The Senior Program

The Senior Program is an integrating, culminating experience that draws on the knowledge and research skills you have developed in the first three years. At its heart is the senior project. The project is a detailed exploration of an environmental topic that culminates in a research paper and oral presentation. The Senior Project should demonstrate competent application of methods and concepts from within the student's selected discipline but may also incorporate methods and concepts of other academic fields reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of environmental issues. Majors plan and pursue this independent project under the close supervision of a faculty member and the program's advisory committee.

Recent environmental studies capstone presentations include:

Opposition to Renewable Energy Projects

• Public Engagement Solutions to Improve Relationships Between Communities and Developers in Solar Energy Siting
• Place-Attachment and Procedural Justice: Examining Local Resistance to Renewable Energy Projects in Rural Upstate New York
• Equity in Solar Siting: A Spatial and Demographic Analysis in New York State
• Perspectives on Renewable Energy Projects in Rural Upstate New York: The Way Forward

Minding Mining: The Multiplicity of Minerals in the Just Energy Transition

• Unjust Transitions: Child Labor in the Cobalt Mining Behind a Carbon-Free World
• Unsteady Ground: How the Exploitation of Land Drives the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Artisanal Mining Industry
• Cobalt, Conflict and Corporations: Connecting Artisanal Mining to Big Tech
• Cultivating Responsible Lithium Mining; Creating a Critical Mineral Trademark for Consumer Awareness and Corporate Accountability

Conceptions of Justice in the Energy Transition

• America Grafton, Queering the Just Energy Transition: Expanding Our Perspective and Approach to the Climate Crisis
• Olivia Otsuka, A Just Energy Transition of the Music Touring Industry: Decarbonization of Practices and Amplification of Environmental Justice and Action
• Katie Rockford, Justice in Corporate Sustainability Reports: Corporate Implementations of The Just Energy Transition
• Lupe Vilaubi, Industrial Energy Farming: Renewables and Rurality in Conflict

The Future Social Implications of the Just Energy Transition

• Shining a Light: Landlords’ Perspectives on Solar Energy
• Carbon Capture and Sequestration in New York State: The Social Implications and Barriers of CO2 Fracking as Part of the Just Energy Transition
• Understanding Electric Vehicle Owners’ Perspectives on Electric Vehicles in Upstate New York
• The Influence of Interdisciplinary Renewable Energy Lessons on Student Understanding, Beliefs, and Action: A look at the Efficacy of In-Classroom Environmental Education

Recent environmental studies thesis research projects include

• Climate Adaptation through Voluntary Buyouts along Sauquoit Creek, New York: Examining Barriers to Implementation and Community Impacts
• A Balancing Act on Shifting Sands: Dynamics and Effectiveness of the Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund’s Public-Private Partnered Geotube Project on Nantucket Island
• Novel In-Situ Sensors Find Supersaturated pCO2 and Landscape-Scale Controls of CO2 Flux in Paired Small Freshwater Bodies
• Outdoor Recreation as a Community Resource in the Adirondack Park Region
• Leave No Trace: Non-Dominant Educator Perspectives and Reframing Human-Environment Interaction 
• Investigating the Determinants of Texas’ Wind Power Prominence 
• Nitrogen Removal by Coupled Nitrification-Denitrification in Novel Intermittent Draining Floating Biofilter
• Distortion as a Means of Understanding: How Tree-Inspired Buildings Bend Perceptions of Nature and Technology
• Imagining Mundane Alternatives: Limitation and Potential Within Scheduling Practices
• Agricultural Awareness: Modeling the Impacts of Conservation and Traditional Agricultural Practices on Carbon Sequestration, Nutrient and Sediment Export in the Mohawk River Watershed