Sustainability and Environmental Studies
SES 100 - Introduction to Sustainability and Environmental Studies (4 Credit Hours)
In this course, students consider environmental problems through the lenses of many different academic disciplines. The purpose of this approach is two-fold: 1) to enhance the student’s understanding of environmental issues as multi-dimensional dilemmas, and 2) to evaluate and promote sustainable alternatives to business-as-usual. In the first part of the course, students consider the human relationship with the non-human world, including problems of ethics, social and psychological connections with nature, ecological services, and common pool resources. The subsequent sections address historical and current environmental concerns, including population growth, food systems, resource limitation, pollution, biodiversity, and environmental justice. We explore sustainable solutions, remedies, and actions, including regulation and law, restoration, and sustainable lifestyles. The laboratory component of the course exposes students to local and regional environmental geographies, problems, and tools for sustainable solutions. Field trips, guest speakers, and films emphasize the necessity of multidisciplinary integration in the design of sustainable environmental systems.
SES 123 - Sustainability Praxis (0 Credit Hours)
SES majors and minors are required to complete ONE sustainability experience. These activities involve a minimum of 100 hours during the academic year, or a minimum of 200 hours during the summer. Successful completion of SES 123 serves as the official recognition that all of the experiential requirements have been satisfied for this component of the major and minor. Completion of the course involves the written articulation of learning objectives, submitted to the Director of SES in advance of the experience.
SES 150 - Fundamentals of Investigative Journalism (4 Credit Hours)
This course helps students new to journalism to learn the principles of investigative reporting and storytelling in an applied way by practicing them on a unique and important story to our community, and to the world. Each semester the class will focus on a unique issue and work collectively to report and write stories about that issue.
Crosslisting: JOUR 150.
SES 188 - Sustainability Seminar (1 Credit Hour)
New efforts to achieve sustainability in the face of environmental problems are generating innovation and opportunity at an ever-increasing pace. This seminar exposes students to cutting-edge ideas, technologies, research, and potential career pathways in environmental sustainability. The seminar will feature guest speakers, opportunities for networking with Denison alumni, presentations from students who have completed internships and off campus study, faculty research spotlights, and conversations with environmental professionals. Seminar participants will meet once each week during each semester. This course adheres to Denison’s Academic Credit policy. It does not fulfill a GE requirement.
SES 189 - Environmental Careers (1 Credit Hour)
New efforts to achieve sustainability in the face of environmental problems are generating innovation and opportunity at an ever-increasing pace. This seminar exposes students to cutting-edge ideas, technologies, research, and potential career pathways in environmental sustainability. The seminar will feature guest speakers, opportunities for networking with Denison alumni, presentations from students who have completed internships and off campus study, faculty research spotlights, and conversations with environmental professionals. Seminar participants will meet once each week during each semester. This course adheres to Denison’s Academic Credit policy. It does not fulfill a GE requirement.
SES 200 - Environmental Analysis (4 Credit Hours)
In this course, students will learn and practice different methods of addressing environmental questions and expressing environmental perspectives. Central themes are writing and quantitative analysis: for each of the topics and methods used, students will gain experience with a variety of professional writing styles and analytical approaches. Environmental issues will be investigated through both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and statistical analysis, along with a variety of writing styles. Students will also examine the human connection with the nonhuman world through the use of media and spatial representation. Through successful completion of this course, students will have applied a variety of methods to the analysis of environmental issues.
Prerequisite(s): SES 100.
SES 202 - Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability (4 Credit Hours)
Economic growth is traditionally perceived as the solution to the socioeconomic ills of poverty, unemployment, and more generally underdevelopment. However, economic growth is also accompanied by increased pressure on and, over time, deterioration of the natural environment. The objective of this course is to explore the relationship between economic growth and the natural environment. While economic growth occupies a central place in economic policy-making, we will discuss whether economic growth is compatible with the sustainable development worldview adopted by the UN and many other global and local economic actors. Sustainable development emphasizes the need to embark upon a development path that considers the environmental, social, and economic needs of the present generation and those of future generations.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 101 and ECON 102.
