The Environmental Social Sciences department will discover the causes of sustainability challenges, innovate new solutions to these challenges, and educate future scholars and leaders in how the social sciences can be used to understand and solve sustainability challenges. The department includes two areas: Environmental Behavioral Sciences and Global Environmental Policy.
Environmental Behavioral Sciences
Understand how the behaviors and choices made by individuals and organizations affect the world’s ability to achieve sustainability goals.
Global Environmental Policy
Study the economic and political roots of sustainability challenges, and help to design and evaluate policies and practices that address sustainability challenges.
Degree Programs
Undergraduate
The Environmental Social Sciences department does not have an undergraduate degree, however many of its faculty teach in the interdisciplinary Earth Systems Program, which offers a BS and co-terminal MS degree.
News
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Scholars discussed the complexities of climate action by individuals, institutions, and companies during a conference organized by the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
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Building on past analyses of how political movements and climate change are represented in popular U.S. history textbooks, Stanford scholars find that the rare mentions of Asians and Asian Americans largely use language related to war.
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The Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University is pleased to announce the appointment of Zephyr Frank as its new director. A professor of history and environmental social sciences at Stanford, Frank will transition into his role at the Lane Center on September 1, 2025.
