Global Arc

This course asks how the practice of mending can become an everyday principle of environmental life. We will investigate this through a semester-long engagement with histories of and experiments in earth mending, from histories of biospheric mending to practices of textile mending. This course will combine hands-on building with traditional seminar discussion. Students will keep a diary of practice for the course, help to maintain a community notebook, and will complete a final project.

This course explores how contemporary media convey environmental science, shape environmental values, and interface with environmental movements. It examines a range of media -- from documentary to climate modeling, science writing to data visualization, podcasting to animation -- in relationship to key environmental issues: biodiversity, climate, water, energy, pollution, foodways, environmental justice, and multispecies justice. This course also considers the roles of social media and A.I. in environmental discourse and the ecological impacts of media technologies. Students develop original media projects connected to a course theme.

Crazy as it sounds, we now know that many chemicals designed for one use can also interfere with estrogen, testosterone, and metabolic hormones. We are exposed to many of these every day: BPA and phthalates that leach from plastics, PFAS chemicals used to make Teflon and liners of take-out food containers, high-volume pesticides. So what? Many can reduce fertility, increase cancer risk, contribute to obesity, and affect behavior in humans. We will learn how to read research papers in this field, and look at how scientists, industry, lobbyists, investigative reporters and consumers have influenced governmental regulation.

Global agreements on environment, climate change, trade and cooperation have been upended recently. This interdisciplinary course explores how natural resources, nuclear and other advanced technologies such as AI, and globally inter-dependent trade intersect with multiple facets of sustainability and security in a changing world order. Students will: explore the connection between sustainability and security using the case of India in the Asia-Pacific; cover key concepts across geopolitics, economics, sustainability systems science and security studies; analyze data and policies at international, regional, national and community-scales.

This course will provide a one-stop-shop for students interested in the impacts of tropical cyclones, capturing the convergence of knowledge across disciplines and fields. It will provide a coherent structure that reflects the hazards associated with these storms (e.g., storm surge, inland flooding and heavy rainfall, damaging winds, compound hazards during these storms) under current and future conditions, and their impacts on many spheres of our lives (e.g., energy, public health).

Over 80% of the world's population already lives in cities and towns; they contribute disproportionately to global carbon emissions and are especially vulnerable to climate change impacts. Built areas are thus central both to the causes of climate change and to its solutions. To ensure a livable and sustainable future, urban areas must enhance their climate resilience and adopt strategies for adapting to extreme events. This course introduces the processes shaping urban climates and their interactions with broader Earth systems, with a focus on the biophysical impact of urbanization on local, regional, and global climate.

Microbes--the abundant, metabolically diverse, unseen agents of global change--are critical for planetary health. This class introduces the mechanisms by which microbes shape ecosystem habitability, from the lens of climate, nutrient cycling, pollution, and resource (food/water/energy) availability. Using lectures, reading, presentations, discussions, and laboratory exercises, we will examine the challenges and opportunities microbes offer for environmental sustainability. Labs will engage students in applied research on microbes and a local sustainability issue (e.g., organics recycling/soil fertility, aquatic pollution).

When dramatic disasters strike-like earthquakes and floods-neighbors, strangers, and governments often rush to provide emotional and material support to victims. However, when disasters are ambiguous-the slow accumulation of pollution in the lungs or the expanding sprawl of pavement into floodplains-victims are seldom publicly mourned, and observers ask who to blame. This seminar explores the making and aftermath of calamitous events in the twentieth century. Students will develop familiarity with science and technology studies, disaster studies, and memory studies through archival documents, field trips, and artwork.

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year. Required works-in-progress submissions, their due dates, as well as how students' grades for the semester are calculated are outlined in course offerings.

The senior thesis (FIT 498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year.