![[Dept. of Human Ecology]](http://njaes.rutgers.edu/_common/images/subheads/humanecology.gif "[Dept. of Human Ecology]"){kind=small}
11:374:101 Introduction to Human Ecology credits (3 credits)
The study of complex and varied patterns of interaction between people and the environment, with special attention to concepts, concerns, and methods of human ecology.
11:374:102 Global Environmental Change (3 credits)
Prerequisite: 374:101
Scientific and policy dimensions of international environmental affairs; problems, response mechanisms, regional and national activities, and alternative strategies.
11:374:105 Environment and Society (3 credits)
11:374:175 Energy and Society (3 credits)
Main sources, transfers, and losses of energy in the biosphere; how they relate to human resources and enter the immediate environments of humans and other organisms.
11:374:201 Research Methods in Human Ecology (3 credits)
The basic research techniques used by social scientists, planners, and others in writing social impact statements, evaluating programs, and carrying out basic research on human problems.
11:374:211 Rural Communities (3 credits)
Investigations of the patterns of social life that prevail in the rural communities of developed and developing countries.
11:374:220 Rural Development (3 credits)
Analysis of private and public efforts to make fuller use of human and natural resources in impoverished rural areas of the developed and developing worlds.
11:374:223 Urban Society and Environment (3 credits)
Growth of cities in industrial countries, with emphasis on their physical and social environments and on policies for improvement.
11:374:225 Environment and Health in Society and the Mass Media (3 credits)
This course will provide a detailed introduction to the patterns and styles of mass media coverage of environmental and health issues.
11:374:269 Population, Resources, and Environment (3 credits)
The interaction between populations, resources, and the environment in the developed and developing world.
11:374:279 Politics of Environmental Issues (3 credits)
The content and process of policy making concerning air and water quality, toxic wastes, energy, and other environmental issues.
11:374:301 Environment and Development (3 credits)
Prerequisite: 11:374:102
Recent work in anthropology, sociology, geography and other disciplines has taken a more critical perspective on the issues of culture, power, rights and resources involved in the design, implementation and consequences of development and environmental interventions. Moreover, many scholars now realize that neither development nor the environment can be studied in isolation from one another: development interventions have environmental implications, and environmental interventions have repercussions for peoples’ livelihoods and futures. Surprisingly, however, despite the long history of attention to gender and development and more recent focus on gender and the environment, there have been few attempts to bring the three issues – gender, development and the environment – into a single critical frame for theory, policy and practice. Yet gender, which we will define as the relations of power between and among men and women, is often a critical factor in shaping the ideas, imaginations, experiences, practices and pursuits of people engaged in development and environment initiatives, whether policymakers, practitioners, scholars, activists, or participants.
11:374:307 Psychological Stress and Environmental Problems (3 credits)
Noise, crowding, crime, urban living, pollution, and other environmental hazards as causes of psychological stress. Problems of coping and adapting.
11:374:308 Human Ecology of Maritime Regions (3 credits)
The study of sociocultural factors affecting marine resource use, management, and conservation.
11:374:312 Environmental Problems in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective (3 credits)
This course examines environmental problems from the historical perspective provided by our two centuries-long experiment with industrial civilization.
11:374:313 Environmental Policy and Institutions (3 credits)
Pre-requisite: 11:374:102
Political, scientific, and economic dimensions of international resource use and environmental policy development. Emphasis on the U.S. experience.
11:374:314 Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management (3 credits)
Prerequisite: 11:374:102
Application of theory and methods of social science, particularly the study of common property theory, to problems in natural resource management. Focus on water use, forestry, rangelands, and fisheries.
11:374:315 International Environmental Policy (3 credits)
International policies designed to protect the environment encounter numerous obstacles. National governments defend their sovereign rights to use and abuse their natural resources. Poorer, developing nations cling to their plans for industrial growth while rural communities often cling simply to their cultures. Finally, policy-makers still debate about what the environment is, where it is, and whether various problems are truly global or merely local. To add to the confusion, scientists remain uncertain with regard to, say, climate change - and they are uncertain with regard to the level of certainty necessary for action. Meanwhile, economists are wading into political and ethical uncertainty as they attempt to give monetary values to environmental attributes. This course will explore these and other dilemmas before policy-makers. Readings from across the social sciences will sift through the major debates on areas of environmental policy - from species preservation to ozone depletion. Ultimately, students should come to appreciate the complexity of defining the environment, determining its problems, and addressing them with fairness.
11:374:322 Environmental Behavior (3 credits)
The goals of this course are to explain why people engage in environmentally helpful or destructive behaviors and to learn how to change their behavior.
