Spring 2024 Graduate Courses
The following graduate courses in food and agriculture will be offered in Spring 2023. Undergraduate courses during the same semester that enroll graduate students may also be of interest.
| Course Code | Course Instructor(s) | Term | Course Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARCH 4223 | Warren Fuermann | SP24 | Introduction to British Landscape and Architectural History: 1500 to 1900 | This seminar examines chronologically the history of landscape architecture and country-house architecture in Britain from 1500 to 1900. Topics of discussion include the history of the castle in British architecture and landscape architecture; Italian and French influences on the seventeenth-century British garden; military landscaping; the Palladian country house and British agricultural landscape; Capability Brown’s landscape parks; theories of the picturesque and of the landscape sublime; Romanticism and the psychology of nature; the creation of the public park system; arts and crafts landscape design; and the beginnings of landscape modernism. Comparisons of historical material with contemporary landscape design, where appropriate, are made throughout the term. The collection of the Yale Center for British Art is used for primary visual material, and a trip to England over spring break, partially funded by the School, allows students to visit firsthand the landscape parks studied in this seminar. Limited enrollment. |
| ARCH 2247 | Mae-Ling Lokko | SP24 | Soil Sisters | This course aims to investigate a new paradigm for connecting agricultural waste to large-scale regional material supply chains, in which improving soil nutrition and soil resiliency underpin the design goal of providing cross-sectoral environmental performance through the provision of new biomaterial construction systems. |
| ARCH 4254 | Jen Shin | SP24 | The (Built) Environment: environmental design and urgan transformation in practice | Over the next decade, cities and human settlements will remain a critical lever for addressing the climate crisis and ecological collapse. Contemporary urbanization differs from historical patterns of urban growth in its scale and rate of global change, touching on such dimensions as food and agriculture, land use, biodiversity, water, energy, governance, and more. Large-scale urban expansion of new and growing cities as well as continued development of established cities present opportunities for a new conceptualization of the built environment in the context of sustainability. As cities dominate the globe, the intersection between architecture and environmental action must be redefined. This course is designed for students who seek new terrain for architectural thought within the context of evolving environmental challenges. The course is run as a colloquium and workshop. Invited guests forging new work in the built environment will share not only their current research and practice but also their methods of work. Student-moderated discussions with our guests will present the opportunity for students to build the skills to critically position themselves within the discourse of urbanization, architecture, and environmental action. Concurrently, students will workshop individual or group projects operating at the intersection of the built and natural environments resulting in a project proposal of each student’s choosing. In the short-term, students will build research skills and cultivate critical thinking. In the long-term, students will build the foundations for their future professional / academic trajectory by forging new methods of practice or research in urbanization and architecture. Students from all programs are encouraged to enroll and no design work is required. Projects can be historical, analytical, speculative, policy-oriented, etc. The only requirements is for the proposed project to interrogate the intersection between the built and natural environments and open new avenues for cross-disciplinary work about built form as a critical lever for global sustainability. |
| ARCH 4253 | Anthony Acciavatti | SP24 | Labs and Landscapes of the Green Revolution | In 1968, the director of the US Agency for International Development, William Gaud, christened the decades-long experiments with agriculture and technology as the "green revolution." Juxtaposing it with the Red Revolution of the USSR and the White Revolution of the Shah of Iran, record harvests during the Cold War made the Green Revolution as much about food and hunger as it did geopolitics and diplomacy. This seminar explores the origins and development of the Green Revolution through its principal sites of experimentation: laboratories and landscapes. Whether hailed by some as a major turning point in the history of combatting hunger and food insecurity or castigated by others for perpetuating colonial and imperial asymmetries of power and environmental degradation, the legacies of the Green Revolution endure to this day. We attend to the global legacies of this color-coded revolution and how it reshaped the contours of the land, food distribution networks, settlement patterns, and cultures of eating and cooking, as well as reconfigured the habits and habitats of the human subject. Along with weekly readings and assignments that involve eating and cooking, we travel to one of the major laboratories and landscapes of the Green Revolution: India. |
