Course Listings

The course prepares students to design and execute an intensive research project. It covers elementary principles and philosophy of science; research planning, including preparation, criticism, and oral presentation of study plans; communicating research findings; limitations of research techniques; the structure of research organizations; and professional scientific ethics

This course is designed to provide a broad introduction to issues of qualitative research methods and design. The course is intended for both doctoral students who are in the beginning stage of their dissertation research, as well as master’s students developing research proposals for their thesis projects. The course covers the basic techniques of designing qualitative research and for collecting, interpreting, and analyzing qualitative data. We explore three interrelated dimensions of research: theoretical foundations of science and research, specific methods available to researchers for data collection and analysis, and the application and practice of research methods. The final product for this course is a research proposal.

This course prepares students for the communication tasks they will face as environmental professionals, researchers, or employees.  In their careers, most professionals spend more than half their work time communicating with others, both inside and outside their organization. To advance in their careers and contribute to the progress of an environmental cause, students need a refined ability to communicate their ideas with clarity and credibility. This course focuses on building a constellation of skills that students can apply to their work. They learn how to use communication to influence others, advocate their ideas, and collaborate with colleagues on project teams. Course topics include strategy in communication, diplomatic language, public speaking, writing styles, listening to people, and framing environmental issues for the public.  The course meets for a weekly two-hour lecture and demonstration, and students attend a one-hour small group practice session that allows them to reinforce new communicative behaviors in simulated job tasks, such as project meetings, budget requests, and public hearings.

This course which meets October 21-December 2) exposes students to the financial concepts used by companies to make and evaluate business decisions. The class covers key financial statements of for-profit businesses; building financial projections for a business, project, or investment; financial markets: what they are and how they operate; investors: the tools they use to evaluate potential investments; and common valuation techniques: uses and limitations. Meeting dates to be determined.

The operational aspects of managing forestland are taught, including topics essential to the professional practice of forest management. Operational aspects of regeneration, intermediate tending, and harvesting (planning, layout, implementation, and postoperation evaluation), best management practices, regulatory and wetlands considerations, and socioeconomic dimensions of field operations are the focus. The ethical and professional responsibilities of forest managers who are responsible for land-altering activities are also considered. The course includes considerable field time to help students utilize their existing knowledge about forests to rapidly assess stands and land parcels with respect to the planning and implementation of on-the-ground treatments. Classes feature local field trips to view forestry operations and to develop and refine field skills.

The course can be taken for 2 credits by any student at F&ES or combined with the 1-credit Southern Forest and Forestry Field Trip (F&ES 670b) for 3 credits.

First class begins Sept 10

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the interdisciplinary nature of ethnobotany studies from the perspective of a field researcher, aiming to highlight the methods used in ethnobotanical research and to showcase the diversity of contemporary field studies in ethnobotany. Topics discussed during the course will encompass changing traditional knowledge systems, community-based resource-management, conservation of biocultural diversity, migration and urbanization, smallholder tropical agriculture & traditional food plants, and community health. Classes will combine Powerpoint lectures around key topics and group discussion of selected scientific readings. Guest lectures of invited scientists will allow students to learn first-hand about on-going research projects.  
This will be an interactive course with students expected to actively participate in class and discuss the readings listed each week in group, in moderator-audience style. Each week, two rotating students will serve as moderators. Class discussion of readings will focus on the critical reflection of the research questions and/or methods used by the authors, experimental study design (when applicable), the main findings of the papers, as well as the conclusions inferred by the authors. To broaden and deepen class discussion, students are expected to actively peruse papers in ethnobotanical journals such as the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, Economic Botany, Journal of Ethnobiology, Human Ecology, Ethnobiology and Conservation, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, and related journals to find other papers on the topics discussed.

Biogeoclimatic analysis of these systems worldwide with special attention to biogeography, biometeorology, physiology, histology, morphology, autecology, and silviculture of high-elevation and high-latitude forests through lectures, guest lectures and discussions, student seminars, and field experience.

This course helps students to sharpen their language and strategy in professional communication. Course topics include accent reduction, language accuracy, writing styles, presentation skills, meeting leadership, barriers to communication, and types of persuasion in multicultural contexts. We first address aspects of intelligibility, exploring how improved word choices and speech clarity affect audience understanding. We then look at the problem of comprehension and discuss strategies for increasing the student’s ability to listen accurately and read efficiently. We also examine common difficulties and cultural differences in the arrangement of information, use of evidence, and academic argumentation. Several sessions are devoted to specific skills, such as negotiating agreements and writing research reports. The course meets for lecture (two hours), and students attend a weekly small group practicum (one hour). The practicum allows students to reinforce new communicative behaviors in oral and written assignments, while receiving feedback from peers and the instructor. As students polish their skills, they improve their ability to express ideas and to interact in both academic and professional contexts.

