Bachelor of Arts - Joint Majors - English / Environmental and Sustainability Studies

The study of literature can provide students with insights concerning past and present concepts of personal and social identity, cultural traditions and beliefs, and interpersonal and cross-cultural relationships. Since the time of Aristotle, moreover, literary commentators have analyzed “setting” as an important formal aspect of literary writing; literary study can therefore help individual to investigate, and perhaps to reconsider, their relationships with both human and non-human environments. In today’s world, where efforts to resolve intercultural conflicts and environmental problems have taken on a profound sense of urgency, literary study provides a crucial forum for intellectual and ethical debate leading to the revision of cultural practice.

The study of English literature provides students with critical skills of analysis and synthesis, helping them to identify and understand complex problems, and encouraging them to conceptualize viable resolutions and alternative understandings. Perhaps more than any other academic discipline, English literature also emphasizes the importance of literacy, including the development of effective writing and oral presentation skills, thereby providing students with the communications skills so highly valued in the professional world.

The Bachelor of Arts in Environmental and Sustainability Studies emphasizes a social science and humanities perspective on environmental and sustainability challenges and opportunities. The program provides a strong philosophical, social and scientific basis for understanding the full diversity of environmental and sustainability issues. It positions students to be effective agents of social and environmental innovation, who can promote mitigation of, and/or adaptation to, environmental challenges. Understanding the foundations of environmental citizenship is emphasized. The degree offers students substantial opportunity for experiential learning through a number of courses.