Fall- AU Course Listings
In the Fall Semester at American University (9 credit hours), courses may include:
SIS-660 Environment and Politics (3)
Provides an introduction to the politics of environmental protection at both the domestic and international levels. It focuses on the dynamics of population, consumption, technology, and economic activity as they relate to resource depletion, water production, and land use. Usually offered every fall.
ECON-579 Energy Economics, Resources, and the Environment (3)
An analysis of the relationship between economic activity and the natural environment from both mainstream and ecological perspectives. Policy measures for regulating pollution and managing common property resources are explored, including emission taxes, tradable pollution permits, and property rights solutions. Applications to global environmental issues such as climate change and local environmental problems are emphasized. Students gain a understanding of the meaning of sustainable development and the types of policies required to active it. Usually offered every fall.
-or-
ECON-603 Introduction to Economic Theory (3)
The major analytical tools of price and income theory. Covers micro and macro economics. No credit toward degrees in the Department of Economics.
SIS-637 International Development
Alternative theories and definitions of development as expressed in the major international institutions (aid agencies, cartels, multinational corporations) concerned with the transfer of resources. Considers the problems of the “change-agent” in working for development and examines the major development issues. Usually offered every term.
Spanish Language (non-credit).
Spring, Summer, Fall- UPeace Course Listings
During the year at UPEACE (spring, summer, and fall, 21 credit hours) courses may include:
NRD- 6020 System Thinking (1 credit)
Familiarize the students with mental models and systems thinking methodologies. The main issues are: mental models; systems thinking and analysis; archetypes and system diagramming tools.
NRD- 6021 Introduction to Research Methods (2 credits in Term 2 and 1 credit in Term 3)
This course will develop students’ theoretical knowledge and applied skills in conducting qualitative, quantitative and participatory research in the social sciences. This component of the course will address, inter alia: epistemology; critical theory; research ethics; and project development and grant writing.
NRD- 6081 San Jose Environmental Seminar (1 credit)
The course enables students to understand the natural resources management and policy environment for natural resources issues in a developing country, in particular with respect to the role of the government, other national and international stakeholders, as well as the international and national NGOs.
NRD- 6040 Ecological Bases for Sustainable Landuse (3 credits)
The course addresses the basic ecological factors that need to be taken into account for the production of goods and services and to ensure that the land use systems are in harmony with ecological foundations based on climate, soils, and other features that are difficult, costly, and often impossible to change. The key objective is to understand what it takes to move towards sustainable land use patterns that are environmentally desirable, biologically sound, socially and culturally acceptable, and economically viable and equitable.
NRD- 6024 Strategic Planning and Project Design and Evaluation (3 credits)
The course enables students to prepare a strategic plan, prepare, implement, monitor, evaluate and systematize the lessons learned in natural resource and community oriented projects. The emphasis will be put on strategic planning for community development and natural resources management, adapting the “business” concept and methodologies to community sustainable development.
NRD- 6083 Central American Fieldtrip (2 credits)
This field trip exposes the students to Nicaragua’s reality with regard to natural resource management and its general environmental situation. The main themes or issues we will experience, analyze and discuss are: conservation; agriculture, forestry and biodiversity conservation; agroforestry; disaster prevention and recovery; poverty; rural development; history; community based natural resource management; development and environment policy design at the national, regional and local levels.
NRD- 6085 Forestry (3 credits)
This course introduces the students to the changing paradigms that have become apparent in the last decades in the field of forestry. Forestry has had to adapt to new social values and perceptions, including economic, social and environmental factors. Concepts like forest governance, deforestation, environmental services, plantation vs. sustainable natural forest management, the role of local communities, forestry concession schemes, certification programs; and forestry’s general role in rural development, will be explored and discussed.
NRD- 6093 Sustainable Tourism (3 credits)
This course will be an exploration of the complex relationship between tourism and sustainable development.
CSP-6000 Introduction to Peace Studies (3 credits)
This course is the common element of all courses of study in the UPEACE academic programme. It establishes the core issues, insights, and debates within peace studies as an integrated field of research offering a challenging and useful perspective on issues of peace and conflict.
NRD- 6091 Conservation and Development (3 credits)
This course will provide students with a broad understanding of the history of conservation and its interrelationship with international development processes.
