Researchers, policy-makers, and activists increasingly recognize the critical importance of these interlocking dimensions for understanding the social relations underlying many environmental problems, from Love Canal in New York to the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. Examples of emerging scholarship in this field include how gender, class, race, and ethnicity intersect in:

• the environmental politics of international issues such as biotechnology and globalization.

• grassroots environmental justice movements.

• use and management of agricultural and natural resources.

• feminist environmental economics/human-environment relations in history and in literature.

The GJEC program offers graduate students a supportive and rigorous academic environment for exploring these issues, as well as credentials demonstrating specialized training in the field. The specialization is intended to:

• provide graduate students from different disciplinary backgrounds with the analytical and methodological tools to address environmental and/or natural resource issues from gender relations and social justice perspectives.
• provide students with a global perspective on environmental and/or agricultural issues by drawing out local-global linkages.
• foster the growth of research, service, and interdisciplinary collaboration in the fields of gender and environmental studies.
• increase awareness among faculty, students, and the public of the linkages between gender and the environment, both domestically and internationally.

The program is flexible and cross-disciplinary in design, and with faculty and student participation. Students in natural science fields can use the specialization to integrate gender and justice concerns with their regular program. Students in social sciences will be exposed to the background, concepts, and methods of environmental studies necessary to communicate with natural scientists and policy makers.

The Graduate Advisor works with the GJEC Curriculum Committee composed of faculty teaching GJEC courses to support the interdisciplinary academic goals of the specialization. The Graduate Advisor will assist each student in planning a program of study that is related to their interests, capabilities, and professional goals. With the approval of the department and college that administer the student's degree program, the courses that are used to satisfy the requirements for the specialization may also be used to satisfy the requirements for their master's or doctoral degree. Contact the Graduate Advisor for assistance in designing your specialization.

The specialization is flexible and multidisciplinary, designed in consultation with the GJEC graduate advisor. The student must meet the following requirements, totaling 12 credits:

1. Complete the following two core courses, offered in alternate years (6 credits):
• CSUS 858 "Gender, Justice and Environmental Change: Issues and Concepts" (3 credits)
• Cross-listed in: ANP, CJ, FOR, FW, GEO, SOC, and WS
• ANP 859 "Gender, Justice and Environmental Change: Methodology and Application" (3 credits)
• Cross-listed in: FOR, FW, GEO, and SOC
2. Complete one policy course relevant to the specialization (3 credits).
3. Complete one elective course relevant to the specialization (3 credits).

It is recommended that students plan the policy and elective courses in consultation with the GJEC advisor to ensure the courses are available and will provide the student with the necessary training and skills, and contribute to a well-rounded program of study.

Successful completion of the courses that fulfill the GJEC requirements may also apply to the student's degree, depending upon the student's departmental degree requirements.

Students combine the specialization with a variety of MA and PhD programs across the College of Social Science, College of Agriculture, and other units. Past GJEC student research and program graduates have been featured in GenCen's annual publication, Intersections.

GJEC graduates enter into a wide range of careers in higher education, research, public service, government, nonprofits, and more.  Many PhD graduates go on to obtain tenure-track faculty positions. Other recent positions include:

• Senior Advisor for Monitoring and Evaluation (International Nonprofit)
• Senior Policy Analyst (USAID)
• Research Scientist (United States Government)
• Community Engagement Organizer (City Government)
• Deputy Director (Nonprofit)

Natalie J. Bourdon
PhD, Anthropology, 2009
Current position: Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies and Associate Professor of Anthropology, Mercer University
“[The GJEC specialization is] one of the cutting edge programs in the U.S., still. And it's becoming even more imperative with our new environmental and ecological challenges.”

Heather Surface
MA, Forestry, 2015
Current Position: Stewardship & Community Events Specialist for the City of East Lansing
“The GJEC specialization was the best part of my Master’s program. It challenged me to confront my privilege and to think more globally. These qualities have made me more attractive to employers and to myself. I value every second that I spent in the classroom and on the projects that came out of the classroom in this specialization.”

Amy Fitzgerald
PhD, Sociology, 2006
Current Position: Associate Professor at the University of Windsor in the Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology department and the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research
“My final paper in one of my GJEC courses was published, thus bolstering my publication record when I was on the job market. The interdisciplinary nature of the program also taught me how to better communicate across disciplinary boundaries, which has helped me in my research and also in navigating the interdisciplinary position I hold between the social and natural sciences. I also still draw on the substantive knowledge I gained in the program in my teaching and research.”

