应急管理和灾害科学系将应急管理理解为三件事:一是新兴的学术学科, an emerging profession, and a distributed function. 

应急管理是一门新兴的学术学科，是对人类如何创造的科学研究, 交互, and cope with hazards, vulnerability, and associated events. 应急管理学科用来理解这些主题的主要方法是整合和综合研究个人和家庭这些问题的不同学科的学术成果, organizational, 社区, 国家, and global levels in the areas of preparedness, 响应, 复苏, and mitigation. 这种综合的产物被学者们用来教育学生和指导他们自己的研究.

应急管理学科服务于应急管理专业，负责通过协调和整合所有必要的建设活动来保护“社区”, 维持, and improve the capability to mitigate against, prepare for, 回复, and recover from threatened or actual natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or other man-made disasters" (Principles of Emergency Management, 2007, p. 4) in two ways. 第一个, 该学科为该领域提供了不同层次的学位课程毕业生，他们已经融入了这种综合的思维方式，并在了解该领域历史的情况下开展工作, the complex nature of the contexts in which emergency management exists, 以及如何在上述所有领域的背景限制下使用证据来告知实践. 其次，该学科为新兴职业提供了相同领域的研究.

然而,, 应急管理学科也反映了应急管理的分布功能. This phrase, "distributed function", recognizes that emergency management professionals do not "do" emergency management. 而不是, "实施"应急管理的责任在于分布在我们各组织和各级管辖范围内的实体. The discipline seeks to educate individuals who will go on to work in organizations, departments, 以及整个社会的机构，这样他们就可以在职业生涯中掌握应急管理科学的知识以及他们将要做的工作是如何联系起来的. 

应急管理和灾害科学系旨在教育那些将在该专业工作和/或以其他方式为学士学位服务的个人, 大师, and doctoral degree programs. 该部门利用各种未成年人来吸引学生，他们将继续在分布式功能中工作.

我们对应急管理的理解以及我们作为学科的一部分所扮演的角色使我们将课程设计为:

1. 清楚地反映了与个人和家庭相关的学术奖学金的坚实基础, organizational, 社区, and 国家/global preparedness, 响应, 复苏, and mitigation
2. 通过课堂活动和项目提供持续的机会来乐虎集团学生所学的知识, particularly through projects that engage students in our 社区 
3. 营造一个丰富的学习环境，让不同背景和职业目标的人相互交流和学习
4. Be a strong complement with a unique identity that is supplemented by 
   • Student completion of one or more required internships at all degree levels
   • Student pursuit of 培训 specific to their intended career path
   • Student development of professional networks
   • 学院专业发展指导从所有学位课程的开始到他们的完成和超越

进一步, 我们对我们在学科中的角色的理解使我们的教师每个人都深深致力于成为优秀的教育者, seeking ways to bring about synergy between education, 培训, and practice, 积极与从业人员合作，包括通过应急管理专业协会和其他服务活动, and contributing to the body of knowledge through our own research.

Our 战略 plan was developed to accomplish this vision and mission.

乐虎电子对灾害研究的参与可以追溯到1979年，当时该系教师接受了美国国家科学基金会的资助，研究德克萨斯州一场大型龙卷风的影响. The establishment of a specific Emergency Management curriculum, 然而, 始于2001年，当时州高等教育委员会批准了应急管理辅修课程. In 2003 the State Board approved proposals to offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in Emergency Management. 结果是, NDSU became one of the many undergraduate programs in Emergency Management, one of the few with master’s degrees, 也是美国唯一一个专门授予应急管理的博士学位. The first bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees were awarded in 2004, 2006, 和2009年, respectively.

学位课程最初是在社会与人类学系设立的. The department was renamed the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Emergency Management in 2007 and became its own department, the Department of Emergency Management, in 2010 under the leadership of Dr. 丹尼尔·J. 克莱诺. Leadership of the department transitioned to Dr. Jessica Jensen in 2017. 这一转变值得注意，因为这标志着第一次一位获得终身应急管理博士学位的人成为应急管理部门的负责人. The Department name changed to Emergency Management and Disaster Science in 2021.

由于新国立大学预算削减，2021年暂停了硕士和博士课程的招生. A "teach out" of remaining graduate students is expected to complete in Spring 2024.

该项目有三名终身/终身教授，100%致力于应急管理. All faculty hold doctoral degrees in emergency management.