Welcome to the website of the Environmental Studies Program. Whether you are a current student in our Program, a person interested in coming to KU and becoming part of our Program, or just a curious individual, we are happy to have you visit us. Please check back regularly for academic updates, news, and upcoming events. Program specific events can be located on the Calendar page. All job and internship openings will now be posted respectively on the Jobs & Careers and Internships pages.
Prospective employers and others who wish to advertise Environmental Studies related events on this site: please send a brief text description of the job or event summary to env-studies@ku.edu. Please keep the summary brief, including all relevant contact and location information. Also, please do not format the description text, as this will make it easier to post.
Couldn't get into EVRN 148 or 320 this semester? Want to get some of your required credit hours out of the way early? Consider enrolling in courses this summer
relieve some of the load from your academic year!
Both courses will be offered in the June session of the summer. EVRN 148 will be taught by Kathleen Nuckolls from 9:10 - 11:20 AM, Monday through Friday. EVRN 320 will be taught by Dr. Dorothy Daley
from 10:20 AM - 12:30 PM, also Monday through Friday.
Jessica Roark, Environmental Studies major, is featured on the front page of KU News today. The story discusses her diagnosis of adenoid cystic carcinoma, her academic excellence and perserverance in spite of this disease, and her commitment to environmental causes. Check out the story here.
All students are invited to attend an informal meeting with faculty from KU Environmental Studies and three visiting scholars from Kansas State University, Friday May 1st, between 1:15-2pm. This event will be held in the EVRN Conference Rm., 256 Snow Hall. Refreshments will be provided. Drs. Jeffrey Peterson, Theresa Selfa, and Jason Bergtold from K-State and faculty from KU will talk about the work that they are doing together on topics ranging from agricultural economics to land management in rural communities, to issues related to the food vs. fuel debate. For students interested in food and agricultural issues, this is an excellent opportunity to speak with experts in the field!
Monday, May 4th
12:15 – 1:30pm
Walnut Room, Kansas Union
Sponsored by NSF Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets & NSF C-CHANGE IGERT Program
This Saturday, May 2nd, the Ecojustice Student Group, in conjunction with Haskell's Wetlands Preservation Organization, will be hosting a wetland rally. It will feature games, crafts and educational material for children and adults, music, and speakers such as Dr. Dan Wildcat, Director of American Indian Studies at Haskell, and Mike Caron, prominent wetlands activist. The rally will take place between 10:00 am - 3:00 pm on the west side of South Park.
Wednesday, May 6th
4:30 p.m.
256 Snow Hall
Environmental Studies majors are invited to attend and watch fellow honors students present about their research.
Afterwards, beginning at 5:00, we will have our End-of-Year Potluck. Come and bring your friends!
This is the third installment of Environmental Studies' Faculty Chat series. Dr. Dorothy Daley, professor of Environmental Studies and Political Science, will have a conversation with students and answer questions about research interests and careers among other things. The chat will take place in the EVRN Conference Rm, 256 Snow Hall, Wednesday April 29th at 4:00 pm. All majors and minors are welcome to attend. Refreshments provided.
April 17, 12-1pm
Burge Union, Olympian Room (309)
Looking to save money on your grocery bills? Interested in joining the local food movement? You can get started with both in your own backyard! Find out how tomorrow (Friday) at noon as Douglas County Extension Agent Jennifer Smith presents a basic introduction to vegetable gardening. Bring your lunch, or pick something up at the Crimson Café, and join the conversation in the Olympian Room of the Burge Union.
This event is the first installment in the Center for Sustainability “Green Bag” series. For more information about this and future events, contact Jeff Severin at jseverin@ku.edu.
April 22, 2009
7:30 - 8:30pm
Spencer Museum of Art
John Randolph, Professor and Chair of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech, will be presenting a lecture on Earth Day. Global resource sustainability requires international, national, and regional directives and green technology development; but sustainability begins at the local level. This presentation explores a vision for communities, addressing sustainability of our three most important resources, energy, water, and land. It builds on a concept of the Sustainable or Whole Community as applied to energy and extends that concept to water and land with mutual benefits.
