Courses

• CAS GE 519: Energy, Society, and the Environment
  Focus on applied political economy and the intersection of policy, energy systems, and environmental systems. Project based learning, with an emphasis on energy technology and obstacles to deployment.
• CAS GE 520: Topics in Energy and Environmental Policy
  Topics vary from year to year. Topic for Spring 2014: Lead Poisoning Prevention Analysis. Analysis and follow up of a 2013 study that received responses from more than 40 states about lead poisoning prevention efforts about unsafe work in child-occupied buildings. Students identify and consult experts and learn about lead poisoning prevention.
• CAS GE 521: Environmental Law and Policy
  Survey of the major features of environmental law and relevant procedural and constitutional issues. Comparison of practical realities (political, economic, social, geographic, biological) with the ideal context for what should be. Projects include legal research and mock advocacy.
• CAS GE 522: Environmental Policy and Decision-Making
  In-depth look at environmental policy and decision-making: how society addresses environmental problems. Includes discussion of the environmental movement, law, science, technology, economics, and international relations. Examines new issues facing environmental professionals and approaches to creating a sustainable world.
• CAS GE 523: Marine Urban Ecology
  Marine Urban Ecology is an emerging, interdisciplinary field that aims to understand how human and ecological processes can coexist in human-dominated systems. Topics, ecosystems, and organisms associated with urbanization in the Greater Boston area. Part of the Marine Semester. Also offered as CAS GE 523.
• CAS GE 525: Plant Physiological Ecology
  In-depth treatment of eco-physiological responses of plants and communities to environmental factors and climate change, as well as plant and community level impacts on the environment as manifested primarily in hydrologic, energy, and carbon cycles.
• CAS GE 529: Modeling and Monitoring Terrestrial Ecosystems Processes
  Analyzes the interface of ecosystem process modeling and remote sensing, modeling terrestrial primary production, and potential of remote sensing for collecting biotic and abiotic data in ecosystem process studies.
• CAS GE 530: Forest Ecology
  The major biotic and abiotic factors influencing forest ecosystem composition, structure and function. Role of solar radiation, hydrology, soils, succession, and management of forest ecosystems. Includes New England case study. Three hours lecture plus discussion. Also meets with CAS BI 530.
• CAS GE 533: Risk Assessment
  Investigates the science behind regulation designed to protect people from environmental hazards, through a practical focus on chemical hazards. Students develop a working knowledge of the risk assessment process and perform simple risk assessments for chemicals in the environment.
• CAS GE 536: European Environmental Policy
  Focuses on key concepts, actors, and issues related to European integration, environmental policy making, and sustainable development. Also examines transatlantic environmental relations and the role of the European Union in global environmental governance. Also offered as CAS IR 536.
• CAS GE 550: Modeling Environmental and Social Systems
  Techniques of organizing energy, environmental, or social systems into mathematical computer models. Includes the theory underlying different modeling techniques, programming skills, and a hands-on research project in which students develop their own models.
• CAS GE 555: World Oil Markets
  The world oil market is explained using the notion of supply chain. Each stage is described in terms of relevant theories from geology, economics, and politics, and how they interact to generate real-world behavior.
• CAS GE 560: Energy Transitions
  Survey of energy transitions including animal power to wood to coal to petroleum to electricity; analysis of socioeconomic, political, technological, and environmental causes of energy transitions, and future energy transitions resulting from fossil fuel depletion, climate change, and sustainable development.
• CAS GE 578: Marine Geographic Information Science
  Introduction to marine geographic information systems and spatial analysis for conservation, management, and marine landscape ecology. Comparative examples from Gulf of Maine and tropics. Solve problems in coastal zoning and marine park design, whale and coral reef conservation. Also offered as CAS BI 578.
• CAS GE 585: Ecological Forecasting and Informatics
  The statistics and informatics of model-data fusion and forecasting: data management, workflows, Bayesian statistics, uncertainty analysis, fusing multiple data sources, assessing model performance, scenario development, decision analysis, and data assimilation. Case studies highlight ecological forecasting across a range of subdisciplines.
• CAS GE 594: Global Environmental Negotiation and Policy
  Key concepts, actors, concerns, and issues related to the process of negotiating global environmental policies. Overview of the international system and environmental problems; an international negotiation simulation; case studies of global agreements on ozone depletion, climate change, desertification, and biodiversity, among others. Meets with CAS IR 594.
• CAS GE 597: Development and Environment in Latin America
  Provides an empirically based understanding of the social and environmental aspects of economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) for purposes of analyzing the numerous trade and development policies that nations in LAC are currently considering. Also offered as CAS IR 597.
• CAS GE 599: Science, Politics, and Climate Change
  Applies a science and technology studies perspective to climate change science and policy. Examines the relationships between scientific and political systems at global, national, and local levels. Also offered as CAS IR 599.
• CAS HI 101: The Dawn of Europe: Antiquity to the Renaissance
  Ancient and medieval Europe was a world of empires, kingdoms, and religious factions in conflict with each other. This course explores the ideologies, institutions, and texts that shaped these civilizations and continue to hold meaning in the modern world.
• CAS HI 102: The Emergence of Modern Europe: Renaissance to the Present
  What is Europe? This course explores the emergence of Europe as an idea and place. Draws on literature and art from Machiavelli to Russian ballet to explain Europe's changing meaning; focuses on nation- and state-building to explain Europe's shifting boundaries.

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