Spring 2026 Graduate Courses
The following graduate courses in food and agriculture will be offered in Spring 2026. Undergraduate courses in in Food Consumption, Food Environment, and Food Production during the same semester that enroll graduate students may also be of interest.
| Course Code | Course Instructor(s) | Course Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARCH 8109 | Warren Fuermann | Introduction to British Landscape and Architectural History: 1500 to 1900 | This seminar examines chronologically the history of landscape architecture and country-house architecture in Britain from 1500 to 1900. Topics of discussion include the history of the castle in British architecture and landscape architecture; Italian and French influences on the seventeenth-century British garden; military landscaping; the Palladian country house and British agricultural landscape; Capability Brown’s landscape parks; theories of the picturesque and of the landscape sublime; Romanticism and the psychology of nature; the creation of the public park system; arts and crafts landscape design; and the beginnings of landscape modernism. Comparisons of historical material with contemporary landscape design, where appropriate, are made throughout the term. The collection of the Yale Center for British Art is used for primary visual material, and a trip to England over spring break, partially funded by the School, allows students to visit firsthand the landscape parks studied in this seminar. Limited enrollment. |
| ARCH 6115 | Mae-Ling Lokko | Soil Sisters | Across global landfill sites, the inability of increasing quantities of material surplus from various sectors to "return to the soil" has brought into sharp focus the biological incompatibility between today’s overground and underground material systems. Meanwhile, global crop residues (agricultural by-products left in the field) are estimated at over 5.5 billion tons per year of potentially valuable biomaterial inputs that could support circular material economies for upcycled products, from textiles to packaging, furniture and building materials. More critically, the rapid loss and degradation of "living soil" cultivated by biological communities at the interface of both systems, represents a growing threat to the fundamental mechanism underpinning the circular renewal of sustainable food resources for the planet. "Soil Sisters" aims to investigate a new paradigm for connecting agricultural waste to large-scale regional material supply chains, in which improving soil nutrition and soil resiliency underpins the design goal of providing cross-sectoral environmental performance through the provision of new biomaterial systems. Focusing on the agricultural, food, and textile material life cycle, the spring 2026 Soil Sisters research seminar will continue to explore and expand a catalog of biobased, non-toxic building materials and biobased dyes. Beginning and ending with agricultural practices, diverse soil health conservation practices have been the central tenet of long-term ecological resilience. For example in Guatemala, as well as across Native American cultures, "three sister" cropping practices have been studied widely as an effective method of enhancing nutrient fixation and maintaining nutrient balances in soil. Not only do such soil conservation practices offer strategies for crop resilience in the face of climate change phenomena, but they also propose material resource programming logics from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. Conversely, cyclical practices of layered mulching observed in traditional proka agriculture across Ghana offer important insights for spatializing and timing the degradation of materials at the end of their life cycles and accelerating plant regeneration. Students explore the nurturing and expanding of such multicrop value chains resulting in a class of "soil sister" products, ranging from building materials, biobased dyes to textiles products. |
| ARCH 8112 / ENV 638 / URBN 3318 / HSHM 4110 | Anthony Acciavatti | Labs and Landscapes of the Green Revolution | In 1968, the director of the US Agency for International Development, William Gaud, christened the decades-long experiments with agriculture and technology as the "green revolution." Juxtaposing it with the Red Revolution of the USSR and the White Revolution of the Shah of Iran, record harvests during the Cold War made the Green Revolution as much about food and hunger as it did geopolitics and diplomacy. This seminar explores the origins and development of the Green Revolution through its principal sites of experimentation: laboratories and landscapes. Whether hailed by some as a major turning point in the history of combatting hunger and food insecurity or castigated by others for perpetuating colonial and imperial asymmetries of power and environmental degradation, the legacies of the Green Revolution endure to this day. We attend to the global legacies of this color-coded revolution and how it reshaped the contours of the land, food distribution networks, settlement patterns, and cultures of eating and cooking, as well as reconfigured the habits and habitats of the human subject. Along with weekly readings and assignments that involve eating and cooking, we travel to one of the major laboratories and landscapes of the Green Revolution: India. |
