Environmental Studies
Major (BA, BS)
In this interdisciplinary program, students identify and address the critical environmental issues facing the world’s cities in the 21st century. The curriculum brings together the natural sciences, the social sciences, and design. It prepares graduates for policy planning and service careers in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. A bachelor’s-master’s option is also available. This program is also available as a Bachelor’s Program for Adults and Transfer Students. Students can study full-time or part-time, taking courses on campus and online, and have the option of completing the degree entirely online.
Career opportunities include: Sustainability Consulting, Public Policy, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Graduate Study
Learn more about majoring in Environmental Studies:
Lang Students
BPATS Students
Minor in Environmental Studies
The Environmental Studies minor is designed to give students the core information they need to understand both the natural and social science implications of our environmental problems. The minor helps students to better understand the rapidly developing environmental field, become active participants in the discussion of environmental issues, and integrate environmental understanding into their other areas of study and professional careers.
Learn more about minoring in Environmental Studies
Recent Environmental Studies Thesis topics
- Spring 2021
Spring 2021
- “Reclaiming Footsteps” – Jenna D’ascoli
- “Examining Farmers’ Regenerative Agricultural Practices Under Climate Change” – Jessica Davies
- “Finding the Relationship between Aesthetics, Function and the Sustainable Promises of Biomimicry” – Isabel Devereux
- “Urbanity: the Bane of Humanity” – Max Gaddis
- “Climbing Walls and Breaking Windows: Queer Ecology as Resistance” – Air Hoover
- “Wetlands for Wave Protection and Environmental Justice” – Rebecca Stobbe
- “The Pomerac Tree in the novel Cereus Blooms at Night: An Environmental Humanities Approach” – Molly Treangen
- “Crisis Narratives – Big Oil as the Hero of Climate Change” – Alyssa Woo
- Spring 2020
Spring 2020
- “Hong Kong’s Paradoxical Land Management through the Lens of Coffin Homes” – Samira Alfarius
- “Living with Water: How Residents of Delray Beach, Florida Perceive Risks of Living on the Coast” – Devin Borg
- “Water Governance, Environmental Justice, and Indigenous Sovereignty: Sustenance Fishing in the Penobscot River” – Julia St.Clair-Voiers
- “Displacement: Environmental Degradation and Internal Migration in Southwestern Colombia” – Isabella Klemprer Melo
- Spring 2019
Spring 2019
- “The Future of Agriculture: Understanding a CO2 Enriched Future & its Effects on Agricultural Processes” – Madeline Balintona
- “Learning Green: Integrating Themes of Environmental Stewardship into Elementary Schools” – Kate Bilezikian
- “Incentivizing a Shift Towards Sustainable Fashion Consumption” – Kirsten DiCaprio
- “Policymaking in the Anthropocene: An Analysis of New York City’s Response to a Transportation Crisis in the Age of Climate Change” – Annabel Finkel
- “Land Management Practices and Human Livelihoods: Obsolete Pesticide Accumulation and Disposal in the Developing World” – Dawit Kiflemariam
- “DIY Solar Cells for Non-Scientists” – Ana Remis
- “Designing for Cemeteries in Drought Prone Areas” – Jack Seney
- Spring 2018
Spring 2018
- “Guajiro Justice: Complicating Notions of Agency in Post-1990 Cuban Agriculture” – Olivia Driscoll Gamber
- “Biophilia: the Collection” – Elizabeth Noonan
- “Grounding Environmental Justice in Communities Immediately Affected” – Emily Yacina
- Spring 2017
Spring 2017
- “Designing a Bicycle User Experience” – Trey Hahn
- “Where is Wilderness?” – Emma Hayward
- “Fighting Injustice through Data Collection” – Sasha Hodson
- “Natural Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells & Solar Democracy” – Jozef Soloff
