The Daily Bulletin Archive

By Mary A. Durlak

While it might be important to do your part to preserve the environment, the college’s newest minor, environment and society, emphasizes the study of history and cultural institutions that shape human-environment interaction.

“The new environment and society minor is rooted in the tradition of environmental studies,” explained its coordinator, Eric Krieg, associate professor of sociology. Environmental studies, in turn, is an interdisciplinary field that approaches the study of the environment through a theoretical lens that includes the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences.

Although the minor is housed in the college’s Sociology Department, its course offerings draw from Anthropology, Biology, Earth Sciences and Science Education, Economics and Finance, English, Geography and Planning, History and Social Studies Education, Political Science, and Psychology. The three required core courses are Environment and Society (SOC 353); U.S. Environmental History (HIS 330); and Nature Writing (ENG 247).

“Our culture mediates our interaction with nature,” said Krieg. “For example, our culture tends to value large houses on large lots with trees and a lawn for the kids to play on. The result is suburbia and exurbia, the kind of social phenomenon that lends itself to automobile culture and carbon-intense lifestyles. So you can see how social structure and culture mediate our relationship with nature and how the social sciences have a role to play in the study of the environment.”

In addition to the three core courses, students are required to choose two social science electives from five courses offered and one natural science elective from 10 courses offered.

“We want students to think about the big-picture questions that affect the environment,” Krieg explained, “and to be able to develop their own questions and areas of interest.” Many areas of interest are possible because environmental theory and philosophies of nature (western dualism, holism, deep ecology) draw from a wide variety of disciplines.

Krieg’s own research interests demonstrate the breadth of environmental studies. In 2005, he and Daniel Faber, professor of sociology at Northeastern University, issued a report, Unequal Exposure to Ecological Hazards: Environmental Injustices in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Their work demonstrates that racial and socioeconomic factors “are strongly associated with levels of exposure to hazardous waste sites and chemical emissions across the Bay State.” Today, he is investigating the way dairy-farming practices have changed over the last 50 years and how these changes affect human and environmental health.

“Social and environmental justice is one aspect of environmental studies,” said Krieg. “Others include climate studies, eco-feminism, community development, international development, policy analysis, social movements, technology studies, and many more.

“It’s an interdisciplinary field,” said Krieg. “Environmental studies allows students to draw from different disciplines to study unique areas of interest.”