Contacts | Program of Study | Thematic Tracks | BA Thesis/Capstone | Environment, Geography, and Urbanization Major Foundational and Methodological Requirements | Thematic Track Requirements | Urban Environmental Studies Track | Energy Histories and Geographies Track | Environmental Humanities Track | General Requirements (No Thematic Track) | Environmental and Urban Studies & Geographical Sciences Majors | Major Declaration | Honors | Experiential Learning | Environment, Geography, and Urbanization Minor Requirements | Petitions and Forms | Email List | Important Dates and Deadlines | Courses

Department Website: https://cegu.uchicago.edu

Starting in academic year 2023–24, the major in Environmental and Urban Studies (ENST) will become the major in Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU). For all ENST majors declared before Autumn Quarter 2023, the ENST requirements will remain in effect, with the option to adopt the CEGU major name and requirements. The new requirements for the CEGU major will go into effect as of Autumn Quarter 2023 for all newly declared majors. 

The transdisciplinary major in Environment, Geography, and Urbanization is housed in the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU). The CEGU undergraduate major prepares students to understand and confront the wide-ranging societal, historical, and spatial dimensions of contemporary planetary environmental crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and other forms of large-scale socio-environmental transformation. Such issues are explored in diverse spaces, including cities and metropolitan regions; zones of extraction, agriculture, energy production, and waste; dispersed settlement spaces and village ecologies; rangeland, forest, and jungle landscapes; remote wildlands; and coastlines, rivers, watersheds, and oceans. The curriculum emphasizes a plurality of theoretical approaches to the histories and geographies of socio-environmental transformation, underscoring the contested character of environmental knowledge in a polarized and turbulent world order.

Program of Study

The Environment, Geography, and Urbanization major consists of a sequence of foundational courses; substantive and methodological training in environmental, geographical, and urban studies; transdisciplinary electives spanning diverse thematic areas; and various capstone options, including the senior thesis and a community study. The major provides students with strong foundations in spatialized and historical approaches to environmental studies, with more specialized thematic tracks available in several fields, including urban environmental studies, energy histories and geographies, and environmental humanities. Through engagement with these fields of inquiry, students explore the wide-ranging social, historical, and spatial transformations that have produced the environmental emergencies of our time.

Graduates of the CEGU major will be well-equipped to conduct advanced research on socio-environmental processes, transformations, and crises across time and space, and to engage in diverse fields of urban and environmental practice. The curriculum combines scholarly inquiry, methodological training, experiential learning, and community engagement to prepare students to contribute to—and transform—the collective process of forging more equitable, livable, and hopeful planetary futures.

Thematic Tracks

Students have the option to complete the CEGU general major, which offers an expansive set of courses in broad fields. Students also have the option to specialize in one of several thematic tracks: Urban Environmental Studies, Energy Histories and Geographies, and Environmental Humanities.

  • Urbanization is intermeshed with the remaking of human and nonhuman environments, within cities and beyond. The Urban Environmental Studies thematic track of the CEGU major explores these connections and their wide-ranging implications for urban space and for the non-city zones that support urban life. Topics include the politics of environmental planning, design, and architecture; the role of class-based, gendered, and racialized forms of oppression in the production of urban built environments and political ecologies; the changing material and resource flows through which urban spaces are reproduced; the role of states, international organizations, and social movements in the governance of urban environmental restructuring; the emergence and evolution of urban climate politics; and ongoing struggles to create more just, inclusive, and sustainable spaces of urbanization.

  • The Energy Histories and Geographies thematic track explores the historical roots of climate change and other global environmental problems with special attention to how energy use shapes human societies over time. From prehistory to the present, coursework in this track examines how people have variably harnessed sources of energy from environmental constituents—including plants, animals, wind, water, stones, metals, fossil fuels, and other humans—in tandem with the technological and social changes associated with their use. Topics include energy flow through and across natural and built environments, energy’s role in shaping political structures and social inequalities, the radical expansion and intensification of energy use under capitalism, the uneven globalization of energy-intensive lifestyles, the changing geopolitics of energy, and possible futures beyond fossil-fuel dependence

  • The Environmental Humanities represent a multidisciplinary field of research that studies how society, culture, and politics shape and are shaped by human-environment relationships. This track of the CEGU major examines a diverse range of humanistic material and methods, such as storytelling, source criticism, and formal analysis, to think critically about how environments, ecologies, and non-humans become part of social life. The track also explores how humanistic inquiry sheds light on socioenvironmental transformations and crises, and is integral, along with the natural and social sciences, to strategies and struggles to forge more equitable, democratic, vibrant, and hopeful planetary futures.

For CEGU majors who opt to specialize in a thematic track, one foundations course is selected from a smaller cluster of gateway courses that offer a broad introduction to the specific track. Students who decide not to specialize in a thematic track are able to take a variety of general foundations option courses.

For students in a thematic track, electives are selected from a smaller menu of courses that offer advanced engagement with key research agendas in this particular area. To complete a thematic track, students select three of the five electives from a specific menu of options associated with that track. The other two electives may be chosen from the broader menu of options available to all CEGU majors. Students who decide not to specialize in a thematic track must take a total of five general electives.

BA Thesis/Capstone

The CEGU major culminates in a fourth-year capstone, which currently consists of either a BA Thesis or Capstone project. Either option provides students with an opportunity to apply some of the key concepts, theories, and methods they have encountered throughout the major to an original research project on some aspect of urbanization and/or socio-environmental relations. While distinct in scope and approach, the two senior project options offer students valuable research experience that will help prepare them for future careers in these and related fields.

All information about BA Thesis/Capstone research grants and prizes is available on the CEGU website

BA Thesis: The BA Thesis gives students a valuable opportunity to conduct extended research, writing, and analysis on a topic of particular significance to them. Frequently, undergraduates who write and reason well are nevertheless unaccustomed to directing their own academic inquiry from within by formulating and conducting a research project from start to finish. The program, therefore, offers significant guidance and support from faculty and preceptors in these independent projects. For this purpose, students choose expert advisers from across the University, receive mentorship from program faculty, and participate in a two-quarter BA Colloquium course sequence in their fourth year. Some theses are not only self-styled but may take students to far-off places, both geographically and intellectually. The results are often remarkable in their scope and creativity. 

Starting in 2022–23, in the Spring Quarter of the third year, students will attend a BA information session and brainstorming workshop, and meet with a graduate student preceptor. Students wishing to complete a BA Thesis must submit a BA Thesis application with endorsement by a faculty adviser in the Spring Quarter of their third year. If approved, students will attend Spring Quarter workshops to prepare a reading list and BA Thesis plan. 

Students must enroll in CEGU 29801 BA Colloquium I in the Autumn Quarter and CEGU 29802 BA Colloquium II in the Winter Quarter of their fourth year. The BA Thesis is due in the third week of the Spring Quarter. 

BA Capstone: The BA Capstone option is open to all students in the major but does not qualify any student for honors. In this track, students must complete one individual (not group-based) BA Capstone project as required within a designated Capstone course. While certain Capstone courses can be taken prior to the fourth year, they will only count towards the BA Capstone requirement if taken in the fourth year. The course-based BA Capstone project will be designed by the instructor for all students in the course, regardless of major or track. The project may be an extended research or policy paper (7,500–10,000 words), a series of writings for art or media (several 3,000–5,000 word articles), a design project in a studio course, a creative project (e.g., short film, artwork, creative writing, or podcast), or another type of project designed by the instructor. 

All fourth-year students must present their BA Thesis or BA Capstone project in the final symposium held in the ninth week of the Spring Quarter of their fourth year.

For further details and important dates and deadlines related to the BA Thesis and BA Capstone, please visit the CEGU website.

Starting in academic year 2024–25, students will complete a new, two-course sequence in their fourth year of study that explores community engagement and experiential learning in a key field of environmental practice, generally in the Chicago metropolitan region. The community study will feature training in community-based and community-led methods, engaged internships, and a Capstone project developed over the course of a year. Students who are specializing in one of the thematic tracks, and who opt for the community study option of the Capstone sequence, are expected to complete the community study on a topic related to the track in question. Students must present their community study project in the final symposium held in the ninth week of the Spring Quarter of their fourth year.

For further details and important dates and deadlines related to the Thesis and Capstone, please visit the CEGU website. 

Environment, Geography, and Urbanization Major Foundational and Methodological Requirements

All students must take four CEGU foundational courses: 

  • CEGU 20001 Climate Change, Environment, and Society 
  • CEGU 20002 The Politics of Environmental Knowledge
  • CEGU 20003 Global Environmental Change 
  • A foundations option course

For CEGU majors who opt to specialize in a thematic track, this fourth foundations option course is selected from a smaller set of courses that offer a broad introduction to the specific thematic track. A full list of foundations option courses within each thematic track, as well as general foundations option courses, are available on the CEGU website

All students are also required to take two methods courses:

  • CEGU 23517 Introduction to Critical Spatial Media: Visualizing Urban, Environmental, and Planetary Change 
  • A second methods course, chosen from a menu of options in the qualitative/quantitative social sciences, geospatial analysis and geographical information sciences, and environmental humanities.

Summary of Foundational and Methodological Course Requirements for All Majors

CEGU 20001Climate Change, Environment, and Society100
CEGU 20002The Politics of Environmental Knowledge100
CEGU 20003Global Environmental Change100
Additional foundations option course within thematic track or general100
Methods requirement:200
Introduction to Critical Spatial Media: Visualizing Urban, Environmental, and Planetary Change
Additional methods course from CEGU-approved list
Total Units600

Students may use a maximum of 100 units of supervised individual reading and research credit toward their primary track requirements in the major.

For a full list of CEGU-approved methods courses, please visit the CEGU website.

All courses counting towards major requirements must be taken for a quality grade. Aside from the foundation courses CEGU 20001 Climate Change, Environment, and Society, CEGU 20002 The Politics of Environmental Knowledge, CEGU 20003 Global Environmental Change, and CEGU 23517 Introduction to Critical Spatial Media: Visualizing Urban, Environmental, and Planetary Change, the menu of courses for the CEGU requirements will change from year to year depending on instructor offerings. New courses will be regularly added to these course menus.

Thematic Track Requirements

Urban Environmental Studies Track

All students in the Urban Environmental Studies Track must choose a foundations option course from a selected list available on the CEGU website. In addition, students take three elective courses from an approved list of Urban Environmental Studies courses, as well as two general electives from a menu of courses. All thematic track electives also count as general electives in the CEGU major. Once the fourth foundations course has been completed, additional foundations courses count towards elective courses.

Students who choose to complete a BA Thesis must complete CEGU 29801 BA Colloquium I and CEGU 29802 BA Colloquium II in the Autumn and Winter Quarters of their senior year. Students who choose to complete the BA Capstone must register for a Capstone course, chosen from a CEGU-approved list, as well as an additional elective within Urban Environmental Studies. 

Approved courses for each requirement can be found on the CEGU website

Summary of Urban Environmental Studies Track—Thesis Requirements

Foundational requirements (above) including foundations option course within thematic track600
3 Urban Environmental Studies Track electives from CEGU-approved course list300
2 general electives from CEGU-approved course list200
CEGU 29801BA Colloquium I100
CEGU 29802BA Colloquium II100
Total Units1300

Summary of Urban Environmental Studies Track—Capstone Requirements

Foundational requirements (above) including foundations option course within thematic track600
4 Urban Environmental Studies Track electives from CEGU-approved course list400
2 general electives from CEGU-approved course list200
Capstone course chosen from CEGU-approved list100
Total Units1300

Energy Histories and Geographies Track

All students in the Energy Histories and Geographies Track must choose a foundations option course from a selected list available on the CEGU website. In addition, students take three elective courses from an approved list of Energy Histories and Geographies courses, as well as two general electives from a menu of courses. All thematic track electives also count as general electives in the CEGU major. Once the fourth foundations course has been completed, additional foundations courses count towards elective courses.

Students who choose to complete a BA Thesis must complete CEGU 29801 BA Colloquium I and CEGU 29802 BA Colloquium II in the Autumn and Winter Quarters of their senior year. Students who choose to complete the BA Capstone must register for a Capstone course, chosen from a CEGU-approved list, as well as an additional elective within Energy Histories and Geographies. 

Approved courses for each requirement can be found on the CEGU website.

Summary of Energy Histories and Geographies Track—Thesis Requirements

Foundational requirements (above) including foundations option course within thematic track600
3 Energy Histories and Geographies Track electives from CEGU-approved course list300
2 general electives from CEGU-approved course list200
CEGU 29801BA Colloquium I100
CEGU 29802BA Colloquium II100
Total Units1300

Summary of Energy Histories and Geographies Track—Capstone Requirements

Foundational requirements (above) including foundations option course within thematic track600
4 Energy Histories and Geographies Track electives from CEGU-approved course list400
2 general electives from CEGU-approved course list200
Capstone course chosen from CEGU-approved list100
Total Units1300

Environmental Humanities Track

All students in the Environmental Humanities Track must choose a foundations option course from a selected list available on the CEGU website. In addition, students take three elective courses from an approved list of Environmental Humanities courses, as well as two general electives from a menu of courses. All thematic track electives also count as general electives in the CEGU major. Once the fourth foundations course has been completed, additional foundations courses count towards elective courses.

