Courses

The state of the air, water, and soil, climate change, habitat conversion, invasive species, biodiversity decline, deforestation, overfishing, and many other environmental issues are at the core of our most pressing economic, social, political, and human health concerns. This course examines the roots of the modern environmental crisis, reviewing the most current environmental issues and the underlying science for a critical look at how societies have interacted with the natural environment past and present and the requirements for a sustainable future. The course consists of small group discussions, readings, and case studies.
Prerequisite(s): This course is open to all students. It is a core requirement/ Introduction to the Field course for Environmental Studies Majors.

The state of the air, water, and soil, climate change, habitat conversion, invasive species, biodiversity decline, deforestation, overfishing, and many other environmental issues are at the core of our most pressing economic, social, political, and human health concerns. This course examines the roots of the modern environmental crisis, reviewing the most current environmental issues and the underlying science for a critical look at how societies have interacted with the natural environment past and present and the requirements for a sustainable future. The course consists of small group discussions, readings, and case studies.
Prerequisite(s): This course is open to all students. It is a core requirement/ Introduction to the Field course for Environmental Studies Majors.

In this course, you will learn about “design thinking” (the collaborative creative research and the processes used by designers), and you will learn how to apply “design thinking” to personal environmental behavior change in the context of city living.
Design clearly must bear much of the blame for the unsustainability of our societies. So ca design contribute to the creation of more sustainable futures? To answer this question, this course critically explores the history of design, and in particular sustainable design. It does so from the contemporary context in which design is changing, attempting to become a more interdisciplinary, participatory research-based force for strategic change by intervening in obdurate socio-technical practices.

This course combines lectures on the history and future of sustainable design with a studio exploring the application of design thinking to the creation of more sustainable ways of living. At the moment, the lecture component of this course is provided by attendance at the Think and Design Sustainable Futures ULEC.

In the studio, you will learn a range of co-design research and ideation methods (such as, problem reframing, unobtrusive and participant observation, long qualitative interviewing, visual analysis, cultural probes, creation idea generation, scenario-based designing, low-fi prototyping, bodystorming) and apply them to understanding and then responding to unsustainable aspects of contemporary urban living. Using previously learned visual communication design skills, you will create rich and insightful information visualizations of the ecological impacting aspects of your own lifestyle.

Then, in the light of what you learn from the lecture about the design-based causes of unsustainable aspects of your own life, you will use co-design research and ideation methods to innovate ways of making changes to your lifestyle that enhance its sustainability.
Note: Co-requisite: Think and Design Sustainable Futures ULEC 2340 – Tonkinwise

In this course, you will use techniques and strategies for fostering more sustainable everyday ways of living amongst communities and organizations. It is apparent that technological changes alone will not sufficiently enhance societal sustainability, and that even those technologies that do make significant contributions to more sustainable futures will require significant social change to be successfully implemented. Developing sustainability therefore involves sophisticated understandings of the motivations and habits of humans, and clever and comprehensive ways of shifting people’s behaviors and expectations. This course comprises a seminar and a studio. The seminar will explore the social science theories behind a range of techniques for fostering social change in relation to sustainability, such as, social marketing, behavioral economics, socio-technical regime change, innovation diffusion, group dynamics, community organizing and social innovation. The studio will test those techniques by undertaking careful yet creative social research into design modifications to a targeted group of people’s everyday practices such as dining, cleaning, bathing, transport, etc.

Students learn the fundamental ecological principles starting with core concepts in evolution then building from species and populations to community dynamics and structure, the study of ecosystems, and finally landscape ecology. The course also introduces the drivers of biodiversity, the importance of genetic diversity, and the impacts of climate change on species and communities. This course is positioned to justify the statement that understanding ecology (how biological organisms interact with each other and their environment) is crucial to understanding how to move toward a more sustainable future.
Note: Students who have taken Urban Ecologies (LSTS 2815) in 2008 and students who have taken Ecology 1 (LSCI 2050) in 2009 or 2010 should not register for this course.

Designed for Environmental Studies majors and non-science majors. There are no prerequisites for this course. Applies chemistry to environmental topics including smog; ozone depletion; global climate change; water pollution; acid rain; and fossil fuel, and alternative energies.

This course is an in-depth introduction to the city as an ecosystem. This course provides important interdisciplinary approach to understanding our environment by integrating biophysical and social-economic forces (e.g., biology, economics, public policy) to understand, predict, and manage the emergent phenomena we call cities. We will cover such key questions as: What is an urban ecosystem? Are cities sustainable environments? Glancing at a typical map of the world, one might conclude that cities cover a small proportion of the continents and, therefore, have little environmental impact. However, our planet is increasingly urban. As cities become the dominant living environment for humans, there is a growing concern about how to make such places more habitable, healthy and safe, more ecological, and more equitable. This course will make explicit the connection between human livelihoods in cities, quality of life and the dependence on the ecological processes and cycles that support city living.

