Environmental Studies

Environmental Studies: Introduction

Lead Faculty of the Collaborative Specialization

Arts and Science

Participating Degree Programs

Adult Education and Community Development — MA, MEd, PhD
Anthropology — MA, MSc, PhD
Architecture, Landscape, and Design — PhD
Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry — MASc, MEng, PhD
Chemistry — MSc, PhD
Civil Engineering — MASc, MEng, MEngCEM, PhD
Earth Sciences — MASc, MSc, PhD
English — MA, PhD
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology — PhD
Environmental Science — MEnvSc, PhD
Forest Conservation — MFC
Forestry — MScF, PhD
Geography — MA, MSc, PhD
Global Affairs — MGA
Information — MI, PhD
Landscape Architecture — MLA
Management — MBA, PhD
Music — MA, PhD
Physics — MSc, PhD
Planning — MScPl, PhD
Political Science — MA, PhD
Public Policy — MPP
Religion — MA, PhD
Social Justice Education — MA, MEd, EdD, PhD
Sociology — MA, PhD
Sustainability Management — MScSM
Women and Gender Studies — MA, PhD

Overview

The graduate degree programs listed above participate in the Collaborative Specialization in Environmental Studies (CSES), which is offered through the School of the Environment. Students admitted to a graduate degree program in a participating degree-granting unit, also called the home department or home unit, can apply to the CSES and pursue coursework and research on topics related to the environment. The School of the Environment currently has graduate students from across the disciplinary spectrum.

The CSES provides interested students an opportunity to examine environmental-related issues from different disciplinary perspectives and gain insights about the importance of understanding and applying interdisciplinary approaches and methodological concepts and tools in environmental decision making. The purpose is to complement the discipline-based learning and research focus of their home units by providing students an interdisciplinary forum to examine, discuss, and address environmental issues. With participating students from as many as 20 different disciplines, the core course, ENV1001H Environmental Decision Making, gives students a unique opportunity to engage with faculty and peers coming from a range of academic backgrounds and perspectives.

Upon successful completion of the degree requirements of the participating home graduate unit and the CSES, students will receive the notation “Completed Collaborative Specialization in Environmental Studies” on their transcript.

Contact and Address

Web: environment.utoronto.ca/graduate
Email: grad.director.env@utoronto.ca or grad.office.env@utoronto.ca
Telephone: (416) 978-3475
Fax: (416) 978-3884

Collaborative Specialization in Environmental Studies
School of the Environment, Earth Sciences Centre
University of Toronto
Room 1016V, 33 Willcocks Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E8
Canada

Environmental Studies: Master's Level

Admission Requirements

  • Students who wish to enrol in the Collaborative Specialization in Environmental Studies (CSES) offered by the School of the Environment must first apply to and be accepted into a master's program in a degree-granting unit, also called a home department or home unit. Information about applying to a master's program can be found on the School of Graduate Studies website as well as on the respective websites of participating degree-granting units.

  • Prospective students who are planning to enrol in the CSES are strongly encouraged to submit copies of the documents outlined on the School of the Environment website by the application deadline established by the degree program admission committee in the home department. Applicants should contact the home department they are applying to in order to confirm its application deadline. The School of the Environment also allows potential students to enrol in the CSES beyond the deadline set by their home department, provided that students will be able to complete the CSES requirements by the time they are ready to graduate from their degree program.

Specialization Requirements

  • The requirements listed below must be completed in combination with that expected for the master's degree program of the home department. These are normally counted as electives toward the degree program requirements of the student’s home department. Typically, students complete up to 1.0 full-course equivalent (FCE) and conduct research on an environmental topic. Please note that requirements in some participating programs may vary. Therefore, students are encouraged to check the calendar entries for their respective home department degree programs. The School of the Environment also offers students in the non-thesis master's degree stream the opportunity to complete an internship in fulfilment of the CSES, unless they have an internship component built into their degree program. The CSES requirements for each participating degree program are listed on the School of the Environment website under the Collaborative Specialization in Environmental Studies.

Master's Degrees Coursework Option

  • Complete the mandatory core course ENV1001H (0.5 FCE).

  • Complete one elective course (0.5 FCE) from the School's list of approved courses. Courses (including Special Topics) that have an environmental focus but are not included in the School’s approved list can be counted as an elective, pending approval from the Graduate Associate Director.

  • Complete an environment-related internship of approximately three months full-time employment (ENV4444H; 0.5 FCE or ENV4444Y; 1.0 FCE), unless students have an internship requirement included in their degree program.

