EVPP 337: Environmental Policy Making in Developing Countries

EVPP 337-K01: Envir Policy Making-Dev Cntry
(Fall 2026)

10:30 AM to 11:45 AM MW

Mason Korea (119 Songdomunhwa-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, Korea) G201

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Section Information for Fall 2026

What are environmental policies? More importantly, what makes a good one, and how do we make and evaluate them? EVPP 337 builds toward answering these questions in the place they are hardest: the developing world.

This course follows the environmental policy process in developing countries, focusing on the distinctive problems and dynamics of policy making in those contexts, with the practical aim of generating better decisions and management. Key themes include environmental governance, the politics of resource allocation, social and ecological justice, and sustainability transitions. Readings, documentaries, and discussion trace the interplay between global environmental priorities and local realities, how developing countries shape, and are shaped by, environmental policy choices.

EVPP 337 is a writing-intensive (WI) course, and you learn its central skill, analyzing a real environmental problem and recommending policy, by doing it. The course meets in person, with the week's lecture delivered on the EVPP interactive platform; class time is a hands-on writing studio that builds, week by week, toward a policy brief on a developing-country problem you choose.

Rather than a few large papers graded at the end, the writing comes in small, supported pieces: short reflections written inside each lecture, a weekly in-class studio that adds one analytical lens to your case, and a policy brief assembled and revised from that work. You will never face a blank page.

Course Information from the University Catalog