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 Environmental Economics (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-636 Micropolitics of Development (3)

The objective of this course is an understanding of the survival struggles and strategies individuals face and the choices they make. Some work within credit unions, cooperatives, parties, interest groups, or alone without much group support. Others rely on patrons, prayers, bribes, threats, or combinations of all these resources for survival. Usually offered every term.

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:

PCS-6000 Foundation Course in Peace and Conflict Studies (3)

This course is designed to engage students in an examination of the major contemporary challenges to peace, sources of conflict and violence, and several key nonviolent mechanisms for conflict transformation and prevention. The course provides a common foundation for UPEACE students from all of the different M.A. programs (as its name suggests).

NRD- 6021 Research Methods II (1) 

The central goal of this seminar is to provide an introduction of a variety of research approaches, methodological strategies, methods and techniques in the social sciences, with a particular focus on issues and examples from the field of natural resources and sustainable development. This course provides students with a foundational knowledge of qualitative, quantitative, action research methods. The aim of the course is to enable students to develop their own research designs as well as be able to critique the research of others.

ESP- 6010 Introduction to Environmental Security (3)

This graduate seminar will provide an overview of the diverse perspectives in the field of environmental security and peace, and introduce students to the variety of natural and human-induced environmental changes currently affecting humanity. This course will also prepare students for more intensive explorations of aspects of environmental security in other courses in this programme.

NRD- 6091 Conservation and Development (3)

This course explores the history of efforts to address poverty and environmental degradation on a global scale. It emphasizes the social scientific study of conservation/development practice, exploring the political, economic, social, cultural, and logistical issues involved in implementing successful measures.

Being a Peacemaker Workshop (0)

This workshop focuses on the personal skills of peace building, which is designed to further develop the capacities of students for working within a diverse and multicultural population, and to provide students with an opportunity to continue learning and reflecting with their seminar groups during the first term, and thereby supporting each other as a learning community.

NRD- 6060 Environmental Conflict Management (2)

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. Environmental conflict analysis is discussed extensively and practiced with real cases using Social Analysis Systems (SAS) tools. The development of conflict management strategies, power levelling interventions and process design are another important part of the course. In addition to lectures and case study presentations, the course includes several simulation games and a field trip , where a conflictive situation can be observed and analyzed in real time.

NRD- 6081 San José Environmental Seminar (1)

The course is oriented to enable students to understand the organizations and institutions and their agendas in Costa Rica, related to the Environment and Natural Resources. Special emphasis is given on the role, strategies, policies and actions of these institutions.

NRD-6075 Forests, Forestry and Poverty (3 credits )

This course looks at the links between forests, forestry, and poverty with a special focus on tropical forests. Specifically, it looks at the links between poverty and deforestation, some of the possible strategies to reduce poverty through forest-based activities, and analyzes and discusses economic and policy instruments for the conservation of forests while assuring economic and social sustainability. It also analyzes the importance of forests for humans in rural populations of countries and regions in the “developing world”, different values of forests, the threats they are facing, and the challenges faced by those who try to manage them sustainably.

NRD 6092 Management of Coastal Resources (3 )

This course will provide a brief introduction to the particularities of coastal and oceanic resources and ecologies. It will investigate the unique attributes of the human economic, social, and cultural systems that are most directly dependent upon them. Among the many topics within this section, the course will specifically focus on understanding artisanal fisheries, large-scale/industrial fishing, and aquaculture, as well as the differences and conflicts that exist between these methods of resource extraction.

ESP- 6051 Environmental Justice and Social Movements (2)

This course explores recent struggles over natural resources as culturally specific contests over human rights and environmental justice in the context of globalization. The class investigates environmental conflicts from a variety of geographic regions and sectors, and “anti-globalization” protesters that unite environmentalists, farmers, and labor unions that may traditionally have had conflicting agendas.

ESP- 6060  Water, Security and Peace (3)

This course explores conflict, insecurity and collaboration in relation to scarcity, poor quality, and variability of freshwater resources. Students will examine disputes and conflict over access to fresh water resources and rivers, including dam construction.

ESP-6045 Skills for Nonprofit Leadership (1)

This course is designed for practicing and future nonprofit leaders keen on engaging in nonprofit leadership issues, especially in light of the rapidly changing pace of their working environment.

UPEACE Institute Electives (3)

During a three-week period, usually in January, students have the opportunity of choosing courses to complete three credits as elective. –This period coincides with the UPEACE Institute where non-UPEACE students are accepted for being enrolled in the regular UPEACE students. All of the courses are taught by international academicians and professionals with extensive expertise in each of these areas.

For a complete course listing  of the January, 2010 UPEACE Institute please click here

NRD-6040 Ecological Foundations for Sustainable Land Use (3)

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-6021 I Research Methods I (2)

This course provides an introduction to various research methods used by social scientists when conducting studies of conservation and/or development practices. This course will address both formal research and many aspects of planning and policy work – including writing proposals, collecting information and “fact finding,” planning interventions, engaging in community development, pursuing cross-cultural communication, and preparing reports – and thus are imperative for students involved in the human dimension of natural resource management, particularly those working internationally.