  • Produce a brief research paper on an environment-related topic, which may be related to the internship experience (ENV5555Y; 1.0 FCE), unless students have a research paper requirement included in their degree program.

Note: Master's students who are enrolled in a coursework-based degree must complete 30% of their program requirements within their collaborative specialization. For a complete and most up-to-date list of CSES requirements by each participating degree program for master's students in the coursework option, please visit the School of the Environment website and click on the home department or degree program.

Master's Degrees Thesis Option

  • Complete the mandatory core course ENV1001H (0.5 FCE).

  • Complete one elective course (0.5 FCE) from the School's list of approved courses.

  • Write a thesis in the home department on an environment-related topic.

Note: For a complete and most up-to-date list of CSES requirements by each participating degree program for master's students in the thesis option, please visit the School of the Environment website and click on the home department or degree program.

Environmental Studies: Doctoral Level

Admission Requirements

  • Students who wish to enrol in the CSES offered by the School of the Environment must first apply to and be accepted into a doctoral program in a degree-granting unit, also called a home department or home unit. Information about applying to a home graduate unit can be found on the School of Graduate Studies website as well as on the respective websites of participating degree-granting units.

  • Prospective students are strongly encouraged to submit copies of the documents indicated on the School of the Environment website by the application deadline established by the degree program admission committee in the home department. Applicants should contact the home department they are applying to in order to confirm its application deadline. The School of the Environment also allows potential students to enrol in the CSES beyond the deadline set by their home department, provided that students will be able to complete the CSES requirements by the time they are ready to graduate from their degree program.

Specialization Requirements

  • The requirements listed below must be completed in combination with the PhD degree program requirements of the student’s home department. These are normally counted as electives toward the degree program requirements of the student’s respective home department. Typically, students complete up to 1.0 full-course equivalent (FCE) and conduct research on an environmental topic. Please note that requirements in some participating programs vary slightly. Therefore, students are encouraged to check the calendar entries for their respective home department programs. Specific requirements for each participating degree program are listed on the School of the Environment's website under the Collaborative Specialization in Environmental Studies.

  • Complete the mandatory core course ENV1001H (0.5 FCE), unless already completed at the master's level.

  • Complete one elective course (0.5 FCE) from the School's list of approved courses. Courses (including Special Topics) that have an environmental focus but are not included in the School’s approved list can be counted as an elective, pending approval from the Graduate Associate Director.

  • Give an oral presentation of their doctoral research as part of the School’s Environment Seminar Series or Research Day, which is held once per year. For the latter, the oral presentation may or may not be done in conjunction with a summary poster, depending on the decided format of the School’s Research Day in any given year.

  • Complete a thesis on an environmental topic in the home department. Normally, the thesis committee will include a supervisor from the student's home department who holds a graduate faculty membership (GFM) in the School of the Environment. If the student’s primary thesis supervisor does not hold a GFM in the School of the Environment, the School’s Director will either initiate the process of assigning a GFM to the primary supervisor, or review the composition of the thesis committee to ensure it has appropriate expertise. A copy of the final thesis must be submitted to the School of the Environment prior to graduation.

  • Additional courses may be required by the home department and/or by the supervisor or supervisory committee, depending on academic and/or career goals of the student, as well as graduate unit regulations.

  • A supervisor or supervisory committee may be appointed for each student by the home department and the School of the Environment.

Note: For a complete and most up-to-date list of CSES requirements by each participating degree program for doctoral students, please visit the School of the Environment website and click on the home graduate unit or degree program.

Environmental Studies: Courses

The School of the Environment offers individual credit courses that are open to graduate students from all parts of the University, subject to enrolment limits. Except for the core course, ENV1001H, not all courses are offered every year. Graduate students enrolled in the CSES are also allowed to take electives listed for the School’s Collaborative Specialization in Environment and Health (CSEH) to fulfil the specialization requirements. For a current graduate course listing, please refer to the School of the Environment's website.

