Program Overview

Environmental Studies

Oberlin offers both a major and a minor in environmental studies. Our program seeks to create a learning environment that fosters an understanding of the causes and consequences of our environmental predicaments, as well as help our students develop the creative problem-solving skills to design a more sustainable relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world.

Professor points at a drawing titled 'Horses Chased by Wolves' alongside a photo of a man identified as Pop Chalee (Taos/Indian). — Professor Chie Sakakibara teaches the course Indigenous Environmentalism.

Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko

Program Facts

Program Type: Major, Minor
- Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Department: Environmental Studies

Chair

Karl Offen,
Professor of Environmental Studies

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Course Planning

Environmental studies majors select from a broad range of intermediate and advanced courses from many disciplines to develop a focused course of study. Majors are required to complete a curricular pathway: a course of study that equips an environmental studies major with a depth of knowledge, analytical skills, and experiences related to understanding and addressing a topic or subject area of special interest to that student.

Resources and Opportunities

When you major in environmental studies, you can take part in independent projects, research assistantships, study away opportunities, senior honors projects, and employment at the Adam Joseph Lewis Center. All of these opportunities will help you learn to synthesize information and apply your knowledge and skills to real problems.

Environmental Dashboard

The Environmental Dashboard project is an initiative designed to give Oberlin students and the community feedback on their consumption of resources. Real-time statistics are displayed on LCD screens on campus and around town as the dashboard monitors water and electricity consumption in campus buildings, schools, and businesses.

Learn about the Environmental Dashboard

Our Innovative Building

The Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies (AJLC), which opened in 2000, helped to launch the green building movement of the 21st century. Throughout the building and landscape, 150 sensors monitor everything from electricity usage to soil moisture. A wetland called the Living Machine treats and recycles all wastewater using natural processes.

Curriculum

Ours is an interdisciplinary program that investigates and considers solutions for various environmental challenges facing our world through critical thinking, community engagement, and skill development.

Browse Curriculum

Four students sit together on the floor, working on a group project. Viewed looking down from above.

Students work in groups in the ENVS 302 American Agricultures course with Prof. Janet Fiskio. The course examines agrarian thinking and food justice movements in the United States through literature, essays, film, and field trips.

Photo credit: Michael Hartman

Paul Brehm

Assistant Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies
Janet Fiskio

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Comparative American Studies
Benjamin Hobbs

AJLC Facilities Manager and Community Outreach Coordinator
Kip Grosvenor Hutchins

Visiting Instructor in Anthropology, East Asian Studies, and Environmental Studies
Roger Laushman

Associate Professor of Biology and David Orr Associate Professor of Environmental Studies
Brad Melzer

Visiting Lecturer in Environmental Studies
Karl Offen

Professor of Environmental Studies
Swapna Pathak

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
John Petersen ’88

Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology
Chie Sakakibara

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Md Rumi Shammin

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies

Cheryl Cottine

Assistant Professor of Religion

Matthew (Matt) Elrod

Robert and Eleanor Biggs Professor of Natural Science and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Cynthia (Cindy) Frantz

Professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies

Roger Laushman

Associate Professor of Biology and David Orr Associate Professor of Environmental Studies

T. S. McMillin

Professor of English

Thomas (Tom) Newlin

Professor of Russian

Christie Parris

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Ann Sherif

Professor of Japanese

Where Fieldwork Is Really Fieldwork

Environmental studies majors have access to abundant resources on campus and beyond.

Community Partners & Experiential Learning

A group of students with shovels and buckets in a field. Some are standing and others are crouching, examining the soil.

George Jones Memorial Farm serves as an outdoor classroom for Oberlin students. With a focus on restoration agriculture, techniques used here help build soil and create healthier, more nutritious crops.

Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko

The Transition From Student Senate to Washington, D.C.

December 8, 2020

When he was growing up, Machmud Makhmudov ’15 noticed how communities from different parts of the world created lives that struggled, grew, and thrived alongside one another. That insight served him well as a policy advisor for the presidential campaign and stands to be an impression in his new role with the incoming Biden Administration.

Talking Sustainability with Oberlin’s Green EDGE Fund

November 13, 2020

October was Sustainability Month at Oberlin, and no group is more dedicated to its celebration than the Green EDGE Fund. Composed of 10 student board members, the organization distributes funds to community-based projects dedicated to environmental sustainability.

Eight people seated in a row in building lobby.

'Whale Snow': Five Questions with Author Chie Sakakibara

November 12, 2020

Chie Sakakibara's new book explores how the Iñupiat community in Arctic Alaska is surviving the challenges of climate change.

Engaged Liberal Arts

At Oberlin you’ll take what you’re learning in your courses and put it into practice through Research, Internships, Study Away, and Experiential Learning.

Engaged Liberal Arts “RISE” by Major

Inside a rustic structure with exposed beams, students sit around a table with notebooks and soft drinks.

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