Sponsored by the Center for Sustainability, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Environmental Studies, Institute for Policy & Social Research, C-CHANGE, Student Senate, and the Student Environmental Advisory Board. For more information about this event, contact Stacey White at 864-3530 or sswhite@ku.edu.
James Roberts will be speaking on how to run an effective environmental campaign, how to create a Coalition, and how to get your voice heard. This event will take place at Alderson Auditorium, 3:00 - 4:30 pm. Free and open to the public.
This Thursday, April 16, Oxfam and GPACE will be sponsoring an Energy Panel with state representatives. The panel will discuss energy use, food policies, and other environmental topics. It will take place at 7:00 in the Parlor Room, Kansas Union. All are welcome to attend.
Sunday, April 19th
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Potter's Lake, KU Campus
Join SUA Live Music and Social Issues for an afternoon of earth-friendly fun.
Featuring great music from acoustic groups, Earth Day activities, and a special
guest speaker, this afternoon promises to be a great conscious event.
Thursday April 16, 3:00-5:30 pm
The Commons, Spooner Hall
Over the last 200 years the natural environment has played a crucial role in radical social
thought. In the early 21st century, the endangered environment has forced thinking that is
changing how humans live on this planet. This roundtable focuses on (1) the historical and
contemporary ways that revolutionary thinking and social revolutionaries have conceptualized
the natural environment, and (2) how the environmental change of the last half century has
radically changed our conceptions of our lives. Panelists will address the interaction of all
these factors with a focus on different regions of the world.
Part of the “Changing the World” series co-sponsored by the KU Center for East Asian Studies,
Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies, the Center for Latin American Studies,
and the Kansas African Students Center.
Next Tuesday, April 14, the Environmental Studies Program and KU Center for Sustainability are
hosting two events featuring local community activist Richard Mabion. Mabion is working to promote environmental
awareness in his own community of Kansas City, Kansas, where two active coal-fired plants are located, and was named
2008 “Best Activist – Kansas” by The Pitch.
Mabion’s first presentation of the day will be at 4 PM in the Multicultural Resource Center classroom.
This afternoon presentation will be directed specifically at students who are interested in engaging in the environmental
justice movement. This will be a chance to meet with Mabion, learn from his experiences, and discuss issues of social
and environmental justice in a more intimate setting. Space will be limited, so attendees are encouraged to arrive early.
Then at 7 PM at the Kansas Union, Alderson Auditorium, Mabion will be giving an evening presentation entitled “Race, Justice
and the Environment: Getting a Place at the Table”. His talk will focus on environmental justice, using his own community as
an example. For more details, view this flyer 
.
More information on this and other upcoming events is available at The Center for
Sustainability website.
Dr. Wes Jackson, founder of the Land Institute, will be a guest speaker in Professor Don Worster's
Agriculture in World History Course on Tuesday, April 14. The class meets from 9:30 to 10:45 am in Wescoe 4008.
All are welcome to attend this lecture to hear Dr. Jackson discuss the Institute's work on sustainable agriculture based on ecological models.
Those who do attend are asked to stay for the whole period.
Dr. Jackson has been widely recognized for his critique of industrial farming and his innovative thinking about the future
of agriculture. He is a MacArthur and Pew fellow, a winner of the alternative Nobel prize for right livelihood, and a native
Kansan whose ideas have won an audience around the world.
The Dole Institute for Politics is hosting a town hall to discuss billionaire T. Boone Pickens' proposed energy plan, which involves increased use of wind, solar and natural gas. The meeting will take place at the Dole Institute, 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 8. The program is free and open to the public. For more information, view the KU press release.
The Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. is receiving cover letters and resumes of students interested in summer and fall 2009 and 2010 internships. Please contact our internship coordinator, Jennnifer Kongs, for more information.
LEEP is a non-profit organization committed to increasing opportunities for environmental education available to everyone in Lawrence.
LEEP, a project of the Kansas Area Watershed Council, is an official partner and supporter of the Lawrence Community Environmental School
and is the sponsoring agency for the Eco-Literacy Book Club.
