Example Syllabi for Undergraduate and Graduate-level courses
General Climate Change Course Materials (Syllabi and Teaching Publications)
Bartley, Tim. 2024. Climate & Society Syllabus. [pdf]
Carrillo, Ian. 2024. Sociology of Climate Change Syllabus. [pdf]
Feng, Jeff. 2024. Queer feminist climate justice. [pdf]
Ford, Allison. Sociology of Climate Change Syllabus. [pdf]
Ford, Allison. Climate Ethnography Assignment. [pdf]
Foran, John, Summer Gray, Corrie Grosse, and Theo LeQuesne. “This Will Change Everything: Teaching the Climate Crisis”. 2018. Transformations. 28(2): 126-147
Hao, Feng. 2023. Environmental Sociology Syllabus. [pdf]
Hooks, Gregory. 2022. Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change Syllabus. [pdf]
Perkov, Ivan. (Non)sustainability of sustainability. [pdf]
Schneider-Mayerson. 2021. “To Teach Students about Climate Change, ‘Just the Facts’ Isn’t Enough.” Scientific American.
Course-specific Resources
Social Problems
Introduction to Sociology
Sociology of Religion
Sociology of Media
Political Sociology / Social Movements
Sociology of Health and Illness / Medical Sociology
Sociology of Emotions
Social Stratification / Environmental Justice
Social Psychology
Active Learning Activities and Toolkits
Existential toolkit for climate justice educators
The En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator. En-ROADS is an online simulator that provides policymakers, educators, businesses, the media, and the public with the ability to test and explore cross-sector climate solutions.
Visual Materials And Teaching Resources Assembled By Other Organizations
UCSD’s Bending the Curve curriculum, a trans-disciplinary curriculum and multimedia content library created and managed by the Bending the Curve Project, which is a team of researchers, educators, and designers at the University of California. All material focuses on climate change solutions to bend the warming curve and to accelerate resilience and climate justice for our planet’s most vulnerable people. Its highly modular structure means that the material can be adapted to meet the needs of a wide range of audiences in academic and continuing education contexts.
The Climate Solutions Lab Climate Syllabus Bank, from the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Interdisciplinary bank of syllabi addressing climate change in a number of disciplines.
Szasz, Andrew and Jeff Kiehl. A Climate Change Module for Social Problems Classes. A complete module for teaching climate change as a social problem. Includes lesson plans, videos, customizable power points, discussion prompts and advice on troubleshooting challenges.
UC-CSU NXTerra – “A resource for college teachers from across all disciplines and anyone seeking to enhance their teaching and learning about the climate crisis, critical sustainability, and climate justice studies, both inside and outside the classroom.”
Cooke, Sandra L., Alicia Claire Lloyd, Adelle Dora Monteblanco, and Silvia Secchi. 2015. Moving to Higher Ground: Ecosystems, Economics and Equity in the Floodplain. A role-play case study from National Science Teaching Association on social response to natural hazards focused on floodplain management. Case includes teaching notes, activity guide, and powerpoint overview.
Yale Climate Opinion Maps, using data from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason Center for Climate Change Communication
xkcd webcomic. A Timeline of Earth’s Average Temperatures since the last ice age glaciation
Richie, Hannah. 2019. Who has contributed most to global CO2 emissions? Our World in Data.
Richie, Hannah and Max Moser. 2020 [2017]. CO₂ and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data. Our World in Data.
The Thing From the Future, by The Imagination Lab. Imaginative game about the future that can be tailored to incorporate climate scenarios.
Highwater Line: Visualizing Climate Change
US Global Change Research Program Resources for Educators on Climate Change, including lesson plans of climate change and human health, climate and energy literacy frameworks, and climate change education videos from the US National Park Service.
Social Problems
Courses in Social Problems might consider questions such as: How has climate change been created as a social problem by different interest groups? How does climate change reflect larger questions of how social problems rise and fall in urgency in our society? What examples can be found of social problems indirectly linked to climate change? Does climate change interact with other social problems in particular ways? See the general resources page and also peruse specific ideas for other courses.
Introduction to Sociology
Introductory courses in sociology might consider questions such as: How does social inequality influence different social groups’ vulnerability to climate change? See also other questions and readings listed under media, religion, and stratification below.
Internet Resources:
- Szasz, Andrew, Jeffrey Kiehl, and Michael Loik. “A Climate Change Module for Introduction to Sociology Classes.”
Sociology of Religion
What role do environmental problems play in re-shaping religious communities today? How has the consideration of environmental problems as moral issues changed over time? How has climate change in particular split the evangelical community? What is the significance of a religious dimension of the environmental movement? How might this intersect (or not) with secular aspects of the movement?
Internet Resources:
- Watch the Bill Moyers On America episode, “Is God Green?”
Readings on Religion and the Environment (not specific to climate change):
- Gottlieb, R.S. “A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet’s Future”. Oxford University Press. 2006.
- Hendricks, S. “Divine Destruction: Wise Use, Dominion Theology and the Making of American Environmental Policy”. Melville House. 2005.
- McGraw, B. “Rediscovering America’s Sacred Ground: Public Religion and the Pursuit of the Good in a Pluralistic America”. SUNY Press. 2003.
