Society and Ecosystems - Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate
University of Missouri
Description
The Society and Ecosystems Program (SEP) is a unique interdisciplinary program that prepares students for careers with private and public organizations through advanced graduate level training and research. The certificate program is designed for students with undergraduate-graduate training in agriculture, biology, business administration, economics, engineering, fisheries and wildlife, forestry, geography, geology, rural sociology and related disciplines. Students who are in a graduate or professional program in their area of specialization take two integrated courses and complete a thesis or dissertation that applies more than one discipline. The program is designed to enhance the student's familiarity with disciplinary and interdisciplinary concepts and principles from the social and natural sciences and humanities.
The primary objective of this course is to develop a student's appreciation of a) major issues in the society-ecosystems nexus, b) roles of various disciplines in understanding and resolving socioeconomic-ecological issues, and c) systems analysis. Emphasis is placed on the impacts of economic activity, population growth, technology and public policy on the functioning and resilience of ecological systems, and how ecological systems support socioeconomic development at the local, regional and global scales.