Swarthmore College
AC-3: Undergraduate Program

Environmental studies brings together the natural sciences and engineering, the humanities, and the social sciences to tackle environmental issues of great complexity and socio-political importance. In relation to climate change, for instance, natural scientists provide data to understand the scope of the problem and the processes that result in global warming, social scientists help to understand and craft policies around human behaviors that cause climate change, and humanists provide the moral and historical framework to understand our obligation to action and the tools to communicate environmental values. Only an integrated, interdisciplinary approach can address the extremity and complexity of the challenges we face: students must learn to think across and through disciplines in order to become the kinds of problem-solvers our societies so urgently need.

Profound anthropogenic changes are occurring in the land, water, and air around us, and education needs to respond to these changes. Swarthmore's heritage of social concern compels us to educate students so that they are well informed about vital, current issues and capable of full political participation. The College has a responsibility to provide means for the study of environmental problems and to encourage students to develop their own perspectives on these problems. The interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Program is one way the College meets these responsibilities.
The Environmental Studies program offers numerous opportunities for rigorous interdisciplinary work, addressing the scientific, engineering, social, political, economic, literary, and philosophical dimensions of environmental topics. The minor helps guide students to the many academic fields that afford a perspective on environmental problems and enables them to explore questions most compelling to them from the vantage point of various disciplines.

Data source: Swarthmore College academic departments and programs