| HPM 595 | Aaron Kesselheim | SP24 | Food and Drug Administration Law | The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the premier consumer protection agency in the United States, with control over the availability and public discourse about potentially lifesaving therapeutics, foods, supplements, and related consumer products. Its authority has been built in response to public health crises and is constantly under scrutiny from all sides of the political spectrum. The class reviews the history of the FDA’s regulation over the health care products market, the noteworthy legislation that has shaped its oversight in this area, Supreme Court and other cases that have impacted its authority, and an introduction to key current controversies related to the FDA that affect health care delivery. (This course does not cover food law.) The enduring theme is how the FDA balances its vital public safety role against countervailing forces of personal autonomy and the rights or interests of consumers, patients, physicians, and corporations. Each class is organized around interactive discussion introducing students to the material, including hypothetical cases that require students to apply the day’s lessons and themes in determining legal and policy solutions. Students with high-quality papers will be given specific guidance in submitting them for publication in the peer-reviewed medical/public health/policy literature. A paper of 2,500–4,000 words is required. |
| HPM 595 | Aaron Kesselheim | SP24 | Food and Drug Administration Law | The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the premier consumer protection agency in the United States, with control over the availability and public discourse about potentially lifesaving therapeutics, foods, supplements, and related consumer products. Its authority has been built in response to public health crises and is constantly under scrutiny from all sides of the political spectrum. The class reviews the history of the FDA’s regulation over the health care products market, the noteworthy legislation that has shaped its oversight in this area, Supreme Court and other cases that have impacted its authority, and an introduction to key current controversies related to the FDA that affect health care delivery. (This course does not cover food law.) The enduring theme is how the FDA balances its vital public safety role against countervailing forces of personal autonomy and the rights or interests of consumers, patients, physicians, and corporations. Each class is organized around interactive discussion introducing students to the material, including hypothetical cases that require students to apply the day’s lessons and themes in determining legal and policy solutions. Students with high-quality papers will be given specific guidance in submitting them for publication in the peer-reviewed medical/public health/policy literature. A paper of 2,500–4,000 words is required. |
| PSYC 775 | Laurie Santos | SP24 | 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. |
| REL 615 | Roberto Sirvent | SP24 | Introduction to Christian Ethics | This course is an introduction to Christian moral norms, ideals, and practices, and to some classical and contemporary disputes over their substance and application. Drawing upon a variety of historical and contemporary sources, we ask what difference Christian commitments make for assessing the ends that human beings pursue, the actions we permit and prohibit, and the traits of character we praise, tolerate, and admonish. We consider the ways in which Christian moral thinking is shaped by the Hebrew Bible and New Testament before considering interlocking questions concerning the ethics of the use of force, the economy, property, prison abolition, immigration, families, disabilities, environmental justice, and food. Area II and Area V. |
| ENV 649 | Dorceta Taylor | SP24 | Food Systems: The Implications of Unequal Access | The course examines several dimensions of food insecurity. It starts with an assessment of household food insecurity in the United States, with discussions covering access to food in urban and rural areas. The course also examines the research and conceptualization of food systems as we analyze concepts such as “food deserts,” “food oases,” “food swamps,” “food grasslands,” and “food sovereignty.” We examine food systems and take a supply-chain approach wherein we study food producers (farmers, urban agriculturalists, community gardeners). We also study food suppliers and processors such as farmers markets, community-supported agriculture, and food retailers. Students have an opportunity to study incubator kitchens and small-scale entrepreneurship in low-income communities. We also examine consumer access to food as well as perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors; understudied parts of food systems such as urban farms, community and school gardens, and emergency food assistance programs; and food production and food acquisition strategies in low-income areas. The course also studies the pricing of food and whether retailers decide to sell healthy foods or not. Three to four mandatory field trips are being planned—to farms, farmers markets, grocery stores, and other food outlets in and around the New Haven area—but these could be affected by the pandemic protocols and the weather. All students complete an individual take-home assignment, group class exercises, and a group term paper. Attendance at field trips, class attendance, and class participation (including class presentations) are also graded. |
