Sustainability Studies

Minor
18 Credit Hours

This program is offered by the School of Education/Department of Teacher Education and is only available at the St. Louis main campus.

For information on the general requirements for a minor, see Minor under the Academic Policies and Information section of this catalog.

One of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century is how to transform human societies to meet everyone's needs while preserving the natural environment upon which we rely. The minor in sustainability studies provides students with an understanding of the complex, interconnected systems that affect ecological health, economic welfare and social justice; the ability to recognize and analyze challenges to human and environmental health and well-being; and skills to help transform local and global communities into sustainable ones. Our program emphasizes the integration of knowledge from a variety of disciplines, ranging from the sciences to the arts, and values experiential learning.

Learning Outcomes

Students who earn the minor in sustainability studies will be able to:

• Explain and analyze the complex local and global systems that provide the foundation for environmental and human health and well-being.
• Integrate knowledge of ecological, economic and social systems in order to frame challenges to sustainability and produce potential solutions.
• Communicate to explain and influence how individual and collective actions affect the environmental and social sustainability of interrelated systems.
• Evaluate policies, practices and belief systems for their environmental, economic and social sustainability.
• Apply principles of sustainability to transform their own lives, workplaces and local and global communities.

Requirements

• SUST 1000 Introduction to Sustainability Studies (3 hours)
• SUST 4500 Sustainability in Action (3 hours)

A minimum of 12 credit hours chosen from the following:

• ANSO 2540 Environmental Anthropology and Sociology (3 hours)
• EDUC 4250 Economics and Geography for Global Sustainability (3 hours)
• ETHC 2050 Inequality and the Environment (3 hours)
• HRTS 3400 Human Rights and the Environment (3 hours)
• INTL 3500 Environmental and Energy Security (3 hours)
• JOUR 3750 Environmental Journalism and Communication (3 hours)
• PHIL 2360 Environmental Ethics (3 hours)
• POLT 2500 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics: Sex, Drugs and Garbage (3 hours)
• RELG 2431 Ecology and Spirituality (3 hours)
• SCIN 1520 Environment (3 hours)
  and SCIN 1521 Environment: Lab (1 hours)
• SCIN 1610 When Rivers Run Wild: Watersheds, Floods, and Risk (3 hours)
• SCIN 1800 Living on vs. off the Grid (3 hours)
• SCIN 2530 Global Ecologies and Sustainable Living (3 hours)
• SUST 1100 Enhancing Campus Sustainability (3 hours)
• WRIT 2500 Writing About Science (3 hours)

Other relevant courses may be substituted with the approval of the Sustainability Studies Committee. SUST topics course will count as indicated in specific course descriptions at the time they are offered.