The interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Program for undergraduates "is designed to provide a sound scientific, socio-economic, and philosophical background for understanding the earth's environment.Solutions to environmental problems require interdisciplinary approaches. This interdisciplinary program requires a sound base in both biological and physical sciences to provide an understanding of how the world works and courses in agriculture, sociology, philosophy, and economics to provide an understanding of the importance of human and economic values in making environmental decisions. Thus, a goal of the program is to offer a curriculum that emphasizes the relevance of human and economic values and science in making prudent environmental decisions. Within the scope of the program, skills can be developed in at least one discipline - the discipline area in which the student chooses to satisfy requirements for a minor. This program affords preparation for many post baccalaureate options, some that might not otherwise be available without this interdisciplinary background. Several options that are likely to be available include, but are not limited to, graduate studies, corporate environmental affairs, local/state/federal government departments, environmental organizations, and environmental law school." --from the ESP Mission Statement

Students who are interested in studying global issues on this campus have options.

As Dr. Shefner says, “No individual field of study fulfills what we need to understand in order to make change.”

The Global Studies program includes courses in anthropology, economics, sociology, political science, Latin American Studies, and African Studies. For more information, please visit the website at: http://web.utk.edu/~global/what_is.php.
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lthough many people view environmental issues as technical problems that require the expertise of only biologists, chemists, physicists, and engineers to understand, sociologists recognize the essentially social nature of environmental issues.

The University of Tennessee Interdisciplinary Program for Global Studies focuses on understanding connections between different parts of the world. Globalization, or the trans-national exchange of investments, commodities, people, politics, technologies, and cultures, is both a characteristic of the contemporary world and the culmination of large-scale, long-term social change. Although globalization at times seems dominated by new economic and political formations more powerful than the traditional nation-state, it has also mobilized new expressions of local and transnational discontent and resistance.

Global Studies offers a comprehensive framework for understanding the interactions of multiple sites across history by recognizing that local dynamics are embedded in a changing global system. The UT Global Studies curriculum helps students understand the implications of global change, allowing the university community to confront what is occurring in our immediate locale by examining what is going on elsewhere. Bringing together faculty and students from diverse perspectives creates an interdisciplinary understanding of the disruption and integration resulting from changing configurations of nations, global processes, and identities.

There is also a Graduate Specialty Areas in Environment and Political Economy. For more information on this area of undergraduate and graduate concentration, visit the website at: http://web.utk.edu/~utsocdep/other/env_soc.html.