Graduate Program

Established in 1994, the Doctoral program* in the Department of Environmental Studies at UCSC emphasizes close faculty-student interactions, department-wide intellectual exchange, and the flexibility for continued innovation. The goal of our Ph.D. program is to develop exceptional individuals with strong foundations in their own fields, and the ability to work with those in other relevant disciplines.

Our faculty and students are deeply involved in ongoing environmental debates, and our program's structure is based on the belief that effective and useful environmental practice must be informed by interdisciplinary perspectives.

The program draws from two main areas: ecology and social science.These all are historically independent fields and UCSC's Environmental Studies program is one of the first to link them!

Our interests in ecology include: Conservation biology and global change ecology - the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem processes, and reducing human impacts on other species Agroecology - where ecological knowledge is used to inform human management of nature for the production of natural products for human use in ways that minimize environmental impacts.

Our interests in social science bridges the dimension between: Environmental policy analysis - which looks for the best management strategies within the frame of existing social institutions and practices And Political economy of the environment - which examines the deeper social processes through which the institutions that structure our social and ecological agendas have been constructed.

Environmental Studies graduates are expected to be informed in all of these fields, to have deep intellectual strength in their area of specialty, and to have made substantial contributions toward the understanding of an environmental problem.

Please contact the Graduate Program Coordinator with any questions or inquiries you may have.

*We do not offer a terminal Master's degree at our program.