Master of Art in Liberal Studies

Areas of Concentration: Environmental Studies

These are some examples of programs of study that other MALS students have pursued in the past. They are meant to give you a sense of the kind of program that you might create with us. Each program of study includes courses taken as one-on-one independent studies with Skidmore faculty, traditional graduate-level courses taken in classrooms at universities across the country, as well as the required introductory seminar. Our students also earn credit through transfer of prior graduate credit, supervised internships, and assessment of prior experiential learning.

• Program focus: Ecology of the Adirondacks

  Coursework
  Master’s Seminar
  Adirondack History
  Ornithology: An Epidemiological Study
  Rural Environmental Planning of a Sustainable Community
  Restoration Ecology
  Biology of Northern Ecosystems
  Literary Discourses on Ecology
  Human/Land Interaction: Attitudes and Impacts
  Politics of Environmental Regulation

  Final Project:
  “Anthropogenic Influences on Avian Life, Past and Present, within the Adirondack Park”

• Program focus: Environmental Planning and Public Policy

  Coursework
  Master’s Seminar
  Politics of Environmental Regulation
  Wildlife Management and Policy
  The Inter-relatedness of Animal and Ecosystem Health
  Science, Technology, and Public Policy
  Mammalian Physiological/Endocrinologic Adaptations and Alterations Due to Environment/Surroundings
  Survey of Potential Boating Impacts on the Hudson River
  Studies of Freshwater Ecology
  Outdoor Conservation

  Final Project:
  “Grassroots Environmentalism: Convincing Property Owners to Preserve and Re-Create Ecosystem Habitats”

• Program focus: Land and Man: Nature and the Human Spirit

  Coursework
  Master’s Seminar
  Nature Writing
  Contemporary American Poetry
  Poetry of Vision
  Indians of the Northeast
  Creative Non-Fiction: The Natural Environment
  Environmental Geology
  Human/Land Interaction
  White-tailed Deer: Population and Management Practices

  Final Project:
  “Spirit Resting Places: A Nature Reader”