Core Course

Course Code Course Title
ENV1001H
Environmental Decision Making

Elective Courses

Course Code Course Title
ENV1002H
Environmental Policy
ENV1005H Ecological Statistics
ENV1007H The Warming Papers: The Scientific Foundation of Climate Change
ENV1008H
Worldviews and Ecology
ENV1103H
Living Labs for Applied Sustainability
ENV1444H
Capitalist Nature
ENV1701H
Environmental Law
ENV1703H Water Resource Management and Policy
ENV1704H
Environmental Risk Analysis and Management
ENV1707H
Climate Finance
ENV2000H
Topics in Environment
ENV2000Y Topics in Environment
ENV2002H
Special Topics in Environment
ENV4444H
Internship
ENV4444Y Internship
ENV5555Y
Research Paper

Elective Joint Courses with the School of the Environment

Course Code Course Title
JGE1425H
Livelihoods, Poverty, and Environment in the Developing Countries
JSE1708H
Sustainability and the Western Mind

Other Elective Courses

Adult Education and Community Development (Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education)

Course Code Course Title
LHA1193H
Adult Education for Sustainability

Anthropology

Course Code Course Title
ANT4051H Archaeology and Climate Change
ANT6018H
Approaches to Nature and Culture
ANT6066H More-than-Human Ethnography

Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

Course Code Course Title
CHE1435H
Fundamentals of Aerosol Physics and Chemistry
JNC2503H
Environmental Pathways

Chemistry

Course Code Course Title
CHM1401H
Transport and Fate of Chemical Species in the Environment
CHM1404H
Molecular Analysis of Natural Systems
CHM1410H
Analytical Environmental Chemistry
CHM1415H
Atmospheric Chemistry
CHM1420H
Environmental Chemistry of Soil
CHM1425H
Modelling the Fate of Organic Chemicals in the Environment

Civil Engineering

Course Code Course Title
APS1410H
Waterpower Essentials

Computer Science

Course Code Course Title
CSC2720H
Systems Thinking for Global Problems

Earth Sciences

Course Code Course Title
ESS2303H Earth Systems Evolution
ESS2304H Geochemistry

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Course Code Course Title
EEB1250H (0.25 FCE) Spatial Statistics
EEB1420H Special Topics in Ecology
EEB1450H Special Topics in Ecology and Evolution A

English

Course Code Course Title
ENG5580H American Pastoral

Forestry

Course Code Course Title
FOR1270H
Forest Biomaterial Sciences: Fundamentals, Applications, and the Next Frontier
FOR1288H
Design and Manufacturing of Biomaterials
FOR1294H
Bioenergy and Biorefinery Technology
FOR1416H
Forest Fire Danger Rating
FOR1555H
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
FOR1575H
Urban Forest Conservation
FOR1610H
Sustainable Forest Management and Certification (exclusion: JFG1610H)

Geography and Planning

Course Code Course Title
GGR1216H
Advanced Biogeochemical Processes
GGR1407H
Efficient Use of Energy
GGR1408H
Carbon-Free Energy
GGR1411H Nature and Justice in the Anthropocene
JGE1425H
Livelihoods, Poverty, and Environment in the Developing Countries
JPG1518H
Sustainability and Urban Communities
JPG1814H Cities and Immigrants
JPG1818H The Geography and Planning of Climate Action and Activism
PLA1601H
Environmental Planning in a Changing Climate

Global Affairs

Course Code Course Title
JSE1708H
Sustainability and the Western Mind

History and Philosophy of Science and Technology

Course Code Course Title
HPS4106H
Environment and STS

Information

Course Code Course Title
INF2235H
Outer Space and the City

Landscape Architecture

Course Code Course Title
LAN1037H
Plants and Design
LAN1041H Field Studies 1
LAN2045H Landscape Ecology
LAN2047H Landscape Hydrology
LAN3045H
Advanced Site Technologies

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Course Code Course Title
MIE1120H
Current Energy Infrastructure and Resources

Music

Course Code Course Title
MUS1135H
Music, Sound, and the Environment
MUS1169H Listening to Cities: Music, Sound, and Noise in Urban Environment
MUS1272H
19C Music and Discourses of Nature

Physics

Course Code Course Title
PHY1498H
Introduction to Atmospheric Physics
PHY2502H
Climate System Dynamics
PHY2504H
Advanced Atmospheric Dynamics
PHY2505H
Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Remote Sounding
PHY2506H
Data Assimilation and Retrieval Theory

Political Science

Course Code Course Title
POL2213H
Global Environmental Politics

Religion

Course Code Course Title
RLG2005H
Religion and Posthumanism

Social Justice Education

Course Code Course Title
SJE1909H
Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice 1
SJE1919H
Advanced Topics in Environmental Justice Education

Sustainability Management

Course Code Course Title
SSM2020H
Sustainability Ethics

Women and Gender Studies

Course Code Course Title
WGS1016H
Migration, Mobility, Displacement in Contemporary Africa