Across America, one in four Americans lives within 3 miles of a hazardous waste site (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2013). This means that one's zip code can be more important than their genetic code. Today's complex environmental health and justice challenges have far-reaching impacts and require an ability to interweave different data sources to build connections across disciplines and social positions. Students will learn how using an environmental justice framework and merging different datasets and forms of knowledge can uncover the underlying assumptions (inequality, distribution of power and privilege, oppression/marginalization) that contributes to and produces unequal protection. Students will learn from diverse individuals who are generating creative and systems-based environmental health solutions. After the course, students will demonstrate an ability to build connections among various stakeholders and use multiple perspectives to solve challenges. Students will not only gain a fundamental understanding of environmental science and legislation, public health, and justice, they will build connections and apply the ecological model of health to design solutions at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and community levels to create a more equitable society.
