Courses

• CAS GE 521: Law for Sustainability
  A survey of the major features of environmental and related law: common law, statutory law, administrative law, and relevant procedural and constitutional issues. Students examine how well these laws work to bring about sustainability. Students read cases and practice advocacy.
• CAS GE 522: The Development of Sustainable Environmental Responsibility
  In-depth look at how society can address environmental problems: the history of the environmental movement; relevant legal, economic and cultural concepts; and international and emerging concerns. Examines root causes and constructive group processes for crafting a more 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. Also offered as CAS GE 523.
• CAS GE 524: Environmental Justice
  Exploration of the origins of and current trends in environmental justice activism and scholarship. Introduces empirical evidence of environmental (in)justice, links contemporary environmental problems to historical and broader political-economic processes, and explores a range of responses to environmental injustice.
• 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 532: Research for Environmental Agencies and Organizations
  Students gain professional experience by working in teams on research projects that assist environmental and public health officials in achieving the missions of their agencies. Research areas may include solar energy, environmental justice, toxics, water quality, and lead poisoning.
• 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 535: Global Land Conservation: Theory and Practice
  In-depth treatment of the theory and practice of global land conservation. Global drivers of ecosystem degradation. Scale and effectiveness of public and private responses. Implementation of instruments, including regulatory, market- based, community-driven, and supply-chain approaches. International and domestic case studies. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Research and Information Literacy
• 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 598: Key Debates and Emerging Research in Land Change Science
  Topics change each semester. Students may enroll up to four times for credit. Introduces key debates in land change science and new research contributing to these debates. Features speakers from several departments and centers at Boston University as well as visiting scholars. Students develop their own research proposals.
• 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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