Gannon University’s environmental studies minor is an interdisciplinary minor that focuses on the relationships between humans, the more-than-human and the natural environment. Environmental studies approaches these relationships from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives—such as ethics, policy, literature, religious studies, business, biology, cultural geography and other fields—providing students with the skillsets and knowledge to address environmental challenges and create positive social change. The minor is designed so that students can explore how environmental issues relate to their own majors and complementary fields, thereby preparing them for a range of career and graduate study options.
Due to its interdisciplinarity, the field of environmental studies provides a broader view of environmental issues than either the environmental sciences—which focus on the scientific and quantitative aspects of environmental issues—or the environmental humanities—which includes disciplines such as literature, history, philosophy, film and media, cultural studies, religious studies, cultural geography, and anthropology. The environmental studies minor includes both quantitative and qualitative approaches to more holistically understand how humans relate to the environment and how environmental challenges intersect with a wide range of disciplines and career fields. Because environmental issues impact all facets of life in intersecting ways, environmental studies addresses a wide range of entangled issues, from pollution and climate change to migration and global inequality.
As Pope Francis entreats in his encyclical Laudato Si’, finding solutions to these problems requires “a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.” The environmental studies minor at Gannon University is designed to include courses from each of the three colleges and distributed across three categories: the humanities and social sciences, the natural and health sciences and engineering, and policy and decision-making.
In addition to coursework, students are encouraged to engage in extracurricular opportunities and internships in the Lake Erie and Presque Isle bioregion to locations around the globe through programs such as Project NePTWNE, Goodwill Garden, the 名媛直播 Environmental Club, the Regional Science Consortium, the Dick Moody Environmental Justice Writing Award, and a variety of ABST and GIFT trips for service learning and field work to places as diverse as Yellowstone National Park, urban farms in Detroit, and the cities and mountains of Japan.
The minor is open to all majors. Declare your intention to pursue the minor by completing the online ; if you have questions, email the program director of the minor, Derek DiMatteo, Ph.D., at dimatteo001@gannon.edu.
The environmental studies minor is designed to provide an interdisciplinary education across three areas: human and social dimensions, natural sciences, and policy and decision making. These course requirements categories are reflected in the following outcomes:
