The Literature and the Environment minor provides students with both a solid foundation for literary interpretation and a superstructure that integrates those skills and perspectives with the questions about the past, present, and future of the biosphere. It is designed for undergraduate students who wish to enhance their major program with intensive study of literature in its relationship to the natural environment, while improving their skills in reading, writing, creative and critical thinking, and analysis of complex situations in an ethical frame. The minor examines how different cultural forms (for example, fiction, journalism, poetry, film, design, and other arts) represent environmental issues, including biodiversity, animal studies, wilderness, food, urban ecologies, postcolonial ecologies, environmental justice, and climate change.