| ENV 604 | Teresa Chahine | SP24 | Public Health Entrepreneurship & Intrapraneurship | This is a case based course about innovation and entrepreneurship for health equity and drivers of health. Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, racism, gender and other biases and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, healthy foods, safe environments, and health care. We refer to these as drivers of health. COVID-19 has brought to light for many the complexities in drivers of health, and the role of entrepreneurship and cross-sectoral collaboration in eliminating health disparities. |
| ENV 630 | Peter Raymond, Xuhui Lee | SP24 | The Physical Science of Climate Change | The course provides students with core knowledge on the processes controlling the earth's climate system. The first half of the class focuses on the four components of the earth climate system, providing a knowledge base on the atmospheric energy and water budgets and the roles of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, the oceans, land and cryosphere in altering these budgets. Students also learn how to run a climate GCM (general circulation model). The second half of the class focuses on impacts of climate change on a number of societal sectors including natural ecosystems, energy use, water resources, the food system and the built environment. |
| ENV 586 | Kealoha Freidenburg | SP24 | Fisheries and Aquaculture | We consider current issues affecting fisheries and aquaculture. Humans have been harvesting food from aquatic ecosystems for millennia, but increasing human population size, changing climate, and ongoing habitat alteration are among myriad factors negatively impacting aquatic species and their habitats. We analyze, through the lens of Western science as well as through global perspectives spanning local, regional, and indigenous knowledge, how extractive activities in the form of fisheries and aquaculture have impacted aquatic systems and their biota. We also consider what a sustainable future can look like for these critical resources and the ecosystems they inhabit. |
| ENV 360 | Peter Raymond, Xuhui Lee | SP24 | The Physical Science of Climate Change | The course provides students with core knowledge on the processes controlling the earth's climate system. The first half of the class focuses on the four components of the earth climate system, providing a knowledge base on the atmospheric energy and water budgets and the roles of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, the oceans, land and cryosphere in altering these budgets. Students also learn how to run a climate GCM (general circulation model). The second half of the class focuses on impacts of climate change on a number of societal sectors including natural ecosystems, energy use, water resources, the food system and the built environment. |
| ENV 640 | Ian Robinson | SP24 | Ethical Consumption: Promoting Workers' Rights, Fair Prices, and Sustainability | Many people want the things they consume to be made in just and sustainable ways, but the market does not automatically meet this kind of consumer demand. Often consumers, like workers, must organize and act collectively if they are to bend market dynamics toward their ethical concerns. This course examines historical and contemporary efforts to do just that, focusing on the apparel and food supply chains and the social movements, past and present, that have tried to change the dynamics of these sectors. We explore the strategies and actions of these consumer organizing efforts, what they were able to achieve, and what factors account for varying degrees of success. Our overarching goal is to learn how to increase the effectiveness of such efforts. |
| ENV 691 | Paulo Brando | SP24 | Field Course: Tropical Sustainable Landscape | This field course introduces students to conservation-related issues with emphasis on Amazonia and Cerrado biomes. By the end of the field course, students are familiar with the main drivers of deforestation and vegetation degradation related to the expansion of Brazil's agricultural frontier. The students are also exposed to the main risks for local populations associated with agriculture expansion and intensification. The course also provides a basis to understand how vegetation in those biomes interact with their environments at local, regional, and global scales. The field visits emphasize the ability to recognize the broad strategies by the Brazilian government to develop the region, the existing conservation opportunities, and the benefit for ecosystem services. The students have the opportunity to interact with scientists, environmentalists, policymakers, and farmers during this field course. This course assumes that students