For decades, low income and BIPOC communities have challenged scientists and public health professionals to confront polluters and prevent environmental exposures that affect people’s health where they live, work and play. And yet, exposure and health inequities affecting low-income and BIPOC communities of color have increased over time. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental Justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” This course will engage students in examining the data that determines environmental justice populations, and analysis of watershed moments in the environmental justice movement beginning with the establishment of the US EPA in 1970. We will critically environmental policies and legal decisions in the context of the civil rights movement, and seminal studies of hazardous waste landfills and the racial and economic status of the surrounding communities. Finally, we will prepare students to evaluate environmental justice concerns using publicly available data on population characteristics and exposures used by agencies at the federal, state and local level.

Note that this information may change at any time. Please visit the MyBU Student Portal for the most up-to-date course information.