This is a practical writing course meant to develop your skills as a writer. But its real subject is perception and the writer’s authority—the relationship between what you notice in the world around you and what, culturally speaking, you’re allowed to notice. What you write during the semester is driven entirely by your own interest and attention. How you write is the question at hand. We’ll be exploring the overlapping habitats of language—present and past—and the natural environment. And, to a lesser extent, we’ll be exploring the character of  persuasion in environmental themes. Every member of the class will write every week, and we will all read what everyone writes every week. It makes no difference whether you’re a would-be journalist, scientist, environmental advocate or policy-maker. The goal is to rework your writing and sharpen your perceptions, both sensory and intellectual.

This course introduces computer programming tools and techniques for the development and customization of geospatial data-processing capabilities. It relies heavily on use of the Python programming language in conjunction with ESRI’s ArcGIS and on JavaScript in conjunction with Google’s Earth Engine geographic information systems (GIS). Prerequisite: previous experience in GIS. Three hours lecture, problem sets.

Prerequisite: a 100-level Statistics course or equivalent, or with permission of instructor.

Study of the preparation of water for domestic and other uses and treatment of wastewater for recycling or discharge to the environment. Topics include processes for removal of organics and inorganics, regulation of dissolved oxygen, and techniques such as ion exchange, electrodialysis, reverse osmosis, activated carbon adsorption, and biological methods.

This seminar is based on outside speakers and internal student/faculty presentations oriented toward original research in the field of environmental and natural resource economics and policy. Presentations are aimed at the doctoral level, but interested master’s students may enroll with permission of the instructors.

This course examines the application of the law to nonhuman animals, the rules and regulations that govern their treatment, and the concepts of “animal welfare” and “animal rights.” The course explores the historical and philosophical treatment of animals; discusses how such treatment impacts the way judges, politicians, lawyers, legal scholars, and lay people see, speak about, and use animals; surveys current animal protection laws and regulations, including overlap with such policy issues as food and agriculture, climate change, and biodiversity protection; describes recent political and legal campaigns to reform animal protection laws; examines the concept of “standing” and the problems of litigating on behalf of animals; discusses the current classification of animals as “property” and the impacts of that classification; and debates the merits and limitations of alternative classifications, such as the recognition of “legal rights” for animals. Students write a series of short response papers. An option to produce a longer research paper for Substantial or Supervised Analytic Writing credit is available for Law School students. 

An interdisciplinary examination of agrarian societies, contemporary and historical, Western and non-Western. Major analytical perspectives from anthropology, economics, history, political science, and environmental studies are used to develop a meaning-centered and historically grounded account of the transformation of rural society. Four hours lecture plus discussion sections.

Insects transmit pathogens that cause many emerging and re-emerging human and agriculture-related diseases. Many of these diseases, which are referred to as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), have a dramatically negative impact on human health in the developing world. Furthermore, they cause indirect devastation by significantly reducing agricultural productivity and nutrient availability, exacerbating poverty and deepening disparities. This course introduces students to the biological interactions that occur between major groups of important disease vectors and the pathogens they transmit. Lectures cover current research trends that relate to the ecology and physiology of insect vectors. Course content focuses on how these aspects of vector biology relate to the development and implementation of innovative and effective disease control strategies. Prerequisites: full year of college/university level biology, or permission of the instructor(s). 

This course demonstrates the ways in which financial and political feasibility determine the design of buildings and the character of the built environment. Students propose projects and then adjust them to the conflicting interests of the financial institutions, real estate developers, civic organizations, community groups, public officials, and the widest variety of participants in the planning process. Subjects covered include housing, commercial development, zoning, historic preservation, parks and public open space, suburban subdivisions, planned communities, and comprehensive plans.

This course is designed to serve as a foundation for understanding environmental toxicology. It includes basic principles of toxicology, mechanisms of toxicity and cellular defense, and the fundamental interactions between chemicals and biological systems. Human exposure to foreign chemicals and their adverse effects are considered, as is the importance of federal and state agencies in protecting public health. Through the use of case studies, the course provides insights into prevention of mortality and morbidity resulting from environmental exposure to toxic substances, the fundamentals of risk assessment and regulatory toxicology, and the causes underlying the variability in susceptibility of people to chemicals.

This course examines the fundamental and practical aspects of assessing exposures to environmental agents, broadly defined, in the residential, ambient, and workplace environments. The course provides the knowledge and skills to design and conduct exposure assessments, and has a particular focus on applications to environmental epidemiology and risk assessment. Indirect and direct methods of assessing exposures, such as questionnaires, environmental sampling, biological monitoring, and spatial modeling, are reviewed; and case studies and hands-on projects are presented