Dissertation Research Awards

Yun Zou, “Ten Thousand Women Chained the Dragon!” Nature, Gender, Maoism, and the Making of “China,” History

Jessica Saba, “Palestinian Women’s Everyday Resistance to Patriarchy and Settler Colonialism: Tactics, Motivations, and Outcomes,” Social Work

Jada Gannaway, “A Political Biography of Althea Jones-Lecointe,” History

Dissertation Completion Awards

 Lalaki Awudu, “Excluding Migrant Laborers: Social Identity and Natural Resource Struggles in Agricultural Intensification Programs in Ghana,” Sociology

Kelsey Wagner, “Creative Dissent: Gendered and Cultural Dimensions of Eco-Artivism Thailand,” Anthropology

Alaina Bur, “Community-Based Natural Resource Management and Strategies of Environmental Governance in West Pokot County, Kenya,” Sociology

Dissertation Research Awards

Esther Ayers, “Testimonio with Adventure Therapy: A Method to Examine Perception of Mental Health and Healing with Adult Latinx/as in a Transitional Living Program,” Chincao/Latino Studies

Kelsey Wagner, “Creative Conservation: Human-Elephant Relationships and Environmental Art in Thailand,” Anthropology

Ezgi Karaoglu, “Gendered Dimensions of Social Citizenship Experiences and Belonging of High-skilled Migrants in Istanbul, Turkey,” Sociology

Dissertation Completion Awards

Lauren Cooper, “Good for forests, good for people? Gendered impacts of Peru’s Conditional Direct Transfers (TDC) program,” Forestry

Marie Carmen Shingne, “Water In/Security In the United States: Non-Human Agency and Power Relations,” Sociology

Dissertation Research Awards

Sudha Kannan (Community Sustainability)
"Does Increasing Electricity Access Lead to Women’s Empowerment in Zambia?"

Maria Alejandra Garcia (Community Sustainability)
"Women’s agency and the negative side of power in agriculture and rural development: Two case studies in Colombia and Honduras"

Vanessa Rickenbrode (Sociology) 
"Empowering to Whom? Framing, Implementing, and Comparing Measures of Gender Empowerment in Agriculture"

Lauren Cooper (Forestry) 
"Good for forests, good for people? Enabling conditions for scalable success in Peru’s Conditional Direct Transfers (TDC) program"

Dissertation Completion Awards

Eric Kesse (History)
“Living with Water: Environment, Gender, Spirituality, and Slaveryin Nzulezo (West Africa), c. mid-1700s -1870s”

Sandy Burnley (English)
“Critical Entanglements: Animals in Victorian Fiction”

Dissertation Research Awards

Alaina Bur (Sociology)
"Decentralized Water Management in West Pokot County's Up- and Downstream Villages"

Laura Casto-Diaz (Community Sustainability)
"Energy Justice and Intersectionality on Hydropower development in the global South" 

Ablie Jaband (History)
"Environmental History from Below: Rain, Power, Gender along the Gambia River, 1790-1960" 

Angela Manuel Manjichi (Community Sustainability)
Addressing the Gender Gaps in Sustainable Land Management in Central Mozambique: farmers’ behavior and practices and the role of agriculture extension"

Brian Geyer (Anthropology)
"Intersectional Identity and the Development of Kenya's Tech Sector"

Dissertation Completion Awards

Noleen Chikowore (Community Sustainability)
“Waste management, gender and urban livelihoods of informal waste pickers in Harare”

Dissertation Research Awards

Noleen Chikowore (Community Sustainability, ESPP)
“Waste management, gender and urban livelihoods of informal waste pickers in Harare”

Eric Kesse (History)
“Living with Water: Culture, Ecology, and Gender in a West African Stilt-House Community—Nzulezo, c. 1848-2000”

Judith Namanya (Geography)
“Investigating Uganda’s Persistently High HIV Prevalence among Young Women in an Era of Widespread Gains in HIV Prevention and Treatment"

Dissertation Completion Awards

Abubakar Idris (Educational Administration)
“Rural Migrant Muslim Hausa Girls, Community Faith Based Schools, and Environmental Change in Sokoto, Northwest Nigeria”

Jessica Ott (Anthropology)
“Rights and respectability: a genealogy of women’s rights in Zanzibar”

