A new semester begins Monday, and Pratt students with questions about the Sustainability Studies minor can find some answers in the following places:

What classes count for the minor?
We have a list of the permanent catalog courses that may be used for the minor on the minor's web site.

How do I declare the minor?
Check with your academic advisor to ensure you have enough time in your schedule to complete the minor as well as your major and general education requirements. If you do, download this form and arrange to see me (Carl Zimring). We'll discuss your schedule, and once I approve you for the minor you can go to Myrtle Hall and turn it in to the Registrar's Office and be registered.

When do you have office hours?
I hold regular office hours Tuesdays noon-2pm in DeKalb 108. I can also make appointments at other times pending my teaching schedule and committee obligations.

Does Pratt have sustainability resources on campus?
Yes, all sorts. If you are interested in integrating sustainability into your design process, I highly recommend visiting the Center for Sustainable Design Strategies in the basement of the Engineering building for brainstorming and options on sourcing materials, evaluating material choices, and assessing design options. (CSDS just moved into a new, larger space; go down the stairs and follow the signs.) Art students who would like to conserve supplies can check out Turn Up Art's room to get salvaged materials. Turn Up Art is also in the basement of the Engineering building.

The library's expert research librarians have developed a set of useful LibGuides for pursuing sustainability research. Here's one for the Sustainable Core course. We have access to several databases relevant to sustainability, including Building Green (case studies of sustainable architecture projects around the world) and Material ConneXion (materials library in Manhattan with searchable database indexed on materiality issues such as durability, toxicity, recyclability, and just about any factor a designer would want to consider for clothing, buildings, furniture, or the range of designed goods). Access is free for Pratt students logged in through the campus network.

Does Pratt have student groups interested in environmental issues?
Yes. Pratt Envirolutions meets regularly during the school year; the faculty advisor in 2015-16 is my officemate Professor Jen Telesca. Pratt's chapter of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) regularly undertakes political action campaigns related to the environment. Pratt students have also worked with groups such as Greenpeace, though the two organizations above have perhaps the most visible presence on campus.

What do I do if I have questions about the minor that are not answered by this page?
Email me and I will do my best to answer them.

Last May, Pratt's undergraduate catalog officially added the minor in Sustainability Studies, meaning the program has officially concluded its first year in operation.  It has been a productive year, with heavily enrolled sections of SUST 201 The Sustainable Core, as well as elective seminars such as SUST 405 Production Consumption & Waste and SUST 401 Power Pollution & Profit.  By February, the number of electives in the minor had expanded to include offerings in SSCS, Math & Science, Interior Design, Industrial Design, and Construction Management.  (Click here for a complete list of courses approved in the minor.)

Sustainability courses included explorations of the urban environment.  In September, students in SUST 405 Production Consumption & Waste canoed the Gowanus Canal. After a discussion of the area's history, we entered the water and began paddling up to the northern terminus of the canal before turning south and exploring the foliage, animals, and businesses that call the canal home.  Our journeys revealed floating garbage and the smell of sulphur, but also swimming fish and fishing birds, scrap metal and concrete production alongside flora, fauna, and even some artwork.

Jennifer E. Telesca will join the Pratt Institute in fall 2014 as Assistant Professor of Environmental Justice in the Department of Social Science and Culture Studies. Her research examines the tension between marine conservation and the global commodities trade, and asks for whom are the oceans governed. Her dissertation, Red Gold: On the Global Politics of Regulating Marine Life is based on three years of ethnographic research about the management of the prized bluefin tuna by a treaty body known as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), where she is an accredited observer. A chapter in the edited volume, The New Public Good: Affects and Techniques of Flexible Bureaucracies (Berghahn forthcoming) details some findings. Her work on the concept of “visual citizenship” recently appeared in the journal, Humanity. Telesca holds dual Master’s degrees in Law and Society (NYU) and in Anthropology (UConn-Storrs). She earned her PhD in January 2014 from the Department of Media, Culture and Communication at NYU.

This fall, Professor Telesca's courses include a section of SUST 201 The Sustainable Core meeting Wednesdays at 5pm, and a SS490 course The Global Ocean that relates to the themes described above.  Students interested in registering for these courses may contact Liberal Arts Advisor Erich Kuersten for more information (ekuerste@pratt.edu).

The Sustainability Studies minor continues to grow as Pratt students register for Fall 2014, and for the first time, the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies is offering two sections of SUST 201 The Sustainable Core.  This course is designed as our introduction to sustainability, and it is a required course for Pratt's Sustainability Studies minor.

SUST 201 The Sustainable Core This course provides an overview of sustainability by exploring definitions, controversies, trends, and case-studies in various systems and locales (urban/rural, local/national/global). Investigation of critical elements of sustainability, including environmental history and urban ecology, sustainable development and landscape transformations, recycling/waste management, ecosystem restoration, and environmental justice. Section 01: Mondays, 2pm-4:50pm; Section 02: Wednesdays, 5-7:50pm.  3 credit hours.

This course may count as a Social Science or Philosophy elective, and has no prerequisites. If you are a Pratt student and have any questions for me about SUST 201, please feel free to contact me at czimring@pratt.edu.

The Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies is delighted to offer our new minor in Sustainability Studies. The minor in Sustainability Studies at Pratt deepens the understanding of the interdisciplinary approach to sustainable environmental, economic, and social practices, providing students with a broad understanding of the complex interrelationships between humans and ecosystems and the best practices for protecting environmental quality and fostering social equity. The minor can be combined with any undergraduate major and requires the completion of 15 credits approved in Sustainability Studies.

Students are required to take the common core course SUST 201 The Sustainable Core (offered Monday afternoons from 2-4:50pm this fall) and MSCI 270 Ecology (offered Tuesday mornings from 9:30am-12:20pm this fall).  Students in specific majors may substitute for MSCI 270 the equivalent MSCI 271 for Architecture (offered Friday mornings from 9:30am-12:20pm this fall), or MSCI 280 for Construction Management.

Beyond those two required courses, the minor is designed to encourage students to take 9 credits from a variety of relevant courses taught in SSCS as well as courses in Math & Sciences, Interior Design, and Industrial Design that both relate directly to the goals of the minor and allow students to tailor their coursework to their professional interests. These include SUST 401 Power, Pollution, and Profit; SUST 405 Production, Consumption, and Waste (offered Tuesday afternoons from 2-4:50pm this fall); PHIL 356 Environmental Ethics; INT 332 Environmental Theory (offered Tuesday evenings from 6-8:30pm this fall); IND 487 Sustainability and Production (offered Wednesday afternoons from 2-4:50pm this fall); MSCI 436 Toxics in the Environment (offered Monday evenings from 5-7:50pm this fall); and MSCI 438 Chemistry of Modern Polymeric Materials (offered Thursday afternoons from 2-4:50pm this fall).

This minor is available to all Pratt Institute undergraduates. If you have questions or would like further information, please speak with your advisor or contact the Sustainability Studies co-ordinator Professor Carl Zimring.