Educating the next generation of environmental leaders is one of the many ways Duke's Nicholas Institute helps bridge the gap between science and policy. During Duke's 2014-2015 academic year, staff members are aiding in this mission by teaching courses across campus. For more information on these courses, visit http://registrar.duke.edu.
Spring 2015
DUKE UNIVERSITY COURSES
Climate Change Economics and Policy
Students enrolled in this course will explore the economic characteristics of the climate change problem, assess national and international policy design and implementation issues, and survey the economic tools necessary to evaluate climate change policies. (PPS 585 / PPS 630)
Instructor: Billy Pizer, faculty fellow at the Nicholas Institute.
Political Economy of Public Policy
This course introduces students to a core set of social science ideas relevant to public policy. These include theories of collective action, institutions and governance, all of which draw from economics, political science, sociology or psychology. The goal is to provide students with a broad framework for evaluating market, political, and social failures; identifying possible policy interventions; and predicting the ways in which such interventions would translate into policy outcomes. (PubPol 901)
Instructor: Billy Pizer, faculty fellow at the Nicholas Institute.
Ethics of Public Policy
This course introduces students to normative frameworks for evaluating public policies and governance processes. It draws on social choice theory, political theory, and social theory. The goal is to provide students with normative and analytical bases to evaluate tradeoffs between efficiency on the one hand and equity, political legitimacy, and justice on the other. (PubPol 902)
Instructor: Billy Pizer, faculty fellow at the Nicholas Institute.
Putting Ecosystem Services Markets into Practice
Ecosystem Services, the benefits nature provides to people, are often undervalued. As a result, these benefits are being degraded or lost at a rapid pace. Through guest lectures and published and gray literature, this class will assess how environmental markets and trading can help society value ecosystem services and improve outcomes, as well as how ecosystem services can be detrimental to sustainability and conservation goals if not well designed and implemented. (ENVIRON 590.86)
Instructor: Lydia Olander, director of the Ecosystem Services Program at the Nicholas Institute.
Natural Resources Law and Policy
This course covers the law of how we use nature—timber, mining, bioversity, fisheries, water rights, and agriculture. It also is an introduction to the historical and constitutional geography of American public lands (the national parks, forests, wilderness system, and grazing lands) and to disputes over federal versus local control of these lands. Students will consider the historical and political origins of our competing ideas of how nature matters and what we should do with it, from economically productive use to outdoor recreation to preserving the natural world for its own sake. They also will reflect on the complicated interplay of science and law. (Natural Resources Law and Policy 368.01)
Instructor: Jonas Monast
Understanding Energy Models and Modeling
This graduate-level course aims to nurture basic modeling literacy by focusing on the "bottom-up" and "top-down" energy models commonly used for economic, environmental, and technology assessments. Students will gain practical experience searching for relevant modeling data, constructing scenarios and running the NEMS energy model. Students will gain a working knowledge of NEMS and CGE model mechanics and experience asking the types of questions needed to evaluate the quality of modeling results. (ENVIRON 715L)
Instructors: Etan Gumerman, senior policy analyst at the Nicholas Institute, and Martin Ross, senior research economist at the Nicholas Institute of the Nicholas School of the Environment
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA-CHAPEL HILL COURSES
Law and Society
This discussion-based course will expose students to the sociological analysis of legal systems, the role of law in social change, and in shaping social behavior. Topics will focus on the role of law in achieving social justice, including environmental justice. (SOCI 424)
Instructor: Kay Jowers, senior policy associate at the Nicholas Institute.
CONSERVATION ECONOMICS INITIATIVE
Coastal Conservation Economics
This online course is taught through the Conservation Economics Initiative, a joint project of Duke University and the Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) to make economics training more readily available to conservation professionals around the world. It includes recorded lectures, video lessons, webinars, experimental games, exercises, readings, interactive web conference discussion sessions, and exams. Students who successfully finish the course will be awarded a certificate of completion from the CSF and Duke's Environmental Leadership Program. Details can be found here.
Instructors: Linwood Pendleton, senior scholar, and Brian Murray, director for economic analysis, at the Nicholas Institute.
Fall 2014
DUKE UNIVERSITY COURSES
Political Economy of Public Policy
This course introduces Ph.D. students to a core set of social science ideas relevant to public policy: theories of collective action, institutions and governance. It provides students with a framework for evaluating market, political and social failures; identifying possible policy interventions; and predicting ways in which such interventions would translate into policy outcomes. (PubPol 901)
Instructors: Billy Pizer, faculty fellow at the Nicholas Institute, and Frederick Mayer, professor of public policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Alleviating Poverty Through Renewable Energy
This graduate-level course focuses on the glaring human need to bring electric power to the 1.2 billion people in the world that lack it. The class will look at the differentiated challenge between rural and urban systems, and the technologies that can solve the unique challenges of each developmental situation. It will also investigate the impediments to progress, and explore the different business models and technologies that are being used to tackle the challenge. The class will culminate by asking the students to help design the most appropriate model for deploying power technologies in a range of world regions. (ENERGY 790)
Instructors: Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute, and Jim Rogers, university fellow.
Economics of Environmental Management
This course provides an economic perspective to the management of environmental quality and natural resources from a policy and economic point of view. It addresses conceptual and methodological issues with some application to recent empirical work. (ENVIRON 972)
Instructors: Brian Murray, director for economic analysis at the Nicholas Institute.
Applied Environmental Policy Entrepreneurship
Open to all students, this class begins with the notion that environmental policy is developed using multiple tools, drawing from multiple disciplines. The class will review a wide range of current environmental policy issues, providing students the opportunity to apply a variety of tools to resolve real-world impasses. Specifically, it will teach students how to draw from their own professional or academic experience to pull policy solutions from disparate geographies or issue areas. Apart from instruction on the act of lesson drawing, the course will also provide insight into the opportunities afforded by the policy process, helping students discern when best and how best to apply identified solutions. In this respect, emphasis will be placed on the process by which policy options are considered, approaches chosen, and tools applied. (ENVIRON 590.75)
Instructor: Christopher Galik
Water Resources Planning and Finance
Course is an introduction to local, municipal level water infrastructure planning, finance, and payment. It covers climate and population forecasting to size water infrastructure, municipal bonds, and setting rates for water payers to pay for infrastructure as well as provide appropriate incentives for conservation. (ENVIRON 621).
Instructor: Martin Doyle, director of the Water Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute.
Environmental Mega-Trends
This graduate-level course is an introduction to environmental strategy for management decision making within the context of major trends currently of interest in environmental management. (ENVIRON 762).
Instructor: Martin Doyle, director of the Water Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute.
United Nations Climate Change Negotiations Practicum
This graduate-level, 1-credit independent study course is an advanced seminar focused on the international agreements under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (ENVIRON 593.165)
Instructors: Billy Pizer, faculty fellow at the Nicholas Institute.
Energy Law
The course will examine the legal framework governing energy production and consumption in the United States, and policy approaches for balancing energy needs with other societal goals. The course will include three main modules: (1) electricity sector regulation; (2) energy resources for electricity generation; and (3) oil and gas law.
Instructor: Jonas Monast
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA-CHAPEL HILL COURSES
Law and Society
This discussion-based course will expose students to the sociological analysis of legal systems, the role of law in social change, and in shaping social behavior. Topics will focus on the role of law in achieving social justice, including, but not limited to, issues related to environmental justice. (SOCI 424)
Instructor: Kay Jowers, senior policy associate at the Nicholas Institute.