The CHE certificate includes several elements, most of which can be met in any sequence with many different combinations of courses and experiences. This flexibility accommodates the wide range of degree programs with which the certificate can be combined. The 12-13 credit curriculum is the same for a certificate and for a Ph.D. minor.
Interdisciplinary Methods Seminar, 3 credits
This course introduces students to methods, approaches, and research questions involved in the study of past environmental and cultural change. It is the one course required of all CHE students.
Place-Based Workshops, 0-1 credits
These workshops introduce students to place-based research questions and approaches. A new workshop is offered at least once a year, most commonly at the end of the spring semester. Students can take these either for one credit or no credits, but all students in CHE are expected to participate in at least one place-based workshop, and all are encouraged to attend as many as possible.
Thematic Sequence, 9 credits
With the help of their advisor and committee, each CHE student designs a thematically coherent sequence of courses relating to past environmental and cultural change. Courses should be chosen from at least two of the main divisions of UW-Madison curricula -- the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences ? and should expose students to research approaches from outside their home disciplines. Once a student and his or her advisor have developed and described the rationale for the chosen thematic sequence, it must be reviewed and approved by the CHE curriculum subcommittee. Possible thematic sequences might include the following:
- Representations of nature
- Rural studies
- Urban studies
- Environmental conflict
- Environmental justice
- Environmental policy and politics
- Communities and forests
- Landscape change
- Environmental health and history
- Indigenous cultures and landscapes
- Environmental communications
Sample Thematic Sequences:
|Theme||Course 1||Course 2||Course 3|
|Landscape Change||Landscape Architecture 710: Theories of Landscape Change||History/Geography 932: Topics in American Environmental History||Botany 950: Analyzing Community Change|
|Environmental Health and History||Medical History 513/713: Environment and Health in Global Perspective||Population Health Sciences 740: Health Risk Assessment of Global Environmental Change||Anthropology 365: Medical Anthropology|
|Representations of Nature||Geography 370: Introduction to Cartography||English 475: Studies in Romantic Literature||Environmental Studies 402/History of Science 350: Green Screen: Environmental Film in History and Action|
CHE Environmental History Colloquium
CHE certificate students are expected to participate in the colloquium as their degree programs allow and to present their own research to the CHE community, at either the colloquium, the CHE graduate student symposium, or some other forum as a capstone requirement of the certificate.