If you’re interested in the combination of environmental studies, sciences, policy, and anthropology, you may want to pursue a course of study in environmental justice. Environmental justice is a lens applied to environmentalism that incorporates principles of social justice into the bigger question of sustainability.
Some schools have specialized programs, while others incorporate an environmental justice perspective into their broad environmental studies or environmental science major. Students are encouraged to seek out solutions to our environmental crises which won’t come from one perspective or academic department, but from the bringing together of ideas and backgrounds.
If this sounds exciting to you, we’ve compiled our top ten environmental justice programs below to help you find your perfect fit.
Are you passionate about building a career in environmental justice, but not as into this whole college application thing, send us an email. We help students chart a course toward success.
Dartmouth College — Hanover, New Hampshire
The Environmental Studies program at this Ivy League school brings together the science, the theory, the history, and the practice through courses in subjects including environmental justice. Courses like “Conservation, Development, and Sustainability,” “Political Ecology,” and “Indigenous Environmental Studies” offer students avenues for exploration and building expertise in a setting immersed in the outdoors.
Middlebury College — Middlebury, Vermont
The Environmental Studies program at Middlebury was founded in 1965, and is the oldest undergraduate Environmental Studies program in the United States. It is an interdisciplinary major and minor, with 17 areas of focus, including Environmental Justice. Seniors collaborate on a “community-connected learning project in partnership with local environmental organizations,” and two-thirds of environmental studies majors study off campus.
Hamilton College — Clinton, New York
Students in the Environmental Studies program at Hamilton have access to deep faculty with centuries of combined experience at the forefront of their field. The program has a strong focus on environmental justice, including courses like “Environmental Justice” and “Resilience and Collapse: Archaeological Perspectives on People and the Environment.” The Senior project also gives students the opportunity to zoom in with intense focus on a subject they are passionate about.
University of Washington — Seattle, Washington
The University of Washington has an impressive climate and environmental sciences program, including majors in Environmental Studies, Ecology & Conservation, Marine Sciences, Earth Sciences, and Engineering. Across all majors there is a focus on climate justice and sustainability, as “all environmental issues involve social issues.”
University of California – San Diego — San Diego, California
The Scripps Institution on Oceanography is a leading climate science program globally. Undergraduate students benefit from institutional expertise through events, programming, and their Bachelor of Science degree options. Students can major in Geosciences, Earth Sciences, Marine Biology, and Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, and there are career tracks within each major to guide you towards your future. The BS/MS Contiguous Program results in a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science.
Skidmore College — Saratoga Springs, New York
Skidmore offers an Environmental Studies and Sci program that offers majors in Environmental Studies or Environmental Science. Students can take courses like “Environmental Engineering and the Science of Sustainability” and Environmental Justice,” and seniors take on a year-long research-based capstone experience in which, “Teams of students conduct original community-based research focused on a single, local environmental issue.”
Barnard College — New York, New York
Barnard offers an Environmental Science major and minor, but we’re more interested in the Environmental Humanities minor in the Consortium of Critical Interdisciplinary Studies and the Political Ecology Track. The Environmental Humanities minor takes aim at how “any meaningful effort to address environmental challenges must emerge from both humanistic and scientific considerations.” The Political Ecology track in the Anthropology Department of the all-women’s college of Columbia University offers an opportunity to specialize one’s anthropological coursework by centering it on “environmental justice, climate change, and sustainability.”
University of Michigan — Ann Arbor, Michigan
The School for Environment and Sustainability at Mich oversees PitE, or the Program in the Environment, a university-wide interdisciplinary collaborative program. The PitE environment major requires students to specialize in a track such as Natural Science, Social Science, or Culture & Environment, and to do a practical experience. Students interested in environmental justice should consider the Social Science track, which you could further narrow down to Environmental Law and Policy, Environmental Behavior and Education, or Environmental and Public Health.
Dickinson College — Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Dickinson has been ranked the #2 Green College in the US, and the BS in Environmental Science and BA in Environmental Studies are widely seen as two of the strongest programs in the country. Coursework is available in environmental policy, aquatic ecology, agroecology, forest ecology, sustainability communities, environmental justice, and more, and students have interned with the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, EPA, National Park Service, and other well-known organizations and groups.
Occidental College — Los Angeles, California
Students at Occidental can major in Urban & Environmental Policy, which is focused on the intersection of urban and environment, and how environmentalism isn’t simply applicable to the rural and the far-away — but everywhere. This puts Environmental Justice at its core. Students examine climate and environmental challenges through “the multiple lenses of race, gender, sexuality, nation and class” through courses like “Environment and Society” and “Urban Policy and Politics.”
If you’re interested in studying environmental justice in college, a simple environmental studies degree won’t do. Be sure to find a program with an environmental angle through programming, coursework, and specialized faculty.
If you’re having trouble sorting through your options, send us an email. We help students like you find, and get into, their perfect college.