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Chair

Peter Hodum
253-879-2789

Administrative Support

Sarah Phillips
253.879.3814

Program Description

Environmental Studies & Sciences equips students to explore the complex and evolving issues of environmental studies through an interdisciplinary approach combining natural sciences, social sciences, visual and performing arts, and humanities. Through innovative coursework and high-impact community engagement, students gain methodologies and frameworks to understand and promote environmental justice, sustainability, and awareness in this pivotal moment for our planet.

Majors/Minors

  • Environmental Policy & Decision Making: A unique offering among four-year institutions, students with a major or minor in EPMD are challenged to explore how policy intersects with environmental issues and emphasizes building relationships in the community to better understand local issues.
  • Earth & Environmental Sciences: This major offers an interdisciplinary, science-based curriculum, training students as scientists with the necessary skills to connect human impacts to policy and management.
  • Environmental Arts & Humanities: Go beyond data collection and analysis to address the impact of climate change on human populations, using storytelling, the arts, cultural perspectives, and creativity to imagine alternative futures and promote ethical engagement with environmental issues.

What You Could Be

  • Fisheries research technician
  • Global Ocean Refuge System fellow
  • Activist at an environmental NGO
  • Environmental compliance expert
  • Conservation biologist
  • Environmental educator
  • Earth science technician
  • Outdoor specialist
  • Research scientist (government agency, academic institution, or nonprofit)

 

What You'll Learn

  • Ways that systems thinking can address environmental problems
  • How individual and collective decisions interact with the environment
  • Social, political, and economic contexts for decisions on environmental issues
  • Using geochemistry to investigate environmental questions
  • Interpreting the structural, magmatic, and tectonic evolution of the Pacific Northwest
  • Connecting and communicate an understanding of Earth science to other science and nonscience disciplines

 

Sample Courses
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This course examines the wide variety of geologic, physical, chemical, and biologic evidence for the nature, duration, timing, and causes of climate change throughout the long history of our planet. In general, the course proceeds chronologically through geologic time. As the course approaches the modern world, students examine the paleoclimate record in progressively greater detail, and consider increasingly complex explanations for the patterns seen. This course also examines the complex interactions between the development of modern human societies and global climate, and considers some projections of climate change and its effects on our planet in the next few decades.

Code
Natural Scientific and Mathematical Perspectives

The principles, methods, and materials of stratigraphy and paleontology used to interpret the physical and biological history of the Earth. Emphasizes the classification, correlation, interrelationships, and interpretation of rock strata and of the various types of fossils that occur in these rocks.

Code
Natural Scientific and Mathematical Perspectives

This course provides an introduction to the study of a variety of the Earth's natural resources, and the environmental impacts of their extraction and use. The course focuses on the origin of different types of resources including metallic and non-metallic mineral deposits, and building stone. A discussion/lab session is scheduled for in-class activities, labs and field trips. Course readings center around case studies from the primary scientific literature.

Code
Natural Scientific and Mathematical Perspectives
Prerequisites
ENVP 200 or permission of the instructor.

Conserving wild places through the creation of national parks is not only a reflection of environmental priorities, but a profoundly political undertaking that can bring significant changes to local landscapes. This course examines the intersection of protected areas and political priorities in local, regional, and global context, including discussion of issues such as tourism, human-wildlife conflict, forced displacement, and community-based conservation.

Code
Knowledge, Identity, and PowerSocial Scientific and Historical Perspectives
Prerequisites
ENVP 200 or permission of instructor.

This course is designed to familiarize students with the variety of ways individuals and communities can make choices and take actions that lead to environmental and social improvements in our surroundings. The course includes five 2-hour discussion sessions on sustainability topics, one weekend field trip and one major written project. These sessions include shared readings, facilitated discussion, mini-lectures by guest speakers, and even hands-on applications. Puget Sound students in this class will be joined by a select number of local community members who will participate in the class on a non-credit basis.

Code
Experiential Learning

This course explores the ways in which different spiritual traditions (both secular and religious) consider and practice with the human relationship to the natural environment. In this light, nature is a space worth exploring in both intellectual and experiential ways, and offers the opportunity to consider how connections and relationships are formed between people and the places in which they live.