This course provides the foundation for doctoral study at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. As a major part of the course, students will learn what it means to do scholarly research as well as become adept with philosophy of science and research methodology and proposal writing, as a basis for exploring diverse approaches to formulating and addressing research questions. Students will work with their advisers to put these concepts and principles into practice to develop the basis for their dissertation research (including building bibliography, identifying and crafting research questions, formulating research hypotheses and drafting a research proposal).  Students will further learn about funding opportunities and procedures for submitting grants. The course will also cover professional ethics and responsible conduct of research, including ethical approaches to inquiry and measurement, data acquisition and management, authorship and publication, peer review, conflicts of interest, mentoring, collaborative research, and animal and human subjects research.  Finally, the course will explore ethical ways to advocate for the application of scholarly knowledge in the interest of environmental problem solving.  Weekly assigned readings will support concepts and issues addressed in class. Students will present their embryonic research ideas in class and use feedback from the group to further develop their ideas

1 credit/credit/fail. A bi-weekly seminar for Dove doctoral advisees and students in the combined F&ES/Anthropology program. It consists of the presentation and discussion of dissertation prospectuses and proposals, dissertation chapters, and related publications; collaborative writing and publishing projects on subjects of common interest; and discussion of such topics as grantsmanship, data analysis, writing and publishing, and the job search. Two-hour seminar

This course is designed to bring doctoral students up to speed on the latest developments in the literature on environmental and energy economics. Key papers are presented, and associated mathematical and empirical methods are covered. Topics to be covered include uncertainty and climate change policy, estimating energy demand, electricity markets, and behavioral economics and the environment. A focus is on identifying areas that deserve future research attention. Open to advanced master’s students with permission of the instructor.

If the U.S. health care sector were a nation itself, it would rank thirteenth in the world for greenhouse gas emissions. Health care is an enormous and complex system, in need of environmental health assessment and sustainability science to measure and mitigate pollution and public health damages. Policy and business innovation is also essential to implement pollution preventive efforts while maintaining patient safety and quality care. In this course, interdisciplinary student teams perform applied public health or practice projects related to health care, sustainability science, and public health. Each team works with a clinical (physician or nurse) and/or management mentor from Yale New Haven Hospital or its affiliates, or in collaboration with partners such as the National Health Service Sustainable Development Unit of the United Kingdom. Each group uses the opportunity to apply concepts and competencies learned in the classroom to the field of health care. This course should be of interest to students from the Schools of Public Health, Forestry & Environmental Studies, Management, Medicine, and Nursing. This course is one of the options available to students to fulfill the practice requirement for the M.P.H. degree and the F&ES capstone requirement.

Environmental sustainability and human dignity are important societal goals, but figuring out how to achieve them on large scales—geographic, temporal, and in terms of complexity—has proven to be extremely challenging. Abundant trend data show that many species, ecosystems, and other environmental and human systems are being overused, stressed, or degraded, thus undercutting the likelihood that we can reach sustainability and human rights for all. In addition, our institutions for science, management, and policy are not designed to address sustainability challenges on these scales. Over the last few decades numerous management and policy initiatives have been put forward to address large-scale resource use, including single and multiple use, parks and protected areas, ecosystem management, bioregional planning, integrated conservation and development, transboundary approaches, and adaptive governance. This course (a mixed seminar and practicum) explicitly uses an integrative (i.e., via interdisciplinary) framework to examine the conceptual and contextual basis for these efforts; compares and contrasts their scientific, management, and policy components; explores themes of leadership, problem solving, decision making, governance, change, and learning; and surveys cases from three arenas (terrestrial, aquatic, and marine). The course takes a problem-oriented, contextual, and multi-method approach that offers students conceptual, practical, and professional benefits. It includes readings, lectures, discussions, workshops, exercises, oral presentations, guest speakers, individual and small-group assignments, and possibly a field trip and group project. In past years the course took a field trip to the Connecticut River system to evaluate region-wide conservation efforts, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Grand Canyon Ecosystem. It also organized an international workshop focused on the Yellowstone to Yukon initiative, and assisted a major U.S. NGO plan for transboundary projects along the U.S.-Canadian border. Extensive student participation is required throughout. Enrollment limited to eighteen.

Follows Law School Calendar

The Clinic’s mission is to train students in environmental advocacy through skills-based seminars, interdisciplinary project work, and collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council and other significant environmental organizations. Students are assigned to teams of two-to-four members drawn from both the School of Forestry & Environmental Science and Yale Law School. Teams work on a project developed in collaboration with client organizations, with most projects having both legal and policy components. In addition to covering substantive areas of environmental law, Clinic seminars help students master the tools of effective environmental advocacy, including the abilities to research law and science, write and cite persuasively, navigate environmental organizations, and manage projects cooperatively. Enrollment limited to twelve F&ES students.

Course Bidding: Students in the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (and students from any other school besides Yale Law School) must complete the Clinic’s Bidding Form by 4:30 p.m. on June 27th. The Bidding Form is available here.

Note: Attendance at the first-class meeting is mandatory for admitted students and for those on the waiting list who wish to remain in consideration for admission if a place becomes available. Admitted students must confirm their participation in advance of the first class by a date designated by the instructors. A no-drop policy applies.