Master of Arts in Environment and Community
Master of Arts in Environment and Community with a Concentration in Sustainable Food Systems and Permaculture Design
Unique Offering/Advantages
Environmental Programs That Focus on the Connections Between Ecological and Community Sustainability
Unlike one-dimensional graduate degree programs, Antioch University Seattle’s M.A. in Environment and Community defines environment in its totality.
Studies include:
- biological environments
- physical (natural and built) environments
- social environments
- political environments
- aesthetic environments
- economic environments.
This whole systems design approach to graduate environmental education provides graduates with a comprehensive vision, systems thinking strategies and specific skills to implement meaningful change in a variety of careers.
Learn to understand environmental and social problems, by combining natural and social science perspectives, and get the tools you need to design and implement creative solutions to complex situations.
In addition to a master’s degree, students earn certificates in Integrated Skills for Sustainable Change and Ecological Planning and Design or Sustainable Food Systems and Permaculture Design.
General Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree
- At least two years of relevant work experience
- Ability to work collaboratively with other students and faculty in an interdisciplinary learning environment
- Ability for reflection, self-awareness, critical thinking and sustained inquiry
- A science background is not required
Length of Program
If you enroll as a full-time student, you can finish your degree in 21 months. If you enroll part time, you have up to six years to complete your degree. Designed to complement your real-world priorities, the program offers a convenient class schedule with all courses offered in a four-day weekend module just once a month.
You may begin the program in October or April.
Tuition & Fees
- Tuition: $662 per credit
- Required fees: $145 per quarter
- $6,765 tuition and required fees per quarter, full time (10 credits)
- $27,060 typical annual tuition and fees
Annual tuition and fees based on 2013-14 rates for four quarters. Antioch University Seattle students typically attend classes all year.
Career Opportunities
An M.A. in Environment and Community may lead to a promotion with your current employer, a job in a new business, or a stronger competitive advantage for your own entrepreneurial venture. Some areas of possibility include:
- education
- environmental policy
- community planning
Recent sampling of alumni jobs:
- vice president of sales and business development, Imperium Renewables Inc.
- commander, disaster response team, Tosca Oil Refinery
- director, Environmental Protection Agency, American Samoa
- vice president of marketing, Nau Clothing
- designer, space shuttle program, The Boeing Co.
- assistant director, Shaver's Creek Environmental Education Center
- communications manager, PCC Farmland Trust
- conservation director, PCC Farmland Trust
- president, O'Brien and Company, a Seattle sustainable development firm that specializes in design-build consulting, education and research.
- communications lead, State of Washington Department of Transportation, SR 520 Bridge Replacement and HOV
- account executive, CleanScapes
- program coordinator, South Sound Estuary Association
- naturalist educator, Audubon Society
- founder and president, Squak Mountain StoneTM
- founder, San Diego Growers
- sustainability program manager, Organic Valley / CROPP Cooperative
- founder, South Park Fresh Starts
- operations manager, iLEAP: The Center for Critical Service
- extension officer, Cornell University
An Environmental Program That Shows Your Part in the Whole
Learn to lead environmental and social change and help build a sustainable, just and healthy world.
By focusing on what you can do to nurture positive social and environmental change, you'll become an effective leader for sustainability. By combining natural and social science perspectives this degree enables you to "think globally and act locally."
Working together, students and faculty explore
- permaculture
- community development
- alternative agricultural and food systems
- healthy environments
- renewable energy
- environmental education
- local economies
- environmental justice
- green building
- deep ecology
- environmental policy
- and many other topics
The Center for Creative Change Graduate Student Symposium features your graduate research and community-focused change project. Your work may be published on Antioch University websites and in the community as well.
Building on Antioch University Seattle’s tradition of experiential education and socially engaged citizenship, the Center for Creative Change offers degree and certificate programs so you can become a leader for
- organizational, social, and environmental sustainability
- social justice and
- transformative social change
All Center for Creative Change programs are based on the understanding that creative change requires a fundamental shift in peoples’ awareness and behavior. Solutions to the complex social and environmental challenges of the 21st century require new ways of thinking. This perspective recognizes the dynamic, interdependent nature of human and environmental systems and honors diverse perspectives, traditions and ways of knowing. As a student in C3, you will learn skills, attitudes and perspectives to be a change leader.
Curriculum
The Gathering, a two-day retreat before the first residency, begins the process of building your learning community.
Interdisciplinary Core Courses
- Communication Design
- Critical Inquiry
- Global Pluralism
- Systemic Thinking for a Changing World
- Sustainability
- Transformative Leadership and Change
- Methods for Sustainable Change
- Applications of Sustainable Change
- Environment & Community Caucus
Specialization Courses – M.A. in Environment and Community
- Theories and Practices of Socio-environmental Change
- Economics and the Environment
- Environmental Policy and Decision-making Processes
- Integrative Environmental Science
Specialization Courses – M.A. with Concentration in Sustainable Food Systems and Permaculture Design
- Food Systems and their Alternatives
- Theories and Practices of Socio-environmental Change
- Permaculture and Sustainable Systems Design
- Political Ecology of Eating and Consumption
Sample Elective Courses (4 courses)
- Appropriate Technologies and Social Adaptations
- International Applications in Sustainable Change
- History and Culture of the Pacific Northwest Environment
- Ethics and Environmental Justice
- Philosophical Perspectives on Environment and Community
- Globalization and Its Discontents: The Political Economy of the 21st Century
- Specialization and elective courses from other Center degree programs
- Independent Studies
The MA Environment & Community is 66 quarter credits and can be completed in seven quarters.
Faculty
Click here for to read about Center faculty. For adjunct faculty who teach in the Center for Creative Change, click here.
Katherine S. Davies
DPhil
Center for Creative Change
Farouk Y. Seif
Professor Emeritus
Center for Creative Change
Barbara J. Spraker
MBA
Center for Creative Change
Britt Yamamoto
PhD
Center for Creative Change
Joshua Berger
MA Environment & Community, 2007
Berger's focus, while at Antioch, was on multi stake-holder planning processes, particularly for a statewide approach to Sustainability Education. Finding successes in design, relationship building and reflection he is grateful for the action centered approach that C3 offers.
Katherine Pryor
MA Environment and Community, 2008
When she was accepted into master's programs at both the University of Washington and Antioch Seattle, she had to make a tough decision. She chose Antioch because she thought it might give her new ways to think about creating change. She says she was drawn by the size of the campus and Antioch's history of progressive thinking.
Kathleen O'Brien
MA Environment and Community, 2002
She came to Antioch because of the enrichment it offered. President of O'Brien and Company, a published author, researcher and editor, she knew her direction, but was a one-person show and felt isolated.
Kristin Dean
M.A. Environment and Community, 2007
A former clean air and global warming associate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, she says relationships she built with her learning community were her favorite part of the program. She found the support, encouragement and challenge to dive deeper into her area of interest.