11:374:325 Environmental Communication (3 credits)
Effective communication can be as important to achieving environmental goals as good science. Because corporations, government agencies, and advocacy groups realize this, there are increasing numbers of jobs that require these skills; public information and communication positions are available in a variety of settings. These positions require not only effective oral and written communication skills, they also require an understanding of how to develop effective outreach plans. While other courses focus largely on improving writing or public speaking, this course introduces students to using communication as a tool for environmental change. Students will be introduced to the process of selecting the appropriate tool for the communication task and the basics of using some of these tools. By the end of the course, students should be prepared for an entry level job in public information. Science majors will have communication skills that will help them compete in the job market.
11:374:331 Culture and Environment (3 credits)
This course explores human-environment interactions. We will examine ideas about 'nature' and 'culture' in relation to economic, political and social organization. We will consider humans as agents of ecological change and landscape transformations in a variety of contexts. The first three books are accounts of the Americas during different time periods. The fourth and final book describes smallholder farming societies in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
The semester begins with Michael Pollan's book Second Nature. Pollan connects his first-hand experience gardening on an old dairy farm in Connecticut with larger questions about the place of humans in nature and the place of nature in human imagination. The second book is a translation of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca's account to the king of Spain (originally written in 1542 under the title La Relación). In it he describes his experiences with the environments and peoples of the Americas. In 1527, Cabeza de Vaca began an eight-year journey that took him across the territories now known as Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico. Next we will read Gordon Whitney's book From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain. Whitney presents an ecological history of the northeastern United States, documenting the transformations that occurred in this part of the American landscape following European settlement. We will conclude the course thinking about livelihoods, landscapes and intensive, sustainable agriculture with readings in Robert McC. Netting's book Smallholders, Householder.
This course will be taught as a seminar with emphasis on improving our analytical thinking, discussion, and writing skills.
11:374:332 Chinese Environment: Elements in Landscape Evolution and Change (3 credits)
Physical, biological, technological, and cultural factors in traditional Chinese land and resource use; relations between science and policy in China's approach to environmental and resource problems since 1949.
11:374:335/336 Social Responses to Environmental Problems I & II (3 credits), Morren Fall 2008
Analysis of people's responses to environmental stresses or disturbances and the ways in which response patterns change. Second term is individual or group field research.
11:374:335/336 Social Responses to Environmental Problems I & II (3 credits)
Analysis of people's responses to environmental stresses or disturbances and the ways in which response patterns change. Second term is individual or group field research.
11:374:337 Systems Approaches and Interventions in Human Ecology (3 credits)
To be taken concurrently with 374:490 or 491. Pre-requisite: 374:101 or permission.
Systems thinking and social-scientific and social-scientific perspectives for intervention, problem-solving, and planning in agricultural, urban, environmental, and related organizational contexts. Field research, group facilitation, simulation, planning, and mediation. Ethics and professional practice.
11:374:341 Social and Ecological Aspects of Health and Disease (3 credits)
The sociocultural factors affecting health status and disease frequency in human populations.
11:374:420-429 Topics in Environmental and Resource Policy (3 credits)
Open only to Juniors and Seniors.
Policy issues associated with a selected environmental and/or resource problem, focusing on risk and risk communication, science and policy, institutions, comparative national approaches, and policy implications of environmental change.
11:374:429 Forests and Culture in Latin America (3 credits)
The goal of this course is to introduce students to past and present land-use practices in Latin America. Students will gain familiarity with a number of contemporary research subfields addressing forest resource issues. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we will consider the interacting human (i.e. social, cultural, economic, political) and biophysical dimensions of forest cover change in the region. Readings cover a variety of environments and social groups. Discussion topics include: forest disturbance regimes, the history of human settlement, diverse knowledge and classification systems (e.g. formal, traditional, local, indigenous), and different approaches to the economic development and conservation of forest environments (e.g. extractive economies, protected areas, sustainable development initiatives.
11:374:430 Risk, Heath and Safety (3 credits)
11:374:431 Topics in Health and Environment: New and Re-Emerging Diseases (3 credits)
Open only to Juniors and Seniors.
Policy issues associated with a selected problem in human health and disease, food and hunger, or environmental and occupational health. The social sources of disease and malnutrition, and interventions to improve health.
11:374:433 Deliberative Processes in Environmental Policy (4 credits)
This course will examine the theory and practice of public participation in development of environmental policy. Because of the intensity of conflicts over environmental issues ranging from ecosystem management to clean-up of hazardous wastes, agencies are asking citizens to provide Ainput@ to agency proposals, regulations, programs, etc. Even the Department of Defense, an agency steeped in a tradition of secrecy, has citizen advisory boards advising the military about clean-up of wastes at more than 200 facilities.
