Fall 2023 Graduate Courses
The following graduate and professional school courses in food and agriculture will be offered this fall. Undergraduate courses during the fall semester that enroll graduate students may also be of interest.
| Course Code | Course Instructor(s) | Course Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ART 678 | Aki Sasamoto | Doing | This course is a platform for collective experiential learning, and thus participatory in nature. We focus on exploring movements and objects, and we relate those with artists’ practice. Activities include but are not limited to movement exercises, workshops, field trips, guest talks, and occasional prompts. Themes this term include routines, guided walks, object handling, and more. Students organize and participate in group activities. You lead one group activity that reflects your practice. What is at the core of your work/ing? How do you introduce your practice, opposed to your production? Compose a twenty-minute activity for the class that pulls us into what you do. You can invite us to your studio or arrange a meeting site at a nearby location. Each student meets with the instructor to compose this activity prior to the workshop. |
| ARCH 4294 | Anthony Acciavatti | Reckoning Environmental Uncertainty | This seminar will focus on a series of historical episodes since 1200 C.E. that present different approaches to reckoning environmental uncertainty to develop specific social and spatial configurations. Topics range from anthropogenic forests in southern China to seafaring across the Pacific Ocean and from patchworks of agriculture and urban centers throughout the Gangetic plains to the proliferation of observatories across the globe to monitor weather patterns. What ties these diverse places and histories together is but one goal: to understand how strategies for claiming knowledge are entangled with environmental uncertainty. The aim of this course will be to assemble, and consider spatially, a variety of approaches to how people have come to know the world around them and what they have done to account for change. |
| ARCH 337 | Mae-Ling Lokko | Field to Building, and Back | From plant fibers to peat particles, cellulose to lignin, fungi to carbon-neutral concrete– the use of a broad renewable material ecology from the field is becoming the feedstock of the 21st century materials revolution. On the one hand, the design of such renewable material streams are framed within today’s carbon framework as ‘substitutes’ within a hydrocarbon material economy and on the other, such materials are proposed in direct resistance to these very systems, as ‘alternatives’ to such ‘development’. The seminar explores the spectrum of biobased design histories and pathways within Arturo Escobar’s pluriversal framework. From the North Atlantic Scottish blackhouses, equatorial Tongkonan to the wetland ecologies of the Totora, the course begins with an exploration of field materials through vernacular architecture and agricultural practices. The second part of the course explores the relative levels of displacement of field materials from today’s material economies in response to empire–both botanical and industrial. Finally, students investigate continuation of local narratives alongside the relocalization of global narratives of three materials–timber, biomass and fungi-based building material systems. |
| AFAM 867 | Nicholas Jones | Black Iberia: Then and Now | This graduate seminar examines the variety of artistic, cultural, historical, and literary representations of black Africans and their descendants—both enslaved and free—across the vast stretches of the Luso-Hispanic world and the United States. Taking a chronological frame, the course begins its study of Blackness in medieval and early modern Iberia and its colonial kingdoms. From there, we examine the status of Blackness conceptually and ideologically in Asia, the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America. Toward the end of the semester, we concentrate on black Africans by focusing on Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan African immigration in present-day Portugal and Spain, and the politics of Afro-Latinx culture and its identity politics in the United States. Throughout the term, we interrogate the following topics in order to guide our class discussions and readings: bondage and enslavement, fugitivity and maroonage, animal imageries and human-animal studies, geography and maps, Black Feminism and Black Queer Studies, material and visual cultures (e.g., beauty ads, clothing, cosmetics, food, Blackface performance, royal portraiture, reality TV, and music videos),the Inquisition and African diasporic religions, and dispossession and immigration. Our challenging task remains the following: to see how Blackness conceptually and experientially is subversively fluid and performative, yet deceptive and paradoxical. This course will be taught in English, with all materials available in the original (English, Portuguese, Spanish) and in English translation. |
| PSYC 775 | Laurie Santos | Research Topics in Animal Cognition | Investigation of various topics in animal cognition, including what nonhuman primates know about tools and foods; how nonhuman primates represent objects and number; whether nonhuman primates possess a theory of mind. |
| BIS 575 | Robert Makuch | Introduction to Regulatory Affairs | This course provides students with an introduction to regulatory affairs science, as these issues apply to the regulation of food, pharmaceuticals, and medical and diagnostic devices. The course covers a broad range of specialties that focus on issues including legal underpinnings of the regulatory process, compliance, phases of clinical testing and regulatory milestones, clinical trials design and monitoring, quality assurance, post-marketing study design in response to regulatory and other needs, and post-marketing risk management. The complexities of this process require awareness of leadership and change management skills. Topics to be discussed include: (1) the nature and scope of the International Conference on Harmonization, and its guidelines for regulatory affairs in the global environment; (2) drug development, the FDA, and principles of regulatory affairs in this environment; (3) the practice of global regulatory affairs from an industry perspective; (4) description/structure/issues of current special importance to the U.S. FDA; (5) historical background and FDA jurisdiction of food and drug law; (6) the drug development process including specification of the important milestone meetings with the FDA; (7) risk analysis and approaches to its evaluation; (8) use of Bayesian statistics in medical device evaluation, a new approach; (9) use of data monitoring committees and other statistical methods for regulatory compliance; (10) developments in leadership and change management; and (11) food quality assurance including risk analysis/compliance/enforcement. Through course participation, students also have opportunities to meet informally with faculty and outside speakers to explore additional regulatory issues of current interest. |
