What is Environmental Justice?

Environmental Justice considers the intersection of social justice and environmental issues. Building on prior civil and human rights movements in under-represented and under-resourced communities, it links spatial analysis and theories of human-environment relationships to remedy inequitable distribution of a wide range of environmental risks and benefits. These span urban, industrial, rural, and suburban settings and may include concerns such as air, water, and soil contamination; climate change mitigation and adaptation; allocation of environmental goods such as green spaces and outdoor recreation; and food, energy, water, and transportation systems, with major implications for public health, environmental hazards, urban design, community and economic development, natural resource management, and infrastructure planning.

Why Study Environmental Justice at UNH?

Our Environmental Justice Minor is one of very few university programs in this field. The curriculum provides a perspective that is deeply geographic, incorporating human-environment relationships, spatial analysis, and local-to-global dynamics, yet also borrows from other disciplines for depth of knowledge about the social science of racial justice and the biophysical science of environmental phenomena. Our students thereby develop the ability to synthesize diverse fields of knowledge to inform decision making in a wide range of jobs in government, business, and non-profit organizations.

Our students also acquire basic skills in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to aggregate, analyze, and display data, which positions them well for interesting and well-paying jobs with excellent prospects for lifelong career advancement and learning. Decision makers, practitioners, advocates, and researchers often use these tools to advance environmental justice through the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental ordinances, laws, regulations, policies, and practices that ensure the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income.

Potential Career Areas

Community development
Public health
City, town, or regional planning
International development
Environmental and social change advocacy
Geospatial data analysis
Natural resources, food systems, and rural livelihoods
Infrastructure and transportation policy
Social sciences teacher
Policy specialist
Public interest law

Curriculum & Requirements

Program Description

The Environmental Justice Minor brings an interdisciplinary and geographic perspective to understanding linkages across social justice and environmental issues. The program is designed to attract students who desire the conceptual rigor of liberal arts coursework in social theory as well as marketable skills. Students will graduate with strengths bridging diverse fields of knowledge and synthesizing these into robust analyses to inform decision making. They will be well-positioned to support New Hampshire and our region into the future as our social and environmental policy challenges continue to evolve over time.

Requirements for the Program

Academic policies related to Minors.

The Environmental Justice minor consists of 20 credits with a C- or better and a 2.0 grade-point average in courses that the minor department approves.
A minimum of 8 credits of coursework toward the minor must be at the 600 or 700 levels.
A minimum of 8 credits toward the minor must be coursework under the GEOG subject prefix.
Students may count GEOG 795 Special Project for up to 4 credits in the Integrated Environmental Justice core category with permission from the Geography Department. This will require the thesis or project to focus on a topic that substantively advances the student’s understanding of environmental justice issues through a deeply integrated social and environmental perspective.
Up to three courses counted toward UNH Discovery category requirements can "double count" toward the minor.
Up to two courses can be “cross-counted” toward both the Environmental Justic minor and another minor or major.

Course List
Code	Title	Credits
Requirements
Environmental Justice Core
Select one course from the following:		4
GEOG 581	Society, Environment and Justice
GEOG 701	Environmental Justice
Social Science Perspectives
Select one course from the following:		4
GEOG 405	There Is No Planet B
GEOG 500	Making Change: Social and Environmental Justice in Practice
GEOG 550	Sub-Saharan Africa: Environmental Politics and Development
GEOG 673	From Political Ecology to Climate Justice
SOC 565	Environment and Society
SOC 665	Environmental Sociology
SOC 730	Communities and the Environment
Racial Justice
Select one course from the following: ¹		4
SOC 530	Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
SOC 645	Class, Status and Power
LLC 444I	US Latinx Cities: Urban Culture, Society and Space
NAIS 400	Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies
EDUC 525	The Idea of Race in Teaching and Learning
CLAS 551	Race, Ethnicity, Class & Classics
PHIL 419	Race, Gender and Social Justice
ENGL 440A	Honors/On Race in Culture and Society
ENGL 550	Introduction to the Literature and Culture of Race
ENGL 581	Reading the Postcolonial Experience
ENGL 738	Asian American Studies
ENGL 778	Race and Gender in Film and Popular Culture
CMN 567	Gender, Race, and Class in the Media
CMN 614	Gender, Race and Technology
Biophysical Environment
Select one course from the following: ²		4
GEOG 670	Climate and Society
GEOG 560	Natural Hazards and Human Disasters
GEOG 572	Geography of the Natural Environment
GEOG 574	Global Landscapes and Environmental Processes
NR 743	Addressing Arctic Challenges
Spatial Analysis
Select one course from the following: ³		4
GEOG 591	Making Maps: GIS Fundamentals
NR 658	Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
ESCI 777	GIS for Earth & Environmental Sciences
Total Credits		20

¹

Alternate courses on racial justice by Geography Department approval.

²

Alternate biological science, physical science, or engineering courses above the 400 level by Geography Department approval.

Students completing a major or minor in the following departments can substitute a relevant course at the 500 level or above: Natural Resources and the Environment, Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences, Agriculture, Nutrition and Food Systems, Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences

³

Alternate GIS courses by Geography Department approval.

Student Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes

Integration across disciplines

Students will integrate social science, spatial, and biophysical perspectives across Geography and other disciplines to understand social justice implications of environmental decisions.

Spatial Analysis

Students will analyze the spatial relationship between social justice and environment using Geographic Information System (GIS) tools.