Institutional News, Local Impact

Bennington to Expand Environmental Studies

With a substantial, multi-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Bennington will establish a new interdisciplinary environmental studies program. Beginning this September, the program will unfold in the context of the College's major new curricular initiative, which aims to address public needs of urgency, complexity, and importance.

Andrew W Mellon Foundation

The environmental studies program builds on Bennington's existing curricular offerings in the sciences and humanities, and will also support student research projects and related internships, campus-based sustainability initiatives, and expanded organizational relationships with local environmental consortia and other educational institutions.  Students focused on environmental studies will confront problems or questions that concern the human condition (socioeconomic, psychological, biological, chemical, aesthetic), specifically as they depend on and influence interactions with the natural world.