Qiong Zhang (Geography, ESPP)
“The Impact of Haze on Maternal and Infant Health in Xianyang City, China”

Dissertation Research Awards

Cynthia Balthazar (Community Sustainability)
"Fair Trade, Gender and Sustainability in Rural Haiti: Finding meanings for 'success' in sustainability through a gendered lens"

Timothy Silberg (Community Sustainability)
"Modeling Parasitic Weed Emergence: The Case of Striga in Malawi"

Dissertation Completion Awards

Jelili Adegboyega Adebiyi (Community Sustainability, ESPP)
“Gender, Adoption and the Livelihoods Impacts of Certified Organic Leafy Vegetable Production on Smallholder Farmers in Ibadan, Southwest, Nigeria”

Matlhogonolo Kelepile (Geography)
"HIV Treatment Seeking Behaviors in Botswana: Antiretroviral (ARV) and Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT)"

Udita Sanga (Community Sustainability)
"A Resilience-based Approach to Modelling Food Security and Climate Change Adaptation among Rural Farmers in Southern Mali"

Dissertation Research Awards

Adebiyi Jelili Adegboyega (Community Sustainability)
“Adoption and the Livelihood Impacts of Certified Organic Leafy Vegetable Production on Smallholder Farmers in Ibadan, Southwest, Nigeria”

James Blackwell (History)
“Igbo Migration, Entrepreneurship and the Creation of the ‘Igbo Scare’ in British Southern Cameroon 1916-1970”

Shakara Tyler (Community Sustainability)
“The Pedagogy of Black Agrarianism”

Dissertation Completion Awards

Rachel Elbin (Anthropology)
“Negotiating the Moral Frontiers of Natural Gas Extraction in Mtwara, Tanzania”

Seven Mattes (Anthropology)
“Animals Left Behind: A Multispecies Ethnography in Post-3-11 Japan”

Sabrina Perlman (Anthropology)
“Gender, Poverty, and Diabetes Self-Management in Ghana”

Dissertation Research Awards

Michelle Larkins (Community Sustainability)
“The Ties That Bind: The Intersection of Gender and Place in Community Environmental Justice Action”

Meenakshi Narayan (Anthropology)
“Understanding Gender in Forest Rights: Comparing Local and National Discourses in India”

Dissertation Completion Awards

Yenupini “Joyce” Adams (Nursing)
“Use of Postpartum Care Services in Rural Central Malawi”

Fatoumata Barry (Geography)
“‘Flooding Oil’: Investigating Poor Health in Vulnerable Communities in the Niger Delta”

Kimberly Ross (AAAS)
“Traditional Terrain: Land, Gender, and Cultural Biodiversity Preservation in Venda, South Africa”

Dissertation Research Awards

Yenupini “Joyce” Adams (Nursing)
“Use of Postpartum Care Services in Rural Central Malawi”

Fatoumata Barry (Geography)
“‘Flooding Oil’: Investigating Poor Health in Vulnerable Communities in the Niger Delta”

Kimberly Ross (AAAS)
“Chief Concerns: Land, Gender, and Neo-Traditionalists in Venda, South Africa”

Dissertation Completion Awards

Ellis Adams (Geography)
“Decentralization, Institutions, and Access to Potable Water in Malawi’s Peri-Urban Settlements”

Julia Novak Colwell (Fisheries & Wildlife)
“Gender & Livelihoods: Differential effects of a closed fishing season”

Dissertation Research Awards

Cadi Fung (Geography)
“Territorialization of Protected Areas and Human-Wildlife Conflict in the Brazilian Amazon: the Case of the Amazon River Dolphin”

Jennifer Kelly (Sociology)
“Considering the Lives of Men, Women, Jaguars and Pumas in the Nation of Nature: Measuring the Capacity of Costa Ricans to Co-Exist with Large Predators in the Mesoamerican Corridor”

Ayala Wineman (AFRE)
“Land Markets and Land Distribution in Tanzania: A Gendered Analysis”

Dissertation Completion Awards

David Baylis (Geography)
“‘Turkish Children Should Live!’ Science, Gender, Governmentality and the State”

Meskerem Glegziabher (Anthropology)
“India Rising? Understanding Development, Gender, and Urban Poverty Alleviation in Delhi’s Jhuggis”

Laura Johnson (Geography)
“Farm tours, civic agriculture and geographies of care: Exploring the potential of new spaces of (re)connection in North Carolina's High Country”