Crosslisting: ECON 202.
SES 204 - High Renaissance, Baroque Art and Architecture (4 Credit Hours)
This course provides an introduction to the visual culture, architecture, and selected patterns of urban development in Rome during the High Renaissance, Mannerism, and the Baroque era through the papacy of Alexander VII (1655-67). Developments from ca. 1450 on in Rome leading to Julius II and the Roman High Renaissance will be a focus. Consideration of Mannerism, the Council of Trent, and early Baroque visual and architectural forms (later 16th century) will lead to a second focus on 17th-century visual and spatial practices in Counter-Reformation Rome. A third focus will be Iberian and Italian colonial practices, transculturation, and the hegemony of Counter-Reformation visual culture and urbanism under the Habsburgs and beyond.
Crosslisting: AHVC 204.
SES 206 - Global Green New Deal (4 Credit Hours)
This course engages with the theoretical and policy literature on what might be termed a Global Green New Deal (Global GND), which is an attempt to simultaneously address global inequality, socio-economic exclusion, and the negative impact of climate change on overall quality of life. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach drawing from the literature on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), decolonization, economic development, structural reparations, ecological economics, international law, and climate science to assess the case for a global network of truth and reconciliation commissions on colonial and climate reparations. The course pays particular attention to the structural differences between developed and developing countries, and highlights the importance of South-South cooperation and South-North solidarity as the economic and geopolitical prerequisites for building systemic resilience to the inevitable consequences of climate change.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 101 and ECON 102.
Crosslisting: ECON 206.
SES 211 - Landscape Painting (4 Credit Hours)
This course introduces students to the genre of landscape painting. Art making will be completed in the studio and out in the field. Art projects are devised to have students develop acute observations about the landscape while creating newfound relationships with it. Technical demonstrations in paint application and design are coupled with strategies of research and preparation to produce thoughtful and critical pictorial representations. An introduction to the historical lineage of the painted landscape will be balanced with exposure to contemporary artists and concepts. Students will use painting as an excuse to probe their landscape, to dissect and invert it, to wander off the path, and to redefine where it starts and ends. Group readings, presentations, and discussions complement the studio workshop environment by helping to contextualize an art practice to the broader world.
Crosslisting: ARTS 211.
SES 215 - Renewable Energy Systems (4 Credit Hours)
Renewable Energy Systems provides students with a comprehensive overview of the different alternative energy systems that are in use today. The course will introduce the basic scientific and engineering concepts used in designing and analyzing different energy technologies. Some emphasis will be placed on real-world applications of such technologies through the introduction of several case studies related to the field.
SES 217 - Sustainable Development Goals (4 Credit Hours)
Imagine the world in five years. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a part of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda to create a healthier, more peaceful, and prosperous planet for all. The international community created the SDGs as both a guide for future development as well as an urgent call to action to address today’s most pressing global challenges. All SDGs are inherently interrelated and difficult to unravel, for example, SDG13 Climate Action includes creating both: SDG11 Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG7 Affordable and Clean Energy. Moreover, many argue climate change is the result of severe global inequality and unsustainable consumption and production, addressed by SDG10 and SDG12 respectively. Nonetheless, the SDG framework breaks these global challenges down in a way that productively channels resources and focuses attention on more targeted solutions. This course will examine the creation, history, and evolution of the SDGs as well as the myriad solutions being implemented at the state level, and across civil society and the private sector to address the SDGs. Students in this course will explore an SDG of interest in-depth through a series of oral presentations & projects focusing on existing solutions to these pressing global challenges. Students will therefore gain both depth and breadth of knowledge about the SDGs and 21st century integrated sustainability value creation.
