UCSB Environmental Studies :: About the Environmental Studies Program

About the ES Program at UCSB

What is Environmental Studies?

Simply put, environmental studies is the systematic study of human interaction with their natural environment. Today’s environmental problems have evolved into highly complex and interdisciplinary issues involving political, economic, social, as well as physical and biological considerations. Modern environmental studies must include the study of the urban environment as well as the natural one. Society needs educated people who can address current and future environmental problems from a holistic approach, one that emphasizes linkages between systems such as the urban environment and atmospheric contamination, or economic growth and its impact on natural resources. These types of relationships must be analyzed and understood in order to successfully address environmental problems at local, regional, and global scales.

The Environmental Studies Curriculum

The ES major is designed to provide students with the scholarly background and intellectual skills necessary to understand complex environmental problems and formulate decisions that are environmentally sound. The academic process is multidisciplinary, drawing upon the diversity of environmentally related departments and disciplines throughout UCSB. A student majoring in environmental studies will explore a wide variety of environmental issues, including:

The social and human environment, such as urban and regional planning, ethical and values systems, environmental law and policy, indigenous and religious beliefs, and environmental impact analysis

The physical environment, including the hydrologic cycle, waste management, coastal processes, energy production technologies, soil preservation, geography, and air/water pollution

The biological environment, including the function of ecosystems, population dynamics, and toxicology

The Environmental Studies Program offers two degrees in environmental studies: B.A. and B.S. degree. While both majors are similar in that they stress the importance of understanding the interrelationships between the humanities, social sciences, and natural science disciplines, the ES Program offers two degree options to allow the student the opportunity to choose a major that will most appropriately fit their environmental interests.

The bachelor of arts (B.A.) degree in environmental studies requires a wide breadth of introductory social science, natural science, and humanities courses necessary to establish a fundamental understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of today’s environmental problems. Its strength is in the upper-division requirements taken during the student’s junior and senior years. It is here that the major allows maximum flexibility for the student to create their unique environmental emphasis by selecting their elective and outside concentration units from a wide range of disciplines.

Although the bachelor of science (B.S.) degree requires many of the same lower-division social science and humanities courses as the B.A., the main purpose of this degree is to develop a student’s technical, quantitative, ecological, and analytical skills. Consequently, a substantial number of courses in biology, mathematics, chemistry, and physics are required. At the upper-division level students are given a number of units to pursue elective courses from social science disciplines; but the majority of their junior and senior electives are dedicated to taking natural and physical science courses to enhance their understanding of earth system sciences and the role they play in environmental problems.

The ES Program is also home to a second bachelor of science degree (B.S.) in Hydrologic Sciences. Its purpose is to provide students with the scientific training needed to understand and solve complex hydrologic problems at local, regional, and global levels. As hydrology is a science dealing with the occurrence, circulation, distribution, and properties of the waters of the earth and its atmosphere, its curriculum is more focused than either of the environmental studies degrees listed above. It provides a rigorous framework of courses in biology, chemistry, geography, physics, and geology necessary for students to understand the hydrologic process and the impacts humans have upon it. Although the B.S. degree in Hydrologic Sciences is housed within the Environmental Studies Program, it is a cooperative effort by the departments of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, Chemistry, Geography, and Geological Sciences.

The ES Faculty

UCSB’s Environmental Studies Program includes 12 full-time faculty members, many of whom hold joint appointments with other UCSB departments such as anthropology, biological sciences, classics, economics, geography, geological sciences, history, and sociology. Additionally, there are a number of affiliated faculty from other departments who teach for the ES Program and approximately 10 career professionals who serve as ES instructors teaching courses on environmental topics within their field of expertise.

The Environmental Studies Program is fortunate that two of our ladder faculty includes distinguished endowed chair positions:

- The Schuyler Endowed Chair in Environmental Studies (presently held by Prof. Carla D’Antonio)
- The Dehlsen Endowed Chair in Environmental Policy (presently held by Prof. William Freudenburg)

ES faculty are some of the most approachable professors of the entire UCSB campus and students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of their willingness to work with undergraduates by:

• Going to their office hours (and not just right before midterms or finals)
• Asking questions and participate in classroom discussions
• Approaching faculty regarding career questions in their area of expertise
• Pursuing independent studies and research assistant positions with individual faculty

For individual profiles of each ES faculty member visit the ES Faculty webpage.

Why Study the Environment at UCSB

In just over 55 years as a campus of the University of California, UC Santa Barbara has become an internationally renowned center for teaching and research, distinguished for its interdisciplinary programs and commitment to excellence and innovation. With about 18,000 undergraduates, 2,200 graduate students, and 900+ faculty members, UCSB is the site of cutting-edge intellectual activity that spans the academic spectrum. The campus’s residential character, its unparalleled physical beauty, its location near a historic city whose cultural life is diverse and whose commitment to preserving the environment is legendary, all provide the setting for an internationally renowned academic community and an ideal location for studying the environment. Visit UCSB's Points of Pride (http://www.ucsb.edu/pop/index.shtml)

Below are just a few links you might want to visit to learn more about UCSB's extensive academic and research units related to studying the environment. For a complete list of affiliated organizations to the ES Program click here.

UCSB EarthGate is a gateway to UCSB earth science research. It is a central site from which one can jump to all UCSB organizations researching a given environmental field.
(http://www.earthgate.ucsb.edu)

Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management: In 1991, the Regents of the University of California established the Graduate School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara to train graduate students in rigorous, interdisciplinary approaches to environmental problem-solving.
(http://www.esm.ucsb.edu)

At UCSB's National Center of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) scientists conduct collaborative research on major fundamental and applied problems in ecology. The Center facilitates integrative research aimed at synthesizing existing data and information, and subsequently making these data available. NCEAS provides special educational opportunities to graduate students and young scientists, and disseminates the results of its research to potential users.
(http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu)

The UC Natural Reserve System (NRS) is one of the University of California's principal academic resources for the study of natural systems. Encompassing 34 reserves throughout California, it is the only university-owned and operated system of its scope and diversity in the world. Its mission is to provide protected sites, facilities, and support services for field studies in a range of ecosystems that represent California's extraordinary natural diversity. (http://www.msi.ucsb.edu/Pages/nrs.html)