HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
Goals:

1. Prepare a competitive research proposal that can be submitted to an
agency or foundation that supports research on the human dimensions
of global change.

2. Understand  how social scientists and environmental scientists
reconcile their traditional methods of site-specific research with
the demands placed upon them by a global change agenda. The course
reviews the methodologies used by environmental social scientists
and biological ecologists in light of the questions posed by global
environmental change: global warming, deforestation, and
land-use/land cover change will receive particular attention during
the course, but student projects will explore other topics as well.

3. Cover major statements by expert panels on global environmental
change, and critique this agenda and explore how to link questions
of local and regional interest within this agenda. The challenge
posed by a global change agenda resides in the demands it places on
how to locate local and regional studies so that they can inform
questions of global change. Issues of sampling, criteria for site
selection, and how to ensure comparability of data across highly
diverse sites (in terms of history, culture, social organization,
language, ecologies, etc.) are of particular interest.

Required books:
Friedland, A.J. and C. Folt, Writing Successful Science Proposals.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000
Liverman, D. et al. 1998. People and Pixels: Applications of Remote
Sensing in the Social Sciences. Washington DC: National Academy Press.

Assignments:

This course requires one seminar oral presentation, one "intent to
submit proposal" (a 2-3 pp. pre-proposal), three drafts of the
preliminary proposal (for feedback from the instructor) and one
completed research proposal. The in-class seminar is 20% of the final
grade, the intent to submit proposal is 10%, each preliminary draft of
the proposal is 10%,  and the final proposal is 30 percent of the
final grade.Each student will  prepare a research proposal
conceptualized to address global environmental change issues. This
will provide practice for proposals to be submitted to funding
agencies. The proposal will follow all criteria outlined by an agency
specified in the proposal. Among the major ones currently funding
global environmental change are NSF, NIH, NOAA, NASA, and NIGEC/DOE.
These forms and guidelines will be provided in class and discussed
early on in the semester.