Students who choose to complete a BA Thesis must complete CEGU 29801 BA Colloquium I and CEGU 29802 BA Colloquium II in the Autumn and Winter Quarters of their senior year. Students who choose to complete the BA Capstone must register for a Capstone course, chosen from a CEGU-approved list, as well as an additional elective within Environmental Humanities. 

Approved courses for each requirement can be found on the CEGU website.

Summary of Environmental Humanities Track—Thesis Requirements

Foundational requirements (above) including foundations option course within thematic track600
3 Environmental Humanities Track electives from CEGU-approved course list300
2 general electives from CEGU-approved course list200
CEGU 29801BA Colloquium I100
CEGU 29802BA Colloquium II100
Total Units1300

Summary of Environmental Humanities Track—Capstone Requirements

Foundational requirements (above) including foundations option course within thematic track600
4 Environmental Humanities Track electives from CEGU-approved course list400
2 general electives from CEGU-approved course list200
Capstone course chosen from CEGU-approved list100
Total Units1300

General Requirements (No Thematic Track)

All students who choose not to opt into a thematic track can take a general foundations option course, as well as the three other foundation courses for their foundation requirements. See the CEGU website for more information on general foundations option courses. In addition to the foundational requirements, students who are not in a thematic track can take any five general electives. All thematic track electives also count as general electives in the CEGU major. Once the fourth foundations course has been completed, additional foundations courses count towards elective courses.

Students who choose to complete a BA Thesis must complete CEGU 29801 BA Colloquium I and CEGU 29802 BA Colloquium II in the Autumn and Winter Quarters of their senior year. Students who choose to complete the BA Capstone must register for a Capstone course, chosen from a CEGU-approved list, as well as an additional general elective. 

Approved courses for each requirement can be found on the CEGU website.

Summary of General Thesis Requirements

Foundational requirements (above) including general foundations option course600
5 general electives from CEGU-approved course list500
CEGU 29801BA Colloquium I100
CEGU 29802BA Colloquium II100
Total Units1300

Summary of General Capstone Requirements

Foundational requirements (above) including general foundations option course600
6 general electives from CEGU-approved course list600
Capstone course chosen from CEGU-approved list100
Total Units1300

Environmental and Urban Studies & Geographical Sciences Majors

As of Autumn Quarter 2023, the major in Environmental and Urban Studies (ENST) will become the major in Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU). For all ENST majors declared before Autumn Quarter 2023, the ENST requirements will remain in effect. The new requirements for the CEGU major will go into effect as of Autumn Quarter 2023 for all newly declared majors. New requirements for the CEGU minor will also then replace those currently in effect for the ENST minor.

Starting in 2022–23, the Geographical Sciences major and associated courses (GEOG) were embedded within the Environmental and Urban Studies (ENST) major and minor program. Beginning in 2023–24, students interested in the previous Geographical Sciences major are encouraged to declare the CEGU major. Students interested in the minor program in Geographic Information Science (GISC) should refer to the minor program page in the College Catalog.

Major Declaration

Students may begin taking courses in a major at any time (including their first quarter). However, the deadline to declare the Environment, Geography, and Urbanization major is the fourth week of the Spring Quarter in the third year. Students must meet with the CEGU Program Administrator or Program Director when declaring their major.

Honors

In addition to a minimum GPA of 3.25 overall, and 3.7 in the major, students must complete the BA Thesis Track and receive a high pass grade on the Thesis to receive honors for the major.

Experiential Learning

CEGU will continue to expand the robust experiential learning program established by Program on the Global Environment, often in collaboration with Chicago Studies and the Architectural Studies minor, through additional practicum courses, design studios, and community studies. These experiences are designed to foster creative vision and method-based applications outside the classroom, often involving community partners and specific forms of community engagement. The courses offer an innovative way for students to learn and develop critical skills through sites of practical, experiential engagement.

Environment, Geography, and Urbanization Minor Requirements

Students who elect the minor program in Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU) should meet with the program director before the end of the Spring Quarter of their third year to declare their intention to complete the minor and select appropriate courses. The approval of the program director for the minor program should be submitted to a student's College adviser by the deadline above on the Consent to Complete a Minor Program form, available online or from the College adviser.

Courses in the minor (1) may not be double counted with the student's major(s) or with other minors and (2) may not be counted toward general education requirements. Courses in the minor must be taken for quality grades, and at least half of the requirements for the minor must be met by registering for courses bearing University of Chicago course numbers.

Summary of CEGU Minor Requirements

Choose 3 of the following:300
Climate Change, Environment, and Society
The Politics of Environmental Knowledge
Global Environmental Change
Introduction to Critical Spatial Media: Visualizing Urban, Environmental, and Planetary Change
3 electives from any track chosen from CEGU-approved list300
Total Units600

Petitions and Forms

Students majoring/minoring in Environment, Geography, and Urbanization must complete all program requirements. Exceptions will be made only in extenuating circumstances and must be requested via the College's General Petition form. 

All petitions and forms related to CEGU requirements are on the program website. These must be submitted via the website portal during the two quarterly review windows.

The deadlines for all program petition submissions each quarter are:

  • Friday of second week by 11:59 p.m. CT

  • Friday of eighth week by 11:59 p.m. CT

No petitions will be reviewed outside of these windows.

Email List

Students majoring, minoring, or interested in Environment, Geography, and Urbanization should subscribe to our email list to receive announcements concerning courses, internships, fellowships, and other information connected with the major. 

Important Dates and Deadlines

All important forms and deadlines are also available on the CEGU website.

Winter 2024

Week 3: Third-years - Finalize your course of study form and meet with your preceptor

Week 8: Third-years - Attend BA Thesis information session

Spring 2024

Week 2: Fourth-years - Internship Evaluation Form due

Week 3: Fourth-years - BA Thesis due for evaluation

Week 5: Third-years - BA Thesis application due. See the CEGU website for additional deadlines related to the BA Thesis. Students who are not approved for the BA Thesis must complete the BA Capstone requirements. 

Week 6: Third-years - BA Thesis brainstorm session

Week 7: Fourth-years - Final BA Thesis due

End of Spring Quarter: Students present at the BA Thesis and Capstone Symposium

Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization Courses

CEGU 13132. Ecology in the Anthropocene. 100 Units.

This course emphasizes basic scientific understanding of ecological principles that relate most closely to the ways humans interact with their environments. It includes lectures on the main environmental pressures, notably human population growth, disease, pollution, climate change, habitat destruction, and harvesting. We emphasize the ongoing impacts on the natural world, particularly causes of population regulation and extinction and how they might feedback on to humans. Discussion required.

Instructor(s): T. Price     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): BIOS 10130 or BIOS 10140. NO BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES MAJORS OR NON-BIOLOGY PRE-MED STUDENTS, except by petition.
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 13132, BIOS 13132

CEGU 20001. Climate Change, Environment, and Society. 100 Units.

How has natural and anthropogenic climate change shaped historical relationships between humans and their environments? Against the backdrop of planetary environmental emergencies of the early-21st century, this discussion-based course will consider various time scales of ecological, technological, social, and political transformation, including: the rise of agriculture, state formation, and civilizational collapse; the "Medieval Warm Period" and the "Little Ice Age"; the Industrial Revolution, imperialism, and the consolidation of a global fossil fuel regime; the "Great Acceleration" of the mid-20th century; the development of modern climate science; and the social, political, and technological responses to human-induced global warming. Within these time scales, we will explore past dynamics of climate change, the environment, and society through the historical study of land management, population displacement and migration, resource extraction, energy production and consumption, the global commons, as well as the role of national and international governance arrangements in mediating the unequal distribution of environmental risk across the world. Ethics, morality, equity, and justice, among other concepts, will be investigated as we analyze historical connections among socio-environmental transformations and class-based, racialized, and gendered forms of inequality.

Instructor(s): Christopher Kindell     Terms Offered: Autumn Winter
Note(s): Students who have taken ENST 21201: Human Impact on the Global Environment may not enroll in this course.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 25031, GLST 21001, ENST 20011

CEGU 20002. The Politics of Environmental Knowledge. 100 Units.

How has "nature" been understood and investigated in the modern world? Building upon diverse approaches to environmental history and philosophy, the history of science, and cultural studies, this course surveys the major frameworks through which the environment has been understood, investigated, and transformed since the origins of global modernity. Such issues are explored with reference to the mobilization of science, technology, and politics in several major areas of socio- environmental transformation in the modern world. Case studies might explore, among other issues, empire, race, and public health; cities and infectious disease since the Black Death; the 'great enclosures' of land associated with settler colonialism; the 'Green Revolution' in industrial agriculture; strategies of resource stewardship, land conservation, terraforming, hydrological engineering and watershed protection; the politics of global warming; and current debates on urban sustainability, carbon capture and geo-engineering. The course also considers the rise and evolution of environmentalist movements and conservation strategies, and the contested visions of nature they have embraced. The course concludes by investigating the competing paradigms of knowledge, science, and environment that underpin divergent contemporary programs of environmental governance and visions of 'sustainability'.

Instructor(s): Jessica Landau      Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 20012, GLST 21002, HIST 25032

CEGU 20003. Global Environmental Change. 100 Units.

Critical examination of contemporary environmental crises requires deep immersion in key fields of environmental science that illuminate how societal processes have transformed the earth system. This course considers the genealogy of environmental problems in the modern world with reference to, among other core issues, the role of global land-use change, fossil energy, and waste production in climate change, biodiversity loss, water and soil contamination, and infectious disease transmission. The course introduces students to the major elements of earth system science and the study of global land-use change, with particular attention to key theoretical paradigms, methodological approaches, and forms of environmental and spatial data. Students will also gain familiarity with key fields of earth systems research such as the carbon cycle, hydrological processes; the physics and chemistry of the oceans and the atmosphere; the histories and geographies of carbon emissions; and planetary boundaries.

Instructor(s): Mary Beth Pudup and Sol Kim     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 20013

CEGU 20061. Ancient Landscapes I. 100 Units.

This is a two-course sequence that introduces students to theory and method in landscape studies and the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyze archaeological, anthropological, historical, and environmental data. Course one covers the theoretical and methodological background necessary to understand spatial approaches to landscape and the fundamentals of using ESRI's ArcGIS software, and further guides students in developing a research proposal. Course two covers more advanced GIS-based analysis (using vector, raster, and satellite remote sensing data) and guides students in carrying out their own spatial research project. In both courses, techniques are introduced through the discussion of case studies (focused on the archaeology of the Middle East) and through demonstration of software skills. During supervised laboratory times, the various techniques and analyses covered will be applied to sample archaeological data and also to data from a region/topic chosen by the student.

Instructor(s): Mehrnoush Soroush     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 36710, ANTH 26710, NEAA 20061, GISC 30061, NEAA 30061, GISC 20061, CEGU 30061

CEGU 20062. Ancient Landscapes II. 100 Units.

This is a two-course sequence that introduces students to theory and method in landscape studies and the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to analyze archaeological, anthropological, historical, and environmental data. Course one covers the theoretical and methodological background necessary to understand spatial approaches to landscape and the fundamentals of using ESRI's ArcGIS software, and further guides students in developing a research proposal. Course two covers more advanced GIS-based analysis (using vector, raster, and satellite remote sensing data) and guides students in carrying out their own spatial research project. In both courses, techniques are introduced through the discussion of case studies (focused on the archaeology of the Middle East) and through demonstration of software skills. During supervised laboratory times, the various techniques and analyses covered will be applied to sample archaeological data and also to data from a region/topic chosen by the student.

Instructor(s): Mehrnoush Soroush     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): NEAA 20061
Equivalent Course(s): GISC 30062, ANTH 36711, CEGU 30062, NEAA 20062, ANTH 26711, GISC 20062, NEAA 30062

CEGU 20107. Nature and Technology in the Capitalist Mode of Production. 100 Units.

The crisis of nature and technology is at the heart of the 21st century mode of production as unprecedented planetary scale ecological destruction, climate change, and exhaustion of fossil fuels undercut the dynamics of capitalist accumulation. At the same time, novel techno-natural fixes are being designed to contain the crises immanent to the life process of capital. However, these movements are far from seamless; new tensions, contradictions, and horizons of struggles emerge making a critical inquiry of these concepts urgent to Anthropological thinking. In this course, the students will be introduced to foundational approaches to these problems. The first half of the course will intensively engage with dialectical materialist frameworks to understand the interrelationship between nature, technology, and consciousness in the capitalist mode of production. From this engagement, we will derive critical concepts that will be used to engage with the pertinent questions of planetary scale appropriation of human, non-human and more-than-human life in emergent anthropological theory and ethnographic literature. In doing so, our goal is to reflect on a series of questions: What is the place of nature and technology in the capitalist mode of production? How and if they embody limits to the workings of capital? How does anthropology allow us to develop new political and theoretical horizons that emerge in the wake of these developments?

