Environmental Justice

The Environmental Justice master's program at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) is at the forefront of the field’s teaching, research, scholarship, and advocacy. By recognizing the interconnectedness of societal and biophysical factors, we advance both sustainability and human rights. SEAS was the first school in the United States to launch an Environmental Justice program that offered undergraduate and graduate degree specializations, and our campus is now home to one of the largest clusters of the field’s faculty and students nationwide.

WHY ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE?

• Examine how and why inequalities arise and are maintained in environmental affairs around the world.
• Understand the mechanisms that give rise to class, gender, racial, and other types of disparities.
• Investigate the causes and consequences of inequitable distributions of environmental benefits and hazards.
• Develop a broad understanding of the historical and contemporary factors that shape the emergence of environmental justice movements across the globe.
• Using intersectional justice lenses, address global issues like climate vulnerability and adaptation; environmental workforce dynamics; environmental health; energy transitions; agricultural change; food security; forest governance; hazard exposure; community revitalization; conservation and access to natural areas.
• Learn about the relationship between environmental justice and areas of conflict mediation, management of non-governmental organizations, advocacy campaigns, public opinion, and more.

CURRICULUM

As an Environmental Justice student at SEAS, you will develop a broad understanding of the historical and contemporary factors that shape the emergence of environmental justice movements around the world, including the mechanisms that give rise to racism, class, gender, and other types of disparities. You also will investigate the causes and consequences of inequitable distributions of environmental benefits and hazards.

This environmental master's program is truly interdisciplinary, blending coursework from U-M’s schools of Public Health, Public Policy, Law, and Urban Planning, and encouraging electives from schools and colleges across campus, given U-M’s general strength in research on equality. Topics of study include pollution, exposure to hazardous waste, socio-economic barriers, urban affairs, spatial analyses, climate change, biodiversity conservation, common-pool resources, food security, social movement dynamics, water policy, public health, overconsumption, conscientious consumerism, institutional design, and business and environment.

CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The objectives of the Environmental Justice Certificate are to provide fundamental skills and knowledge, in tandem with methods and applications of Environmental Justice to enhance the education of students from a wide range of relevant disciplines at the University of Michigan. The certificate is designed for all students at the University of Michigan who are not specializing in the environmental justice M.S. program. Learn more about the Environmental Justice certificate program.

CAREERS AND SELECT EMPLOYERS

As an Environmental Justice graduate, you can leverage your knowledge and skills to pursue a career in diverse areas of environmental advocacy. Graduates have pursued career tracks in education, government, research, grassroots organizing, policy development, environmental management, consulting, philanthropy,  journalism, and more. View a list of featured Environmental Justice employers here.