| HPM 595 | Aaron Kesselheim | Food and Drug Administration Law | The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the premier consumer protection agency in the United States, with control over the availability and public discourse about potentially lifesaving therapeutics, foods, supplements, and related consumer products. Its authority has been built in response to public health crises and is constantly under scrutiny from all sides of the political spectrum. The class reviews the history of the FDA’s regulation over the health care products market, the noteworthy legislation that has shaped its oversight in this area, Supreme Court and other cases that have impacted its authority, and an introduction to key current controversies related to the FDA that affect health care delivery. (This course does not cover food law.) The enduring theme is how the FDA balances its vital public safety role against countervailing forces of personal autonomy and the rights or interests of consumers, patients, physicians, and corporations. Each class is organized around interactive discussion introducing students to the material, including hypothetical cases that require students to apply the day’s lessons and themes in determining legal and policy solutions. Students with high-quality papers will be given specific guidance in submitting them for publication in the peer-reviewed medical/public health/policy literature. A paper of 2,500–4,000 words is required. |
| PSYC 7750 | Laurie Santos | Research Topics in Animal Cognition | Investigation of various topics in animal cognition, including what nonhuman primates know about tools and foods; how nonhuman primates represent objects and number; whether nonhuman primates possess a theory of mind. |
| REL 615 | Eboni Marshall Turman | Introduction to Christian Ethics | This survey course is an introduction to the content, method, and concerns of Christian ethics, with special focus on its major figures, ongoing debates, and the future of Christian moral inquiry. Its engagement with a diverse range of historical and contemporary sources endeavors to foster critical understanding of the origins, tasks, and varieties of Christian ethics with emphasis on context, virtue, crisis, responsibility, and the art of envisioning moral futures. The course begins with a deep dive into the origins, sources, and history of Christian ethics before turning attention to the ethics and politics of the social experiences and intersections of race, gender, sexuality, economy, and ecology. The course aims to prompt careful consideration of what it means to love God amidst the machinations of empire, corruption, human nature, and the moral will. Throughout the semester emphasis is placed on naming social injustice and deliberating on how Christians ought to live, resist, envision, and construct moral futures anyhow and especially in light of the witness and testimony of Jesus Christ as gospeled. Area II and Area V. |
| ENV 630 | Peter Raymond, Xuhui Lee | The Physical Science of Climate Change | The course provides students with core knowledge on the processes controlling the earth's climate system. The first half of the class focuses on the four components of the earth climate system, providing a knowledge base on the atmospheric energy and water budgets and the roles of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, the oceans, land and cryosphere in altering these budgets. Students also learn how to run a climate GCM (general circulation model). The second half of the class focuses on impacts of climate change on a number of societal sectors including natural ecosystems, energy use, water resources, the food system and the built environment. |
| ENV 586 | Kealoha Freidenburg | Fisheries and Aquaculture | This course considers current issues affecting fisheries and aquaculture. Humans have been harvesting food from aquatic ecosystems for millennia, but increasing human population size, changing climate, and ongoing habitat alteration are among myriad factors negatively impacting aquatic species and their habitats. We analyze, through the lens of Western science as well as through global perspectives spanning local, regional, and indigenous knowledge, how extractive activities in the form of fisheries and aquaculture have impacted aquatic systems and their biota. We also consider what a sustainable future can look like for these critical resources and the ecosystems they inhabit. |
| ENV 640 | Ian Robinson | Ethical Consumption: Promoting Workers' Rights, Fair Prices, and Sustainability | Many people want the things they consume to be made in just and sustainable ways, but the market does not automatically meet this kind of consumer demand. Often consumers, like workers, must organize and act collectively if they are to bend market dynamics toward their ethical concerns. This course examines historical and contemporary efforts to do just that, focusing on the apparel and food supply chains and the social movements, past and present, that have tried to change the dynamics of these sectors. We explore the strategies and actions of these consumer organizing efforts, what they were able to achieve, and what factors account for varying degrees of success. Our overarching goal is to learn how to increase the effectiveness of such efforts. |
| ENV 683 | P Mark Ashton | Seminar in Tropical Forest Restoration | This seminar is focused on the biological and social science, management, and policy governing reforestation in tropical regions. Topics covered include the ecology and management of native species plantations and second-growth forests; the social drivers of and barriers to restoration; and the methodological protocols of gathering and assessing social, economic, and cultural values. A particular emphasis is placed on tropical Asia and Latin America. Part of this course is taught online, part in a series of weekly discussions. Optional 1-credit field trip on dry tropical forest restoration, Azuero, Panama. Enrollment limited to twenty. |
