities of intervention, and the possibility of transformation. We consider the role of curiosity, creativity, and the moral imagination in peacebuilding. Students in this course write and produce original digital stories and acquire beginning level skills in mediation.

Leadership & Applied Practice: Choose 6 credits

• ENV-250 Restorative Principles & Practice (3)This course provides an interdisciplinary look at restorative principles and practices, with an emphasis on examining alternative perspectives and approaches to conflict and harm. Students will learn the history, development and types of restorative practices. We will co-create a collaborative learning space where students can engage with questions about conflict and harm as they relate with social justice and learn the structure and skills involved in restorative processes.
• ENV-401 Environmental Leadership Skills (3)Throughout the course students will reflect on and develop their own unique leadership style. Experiential and participatory practice develops skills required for successful environmental leadership in professional, nonprofit, government, community, agriculture/ecological and environmental justice settings. The tool-kit for this course focuses on communication strategies, project management, campaign development, and community organizing across multiple settings. The relationship between contemplative practice and leadership is a recurring theme.  
• ENV-420 Environmental Service Learning (3)This course requires students to apply their skills from classroom learning and to engage in hands-on environmental work, while developing their leadership skills and contemplative approaches to environmental action. Students engage in real issues and learn through practical experience about environmental problem solving, community concerns, and teamwork. In this service-learning team project, students engage with community partners in ecological restoration work in our community. Students are responsible for project planning and design, implementation, and final presentation of outcomes to the community partners.
• POJS-304E Planning, Organization & Project Management (3)This course prepares students with the fundamental tools and practices involved in planning, organizing, and project management. The course provides experiential knowledge and skills critical in the fields of social movement organizations (SMOs), nonprofit, and government sectors. Planning encompasses a wide swath of topics including personal work plans and campaign plans. Organization examines advocacy, mobilization, and organizing strategies and tactics. Project management provides in-depth instruction on how to manage a project in multi-stakeholder, community and civic based scenarios. This course is predicated on the principle of learning by doing, and students will be working in teams collaborating throughout the semester to practice these skills and principles of strategic planning, effective organizing, and proficient project management.
• PSYB-474 Leadership Development (3)The urgency of racial injustice, the climate crisis, political polarization and growing anger in communities demands that each of us develop the leadership skills needed to make a difference. Navigating complexity in organizations, communities, relationships etc. gives rise to leadership opportunities and challenges and we will use these to both study and practice leadership development. We will bring the theories of Robert Kegan, Jennifer Garvey Berger, Bill Torbert, and others to life through practices such as self-inquiry, exploring polarities, developmental scaffolding, and adult attachment interviews, etc. In other words, this course integrates theory and practice in our lived experience. These theories are not age-based but rather they’re based on growing our capacity to thrive and lead in complexity.
• POJS-402E Ethics in Public Service, Justice, and Government (3)This course examines ethical principles and dilemmas in public service, government, and the pursuit of justice. Students explore theories of moral responsibility, integrity, and accountability as they apply to leadership, policymaking, and the administration of justice. In addition to evaluating systems and decisions, students consider what it means to cultivate the character and virtues necessary to act justly in public life. Case studies highlight issues such as corruption, transparency, equity, and the ethical use of power in democratic institutions. By connecting ethical theory with practice, students gain tools to navigate the complex moral challenges that arise in service to the public good.

Capstone: 3 credits

• COR-440 Capstone II (3)Building on work produced in Capstone I, students implement an original project that reflects substantial research and work, which may include contemplative, community-based, creative, and social innovation components. This product could be a 25–30 page academic paper or its equivalent in creative or community-engaged projects (with a minimum 12–15 page text). The semester ends in celebration and ceremony, featuring student presentations of their work, which may include creative writing, dance-movement, film, music, theater, and visual arts as well as socially innovative curricula, programs and models.

Total Credits: 33