This course combines aspects of quantitative reasoning and mathematical modeling. Quantitative reasoning enables us to make sense of numbers—to find patterns, to estimate—and thereby to create mathematical models that help us make informed decisions. The focus in this course is particularly on the use of difference equations to describe complex natural phenomena. Using spreadsheets as computational and graphical aids students develop the algebraic, computational, graphical, and statistical skills necessary to understand mathematical models. They learn why difference equations are the primary tools of the emerging theories of chaos and complexity.

This course is an introduction to statistics using the software package SPSS. Emphasis is on understanding the concepts and their application to a wide range of situations. The course combines lecture, group discussion, and short collaborative assignments. Several times during the semester, the class meets in the media lab to learn specific SPSS skills. Students complete self-guided tutorials and homework assignments in the lab outside of class time.

An introduction to differential calculus: topics include limits, continuity, derivatives of algebraic and exponential functions, applications of the derivative to maximization, and related rate problems. The principles of calculus are applied to business and economic problems.

This course offers a critical and technical introduction to the graphic representation of urban spaces, landscapes, and environments. Students survey the growing use of mapping technology in the practice of planning and spatial research within a contemporary and historical context. They learn spatial analysis techniques with a focus on the role of spatial mapping and representation as a support tool. Techniques covered include Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Google Earth, and assorted visualization software. They also examine practices of spatial representation with a specifically insurgent or counter-institutional agenda. Ultimately, the course engages with available technologies for spatial representation and analysis, but does so with a careful eye toward the inherently political aspect of maps.
Note: This course is recommended for fulfilling the MAPPING/GIS requirement of the ENS curriculum.
This course requires an online and/or out of class component.

This course is an introduction to the field of environmental economics. It covers basic economic theories and explores the role of economic analysis in understanding and valuing the environment. The course also examines the application of economics to environmental problem-solving, including areas such as natural resource management, pollution control, and conservation. Throughout the semester, students will read and discuss diverse case studies of current environmental issues, such as global warming, water pollution, toxics, and energy conservation. The course develops a unified approach to problems of social and economic development, environment, and related policy measures within one analytical framework.
Note: This course is recommended for fulfilling the ECON requirement of the ES curriculum

Our food system relies on industrial farming practices controlled by relatively small clusters of global firms, with negative consequences for farm communities, urban consumers, and the environment. This course explores how ecologically and socially sustainable alternatives, from community-supported agriculture programs, to inner-city farms, are generating excitement and energy at the city, state, national and international levels. Through readings, lectures and field trips, we examine contemporary policy responses to food systems challenges on three levels – city-state, state-federal, and national-international. We discuss how food and farm policy governs markets, provides incentives, and channels individual food choices and emerging social movements and policy coalitions in the United States and internationally. We hear from leaders advocating policy change, who discuss how community-based solutions might be scaled up to address the interlocking challenges of persistent hunger and poverty, environmental degradation and climate-change, growing urban and rural food deserts, epidemics of preventable chronic disease, and collapsing rural economies. This course provides tools for advocacy through interactive participation and engagement with food and farm policy

This course is about the major decision, patterns, habits and arguments that structure the contemporary global food system. We look at why food prices are up and fish stocks are down, what trade barriers do, and where food aid programs originated. We discuss the social and political effects of patenting agricultural staples, the labor that goes into cheap food, and long-term effects of changing diets. To put everything in perspective, we adopt a historical approach that identifies both the malleable features and fixed contours of our food system. The course is intended to get students to consider today’s food system as a product of our history and contemplate how decisions we make today will shape our food systems in the future.

This course is an introduction to qualitative research methods. Techniques covered will include participant observation, in-context interviews, self-documentation, participatory design and interactive testing. Texts and materials will be drawn from several fields in the social and behavioral sciences, including anthropology, psychology, and sociology. Through case studies in ecosystems science, social sciences and sustainable design, students will begin to understand how to develop a research question, gather ad apply data in individual and group research assignments. Students will also use this class to prepare for and apply to their summer internship

Offered in: Fall, Spring, Summer

This course critically explores urban development patterns alongside the evolution of industrial production and environmental protection practices that have lead to environmental injustices. Particularly, we examine the social relations of production and power that contribute to the manifestation of unjust conditions in the urban environment. Finally, we consider the most critical question: What can be done to correct these inequalities? Emphasis is placed on the public policy, planning and community based solutions to the problems of environmental injustice. We use local cases and guest lectures to enrich class readings and discussions.