SES 220 - Sustainable Global Finance (4 Credit Hours)
A well-functioning financial sector is key in improving economic efficiency and producing high economic growth, but in the 21st-century, those goals cannot be achieved without considering both environmental and social sustainability issues. This course gives students a foundation in how sustainability issues (ESG: Environmental, Social and Governance) create challenges to businesses, economies and society, and the role of the financial sector in addressing environmental and social challenges. The course explores questions such as: what is sustainability and why does it matter, what are the challenges to corporations and the economy posed by sustainability, how to value financial assets and how integrated reporting can facilitate valuation and improve transparency. Applications on sustainable investment products such as green bonds, climate financing, and social impact bonds will also be discussed.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 101 and ECON 102.
Crosslisting: GC 220.
SES 222 - Geographic Information Systems I (2 Credit Hours)
This course is an introduction to the concepts and uses of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with particular application to environmental issues. The course consists of laboratory exercises on GIS data structures and sources of data, on the use of specific GIS tools, and on practical applications of GIS to real-world tasks. The student will gain skills in spatial data analysis, map generation, and data presentation using ArcGIS software. After successful completion of this course, students who wish to develop advanced GIS skills may enroll in SES 223.
Crosslisting: EESC 222.
SES 223 - Geographic Information Systems II (2 Credit Hours)
This course is intended to give the student experience with advanced GIS applications. The focus will be on novel analyses of spatially explicit data about real-world environmental issues.
Prerequisite(s): EESC 222 or SES 222.
Crosslisting: EESC 223.
SES 240 - Environmental Politics and Decision-Making (4 Credit Hours)
This course gives students a chance to explore the realm of proactive change in the environmental arena. It combines the theories of policy, the tools of problem-solving, and the practice of dealing with environmental challenges in the real world of the American government. The premise of the course is this: if you want to improve the state of the planet, you have to propose a solution. To make a solution happen, you should understand the process of getting an idea through the decision-making system. Effecting change requires a background in the system(s) that make things happen, whether you ultimately want to work within the system or outside it. This course is divided into two main components: an overview and implementation of problem-solving techniques, and an in-depth examination of the U.S. Congress' role in environmental policy formation. The latter section culminates in a "Moot Congress" undertaken by students at the end of the semester. Not recommended for first-year students.
SES 242 - Community Resilience (4 Credit Hours)
The impacts of a shock on a community are not necessarily determined by the scale of the shock, but greatly influenced by community preparation. Community resilience is the capacity of a community to withstand, recover from, and respond positively to crisis or adversity. This course focuses on place-based communities in a variety of local and global contexts and the assets that shape those community’s efforts to maintain or improve local quality of life and sustainability.
SES 256 - Farmscape: Visual Immersion in the Food System (4 Credit Hours)
Every human being has an intimate relationship with food, often with deep emotional facets. Yet we in the U.S. know very little about the food system that sustains us – it is a mysterious and often invisible set of processes, organizations, and people. This remarkably complex web of inputs, labor, machinery, laws, subsidies, mergers, and so many other components is one that we take largely for granted. This class seeks to align that reality with another: we are an intensely visual species. A critical part of our existence that we experience through all of our senses is one we fail to comprehend through our primary sense. And we have this occasion to use sight in a formalized way – photography – to tell new stories, and to bring an artistic sensibility to our understanding of food, and perhaps ourselves. Through imagery, writing, and the curatorial process of exhibiting our work in a public setting, we have a truly unique opportunity. Our immersion in these critical issues can bring full circle the understanding we gain through many eyes to enhance awareness in other people about how our food system connects us all.
SES 260 - Environmental Philosophy (4 Credit Hours)
This course investigates the question of our ethical relations and responsibility to objects and systems in the natural world, including animals, other living beings, non-living entities, ecosystems, and "nature" as a whole. It also asks about nature as such: what nature is, what the place in it is of humans, the role of human action in transforming nature, etc. The question of the relation of the natural to the social will receive special attention.
Prerequisite(s): One previous course in Philosophy, ENVS/SES major or minor, or consent.
Crosslisting: PHIL 260.
