The Program of ESSP

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

 * The Environmental Studies & Sustainability Program (ESSP) is a multidiscipline program for students and faculty across the college.
 * It brings together a rich grouping of courses, ongoing projects, campus programs (including the new sustainable campus plan), and speaker series so that students can develop their own ways to combine the sciences, social sciences, and humanities to study and work on environmental and sustainability topics.
 * Through the ESSP Hampshire students develop a truly interdisciplinary, project-based course of studies which allows them to tackle – with the help of faculty and other students – complex, real-world issues.
 * This is just the preparation that college graduates need to face the difficult environmental problems and challenges of today.

DIVISION I in ESSP

 * Division I at Hampshire is accomplished mainly in the first year.
 * By taking problem and issue-based courses, students begin the process of asking their own questions and building on the progress of other professionals before them.
 * Through their courses ESSP students might work on a new electrical generating windmill at the Farm Center, assess concentrations of arsenic from historical spraying in our apple orchards, count and observe migrating birds from our aerial walkway, or assess environmental justice issues in nearby postindustrial cities.

DIVISION II in ESSP

 * Students accomplish their Concentration, Division II, during their second and third years, and they design their Concentrations with the guidance of a faculty committee.
 * Each Division II is unique and includes courses, internships, and projects.
 * ESSP students especially interested in the sciences might focus on geology, chemistry, biology, ecology or agriculture.
 * Others might choose a more interdisciplinary path and integrate the Social and Natural Sciences or Humanities and Sciences. :*Many ESSP Concentrations (Division II) are by nature interdisciplinary.


 * Within four areas of focus some recent Division II titles are:
 * Environmental Science: Conservation Biology, Geology; Environmental Chemistry
 * Agriculture: Bioregionalism and Sustainable
 * Agriculture: Creating a Sense of Place; Agriculture and Society; Ethnobotany
 * Design and Technology: Alternative Energy Design and Implementation, Solar and Wind Engineering
 * Sustainable Communities: Land Use and Development in Hadley, Massachusetts: Helping Diverse Ideas Lead to Healthy Decisions; ::*Cultural Ecology; Sustainable Community Design

DIVISION III in ESSP

 * Division III includes an in-depth project which students work during their final year at Hampshire.
 * Many ESSP students do summer field projects or internships on and off campus and then write a thesis under the supervision of their Division III committee.
 * Example Division IIIs in ecology and conservation, geology and chemistry, policy and history, community development, entrepreneurship and invention, and agriculture and nature writing are listed below.


 * The following are examples of recent Division III titles:
 * A Tale of Two States: Progressive Land Use in the U.S.
 * Federal Intervention in Environmental Affairs: A Case Study of Boston Harbor
 * Wind Energy: Working Towards a Sustainable Energy Path
 * Materials and Process Affecting Compost Quality: An Analysis of the Hampshire College Farm Composting System
 * Carbon Dating Anomalies in the Long Valley Caldera, California
 * Sea Turtle Restoration Biology and Ethics
 * A Vegetable Oil Powered Diesel Car
 * Kavas: The Sacred Mini Forests in Kerala, India
 * Video Production of Environmental Issues