Anthropology and Environmental Policy - MA

This non-thesis MA program is centered on understanding human environmental relationships in cross-cultural perspective and their pivotal role in implementing successful environmental policy. The program engages students in a highly multi-disciplinary framework bridging environmental sciences and policy while focusing on the sociocultural impacts of, and responses to, local and global environmental change.

Students work with faculty engaged in cutting-edge research on the way social relations, human organization, cultural perceptions, and ecological behavior affect the causes and consequences of local, national, and global environmental change. Students analyze the social and cultural dimensions of policies that mitigate the negative environmental consequences of these changes while safeguarding or promoting human well-being. Areas of interest include Global Climate Change, Energy Resources, Marine Resources, Eco-tourism, Forestry Resources, Land-Use, Water Management, Pollution Control, and Risk Assessment and Management.

The program core is firmly grounded in anthropological social and cultural theory, qualitative and quantitative methodology, and policy development and analysis. Students engage in methodological and specialized courses tailored to their specific environmental interests at the local, national or international scale.