In this seminar, we will explore this green thread and analyze its influence on how we shape our environments through design and planning. The course has three parts. Throughout, the influence of literature on design and planning theory will be explored. The first part will focus on three most important theorists in environmental planning and landscape architecture: Frederick Law Olmstead Sr., Charles Eliot and Ian McHarg. The second part of the course will critically explore current theories in environmental planning and landscape architecture. The topics include: frameworks for cultural landscape studies, the future of the vernacular, ecological design and planning, sustainable and regenerative design, the languages of landscapes, and evolving views of landscape aesthetics and ethics. In the third part of the course, students will build on the readings to develop their own theory for ecological planning or, alternatively, landscape architecture. While literacy and critical inquiry are addressed throughout the course, critical thinking is especially important for this final section.

This seminar will explore how sociologists and adjacent social scientists have investigated the intersections of the environment with inequalities of wealth and power, with a focus on a broad "climate change and society" field. The seminar will cover a) recent efforts to reframe the history of capitalism as the history of a socio-environmental system (and overlaps between that agenda and the "racial capitalism" framework); b) the genesis of US-based environmental justice scholarship; c) the global sociology of carbon emissions and international environmental movements; and, d) new trends in "climate change and society" studies.

This course provides an overview of topics related to corporate sustainability with a focus on how environmentally sustainable approaches can create value for the firm. The course explores trends in corporate practices and students consider specific examples of such practices to examine the interactions between the firm and the environment. This course has three objectives: to increase students' knowledge of sustainability practices and their impact on firm performance; to teach students to think strategically and act entrepreneurially on environmental issues; and to help students design business approaches to improve environmental outcomes, while simultaneously creating value.

An introduction to the influence of thermal and luminous phenomenon in the history and practice of architecture. Issues of climate, health and environmental sustainability are explored as they relate to architecture in its natural context. The classes include lectures, site visits and field exploration.

Considers the environmental systems of larger, more complex buildings. Contemporary buildings are characterized by the use of systems such as ventilation, heating, cooling, dehumidification, lighting, communications, and controls that not only have their own demands, but interact dynamically with one another. Their relationship to the classic architectural questions about building size and shape are even more complex. With the introduction of sophisticated feedback and control systems, architects are faced with conditions that are virtually animate and coextensive at many scales with the natural and man-made environments in which they are placed.

This course presents general principals of toxicology and the disposition of toxins in the body. Case studies of the effects of environmental and occupational toxins on individuals will be analyzed. This course is designed for students who desire a strong foundation in toxicological concepts and principals and provides an overview of major toxins in our environment and their association with human health. Prerequisite: Undergraduates needs permission

Public health demands both critical thinking and quick decision-making--often without the benefit of all the data we desire. Take this course to learn how other public health professionals (and lawyers /doctors /activists /educators /policymakers) have responded, both successfully and disastrously, to evolving health threats. Using a case-based method, the course will probe true public health emergencies, considering the (limits of) information available to scientists; the public response; political/economic considerations; media coverage; policy/programmatic response; and health/social outcomes. The course will tackle cases from infectious disease and social epidemiology, and will cover: outbreak investigation, lay epidemiology, surveillance and rapid response, and strategies to address the social determinants of health, including poverty/SES and racism. Students in the class will develop key skills in critical epidemiological reasoning and public health action.

This course examines current developments in public corporation environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, with a particular emphasis on the manner in which public company shareholders and their advisors have sought to increase public company focus on advancing ESG issues. This course will examine the debate around the propriety of holding corporations and their directors responsible for ESG issues beyond their duty to comply with the law. This course also will explore in detail some of the most prominent current ESG topics. This course will examine how shareholders and other stakeholders have been advancing key environmental issues such as climate change policies, the pursuit of carbon neutrality, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the prevailing mechanisms for holding corporations accountable for their environmental commitments. This course also will explore how shareholders and other stakeholders have sought to advance critical social issues such as human rights, workplace culture, labor and employee relations, human capital management, political spending and disclosure as well as issues related to gender and racial equity and diversity in the workforce. Such an exploration will include engaging around prioritization and appropriate accountability metrics. Finally, this course will examine key corporate governance issues including shareholder voting such as dual class structures and majority voting regimes, board composition and diversity, say on pay and executive compensation, and the rise of shareholder proposals related to ESG.

The Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has fundamentally altered post-Cold War security norms across the European continent. This includes a reinvigorated Transatlantic approach to supporting European energy security. For example, Western Europe had for years built up a strategic security vulnerability through an over-reliance on Russian hydrocarbon resources, in particular natural gas, as well as critical infrastructure owned by Kremlin-controlled enterprises. Europe is now embarking on a transformational shift to end its longstanding dependence on Russian hydrocarbons that provides an opportunity to both decouple from an authoritarian neighbor and decarbonize its energy supply to address the climate crisis. Meanwhile, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic have aimed to deprive the Russian government of the financial and technical means of prosecuting its military aggression in Ukraine through comprehensive sanctions and technology export control regimes. This course will explore the history of European dependence on Russian energy resources and critical infrastructure projects and will analyze how the Russian Federation has ‘weaponized energy’ against European democracies before and after it’s invasion of Ukraine, including through trends of strategic corruption and elite capture. The course will assess as a case study the current European energy infrastructure landscape and ask students to propose infrastructure, regulatory, and physical/cyber security strategies from the perspective of a practitioner of transatlantic energy diplomacy. This course will also explore contemporary trends in energy sanctions and technology export controls policies crafted by democratic states worldwide. We will review recent U.S. and European sanctions policies through the framework of existing and proposed Russia sanctions, including analysis of sanctions implemented through Executive Order and Congressional legislation, and similar legislation enacted by the European Union. The course will take a multidisciplinary approach, combining primary source readings with classroom simulations drawing on the historical, policy, science, and technology drivers of effective European energy security strategies.

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The Amazon is burning. The glaciers are melting. Heat waves, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and droughts devastate ever larger swaths of the earth, producing crop failures, air pollution, soil erosion, famine and terrifying individual hardship. At the same, time the so-called Western World is literally walling itself off from the millions who are fleeing from disaster and war with what little they can carry. White militants chant "blood and soil" and "Jews will not replace us," social media spreads memes and talking points about "white genocide" and "white replacement" and online ideologues fantasize about building white ethnostates. Are these developments connected? Is there a causal relationship? Or are these conditions purely coincidental? Increasingly, arguments about limits to growth, sustainability, development and climate change have come to stand in competitive tension with arguments for social and racial equality. Why is that case? What are the claims and underlying anxieties that polarize western societies? How do white nationalist movements relate to populist and fascist movements in the first half of the 20th century? What is new and different about them now? What is the relationship between environmentalism, rightwing populism and the climate crisis? And how have societies responded to the climate crisis, wealth inequality, finite resources and the threat posed by self-radicalizing white nationalist groups?

This course surveys various processes that are used to produce materials structured at the micron and nanometer scales for electronic, optical and biological applications. Basic principles of materials chemistry, physics, thermodynamics and surface/interfacial science are applied to solid state, liquid, and colloidal approaches to making materials. A wide range of nano- and microfabrication techniques, including photolithography, soft lithography, nanoimprint lithography, 3D printing and self-assembly, are covered. The course is heavily lab based, with 30% of class time and 50% of the homework devoted to hands on experiences and lab report writing. Lab assignments are a series of structured individual/group projects. Evaluation is based on 3 lab reports, 4 problem sets with journal paper reading assignment, and a final project design.

This course focuses on teaching students the Pennsylvania flora, both native and naturalized. Through weekly field trips, students will gain an appreciation for the diversity of plant species and plant communities in PA, and observe and discuss ecological and historical forces that influence plant species occurrences and plant communities. The ability to quickly and accurately identify plants in the field, through both sight identification and the use of a dichotomous key, is the major thrust of this course. Students will also learn how to appropriately collect plant materials for further study/identification in the laboratory and for archiving in an herbarium collection.

Processes of soil development in a variety of temperate environments. Effects of lithology and climate on soil properties.

Whether you call it climatological science-fiction or #clifi, speculative fiction about anthropogenic climate change is becoming an important site for thinking, feeling, and warning about earth’s changing environments. In this class we’ll study a cluster of recent cli-fi novels that project a variety of climate scenarios into the future. We’ll also look at fictions that explore humanity’s entanglement with non-human beings and environments, as well as at those that connect climate change in the present with scarce-resources, conflict, displacement, and environmental racism. Supplementary readings in the environmental humanities will introduce terms and concepts such as the Anthropocene, deep time, the great acceleration, the nonhuman turn, ecological grief, and climate justice. Primary texts by the likes of Octavia Butler, A. S. Byatt, Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Powers, Kim Stanley Robinson, Jesmyn Ward, Alexis Wright.

