In the same vein, students in Pudup’s class, Genealogies of Environmental Organizing and Activism, are exploring environmental thought. She encourages them to examine how ideas enter society and morph from theory into practice, especially through the lens of activism. Pudup described some of the questions she asks students:
“How did there come to be a state interest, and how is that expressed? What does the market offer? How do we monetize nature?” she said. “Just that whole sort of epistemology that environmental economics brings to the natural world.”
The development of CEGU stemmed from the faculty’s recognition that approaches to climate change were limited by existing frameworks of study. Shaikh said the new major will rethink inherited knowledge systems about sustainability, beyond the constraint of traditional scholarship.
“How do we consider these nuanced, broad-scale environmental problems across time and space? We need new ideas, new perspectives, and many different approaches to do that,” she said.
Emma Zhu, a third-year student in the College pursuing an ENST major, said she is enthusiastic about the decision to transition the program into CEGU—particularly because of the professors and the flexibility to double-major.
“Just ‘environmental’ and ‘urban’ is too binary,” she said. “[CEGU] is a more updated, more contemporary way of thinking.”
Students in CEGU can pursue any project concerning the natural and urban environment, on both the local and global scale. The social implications of energy transitions, global climate governance, or local urban environmental policies are just some matters that a CEGU thesis might address.
“However technical these questions might be, they’re also always rooted in particular social structures and political choices, so it’s possible to dig down and uncover often hidden values,” said Assoc. Prof. Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, the 2023-24 Interim Chair for CEGU. For example: “Seemingly rational economic choices are actually hiding a whole set of cultural values.”
The promise of community engagement is one reason Kelli Lynch, a second-year in the College, has committed to the major.
“This school has a large impact on its surrounding community, and not only do I want to understand that impact, but I want to contribute positive change toward the surrounding areas,” Lynch said.
The committee has big plans for the future of CEGU, but they want to hear from students, too.
“Let us know what you think, and what you want,” Pudup said. “I really see us as a space that is open. We’re all navigating this new world together.”
—A version of this story first appeared on the College website.