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 10107, HIPS 20107

CEGU 20150. Sustainable Urban Development. 100 Units.

The course covers concepts and methods of sustainable urbanism, livable cities, resiliency, and smart growth principles from a social, environmental and economic perspective. In this course we examine how the development in and of cities - in the US and around the world - can be sustainable, especially given predictions of a future characterized by increasing environmental and social volatility. We begin by critiquing definitions of sustainability. The fundamental orientation of the course will be understanding cities as complex socio-natural systems, and so we will look at approaches to sustainability grouped around several of the most important component systems: climate, energy, transportation, and water. With the understanding that sustainability has no meaning if it excludes human life, perspectives from both the social sciences and humanities are woven throughout: stewardship and environmental ethics are as important as technological solutions and policy measures.

Instructor(s): Winter: Staff, Spring: Evan Carver     Terms Offered: Spring Winter
Note(s): ENST 21201 and 20150 are required of students who are majoring in Environmental and Urban Studies and may be taken in any order.
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 20150, GLST 20150, ENST 20150, PBPL 20150

CEGU 20154. Class, Race and Urban Space: Producing The City. 100 Units.

Class and race are through lines in the determinative processes that transform urban space and inform conceptual models of urban growth and change. This lecture course examines historical geographies of class and race relations in crucial domains of urban life like employment, housing, public space and urgently during the contemporary era, climate change. The course emphasizes how Chicago-based models emerged as dominant frameworks purporting to make sense of urban morphology writ large, epitomized in publication of The City in 1925.

CEGU 20160. Cities on Screen. 100 Units.

How do the movies shape our collective imagination about cities? Why do we so often turn to them for visions of disaster and dystopia, on the one hand, or a futuristic utopia on the other? How has film responded to cities in the past, and how can it help investigate our present urban condition? How can film be understood as a tool for exploring what a city is? In this seminar, we will watch and discuss feature films in which the built environment or urban issues play important roles. Students will improve their film literacy -- learning not just what a film does but how it does it -- and understand applications for film in the analysis of social, spatial, temporal, and immersive phenomena, as well as how it can help inspire and communicate design more effectively.

Instructor(s): Evan Carver     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 20160, ENST 20160

CEGU 20164. Exhibiting the Environmental Humanities: Curatorial Practicum. 100 Units.

Collaboratively, students in this course will design and mount an exhibition based on research in the Environmental Humanities. Students will explore not just the exhibition's content and historical contextualization but think through critical questions about choices made in the collecting and display of selected objects as well as examine the history of exhibitions in the United States. Drawing on methods from museum studies, art history, history, environmental studies, and others, students will develop interdisciplinary approaches to research and practice communicating humanistic inquiry to general audiences. In the Fall 2024 Quarter, Students in Exhibiting the Environmental Humanities will have the opportunity to collaborate with the Sterling Morton Library at the Morton Arboretum to tell the story of May Theilgarrd Watts, an early environmental educator at the Arboretum, naturalist, author, and UChicago alumna.

CEGU 20170. Pandemics, Urban Space, and Public Life. 100 Units.

Much of the cultural vibrance, economic strength, and social innovation that characterizes cities can be credited to their density. Put simply, cities bring people together, and togetherness allows for complex and fruitful exchange. But togetherness also brings risks, notably from infectious disease. A pandemic feeds on propinquity. "Social distance," while a short-term public health imperative, is antithetical to the very idea of the urban. In this seminar, we will explore these competing tensions in light of current and past disease outbreaks in urban settings. Drawing on a range of texts from history, design theory, sociology, and anthropology, as well as cultural artifacts like film, graphic memoir, and photography, we will engage questions like: How are the risks of contagion balanced with the benefits of density? How are such risks distributed throughout society? What creative responses have architects, urban designers, and planners brought to this challenge? Most importantly, how can we respond constructively to the challenge of pandemic to create cities where the benefits of togetherness are maximized, perhaps even improved on compared with the pre-outbreak condition? Students will have the opportunity to propose design or policy interventions to help their own communities respond to the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis, return to a vibrant post-pandemic life, and prepare for the pandemics of the future.

Instructor(s): Evan Carver     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 20170, PBPL 20170, ENST 20170, HLTH 20170, GEOG 20170

CEGU 20180. Writing the City. 100 Units.

How do great writers convey sense-of-place in their writing? What are the best ways to communicate scientific and social complexity in an engaging, accessible way? How can we combine academic rigor with journalistic verve and literary creativity to drive the public conversation about urgent environmental and urban issues? These are just some of the questions explored in WRITING THE CITY, an intensive course dedicated to honing our skills of verbal communication about issues related to the built and natural environments. Students will research, outline, draft, revise, and ultimately produce a well-crafted piece of journalistic writing for publication in the program's new annual magazine, Expositions. Throughout the quarter we will engage intensely with a range of authors of place-based writing exploring various literary and journalistic techniques, narrative devices, rhetorical ​approaches, and stylistic strategies.

Instructor(s): Evan Carver     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): At least one ENST, GEOG, or ARCH course; or one PBPL, ARTH, ANTH, or SOCI course with an urban focus; or instructor permission. Please contact ehc@uchicago.edu with questions.
Note(s): Restricted to 3rd and 4th years This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 20180, ENST 20180

CEGU 20198. Biodiversity. 100 Units.

Section 1. Students will review the three biodiversity levels, i.e., genetic, species, and ecosystem, using a systemic approach to appraise the complex network of interactions among living organisms on our planet. During the course, students will survey the main taxonomic groups, such as archaea, bacteria, single-celled eukaryotes, fungi, plants, and animals, to identify their defining characteristics, describe their evolutionary origin, and evaluate their role in ecosystems. Students will integrate knowledge and analytical tools to assess the biodiversity in their neighborhoods, as well as differentiate parameters that impact distribution and abundance of organisms in their local ecosystems. Section 2. This course presents an overview of the diversity of living organisms, including archaea, bacteria, single-celled eukaryotes, fungi, plants, and animals, with an emphasis on their evolutionary histories, relationships, and the biological and evolutionary implications of the characteristic features of each group. We will explore how these different lineages have evolved remarkable solutions to challenges in locomotion, metabolism, and life in extreme environments. Work in the lab will take advantage of the diversity of organisms that live around, or are maintained at, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA.

Equivalent Course(s): BIOS 20198

CEGU 20201. Grünes Deutschland. 100 Units.

Over the past three decades Germany has become a global leader in environmentalism and sustainability practices. This course develops students' proficiency in all four skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) and reviews basic grammar while exploring various aspects of "Green Germany," from recycling and transportation to renewable energies (die Energiewende) to the history of the green movement. We investigate environmental practices and attitudes in German-speaking countries while comparing them with those in the US and other countries. In doing so, we consider whether environmental practices in German-speaking countries represent positive and feasible models for other countries. Students work with authentic and current materials (articles, websites, videos) and pursue a variety of independent projects (research, creative), including a final project on how to make the university campus more sustainable.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prerequisite(s): GRMN 20100 or placement exam
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 20201

CEGU 20253. Introduction to Spatial Data Science. 100 Units.

Spatial data science consists of a collection of concepts and methods drawn from both statistics and computer science that deal with accessing, manipulating, visualizing, exploring and reasoning about geographical data. The course introduces the types of spatial data relevant in social science inquiry and reviews a range of methods to explore these data. Topics covered include formal spatial data structures, geovisualization and visual analytics, rate smoothing, spatial autocorrelation, cluster detection and spatial data mining. An important aspect of the course is to learn and apply open source GeoDa software.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): STAT 22000 (or equivalent), familiarity with GIS is helpful, but not necessary
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 20253, GISC 30500, SOCI 30253, MACS 54000, GISC 20500, SOCI 20253

CEGU 20336. Researching Chicago's Historic Parks and Neighborhoods. 100 Units.

Often considered a "City of Neighborhoods," Chicago has a fascinating network of community areas that were shaped by historical events and developments. Many of the city's neighborhoods include parks that have their own significant architectural, landscape and social histories. The class will introduce students to some of Chicago's most interesting historic neighborhoods and parks; expose them to key regional digital and on-site archives; and instruct them in appropriate methodologies for conducting deep research on sites and landscapes, with a special focus on Chicago's historic park system. Students will utilize an array of resources including Sanborn maps, US Census records, historic plans, photographs, and archival newspapers to provide in-depth studies of unpreserved sites. The course will also expose students to historic preservation policies, methodologies, and guidelines to provide practical strategies for preserving lesser-known places and sites. As a Chicago Studies class, its pedagogy will also include excursions into the city, engagement with local guest speakers, and research in relevant Chicago-area archives/special collections.

Instructor(s): Julia Bachrach     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This special class is offered in conjunction with the University’s ongoing commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture. Olmsted and his sons, the Olmsted Brothers, had a substantial influence on the city’s South Side, including the University’s campus and the development of small parks that provided services to dense immigrant neighborhoods in the early 20th century. The class will include field trips during some Friday class sessions.
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 20336, ARCH 10336, HIST 27312, ENST 20336, ARTH 20336

CEGU 20506. Cities, Space, Power: Introduction to urban social science. 100 Units.

This lecture course provides a broad, multidisciplinary introduction to the study of urbanization in the social sciences. The course surveys a broad range of research traditions from across the social sciences, as well as the work of urban planners, architects, and environmental scientists. Topics include: theoretical conceptualizations of the city and urbanization; methods of urban studies; the politics of urban knowledges; the historical geographies of capitalist urbanization; political strategies to shape and reshape the built and unbuilt environment; cities and planetary ecological transformation; post-1970s patterns and pathways of urban restructuring; and struggles for the right to the city.

Instructor(s): N. Brenner     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 30506, SOCI 30506, ARCH 20506, ENST 20506, KNOW 30506, CHST 20506, PLSC 20506, SOCI 20506, CCCT 30506, HIPS 20506, CHSS 30506

CEGU 20521. Sociology of urban planning: cities, territories, environments. 100 Units.

This course provides a high-intensity introduction to the sociology of urban planning practice under modern capitalism. Building upon urban sociology, planning theory and history as well as urban social science and environmental studies, we explore the emergence, development and continual transformation of urban planning in relation to changing configurations of capitalist urbanization, modern state power, sociopolitical insurgency and environmental crisis. Following an initial exploration of divergent conceptualizations of "planning" and "urbanization," we investigate the changing sites and targets of planning; struggles regarding the instruments, goals and constituencies of planning; the contradictory connections between planning and diverse configurations of power in modern society (including class, race, gender and sexuality); and the possibility that new forms of planning might help produce more socially just and environmentally sane forms of urbanization in the future.

Instructor(s): N. Brenner     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 20521, KNOW 30521, PLSC 20521, PPHA 30521, GEOG 20521, SOCI 30521, SOCI 20521, PBPL 20521, PLSC 30521, CHST 20521, ENST 20521

CEGU 20700. Global Health, Environment, and Indigenous Futures. 100 Units.

The global coronavirus pandemic has made evident the significance of ecological (im)balances for the well-being of societies. The relationship between structural inequalities, changing environments and health, especially for historically and socio-economically marginalized communities, is now well established. At the same time, a growing body of literature links the material conditions of marginalized communities-for instance, spaces of dwelling and conditions of labor-to health status, globally. Based on a set of interdisciplinary literature arranged through anthropological theories, this course will critically engage with notions of health and well-being for indigenous communities, tracing injustices that stem histories of racial, caste- and ethnicity-based, and environmental exclusions. The readings are organized around one central question: What does it mean to be indigenous in a changing planet where social, political, and economic systems are marked by enduring legacies of systemic violence? This graduate and undergraduate level course will introduce contexts within which structural exclusions lead to ill-health and loss of well-being among indigenous communities across the globe. The aim is to develop critical thinking on the political economy and political ecologies of indigenous health as imbricated with issues of social, economic, and environmental justice.

Instructor(s): Sanghamitra Das
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 30700, SALC 32704, SALC 26501, RDIN 30700, CHDV 20700, ANTH 20700, ANTH 30700, RDIN 20700, CHDV 30750

CEGU 20704. Traveling Studio: From Detail to City at Taliesin. 100 Units.

The course is designed to immerse students in architectural drawing and making at a site of prolific drawing and making past, in a remarkable environment both natural and built. Working both individually and together, we will use our surroundings at Taliesin to tackle five short projects, increasing in scale, from the tiniest architectural details up through consideration of city and region. As part of the latter portion of the course, we will also consider the Driftless region of Wisconsin specifically, and issues facing this unique rural area in 2023, including environmental challenges, questions of housing, and rural foodways. Typical days will include studio time in the Hillside studio, ample exploration of the Taliesin grounds both programmed and free, conversations with guests familiar with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and others who spent time at Taliesin, excursions across the Driftless region (including additional buildings designed by Wright and others close to him), and a modest amount of work helping to maintain the Taliesin site.

Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 20704, ARCH 20704, ENST 20704, ARTH 30704

CEGU 20806. Remaking the Prairie: The Cultural Politics of Ecological Restoration. 100 Units.

This course uses the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie as a case study to understand the environmental and cultural challenges of ecological restoration. In essence, we will look at the Midewin as an environmental humanities problem, asking the questions: What does it mean to restore a landscape or an ecosystem? What values or biases are in place in ecological restoration and how do we overcome them? The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, managed by the US Forest Service, is a restored prairie on the former site of the WII era Joliet Army Ammunition Plant. Throughout the September Term, we will visit the site several times to meet with Forest Service employees, participate in environmental restoration work, collect data for ecological studies, and learn more about the complicated history of the prairie and efforts to restore it. Analysis of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and ecological restoration more broadly will be done from an interdisciplinary lens that takes seriously the sometimes-competing stakes of indigeneity, agriculture, settler colonialism, ecology, history, militarism, and recreation, among others.

Instructor(s): Jessica Landau     Terms Offered: Summer
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 20806, CHST 20806, HIPS 20608

CEGU 21201. Human Impact on the Global Environment. 100 Units.

The goal of this survey course is to analyze the impact of the human enterprise on the world that sustains it. Topics include human population dynamics and historical trends in global impact, with most of the course focusing on how humans have altered the Earth system through a variety of processes (including climate change, air, water, nutrient cycling, pollution/novel entities, biodiversity, and land use). We read and discuss diverse sources, write short analytical papers, and a final argument based research paper.

Instructor(s): Christopher Kindell     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): ENST 21201 and 20150 are required of students who are majoring in Environmental and Urban Studies and may be taken in any order.
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 21201

CEGU 21301. Making the Natural World: Foundations of Human Ecology. 100 Units.

What's natural about nature? Humans have "made" the natural world both materially, through millennia of direct action in and on the landscape, and conceptually, through the creation of various ideas about nature, ecosystem, organism, and ecology. In this course we will consider how the conceptual underpinnings of contemporary Western notions of nature, environment, balance, power and race are intertwined. We will trace this trajectory using the lens of the historical development of the field of ecology, then broaden our view to consider worldviews and ontologies about the environment from non-Western cultures. How then do these worldviews influence attitudes and policies towards land, environment, and its stewardship? Taking examples from current environmental topics (e.g. land rights, environmental justice, park access, conservation, extinction) we will evaluate the extent and character of human entanglement with the environment. Throughout the course student voices will be prominent in the many discussion-based class sessions.

Instructor(s): Christopher Kindell     Terms Offered: Winter. Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 21303, ENST 21301

CEGU 21406. Britain 1760-1880: The Origins of Fossil Capitalism. 100 Units.

Britain rose to global dominance after 1760 by pioneering the first fossil-fuel economy. This course explores the profound impact of coal and steam on every aspect of British society, from politics and religion to industrial capitalism and the pursuit of empire. Such historical investigation also serves a second purpose by helping us see our own fossil-fuel economy with fresh eyes through direct comparison with Victorian energy use. How much does the modern world owe to the fossil capitalism of the Victorians? Assignments include short essays that introduces students to primary sources (texts, artifacts, and images) and a longer paper that examines in greater depth a specific aspect of the age of steam.

Instructor(s): F. Albritton Jonsson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 31406, CEGU 31406, HIPS 21406, HIST 21406, HIST 31406

CEGU 21426. More than Human Ethnography. 100 Units.

In this course we explore the growing fields of more-than-human and 'multispecies' ethnography. We will examine theoretical antecedents promoting the inclusion of non-human social actors in ethnographic analysis and read many examples of such work, including foundational texts on interspecies engagements, exploitations, and dependencies by Deborah Bird Rose, Kim Tallbear, Eduardo Kohn, Anna Tsing, and Augustin Fuéntes among many others. We will consider the role other species and 'actants' played in early social science work and contemplate recent studies of "becoming with" other animals, plants, fungi, bacteria-encountering complex ecological kin relationships, examining naturalcultural borders, and querying decolonial legacies and the role of ecofeminist thought and queer ecologies in the 'more-than' turn. Multispecies and posthumanist approaches encourage a decentering of traditional methodologies; we will thus couple ethnographic examples with literature by geographers, biologists, and philosophers. The course is a discussion-based seminar, with significant time devoted to understanding the logistical or methodological aspects of 'more than' work-to querying how such studies have been conducted in practice. The final paper in the course will take the form of an exploratory essay (ethnographic, historical, or theoretical) based on data and observations collected during previous weeks.

Instructor(s): Wilhoit, Mary     Terms Offered: Spring Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 21404, GNSE 31404, ANTH 21426, KNOW 32404, MAPS 31404, ANTH 33807

CEGU 21501. Genealogies of Environmental Organizing and Activism. 100 Units.

This course explores how organizations-civic, private, governmental-working in the field of environmental advocacy construct, deploy and are shaped by distinct discourses governing relationships between nature and society. The environment is a field of social action in which organizations attempt to effect change in large domains like resource conservation, access, stewardship, and a basic right to environmental quality in everyday life. The work of effecting change in these complex domains can assume a variety of forms including public policy (through the agencies of the state), private enterprise (through the agency of the market), 'third sector' advocacy (through the agency of nonprofit organizations) and social activism (through the agency of social movements and community organizations). State, market, civil society and social movement organizations are where ideas are transmitted from theory to practice and back again in a recursive, dialectical process. These contrasting forms of organization have different histories, wellsprings and degrees of social power. Moreover, they bring different epistemologies to their claims about being legitimate custodians of nature-that is to say they can be understood genealogically. As such, organizations working to effect environment change are at once animated by and constitutive of distinct discourses governing the relationships between nature and society. The course explores how those distinct discourses are associated with a suite of different organizational realms of social action; the goal is trying to connect the dots between discursive formations and organizational forms.

Instructor(s): Mary Beth Pudup     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 21501, HMRT 21501, SSAD 21501, SSAD 41501, CEGU 31501, GLST 21501, MAPS 31101

CEGU 21502. Problems of Community. 100 Units.

Communities can be considered the locus of social problems and the wellspring of solutions to social problems. Communities are the "object of study" in social science research and communities often fiercely struggle for their own self-representation. This course examines social science approaches to the study of community, many of them pioneered in Chicago, and considers how the concept of community is invoked and deployed to draw boundaries of belonging and exclusion.

Instructor(s): STAFF     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 21502

CEGU 21503. Practicing Community Studies. 100 Units.

What does it mean to "study the community" and what knowledge can be gained from that endeavor? This course explores epistemologies and ethics of engaging in community studies while developing skills, methods, and the requisite intellectual stance for learning in, about, and from contemporary communities in Chicago and beyond.

Instructor(s): STAFF     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 21503

CEGU 21504. Theory and Practice of Urban Agriculture. 100 Units.

Food cultivation within the city-urban agriculture-is a vast and fascinating terrain of social practice associated with diverse historical geographies. The course examines urban agriculture as a global phenomenon with an intensely local presence by incorporating experiential education with Chicago-based projects that are exemplars in the contemporary urban food movement.

Instructor(s): STAFF     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 21504

CEGU 21710. Rocks, plants, ecologies: science fiction and the more-than-human. 100 Units.

Science fictional worlds are full of entities more familiar and perhaps less noticeable than the aliens that are often thought to typify the genre. Rock formations, plants, metallic seams, plastics, crystalline structures, nuclear waste and oozing seepages are among the entities that allow SF to form estranging questions about what it means to be in relation to others, what it means to live in and through an environment, and what it means to form relations of sustenance and communal possibility with those who do not or cannot return human care and recognition. Such questions about are urgent ones for thinking about climate catastrophe, capital, settler colonialism and endemic pandemics, as well as for thinking substantively about resistance and what life and livable worlds beyond the bleak horizons of the capitalocene could be. This class will engage science fiction (authors may include Ursula Le Guin, Vonda McIntyre, Kim Stanley Robinson, Nalo Hopkinson, Jeff Vandermeer and more) and environmental and social theory of various kind (authors may include Elizabeth Povinelli, Katherine Yusoff, Andreas Malm, Eduardo Kohn, James C. Scott, David Graeber, Jasper Bernes, Mike Davis and more).

Instructor(s): Hilary Strang     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 21710, ENGL 41710, MAPH 41710

CEGU 21740. Ecology and Governance in Israel and the Middle East. 100 Units.

Ecological governance has emerged as an aspirational concept in recent years in political science, philosophy, and anthropology in response to concerns over the increasing likelihood of an unprecedented global ecological crisis as a result of human driven climate change. This course will trace the conceptual genealogy of ecological governance in Western and Eastern political theory and environmental history as it explores the political ecologies of Israel and the Middle East. In so doing, the course embarks from the assertion that environmental justice and the struggle for justice overall are inseparable challenges. Of central concern will be to understand how Israel's politics, culture, and history technological development together with its particular environmental conditions provide conceptual and methodological interventions into current and historical articulations of ecological governance. Note: Enrollment in this class is by consent only. Please request via the enrollment site.

Instructor(s): Michael Fisch
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 21740

CEGU 21800. Economics and Environmental Policy. 100 Units.

This course combines basic microeconomic theory and tools with contemporary environmental and resources issues and controversies to examine and analyze public policy decisions. Theoretical points include externalities, public goods, common-property resources, valuing resources, benefit/cost analysis, and risk assessment. Topics include pollution, global climate change, energy use and conservation, recycling and waste management, endangered species and biodiversity, nonrenewable resources, congestion, economic growth and the environment, and equity impacts of public policies.

Instructor(s): S. Shaikh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): ECON 10000 or higher, or PBPL 20000
Note(s): Not offered in Autumn of the 2020-21 academic year.
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 21800, ECON 16520

CEGU 21900. Historical Geography of the United States. 100 Units.

This course examines the historical and geographical roots of American regional diversity and national spatial organization, from 1500 to 1920, and asks why American regions have developed and retained distinctive characteristics-and what consequences this has had for contemporary society. These issues are pursued through an examination of colonization processes, economic development, spatial differentiation, settlement patterns and the changing role of cities. The emphasis is on the kind and quantity of European cultural transfer, physical changes wrought by colonization, the modification of natural environments, the conquest of distance, and the general approach of American society to the uses of space. This course requires no prerequisites. There will be an all-day field trip in the Chicago region.

Instructor(s): Michael Conzen     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Restricted to 3rd and 4th years This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. This course offered in the Autumn Quarter of even-numbered years
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 21900, GEOG 31900, HIST 38800, CHST 21900, HIST 28800

CEGU 22100. Disease, Health, and the Environment in Global Context. 100 Units.

Recent concerns about monkeypox, COVID-19, Zika virus, and Ebola have attracted renewed attention to previous disease outbreaks that have significantly shaped human political, social, economic, and environmental history. Such diseases include: smallpox during the 16th-century Columbian exchange; syphilis during the 18th-century exploration and settlement of the Pacific; bubonic plague in the late-19th-century colonization and urbanization of South and East Asia; and yellow fever during America's 20th-century imperial projects across the Caribbean. Through readings, discussions, library visits, and written assignments that culminate in a final project, students in this course will explore how natural and human-induced environmental changes have altered our past experiences with disease and future prospects for health. First, we will examine how early writers understood the relationship between geography, environment, hereditary constitution, race, gender, and human health. We will then analyze the symbiotic relationship among pathogens, human hosts, and their environments. Finally, we will explore how social factors (e.g. migration, gendered divisions of labor, poverty, and segregation) and human interventions (e.g. epidemiology, medical technology, and sanitary engineering) have influenced the distribution of infectious diseases and environmental risks.

Instructor(s): Christopher Kindell     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course counts towards the CEGU/ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. CEGU/ENST 4th years wanting to take this as their Capstone must contact instructor and BA Capstone Director Dr. Evan Carver.
Equivalent Course(s): HLTH 22100, HIST 25033, HIPS 22210, GLST 22101, RDIN 22100

CEGU 22101. Changing America in the Last 100 Years. 100 Units.

This course examines the economic and social forces that have transformed the critical character and performance of the major regions of the United States since the 1920s, and how the interactions between regions has profoundly shifted. The course completes the historical sweep of American geographical development following on from the Autumn course, Historical Geography of the United States, but can be taken as an independent course. Emphasized are the ways in which socio-cultural, technological and economic changes have played out differently across continental space, and produced variable environmental consequences. An all-day field trip in the Chicago region visits sites that reflect some of the larger forces at work at the intra-regional scale.

Instructor(s): Michael Conzen     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Restricted to 3rd and 4th years This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 27506, GEOG 32101, ARCH 27506, CHST 22101, HIST 37506, ENST 22101

CEGU 22102. Methods in Environmental Humanities. 100 Units.