SES 262 - Negotiation and Environmental Conflict Resolution (4 Credit Hours)
An in-depth investigation of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) as an improved means to affect change in environmental conflict. Both an intellectual and hands-on introduction to the theory and practice of ADR, relying on research into theoretical aspects of conflict, attendance at both conventional litigatory and ADR hearings, and actual participation in ADR exercises.
SES 263 - World Views: Spatial Imagination in East Asia (4 Credit Hours)
This course engages the question: ‘How are images used to imagine our place in the world?’ Students are invited to study fascinating practices of spatial image-making in East Asia from the inside out, by exploring these world-views from the perspective of their makers. You will be asked to pay special attention to how social and economic power structures inflect these representations: to envision and decode spatial imagery as a site of imagination, control, and resistance. Artists and patrons in China, Japan, and Korea have for centuries produced elaborate maps and landscape imagery, photographs, and film to imagine the world in a variety of ways. This course invites you to approach modern and contemporary representations of space in East Asia both in theoretically and historically informed ways. In the first part of the course, students build a frame of reference for their analysis of post-war case studies, by reading core texts in spatial theory and exploring important visual representations of space from pre-modern East Asia. In the second part of the course, students apply these theoretical and historical approaches to select cases that exemplify more recent struggles over space and its imagination in East Asia.
SES 264 - Environmental Planning and Design (4 Credit Hours)
This course examines a variety of local environmental planning processes and issues, focusing primarily on the communities surrounding Denison (Granville, Licking County), as well as the theories, concepts, and tools of design, both at a community level and for individual buildings. Particular attention will be paid to controversial models of architecture and planning to understand some of the negative implications of conventional approaches. Field trips, group exercises, research, and project competitions will form the basis for course evaluation.
SES 274 - Ecosystem Management (4 Credit Hours)
Many of Earth's ecosystems are stressed and degraded as a result of human activities. Ecosystem management is the process of evaluating the biotic and abiotic features of ecosystems and stressors and manipulating those features toward a defined goal, such as conservation or restoration. In this course, students will apply aspects of systems ecology to management scenarios in particularly stressed ecosystems. Students will gain an understanding of systems ecology and will learn how ecological communities function within ecosystems and landscapes. After establishing this foundation, students will lead the exploration of some of our planet's greatest ecological systems. Lab sessions will allow students to construct a computer-based simulation of an ecosystem and to apply ecological modeling as a management tool in both lab and field settings.
SES 276 - Environmental Justice (4 Credit Hours)
Using waste as a focusing lens, this course examines the theory and application of environmental justice and environmental inequality within a global context. The objective of this course is to understand, explore, and analyze the inequities and power dynamics associated with many types of socio-environmental issues, thus illustrating environmental (in)justice at multiple scales. Using several case studies (e.g., electronic waste, renewable energy, and climate change, among others), we explore three core questions: 1) How are justice issues experienced locally by different social groups? 2) How do socio-environmental issues relate to broader structural injustices? And 3) How can we reimagine solutions for environmental justice? By thinking critically about these questions, we challenge our thinking on a variety of topics, including consumption, circular economy, the meaning of waste, and why it matters today and in the future. Importantly, students in this course engage significantly with the oral communication of environmental justice issues to different audiences within the broader community.
SES 291 - Environmental Literature (4 Credit Hours)
This course examines humanity's relationship with and shifting conceptions of the nonhuman world through a range of literary and cultural texts. While reading selections will vary, they will generally include writers who reflect different ethnic, regional, and/or national outlooks and who work in various modes, including fiction, poetry, memoir, natural history, and science writing.
Crosslisting: ENGL 291.
SES 301 - Sustainability Practicum (4 Credit Hours)
This core major course is primarily for SES majors; minors are welcome. This course provides the opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience working on real-world environmental problems. As a group, students work in an intensive format with a real "client" and real deadlines to research a problem, assess options, recommend solutions, and evaluate outcomes. Examples of projects include energy and water conservation, local land use planning, wetlands management, reuse/recycling programs, agriculture preservation, and environmental education. Should be taken during the junior year.
Prerequisite(s): ENVS or SES 202, ENVS/SES major or minor.
