Environmental Studies

The course illustrates the ecological, resource, social, and cultural conditions and foundations for a sustainable and just future economic system. This process combines systems thinking and an interdisciplinary understanding concerning how these conditions and foundations are connected and interact. The consequences of different future, sustainable economic systems are also investigated and analyzed. The many perspectives, questions, and discussions in the course give students a long list of areas to focus on in the project work that leads to a practical project.

This course explores the origins and dilemmas of diplomacy pertaining to the protection of humanity's natural environment (resources, habitat). Definitions, collective discussions of crucial texts, brief oral presentations, and interpretation of a few primary sources form the basis of study. In addition to initiating researchers into undertaking historical research, the course enhances an understanding of how environmental diplomacy works, including the issues, main actors, strategies, and outcomes of environmental diplomacy. The course first identifies key terms and seeks to understand how international environmental problems are grasped by researchers in disciplines closer to environmental questions. It then approaches environmental problems in a historical perspective beginning with the age of the “first wave” of globalization just before and after the First World War. It focuses on the “environmental age” which started arguably in the 1960s and 1970s. The course examines how environmental problems were raised, conceptualized, put upon the agenda of governments and international organizations, and negotiated at the international level. Topics include pollution of the high seas, the regulation of whaling, the control of resources on land and under water, acid rain, the protection of (rain) forests, climate change, the protection of the Antarctic, and other issues. The course also provides an opportunity to develop methodological and interpretative skills, critical abilities, and presentation and writing skills.

This course provides individual research training for students in the Junior Year Engineering Program through the experience of belonging to a specific laboratory at Tohoku University. Students are assigned to a laboratory with the consent of the faculty member in charge. They participate in various group activities, including seminars, for the purposes of training in research methods and developing teamwork skills. The specific topic studied depends on the instructor in charge of the laboratory to which each student is assigned. The methods of assessment vary with the student's project and laboratory instructor. Students submit an abstract concerning the results of their individual research each semester and present the results near the end of the program.

This special lab course nurtures international students' creative competency by offering them opportunities for learning in communities of research practice. The student's supervisor arranges the research topic. Students give three oral presentations during the study period. In the presentations, students integrate ideas and analyses on laboratory results into creative and academically coherent work. FrontierLab program coordinators and supervisors attend and evaluate the final oral presentation.

This course considers how nuclear energy is viewed from a science, political, and public standpoint. It investigates how one of the most sought-after solutions to climate change is also the most decried one. Based on recognized institutions reports and experts interviews, the course turns to history and physics to explain this energy (and its track record) to address politically and culturally the root of the various debates surrounding its use, impact, and potential threats; investigate the potential it represents in addressing the greatest challenges of our generation and the next; and overall, to rebalance the debate on nuclear energy by exploring its advantages as well as disadvantages, as far removed as possible from the passion it sometimes inspires.

How can we understand the relationship between gender and environment? And what can feminist thinking contribute to debates on the current ecological crisis and the needed sustainability transition? Drawing on feminist and gender scholarship the course introduces students to key theories and debates including ecofeminism and feminist political ecology. Over the course of the seminar we look at early critiques of the women-environment nexus to more recent debates on care politics or posthumanism. Through diverse empirical examples of topics such as agri-food regimes, climate change, natural resources and environmental activism this course addresses the gender dimensions of environmental issues.

This course provides an introduction to key concepts in global environmental policy and politics and their relation to globalization. It addresses the theoretical concepts surrounding environmental problems and globalization and examines their application to pertinent environmental issues, such as air pollution, natural resource depletion, and climate change.

This course introduces the field of environmental economics, which is concerned with the impact of the economy on the environment, the significance of the environment to the economy, and the appropriate way of regulating economic activity so that a balance is achieved among environmental, economic, and other social goals. It discusses how economic analysis can guide public policy to efficient utilization of these resources in a world of increasing scarcity and competing demands. The course investigates why unregulated markets cause environmental problems, what the socially optimal degree of environmental protection is and how can it be determined, and how the government can regulate the economy to protect the environment more efficiently. It equips the toolkit of an environmental economist and discusses the major environmental problem of our time: global warming. Moreover, the course discusses other environmental issues such as air pollution and biodiversity loss.

This course examines how cities pursue sustainability through governance, planning, and citizen participation. Students explore how environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability intersect within urban policy and daily life, connecting global frameworks—such as the UN 2030 Agenda and the European Green Deal—to local experimentation and community-driven innovation. While Florence provides a unique laboratory for studying how a historic city responds to contemporary challenges (climate adaptation, mobility transformation, housing pressures, and social inclusion) students are encouraged to compare it with other urban contexts across Europe and beyond. This comparative perspective fosters cross-fertilization among diverse models of governance and participation, allowing students to grasp how cities function as complex adaptive systems—dynamic environments where multiple actors, ideas, and scales interact to shape sustainable urban futures. USF combines analytical seminars, field explorations, and participatory exercises. Through simulations, role play games and collaborative projects, students experience the dynamics of real-world decision-making and democratic governance in sustainability planning.

This course provides an introduction to basic European Union (EU) law for non-law students, including the core elements of the EU legal system, EU institutions, decision-making procedures, and sources of law. It covers the concept of sovereignty, the relationship between EU law and national law, as well as the relationship between EU law and international law; necessary for working with the substantive areas of EU law, including the internal market, the free movement of goods, food and agricultural production, and environment and nature protection. Examples are drawn from areas such as environment and nature protection, agriculture, and food production, including ways the EU seeks to promote sustainable development.