| ENV 653 | Joseph Orefice | Maple: From Tree to Table | This course covers the cultural, industrial, and sustainable practices of nontimber forest products through the lens of maple sap and syrup. Maple sugar is a forest product unique to northeastern North America, and it has seen a resurgence in interest as global consumers seek nutritious, natural, and sustainably produced foods. This course covers the booming industry and culture around maple syrup, from backyard operations through modern 100,000-tap investment operations. Maple producers are on the front lines of climate change and forest health threats. The course provides students with the knowledge of how challenges related to forest health and climate change are directly impacting maple producers and how these producers are learning to adapt in ways that are environmentally friendly, ecologically sound, and financially competitive in a global market. |
| ENV 824 | Robert Klee | Environmental Law and Policy | This course provides an introduction to the legal requirements and policy underpinnings of the basic U.S. environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and various statutes governing waste, food safety, and toxic substances. Students examine and evaluate current approaches to pollution control and resource management as well as the "next generation" of regulatory strategies, including economic incentives, voluntary emissions reductions, and information disclosure requirements. This course investigates mechanisms for addressing environmental issues at the local, regional, and global levels, and explores the intersection between environmental and energy law and policy. Students gain an understanding of overarching legal and policy concepts, such as federalism, administrative procedure, separation of powers, environmental justice, judicial review, and statutory interpretation. |
| ENV 828 | John Wargo | Science, Risk, and Governance | This course focuses on the concept of environmental and health risks and their management by both the public and private sectors. Risk assessments have become the primary form of rational analysis that governments and corporations rely upon to identify, prioritize, and manage environmental and health threats. The course examines a series of environmental challenges dimensions of risk in each case including magnitude, distribution, duration, reversibility, and probability. Each case also considers past and potential policy types to assure a safe, healthy, just, and sustainable future. These range from prohibition, regulation, tax adjustments, trading programs, subsidies, certification, transparency requirements, buffer zone specification, transboundary contamination management, among others. Special attention is given to those at special risk including the young and elderly, minorities experiencing discrimination, poorer populations without the resources to self-manage environmental dangers, those living in high hazard areas, and those with background illnesses. Enrollment limited to sixteen. |
| ENV 646 | Stephen Wood | Regenerative Agricultural Systems | Agriculture systems both depend and have a profound impact on the natural and human environment. There is widespread recognition of the need for agriculture systems to be more regenerative: regenerative food producing systems are ones that contribute to the improvement of the environment and to human wellbeing, not just avoid damages. The aim of this course is to explore what makes food producing systems regenerative. While there is a lot of momentum around the framing of "regenerative agriculture," there is not a lot of detail about what actually makes a system regenerative. The goals of the course are to: provide technical understanding of the science of agricultural systems; develop practical experience applying this science to real world scenarios of strategy development in agriculture; and increase exposure to practitioners at the interface of agriculture and the environment. |
| ENV 726 | Xuhui Lee | Observing Earth from Space | A practical introduction to satellite image analysis of Earth's surface. Topics include the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, satellite-borne radiometers, data transmission and storage, computer image analysis, the merging of satellite imagery with GIS and applications to weather and climate, oceanography, surficial geology, ecology and epidemiology, forestry, agriculture, archaeology, and watershed management. |
| ENV 744 | Oswald Schmitz | Conservation Science and Landscape Planning | This advanced course applies ecological principles to understand and manage biodiversity and attendant ecosystem functioning and services in the anthropocene. The course addresses the ethical and functional basis for conservation and fosters thinking about why and how humans ought to share the planet with nonhuman life. It covers scientific principles such as evolution, life-history and the viability of species, species endangerment and extinction risk, the kinds of biodiversity, the spatial distribution of biodiversity, the functional roles of species in ecosystems, vulnerability and risk assessments, and valuing biodiversity and ecosystem services. The course applies these principles to the exploration of such topics as biodiversity’s role in the functioning and sustainability of ecological systems, restoration of environmental damages, conserving biodiversity in dynamic landscapes, adapting landscapes to climate change, balancing conservation with urban development and agriculture, and renewable energy siting. It provides students with the quantitative skills to conduct population viability analyses, geospatial analyses of the distribution of biodiversity across landscapes, vulnerability analyses, and decision analysis to balance trade-offs among multiple objectives of human land development and biodiversity conservation. |