What are the environmental humanities and how do their approaches differ from those of other humanistic disciplines? In answering these questions, this course will equip students with tools to reckon with some of our planet's most pressing concerns, including climate change and biodiversity loss, and emphasize the importance of approaching these issues through an interdisciplinary lens that includes humanistic lines of inquiry. Throughout the course, students will explore different methods used in the environmental humanities to gain an understanding of this emergent discipline as well as learn tools and methods they can employ in their own scholarship. Rather than work on long term research projects, however, students will sample and practice a variety of approaches to environmental humanities research and apply them to targeted case studies. This will include approaches from fields such as art history, Indigenous studies, animal studies, comparative literature, and history, among others.

Instructor(s): Jessica Landau     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 22102

CEGU 22211. Riding about the South Side. 100 Units.

This course is based on bicycling through the South Side neighborhoods surrounding the University of Chicago. There will be some readings, but the primary input will be from riding-from seeing things at street level and speaking with people who are committed to living in places that often have been abandoned by others. We can read and theorize about the community surrounding us, but the premise in this class is that our work should begin with experience in that world, with direct contact and in conversation. My approach in this class is less to teach than to lead you to where things are waiting to be learned and to people who can teach you about their world better than I. Some of the themes we will cover include land rights and exploitation, architecture, town planning, placemaking, urban farming and ecology, sustainability, grass roots organization, labor rights and exploitation, immigration, social work, and street art. Each ride is organized around a set of key concerns and includes a conversation with a local insider who can help us better understand them.

Instructor(s): William Nickell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 32211, CHST 22211, ARCH 22211, ENST 22211, KNOW 22211

CEGU 22301. Digital Geographies of Climate Justice. 100 Units.

Struggles for climate and environmental justice are increasingly mediated by digital technologies and geospatial data, especially in the Global South. In Amazonia, for example, the plight of indigenous groups bearing the brunt of ecological dispossession and political violence by deforestation is frequently represented through remotely-sensed data showing time-series of canopy loss; in turn, these data are often prompted, groundtruthed, and mobilized by indigenous communities and affiliated activists in legal and political campaigns. In parallel, across the world ocean, countries across the Global South- from Papua New Guinea and Ecuador to Ghana- are partnering with watch-dog organizations using satellite imagery and GPS data to track illegal fishing and human rights abuses at sea, acting as an auxilliary ecological police force to identify and provide data to prosecute offending vessels. The proliferation of these digital geographic technologies and techniques pose a number of complex questions. Drawing on contemporary cases, experimental projects in "forensic" approaches to activism, and recent work in critical geography, aesthetics, STS, and political theory, this seminar will attempt to map out these digital geographies of climate justice as they emerge. The course will also involve introduction to entry-level remote sensing + GIS workflows (no prior experience required) in a pair of intensive workshops led by guest lecturers/practitioners.

Instructor(s): Alexander Arroyo     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Undergraduate/Graduate Course - only open to 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students. This course counts toward the 4th year ENST capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): MAPH 32301, ENST 22301, CEGU 32301, GLST 29301

CEGU 22311. Berlin: Conflict, Community, and Sustainability. 100 Units.

Berlin: What makes a city? Who decides how a city grows and changes, and what criteria do they use - should it be beautiful, efficient, sustainable, open, just? How do economic systems and political ideologies shape urban development? What is the "right to the city," and what does it mean for city-dwellers to exercise it? These are just some of the questions we will seek to answer in our course, Berlin: Conflict, Community, and Sustainability. This is a September Term study abroad course. The program includes a side trip over a long weekend to the cities of Hamburg and Lübeck.

Instructor(s): Evan Carver     Terms Offered: Summer
Prerequisite(s): Admission to Berlin: Conflict, Community, and Sustainability study abroad program.
Note(s): Study Abroad September Term AY 23-24
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 22311, ENST 22311

CEGU 22312. Cities, Nature and the Planet. 100 Units.

Cities face major challenges in addressing environmental risk and vulnerability, but also great opportunity to reconsider the design, planning and economic systems upon which they have traditionally relied. This course takes a contemporary look into how urbanization affects planetary health, focusing on cities as sites of global resource extraction, waste generation, biodiversity loss, and increasing social inequality and climate vulnerability; but also as centers of population, innovation and social organization, which can facilitate climate solutions. Using a range of social science approaches and methods, students will consider critiques of historical urban planning and linear city resource economies, and analyze contemporary approaches related to climate action, green space planning, and nature-based solutions, with specific attention on environmental goals and equity outcomes. Through critical exploration of both historical urban planning, and contemporary frameworks for sustainable city agenda setting, students will consider the environmental past, present and future of global cities. In Autumn 2024, this course will be part of the Paris Urbanism Study Abroad program. Students will focus on Paris but take a comparative look at cities across the Global North and Global South.

Instructor(s): Sabina Shaikh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course is part of the Paris Urbanism Study Abroad program
Equivalent Course(s): GLST 22312, PBPL 22312

CEGU 22550. Performing Nature. 100 Units.

What is it like to be a bat? A tree? A slime mold? Art that attempts to represent non-human experience helps to orient environmentalism around radical and highly personal moments of inter-species empathy. Portraying non-human perspectives, we escape the abstraction of environmental data, and instead approach ecological entanglement on the level of individual imagination. Giving voice and human embodiment to nature is a theme in much 19th, 20th and 21st century creative writing (fiction/nonfiction) and performance work (theater, dance, puppetry). Accordingly, this class offers a broad survey of non-human representation in these arts with special attention to first-person narratives and embodiment of flora and fauna. The course draws on philosophers of mind (i.e. Shaviro's 'Discognition') and nature-science writing, plus contemporary performance projects and digital works by art/technology companies who deploy virtual reality and electronic media to explore the points of view of natural beings and systems. Reading about anthropomorphization and the problem of the subject in nature writing from Erasmus Darwin to the present will allow students to adopt a critical as well as appreciative eye toward this field of study and expression. Creative writing assignments will ask students to write (and perform) monologues from nonhuman perspectives.

Instructor(s): S. Bockley     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 22550, ENST 22550, TAPS 32550

CEGU 22704. Writing Persuasion: Health and Environment. 100 Units.

A writing-intensive course in persuasive techniques that influence opinions and attempt to change behavior. This year our focus will be on an issue that presents a challenge for persuasion theory: the environment. People are notoriously slow to change their beliefs and behavior on environmental issues, and persuasion theory suggests reasons why this might be the case. Environmental problems ask readers to weigh costs that affect one group against benefits that might accrue to someone else. They involve time frames ranging from moments (which are easy to think and write about) to millennia (not so easy) to geological epochs, a time scale so remote from our experience as to be opaque to the imagination. Environmental problems are complex in ways that make them difficult to capture in a coherent, emotionally compelling narrative. Many individually innocuous and seemingly unrelated environmental events can converge over time to produce consequences that are counter-intuitively larger and graver than their causes. This felt disparity between actions and outcomes can violate an audience's sense of fairness, biasing the audience against a persuasive appeal.

Instructor(s): Tracy Weiner     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 12704, ENGL 12704, ENGL 32704

CEGU 22900. People in Motion: Rethinking Transit in Chicago and Beyond. 100 Units.

How do you get from A to B? Within and between today's urbanized areas, that seemingly simple question has become one of the most fraught and intractable problems. This course seeks to address questions about public transit across scales, from pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure at the level of individual intersections and blocks up to regional train networks and beyond. Like other design studio courses, the class will be project-based, and will ask students to develop a wide understanding of existing systems, but also to learn through creative design projects that expand their sense of what's possible. After working together to understand many existing transit solutions across different scales, to come to terms with and document Chicago's transit landscape, and to dream speculatively about untested transit possibilities both low- and high-tech, students will focus on building a portfolio of creative suggestions for their respective "clients" (e.g., the University of Chicago, the 4th Ward Alderman). Alongside this project work, assigned readings and explorations around Chicago will immerse students in the culture and philosophy of moving people and things, across different moments past, present and future.

Instructor(s): E. Carver, L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Third or fourth-year standing
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST/CEGU 4th year Capstone requirement. While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting November 6, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.)
Equivalent Course(s): BPRO 22900, ARCH 22909, ENST 22900, ARTH 22909, CHST 22900

CEGU 23100. Environmental Law. 100 Units.

This course will examine the bases and assumptions that have driven the development of environmental law, as well as the intersection of this body of law and foundational legal principles (including standing, liability, and the Commerce Clause). Each form of lawmaking (statutes, regulations, and court decisions) will be examined, with emphasis on reading and understanding primary sources such as court cases and the laws themselves. The course also analyzes the judicial selection process in order to understand the importance of how the individuals who decide cases that determine the shape of environmental law and regulations are chosen.

Instructor(s): Ray Lodato     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): 3rd or 4th year standing, or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 23100, PBPL 23100

CEGU 23401. Revision, Expression & Portfolio Design. 100 Units.

This studio course, similar to a "senior seminar" in other disciplines, serves five purposes: (1) to allow students to pick up a few elements (drawings, models, collages, visual and place-based research, etc.) they've produced in other ARCH studio courses and spend more time refining them, outside the broader demands of a thematic studio class, (2) to acquaint students with advanced skills in expression and representation related to the revision and refinement of these elements, based on student interest and needs, (3) to assist students in the development of a portfolio of studio work, either toward application for graduate school or simply to have for themselves, and in systems to organize projects and revisions, (4) to add to students' typographic and graphic design skillsets, primarily using the Adobe Creative Suite, as part of the portfolio process, and (5) to practice and hone communication and writing skills related to discussing architectural projects. While there will be a modest set of skills-based exercises each week, to help structure the studio, most of the work for this class will be students' own project revisions and portfolios, and most of class time will be spent sharing and refining both.

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Priority for this "senior studio" course will be given to third and fourth years who've taken at least two other ARCH studio classes already. Students who have not already taken "Skills & Processes for Architecture and Urban Design" may be asked to consult some of the problem sets from that class ahead of this one, to ensure a baseline upon which this class will build. Starting July 31, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.)
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): ARCH 23401, ENST 23401, ARTH 23401

CEGU 23411. Ecological Identities: Reading and Writing 'You' in the Anthropocene. 100 Units.

As our bodies acquire plastics and carcinogens, and as our minds become more entangled with images and digitized knowledge, what it means to be a human in nature will change-has changed. Climate change challenges us to realize how ecological processes and interspecies relations structure bodies, minds, collectives, and 'corporate persons' in real, material ways. Our senses of personhood and collective loyalties shift along with our material milieus. In this course, we will read and write these emergent ecological identities into view. We ask who, or what, are these (in)human agents and how can we locate a sense of self within such fluid boundaries? What role does narrative and metaphor-aesthetic forms, devices, mediums- play in locating the person and its ethical responsibilities? How can we make visible communities of bodies bonded through shared nonhuman bodies of water, air, toxic accumulation, conglomerates, and technologies. We will engage with questions of gender, race, class, regional, and planetary affiliations, to reorient our inherited, traditional borders and boundaries of identity, and broach the question of what it might mean to be a human-to be 'You'-in the Anthropocene. Our readings and writings must likewise cross traditional boundaries of genre, discipline, time-period, and place: environmental history, film, critical theory, speculative fiction, multimedia pieces, visual art, geography, juridical theory, theoretical biology, essays, and poetry.

Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 23411

CEGU 23505. Environmental Ethics. 100 Units.

This course examines foundational issues of environmental ethics. What kind of values (economic, aesthetic, existence) are important? What kind of value do individual biota, humans, other species, ecosystems, humans, or inorganic entities have? What is the relationship of humans to the rest of the world? What should it be? Do religious and philosophical traditions contribute to or help address environmental degradation?

Instructor(s): S. Fredericks     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 23505, RLST 23505

CEGU 23516. Environment and Society in the Ancient Mediterranean. 100 Units.

This seminar examines the interplay between social and environmental actors, practices, and changes across time in the Mediterranean basin, as well as explores the study and analysis of those interactions from the beginnings of classical scholarship to the present. Key themes include: environmental determinism, human and non-human interactions, interpretive approaches to space and place, the role of science in archaeological and historical practice, and the compartmentalization of "environment" and "landscape" as analytic focus. These themes loom large now - during what might be called the "environmental turn" spurred on by the controversial Anthropocene in the humanities and social sciences - and their intensifying resonance provides the basis for critical reflection of past and future trends in classics, history, archaeology, and anthropology.

Instructor(s): C. Kearns.      Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 23516, CLAS 33516, ENST 23516

CEGU 23517. Introduction to Critical Spatial Media: Visualizing Urban, Environmental, and Planetary Change. 100 Units.

