https://environmentalhumanities.yale.edu
Graduate Certificate in Environmental Humanities

Program Director
Paul Sabin (316 McClellan Hall; paul.sabin@yale.edu)

Director of Graduate Studies
Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan (10 Sachem St., Rm. 128; kalyanakrishnan.sivaramakrishnan@yale.edu)

Faculty associated with the program Sunil Amrith (History), Laura Barraclough (American Studies), Paola Bertucci (History; History of Science and Medicine), Ned Blackhawk (History; American Studies), Jill Campbell (English), Carol Carpenter (School of the Environment), Oksana Chefranova (Film and Media Studies), Susan Clark (School of the Environment), Deborah Coen (History of Science and Medicine), Edward Cooke, Jr. (History of Art), Ivano Dal Prete (History), Amity Doolittle (School of the Environment), Michael Dove (School of the Environment; Anthropology), Fabian Drixler (History), Justin Farrell (School of the Environment), Paul Freedman (History), Reinaldo Funes Monzote (Visiting; MacMillan Center), Jay Gitlin (History), John Grim (School of the Environment), Robert Harms (History), Alanna Hickey (English), Cajetan Iheka (English), Matthew Jacobson (American Studies; African American Studies; History), Paul Kennedy (History), Benedict Kiernan (History), Verlyn Klinkenborg (English; School of the Environment), Jonathan Kramnick (English), Douglas Kysar (Law School), Anthony Leiserowitz (School of the Environment), Katja Lindskog (English), J.G. Manning (Classics; History), Lisa Messeri (Anthropology), Alan Mikhail (History), Charles Musser (American Studies; Film and Media Studies; Theater Studies), John Peters (English; Film and Media Studies), Richard Prum (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), Jennifer Raab (History of Art), Joanna Radin (History of Science and Medicine; Anthropology; History), William Rankin (History), Kristin Reynolds (School of the Environment), Carolyn Roberts (History of Science and Medicine; African American Studies), Douglas Rogers (Anthropology), Elihu Rubin (School of Architecture; American Studies), Paul Sabin (History; American Studies), Oswald Schmitz (School of the Environment; Ecology and Environmental Biology), Stuart Schwartz (History), Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan (Anthropology; School of the Environment), Gary Tomlinson (Music; Humanities), Mary Evelyn Tucker (School of the Environment; Divinity School; Religious Studies), John Wargo (School of the Environment), Michael Warner (English; American Studies), Harvey Weiss (Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations; School of the Environment), Kenneth Winkler (Philosophy), Carl Zimmer (Adjunct; School of Medicine)

Graduate Certificate in Environmental Humanities

Yale Environmental Humanities aims to deepen our understanding of the ways that culture is intertwined with nature and to contribute to a broad interdisciplinary conversation about humanity and the fate of the planet. Humanities scholars have an opportunity to reshape how we think about environmental problems and “the environment” itself. In turn, interdisciplinary dialogue with scientists and social scientists can stimulate the humanities in productive ways, raising new research questions and providing fresh ways to approach long-standing issues. As an interdisciplinary initiative, Yale Environmental Humanities draws particularly on faculty and courses from across the humanities departments, including American Studies, Anthropology, Comparative Literature and other literature departments, English, Film and Media Studies, History, History of Art, and Philosophy, as well as from professional schools, including Architecture, Divinity, Drama, Environment, and Public Health.

The Graduate Certificate in Environmental Humanities is available to students already enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Yale who seek to establish a strong foundation in environmental humanities topics and methodologies across the humanities disciplines. Students who complete the graduate certificate will gain skills working in interdisciplinary environmental settings and representing humanities perspectives on a broad range of environmental topics. Interested students are strongly encouraged to register for the certificate by meeting with the director of graduate studies (DGS) during their first year.

Special Requirements for the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Humanities

Students who wish to receive the certificate must complete the following course work, research, and teaching requirements:

1. Three approved graduate or professional school courses focusing entirely or substantially on environmental themes, broadly defined. At least one of the courses should involve approximately 50 percent of its material from outside a student’s home department or discipline. In consultation with the DGS and the student’s Environmental Humanities adviser (who can also be their departmental adviser), each student is expected to organize their elective courses around a concentration related to their departmental course work and doctoral research. Elective courses will be chosen from a list of the environmental humanities graduate courses that are being offered each term.
2. Two terms of the Environmental Humanities certificate workshop, Topics in the Environmental Humanities (HIST 963 and HIST 964). Students must complete both a fall term and a spring term of the workshop, but the two terms of student participation need not be consecutive. Topics in the Environmental Humanities is a half-credit course that will be offered in both the fall and spring terms (one credit total). Academic credit from the workshop course typically does not count toward departmental course work requirements.
3. Students must demonstrate the capacity to pursue independent, interdisciplinary research in environmental humanities by presenting a qualifying paper at a meeting of the Environmental Humanities workshop, Graduate Research Symposium, or other approved venue.
4. Students must fulfill a teaching requirement by serving as a teaching fellow for an approved environmental humanities course or by completing an approved public humanities project. Other options are possible if appropriate teaching opportunities are not available.

Each of these requirements will require approval from the DGS of Environmental Humanities. Additional certificate program information, including the application and requirements checklist for the certificate, is available on the Environmental Humanities website (https://environmentalhumanities.yale.edu) or by contacting environmentalhumanities@yale.edu.

Certificate Workshop