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This course is designed to introduce students to the history, biology, and importance to conservation of urban botanical knowledge with a focus on plant communities in the NYC metro area. Students are introduced to plant physiology, systematics, restoration, and learn field identification techniques for trees, shrubs, and herbs of the region. The course has regular outdoor field trips to plant communities around The New School area to practices the techniques and theory introduced in classroom exercises and discussions. Students ultimately leave class with a strong understanding of plant ecology and are able to identify all the dominant urban plants normally encountered in NYC, giving students tangible skills for summer internships and employment opportunities related to environmental studies in urbanized areas.

Students will be introduced to various hypotheses and theories of climate forcing as well as Earth’s climate history and its environmental impacts to shed light on future climate change and solutions. The interaction and feedbacks among biological and geological components, biogeochemical factors, the carbon cycle, hydrological cycle, the green house effect, ocean circulation, orbital and solar forcing and human influences to climate system will be examined. We will investigate major climatic events in the past, such the theory of the Snowball Earth, extreme Cenozoic warming, glaciations cycles and ENSO. We will discuss how these climatic events affect biological evolution, hydrological pattern and ancient societies around the world. We will then address the future climate change and assess its possible impacts to water, temperature, sea level, ecosystems, and human civilization based on modern field studies, experiments and modeling. Climate policies and choices for remediation will be examined. Class includes hands-on experiments, quantitative analysis, fieldtrips and group discussions.

This course examines sustainable urban food systems, from farm to fork. Students explore the concept of community food security, disparities in access to food, and the social, political, economic, and environmental dimensions of food production, distribution, and marketing. Through field trips to urban farms, farmers markets, and food production facilities, together with guest lectures, students meet food producers, processors and distributors, as well as policy makers, and activists.
Note: This course is open to students with at least 60 credits completed.

In this course we explore histories and contemporary applications of action research, as well as urban agriculture and its multiple roles in the community. Action research (AR) is an approach to research that integrates theory and practice with a vision to create social change. Several schools of thought underlie the AR approach, many of which are grounded in environmental justice and critical theory (e.g., critical race, critical feminist), as well as a commitment to democratic participation. AR is used in a diversity of settings to address social and environmental issues through community and individual empowerment. Examples include community-based anti-toxics action research; student-led participatory action research on racial segregation in schools; and youth-led community food/health assessments in low-income urban districts. Throughout the semester we explore action research through readings and class discussions, and engage in a hands-on project with non-profit organization partners working for sustainable food systems and community empowerment through urban agriculture.

This course will examine the contradictory (but promising) relationship between sustainability and technology, ultimately placing the notion of sustainability into a working conceptual frame. As our point of departure, we will consider sustainability as the (il)legitimate heir of the avant-garde—that same avant-garde that pursued the conditions of industrial production we must now retroactively solve. We will closely examine the role of technology and its historical and theoretical complicity with sustainability. Along the way, we will explore the sets of opposing values generated by technology that profoundly affect art and architectural practices—desire and restraint, natural and artificial, avant-gardism and nostalgia. In unpacking the genealogies of these values, we will develop a theory of sustainability relevant to contemporary practice.

How do religious beliefs, values, and practices inform efforts to promote sustainability? Scholars and practitioners pondering this question have examined the philosophies of the world’s myriad traditions to highlight the religion and ecology interface. They have found that religious traditions can promote the appreciation and care of the environment, but also sometimes provide validation for nature’s desecration.
This course examines the reasons for this paradox by working to understand specific examples such as the pollution of holy rivers and the destruction of sacred groves. The positive contributions that religious values have made to some of the world’s most successful environmental movements are explored as well. Students look beyond religious dogma to the conflicting, hybrid, and fluid meanings about the environment that people produce in everyday thought and practice. While acknowledging the influence of religious texts and leaders from traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity, the class places special importance on the meaning-making and ecological behavior of “ordinary” people. The focus on ordinary people and the everyday realms in which they operate helps to democratize the environmental debate and provides a means to promote understanding, accountability, and stewardship. The course also engages critical approaches to “sustainability” from a range of perspectives.
Note: There are at least four Saturday field trips; participation in two is mandatory.

In this course, students are trained to receive Citizen Tree Pruner Certification from Trees New York, a local environmental advocacy organization. The course consists of eight hours of classroom training and four hours of field training by a Trees New York Forester. Training covers topics including street tree identification, maintenance, and pruning skills. Upon passing a final examination, students will be certified to legally prune trees owned by the City of New York. The balance of the course introduces students to concepts in community forestry, with a final project focused on mapping the urban forest for a New York City neighborhood.

