Peter R. Wilshusen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Co-director, Bucknell University Environmental Center

---

 

FOUN 09#-31: Consuming Nature (Fall semester)

Nature and Human Choice is a foundation seminar for first-year students.   It focuses on the following core question: Is it possible for human societies to prosper without sacrificing the basis of existence (nature) in the process? The course takes a student-centered approach where members carry out experiential and reading-based exercises and present them either individually or in groups to the rest of the class.   It focuses on basic skills like observation, critical analysis, close reading, writing, and oral presentation.   Topics covered include modern food production, the global oil economy/energy production, and global climate change.   Readings draw mainly from The Omnivore's Dilemma (Pollan 2006), Blood Diamonds (Campbell, 2002), Field Notes from a Catastrophe (Kolbert 2006), and The End of OIl (Roberts, 2004).   The main requirements are a group research project, argument paper, a reading journal, short exercises, and in class participation.

Consuming Nature is linked to the Environmental Residential College

Fall 2007 syllabus pdf format

Environmental Residential College Fall Retreat Pictures (Sept. 16-17, 2005) Powerpoint

Fulfills these CLA (common learning agenda) requirements: W1 (writing course), NFBW (natural and fabricated worlds), foundation seminar, SSHU (soc./hum. for engineers).

Prerequisites: none; first-year students only.

ENST 100: Introduction to Environmental Studies (Spring semester)

Introduction to Environmental Studies is a survey course that draws students from across campus.   It introduces recurrent issues and broad themes of human-environment relations including: sustainability, population growth, consumption, land use, food production, energy production, biodiversity, water, toxics, and global climate change.   The course offers weekly lectures, reading-based discussions, as well as in-class exercises and debates.   Readings include Annual Editions--Environment (Allen), and Environment and Society (Harper) along with electronic reserve items.   Course requirements comprise three (3) in-class exams, an argument paper (+/- 10 pp.), in-class participation, the great debate (in-class exercise), and a final exam.


Spring 2008 syllabus pdf format

Fulfills these CLA (common learning agenda) requirements: NFBW (natural and fabricated worlds), SOSC (social science),

Fulfills these ENST requirements: social science core (if taken before junior year),

Prerequisites: none; recommended for first-year and sophomore students.

ENST 215: Environmental Planning (Fall semester)

Environmental Planning covers the conceptual roots and practical challenges associated with applying notions of sustainability to urban and regional planning both domestically and internationally.   It spans historical and contemporary debates in planning theory, challenges of planning in developing world countries like Brazil, the conundrum of "sprawl" in the U.S., and attempts at sustainability planning in the U.S. and northern Europe.   Readings include The Ecology of Place (Beatley and Manning, 1997), Lewis Mumford and the Ecological Region (Luccarelli, 1995), and Seeing Like a State (Scott, 1998) along with electronic reserve items.   The main course requirements are: two (2) in-class essay exams, the "My Hometown" project (research and analysis on hometown--2 papers), in-class participation, and a take-home final exam.

Fall 2008 syllabus pdf format

Fulfills these CLA (common learning agenda) and engineering requirements: W2 (Writing course), NFBW (natural and fabricated worlds), EGSS (engineering social science), SOSC (social science), SSHU (soc./hum. for engineers).

Fulfills these ENST requirements: social science/humanities (list 4)

Prerequisites: none

ENST 3xx: Nature, Wealth, and Power (Spring semester)

[course being developed for Spring 2009]

Nature, Wealth, and Power is a reading seminar that applies concepts from political ecology and environmental history to examine the roots of environmental and social change in the "developing" regions of the world, focusing mainly on the 19th and 20th centuries.   The course focuses on the rise of modern capitalism, colonial expansion, and industrialization as manifestations of the "modern world system," covering Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.   Core themes include economic dependency, world systems theory, capitalism, resource access and control, colonialism, biodiversity loss, wartime development, environmental protection and enclosure as well as globalization, sustainability, and the rise of Third World environmentalism.  

Fulfills these CLA (common learning agenda) requirements: W2 (writing course), NFBW (natural and fabricated worlds), SOSC (social science).

Fulfills these ENST requirements: social science/humanities (list 4)

Prerequisites: none