| ENV 704 | Xuhui Lee | Workshop on Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry with Drones | A workshop that explores the current state and future outlook of remote sensing with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) for environmental monitoring. UAV-based remote sensing is a rapidly developing field in environmental science and technology. Versatile and inexpensive, it has the potential to offer solutions in a wide range of applications, such as forestry inventory, precision agriculture, flood hazard assessment, pollution monitoring, and land surveys. The class meets once a week for three hours. The workshop is divided into three parts: (1) reviewing the state of the technology on UAV types, sensor configurations, and data acquisition methods; (2) exploring GIS and remote-sensing software tools for analyzing super-high-resolution spectral data acquired by fixed-wing drones; (3) cross-validating drone products against Lidar data and satellite imagery. Students may also have the opportunity to participate in drone flight missions. Data analysis, presentation, literature critique, field trips. |
| ENV 602 | Mark Bradford | Ecosystems and Landscapes | Concepts and their application in ecosystem and landscape ecology. Topics covered include biogeochemical cycling, food web interactions, biodiversity, and the abiotic and biotic controls that act on them. The course emphasizes how to integrate this knowledge to understand and manage ecosystem budgets. |
| ENV 553 | Julie Zimmerman, Peter Boyd | Perspectives: Environmental Leadership | The course is intended to offer a common experience and exposure to the variety of perspectives represented by YSE faculty and guest experts on the challenges and opportunities of environmental management. This year’s theme is Environmental Leadership, and over the term we create and foster a leadership toolkit and systems-thinking appreciation that enable first-year M.E.M. students to map out and maximize an impactful path through Yale, their careers, and their lives. |
| ENV 712 | Shimon Anisfeld | Water Management | An exploration of water management at scales ranging from local to global. The course looks at multiple dimensions of the water crisis, including both human and ecosystem impacts; quantity and quality problems; and infrastructural and institutional issues. Theory is illustrated through a variety of case studies. Topics covered include global water resources; flooding; water scarcity; residential, agricultural, and industrial water use; water and health; water justice; impacts of climate change and land-use change; stormwater management; dams and other technologies for water management; human impacts on aquatic ecosystems; water and energy; water economics; water rights; water conflict and cooperation. |
| ENV 692 | Meghan Giroux | Science and Practice of Temperate Agroforestry | This course explores the science and practices of temperate agroforestry, covering current knowledge of agroforestry science and shedding light on the myths and assumptions that have yet to be tested regarding the integration of trees in agricultural systems. The course begins with an overview of modern agriculture to help us better understand why agroforestry systems have potential to improve the sustainability of farming systems. We also cover the social science regarding agroforestry and why it has not been widely adopted. Silvopasture and forest farming systems are the primary focus, but windbreaks, alley cropping, and riparian forest buffers are also covered. The field of agroforestry has struggled with the promotion of hypothetical practices; this course introduces students to real-world production agroforestry systems and helps them better contribute to financially viable and environmentally sound agricultural operations. |
| ENV 641 | Sarah Kruse, David Pilz | Market-Based Mechanisms for Water Management | This course provides students with both the theory and application of environmental water transactions (EWTs) to water management challenges, such as river restoration, drought-mitigation, and agricultural allocation. The geographic focus is primarily the western United States, as this region, out of necessity, has been very active in implementing EWTs in recent years. Other market-based mechanisms for water management also are explored, such as groundwater mitigation banks, urban stormwater markets, and water quality markets. The course also covers considerations such as environmental justice, tribal access to and use of water, and diversity/equity/inclusion in water management. A final project gives students the opportunity to develop a simple hydrological and water rights model for a fictional watershed to use as the basis for designing a suite of water transactions and market-based water management solutions. This is an online course taught by experienced professionals who value a hands-on approach to learning. In addition, the course features discussion of current events in water, case studies, and guest lectures from practitioners actively using market-based mechanisms for water management. |
| ENV 646 | Stephen Wood | Foundations of Agriculture and Environment | Agricultural systems have a profound impact on the environment, but also depend on environmental processes—such as climate and nutrient cycling—for continued productivity. Because of this two-way relationship, there has been a growing integration of environmental and agricultural sciences over the past several decades with growing recognition that designing and implementing agricultural systems that minimize environmental harm and benefit people is necessary to sustainable development. This course provides foundational knowledge of how agricultural and environmental systems are linked. The goal is to provide theoretical understanding of the important environmental and human processes, as well as practical experience interpreting these processes and applying them to real-world scenarios. |
| ENV 610 | Paulo Brando | Managing Ecosystems for Climate Change Solutions | This course explores how natural climate solutions (i.e., actions to protect, better manage and restore ecosystems) can mitigate climate change. It also assesses the challenges and barriers that must be overcome in order to make natural climate solutions more sustainable. During the course, students are exposed to concepts about how the conservation and management of natural and anthropogenic terrestrial ecosystems (e.g., conservation of natural ecosystems, forest and agriculture management, and restoration of degraded areas) have influenced the carbon and water cycles, two important climate services provided by terrestrial ecosystems. Students also address some of the potential socio-ecological consequences of nature-based solutions, with a focus in the tropics. Finally, the course covers some of the main challenges and opportunities for scaling up carbon natural climate solutions. |
| SBS 594 | Rafael Perez-Escamilla | Maternal-Child Public Health Nutrition | This course examines how nutrition knowledge gets translated into evidence-informed maternal-child food and nutrition programs and policies. Using multisectorial and interdisciplinary case-study examples, the course highlights (1) socioeconomic, cultural, public health, and biomedical forces that determine maternal-child nutrition well-being; and (2) how this understanding can help shape effective programs and policies capable of improving food and nutrition security of women and children. Topics include maternal-child nutrition programs, food assistance and conditional cash-transfer programs, and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. |