Academics

 Environmental Leaders ARC - Required Courses

UGST 112: Topics in the Environmental Leaders ARC  

Class overview: Our urgent and complex environmental problems require interdisciplinary solutions from planners and designers, engineers and scientists, legal experts and policy makers, energy experts and farmers, inventors and entrepreneurs, artists and communicators, and those willing to advocate for social justice and the needs of non-human species. How will you make a difference? 

  • Fall quarter: In fall, you will be introduced to an array of opportunities to get involved with sustainability topics on campus, from majors/minors to student groups, events, and other activities. We will also focus on pathways that you can take to make a difference, based on your past experience and current goals, and connect those pathways to specific majors and careers.
  • Winter quarter: In winter, the class will focus on your personal strengths, including how you can leverage them to work with a small group on an action-research project with connections to how your strengths show up in the workplace and other contexts. We will also introduce you to different ways of thinking about leadership. 

 

Presentation from Environmental Leaders ARC on "Preservation, Conservation, and the Ethics of Working Outdoors."

The Environmental Leaders ARC seminar is not a deep-dive into any single environmental topic but, rather, a chance for exploration, experimentation, reflection, and goal-setting around multiple ways to make a difference, at UO and beyond. This 4-credit hour course spans two quarters (2 credit hours in Fall, 2 in Winter) and counts for a social science core education credit. The course is co-taught by three faculty: Peg, a wildlife ecologist who represents the life and physical sciences; Katie, a cultural anthropologist and outdoor educator who represents the social sciences; and Sarah, a literary and cultural studies scholar who represents both the humanities and sustainability topics broadly. You will learn about all of these "lenses" during the course and have a faculty mentor who can support you whatever your planned academic and professional goals.


ENVS 203: Introduction to Environmental Studies—Humanities

Students in the Environmental Leaders ARC will also complete an introductory environmental studies course together in fall quarter. This gives you the opportunity to take classes with friends who have shared interests and lets you help one another throughout the term. The course is comprised of a large lecture and a smaller, weekly discussion section. Environmental Leaders ARC students will be together for both the lecture and the corresponding discussion section.

Description: The way we think about the environment changes our perceptions of it and our commitments to it. In this course, you'll engage the humanities' contribution to Environmental Studies, learning how literature, history, philosophy and art can help produce understandings of the natural world and humanity's ethical relationship to it. The course is required for Environmental Studies and Environmental Science majors and Environmental Leaders ARC participants. The course also fulfills basic general education requirements (Arts and Letters) at the University of Oregon, so you do not need to major or minor in Environmental Studies or Science to benefit.