Creative Expression and the Environment Minor

Course Schedule

• Spring 2025 Course Schedule
• Fall 2024 Course Schedule

This minor is approved for all MGSA, SAS and SEBS students.

Description

The minor in Creative Expression and the Environment is a multidisciplinary program in which students gain familiarity with fundamentals of environmental issues and learn to respond to them through creative expression in a variety of disciplines and media in the arts and humanities. Students gain the flexibility to develop their skills as readers, writers, musical performers and composers, visual artists, designers, theater artists, filmmakers, dancers, choreographers, and more, even as they see how those skills can contribute to the communication and creation of knowledge in environmental science and social science. Based on the notion that the arts and humanities have the capacity to engage, promote reflection and empathy, demonstrate care, and inspire action, the minor in Creative Expression and the Environment will empower students to imagine and help to build a future that is rooted in environmental knowledge and the quest for environmental sustainability and justice.

Learning Outcomes

• Upon completion of the minor, students will articulate fundamental principles and methodologies of environmental issues. They will demonstrate the ability to apply appropriate terminology and express awareness of the environmental challenges that our world faces and how those challenges are being addressed. 
• Students will value and engage the humanities in the pursuit of environmental sustainability and justice. They will demonstrate and apply appreciation for diverse traditions of cultural environmental knowledges and stewardship.  
• Students will employ the practices of environmental arts and articulate the ways in which the arts can be pressed into service to reflect upon, communicate, and galvanize action around environmental issues.  
• Students will understand and apply the practices of collaboration and cross-disciplinary work. 

Requirements

Students must complete a total of 18 credits of Minor-approved courses:

• three required courses—one from the categories of Environmental Science, one from Environmental Humanities, and one from Environmental Arts
• three elective courses—one from each of the categories Environmental Science, Environmental Humanities, and  Environmental Arts

Required Courses (3 Courses Total)

Environmental Science and Social Science	Environmental Humanities	Environmental Arts
11:375:101 Introduction to Environmental Science (3 credits)	01:195:220 Our World: Social Justice and the Environment  (3 credits)	07:557:121 Introduction to Environmental Arts (3 credits)

Electives (3 Courses Total)

Pick ONE from category: Environmental Science and Social Science

Environmental Sciences

• 11:375:103 Introduction to Environmental Health (not applicable to environmental science majors)
• 11:375:197 Environmental Science Literacy (not applicable to environmental science majors)
• 11:375:201 Biological Principles of Environmental Science
• 11:375:202 Chemical Principles of Environmental Science

Human Ecology

• 11:374:175 Energy and Society
• 11:374:220 Environmental Solutions
• 11:374:250 Environmental Justice
• 11:374:279 Politics of Environmental Issues
• 11:374:313 US Environmental Policy
• 11:374:435 Environmental Writing: Rhetorical Strategies for Complex Ecological Issues
• 11:374:460 Environmental Law and Policy

Agriculture and Natural Resources

• 11:035:268 Environmental Pollution

Anthropology

• 01:070:213 Environment and Human Evolution

Environmental and Business Economics

• 11:373:101 Economics, People and the Environment

Geography

• 01:450:213 The Global Climate System
• 01:450:306 Global Ecosystems and Biodiversity
• 01:450:360 Cultural and Political Ecology
• 01:450:311 Natural Hazards and Disasters

Earth and Planetary Sciences

• 01:460:202 Environmental Geology

Environmental Planning and Design

• 11:573:409 Challenges and Opportunities Environmental Planning
• 11:573:445 Ecological Design and Stewardship

Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources

• 11:216:431 Fundamentals of Ecological and Environmental Modeling

Supply Chain Management

• 33:799:440 Supply Chain Environmental Management and Green Purchasing

Meteorology

• 11:670:102 Introduction to Climate Science

Political Science

• 01:790:350 Environmental Politics

Pick ONE from category: Environmental Humanities

Art History

• 01:082:101 Building the Future: An Introduction to Architecture
• 01:082:205 Intro. to Asian Art
• 01:082:328 Modern and Contemporary Visual Culture in the Islamic World
• 01:082:391 Nineteenth-Century Architecture and Society in the United States

Asian Studies

• 01:098:479 Environmental Crisis and Cultural Change in Southeast Asia

Chinese

• 01:165:463 Nature in Chinese literature

Comparative Literature

• 01:195:271 Resisting Petrocapitalism: Oceanians against Climate Collapse

American Studies

• 01:050:203 The American West
• 01:050:272 American Food, Past, and Present.
• 01:050:302:80 – Topics: Beaches, Lakes, and Rivers of NJ
• 01:050:310:02 – Approaches: Messing with Nature

English

• 01:351:209 Multimedia Composition (*only sections of this course on multimedia/creative writing for the environment).
• 01:358:262 Introduction to Literature and Environment
• 01:358:205 The Coming Apocalypse (4 credits)
• 01:358:207 Writing after the End of the World (4 credits)
• 01:359:209 Introduction to Health, Medicine, and Literature

French

• 01:420:252 Power and Place (taught in English)

German

• 01:470:364 Literature of Chaos and Order

History

• 01:506:249 Climate Politics, a Deep History.
• 01:512:329 Technology and Nature in American History

Philosophy

• 01:730:250 Environmental Ethics
• 01:730:252 Eating Right: The Ethics of Food Choices and Food Policy (4 credits)
• 01:730:253 Human Nature and Human Diversity (4 credits)
• 01:730:249 Bioethics

Religion

• 01:840:105 Religions Now: 21st-Century Controversies (4 credits)

Spanish

• 01:940:462 Environment and Literature in Hispanic Culture (taught in Spanish)

Women, Gender Studies and Sexuality Studies

• 01:988:409:90 Gender, Environmental Justice, and Health
• 01:988:250 Feminism in a Time of Environmental Crisis.

Pick ONE from category: Environmental Arts

Dance

• 07:203:250 Performing Climate Change
• 07:965:302 Theater for Social Development

Art and Design

• 07:080:215 Graphic Design for Everybody (may not be used for elective credit for the minor by Mason Gross students)
• 07:080:331 Digital Photo Image (may not be used for elective credit for the minor by Mason Gross students)

Digital Filmmaking

• 07:211:240 The Art of Documentary Filmmaking (may not be used for elective credit for the minor by Mason Gross students)

Theater Arts

• 07:966:255 Upcycling: An Artistic Approach to Fast Fashion
• 07:965:330 Improving Communication Through Improvisation