Master of Arts Environment and Society: Structure and Courses

Core Modules

The program’s core modules are designed to introduce students to a broad range of topics and approaches related to the environment and society. All core modules are taught in English. Many core courses include field trips and fieldwork.

Year 1:

• P1: An interdisciplinary Introduction to Environment and Society familiarizes students with histories of the human relationship with the environment, as well as key debates and theories in the environmental humanities. Besides classroom learning, the course includes field trips in and around Munich.
• P2: New Directions in Environment and Society introduces students to scholarship and applied research related to new approaches, current issues, and pressing themes regarding environment and society.
• P3: In Research Methods in Environment and Society, students learn about interdisciplinary methods, ethics, and approaches used in the environmental humanities and qualitative social sciences, and how to apply them.
• P4: Representation and Outreach introduces students to various means of communicating environmental topics through writing and visual presentation. Students practice various methods of environmental communication aimed at different audiences, including digital media formats such as podcasts and blogs.
• P5: In Environment and Justice, students explore the ways in which contemporary global environmental challenges raise questions of justice. Who is most affected by climate change? Is environmentalism exclusively for the rich? Why do some environmental dangers receive more attention in the media than others?

Year 2:

• P6: Critical Perspectives in Environment and Society digs deeper into theoretical discussions in the environmental humanities, especially as related to climate change, natural hazards and disasters, and the ways these affect humans and more-than-human actors.
• P7: Landscapes and Urban Environments explores ways in which humans have made and unmade environments in their urban surroundings and beyond. It introduces students to the ways in which humans have shaped the built environment and how in turn the built environment has contributed to shaping human history. The course also allows students to think about inhabiting the environment in new and surprising ways.
• P8: In the fourth semester, students work on a master’s thesis related to a topic of their choice.

The overview of the program's core modules in each semester, as well as the broad disciplinary categories in which electives can be taken, can be seen in the image below:

Electives

The program’s electives are offered by the teaching staff at the Chair of Environmental Humanities and by various departments of LMU Munich. All electives offered by the teaching staff at the Chair of Environmental Humanities are taught in English. While some program electives offered by other departments are also taught in English, some require German language skills. Available electives are listed in the course catalogue each semester under the following broad thematic areas: environmental humanities; politics & social sciences; sustainability & environmental sciences; and practice & outreach.

Elective seminars and lectures have focused on topics such as environmental ethics; environmental anthropology; the environmental and social history of streets; environmental movements; degrowth, sufficiency, and sustainability in urban environments; the culture of cycling; the blue humanities; plants in the humanities; disaster studies; tourist landscapes; nature and culture in northern Europe; property, the commons, and environmental justice; infrastructure studies and the environment; and environmental pop culture.

Field trips and place-based workshops in Munich and beyond are an important teaching component in the MA Environment & Society. Below are some photos from field seminars that students in the MA Environment & Society and in the Environmental Studies Certificate Program have participated in. These field trips are often conducted in collaboration with practitioners and partners in environmental education and outreach.