The Environmental Studies Program at Williams College offers a major in Environmental Studies as well as a concentration in Environmental Studies designed to complement a major in a different discipline or subject area.

Critical environmental issues of our time call upon citizens, organizations, and other agencies to grasp complex science concepts, address conflicting human values, and make difficult economic, political, and ethical choices. The curricular options in Environmental Studies—our major and our concentration—are designed to prepare students to deal effectively with these issues by integrating perspectives and methodologies from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the arts and humanities.

The three curricular options in Environmental Studies—the major in Environmental Studies, the concentration in Environmental Studies, and the concentration in Maritime Studies—are designed to help majors and concentrators to:

• Effectively address complex environmental issues by integrating perspectives from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the arts and humanities;
• Understand ecological principles and the nature of living systems;
• Apply scientific methods to collect environmental data and evaluate environmental quality;
• Understand the political and economic factors that inform, enable, and constrain environmental policy;
• Understand the social, cultural, and historical factors that shape environmental thought, history, and behavior;
• Develop significant understanding of one or more of the essential methodological approaches required in addressing environmental challenges;
• Apply their learning in a practical setting.