NRD- 6060 Environmental Conflict Management (3 credits)
This course is essentially oriented towards the practice and application of environmental conflict management processes that involve local actors amidst a wide array of other stakeholders.
NRD- 6051 Measuring Sustainability (1 credit)
The course discusses the concept of sustainability and its measurement in natural resources at the production system level, as well as its application to the creation of standards, principles, criteria and indicators from the economic, social and environmental dimensions of a system.
NRD- 6050 Agriculture, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development (2 credits)
The course is oriented to the analysis of production systems and their sustainability. A general framework is discussed that refers to the consideration of the total economic value of a system as an alternative to traditional financial and economic evaluations. The following systems will be analyzed: agricultural systems, transition systems, forestry systems, aquaculture and fisheries, genetically modified organisms, and communities.
NRD- 6070 Environmental Assessment (2 credits)
The course explores the emergence, evolution and current use of Environmental Assessment (EA) as a key planning and management tool, whose purpose is to determine, evaluate and mitigate the potential and real impacts on the environment that may arise from the decision to execute a project.
NRD- 6092 Management of Coastal Areas (3 credits)
Students in this course will gain insight into and knowledge of how we have moved from the naïve perspectives of Mare Liberum and the inexhaustibility of oceanic resources, which were predominant in the 19th century, to the increasingly complex layers of marine tenure systems, marine protected areas, and precautionary approaches that characterize contemporary 21st century marine and coastal resource management regimes.
ESP-6010 Introduction to Environmental Security (3 credits)
This introductory course will provide an overview of global environmental issues, trends and changes in progress and future challenges, and will explore key theoretical and analytic dimensions and debates within the environmental security field.
ESP-6050 Land, Forests, Insecurity and Conflict (2 Credits)
This course will examine ways in which land degradation and deforestation may contribute to insecurity and conflict, including by adversely impacting food security, rural livelihoods and biodiversity, and by triggering or exacerbating disputes over ownership and use of land and forest resources.
ESP-6071 Urban Environmental Security (1 credit)
This course will examine human and ecological security problems stemming from trends towards increasing urbanization, including contaminated drinking water supplies, poor air quality, land subsidence, inadequate housing, transportation and sanitation, and overload of waste management facilities due to accelerated consumption, among others. A special focus will be the heightened vulnerability of urban poor.
ESP-6060 Water, Security and Peace (3 credits)
This first part of this course will explore conflict, insecurity and collaboration in relation to scarcity, poor quality, and variability of freshwater resources. An overview will be provided of current and projected future state of freshwater resources and marine ecosystems, focusing on critical sub-regional and sub-national concerns.
ESP-6030 Indigenous Sovereignty, Environment and Development Conflicts (3 credits)
This course will explore conflict, violence and insecurity surrounding indigenous peoples' sovereignty claims, economic development and environmental concerns.
ESP-6140 Environmental Conflict Management and Peace Building (3 credits)
The initial part of this course will deepen understanding of the relationship between environmental insecurity and conflict, including debate over the linkages between environmental stress, competition for resources and violent conflict.
ESP-6120 Human Security and Climate Change (2 credits)
This course opens with an examination of historical and projected future energy demands and their relationship to industrial and sustainable development strategies. Through concrete case studies, students will examine the environmental security dimensions of coal, gas, oil, nuclear, and wood energy, particularly in terms of atmospheric pollution. The major role and the attitudes of the major international energy corporations will be examined identifying their principal strategic and economic implications.
ESP-6150 Local Governance for Environmental Security (1 credit)
This course focuses on the capacity of local communities and society to develop creative practical solutions to environmental problems.
ESP-6151 International Governance for Environmental Security (2 credits)
This course aims to deepen understanding of the governance aspects that influence the capacity of the global community of nations to minimize vulnerability to environmental stresses, to develop creative practical solutions to environmental problems, and to adapt to scarcities of natural resources.
Please visit the UPeace website for further information.
The summer internship, typically conducted in Central America, is an important component of the NRSD program.
Spring-AU Course Listings
During the Spring Semester at American University (12 credit hours), students normally complete a Substantial Research Paper and take elective courses that may include:
SIS-541 Systems Analysis for Management, Development, and the Environment (3)
This course provides an opportunity to learn how systems analysis theories, models, and techniques can be rigorously applied to the subject matter of management, environmental policy issues, and international development.