- “Urban Farmology” – Sally Yang
- Spring 2016
Spring 2016
- “Justice in the Classroom: Democracy through Play” – Lena Greenberg
- “Rooftop Real Estate: An Examination of Distributed Solar Capacity in New York City” – Kaitlyn Hoyt
- Spring 2015
Spring 2015
- “City Kids, Environmental Leaders: Can after-school programs create environmental stewards?” – Michele Berry
- “Theories of practice & food waste reduction” – H. Leigh Brown
- “The Limitations to Sustainability within Supply Chains” – Amanda Canavan
- “The impacts of urban development on carbon storage capacity in salt marshes: A case study of Jamaica Bay, New York” – Kelsey Gosselin
- “How might we communicate the problems + solutions of ecological issues to the public? Water Quality in Flushing Bay + Creek” – Cody Herrmann
- “Determining Storm Surge Vulnerability in New York County” – Steven Huang
- Spring 2014
Spring 2014
- “Connections to Cloth: Upcycling in the Childrenswear Market” – Ariana Breall
- “Cultural Practices in Orca Whales as the Main Driver for Implementing Changes in Captivity” – Emily Callaway
- “Actual and Proposed Local Storm Surge Barriers in New Orleans and New York: Lessons Learned” – Elena Granado
- “Sludge Incineration and Energy Efficiency” – Sherif Kamal
- “Expansion of 3D Printings Effect On The Labor Market” – Hannah Straus
- “A Service Design Study Promoting Resiliency in Rockaway Community: Rockaway Waterfront Alliance as main case study” – Stephanie Valencia
- Spring 2013
Spring 2013
- “Shifting away from disposable: (Re)designing the packaging, delivery, and disposal of contact lens packaging” – Chris Beatty
- “Head v. Heart: Measuring the Effectiveness of Two Types of Appeals to Influence Proenvironmental Behaviors” – Alex Dolan
- “Opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline: Emergence of the Hybrid Environmental Advocacy Organization” – Geoff Genzano
- “A New Approach to NYC Park Management: Integrating Biodiversity and Community” – Jason Sohn-Greenberg
- “Ecological Practice: Bokashi” – Max Katz
- “Park as Pharmacy: Medicinal Botany in Cities” – Rena Lee
- “Expressing Ecological Citizenship Through Windowfarming” – T.J. O’Brien
- “Learning From the Dutch Sea Level Rise Adaptation in NYC and Rotterdam” – Jackie Pellicano
- “Community Organizing and Food Activism through Slow Food at The New School” – Gemma Richardson
- “A Comparison of Projected Capital Cost Scenarios to Build Natural Gas Combine Cycle & Utility Solar Photovoltaics Assessing Cost, Risk, and Impact of Two Power Generation Technologies” – Nicolas Sheehan
- Spring 2012
Spring 2012
- “Combining Lean Thinking & Design Research” – Miki Aso
- “Improving the Post-Occupancy Evaluation for The New School University Building on 65 Fifth Avenue in New York City” – Ashley K. Baker
- “Reducing Disposable Tableware Waste in the Quick-Service Food Industry: The barriers and feasibility of a hypothetical business model which offers only reusable tableware” – Tom Csatari
- “Conscious Clothing Use Changing Perceptions and Behaviors of Garment Care Towards Energy Conservation” – George Gladstone
- “What is Citizen Science?” – Kelli Jordan
- “Understanding the Influence of Culture in Purchasing Local Foods and Organic foods From Farmers’ Markets at Low-income Neighborhoods” – Carmen Li
- “Carbon Sequestration in Weedy Vacant Lots” – Hugh Whittaker Reed
- “Assessing the Madison Square Pedestrian Plaza as a Public Space” – Paloma Garcia Simon
- “Where Do You Live? Using Resident-Employed Photography to Explore Place Attachment to the Built Environment in an Urban Context” – Lou Wright
- “Developing a Tool for Increased Sharing Within the Urban Climbing Community Through Design Research and Intervention” – Carlos Alvarez Yusitis
- “The Middle City” – Hannah Zingre
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