SES 302 - Medieval Art and Architecture (4 Credit Hours)
This course is an advanced investigation of art and architectural developments in the Latin West during the medieval and early modern periods. Selective foci include western monastic art, building, and lay patronage in Spain, France, and Italy during the Romanesque through Gothic periods and beyond. The early urbanism of the communes of Italy is a focus, with their expansion of civil art and architecture through the fourteenth century, and the rise of new religious orders.
Crosslisting: AHVC 302.
SES 310 - Wetland Ecology (4 Credit Hours)
This course is a comprehensive study of wetland ecology, management, and policy. The main emphasis is on the biological, chemical, and physical aspects of major wetland ecosystems found in North America. The course also deals with the valuation, classification, and delineation of wetlands. A significant portion of the course focuses on local and regional wetland ecosystems: their history, ecology, and current status. Labs will be field-based explorations of the biology, chemistry, and ecology of these regional wetlands.
Prerequisite(s): BIOL 210, 220, 230, and CHEM 131 or consent.
Crosslisting: BIOL 310.
SES 334 - Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems (4 Credit Hours)
This course will expose students to the purposes and methods associated with sustainable agriculture. We will do this through readings, discussion, and experience on local and sustainable farms. Throughout the semester we will reflect on the social, economic, and environmental aspects associated with sustainable agriculture as well as actual practices affiliated with the modern sustainable agriculture movement. Students must be prepared to commit to working on farms each week as part of the lab requirement of this course.
SES 351 - Restoration Ecology (4 Credit Hours)
Many of Earth’s ecosystems are degraded to the point where they no longer fully support the species and processes on which we depend. In response, western science has recently applied ecological theory to techniques of restoration. Some of these practices have long been used by cultures around the world, while others are experimental approaches to novel situations. In this course, students will learn foundational concepts and skills for the planning, design, actualization, and evaluation of restored ecosystems. Using literature review, discussion, projects, and labs, we will explore the following: landscapes in which ecological restoration may occur, including sociocultural landscapes; abiotic features of ecosystems and associated physiological limits of organisms; genetic aspects of restoration; population dynamics and community assembly; principles of succession and disturbance ecology; nonnative species and invasion ecology; and methods of evaluation. A primary focus of the course is exposure to real-world situations through fieldwork and consultation with professionals. This is a lab science course that fulfills the Y GE and adheres to Denison’s Academic Credit policy.
Prerequisite(s): SES 274, BIOL 230, or consent.
Crosslisting: BIOL 351.
SES 352 - Planetary Health (4 Credit Hours)
Human health is intimately linked to the natural systems on which it depends. With advances in technology, agriculture, and health knowledge, humans are living longer than ever. However, those same technologies have pushed planetary systems to a breaking point. This class seeks to elaborate a path forward that recognizes the profound impact human ‘progress’ has on our planet and the reciprocal impact changes in natural systems will have on the future of human health.
Prerequisite(s): GH 100.
Crosslisting: GH 352.
SES 360 - Telling Stories about Place (4 Credit Hours)
Place is fundamental to storytelling, and therefore to good reporting. Understanding where a story takes place means knowing which descriptive details to put in and leave out. Place is reflected in and shapes the people we write about. Good reporters need to understand that someone from a small rural village is going to have a different worldview that someone from a city, and they need to understand why, and how it affects their motivations and shapes the institutions that govern their lives. Understanding and respecting the places where we report from helps us produce authentic and compelling stories with depth and insight. This course will explore "places" that are easily accessible to students and faculty--Rural America, Appalachia, the City, the Suburbs, Rust Belt America--for example.
Crosslisting: JOUR 360.