This course introduces critical theories and techniques for visualizing interconnected transformations of urban, environmental, and planetary systems amidst the pressures of climate change, urbanization, and global economies of capitalism. Weekly lectures will introduce major themes and theoretical debates, paired with hands-on lab tutorials exploring a selection of methods in conventional and experimental geographic visualization. Thematically, the course will be organized around critical interpretations of the Anthropocene, a concept designating the epoch in which anthropogenic activities are recognized as the dominant force of planetary climatic and ecological change. We will present these interpretations through modules structured around different conceptual paradigms and alternative epochal designations (e.g. the Urbanocene, the Capitalocene, the Plantationocene). Through weekly lab exercises and a final, synthetic project, the course will move from critically analyzing prevalent theoretical frameworks, geospatial data, and associated visualization techniques to creatively visualizing critical alternatives. Students will learn how to construct visual narratives through a variety of spatial media (e.g. maps, diagrams, visual timelines), scales (e.g. bodies, neighborhoods, landscapes, the planetary), and techniques/platforms (e.g. GIS, web mapping, basic programming language tools, and vector/raster visualization programs).

Instructor(s): Alexander Arroyo, Grga Basic, Sol Kim     Terms Offered: Autumn Winter
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 13517, ARTV 20665, ARCH 23517, ENST 23517

CEGU 23624. The Geography of Italian Cinema. 100 Units.

Italian cinema is widely known and appreciated, especially thanks to the masterpieces of Neorealism and some authors and actors capable of imposing themselves on an international scale. But Italian cinema is also made up of unforgettable places, mountains, volcanoes, rivers or trees that have taken on repeatedly the role of anonymous protagonists. Italian cinema is thus closely linked to means of transportation and all those infrastructures that have made and make possible the internal migration and viability along the Peninsula. This course rethinks the history and present of Italiancinema in relation to geography. Through the analysis of different films, the course examines the ability of filmmakers to document and, at the same time, participate in the physical, cultural, and social aspects of Italy, and how these depictions have changed over time. We will ask how Italian cinema has contributed to building a recognizable and shared image of a country characterized by profound landscape, economic and cultural differences. But we will also ask how the landscapes themselves have influenced and still influence the choices of directors and the aesthetic orientations of our gazes.

Equivalent Course(s): CMST 23624, ITAL 23624

CEGU 24000. Is It Ethical to Have Children in the Climate Crisis? 100 Units.

Climate change is not just an urgent environmental crisis for scientists, engineers, and policy makers: it is a moral problem that also informs individual and intimate aspects of human life, including choices about reproduction and parenting. For example, a 2018 survey published in the New York Times found that young adults in the U.S. are having fewer children than they would otherwise prefer, in part due to concerns about climate change and overpopulation. In this course, we examine the moral dimensions of having and raising children in an era shaped by climate change, looking closely at two main questions: 1) Is it ethical to have children in light of the world that the next generation will inherit, which may include more extreme weather events, unvoluntary human migrations, diminished access to resources, and heightened insecurity? 2) Is it ethical to have children in the context of the affluent West, where consumptive human populations disproportionately contribute to the effects of climate change that impact the world's most vulnerable? We will examine various points of view on these questions, engaging material from the disciplines of environmental studies and ethics, science and technology studies, and religious and philosophical ethics. Responses from feminist, queer, Indigenous, Black, and religiously diverse authors (and intersections therein) will shape our course readings and discussions.

Equivalent Course(s): CCTS 21023, RLST 24000, HIPS 24100, GNSE 23154, ENST 24000, HLTH 24000

CEGU 24102. Environmental Politics. 100 Units.

Politics determines not only what particular faction holds power, but the parameters upon which contests for power are conducted. Competing political factions may diverge in the details of the policies they favor, but may agree on a central organizing principle upon which their policy differences are contested. This course acknowledges that such principles exist and structure politics, economics, and social arrangements, but also challenges the notion that these are immutable, and argues that other principles could be substituted which would drastically change these arrangements. The course introduces students to alternative theories of economics, politics, and environmental policy that challenge mainstream notions of what is acceptable under the current structural and institutional constraints, including how the retreat to notions of realism and practicality place limits on changes necessary to preserve and protect the natural environment.

Instructor(s): R. Lodato     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 24102, ENST 24102

CEGU 24110. Nature and the Natural in the Middle Ages. 100 Units.

In this course we will undertake a study of nature and ideas about what is "natural" centered around three main axes, and will adopt a variety of relevant critical perspectives (e.g., ecocriticism, studies of gender and sexuality, political theory) to support our analyses. First, we will explore nature as the created world of which humans are a part (as one of God's creations), yet from which they also stand apart (as sovereign caretakers). Second, we will examine how the diffusion of Aristotelian works (notably the Politics) in the later Middle Ages provided a justificatory framework for social and political hierarchies and practices of economic exploitation. Third, we will consider the intersection of nature with gender, sexuality, and reproduction, a topic complicated by the fact that Nature is itself represented, in allegorical terms, as a woman.

Instructor(s): Daisy Delogu     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Reading knowledge of French for all students. FREN 20500, 20503 or a literature course taught in French for those seeking credit for the French major/minor.
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 24103, FREN 34100, ENST 24110, FREN 24100, MDVL 24103, GNSE 34103

CEGU 24190. Imagining Chicago's Common Buildings. 100 Units.

This course is an architectural studio based in the common residential buildings of Chicago and the city's built environment. While design projects and architectural skills will be the focus of the course, it will also incorporate readings, a small amount of writing, some social and geographical history, and several explorations around Chicago. The studio will: (1) give students interested in pursuing architecture or the study of cities experience with a studio course and some skills related to architectural thinking, (2) acquaint students intimately with Chicago's common residential buildings and built fabric, and (3) situate all this within a context of social thought about residential architecture, common buildings, housing, and the city. This course is part of the College Course Cluster program: Urban Design.

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting July 31, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.) Please also note that this course will include several field trips around Chicago during class time; if you have any questions or concerns about that, please share them in the consent form when you complete it.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 24190, ENST 24190, CHST 24190, ARCH 24190, GEOG 24190, AMER 24190, ARTV 20210

CEGU 24191. City Imagined, City Observed. 100 Units.

This urban design studio course takes two distinct notions of the city as its starting point: grand, imaginative plans -- utopian, unbuilt, semi-realized, real... both as aesthetic objects, and as ideas -- and how the minute flows of day-to-day life, up from the smallest scale, enter into dialogue with little built and lived details, intended or not. Drawing on both Chicago and other places (not just urban) that individual students know well, we will dream both big and small, search both present and past, and tap precisely into both what we dream and what we experience... seeking not to dictate what the city will be, but to use these different modes of understanding to expand our sense of what a city can be. Necessarily, we'll grapple with difficult contradictions cities pose, our most central personal assumptions about spaces and places, and with questions of how, especially in present-day capitalism, cities change. We take as given the inevitable gap between how places actually evolve and how, perhaps, they could, and use that gap as a site for the imagination to step in, while also confronting the hubris of imagining cities real. The studio work will proceed in three stages: individually developing an alternate vision for a place you know well, at a historical moment of your choice... then breaking each others' plans... and finally using real observations and factors (and even spontaneous impulse) to complicate and rebuild your vision into something lovelier.

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Consent is required to enroll in this class. Priority will be given to students who have completed ARTH 24190.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 24191, AMER 24191, ENST 24191, CHST 24191, GEOG 24191, ARTV 20205, ARCH 24191

CEGU 24193. Water Water Everywhere? 100 Units.

This interdisciplinary course explores aesthetics, environmental racism, and a human rights approach to the Commons to inform our perspective on the politics and aesthetics of water from the local to the global. The course will look at issues of scarcity and abundance through the lenses of art and human rights. The course will incorporate work by artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, who will visit the class. Students will consider works by other artists including Mel Chin, Allan Kaprow, LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Fazal Sheikh, to understand how art can confront the 21st century's environmental challenges. Readings will include Susan Sontag's Regarding the Pain of Others, and Fred Moten & Stefano Harney's The Undercommons. The course will include visits to site specific installations by artists Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle and Mel Chin, and visits to Chicago-area natural sites such as the Big Marsh and Lake Michigan. This course is an extension of a collaborative project at the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry with human rights lawyer Susan Gzesh, artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, and curator Abigail Winograd.

Instructor(s): S. Gzesh, Staff     Terms Offered: September Term
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing
Note(s): Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment.
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 24193, ENST 24193, CHST 24193, BPRO 24193, SOSC 21005, ARTH 24193

CEGU 24196. Second Nature: New Models for the Chicago Park District. 100 Units.

The Chicago Park District seems to preserve "first nature" within the metropolitan field. But the motive for establishing this sovereign territory was hardly natural. Today, cultural change raises questions about the significance and operation of this immense network of civic spaces. What opportunities emerge as we rethink them? While this design studio focuses on the development of new model parks for Chicago, it can support students coming from a broad range of disciplines. Texts, seminar discussions, and field trips will complement and nourish the development of architectural proposals.

Instructor(s): A. Schachman     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Consent only
Note(s): Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. Please also note that architecture studio courses comprise one 80-minute meeting and one 170-minute meeting per week. Scroll down to see timing.
Equivalent Course(s): GEOG 24196, ENST 24196, ARCH 24196, ARTH 24196, ARTV 20206

CEGU 24206. Cultural Cartography of Bronzeville. 100 Units.

The city continually erases itself, replacing the spaces, architectures, objects and activities that resonate in the memory of its inhabitants. While this process is the consequence of familiar forces - capitalist development, socio-cultural changes, environmental responses - the phenomenon of perpetual erasure sometimes produces a form of collective amnesia, interfering with our ability to reconcile with our pasts, especially histories of systemic displacement, exclusion, and exploitation. This course, a hybrid of a seminar and studio, will examine the deep cultural and urbanistic implications of Chicago's Bronzeville. Via poetry, fiction, history, testimony, interviews, photography,and films, students will recover Bronzeville's layered history and contemporary implications. In the studio, students will develop drawings to connect these narratives so space and time. Via site visits and conversations, this course will connect with artists, architects and researchers currently completing projects within and adjacent to this area of the city.

Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 24206, AMER 24206, ENST 24206, ARCH 24206, CHST 24206

CEGU 24600. Introduction to Urban Sciences. 100 Units.

This course is a grand tour of conceptual frameworks, general phenomena, emerging data and policy applications that define a growing scientific integrated understanding of cities and urbanization. It starts with a general outlook of current worldwide explosive urbanization and associated changes in social, economic and environmental indicators. It then introduces a number of historical models, from sociology, economics and geography that have been proposed to understand how cities operate. We will discuss how these and other facets of cities can be integrated as dynamical complex systems and derive their general characteristics as social networks embedded in structured physical spaces. Resulting general properties of cities will be illustrated in different geographic and historical contexts, including an understanding of urban resource flows, emergent institutions and the division of labor and knowledge as drivers of innovation and economic growth. The second part of the course will deal with issues of inequality, heterogeneity and (sustainable) growth in cities. We will explore how these features of cities present different realities and opportunities to different individuals and how these appear as spatially concentrated (dis)advantage that shape people's life courses. We will show how issues of inequality also have consequences at more macroscopic levels and derive the general features of population and economic growth for systems of cities and nations.

Instructor(s): Luis Bettencourt     Terms Offered: TBD. Not offered in 2023-2024 academic year.
Prerequisite(s): STAT 22000
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 24600, GISC 34600, SOCI 20285, GISC 24600, PBPL 24605

CEGU 24660. Urban Geography. 100 Units.

This course examines the spatial organization and current restructuring of modern cities in light of the economic, social, cultural, and political forces that shape them. It explores the systematic interactions between social process and physical system. We cover basic concepts of urbanism and urbanization, systems of cities urban growth, migration, centralization and decentralization, land-use dynamics, physical geography, urban morphology, and planning. Field trip in Chicago region required. This course is part of the College Course Cluster, Urban Design.

Instructor(s): M. Conzen     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. This course offered in even years.
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 24660, CEGU 34660, ARCH 24660

CEGU 24701. U.S. Environmental Policy. 100 Units.

How environmental issues and challenges in the United States are addressed is subject to abrupt changes and reversals caused by extreme partisanship and the heightened significance of the issues for the health of the planet and all its inhabitants. The relatively brief history of this policy area, and the separate and distinct tracts in which public lands and pollution control issues are adjudicated, makes for a diverse and complex process by which humanity's impact on the natural world is managed and contained. This course focuses on how both types of environmental issues are addressed in each branch of the Federal government, the states and localities, as well as theories of how environmental issues arrived onto the public agenda and why attention to them is cyclical. Students are encouraged to understand the life cycle of public policy from its initial arrival on the public agenda to the passage of legislation to address adverse conditions, as well as how changes in the policy occur after the inevitable decline of intensive attention.

Instructor(s): R. Lodato     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 24701, ENST 24701

CEGU 24705. Energy: Science, Technology, and Human Usage. 100 Units.

This course covers the technologies by which humans appropriate energy for industrial and societal use, from steam turbines to internal combustion engines to photovoltaics. We also discuss the physics and economics of the resulting human energy system: fuel sources and relationship to energy flows in the Earth system; and modeling and simulation of energy production and use. Our goal is to provide a technical foundation for students interested in careers in the energy industry or in energy policy. Field trips required to major energy converters (e.g., coal-fired and nuclear power plants, oil refinery, biogas digester) and users (e.g., steel, fertilizer production). This course is part of the College Course Cluster program: Climate Change, Culture and Society.

