A rigorous semester-length academic and practical experience leading to an understanding of the oceans. The Sea Semester is composed of two intensive six-week components taken off-campus. The Shore Component is six weeks at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, with formal study in: Oceanography, Maritime Studies, and Nautical Science. This is followed by six weeks aboard a sailing research vessel, during which students conduct oceanographic research projects as part of the courses, Practical Oceanography I and II.


Maritime Studies. A multidisciplinary study of the history, literature, and art of our maritime heritage, and the political and economic problems of contemporary maritime affairs.


Nautical Science. The technologies of operation at sea. Concepts of navigation, naval architecture, ship construction, marine engineering systems, and ship management are taught from their bases in physics, mathematics, and astronomy.


Practical Oceanography I. Taken aboard SSV Westward or SSV Corwith Cramer. Theories and problems raised in the shore component are tested in the practice of oceanography at sea. Students are introduced to the tools and techniques of the practicing oceanographer. During two lectures daily and while standing watch, students learn the operation of basic oceanographic equipment, the methodologies involved in the collection, reduction, and analysis of oceanographic data, and the attendant operations of a sailing oceanographic research vessel. Practical Oceanography II. Taken aboard SSV Westward or SSV Corwith Cramer. Students assume increasing responsibility for conducting oceanographic research and the attendant operations of the vessel. The individual student is responsible directly to the chief scientist and the master of the vessel for the safe and orderly conduct of research activities and related operation of the vessel. Each student completes an individual oceanographic research project designed during the shore component.

The United States has been described as "nature's nation. The presence of enormous, resource-rich and sparsely settled continent has been a component of American identity, prosperity and pride--it has even been described as the source of the democratic political system. From the beginning, Americans transformed their natural environment, even as, over time, they grew to value environmental preservation and protection. This course traces the interaction of Americans and the natural world in, studying how Americans changes the natural environment over time, in order to understand why environmental change occurred and occurred in the manner it did. What have Americans believed about the nature of the nation's nature, and what attidues and policies have followed from these ideas? After surveying American environmental history from the 17th to the 20th century, we will examine specific topics and problems in the long relationship between Americans and their environment. (Possible topics: national parks and wilderness preservation, environmental politics, chemical pollution, invasive species). This seminar fulfills the research requirement for the History major because students will complete a 20-page paperof original research.

This seminar explores how the humanities can contribute to discussions of sustainability. We begin by investigating the contested term itself, paying close attention to critics and activists who deplore the very idea that we should try to sustain our, in their eyes, dystopian present, one marked by environmental catastrophe as well as by an assault on the educational ideals long embodied in the humanities. We then turn to classic humanist texts on utopia, beginning with More's fictive island of 1517. The 'origins of environmentalism" lie in such depictions of island edens (Richard Grove), and pour course proceeds to analyze classic utopian tests from American, English, and German literatures. Readings extend to utopian visions from Europe and America of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as literary and visual texts that deal with contemporary nuclear and flood catastrophes. Authors include: Bill McKibben, Jill Kerr Conway, Christopher Newfield, Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Karl Marx, Henry David Thoreau, Robert Owens, William Morris, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ayn Rand, Christa Wolf, and others.

This course will expose students to the principles that underlie our understanding of how the Earth works. The goal of Earth Systems Science is to obtain a scientific understanding of the entire Earth system by describing its component parts (lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere) and their interactions, and describe how they have evolved, how they function, and how they may be expected to respond to human activity. The challenge to Earth Systems Science is to develop the capability to predict those changes that will occur in the next decade to century, both naturally and in response to human activity. Energy, both natural and human-generated, will be used as a unifying principle. Knowledge gained through this course will help students make informed decisions in all spheres of human activity: science, policy, economics, etc.