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Welcome!

Welcome to the Department of Environmental Studies at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), in New York's beautiful fingerlake region and near the Adirondack Mountains. The department is home to the state's premier Environmental Studies undergraduate and graduate degree programs, and ESF's outstanding writing program.

Departmental Structure

The Department of Environmental Studies serves as the administrative home for two major programs: environmental studies (BS, MPS, MS) and the writing program (general education written and oral communication, technical writing and literature courses that serve other program).

Mission

The mission of the Department of Environmental Studies is to advance knowledge of the social and cultural dynamics of ecological sustainability. It does so through interdisciplinary research and scholarship, teaching, and outreach focused on environmental policy, communication, and decision making, in productive interaction with the scientific community, government, business, non-governmental organizations and citizens, locally, regionally, and internationally.

 

Environmental Studies Program

Our Environmental Studies programs integrate and balance the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences in a creative, interdisciplinary learning context focused on addressing contemporary environmental issues and problems, from local to global. Departmental faculty and students engage in research, creative work, and service throughout New York, across the United States, and around the world. The Department serves students, citizens, organizations, communities, and public and private institutions who want to make a difference in the world.

Environmental Studies at ESF

The Department offers a variety of foundational, research, and professional degree and certificate programs including the Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Master of Science (M.S.), and Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S.) in Environmental Studies; and graduate certificates in Environmental Decision Making, and on Advanced Study in Conflict Resolution. Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees supervised by departmental faculty are offered through ESF's interdepartmental Graduate Program in Environmental Science. Students benefit from the nearly century-long, close relationship between ESF and neighboring Syracuse University, including concurrent degree programs, use of libraries and other facilities.

All our programs aim to achieve:

• Multi/interdisciplinary approach: recognition of the necessity to approach environmental problems from multiple disciplinary and professional perspectives
• Holistic perspective: awareness of and deference to the interdependence of elements within broadly defined ecosystems, including physical, biological, social, cultural, and economic components
• Topical grounding: competency to understand and apply the principles of a particular subject of environmental inquiry in sufficient depth to interact with other disciplines and professional fields
• Realistic experience: through internships, focused projects, papers, theses, and seminars which provide for direct interaction with legal, economic, political, cultural, or social actors, institutions, and systems

Environmental Studies programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels emphasizes interdisciplinary social science, humanities, and natural science approaches to environmental understanding and stewardship. The programs maintain a strong academic orientation, facilitating student and faculty engagement with fundamental environmental challenges and dynamics such as multiple and conflicting levels of environmental governance, participatory democracy, sustainable development, uses and limits of scientific prediction, discourses of environment, cultural expressions of nature, risk, and ecological sustainability.

The Writing Program

The ESF Writing Program oversees a group of related activities to identify and address the literacy needs of the ESF campus. More information can be found at The ESF Writing Program.