SES 361 - Directed Study (1-4 Credit Hours)
A student in good standing may work intensively in areas of special interest under the Directed Study plan. A Directed Study is appropriate when, under the guidance of a faculty member, a student wants to explore a subject more fully than is possible in a regular course or to study a subject not covered in the regular curriculum. A Directed Study should not normally duplicate a course that is regularly offered. Directed Studies are normally taken for 3 or 4 credits. A one-semester Directed Study is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Directed Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
SES 362 - Directed Study (1-4 Credit Hours)
A student in good standing may work intensively in areas of special interest under the Directed Study plan. A Directed Study is appropriate when, under the guidance of a faculty member, a student wants to explore a subject more fully than is possible in a regular course or to study a subject not covered in the regular curriculum. A Directed Study should not normally duplicate a course that is regularly offered. Directed Studies are normally taken for 3 or 4 credits. A one-semester Directed Study is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Directed Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
SES 363 - Independent Study (1-4 Credit Hours)
Independent Study engages a student in the pursuit of clearly defined goals. In this effort, a student may employ skills and information developed in previous course experiences or may develop some mastery of new knowledge or skills. A proposal for an Independent Study project must be approved in advance by the faculty member who agrees to serve as the project advisor. Note: Independent Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
SES 364 - Independent Study (1-4 Credit Hours)
Independent Study engages a student in the pursuit of clearly defined goals. In this effort, a student may employ skills and information developed in previous course experiences or may develop some mastery of new knowledge or skills. A proposal for an Independent Study project must be approved in advance by the faculty member who agrees to serve as the project advisor. Note: Independent Studies may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
SES 391 - Nature's Nation (4 Credit Hours)
This course explores how a range of nineteenth-century American authors represented the natural world, examining how those representations of nature are informed by gender, class, and racial identities and how they become implicated in discourses of nationalism and imperialism.
Crosslisting: ENGL 391.
SES 401 - Sustainability and Environmental Senior Project (4 Credit Hours)
This course is required for SES majors with senior standing unless they are pursuing senior research (SES 451/452 or equivalent). This course provides an integrating and culminating experience for students, individually or in small groups, to engage with an environmental issue, either by conducting research related to this issue or by taking action on it in a way that is informed by their academic understanding. The primary objective is for each student to integrate their study of environmental issues at Denison and to develop skills in critically analyzing environmental problems and promoting environmental change. A primary focus is on writing: crafting a project proposal, communicating objectives and cogent arguments, reviewing and incorporating relevant literature, analyzing results, and synthesizing conclusions. Students will have the opportunity to hone a major written work through several stages and to provide and receive peer review on written work.
Prerequisite(s): SES core and SES 301, or consent of instructor.
SES 427 - Environmental Economics (4 Credit Hours)
This course provides an examination of various economic issues facing business and government regarding the use of natural resources and the management of environmental quality. Students will develop an understanding of both the economic nature of environmental problems and the economic tools necessary to explore and devise potential policy solutions for environmental problems. In addition, students will examine the institutional framework within which environmental problems exist to understand those factors that may mitigate against economic solutions. The course fulfills the SES Social Science requirement.
Prerequisite(s): ECON 302.
Crosslisting: ECON 427.
SES 451 - Senior Research (4 Credit Hours)
Students may enroll in Senior Research in their final year at Denison. Normally, Senior Research requires a major thesis, report, or project in the student's field of concentration and carries eight semester-hours of credit for the year. Typically, a final grade for a year-long Senior Research will not be assigned until the completion of the year-long Senior Research at the end of the second semester. In which case, the first semester Senior Research grade will remain "in progress" (PR) until the completion of the second semester Senior Research. Each semester of Senior Research is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Senior Research may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements.
SES 452 - Senior Research (4 Credit Hours)
Students may enroll in Senior Research in their final year at Denison. Normally, Senior Research requires a major thesis, report, or project in the student's field of concentration and carries eight semester-hours of credit for the year. Typically, a final grade for a year-long Senior Research will not be assigned until the completion of the year-long Senior Research at the end of the second semester. In which case, the first semester Senior Research grade will remain "in progress" (PR) until the completion of the second semester Senior Research. Each semester of Senior Research is limited to a maximum of 4 credit hours. Note: Senior Research may not be used to fulfill General Education requirements. SES 452 is the continuation of SES 451 course.