SIS-596 Environmental Peacemaking (3)
Environmental peacemaking is an emerging interdisciplinary field that focuses on identifying ways the environment--natural and human--provides opportunities for building bridges of collaboration between conflicting parties. In this course, students deal with concepts from conflict studies, environmental studies, and international relations, and develop an understanding of how these areas have merged to form a new theoretical framework informing the emerging environmental peacemaking paradigm. Students are introduced to case studies relating to this new field and gain hands-on experience designing and implementing an environmental peacemaking project.
SIS-620 Comparative Environmental Politics (3)
This course investigates environmental degradation through comparison of cases including China, the U.S., Latin America, and other regions. By drawing on multidisciplinary literature that illuminates the specificity and commonality of the cases, the class seeks a deep understanding of the multiple causes of environmental problems, both local and global. Students will have opportunities to investigate cases in which they have particular interest.
SIS-620 Future of Environmentalism (3)
This course explores contemporary challenges facing the environmental movement. It focuses on the ways the movement can respond to the radically changing character of the natural world, in the face of greater human technological reach, and multicultural understandings of the place of nature in environmental thought and practice.
SIS-620 International Organizations and Environmental Aid (3)
The promotion of environmental sustainability is now well recognized as one of the top goals for international donor assistance to developing and transition countries. Yet the track record for environmental aid by international organizations (IOs) is mixed, given the many political, economic, and organizational obstacles that exist. This course explores the behavior, activities, and performance of IOs playing a leadership role in development aid for the environment. Many of the issues and lessons of environmental performance resonate with other development sectors that IOs address.
SIS-620 Global Climate Change: Policy, Power, and People (3)
An interdisciplinary look at the history, science, policy, and politics of preventing global climate change. This course, for non-specialists as well as environmental studies students, focuses on how we created one of humanity's biggest problems and how to solve it, particularly through education, communications, organizing, and advocacy.
SIS-649 Environment and Development (3)
An overview of this newly emerging multidisciplinary field. Focuses on debates concerning various human-made or development-related root causes of natural-resource degradation in the Third World. Special attention is paid to the relationship between the poor and the environment. Also looks critically at recent innovative policy responses attempting to link environment and development. Usually offered every spring.
SIS-663 Washington Environmental Workshop (3)
A capstone seminar in which students conduct original research on domestic and international environmental policy and politics. Explores contemporary environmental issues such as economic and ecological globalization, information technologies and environmental protection, social and ecological evolution, the place of humans in the natural world, postmodern challenges to environmentalism, post-colonial environmentalism, and environmental security. Usually offered every spring.
SIS-696 Harnessing the Sun/Wind/Earth (Each for 1)
Three weekend courses in which different aspects of the three major renewable energy solutions (solar, wind and biofuel) will be explored. Students discuss the technological, ethical and political implications of the renewable energy sources with the professor and guest speakers from international organizations, NGOs and think tanks. Students also get hand-on experiences through site visits and actual application of renewable energies (e.g. building solar panels, making biodiesel) under the guidance of technical experts. Usually offered every spring.
LAW-618 International Environmental Law (3)
A contemporary perspective on international environmental law focusing on specific environmental threats and the most recent manifestations of the law. The course will include case studies of actual investigations such as global warming and sea level rise; export and import of hazardous waste; the problem of "ghost" driftnets abandoned in the global commons of our marine environment; the endangered African elephant; continued whaling by Japan and Iceland; and the protection of the aboriginal Penan Tribe in Malaysia. Recent manifestations of international environmental law include the Declaration of The Hague and the proposal for a new organization to be known as GLOBE. Attention also will be given to the considerable body of environmental law in the European Community, the general foundations of international law, and the relationship to human rights law and international trade law.
LAW-629 Environmental Law (3)
An overview of environmental law with particular emphasis on the administrative law background; the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended; the governance of public lands; and air and water pollution control.
CSC-610 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (3)
A geographic information system (GIS) is a system of hardware, software, data, people, organizations, and institutional arrangements for collecting, storing, analyzing, and disseminating information about areas of the earth. This course provides an introduction to GIS, GIS software, and applications of GIS.