Overview

Meeting the environmental challenges of the 21st century requires research, education, and training that spans traditional disciplinary boundaries. The Environmental Studies department provides unique training that equips students with the knowledge and skills needed to confront complex problems affecting social-environmental systems. The program is flexibly structured, giving students the opportunity to pursue diverse areas of interest, especially those that do not fall neatly within disciplinary boundaries. Environmental Studies graduates pursue diverse career paths, including positions in academia, government, education, environmental consulting, natural resource management, and those within the private sector.  

A Commitment to Solving Environmental Problems

The faculty and students in our program specialize in a wide range of fields, including public policy and governance, environmental philosophy and ethics, biogeochemistry, conservation biology, climate studies, food systems, environmental psychology and environmental health. Despite our diverse interests, we share a common commitment to problem-oriented research and learning, and an environment that nurtures the integration of ideas and methods across disciplines.   

Rich Research Opportunities

Environmental Studies students at the University of Colorado, Boulder are fortunate to be embedded within a rich research environment. Faculty and students from the program conduct research locally, throughout the intermountain west, and even around the globe.

Graduate Program Diversity Statement

The Environmental Studies (ENVS) department strives to create a graduate experience that is welcoming and supportive for people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and identities. Our community comprises students, faculty, and staff from many backgrounds and countries and whose interests span the social sciences, natural sciences and humanities. We seek to ensure that individuals from all backgrounds are treated fairly, are supported, and find professional opportunity within our department. It also is our conviction that multiple perspectives and experiences are fundamental to achieving our goals of carrying out rigorous and collaborative environmental scholarship, and for designing innovative and effective responses to environmental challenges. To foster this goal of inclusive excellence in Environmental Studies, we seek to apply the ideals of fairness, justice, equal opportunity, and representation both as we look outward at existing challenges, as well as when looking inward at our own institutional structure, standards, policies, and procedures.

Ready to Apply?

If you are ready to apply, explore our Graduate Programs to learn more about the various degree options available in Environmental Studies including degree requirements and application deadlines.