The environmental studies capstone course (Envir St 600) is a required component for students completing our major. Priority is given to students declared in the environmental studies major.
Spring 2026 Capstone Courses
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Envir St 600 Section 001: Urban Food Systems and the Environment
Professor Monica White
2:55–4:55 p.m. Tuesday
This course will examine the relationship between food systems and the environment and allow students to identify a project of interest that they will develop from a research question to data collection and analysis. We will pay particular attention to the social, political and environmental impacts of local food organizations.
In an effort to examine community responses to food insecurity, students will explore the food landscape from production (i.e., agriculture) to distribution and participate in community service activities, like work at a community gardening project. Students will work with local organizations active in the urban agriculture in Madison and the state.
Envir St 600 Section 002: Global Resource Geopolitics
Professor Julie Klinger
9:30–10:45 a.m. Tuesday/Thursday
This capstone course enables students to explore in-depth the relationship between conflict and natural resources; the effects of this relationship on development, peace, and security; to put their education to work by developing solutions to these complex problems; and to practice public engagement by preparing those solutions for dissemination to multiple audiences.
Envir St 600 Section 003: Food Autonomy and Agroecology
Hannah Kass
1:20-3:15 p.m. Wednesday
Our current agri-food system is not a sustainable or democratic one. Instead, it relies on incessant extraction, exploitation, and power asymmetries. As ordinary people, it can feel overwhelming and impossible to imagine making meaningful change toward an alternative system of feeding ourselves and one another. “Food autonomy” is an approach to directly organizing agri-food systems from the grassroots by empowering ourselves as ordinary people who can make change by building our skills and agency in the here and now.
In this course, students will learn from the Madison chapter of the Neighborhood Planting Project (NPP) to develop a range of grassroots, community-based responses to climate change and food insecurity through food autonomy and agroecology. The NPP is a local food autonomy organization which currently acquires tree saplings from the Department of Natural Resources and friends who propagate saplings to distribute free fruit and nut trees to Madison neighbors at our annual spring “tree distro.”
We also work in collaboration with the Madison Parks Board, Madison Permaculture Guild, and others invested in community gardening, and hope to scale up our projects and collaborations. This course will invest students in that process of community engagement and project organizing through their Capstone projects.
Students will learn from social theories, case studies and skill development workshops in agroecology and food autonomy movements/organizing. The semester will culminate in students applying this knowledge toward organizing their own food autonomy and agroecology Capstone projects as part of the NPP.
Note: Students should be prepared to meet at the Eagle Heights Community Garden several times throughout the course and potentially attend off-campus field trips, both for workshops and for potential capstone projects. Some field trips will be announced throughout the course as they become available/possible avenues for capstone projects.
Envir St 600 Section 004: Building Resilience to Climate Hazards
Becky Rose
1–2:15 p.m. Tuesday/Thursday
Wisconsin is increasingly facing high temperatures, extreme flooding, wildfire smoke, and other dangerous weather events. Here, we aim to understand climate hazards from multiple perspectives: how and why these conditions occur when and where they do; effects on people, infrastructure, and society; and different approaches to addressing them.
Particular attention will be paid to interrogating mainstream understandings of what it means to be vulnerable or resilient, critical responses and alternatives to these, and the current landscape of climate adaptation and action.
Over the course of the semester, students work with community partners in public health and emergency management to develop their capstone projects. Together, we will build capacity for preparing for and responding to climate hazards, and we will work to understand and address the needs of Wisconsin’s most vulnerable residents.