MA/MSc Environmental Sciences and Humanities

Course Summary

• Type: MA/MSc
• Location: Norwich
• Duration: 1 Year
• Deadline: 31-07-2013

Course Description

The MA/MSc in Environmental Sciences and Humanities is an original, truly interdisciplinary one-year Master's course which combines different approaches from the sciences and humanities for thinking about our relationship with the natural world. It brings together researchers in the environmental sciences, philosophy, history and literature to develop new ways of thinking about environmental change and social transitions, and to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our different approaches. The course is strongly orientated towards developing the insights of interdisciplinary work for policy-making.

The course begins with an intensive induction week designed to support students by providing the necessary context for reflecting on interdisciplinary approaches to environmental studies. Prior knowledge of the full range of disciplines is not required. The course is then arranged around three semester-long core modules, each of which pursues an integrated approach to a key area of environmental studies.

All three of these modules are new units that are tailored specifically to the proposed degree and, with the exception of Module 1, are open only to students registered on the course. The modules explore, firstly, the understanding and measuring of environmental change, using physical and historical evidence to put contemporary changes into context; secondly, how to deal with uncertainty and risk, analysing the practical and theoretical significance of these concepts; and thirdly, competing ideas concerning the value of nature and how those values might be reconciled, ranging from economic to aesthetic and ethical evaluation.