Experiential Learning

Some examples of student internships and summer research grants:

  • Mount Rainier National Park Imminent Threats Program Internship
  • Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Center
  • Joint Base Lewis-McChord Fish and Wildlife Program
  • American Rivers
  • Sierra Club
  • Sam Dossa '25, "Mapping methane emissions of capped landfill parks in Seattle"
  • Naomi Wurtzel '26, "Impact of non-native brook trout on aquatic food webs in Mount Rainier National Park"
  • Mandy Ausman '24, "Remediation of the Church Rock Uranium Spill of 1979: The Response of the 1980 Superfund and its Environmental Justice Efforts"

Stories

Read more about University of Puget Sound Students Assess Geologic Threats to Mount Rainier National Park
Students

University of Puget Sound Students Assess Geologic Threats to Mount Rainier National Park

It’s a warm summer day alongside Fryingpan Creek as Paige Shinall ’25 climbs into a pair of waders and prepares to step into the water. Moving carefully to avoid being swept away with the current, she places a flow meter into…
Read more about Getting Slimy for Research
Faculty
Arches
Students

Getting Slimy for Research

Megan Mooney ’23 stepped onto campus in 2019 a declared biology major—unusual, since students usually take the first year to decide—and high expectations for her college career. The valedictorian of her high school in Arvada,…
Read more about University of Puget Sound Student Takes Action for the Environment
Campus
Students

University of Puget Sound Student Takes Action for the Environment

Long before she had heard the term “sustainability,” Kaylynn O’Curran ’23 was obsessed with recycling. She wanted to live a lifestyle as close to zero-waste as possible, so she did her research on products to minimize her…

Where Graduates Work

Where our graduates work: 

  • Iowa State University (assistant professor)
  • Northwest Outward Bound School (instructor)
  • United States Geological Survey (research geologist)
  • Pacific Groundwater Group (senior hydrologist)
  • NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center
  • Marine Conservation Institute
  • Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • International Water Management Institute

Where Graduates Continue Studying

Where our students continue their studies:

  • Humboldt State University
  • Cornell University
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Northeastern University
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • University of Colorado, Boulder (Ph.D.)
  • Oregon State University (M.S., geology)
  • Duke University
  • University of California, Santa Cruz
Meet Our Faculty
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Peter Hodum
Professor, Biology and Chair, Environmental Studies and Sciences

Prof. Hodum focuses on conservation-based research, including habitation changes, introduced species, and commercial fisheries in relation to bird populations. He teaches biology and environmental science.

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Daniel Burgard
Professor, Chemistry

Prof. Burgard's environmental analyses include quantifying pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in wastewater. Students analyze for cannabis, opioids, and illicit stimulants in sewage to estimate community drug use.

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Rachel DeMotts
Professor, Environmental Studies & Sciences

Prof. DeMotts studies and teaches the environmental politics of sub-Saharan Africa, including how people are affected by conservation efforts. She teaches courses in politics and government and environmental policy.

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Lea Fortmann
Associate Professor, Economics

Both Prof. Fortmann's research and teaching focus on international sustainable development and environmental economics. She teaches both introductory and upper-level economics classes.

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Kena Fox-Dobbs
Professor, Environmental Studies & Sciences

Prof. Fox-Dobbs's research investigates a variety of environmental and paleoecological inquiries by utilizing biogeochemical techniques. She teaches geology and environmental science/policy classes.

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Kristopher Imbrigotta
Associate Professor, German Studies

Prof. Imbrigotta investigates contemporary literature and cultural studies, with focuses on theater history, media theory, and literary historiography. He teaches all levels of German culture, literature, and language.

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William Kupinse
Professor, English

Prof. Kupinse's current research focuses on early 20th-century environmental thought and its relationship to modernist literature. His classes include topics such as ecocriticism, creative writing, and British and Irish modernism. 

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Steven Neshyba
Professor, Chemistry and Robert G. Albertson Professor

In the lab, Prof. Neshyba and his students study the interaction of water and light and the molecular dynamics of ice crystals to better understand how ice crystal-forming clouds modulate Earth's climate.

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Elise Richman
Professor, Art and Art History

An active working artist, Prof. Richman's current work is inspired by rippling water and focuses on color interaction and context. She teaches 2-D design courses, drawing, and painting.

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Daniel Sherman
Professor, Environmental Studies & Sciences

Prof. Sherman studies environmental politics, policy, and sustainability.  His environmental science and sustainability textbook helps students discover their role in the environment and the impact of their choices.

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Michael Valentine
Professor, Environmental Studies & Sciences

Prof. Valentine teaches on subjects ranging from oceanography to the solar system and studies geomagnetic field behavior, using paleomagnetic studies to define past crustal motions and structural geology to define tectonic histories.

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Carrie Woods
Associate Professor, Biology

Prof. Woods teaches courses in biology, and conducts field-based research in plant and community ecology in both temperate and tropical systems. 

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