This new Lang Outdoors course offers hands-on experience in identifying, planting, propagating, and pruning native species at the Native Plant Garden in Union Square Park. Students learn about sustainable methods for horticultural upkeep and maintenance, including maximizing water retention on site, building healthy soils, and creating habitat for wildlife. In addition to assuming stewardship of this unique demonstration garden, students will gain an introduction to the beauty and complexity of NYC’s local floristic heritage in a series of site visits to other city parks and natural spaces. Understanding ecological context is the foundation for place-based design and preserving natural systems, and to that end the the class will also meet with professionals in the field to discuss their work and view firsthand the landscapes they tend.

In this hands-on environmental design course taught by a noted environmental sculptor, Mara G. Haseltine, students will learn about innovative design and biology behind building of urban oyster floating gardens, thereby helping to restore a vital element of biodiversity that has been virtually absent from the waters of New York Harbor since the Industrial Revolution. The restoration of 100 square miles of reef would filter twenty seven billion tons of wastewater that flows into New York’s Waterways annually. In the Fall semester, students will learn about the biology of oysters and the history and methods of oyster cultivation, and undertake the construction of their own floating modular oyster gardens. In the Spring, they will seed their oyster gardens, deploy them in the harbors and estuaries, and collect scientific data. Both classes will feature guest speakers from the local oyster community, including environmentalists and marine biologists working in New York Harbor.

Urban Dyeing introduces students to an ongoing project that engages multiple partners to grow plants in the New School neighborhood with a sense of purpose. The class aims to educate about plants, gardening, garden design, public space and participatory models of engagement. In this student driven initiative, students are encouraged to collaborate and feed off each other’s ideas and initiatives to develop, multiply, diversify or bifurcate from the ongoing project. The class has a very practical and hands on approach; we will be planting plants, harvesting plants, composting, assembling containers for plants. We will also be designing with water, heat and cool as well as dyeing, sewing, selling, sharing and trading.

Temporary Works investigates the continual rebuilding of cities as an important environmental process where design can have a greater role. In particular this class will explore how the process of reconstruction can become a participatory space. Often the future promise of construction sites keeps neighborhoods in a holding pattern while they wait for future buildings, parks and infrastructure to be completed. In this class we will ask, how can these very dynamic but dead construction sites become truly imaginative? We will aim to overlay or rethread the requirements of safety and security with that of attraction, curiosity and anticipation. Traffic detours, scaffoldings, sidewalk closures, orange cones, jersey barriers, loud drilling, and trash dumpsters challenge workers, residents and visitors daily. To engage this, we will consider ideas such as repurposing materials, flexible programming, digital interaction and physical urban interventions.

Waterlogged explores the history and lingering presence of buried streams in Manhattan and the relationship between water and urban landscapes. The goal is to introduce students to historic development patterns, printmaking, ecology, public space design and the implications of the intersection of historic waterways and urban infrastructure. The class will use historic map and archival research to examine the existence of remnant waterways and their relationship to the city’s organizational patterns and forms. We will use intaglio printmaking, drawing, sculptural collage, and photography to explore layering, mark making and process. Moving between historic maps, printed images and the landscape of Manhattan students will develop real world projects that employs water, ecological principles and installations in public space to engage remnant waterways and bring them back into public consciousness.

Artists, scientists, economists, lawyers, religious leaders, politicians, educators—they all have something to say about water. But which group knows what they are talking about. The focus of this research lab is the tangled ecological and social conditions of the Hudson and Delaware Valley Watersheds within the dynamic systems of the Earth.
Are we creating conditions that are transforming water into the “new oil?”Our goal is to establish a teaching-learning space for understanding the current status of water. We will use this understanding for the emergence and organization of new possibilities for our relation to water. Our tool is the “laboratory”, a teaching format that uses not only the classroom as a site for learning but also New York City and its surrounding territories. The lab format emphasizes process, reflection, internal critique, and a useful tension between competition and collaboration in addressing “real life” challenges. The proposed lab investigates a range of water issues identified by non-government organizations, communities, and government agencies within the Hudson and Delaware Valley watersheds that attempt to quench New York City’s thirst — issues that link local water with its global sources. Participants will research the social subsystems that shape our relationships to water, such as art, economics, science, law, education, religion and politics. The first half of the semester we will explore current problems related to water. The second half of the semester we will research design and policy case studies that address the problems uncovered in the first half of the semester. Our objective is to contribute to the possibilities opening to us if we reimagine our relation to water. Water 137 and watersheds provide an excellent point of departure for weaving together new ways of imagining in order to reshape social-ecological realities.