Instructor(s): E. Moyer     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of physics or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): GEOS 34705, GEOS 24705, ENST 24705, ENSC 21100

CEGU 24776. International Environmental Policy. 100 Units.

Environmental issues have become a prominent part of the work of international organizations and their member nations. However, the resolution to issues and concerns shared in common by the nations of the world often faces obstacles based on access to wealth and resources, political and military power, and the demands of international economic institutions. While multinational agreements have been achieved and successfully implemented, resolutions to issues such as climate change have been harder to achieve. The course will look at the origins of international cooperation on environmental issues, several case studies of issues upon which the international community has attempted to bring about cooperative solutions (climate change, the ozone hole, climate refugees, etc.), and the work that regional associations of nations have done to jointly address shared environmental challenges. In addition, speakers from various consulates have addressed the class to discuss environmental policymaking in their countries.

Instructor(s): R. Lodato     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 24776, PBPL 24776

CEGU 24918. Early Traveling Writing: Pausanias in Roman Greece. 100 Units.

Through a close reading of Pausanias, who wrote his Description of Greece during the Roman imperial period, this course explores ancient forms of travel writing and associated interests in the places, peoples, myths, ruins, and material objects of the Mediterranean world. Moving from the apparent ethnographic lens of earlier Greek literature to Roman imperialist expeditions, readings and discussions will examine the sociopolitical contexts out of which Pausanias emerged as a literary author, and his legacies in and relationship to the wide array of genres of modern travel writing, from Lewis and Clark to John Steinbeck. Key topics will include: movement through space, tourism, nature, landscape, town and country, sites and spectacles, myth, ritual, and acts of remembering and forgetting.

Instructor(s): Catherine Kearns     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 24918, ANCM 34918, ENST 24918, CLAS 34918, FNDL 24918

CEGU 25012. Undergraduate research seminar: Chicago Urban Morphology. 100 Units.

This seminar is open to Seniors and Juniors, particularly for but not necessarily limited to those in the fields of geography, environmental science, and urban studies. It is designed for students to undertake original research on a topic of their own choosing within the broad scope of Chicago's built environment. Following a brief reading course in the theoretical literature of urban morphology, each student will identify and select a topic of interest to research using Chicago sources, with the objective of a formal written research paper. Discussions will center around formulating research questions, theoretical underpinnings, suitable methodology, modes of writing, appropriate presentation of evidence, and effective illustration. Sessions will combine open discussion with a rotating series of periodic individual progress reports to the group, reflecting an interesting diversity of topics and mutual support in gaining experience in the research process.

Instructor(s): Michael Conzen     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Restricted to 3rd and 4th years This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 25012, GEOG 25012, CHST 25012, ARCH 25012, SOCI 20552, ENST 25012

CEGU 25014. Introduction to Environmental History. 100 Units.

How have humans interacted with the environment over time? This course introduces students to the methods and topics of environmental history by way of classic and recent works in the field: Crosby, Cronon, Worster, Russell, and McNeill, etc. Major topics of investigation include preservationism, ecological imperialism, evolutionary history, forest conservation, organic and industrial agriculture, labor history, the commons and land reform, energy consumption, and climate change. Our scope covers the whole period from 1492 with case studies from European, American, and British imperial history.

Instructor(s): F. Albritton Jonsson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 35014, CHSS 35014, HIST 25014, ENST 25014, HIPS 25014

CEGU 25704. Environmental Justice in Chicago. 100 Units.

This course will examine the development of environmental justice theory and practice through social scientific and ethical literature about the subject as well as primary source accounts of environmental injustices. We will focus on environmental justice issues in Chicago including, but not limited to waste disposal, toxic air and water, the Chicago heat wave, and climate change. Particular attention will be paid to environmental racism and the often understudied role of religion in environmental justice theory and practice. Throughout the course we will explore how normative commitments are expressed in different types of literature as well as the basis for normative judgments and the types of authorities authors utilize and claim as they consider environmental justice.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Graduate students need permission to enroll and will have additional requirements.
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 25704, AMER 25704, ENST 25704, RLST 25704, CRES 25704, KNOW 25704, CHST 25704, PBPL 25704

CEGU 25705. Climate Ethics. 100 Units.

Anthropogenic climate change is the largest challenge facing human civilization. Its physical and temporal scale and unprecedented complexity at minimum require extensions of existing ethical systems, if not new ethical tools. In this course we will examine how religious and philosophical ethical systems respond to the vast temporal and spatial scales of climate change. For instance, common principles of environmental ethics such as justice and responsibility are often reimagined in climate ethics even as they are central to the ethical analysis of its effects. In the course, we will take a comparative approach to environmental ethics, examining perspectives from secular Western philosophy, Christianity (Catholic and Protestant), Buddhist, and Indigenous thought. We will also look at a variety of ethical methods. Throughout the course we will focus on communication about climate change as well as articulating rigorous ethical arguments about its causes and implications.

Instructor(s): Sarah Fredericks     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25703, ENST 25705

CEGU 26100. Roots of the Modern American City. 100 Units.

This course traces the economic, social, and physical development of the city in North America from pre-European times to the mid-twentieth century. We emphasize evolving regional urban systems, the changing spatial organization of people and land use in urban areas, and the developing distinctiveness of American urban landscapes. All-day Illinois field trip required. This course is part of the College Course Cluster, Urban Design.

Instructor(s): M. Conzen     Terms Offered: Autumn. Offered 2021-22
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. This course offered in odd years.
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 36100, ENST 26100, HIST 28900, HIST 38900, CHST 26100, ARCH 26100

CEGU 26106. Tropical Commodities in Latin America. 100 Units.

This colloquium explores selected aspects of the social, economic, environmental, and cultural history of tropical export commodities from Latin America-- e.g., coffee, bananas, sugar, tobacco, henequen, rubber, vanilla, and cocaine. Topics include land, labor, capital, markets, transport, geopolitics, power, taste, and consumption.

Instructor(s): E. Kourí     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 36106, LACS 26106, HIST 36106, HIST 26106

CEGU 26260. Environmental Justice in Principle and Practice I. 100 Units.

This course will investigate the foundational texts on environmental justice as well as case studies, both in and out of Chicago. Students will consider issues across a wide spectrum of concerns, including toxics, lead in water, waste management, and access to greenspaces, particularly in urban areas. These topics will be taught in accompaniment with a broader understanding of how social change occurs, what barriers exist to producing just outcomes, and what practices have worked to overcome obstacles in the past. The class will welcome speakers from a variety of backgrounds to address their work on these topics.

Instructor(s): Ray Lodato     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. This course will cover the same content as ENST 26255.
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 26260, PBPL 26260, CHST 26259

CEGU 26261. Environmental Justice in Principle and Practice II. 100 Units.

In this quarter, students will learn and practice methods to conduct a research project with a local environmental organization. Building on knowledge gained in the first half of this course, students will examine what makes a condition an environmental justice issue, how to conduct a literature review, how to develop and administer a questionnaire for key informant interviews, and how to access, understand, and utilize Census data. Students should expect to work in the community as well as the classroom, and in close collaboration with classmates. The class will conduct "deep-dive" research into the community selected, and will learn not only about the area, but techniques for how to do community-based research in a manner that acknowledges and appreciates the lived wisdom of the neighborhood's residents. The result will be a research report delivered to the community organization with students in the class listed as co-authors.

Instructor(s): Ray Lodato      Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 26261, ENST 26261, CHST 26261

CEGU 26330. Making the Maya World. 100 Units.

What do we know about the ancient Maya? Pyramids, palaces, and temples are found from Mexico to Honduras, texts in hieroglyphic script record the histories of kings and queens who ruled those cities, and painted murals, carved stone stelae, and ceramic vessels provide a glimpse of complex geopolitical dynamics and social hierarchies. Decades of archaeological research have expanded that view beyond the rulers and elites to explore the daily lives of the Maya people, networks of trade and market exchange, and agricultural and ritual practices. Present-day Maya communities attest to the dynamism and vitality of languages and traditions, often entangled in the politics of archaeological heritage and tourism. This course is a wide-ranging exploration of ancient Maya civilization and of the various ways archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, historians, and indigenous communities have examined and manipulated the Maya past. From tropes of long-hidden mysteries rescued from the jungle to New Age appropriations of pre-Columbian rituals, from the thrill of decipherment to painstaking and technical artifact studies, we will examine how models drawn from astrology, ethnography, classical archaeology and philology, political science, and popular culture have shaped current understandings of the ancient Maya world, and also how the Maya world has, at times, resisted easy appropriation and defied expectations.

Instructor(s): Sarah Newman     Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 36330, ANTH 36330, ANTH 26330, LACS 26330

CEGU 26366. Planning for Land and Life in the Calumet. 100 Units.

The collaborative plan to create a Calumet National Heritage Area that touches aspects of environmental conservation, economic development, cultural heritage, recreation, arts, and education will ground this course's exploration of landscape history and landscape planning in the Calumet region. Students will investigate this planning process and its relationship to other local and regional plans. A strong focus of the course is on the opportunities and challenges this complex and richly textured industrial region faces in its transition to a more sustainable future.

Terms Offered: Spring. not offered in 2022-23
Note(s): This course is part of the Chicago Studies Quarter: Calumet.
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 26366, CHST 26366, ENST 26366, HIST 27313

CEGU 26367. Objects, Place and Power. 100 Units.

Objects are not only formed and interpreted through ideas of place and power, but also shape place and identity. This course looks at how material culture has, in part, formed understandings of the Calumet. Through methods drawn from art history and museum studies, we will look closely at objects, collections, and institutions in the region to analyze the power and politics of representation in placemaking.

Instructor(s): Jessica Landau     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course is part of the Chicago Studies Quarter: Calumet.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 27314, PBPL 26367, ARTH 26367, CHST 26367, ENST 26367

CEGU 26368. Environmental Transitions and Unnatural Histories. 100 Units.

The course considers changes wrought in the natural landscape of the greater Calumet region beginning with indigenous Potawatomi and their forced removal. Students will examine how the Calumet's natural environment became collateral damage of the industrial capitalism that transformed the region into an economic powerhouse and explore efforts to rehabilitate the Calumet's rich biodiversity, identifying the challenges and achievements of this most recent environmental transition.

Instructor(s): Mary Beth Pudup     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course is part of the Chicago Studies Quarter: Calumet.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 26368, HIST 27315, CHST 26368, PBPL 26368, ENST 26368

CEGU 26381. Water in Latin America. 100 Units.

The course will explore how water shapes-and is shaped by-humans in Latin America. Drawing from case studies from the pre-Columbian era to the present, the course will consider struggles over aquatic resources, dam building, and hydraulic development, as well as the social life of water in the region. Some background in Latin American history or politics is helpful but not required.

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz-Francisco     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26306, LACS 26381

CEGU 26382. Development and Environment in Latin America. 100 Units.

Description: This course will consider the relationship between development and the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean. We will consider the social, political, and economic effects of natural resource extraction, the quest to improve places and peoples, and attendant ecological transformations, from the onset of European colonialism in the fifteenth century, to state- and private-led improvement policies in the twentieth. Some questions we will consider are: How have policies affected the sustainability of land use in the last five centuries? In what ways has the modern impetus for development, beginning in the nineteenth century and reaching its current intensity in the mid-twentieth, shifted ideas and practices of sustainability in both environmental and social terms? And, more broadly, to what extent does the notion of development help us explain the historical relationship between humans and the environment?

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz Francisco     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GEOG 26382, HIPS 26382, LACS 36382, HIST 36317, ANTH 23094, HIST 26317, LACS 26382, ENST 26382, GLST 26382

CEGU 26400. Quantitative Methods in Public Policy. 100 Units.

This class will provide an introduction to quantitative analysis in public policy. Much of the class is devoted to learning about the effects of policies and answering empirical, policy-relevant questions from observational data. In doing so, the course provides an introduction to critical and quantitative thinking in general. Students will be introduced to the basic toolkit of policy analysis, which includes sampling, hypothesis testing, Bayesian inference, regression, experiments, instrumental variables, differences in differences, and regression discontinuity. Students will also learn how to use a statistical software program to organize and analyze data. More importantly, students will learn the principles of critical thinking essential for careful and credible policy analysis.

Instructor(s): Anthony Fowler     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 26400

CEGU 26511. Cities from Scratch: The History of Urban Latin America. 100 Units.

Latin America is one of the world's most urbanized regions and its urban heritage long predates European conquest. Yet the region's urban experience has generally been understood through North Atlantic models, which often treat Latin American cities as disjunctive, distorted knockoffs of idealized US or European cities. This class interrogates and expands those North Atlantic visions by emphasizing the history of vital urban issues such as informality, inequality, intimacy, race, gender, violence, plural regulatory regimes, the urban environment, and rights to the city. Interdisciplinary course materials include anthropology, sociology, history, fiction, film, photography, and journalism produced from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries.

