Produce-ing confidence

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES COURSE

TOUCHES ON MENTAL HEALTH, NATURAL SCIENCE AND LAW

Soil in Chattanooga’s Alton Park was contaminated decades ago by lead residue from its industrial past. Under a federal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order of 2018, contaminated soil was removed and replaced with fresh.

In 2019, a community garden was started in Alton Park, a chance for neighborhood residents to get outside, plant vegetables, meet each other and make friends. Still, some residents were skeptical about the garden and the safety of eating its produce.

Catherine Meeks Quinlan knew Alton Park would be an excellent place to take students in her “Intro to Environmental Studies” class.

“It’s been a challenge within that community to even convince people that the food they’re growing there is safe to eat because of the legacy of toxic chemicals in the soil,” says Quinlan, associate lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Convincing residents has been an ongoing task that touches on several areas. Getting the word out that the food is safe. Showing how working in nature is good for a person’s state of mind. Learning how to grow healthy plants. Understanding the federal and state laws for removing lead.

Communication. Mental health. Natural science. Environmental law.

Each of those and others falls under the umbrella of environmental studies—a UTC minor launched in fall semester 2022. The program was conceived, designed and implemented by Quinlan, Lucy Schultz, associate lecturer in the UTC Department of Philosophy and Religion; and Jennifer Boyd, senior associate head of the Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science.

An interdisciplinary program, environmental studies encompasses many fields of study, Schultz explains. How humans affect the environment and how to reduce the damage caused. Philosophies on the food distribution systems and who’s helped and who’s left out. Depicting the environment through artwork. How to write articles and research papers about environmental issues.

“It’s not just doing biology,” Schultz says. “We’re looking at the way the environment interfaces with human values and society from all of these different disciplinary vantage points.”

UTC students majoring in philosophy, business administration, health and human performance, psychology, English and geology have declared environmental studies as their minor. Whatever major a student is pursuing, environmental studies can provide new ideas and ways to tackle the issue.

“We are looking at the way different lenses can be used to understand environmental problems,” Quinlan says.

“We’re looking through the lens of the humanities, the social sciences, the behav- ioral sciences, the natural sciences with a basic understanding that environmental problems and environmental issues are rooted in a social context. It’s understanding that the science of an environmental issue is not necessarily going to solve the problem. There’s lots of other pieces that are involved.”

Chattanooga, itself, is a vital part of the program.

“One hundred percent,” Schultz says. “We envision this program to be rooted in Chattanooga. We really want to capitalize on the local resources as we develop this program.

“One of my interests is experiential learning and service learning,” she continues, “and getting students out of the classroom and developing community partnerships where students have the opportunity to see the way that the things we’re studying are actually taking shape in the real world around them.”

The concepts and skills learned in an environmental studies program in Chattanooga can work in any region, be it the green, forested area of the Appalachians to the dry, desert-like conditions in the Southwestern United States, she says.

Quinlan says the environment is a major issue for the current generation of students and young adults.

“It’s the issue of their generation in a lot of ways,” she says, “and it can lead to, I think, feelings of hopelessness and fear and worry.”

One of the goals of the environmental studies minor is to show students that they can make a difference whatever degree they’re pursuing, she says.

“If you’re not somebody who wants to go into a hardscience field or do that type of work, there is a great need for a lot of other skill sets to be applied in a lot of different contexts.”