Environmental Studies

The UES Program examines sustainability from environmental, economic, socio-political and cultural perspectives. Within a liberal arts curriculum, students take more traditional environmental courses from the natural sciences coupled with social sciences and humanities courses. UES majors choose either a BA or BS degree. The UES Program teaches courses based on materials from the American South, Global North and Global South providing students local, American and international experiences. UES students complete a senior capstone course in which they develop an independent research project. The UES Program enrolls about 35 majors and minors with 13 faculty members across eight academic departments. UES students may minor in other departments such as biology, business, chemistry and mathematics to expand their expertise and skills concentrations. BSC is the only Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) institution who has a 3-2 master's program with Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. BSC's location in a mid-sized metropolitan area like Birmingham is an advantage to our students being involved in internships, service learning and independent research with community partners through the rise3 Program. The Southern Environmental Center and Turkey Creek Nature Preserve provide unique opportunities for the UES Program such as the annual BioBlitz overnight research program. Additionally, the UES Program partners with the E.O. Wilson Center in Freeport, FL providing students opportunities for lab trip weekends to independent study projects only minutes from the Gulf Coast beaches. On campus UES students are involved in EnAct, the campus environmental group, and the BSC Garden Club. EnAct organizes Green Week events around Earth Day in April as well as the annual Southern Exposures film showing from the Alabama Rivers Alliance. Garden Club manages the campus community garden.