Environmental Studies

Interdisciplinary Studies

Bird watching on the coast at Watch Hill, RI.

Connecticut College offers you an unusually wide range of opportunities to explore a topic, issue or problem using the conceptual framework and tools of more than one academic discipline.

You may choose an established interdisciplinary major or design one in consultation with faculty advisers and the Committee on Student-Designed Interdisciplinary Majors and Minors.

The focus of the Environmental Studies Program is to provide you with an opportunity to examine environmental issues using a multidisciplinary approach through the integration of classroom, laboratory, field and study-away experiences. Our goal is to provide a broad background in environmental studies that will enable our students to pursue a wide range of career possibilities.

Faculty from ten different departments actively participate in the program as instructors, advisors and research mentors.

Environmental Studies students may also earn a certificate from one of the College's innovative interdisciplinary centers. For example, an important function of the Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies, is to serve the needs of all students studying the environment, especially those in the Environmental Studies (ES) major. Since ES is a program, not a department, The Goodwin-Niering Center serves as a de facto department by concerning itself with curricular issues.

Requirements for all the College's certificate programs include a challenging combination of coursework, in-depth research and a funded summer internship in the U.S. or abroad. The four centers are:

- Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology
- Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies
- Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy
- Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts (CISLA)