University of Colorado at Boulder

 

Dept Theme

Environment-Society Relations


Human dimensions of environmental change; natural resources; conservation behavior

From its earliest development as an academic field, geography has been concerned with the manifold relations between societies and their natural and built environments. Societies adapt and transform the environments they inhabit. They depend upon the use of resources and reduction of hazards for their survival and material well-being. They also assign meanings to the environment that vary over place and time, but that help define their identity and values within the world. Geographers tend to study these phenomena under the broad headings of resource use, natural hazards, sustainable development, landscape studies, cultural ecology, and environmental conservation. The University of Colorado has special strength in land and water resource issues in the American West, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Students concentrating on environment-society relations are advised to take the introductory courses in human and physical geography and then, depending upon their academic interests and aims, to concentrate on specific topics and regions in the environment- society area.

Faculty teaching and/or performing research in environment-society relations

Mara
Goldman
Political Ecology;  Science and Technology Studies;  indigenous knowledge;  Nature-Society Relations Human
Env-Society
William
Travis
Natural Resource Conservation; Environment & Society Human
Env-Society
Emily
Yeh
Nature/society geography; political ecology; cultural politics; development; Tibet; China Human
Env-Society

Graduate Students in environment-society relations

21 students total. TIP: To sort by more than one column, hold down the shift key while clicking an additional column header.

Name Degree     Specialties Advisor
Akeson, Cole M.A. Political and economic geography; energy resources and geopolitics; Ukraine & Russia; volunteerism Dunn
Auger, Mason Ph.D. Native American Culture; Symbolic Land Use Bryan
Croucher, Elizabeth Ph.D. Conservation Conflicts Goldman
Dickinson, Tom M.A. Land use change, western U.S., environment-society, GIS Travis
Gangwer, Kristin M.A. Western Land Use; Ranchland Dynamics; Drought Travis
Griffith, Chandler Ph.D. food systems, climate risk, environmental justice Travis
Hickcox, Abby Ph.D. Cultural Geography, Political Ecology, Environmental Justice, Race Yeh
Huenchunir, Sigrid Ph.D. Territory and identity; sustainable development; Latin America Bryan
Kass, Amanda M.A. Conflict; Political Ecology; Politics of Development Bryan
Lee, Ahn M.A. land-use change, migration Riosmena
Longenecker, H.E. Ph.D. Climatology; Climate Change; Hazard/Risk Vulnerability Travis
Malmberg, Julie Ph.D. Human Biometeorology Blanken
Naficy, Cameron Ph.D. Disturbance ecology; tree ecophysiology; climate variability; restoration; remote sensing Veblen
Oppold, Mary M.A. Env-society relations; landscape changes and social implications to water quality/supply Travis
Petchprayoon, Pakorn Ph.D. Remote Sensing & Surface Energy Balance Blanken
Reiff, Eric Ph.D. Env-soc relations; landscape ecology; political ecology; sustainable economic develop; globalization Travis
Skog, Lindsay Ph.D. Intersection of belief systems, landscapes, & conservation in high Asia Yeh
Smith, Samuel Historic/Urban Geog-links between historic mining settlements & current tourist areas Foote
Wade, Kendle M.A. Envir/Society Relations, ecotourism, research and policy development, DART Goldman
Wharton, Elizabeth Ph.D. transcoundary resource use and governance, esp. water Yeh
YundanNima, YundanNima Ph.D. Development studies in Tibet Yeh

GEOG courses related to environment-society relations.

Caution: These lists are incomplete.

Summer 2012

Num Num Sect Title Hrs   Instructor
4501 5501 100 Wtr Resources/Mgmt in the US West 3 Lander

 

Spring 2012

Num Num Sect Title Hrs   Instructor
2002 Geographies of Global Change 3 O'Loughlin
3402 Natural Hazards 3 Travis
4501 5501 Wtr Resources/Mgmt in the US West 3 Lander
4632 5632 Development Geography 3 Oakes
4742 Environments and Peoples 3 Jan

 

Fall 2011

Num Num Sect Title Hrs   Instructor
2412 100 Environment and Culture 3 Goldman
3930 5930 Internship 3 Pitlick
4292 5292 Migration, Immigrant Adaptation,and Development 3 Riosmena

 

Undergrad Courses Applicable to a Concentration in Environment-Society Relations

GEOG 1001  Environmental Systems 1: Climate & Vegetation** 
GEOG 1011  Environmental Systems 2: Landscapes & Water** 

Two of the following four courses are prerequisites to all (human geography) upper-division courses listed further below.

GEOG 1982  World Regional Geography 
GEOG 1992  Human Geographies 
GEOG 2002  Geographies of Global Change 
GEOG 2412  Environment and Culture

Upper Division Courses.  Additional prerequisites may be listed.  

