Workshop in Environmental Behavioral Sciences: Theory and Praxis

Catalog description

Required core course restricted to Environmental Social Science PhD students. This workshop is required for first-year doctoral students pursuing research in environmental behavioral sciences. It provides a multi- and interdisciplinary introduction to scholarship in the environmental behavioral sciences by exploring foundational and contemporary works across the pillars of human ecology, human behavior, and human institutions. The course will be structured around guest lectures and conversations with faculty from ESoS, the broader Stanford community, and other institutions who approach the study of the environment from different disciplinary and methodological perspectives. Through readings, lectures, and active discussion with faculty, students will be exposed to varieties of research questions and approaches to scientific inquiry from across the environmental social sciences. They will also have the opportunity to learn about different trajectories into research and the story "behind the paper" through conversations with the weekly guest. Finally, they will begin to identify their own research interest and methodological approach. This hour-long workshop is complemented by mandatory attendance in the department seminar.