Social Justice and Sustainability
The major in Sustainability and Social Justice is an interdisciplinary degree designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to analyze and address complex socio-environmental and cultural challenges. Such challenges involve the interaction of cultural values, political institutions, and ecology, and therefore require approaches that draw on multiple forms of knowledge.
The program is structured around three concentrations: environmental humanities, environmental studies and politics. Together these three concentrations address the interconnected cultural, ecological, and political dimensions of sustainability and social justice. They represent distinct but interdependent ways of understanding socio-environmental problems and provide the foundation for interdisciplinary and systems-based analysis.
The curriculum is organized developmentally. Foundational courses introduce students to key concepts and approaches within each of the three concentrations, while interdisciplinary core courses emphasize the integration of these perspectives in the analysis of complex, real-world issues. Four methods- and skills-based courses, a research methods course and a capstone, support students by providing methodological skills in interdisciplinary and systems thinking as applied to contemporary issues and their future trajectories. Through this progression, students move from disciplinary grounding to interdisciplinary application while adding methodological know-how in a scaffolded way.
A central feature of the program is a structured methodological focus introducing interdisciplinary methods, systems thinking and futures thinking. Two methods-based courses provide targeted training in systems thinking and integrative analysis, equipping students with the tools to work effectively across the three concentrations. These courses support students’ work in the interdisciplinary core courses and prepare students for the interdisciplinary capstone thesis. Two skills-based courses in futures thinking enable students to apply interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis of long-term socio-environmental change. Through scenario-based and forward-looking analysis, students engage with sustainability as both a present and evolving challenge.
Students may orient their studies through one of the three concentrations while maintaining an interdisciplinary perspective throughout the curriculum. The program culminates in a capstone thesis in which students are required to integrate multiple approaches in the analysis of a complex sustainability or social justice issue.
Major Requirements (46 Credits)
Required Courses (24 credits)
| ENV 200 | Understanding Environmental Issues | 3 |
| ENV 220 | Ecocritical Approaches to Literature | 3 |
| ENV 372 | Sustainability Science | 3 |
| POL 215 | Inequality and Politics | 3 |
| SJS 100 | Sustainability and Social Justice: Ethics, Equality, and Environments | 3 |
| SJS 210 | Decent Work and Sustainable Development | 3 |
| SJS 212 | Environmental Justice, Law and Policy | 3 |
| SJS 213 | Designing Sustainable Cities | 3 |
Applied Methods- and Skills-Based Courses (4 credits)
| CPT 202 | Futures Thinking: Forecasting | 1 |
| CPT 203 | Futures Thinking: Backcasting | 1 |
| SJS 202 | Thinking across Disciplines | 1 |
| SJS 203 | Thinking across Systems | 1 |
Interdisciplinary Electives (6 credits)
Two of the following:
| AHT 257T | Architecture: History, Theory, Ecology, Design | 3 |
| AHT 315 | The Heritage City | 3 |
| AHT 320 | Anthropologies of Art | 3 |
| AHT 322 | Art and Ecology | 3 |
| AHT 361 | Art and Trauma Studies: The Visual Culture of Disaster | 3 |
| BUS 235T | Corporate Social Responsibility | 3 |
| BUS 251 | Sustainable Luxury Management | 3 |
| BUS 341 | Diversity Management | 3 |
| CLCS 250 | Ecocritical Approaches to Film | 3 |
| CLCS 254 | Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures and Theories | 3 |
| CLCS 275 | Literature and the Land: Aotearoa-New Zealand | 3 |
| CLCS 310 | The Culture of Cities: Sustainability | 3 |
| CLCS 331 | Narrative Ecologies: The Uses of Environmental Humanities | 3 |
| CLCS 350 | Culture and Human Rights | 3 |
| CLCS 372 | Tales of Catastrophe | 3 |
| ECN 105T | Economic Growth and Work in the Age of AI: Artisans or Algorithms? | 3 |
| ENV 210 | Natural Disasters, Catastrophes, and the Environment | 3 |
| ENV 240 | Environment and Health | 3 |
| ENV 250 | Quantitative Methods for Environmental Science | 3 |
| ENV 280T | Managing the New Zealand Environment | 3 |
| HIS 360 | The Revolutionary Idea in Theory and Practice: Russia 1917 in Context | 3 |
| MAT 282 | Intermediate Statistics | 3 |
| POL 254 | Designing Political Representation | 3 |
| POL 300 | Comparative Politics | 3 |
| POL 302 | Political Philosophy | 3 |
| POL 321 | International Organization | 3 |
| POL 376T | International Environmental Politics | 3 |
| POL 381T | Sustainable Development in Africa | 3 |
| SJS 200 | The Green City | 3 |
| SJS 377T | Sustainable Education in Madagascar | 3 |
Choose one of the following tracks (9 credits)
Environmental Humanities
Two of the following
| CLCS 250 | Ecocritical Approaches to Film | 3 |
| CLCS 254 | Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures and Theories | 3 |
| CLCS 275 | Literature and the Land: Aotearoa-New Zealand | 3 |
| CLCS 310 | The Culture of Cities: Sustainability | 3 |
| CLCS 331 | Narrative Ecologies: The Uses of Environmental Humanities | 3 |
| CLCS 350 | Culture and Human Rights | 3 |
| CLCS 372 | Tales of Catastrophe | 3 |
Research Methods
| CLCS 497 | Thesis Development and Research | 3 |
Environmental Studies
One of the following
| ENV 210 | Natural Disasters, Catastrophes, and the Environment | 3 |
| ENV 240 | Environment and Health | 3 |
| ENV 250 | Quantitative Methods for Environmental Science | 3 |
| ENV 280T | Managing the New Zealand Environment | 3 |
Research Methods
| ENV 495 | Advanced Research Methods for Environmental Science | 3 |
Politics
One of the following
| POL 254 | Designing Political Representation | 3 |
| POL 300 | Comparative Politics | 3 |
| POL 302 | Political Philosophy | 3 |
| POL 321 | International Organization | 3 |
| POL 376T | International Environmental Politics | 3 |
| POL 381T | Sustainable Development in Africa | 3 |
Research Methods
| POL 497 | Readings and Methods in Political Science and International Relations | 3 |
Capstone Requirement (3 credits)
| SJS 499 | Capstone: Research Based Thesis | 3 |