Instructor(s): B. Fischer     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Some coursework in Latin American studies, urban studies, and/or history
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 26511, LACS 36510, ARCH 26511, HIST 26511, LACS 26510, HIST 36511

CEGU 27100. Cartographic Design and Geovisualization. 100 Units.

This course is a hands-on introduction to core principles and techniques associated with cartographic design, especially with regards to digital map design and the geographic visualization of data. Main topics include map generalization, symbology, scale, visual variables, scales of measurement, 2D and 3D design, map animation and interaction, and web mapping. Students will work with open-source GIS software and web tools, culminating in a final project and peer critique.

Instructor(s): Crystal Bae     Terms Offered: Autumn. Offered 2023-24
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 27100, GISC 37100, ENST 27111, GISC 27100

CEGU 27110. Spatial Thinking in Historical Cartography. 100 Units.

The course will introduce students to the ways in which cartographers in the English-speaking world have conceived of representing spatial patterns in map form, and how that has changed over time beginning in the 18th century, given changes in world view, cultural background, cartographic technology, business organization, and educational fashion. The objective is to sharpen students' ability to think critically about how maps have been produced in history, evaluate their design, effectiveness, and limitations, and the uses to which they have been put.

Instructor(s): M. Conzen     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course can be counted toward as a 4th year CEGU/ENST Capstone course.
Equivalent Course(s): GISC 27110, CHST 27110, ENST 27110

CEGU 27111. Animal Policy. 100 Units.

Brief Description: Humans share the Earth with countless multitudes of sentient, non-human beings. We categorize our fellow earthlings into, for example, farm animals; pets; wild animals; pests; and so on. For each of these animal categories, we have laws, policies, and norms that influence our interactions with our fellow creatures and also profoundly affect the births, lives, and deaths of animals. This discussion-based course examines animal-related policies. We will look at broad questions - should animal wellbeing be directly taken into account in policy analysis, or only accounted for via human interest in animal wellbeing? - as well as specific policies with respect to farm animals, zoo animals, companion animals, and so on.

Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 27110

CEGU 27155. Urban Design with Nature. 100 Units.

This course will use the Chicago region as the setting to evaluate the social, environmental, and economic effects of alternative forms of human settlement. Students will examine the history, theory and practice of designing cities in sustainable ways - i.e., human settlements that are socially just, economically viable, and environmentally sound. Students will explore the literature on sustainable urban design from a variety of perspectives, and then focus on how sustainability theories play out in the Chicago region. How can Chicago's neighborhoods be designed to promote environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals? This course is part of the College Course Cluster program: Urban Design.

Instructor(s): Sabina Shaikh and Emily Talen     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course counts towards the ENST 4th year Capstone requirement. Restricted to 3rd and 4th year students
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 27155, PBPL 27156, ENST 27155, BPRO 27155, GISC 27155

CEGU 27450. Cities in Motion: the Architecture of Public Transit. 100 Units.

How do you get from A to B? Within and between today's urbanized areas, that seemingly simple question has become one of the most fraught and intractable problems. This course seeks to address questions about public transit across scales, from pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure at the level of individual intersections and blocks up to regional train networks and beyond. Like other design studio courses, the class will be project-based, and will ask students to develop a wide understanding of existing systems, but also to learn through creative design projects that expand their sense of what's possible. After working together to understand many existing transit solutions across different scales, to come to terms with and document Chicago's transit landscape, and to dream speculatively about untested transit possibilities both low- and high-tech, students will focus on building a portfolio of creative suggestions for their respective "clients" (e.g., the University of Chicago, the 4th Ward Alderman). Alongside this project work, assigned readings and explorations around Chicago will immerse students in the culture and philosophy of moving people and things, across different moments past, present and future.

Instructor(s): L. Joyner     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): While this class does not require prior experience, all ARCH studio courses require consent. Starting November 6, please visit arthistory.uchicago.edu/archconsent to request instructor consent for this class or other ARCH studios. (Please do not send consent requests by email.)
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 27450, ARTH 27450

CEGU 27521. Energy in World Civilizations I. 100 Units.

This two-quarter course explores the historical roots of climate change and other global environmental problems with a special attention to how energy use shapes human societies over time. Part I covers energy systems across the world from prehistory to the end of the nineteenth century.

Instructor(s): F. Albritton Jonsson     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Parts I and II should be taken in sequence. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies.
Equivalent Course(s): SOSC 27521, HIPS 17521, HIST 17521, ENST 27521

CEGU 27522. Energy in World Civilizations II. 100 Units.

This two-quarter course explores the historical roots of climate change and other global environmental problems with a special attention to how energy use shapes human societies over time. Part II covers energy systems across the world from the early twentieth century to the present, examining themes such as the uneven globalization of energy-intensive lifestyles, the changing geopolitics of energy, and possible futures beyond fossil-fuel dependence.

Instructor(s): J. Mead     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Parts I and II should be taken in sequence. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 17522, ENST 27522, SOSC 27522, HIPS 17522

CEGU 28307. Global Environmental Humanities. 100 Units.

This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of environmental humanities, which calls on us to study the global environment, and the threats posed by globalization and climate change, using the tools of history, cultural studies, philosophy, and literature. Reading texts from these and other disciplines, we will attend to the ways that "environment" registers in political, aesthetic, and social life across the globe. Sample authors: Fernand Braudel, William Cronon, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Amitav Ghosh, Ursula Heise, Joseph Masco, Jed Purdy, Anna Tsing.

Instructor(s): Isabel Gabel     Terms Offered: Autumn. Offered in Autumn 2023
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 28307, KNOW 28307, KNOW 38307, HIPS 28307, CHSS 38307, HIST 25422

CEGU 28702. Introduction to GIS and Spatial Analysis. 100 Units.

This course provides an introduction and overview of how spatial thinking is translated into specific methods to handle geographic information and the statistical analysis of such information. This is not a course to learn a specific GIS software program, but the goal is to learn how to think about spatial aspects of research questions, as they pertain to how the data are collected, organized and transformed, and how these spatial aspects affect statistical methods. The focus is on research questions relevant in the social sciences, which inspires the selection of the particular methods that are covered. Examples include spatial data integration (spatial join), transformations between different spatial scales (overlay), the computation of "spatial" variables (distance, buffer, shortest path), geovisualization, visual analytics, and the assessment of spatial autocorrelation (the lack of independence among spatial variables). The methods will be illustrated by means of open source software such as QGIS and R.

Instructor(s): Crystal Bae     Terms Offered: Spring Summer. Offered 2023-24
Equivalent Course(s): GISC 38702, ENST 28702, SOCI 30283, ARCH 28702, SOCI 20283, GISC 28702, PPHA 38712

CEGU 28728. Climate Change and Society: Human Impacts, Adaptation, and Policy Solutions. 100 Units.

Time is running out to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. The next decade will be critical both for the transformation of society and learning to adapt to changes that cannot be avoided, and climate change will be a key part of everyday life. This class discusses how we face this global challenge. During the course, our focus will be on the impacts of climate change upon society, and the necessity of solutions that deal with the global scope, local scales, and often unequal nature of the impacts. This interdisciplinary course covers the tools and insights from economic analysis, environmental science, and statistics that inform our understanding of climate change impacts, the design of mitigation and adaptation policies, and the implementation of these policies. Students will develop a mastery of key conceptual ideas from multiple disciplines relevant for climate change and acquire tools for conducting analyses of climate impacts and policies. The latter parts of the course will hone students' ability to apply and communicate these insights through practical analysis of national policies and writing op-eds about climate-related issues. The goal is to help students from any background become informed and critically-minded practitioners of climate-informed policy making, able to communicate the urgency to any audience.

Instructor(s): Jina, A.      Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course is intended to be accessible to people from all disciplines and backgrounds interested in climate solutions. Some introduction to statistics and economics (e.g., PBPL 20000 or ECON 20000) may be helpful, but definitely not essential.
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 28728, PBPL 28728

CEGU 28925. Health Impacts of Transportation Policies. 100 Units.

Governments invest in transport infrastructure because it encourages economic growth and mobility of people and goods, which have direct and indirect benefits to health. Yet, an excessive reliance on motorized modes of transport harms population health, the environment, and social well-being. The impact on population health is substantial: Globally, road traffic crashes kill over 1.3 million annually. Air pollution, to which transport is an important contributor, kills another 3.2 million people. Motorized modes of transport are also an important contributor to sedentary lifestyles. Physical inactivity is estimated to cause 3.2 million deaths every year, globally. This course will introduce students to thinking about transportation as a technological system that affects human health and well-being through intended and unintended mechanisms. The course will examine the complex relationship between transportation, land use, urban form, and geography, and explore how decisions in other sectors affect transportation systems, and how these in turn affect human health. Students will learn to recognize how the system level properties of a range of transportation systems (such as limited-access highways, urban mass transit, inter-city rail) affect human health.

Equivalent Course(s): ENST 28925, HLTH 28925, PBPL 28925, ARCH 28925

CEGU 29400. Climate Change and Human Mobility. 100 Units.

A 2021 UN report estimated that 21.5 million people have been forced to move, each year, for over a decade, due to climate change. The report states: "weather-related crises have triggered more than twice as much displacement as conflict and violence in the last decade" (UNHCR, 2021). In spite of mounting evidence that climate change is to blame for these catastrophic weather-related events and associated increases in migration, the UNHCR eligibility criteria for refugee status doesn't include climate change. Due to political challenges involved in considering such a definition change, the UN convened member states to establish a global compact for migration that takes the effects of climate change into consideration. The Global Compact suggests rights and obligations of climate change migrants, and standards to guide sovereign states in protecting these rights. Given the growth in climate change related migration over the last decade, and the complicated nature of implementation with such a broad international instrument such as the Global Compact, there is much room for development within the climate change and human mobility sector. This course will: examine the issue of climate change and its relationship to human mobility using human rights, political ecology, and social policy perspectives; consider how these different perspectives for understanding the problem suggest different types of policy solutions; and consider the impact of these solutions for those affected.

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 29400, CEGU 69400, SSAD 29400, HMRT 39401, SSAD 69400, CHST 29400, ENST 29400

CEGU 29520. Sustainability and Computing. 100 Units.

Once a darling of the economy, the computing industry has come under fire as "techlash" brings a spotlight to its negative environmental and societal impacts. We focus on understanding computing's environmental impact, and the productive and substantial (not greenwashing) actions that can be taken to reduce it. The objective of this course is to expose students to a sophisticated view of how computing affects the environment, and how it can become more sustainable through action in several dimensions, including technology invention and design, business/ecosystem structure, individual and government action. Students will be empowered with the intellectual tools to understand and act with insight on these issues in their professional careers.

Prerequisite(s): Students must be in their third or fourth year of study.
Note(s): This course may be used as a College elective, but not as a CS major elective.
Equivalent Course(s): BPRO 29520, CMSC 39520, CMSC 29520, ENST 29520

CEGU 29634. African Cities and Urbanism. 100 Units.

This course looks at urbanism and urbanization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through a focus on selected cities in East, Southern, and West Africa. Beginning with existing trade routes and economic centers onto which some colonial cities were mapped, the course explores waves of migration over different historical periods, infrastructural imaginaries and the policies that shaped them, informal and formal economies, and cultural expressions and representations of life and living in the city. We will draw from a diversity of sources including fiction, non-fiction, architecture, town planning, photography, and the arts to examine political, social, economic, and topographical features and forces that drove the growth and development of each city studied, and also to reflect on commonalities that emerged between cities across different regions of the continent.

Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 29634, HIST 29634

CEGU 29700. Reading & Research: Environmental Law Practicum I. 100 Units.

Independent study with an individual faculty member.

Terms Offered: Spring Winter
Note(s): This course is open to advanced undergraduates. Students selected for the Environmental Law Practicum will be enrolled in this course. Registration by consent only.

CEGU 29701. Reading & Research: Environmental Law Practicum II. 100 Units.

Independent study with an individual faculty member.

Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course is open to advanced undergraduates. Students selected for the Environmental Law Practicum will be enrolled in this course. Registration by consent only.

CEGU 29801. BA Colloquium I. 100 Units.

This colloquium is designed to aid students in their thesis research. Students are exposed to different conceptual frameworks and research strategies. The class meets weekly.

Instructor(s): Sabina Shaikh     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Students must have an approved topic proposal and a faculty reader.
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 29801

CEGU 29802. BA Colloquium II. 100 Units.

This colloquium assists students in conceptualizing, researching, and writing their BA theses.

Instructor(s): Christopher Kindell     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Students must have an approved topic proposal and a faculty reader.
Equivalent Course(s): ENST 29802


Contacts

Undergraduate Primary Contact

Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies
Jessica Landau


Email

Undergraduate Secondary Contact

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Sabina Shaikh


Administrative Contact

Student Affairs Administrator
Tess Conway
1155 E. 60th St.

Email