Students at an organic farm in Japan during the May 2019 Clinic Trip.

Outside a mangrove conservation park during the Thailand Clinic Trip in May 2018.

EnviroLab Asia Faculty Receive National Geographic Research Award To Study Mangrove Forests.

"Awakening to the Environment" Concert featuring Anne Harley and Malaysian composer and environmental activist Yii Kah Hoe.

Students discuss environment-related issues in Professor Kyoko Kurita's Advanced Japanese course.

Envirolab 2022-2023

The EnviroLab Class and Clinic trip is a unique experience that embodies a liberal arts approach to understanding environmental issues. Course content will include guest lecturers from disciplinary backgrounds in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences that will share their discipline’s methodological approaches. The Envirolab Clinic trip will explore the intersection of science and policy through understanding the role of the ocean in providing societal resilience. We will research current policy, historical/cultural approaches, and future needs to understand the health of economically significant fisheries in the face of increasingly adverse environmental conditions. Themes covered will include environmental, biological, economic, policy and technological factors that contribute to the sustainability in the Gulf of Maine. Faculty and students will engage in co-production of knowledge, systems thinking, quantitative analysis, communication, and engagement with communities. If you have any questions, please contact Manny Garcia, EnviroLab Project Administrator at EnviroLab.Asia@cmc.edu.

Mission

EnviroLab is an initiative at the Claremont Colleges funded by the Henry Luce Foundation’s Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment (LIASE) Program. This initiative is a laboratory for cross-disciplinary research and experiential learning that links knowledge with practice. 

Through intellectual exchange between the humanities and social sciences, environmental analysis, and other disciplines, we explore relevant topics and generate new scholarship about environmental issues in Asia. Our research involves communities and partner institutions in the US and Asia. We aim to address environmental problems in Asia through interdisciplinary communication and collaboration in a globalized world. 

 

Guiding Principles

EnviroLab activities center around the following set of guiding principles:

  • Create a space for the production of new knowledge about the interaction between nature, the built environment, and human populations in Asia
  • Utilize cross-disciplinary approaches
  • Encourage 5C exchanges between and across campuses, utilize the current resources at the Claremont Colleges, and/or encourage community-building between and among 5C campus communities
  • Increase faculty and students’ capacities to effectively influence debates on environmental issues as well as present innovative solutions to challenges resulting from environmental problems.

Research Projects – Past & Ongoing

EnviroLab supports faculty development by providing funding for publication, research, and other project activities. There are five different “entry-point” fund areas faculty may apply to: Conference Travel Fund; Research Pods; Research Labs; Course Development; and the Continuing Course/Speakers’ Fund. Faculty may also apply to the Manuscript Review or Subvention Funds to support the completion of an academic product (article, art piece, or book). These funds are designed to have a clear purpose while remaining flexible, in order to allow for innovations and collaborations to occur.

VIDEO SPOTLIGHT


LATEST BLOG ENTRY


2020 EnviroLab Student Fellows (Korea)

Aileen Villa Food and Rural Issues Lab SCR, Class of 2022, politics and anthropology (dual) she, her, hers Aileen Villa is a second-year student from Nogales, Arizona. She has been involved in bridging health disparities in her community by addressing food issues and...

Haikus from Japan

Haikus from Japan

Sharing haikus and art from students in the Food and Rural Issues Lab who went to Japan in May 2019. Haikus by Kat Kornegay (POM) Morning was peaceful. The fresh air and soothing sounds, Does wonders for soul. In rural Japan. Feels like a whole other world. Bullet...