EIU Environmental Studies Minor

Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Minor

The interdisciplinary Environmental Studies minor at EIU includes coursework from a number of departments, including:

• Biological Sciences
• Economics
• Geology/Geography
• Political Science
• Sociology

Strengths of the program include the diversity of participating departments and the wide range of courses and topics covered. This diversity provides students an opportunity to gain a broad, interdisciplinary comprehension of environmental issues.

A basic law of ecology is that everything is connected to everything else, and in that, the environment connects and intersects each of these disciplines. The Environmental Studies minor draws from the social sciences, emphasizing the greatest sources of environmental impact come from social, political and economic actions of humans, while the biological and physical sciences ensure a comprehensive understanding and appreciation of those impacts. As a result, environmental understanding, solutions and responses must ultimately be multidisciplinary.