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A variety of environmental specters threaten Earth’s populations. Greenhouse-gas emissions are changing earth systems, global ecology, species distributions, disease patterns, and land-use. Ocean fisheries and forests in many parts of the world, including Maine, are in precipitous decline. Loss of agricultural land in combination with ineffective governance and population increases may result in widespread famines in the near future. There are also growing problems associated with nutrient pollution, loss of wildlife and biodiversity, soil erosion, the depletion of non-renewable resources, and environmental degradation. These problems affect people, but people also cause them. Many, moreover, are global in origin but local in their effects. Demands on forests and fisheries are international, for example, but the environmental consequences are felt locally in over-cut woodlands and wiped-out fisheries. Climate is affected by human activity at a global level, but climate changes will have very different effects in different regions of the globe. Since Maine is a natural resource state, the global origins of these threats are particularly relevant to the people of Maine, their culture, and their society.Anthropology faculty hold joint appoints or cooperating status with a number of units across the University of Maine campus. These include the Climate Change Institute, the School of Marine Sciences, the School of Economics, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, Native American Programs, the Maine Folklife Center, and the Hudson Museum. As members of this program, graduate students are able to take advantage of these interdisciplinary connections. Graduate Teaching Assistantships and Work Study positions are available on a competitive basis for qualified students.Graduates of this program are able to understand the intricacies and implications of human-environment interactions at multiple scales in ways that may inform policy decisions at local, national, and international levels. Students gain valuable research experience grounded in ethnographic methods and analysis under the guidance of their faculty mentor and dissertation committee. Graduates of this program generally seek positions in academia, as well as public and private sectors, including state, national, and international institutions that deal with policy decisions related to the human dimensions of environmental change, environmental management, and resource conservation.
