Instructor: Paul Mohai

Time: Fridays 10:30AM to 12:00PM 

The aim of this seminar is to explore the linkages between school locations, environmental quality, and the health of children. It will also assess the environmental justice implications of these linkages since many research studies confirm that poor and minority neighborhoods are disproportionately burdened by air pollution and environmental hazards of a wide variety. Are the schools in poor and minority neighborhoods similarly overburdened and what are the health implications for children living and attending schools in environmentally overburdened neighborhoods?

 In addition to examining the health consequences of pollution on children, this seminar will examine policies dealing with school siting decisions at the federal, state, and local levels; what decision makers can do to avoid putting schools in or near contaminated sites; and what they can do to ameliorate environmental conditions around schools that are already burdened.

For this 1-credit seminar, students will meet weekly for 1.5 hours to discuss the literature. Each student will select one or two important research studies (from the suggested readings below or from other sources), prepare a brief summary and critique, and lead a discussion that will inform the class of the linkages between environmental quality and health in public schools.