Academic Program

For students interested in studying rurality, agriculture, and related fields, Kenyon offers a variety of options.

General courses

The College offers numerous courses in the study of agriculture, sustainability, food systems and rurality across disciplines. A partial list of those courses is included at the bottom of the page.

Academic initiative

For those who are interested in a more formal program, the Rural Resilience academic initiative is a specially designed course of study that examines Knox County as a resilient community and seeks to connect us to other rural communities, both contemporary and historical. Launched in the 2018-2019 school year, it is the newest academic initiative at Kenyon College.

Community-Engaged Learning

In addition, there are community-engaged learning courses in nearly every academic department in subjects beyond the scope of agriculture/sustainability/rurality. These courses include active engagement with the outside community, possibly including fieldwork. At Kenyon, community-engaged learning has been pioneered by the Department of Latino/a Studies.

Related course offerings

ANTH 320 Anthropology of Food
ANTH 291 Habitat and Humanity
ANTH 291 Life Along the Kokosing
ARTS 291 Sculpture and Place
BIOL 228, 229 Ecology and Ecology Laboratory
BIOL 106 Conservation Biology
BIOL 115 Energy in Living Systems
CHEM 108 Solar Energy
CHEM 110 Environmental Chemistry
CHEM 121 Introductory Chemistry
CHEM 122 Chemical Principles
ECON 336 Environmental Economics
ECON 342 Economics of Regulation
ECON 347 Economics of the Public Sector
ENGL 391 Literature and the Landscape
ENVS 112 Introduction to Environmental Studies
ENVS 240 Winter Permaculture Farming
ENVS 251 Field Experience: Environmental Outreach
ENVS 253 Sustainable Agriculture
ENVS 261 Geographic Information Science
ENVS 461 Seminar in Environmental Studies
HIST 360 Corn, Farming, and the Roots of American Culture
RLST 481 Religion and Nature
SOCY 233 Sociology of Food
SOCY 477Y-478Y Fieldwork: Rural Life

The courses in bold indicate those that directly work with the farm.