GEOG 3251  Mountain Geography 
GEOG 3301  Analysis of Climate and Weather Observations**  
GEOG 3351  Biogeography 
GEOG 3402  Natural Hazards 
GEOG 3412  Conservation Practice and Resource Management 
GEOG 3422  Conservation Thought 
GEOG 3511  Introduction to Hydrology** 
GEOG 3601  Principles of Climate**  
GEOG 3682  Geography of International Development  
GEOG 3812  Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean 
GEOG 3822  Geography of China**  
GEOG 3862  Geography of Africa 
GEOG 4401  Soils Geography  (Prereq: GEOG 1011; Recommended Prereq: inorganic chemistry) 
GEOG 4430  Seminar: Conservation Trends** 
GEOG 4501  Water Resources and Water Management in the Western US 
GEOG 4742  Environments and Peoples** 
GEOG 4812  Environment and Development in South America** 
GEOG 4822  Environment and Development in China** 
GEOG 4852  Health and Medical Geography** 


**core curriculum course 

 

Undergrad Courses in other Departments Related to Environment-Society Relations

Caution: These courses do not count as hours in the Geography Major.
Check with the appropriate department for the prerequisites for these courses. 

CHEM  1011  Environmental Chemistry 1*
CHEM  1031  Environmental Chemistry 2**  
ECON  2010  Principles of Microeconomics** 
ECON  2020  Principles of Macroeconomics** 
ECON  3535  Natural Resource Economics** 
ECON  3545  Environmental Economics**  
EBIO  1210  General Biology 1** 
EBIO  1220  General Biology 2** 
EBIO  2040  Principles of Ecology** 
EBIO  3040  Conservation Biology 
EBIO  3180  Global Ecology** 
GEOL  3040  Global Change: The Recent Geological Record** 
GEOL  3520  Environmental Issues in Geosciences** 
PHIL  3140  Environmental Ethics**  
PHYS  3070  Energy and the Environment** 
PSCI  3201  The Environment and Public Policy


**core curriculum course 

Selected Publications by Faculty and Graduate Students associated with environment-society relations

Faculty

 Maxwell Boykoff

Bottrill, C., Liverman, D., and Boykoff, M. (2010). Carbon soundings: greenhouse gas emissions of the UK music industry. Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 5.

Boykoff, M. (2010). Turning down the heat: the politics of climate policy in affluent democracies. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 28 567-570 .

Boykoff, M.T. (2010). Climate quarrels: ‘It’s not you, it’s me .. well it’s us’. Forum review for "Why We Disagree About Climate Change. Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity" by M. Hulme, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 176, No. 3, September 2010, pp. 267–269. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4959.2010.00371.x

Boykoff, M.T., and J. Smith. (2010). Media Presentations of Climate Change. Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society 210-218, Routledge.

O'Neill, S.J. and M. Boykoff. (2010). Climate denier, skeptic, or contrarian?. PNAS. doi:10.1073/pnas.1010507107

 Mara Goldman

Goldman, M.J. (2011). Strangers in their own land: Maasai and wildlife conservation in northern Tanzania. Conservation and Society 9(1):65-79.

Goldman, M.J., P. Nadasdy, and M.D. Turner, eds. (2011). Knowing Nature: Conversations at the intersection of political ecology and science studies. Chicago: University of Chicago University Press .

Goldman, M.J., J. Roque de Pinho and J. Perry. (2010). Maintaining complex relations with large cats: Maasai and Lions in Kenya and Tanzania. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 15 (5), 332-246 .

Goldman, M. (2009). Constructing Connectivity? Conservation corridors and conservation politics in East African rangelands. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 99 (2):335-359 .

Goldman, M. (2007). Tracking wildebeest, locating knowledge: Maasai and conservation biology understandings of wildebeest behavior in Northern Tanzania. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 25: 307-331.

 Tania Schoennagel

Krasnow, K. T. Schoennagel, T.T. Veblen. (2009). Forest fuel mapping and validation of LANDFIRE fuel maps in Boulder County, Colorado. Forest Ecology and Management. 257: 1603- 1612.

Schoennagel, T., C.R. Nelson, D.M. Theobald, G. Carnwath, T.B. Chapman. (2009). Schoennagel, T., C.R. Nelson, D.M. Theobald, G. Carnwath, T.B. Chapman. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In press.

Nelson, C.R., Schoennagel T., and E. Gregory. (2008). Opportunities for academic training in the science and practice of restoration within the United States and Canada. Restoration Ecology 16(2): 125-230.

Schoennagel, T., E.A. Smithwick, M.G. Turner. (2008). Landscape heterogeneity following large fires: Insights from Yellowstone National Park, USA. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 17: 742-753.

Schoennagel, T., T.T. Veblen, D. Kulakowski, and A. Holz. (2007). Multidecadal climate variability and interactions among Pacific and Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies affect subalpine fire occurrence, western Colorado (USA). Ecology 88(11): 2891-2902.

 Emily Yeh

Yeh, Emily T. (2009). From wasteland to wetland? nature and nation in China's Tibet. Environmental history 14(1): 32-66.

Yeh, Emily T. (2009). Tibet and the problem of radical reductionism. Antipode. 41(5): 983-1010.

Yeh, Emily T. (2009). Greening western China: A critical view. Geoforum. 40: 884-894.

Yeh, Emily T. (2007). Tibetan indigeneity: Tranlsations, resemblances and uptake. Indigenous Experience Today, Marisol de la Cadena and Orin Starn, eds. pp. 69-97.

Yeh, Emily T. (2007). Tropes of indolence and the cultural politics of development in Lhasa, Tibet. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97(3): 593-612.


Grad Students

Abby Hickcox

Abby Hickcox. (2009). Green Belt, White City: Race and the Natural Landscape in Boulder, Colorado. Discourse 29(2&3, Spring and Fall 2007): 236-259. .

News and Events related to environment-society relations