8 Ways to Study Sustainability at NYU

Part of the Asian/Pacific/American (APA) Studies program, this course studies economies, governance, and production. You’ll examine sustainability, Indigenous resurgence, and food sovereignty movements. And along the way, you’ll uncover alternatives to industries founded on resource extraction, the military–industrial complex, industrial agriculture, and genetically modified crops.

At the College of Arts and Science, you can major or minor in APA Studies. Additionally, NYU is home to the A/P/A Institute. There, you’ll find engaging programs, compelling exhibitions, and innovative research opportunities.

This popular NYU Shanghai chemistry course is a favorite among science and nonscience majors alike. In the first half of the course, you’ll investigate atmospheric composition and the chemical processes that cause air pollution, ozone depletion, and global warming. Then, you’ll explore the properties of water and the effects of various aqueous pollutants. In addition to lectures, the course includes weekly laboratory experiments for practical investigation.

At NYU Shanghai, you can major or minor in Chemistry. What’s more, the Center for Computational Chemistry offers further opportunities to conduct research and find a mentor.

What are the relationships between communication, culture, and the environment? How does the way we communicate impact our perception of and relationship to the natural world? This course investigates these questions and more. Consumerism, environmental activism, popular culture representations of the environment, and wildlife tourism are additional course topics.

Media and the Environment is offered within the Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC) program at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. There, you can also find the MCC MediaLab, an experimental, student-led learning space for digital media.

These two courses explore how activists, artists, and scientists think about the hotly debated idea of the Anthropocene. This unofficial era describes the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity began to noticeably impact the climate. In both courses, you’ll engage with visual, literary, and ethnographic works to challenge your perception of critical resources, the foregrounding of humans, and possible future alternatives.

Both Art of the Anthropocene and Anthropocene Narratives offer the chance to get involved with the new Gallatin WetLab. A gallery and laboratory, the Gallatin WetLab fosters experimental art-science teaching and learning collaborations.

In this Stern School of Business course, you’ll explore the causes and consequences of economic inequality. What’s more, the course assignments will empower you to effect positive change. The format includes a seminar and two major projects. First, you’ll consider the many factors shaping inequality in your hometown. Then, you’ll collaborate with other students to identify areas within the community, government, and market sectors that can be leveraged to create a more just and sustainable society.

Stern students all complete the Social Impact Core, but you can deepen your sustainability studies with a concentration in sustainable business. In addition, you’ll benefit from access to programming and research opportunities through the Center for Sustainable Business.

Readers and writers will thrive in this expansive sustainability course, which draws upon essays, films, movement, poetry, performances, visual art, and more to reflect on and expand society’s relationship to water. Taking into account how water is beautiful, dangerous, endangered, essential, mysterious, nourishing, and politicized, you’ll consider its relation to the constructs of time, land, liberation, libation, and ownership.

Art and Public Policy is a minor-only program (and graduate program) at the Tisch School of the Arts. It’s designed to provide young artists and scholars with opportunities to incubate their ideas and put them into action.