This seminar compares a set of practices that center on coca leaf production in indigenous communities, where coca cultivation has been sustained over long centuries, on the one hand, with a set of unsustainable practices linked to the “drug war” in the Americas, on the other. Participants will read scholarly work in history and anthropology, support one another through a research process, and explore what historians and other scholars might contribute to discussions about drug policy

According to a 2019 paper by Scott A. Kulp and Benjamin H. Strauss in the journal Nature Communications, 230 million people worldwide occupy land that is less than 1 meter above current high tide. These lands will be inundated by sea level rise by the end of this century, or earlier. Add to this the inherent flood risks in riverine and urban settings. How do we prepare and adapt? The class will explore the challenge of floodplain management in a changing climate through lectures, talks by guest experts, readings and multimedia, and exploration in the field. We will take a field trip to the New Jersey coast to witness home elevations, beach nourishment, and locales that are already experiencing chronic tidal flooding; we will meet with municipal officials challenged by increasingly persistent sea level rise. Our class will look at the National Flood Insurance Program, examine its goals, critique its 50 year history and debate reforms to the program at the same time the US Congress is considering reauthorization of the program. We will look at resiliency efforts that states and local governments are pursuing and the new city- and state-level position of Chief Resiliency Officer. In class we will cover hazard mitigation planning, land use, hard and natural infrastructure, regulations, the Community Rating System and other issues pertaining to flooding and climate change, including social justice and public health issues. Throughout the course, material will be introduced to prepare the student to take the Certified Floodplain Manager exam administered by the Association of State Floodplain Managers. This optional test, should the student pass, will provide credentialing that is well recognized in the United States.

Physical properties; fluid statics; Bernoulli equation; fluid kinematics; conservation laws and finite control-volume analysis; conservation laws and differential analysis; inviscid flow; The Navier-Stokes equation and some exact solutions; similitude, dimensional analysis, and modeling; flow in pipes and channels; boundary layer theory; lift and drag.

Are you intrigued by the role food plays in our lives and our world? Have you noticed that the food film has become one of cinema’s most durable subgenres not only in the US but in global cinema as well? Are you willing to test the proposition that the food film is more than entertainment? That the food film, in fact, provides us unique access to a range of fundamental questions about passion and desire, family, survival, art, gender, race, and ethnicity? This seminar explores numerous aspects of the food/film nexus, starting with the classics (Babette’s Feast and Tampopo), and grazing across a menu of Hollywood, independent, and international documentaries and feature films that throw light on food production and global warming; chefs and the restaurant business; the erotics of food and cinema; eating and the self; and moral and religious aspects of consumption. Designed for lovers (or potential lovers) of food and film alike, this course will introduce you to the art of film analysis and the pleasures of cuisine.

This course will explore the various agencies and practices that have inquired and shaped what anthropologist Neil L. Whitehead has called the world's “last frontier for the study of history”: Amazônia. Through the analysis of case studies drawn from a transcalar account of architecture, landscape design, and land use planning, from pre-Columbian times to the present, the seminar will examine how wilderness has been shaped and how architecture, cities, infrastructure, and agriculture have been implemented, raising important considerations about the relationality of humanity in coexistence with other life forms, cultures, ecologies, and ancestral lifestyles. The course will critically examine colonial cycles of resource extraction, governance, and development policies with their plans for urbanization and modernization, which to this day have severely triggered the loss of human and non-human species and their habitats—with profound effects on the climate worldwide.

The seminar will examine primary documents such as the accounts of the Basque Spanish conquistador Lope de Aguirre, who led one of the first expeditions to explore the Amazon in 1561. It will investigate the history of forest building relationally and through complex temporalities, through case studies ranging from Roberto Burle Marx’s expeditions to the Amazon forest and campaigns against its deforestation; the Belle Époque rubber-boom era Amazon Theater in Manaus; the rapid development of Iquitos, Peru (the world's farthest inland port); Brasília as a gateway to the construction of the Transamazônica Highway and plantation towns by Brazil's Cold War-era Military Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform; the shift in the work of Brazilian modern architect Severiano Porto, designer of the Manaus Free Trade Zone headquarters, from Amazonian brutalism to sustainable timber; and a discussion of forest management and landscape modification by pre-Columbian earth builders and sedentary societies in Amazonia. The seminar will reflect on the ethics of teaching and learning intersectional and decolonial epistemes, cosmoecological thinking and ancestral care practices through the engagement with local and indigenous voices and initiatives.