GENDER, JUSTICE and ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE (GJEC) is a graduate
specialization available as an elective for students who are enrolled
in master's and doctoral degree programs at Michigan State University.
The specialization is sponsored jointly by the College of Agriculture
and Natural Resources and the College of Social Science. This
program, first offered in Fall 2000, is the first of its kind
in the nation explicitly focusing on the intersection of gender,
environmental change, and social and environmental justice. The
program is designed in particular to examine these issues and
processes from both local and global perspectives, challenging
traditional dichotomies between the First and Third Worlds, the
North and the South.
The Issues
Researchers, policy-makers, and activists have increasingly recognized the critical importance of these interlocking dimensions for understanding the social relations underlying many environmental problems, from Love Canal in New York to the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. Examples of emerging scholarship in this field include how gender, class, race, and ethnicity intersect in:
- the environmental politics of international issues such as biotechnology and globalization
- grassroots environmental justice movements' use and management of natural resources
- feminist environmental economics/human-environment relations in history and in literature
The Program
The GJEC program offers graduate students a supportive and rigorous academic environment for exploring these issues, as well as credentials demonstrating specialized training in the field. The certification of the specialization will appear on the student's transcript. The specialization is intended to:
- provide graduate students from different disciplinary backgrounds with the analytical and methodological tools to address environmental issues from gender relations and social justice perspectives
- provide students with a global perspective on environmental issues by drawing out local-global linkages
- foster the growth of research, service, and interdisciplinary collaboration in the fields of gender and environmental studies
- increase awareness among faculty, students, and the public of the linkages between gender and the environment, both domestically and internationally
The program is flexible and multidisciplinary in design and faculty and student participation. Students in natural science fields can use the specialization to integrate gender and justice concerns with their regular program. Students in social sciences will be exposed to the background, concepts, and methods of environmental studies necessary to communicate with natural scientists and policy makers. The GJEC Coordinator will assist the student in planning a program of study that is related to the student's interests, capabilities, and professional goals. With the approval of the department and college that administer the student's degree program, the courses that are used to satisfy the requirements for the specialization may also be used to satisfy the requirements for the master's or doctoral degree.