As an upcoming example of LEEP’s distinctive programming, the Ecoliteracy Book Club will be reading Jeff Goodell’s “Big Coal” for the
month of April, and will meet for discussion about the book on Monday, April 13th. This will be followed by LEEP’s Community Field Trip
on Saturday, April 25th to the Bowerstock Mills & Power Co. This fun and educational event will feature tours of the facility, an informal
picnic with activities for children, and information about sustainable energy. For more information about the tour or to RSVP please email
LeepIntoAction@gmail.com.
Lawrence Sustainability Network interviewed the eight candidates running for city commission positions, asking questions about city development, sustainability and the trafficway. Read how they answered before the election on April 7th.
Stuart Shafer, professor of sociology at Johnson County Community College, will be giving a lecture at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22.
Dr. Ian Cook, visiting scholar from Exeter, is giving a talk on the tropics as part of the Dept. of Geography Spring Colloquium Series. The talk will be at 4:00 in Lindley 317. Refreshments served beforehand at 3:30 in Lindley 210. Sponsored by KU Geography, KU Environmental Studies Program, and Kansas African Studies Center.
Simran Sethi, award-winning journalist and the Lacy C. Haynes Professional-in-Residence at the KU School of Journalism, is giving a lecture tonight on environmental design. The lecture will take place at 6:00 p.m. in Wescoe 3139. This lecture is part of the Hallmark Design Symposium Series.
Friday, April 3
7:00 p.m.
Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread
The Ecojustice Student Group is hosting a silent auction for local artists. The auction will musical performances and speakers
discussing the Haskell-Baker Wetlands, and native rights. Refreshments (wine and cheese) will be provided. $10 general admission, $5 for students. For more
information, visit the Ecojustice Group site.
The Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, Mark Parkinson, will be giving a talk about "National Policy and Climate Change" on Tuesday, March 31st at 3:00. The talk will take place at The Commons room in Spooner Hall (across the street from the Natural History Museum). All are invited and encouraged to attend. This event is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, Dole Institute of Politics, Institute for Policy & Social Research, and the NSF C-CHANGE IGERT Program.
Dan Sperling will be giving a lecture about his book at the KU School of Engineering this Wednesday, March 25, at 3:30 in the Spahr Engineering Classroom at Eaton Hall. For more details about the lecture, visit the KU Engineering site.
4:00 p.m., 256 Snow Hall
The Environmental Studies Program is hosting another semester informal chat with a faculty member, Karl Brooks. Come learn about Dr. Brooks' research,
courses, and his areas of interest: environmental law, North American environmental history and policy, American legal history, and postwar American culture
and politics. All majors welcome to attend.
A number of artists, exhibitors and local students are presenting tree-related art across Lawrence, including locations at the Spencer Art Gallery, the Percolator at 9th and New Hampshire, and 6 Gallery. Learn more about the artistic exhibits at the LJ World.
The Great Basin Institute with the University of Nevada, Reno is offering a Summer Research Experience
for 12 Undergraduates to work within the Lake Tahoe Watershed. The summer interns will gain experience
conducting research on various aspects of environmental science and resource economics. The position
dates are June 8 – August 14th and the students will receive a living stipend of $4500, housing and
food per diem. These REU positions are funded by the National Science Foundation and are only open to
U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate college or university
and must not have graduated prior to starting the position. For more details, view this flyer
.
EVRN Film Friday will NOT be happening this week. The next EVRN Film Friday will take place on March 13th, next week,
and we will be watching the movie "Wall-E." Again, all are welcome to attend.
The University of California, Santa Cruz Summer Session is establishing the
Santa Cruz Summer Sustainability Institute (SSI), a program of courses, discussions and
possible internships designed to introduce students to the concepts and practices of social
and ecological sustainability, and to allow them to pursue selected subjects in greater depth.
The Institute reflects growing sustainability-related interest and activity at UC-Santa Cruz a
nd offers students the opportunity to participate in special discussion sections and seminars,
explore a variety of projects on campus and around the Monterey Bay Region.
Read more about the institute, and how to apply, at the UCSC Sustainability website.
The Environmental Studies program is calling for applications for research awards for 2009-2010. For details, please visit the scholarship page. Applications due by no later than 5:00, Wednesday, April 1st.
