Environmental Studies minor created

The Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies is now offering an Environmental Studies interdisciplinary minor to Emerson students.

According to the Institute’s catalogue, this new interdisciplinary minor “examines environmental processes, challenges, and solutions from a variety of perspectives, including science, policy, economics, history, ethics, media, literature, and the arts.” Examples of courses offered within the minor are Science and Politics of Water; Invasive Species: Ecology, Impacts, and Human Dimensions; and Dammed Shawsheen: Blending Ecology and Economics in the Real World.

In addition to this new option, the College offers two other interdisciplinary minors: Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies; and Global and Post-Colonial Studies. 

According to Amy Ansell, dean of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, these minors “allow students to engage in liberal arts across the four years that they are here. They may become interested in something they learned in one of the liberal arts courses that they are required to take. After all, one-third or more of students’ credits are in the liberal arts…and the minors allow them to study whatever that is in greater depth.”

Ansell feels courses that cross a variety of disciplines allow students to become stronger and more informed within their own major. These courses also teach complex reasoning and critical thinking along with writing skills—invaluable assets in an increasingly competitive world.