ESP-6150 Environmental Governance I (1)

This course focuses on the capacity of local communities and society to develop solutions to environmental problems through participatory processes of decision making. The course provides an overview of developments in thinking regarding effective local governance for environmental security particularly since the Rio Earth Summit and offers the opportunity to be familiar with a number of local governance cases.

NRD-6020 System Thinking (1)

This intensive, face-to-face, course familiarizes the students with mental models and system thinking methodologies. The main issues are: mental models; system thinking and analysis; archetypes and system diagramming; and modeling tools. The classes will be a mix of quick sequences of games and exercises followed by debriefing sessions and theoretical discussions.

NRD 6051 Measuring Sustainability (1)

This course will explore the merits and shortcomings of the idea of sustainability, explore the politics and simplification inherent in measuring, give an overview of mainstream and alternative sets of indicators and other assessment tools. Students will have a chance to propose how the sustainability of the UPEACE campus could be assessed.

ESP- 6071 Urban Environmental Security (3)

This course will examine human and ecological security problems stemming from trends towards increasing urbanization, including contaminated drinking water supplies, poor air quality, inadequate housing, transportation and sanitation, and overload of waste management facilities due to accelerated consumption, among others. It will address the evolution of urban infrastructure, the city as seat of power, as entity reshaping the landscape, as a contrast to the country, and as economic magnet.

ESP-6060 Water, Security and Peace (3)

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.

GPB- 6090 A Gender Analysis of the Environment and Sustainable Development (3)

This course  is designed to provide technical, methodological and practical inputs in order to understand the importance of gender issues for the environmental sector. Throughout the two weeks the students will be exposed to the major trends that have been used for the incorporation of gender in the environmental sector.  Also, practical skills will be gain in order to mainstream gender in the project cycle, specific ecosystem analysis and new topics from a gender perspective  and elaboration of gender policies for the environmental sector.

NRD-6050  Sustainable Agriculture Systems (3)

This course will explore historical and contemporary approaches to agricultural sustainability across cultures, which covers social, cultural, environmental and political aspects of various farming approaches and rural development strategies, and analyze how best to move towards sustainable systems. The centerpiece of the class will be an in-depth case study of the Costa Rican organic movement, including farm visits and volunteer opportunities and meetings with movement leaders, academics, and officials.

ESP-6140 Environmental Conflict Management (3)

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. Environmental conflict analysis is discussed extensively and practiced with real cases using Stakeholders Analysis Systems (SAS) tools. The development of conflict management strategies, power levelling interventions and process design are other important parts of the course.

ESP-6140 Environmental Conflict Management and Peace Building (3)

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.

NR- 6024 Strategic Planning and Project Design and Evaluation (3)

The course is of an instrumental type and is oriented to enable students to prepare a strategic plan, prepare, implement, monitor, evaluate and systematize the lessons learned in national and international delopment oriented projects. In this course, the emphasis will be put on strategic planning for community development and, adapting the concept and methodologies to community sustainable development.

ESP-6150 Local Governance for Environmental Security (1)

This course focuses on the capacity of local communities and society to develop creative practical solutions to environmental problems.

NRD-6083 Natural Resource Management Field Course (3)

This class is an opportunity to explore in-depth how different land-uses and conservation approaches intermingle in one particular region: the South of Costa Rica. The purpose of the field trip is to obtain critical direct experience and knowledge of important natural resources management issues in a developing country, given the real political, economic and resources context of the same.

Please visit the UPeace website for further information and click here to find the 2009 -2010 NRSD UPEACE class schedule.

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 Environmental Security in Asia (3)

This course considers environmental issues seen both as causes of conflict and as preconditions for human security, or ultimate security. Another dimension of this course concerns security institutions such as defense agencies and the military, and the relationship between war and the environment. This course asks students to consider: what the proper role of such institutions is in dealing with environmental threats; and how are we to sort out the disparate interpretations of the roles of the environment in security and of security institutions in the environment.

SIS-620 Global Climate Change (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. Meets with SIS-496 001.

SIS-620 Political Ecology of Food and Agriculture (3)

Food presents a unique lens to examine political, cultural, and technological connections to environment and development. This course provides students with an introduction to political ecology and its approach to global food studies. Students use political ecology and social theory paradigms to examine industrial and alternative food networks, including their impacts on the environment, communities, and rural development. Students also examine how food policy and the global food trading system shape these networks and local environments, communities, and development practices.

SIS-620 Conservation in the Developing World (3)

Many of the international policies relating to sustainable development are made and implemented without adequate knowledge of ecosystems or the socio-political context of ecosystem degradation in developing countries. This course helps international studies students to effectively integrate ecological concerns with sustainable development policy as articulated by donor agencies, scientific organizations, governments and civil society. The course begins with a scientific understanding of the distribution, maintenance, and loss of biodiversity and processes underlying ecosystem degradation. Using these basic principles, inter- and intra-country conflicts over ecosystem use and conservation strategies (both existing and emerging) are analyzed using specific case studies from the developing world. Contrasting perspectives from a variety of disciplines, including history, economics, and sociology, are used to develop a holistic view of today's biodiversity crisis and its amelioration.

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.