Oread Friends Meeting is sponsoring its second annual Read-Out, Speak-Out, Act-Out on Earthcare. All are invited to attend and read, sing, speak, act, dance, make music, or perform. The event will take place on the west side of South Park, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 18th. Those wishing to participate should sign up for a 10-minute slot by contacting Beth Schultz at eschultz@ku.edu.
Sponsored by: Oread Friends Meeting, KU Environs, Ecumenical Christian Ministries, and the Haskell Student Wetlands Preservation Organization.
Dietrich Earnhart and Stacey White are leading a study abroad program in Freiburg, Germany, this coming summer. The priority deadline for the program application is February 15th and the final deadline is March 1st. (The priority deadline is only meaningful if the program is over-subscribed; in that case, applications received by the priority deadline are given preference over those received afterwards).
In order to facilitate participation in this program, the Environmental Studies program is offering scholarship funding in the amount of $1,200 per selected recipient. The deadline for the scholarship application is March 1. If you have any questions about the study abroad program in Germany, please contact Dietrich Earnhart (864-2866; earnhart@ku.edu). If you have any questions about the scholarship program, please contact Kim Le at the Environmental Studies program office (864-8902; env-studies@ku.edu ).
Download the Freiburg Study Abroad application
Download the Scholarship funding application
A new non-profit environmental organization, OurEarth.org, has formed and is seeking help! OurEarth.org is a new
grassroots initiative that intends to completely transform the way environmental programs, activities, and information
are found on the internet so that the public can become more proactive in protecting the environment. Right now, our
organization is looking to dramatically expand its core of student volunteers. Joining OurEarth.org can be a tremendous
opportunity for students. Not only can they make an environmental impact on a national scale, they can collaborate with
peers at other institutions as well as environmental experts from around the country. Additionally, this is a rare chance
for students to join at the ground level of an up-and-coming organization and expand their networks and connections.
Included below are two website links that provide additional information about our organization and the opportunities for students.
OurEarth.org Brochure
Student Action Committee
There is a new student organization on campus, whose mission is to encourage environmentally friendly practices in local bars and restaurants through the creation and implementation of a sustainable recycling program. For more information about this group, and to join, visit their website at http://groups.ku.edu/~barrecycling/.
For the past 12 years, the University of Manitoba has been running a
six-week summer school in collaboration with the hamlet of Panniqtuuq
(Pangnirtung), Nunavut, Canada. The program offers four undergraduate
courses for credit in Native Studies and Environmental Science. Most
students come from other universities across Canada or abroad.
Students learn about past and present Inuit culture, language, and
interaction with the environment, while living in the small community of
Panniqtuuq on Baffin Island in northern Canada. In addition to more
standard lectures, participants also take a week-long hunting and fishing trip "on
the land" with local families. Students participate in workshops with
local elders and design their own community volunteer projects. The program
provides an excellent grounding in past and present issues affecting the Canadian
North -- issues which are relevant to many other indigenous and northern
cultures. Students learn about topics like the seal hunt controversy,
arctic climate change, and the history of colonialism in the North in a
deeply personal way.
There is a short video about the program here:
View a short video about the program,
available at the program's website. (This year's application form is not up yet, but students can apply
using last year's form. Airfare to Pang is very expensive, but U of M has made a real effort to keep other costs extremely reasonable). For questions, contact Karen Routledge at kirimsa@gmail.com.
The Spencer Art Museum is currently running an exhibit called "Climate Change at the Poles," from January 24th through May 24th. The theme of the exhibit is how humans have interacted with the extreme, remote environments at the Poles. For more information on this exhibit, and an up-to-date schedule of related events and talkbacks, visit the Spencer website.
Students for Bar Recycling is a new student organization on campus to encourage environmentally friendly practices in local bars and restaurants through the creation and implementation of a sustainable recycling program. This Tuesday there is an all day conference at the Kansas City Plaza with informative presentations and discussions with US EPA, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Missouri Department of Natural Resouces. If you are interested in attending, please contact Andrew Stanley, President of Students for Bar Recycling, at astanley86@gmail.com.
Susan Williams, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering and director of KU’s Biodiesel Initiative, will lead a discussion about KU’s efforts to create sustainable biofuels. The discussion will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 7, at the Natural History Museum. The event is free and open to the public.
Test how well you drive at the Eco Driving Simulator.
