Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice students learn why environmental harms and benefits are inequitably distributed, and how communities are organizing to regenerate the health of our ecosystems as much as the integrity of our social fabric, for the two are intimately connected.

Investigating both cutting-edge and time-tested approaches to systems change, this program equips learners with tools to appreciate the histories that birthed this moment, and skills to create a liberatory future.

The program explores structural inequalities in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and beyond, examining patterns of privilege, power, and oppression. Coursework is interdisciplinary; our approach to scholarship, field work, and community organizing reflect the breadth and diversity of the global environmental justice movement as students interface with dozens of change-makers.

These environmental justice experts include artists, scientists, policy-makers, farmers, activists, educators, architects, energy specialists, politicians, and medical professionals, all working toward food, water, and/or climate justice.

The program is multi-place-based, occurring in sites of historical significance, contemporary contestation, “sacrifice zones,” food production, and regenerated ecologies across the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. In this way, students learn stories of the land by the land.

Because HECUA approaches each student as an agent of change, we make measurable contributions to the environmental justice movement all semester long, both through individually-designed internships that leverage student skillsets and career goals, and through class-wide engagement projects.

Past internship sites include MN350, Growing North, Representative Frank Hornstein’s office, and Lily Springs Farm. Students leave prepared for leadership at the intersection of environmental and climate justice.