Environmental Studies and Sciences

Research Projects and Awards

Environmental Studies Program majors explore critical questions about remaking the human presence in the world in a fashion that is both socially just and environmentally sustainable.

ES Majors in Indonesia

Shansi fellow Hyacinth Parker '17 with Natalia Garcia-Sanabria '17 and Jen Krakower '17 in Labuan Bajo, Flores, Indonesia

Photo credit: Hyacinth Parker '17

Recent Student Projects & Accomplishments

Recent independent research projects include:
• “Indigenous Resilience, Adaptation, and Community Solidarity in the Face of Climate Change”
• “Rethinking Redevelopment: New Urbanism, Neoliberalism, and Sustainable Urban Design in Cleveland, Ohio”
• “Changing Carbon Allocation to Nuts and Woody Tissue in an Experimental Hazelnut Orchard”
• “Interrogating the ‘And’: A Study of Environmentalism and Disability”
• “Exploring Japanese Local Food Systems through the Lens of Organic Rice Farming”
• “A Comparison of Soil Carbon Estimates Based on Different Sampling Techniques in a Forest and Meadow in Northeast Ohio”
• “Constructing Alternate Futures: Speculative Fiction within the Environmental Justice Movement”
• “Tree Planting to Promote Carbon Sequestration in Recently Abandoned Farm Fields on the Oberlin College Campus”

2017-18 Awards

  • Kieran Minor ’19 Truman Scholarship and Davis ‘Projects for Peace’ Award
  • Emily Stanford ’18 Watson Fellowship
  • Brian Rubin ‘18 and Benjamin Steger ‘18 were awarded Launch U’s second place prize of $10,000 for their startup Virtu.Academy, an online music lessons service that connects Oberlin Conservatory students to middle and high school students across the state of Ohio.
  • Tessa Emmer ’11, (ES/ECON double major), along with her business partners Catherine O’Hare ’11 (BIOL), and Avery Resor received LaunchU’s first place award of $20,000 for their venture Salt Point Seaweed in the 2018 LaunchU pitch competition. The company sells high-quality nutritional seaweed sustainably harvested by hand in northern California. The three are committed to using their business as a force for environmental protection, community development, and food system transformation.

2016-17 Awards

  • Lindsey Brubaker ’19, Critical Language Scholarship, Japan
  • Marie Lilly ‘17, Fulbright ETA, Colombia
  • Brendan Nuse ‘17, Shansi Fellowship, Shanxi, Taigu, China
  • Hyacinth Parker ‘17, Shansi Fellowship, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • Paulus Van Horne ‘17, Watson Fellowship