learn better when they work in cooperative groups and when they have opportunities to discover information for themselves that is relevant to their own lives. There are no prerequisites for this course. All students from various academic backgrounds are encouraged to enroll. However, the field course is designed to provide an interactive and engaging learning experience, and as such, it is capped at a maximum of eight students. This ensures personalized attention and meaningful interactions among peers and the instructor, especially during the field trip. Priority is given to students approaching the completion of their degrees and to those with research focus on the tropical conservation. This prioritization aims to facilitate a diverse class composition, incorporating students who have a foundational understanding of their disciplines while welcoming fresh perspectives. In the event of high demand for the course, an application process will be implemented. This process will require interested students to submit a brief application detailing how the course aligns with their academic and professional aspirations. |
| ENV 653 | Joseph Orefice | SP24 | Maple: From Tree to Table | This course covers the cultural, industrial, and sustainable practices of nontimber forest products through the lens of maple sap and syrup. Maple sugar is a forest product unique to northeastern North America, and it has seen a resurgence in interest as global consumers seek nutritious, natural, and sustainably produced foods. This course covers the booming industry and culture around maple syrup, from backyard operations through modern 100,000-tap investment operations. Maple producers are on the front lines of climate change and forest health threats. The course provides students with the knowledge of how challenges related to forest health and climate change are directly impacting maple producers and how these producers are learning to adapt in ways that are environmentally friendly, ecologically sound, and financially competitive in a global market. |
| ENV 824 | Robert Klee | SP24 | Environmental Law and Policy | This course provides an introduction to the legal requirements and policy underpinnings of the basic U.S. environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and various statutes governing waste, food safety, and toxic substances. Students examine and evaluate current approaches to pollution control and resource management as well as the “next generation” of regulatory strategies, including economic incentives, voluntary emissions reductions, and information disclosure requirements. This course investigates mechanisms for addressing environmental issues at the local, regional, and global levels, and explores the intersection between environmental and energy law and policy. Students gain an understanding of overarching legal and policy concepts, such as federalism, administrative procedure, separation of powers, environmental justice, judicial review, and statutory interpretation. |
| ENV 828 | John Wargo | SP24 | Science, Risk, and Governance | The course explores fundamental principles and procedures of risk assessment and management by considering a diverse set of environmental case studies. Topics include nuclear technologies, agricultural chemicals, plastics, wildfire smoke, drinking water contamination, hazardous site remediation, and land use regulations in coastal zones. Students prepare their own critiques of case risk assessments and complete a research paper by the end of the course. We examine how risks are perceived differently and why, how they are assessed, and diverse governance strategies under the requirements of key statutes including the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Toxic Substance Control Act, Superfund, and the Food Quality Protection Act. Risk assessments have become the primary form of rational analysis that governments rely upon to regulate the magnitude and probabilities of diverse environmental threats. The process is challenging and often requires the integration of knowledge from many disciplinary fields, including atmospheric science, ecology, chemistry, earth and planetary science, exposure assessment, epidemiology, and toxicology. Knowledge provided by these disciplines normally needs to be interpreted and its quality judged to predict environmental effects and, in turn, threats to human health. |
| ENV 618 | Carol Carpenter | SP24 | Anthropology of Smallholder Agriculture in Developing Countries | The premise of this course is that small-scale agriculture, its distinctive economic character, and its ecology shape each other in important ways. The course explores smallholder farming in the developing world through ethnographies. |
| ENV 726 | Xuhui Lee | SP24 | Observing Earth from Space | A practical introduction to satellite image analysis of Earth’s surface. Topics include the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, satellite-borne radiometers, data transmission and storage, computer image analysis, the merging of satellite imagery with GIS and applications to weather and climate, oceanography, surficial geology, ecology and epidemiology, forestry, agriculture, archaeology, and watershed management. |
