1. Include in the justification of your concentration its relevance to environmental studies. What major issues or frameworks will it address?
2. Find an appropriate level of specificity for your concentration:
   • Acknowledge the range of complexity or variation in the phenomena you are studying; words like “society,” “environment,” “culture,” “economy,” etc. are too general.
   • Comparative approaches across space or time are often useful for illustrating the range of variation or similarity in your phenomena of interest.
   • Make sure to demonstrate awareness of general principles that may arise from, be tested in, or act in the more specific contexts noted in your concentration.
3. Your focus questions will in virtually all cases benefit from the taxonomy of questions (descriptive, explanatory, evaluative, instrumental) we use in ENVS; see here for a reminder.
4. Bear in mind that your concentration will eventually result in a situated research project; it may be helpful at this point to imagine potential thesis topics building upon this concentration. 

Understanding the Concentration Worksheet 

Proposed Concentration

1. A few details are asked on your status here at LC.
2. Summarize (in a phrase) the general theme of your concentration.
3. List up to four related questions that define what you are seeking to understand via this concentration.
4. Offer justifications for the significance of these questions. Remember that your justification may be theoretical (i.e., adding to what is known), practical (i.e., connecting with a real-world dilemma), or both.

Concentration Courses

What courses do you propose to take to address the questions identified above? Here, you’ll propose courses to apply toward your concentration.

1. List the department and course number, the official title, and the semester/year you plan to take each course.
2. Offer a justification for each course’s relevance to the questions you’ve proposed. Be sure to talk with the course instructors first! Also, while choosing bear in mind the rules your courses must adhere to:

Arts & Humanities Breadth Course

In addition to proposing a concentration, you will propose one four-credit course as your A&H breadth elective (and optionally include one other in case your plans change). Make sure that your course is in the arts or humanities! 

1. List the department and course number, the official title, and the semester/year you plan to take it.
2. Describe how the course relates to the ENVS major and/or your proposed concentration.

 Advisor Consultation

As noted above, consultation with your advisor is required before submitting this form; we will verify prior to approval. Additionally, we wish to share information on approved concentrations to assist other ENVS majors, and request your optional agreement to do so. Information on approved concentrations will only be available on this page to current and prospective ENVS majors.

1. List your advisor’s name.
2. List the date you most recently consulted with your advisor on your concentration proposal.
3. Indicate whether you wish to share your information once approved - your proposal will be available in the concentration database for other ENVS students to see.
4. List the date you completed this form.

Feel free to browse approved concentration proposals and/or contact ENVS if questions. After you submit the form, you can always edit by clicking the Edit button at bottom of the detailed view.