11:374:434 Local Government and the Environment (3 credits)
Local government on the sharp edge of environmental action, health and safety. Organization and functioning of governing bodies with particular reference to New Jersey. Its role in such areas as resource management (including land use planning), hazard mitigation, contaminated site remediation and use, water quality, environmental and heath regulation, and emergency management. Relations with state and federal agencies. The course addresses two main gaps in the awareness of citizens (including students), the nature of local government and its key role in assuring the physical well-being of residents.
11:374:435 Communication in the Life Sciences (3 credits)
Communication plays a fundamental role in science. In environmental policy discussions, public health directives, or the continuation of scientific research itself, progress is created and documented through acts of communication. From the mass media to individual conversations, from technical journals to textbooks, from lab notes to the World Wide Web, communication creates and defines social issues and research findings. In this course, we will examine the institutional and intellectual contexts, processes, promises, and practical constraints of communication in the life sciences (CILS).
11:374:436 Health Literacy: Empowerment for Better Health (3 credits)
This course will introduce undergraduate and graduate students to the field of health literacy through readings, discussions, and in-class exercises.
11:374:451 Qualitative Research Methods (3 credits)
Prerequisite: 11:374:201 Research Methods in Human Ecology or permission of instructor.
Fundamentals of qualitative research, including research design, developing useful questions, in-depth interviewing, summarizing information, and data analysis, and their applications in various settings. Team research projects applied to current environmental problems.
11:374:490/491 Readings and Practicum in Human Ecology (3 credits)
Advanced interdisciplinary reading and independent research in human ecology under the guidance of a faculty member.
11:374:492 Environmental Studies Internship (3 credits)
Prerequisite: By permission of department staff. Credits: BA
Internships involving environmental research and policy with faculty at Rutgers and other institutions, with public agencies, with non-governmental organizations, or with businesses.
11:374:493 Environmental Communication Clinic (3 credits)
Prerequisite: Technical writing essentials, business writing essentials, or permission of instructor.
Course Description: Practicum in developing and implementing communication strategies. Team projects for non-profit or government organizations facing environmental problems that require effective communication as part of the solution.
501/ANTHRO Frontiers (3 credits)
Frontiers lie just beyond the horizon of the social, economic, political units we are used to studying. This course will explore the ways in which these areas and their inhabitants come to participate in metropolitan culture and political economy.
16:378:501, 16:450:605:03 The Human Dimensions of Environmental Change (3 credits)
In this course we try to add to students' intellectual toolkit by introducing them to the variety of approaches used by social scientists to understand the human dimensions of environmental change. Effective applied and theoretical work on environmental problems often requires that social scientists work closely with natural scientists. To do so effectively, we must be minimally conversant in the life sciences and able to use an array of social scientific approaches to understand environmental problems. This course tries to contribute to the latter end by introducing students to the variety of intellectual approaches used by social scientists to study environmental issues.
502 Explanation in Anthropology and Human Ecology (3 credits)
The course will be devoted to analysis of modes of explanation found in studies in anthropology (including socio-cultural and evolutionary anthropology) and in human ecology, with consideration of such issues and topics as causal vs. non-causal explanations; holism and individualism; essentialism; explaining actions by referring to mental events; norms and traditions as explanatory factors and as objects of explanation; unintended consequences as objects of explanation; naive functionalism in cost/benefit explanations; the explanatory role of generalizations; the explanatory use of narratives; the relation between "processes" and "events" in explanations; counterfactual questions and explanatory relativity; "how-possibly" vs. "whyactually" explanations; and the usability of the same modes of explanation for behavior in different cultures and different periods.
16/01:070: 309/626 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3 credits)
The nature of imagery and visualization; the study, use, and production of documentary, anthropological, ethnographic and other types of photographs, films, videos and digital products for research and communications; the study of human behavior through the use of visual media; and the role and impacts of visual media in societies. The use of film, videotape, still photography, and painting as media of anthropological analysis.
16:016:502 Interdisciplinary Research in Africa (3 credits)
This course raises the largest question of graduate training: What kind of intellectual –engaging in what ways with readers, collaborators, and subjects – do I wish to become? We will address this question in its mundane and sublime aspects, covering ethics, methods, and one's voice as a writer. With respect to ethics, I refer to the whole range in which one approaches people and institutions from which one want to learn. What kinds of responsibility and accountability does fieldwork engender? Do such obligations bear differently upon us in the case of poor, as opposed to rich, informants? The section on methods will deal with three kinds of data: oral, written, and materialist – a division that scrambles the conventional distinction between qualitative and quantitative data. Needless to say, all these methods entail multi-sited research. Finally, the course ends with issues of voice. How do we select our audiences and, when we write, how do we balance advocacy for and criticism of those who whom we studied in the field? In what circumstances and to what end, should we write reflexively – that is, include our own actions and feelings in the narrative?