| ENV 744 | Oswald Schmitz | SP24 | Conservation Science and Landscape Planning | This advanced course applies ecological principles to understand and manage biodiversity and attendant ecosystem functioning and services in the anthropocene. The course addresses the ethical and functional basis for conservation and fosters thinking about why and how humans ought to share the planet with nonhuman life. It covers scientific principles such as evolution, life-history and the viability of species, species endangerment and extinction risk, the kinds of biodiversity, the spatial distribution of biodiversity, the functional roles of species in ecosystems, vulnerability and risk assessments, and valuing biodiversity and ecosystem services. The course applies these principles to the exploration of such topics as biodiversity’s role in the functioning and sustainability of ecological systems, restoration of environmental damages, conserving biodiversity in dynamic landscapes, adapting landscapes to climate change, balancing conservation with urban development and agriculture, and renewable energy siting. It provides students with the quantitative skills to conduct population viability analyses, geospatial analyses of the distribution of biodiversity across landscapes, vulnerability analyses, and decision analysis to balance trade-offs among multiple objectives of human land development and biodiversity conservation. |
| ENV 959 | Daniel Carrion | SP24 | Clinic in Climate Justice, Climate Policy, the Law, and Public Health | In the course, interdisciplinary student teams carry out applied projects at the intersection of climate justice, law and public policy, and public health. Each team works with a partner organization (e.g., state agency, community organization, other nongovernmental organization) to study, design, and implement a project, typically through community-based participatory research practices. The course affords the opportunity to have a real-world impact by applying concepts and competencies learned in the classroom. This course should be of interest to graduate and professional students across the University and is open to Yale College juniors and seniors. In addition, this course is one of the options available to students to fulfill the practice requirement for the M.P.H. degree at YSPH and the capstone requirement for the M.E.M. degree at YSE. Students who plan to enroll must complete an application, which will be used to match each student with a clinic project. Check the course’s Canvas site or contact the instructor for more information. |
| E&EB 575 | Mary Beth Decker | SP24 | Biological Oceanography | Exploration of a range of coastal and pelagic ecosystems. Relationships between biological systems and the physical processes that control the movements of water and productivity of marine systems. Anthropogenic impacts on oceans, such as the effects of fishing and climate change. Includes three Friday field trips. |
| CDE 538 | Neal Baer | SP24 | Soda Politics: How the Soft Drink Industry Profoundly Influences Social Policy around the World | The story of soda is a remarkable tale of how a product that has no nutritional value and costs pennies to make came to be a mammoth profit leader through ingenious advertising, lobbying, and marketing. We explore soda’s profound impact on health, the economy, the environment, philanthropy, and advertising and read the most recent studies on its contribution to the obesity epidemic. We also delve into who the players are in the politics of soda—the public health officials, lobbyists, health activists, advertising agencies, lawmakers, taxpayers, and academic researchers—and discuss what role, if any, the government should play in controlling access to soda in schools, hospitals, and other governmental institutions, and whether taxing soda is at odds with freedom of choice in the marketplace. |
| GLBL 6520 | Teresa Chahine | SP24 | Social Entrepreneurship in Public Health | This is a case-based course about innovation and entrepreneurship for health equity and drivers of health. Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, racism, gender, and other biases and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, healthy foods, safe environments, and health care. We refer to these as drivers of health. COVID-19 has brought to light for many the complexities in drivers of health, and the role of entrepreneurship and cross-sectoral collaboration in eliminating health disparities. Students examine cases of entrepreneurship for health equity in the United States and globally, using a research-based framework to analyze the role of innovation and design thinking, resource mobilization, financial viability, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and systems strengthening. Cases include start-ups and new ventures within existing institutions, referred to as intrapreneurship. Students also examine cases of collective impact, or innovating across multiple institutions. Over the years, students in this class have begun referring to these as extrapreneurship. This course brings together students from Yale College, the Graduate School, and the Schools of Management, Public Health, Environment, Divinity, and Engineering & Applied Science. |