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History - Environmental Studies

Do you have an interest in examining how humans have defined, interacted with and shaped physical environments?  Similarly, do you seek to explore how natural environments have influenced human behavior, choices and culture? The History-Environmental Studies major provides students with the opportunity to critically analyze the history of the relationship between humans and the environment.

These requirements are in addition to core courses required of all environmental studies majors.

History - Environmental Studies Requirements (32 credits in History required, credits are allowed to overlap with other requirements to reach 32 credits):

Methods and Research (12 credits required):

History 299 Historical Methodologies
History 399 Research Seminar
History 401 Topics in Comparative History
History 402 History Lab

Environmental History (12 credits required):

Take one of the following:

History 231 Oceans Past and Future: Introduction to Marine Environmental History
History 232 Changing Landscapes: Introduction to Terrestrial Environmental History

Take a minimum of two of the following:

History 155 Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral: Natural Resources in Global Environmental History
History 205 East Asian Environmental History
History 206 European Environmental History to 1800
History 231 Oceans Past and Future: Introduction to Marine Environmental History
History 232 Changing Landscapes: Introduction to Terrestrial Environmental History
History 262 People, Nature, Technology: Built and Natural Environments in US History
History 263 Farm to Fork: Slow Food Fast Food, and European Foodways
History 307 Beastly Modernity: Animals in the 19th Century
History 355 Pacific Whaling History

Non-environmental History coursework (8 credits required) - only one of these courses may be at the 100 level

Comparison and Encounters Requirement (this requirement is met by taking History 231 or History 232)

Pre-Modern Requirement (one course from the following):


History 127 Islamic Civilization I: The Early and Medieval Islamic World
History 180 Cities and Empires An Introduction to the Ancient World
History 181 Europe Transformed, c. 300-1400
History 202 European Intellectual History, 386-1300
History 205 East Asian Environmental History
History 207 European Intellectual History, 1300-1650
History 215/315 Special Topics in Ancient Mediterranean History
History 218 Africa to 1885
History 226 Ancient Mediterranean -- Greece
History 227 Ancient Mediterranean -- Rome
History 237 The Making of England From Roman Britain to the War of the Roses
History 241 Early Japanese History
History 247 Early Chinese History
History 287 Colonial Latin America
History 320 Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Kingdoms
History 330 Hail Caesar? The Roman Revolution
History 332 Conversion, Crusade, and Conquest: European Cultural Encounters, c. 400-1600
History 348 Horseriders and Samurai: Comparisons of Early Modern East Asia
History 393 Gender and Sexuality in the Middle Ages

Senior Year Requirements:

History 401 Topics in Comparative History
History 402 History Lab

Pass a senior oral defense of the senior essay (Essay must incorporate significant environmental content)

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