| EHS 547 | Daniel Carrion | Climate Change and Public Health | This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining relationships between climate change and public health. After placing climate change in the context of the Anthropocene, planetary boundaries, and planetary health, and exploring the fundamentals of climate change science, the course covers impacts of climate change on public health, including extreme heat, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding, vector-borne diseases, population displacement, and mental health effects. The course covers the public health strategies of adaptation (secondary prevention) and mitigation (primary prevention) to reduce adverse health impacts of climate change and discusses the substantial non-climate immediate health benefits of these strategies. Policy, vulnerability, and climate justice considerations are integrated into the course throughout. The course is reading-intensive and makes ample use of case studies. This course should be of interest to students across YSPH and the University. |
| E&EB 2275 / ENV 734 | Mary Beth Decker | Biological Oceanography | Exploration of oceanic ecosystems and how these environments function as coupled physical/biological systems. Ocean currents and other physical processes determine where nutrients are available to support primary production and where organisms from plankton to top predators occur. Includes discussion of anthropogenic impacts, such as the effects of fishing and climate change on marine ecosystems. |
| GLBL 6520 | Teresa Chahine | Social Entrepreneurship in Public Health | This is a case-based course about innovation and entrepreneurship for health equity and drivers of health. Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, racism, gender, and other biases and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, healthy foods, safe environments, and health care. We refer to these as drivers of health. COVID-19 has brought to light for many the complexities in drivers of health, and the role of entrepreneurship and cross-sectoral collaboration in eliminating health disparities. Students examine cases of entrepreneurship for health equity in the United States and globally, using a research-based framework to analyze the role of innovation and design thinking, resource mobilization, financial viability, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and systems strengthening. Cases include start-ups and new ventures within existing institutions, referred to as intrapreneurship. Students also examine cases of collective impact, or innovating across multiple institutions. Over the years, students in this class have begun referring to these as extrapreneurship. This course brings together students from Yale College, the Graduate School, and the Schools of Management, Public Health, Environment, Divinity, and Engineering & Applied Science. |
| ENV 582 | Maya Almaraz, Peter Raymond | Natural Climate Solutions in Agricultural Landscapes: A Survey of Practices | Seminar Series: Climate change has already dramatically altered the world and without appropriate mitigation efforts, these catastrophic disruptions will continue to grow, wreaking havoc on people and the planet. It is now clear that to combat climate change we will need to both reduce emissions and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A variety of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) practices in the agricultural sector have gained traction in recent years, however, questions remain as to how they function, what is their carbon removal potential, and what are the positive or negative impacts they may have on agricultural productivity. Natural climate solutions (NCS) such as agroforestry, biochar, compost, conservation tillage, cover crops, enhanced rock weathering, and seaweed farming are a few agricultural practices that have been purported to provide carbon dioxide removal while creating co-benefits for food production and ecosystem health. Still, some practices come with tradeoffs; for instance, compost may increase forage production but also CO2 emissions, while cover crops may store carbon but compete with crops for nutrients and water. Furthermore, increasing adoption of these practices and scaling them to levels that can impact the climate remains a difficult hurdle. As the rate of CO2 emissions continues to rise, it will be critical to develop and implement carbon dioxide removal technologies in the near future. |
| CDE 562 | Leah Ferrucci | Nutrition and Chronic Disease | This course provides students with a scientific basis for understanding the role of nutrition and specific nutrients in the etiology, prevention, and management of chronic diseases. Nutrition and cancer are particularly emphasized. Other topics addressed include cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and aging. Implications for federal nutrition policy, such as dietary guidelines, dietary supplement regulations, and food labeling, are discussed. |