- Tucker, M.E. “Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase”. Open Court. 2003.
Sociology of Media
Courses on Sociology of the Media might address the host of interesting studies on media framing of climate change.
Internet Resources:
- Dana Fisher talks about the youth movement demanding climate action with NewsHour. PBS. 2019. (link)
- Robert Henson discusses global climate change. CCTV. 2016. (link)
- Episode of On the Media with interview of Ross Gelbspan. 2004. (link)
- Journalist Ross Gelbspan’s website with updated news stories on climate change from around the world. (link)
- Competitive Enterprise Institute commercial. (link)
- Environmental Defense global warming commercial. (link)
Readings:
- Antilla, L. “Climate of skepticism: US newspaper coverage of the science of climate change”. Global Environmental Change. 2005. (link)
- Boykoff, M. and Boykoff, J. “Balance as Bias: Global Warming and the US Prestige Press”. Global Environmental Change. 2004. (PDF)
- Dispensa, J. and Brulle, R.J. “Media’s Social Construction of Environmental Issues: Focus on Global Warming”. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. 2003. (PDF)
- Gelbspan, R. “Boiling Point”. Basic Books. 2004. (link)
Political Sociology / Social Movements
How does social change happen? What are the most effective methods used to support change according to social science research?
Readings:
- Hertzgaard, M. “While Washington Slept”. Vanity Fair. 2006. (link)
- Fortier, Craig. “Decolonizing the Commons in Unsettling Times” in Unsettling the Commons: Social Movements Within, Against, and Beyond Settler Colonialism. 2017. (link)
- Lorenzen, Janet et al. “‘Turning Out the Grassroots’: Refining Public Feedback in Environmental Policy Making.” Humanity & Society 40(4):379-400. 2016. (link)
- Steinman, Erich.“Why was Standing Rock and the #NoDAPL Campaign so Historic? Factors Affecting American Indian Participation in Social Movement Collaborations and Coalitions.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 42(7):1070-1090. 2018. (link)
- LeQuesne, Theo. “Petro-hegemony and the Matrix of Resistance: What Can Standing Rock’s Water Protectors Teach us about Organizing for Climate Justice in the United States?” Environmental Sociology 5(2):188-206. 2018. (link)
- McCright, A.M. and Dunlap, R.E. “Defeating Kyoto: The Conservative Movement’s Impact on U.S. Climate Change Policy”. Social Problems. 2003. (PDF)
- Buell, F. “From Apocalypse to Way of Life: Environmental Crisis in the American Century”. Routledege. 2004.
- Brulle, R. and Jenkins, J.C. “Fixing the Bungled U.S. Environmental Movement”. Contexts. 2008. (link)
- Bluhdorn, I. “Symbolic Politics and the Politics of Simulation: Eco-political Practice in the Late-Modern Condition”. Environmental Politics. 2007. (PDF)
Internet Resources:
- Jim Mulherin contributed video. (13 min.). “Introduction & 3D Social Network Analysis of Organized Climate Denial Network,” (3+ min.); “Refection on Current Context,” (4 min.); and “Appendices on SNA visualization”. Includes a short clip of Riley Dunlap’s talk at PSU and a brief introduction to 100% renewable electrical energy simulation. (link)
- Supplemental materials for “Introduction & 3D Social Network Analysis of Organized Climate Denial Network”. (link)
- Greenpeace site tracing funding flows from Exxon-Mobil’s anti-global warming campaign. (link)
- BBC series on climate skeptics. (link)
Sociology of Health and Illness / Medical Sociology
Readings:
- Epstein, P.R. “Climate Change and Human Health”. New England Journal of Medicine. 2005. (link)
Sociology of Emotions
Readings:
- Norgaard, K.M. ” ‘People Want to Protect Themselves a Little Bit’: Emotions, Denial and Social Movement Nonparticipation.” Sociological Inquiry 2006. (PDF)
Social Stratification and Environmental Justice
Courses in Social Stratification and Environmental Justice might consider how people’s experience of climate change are organized by race, class and gender. The racialized dimension of exposure to “natural disasters” such as hurricanes obviously hit the public consciousness after Hurricane Katrina. On the opposite end of the inequality spectrum, privileged people may encounter emotions of guilt regarding their perpetuation of the problem.
Internet Resources:
Social Psychology
Social Psychology courses might discuss how people perceive climate change, including how they fail to process information about this topic:
Readings:
- Bazerman, M. “Climate Change as a Predictable Surprise”. Climate Change. 2006. (PDF)
- Norgaard, K.M. ” ‘People Want to Protect Themselves a Little Bit’: Emotions, Denial and Social Movement Nonparticipation.” Sociological Inquiry 2006. (PDF)
- Ungar, S. “Why Climate Change Is Not in the Air: Popular Culture and the Whirlwind Effect”. Proceedings of the Conference on Climate Change Communication, June 22-24, 2000. (PDF)
- Weber, E. “Experience-Based and Description-Based Perceptions of Long Term Risk: Why Global Warming Does Not Scare Us (Yet)”. Climactic Change. 2006. (PDF)