Class Schedules

It is crucial to understand the biophysical and cultural particularities of different world regions as well as the forces that bind them together. This course begins with an exploration of global flows and connections, and then takes us on a scholarly tour of the world, with stops in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Americas. Along the way we'll systematically investigate major human and physical geography themes such as population dynamics and migration, agricultural change, human-environment interactions, health and disease, economic change and development, urbanization, and cultural shifts. This course is an alternative to GEOG 111 - Human Geography of Global Issues as well as GEOG 115 - Thinking Geographically: The Fundamentals of Human Geography. Students should take one course or the other as an introduction to the field or the major. (Students can also earn credit equivalent to this course, GEOG 111 or  GEOG 115 by scoring a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement exam in Human Geography).

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces the student to an area of study that brings together and interrelates patterns and processes that drive Earth's physical environments, including human interactions with the physical environment. Among other topics, we will learn about the principles and mechanisms of climate and weather, water resources, landforms, earth surface processes, landscapes, vegetation, and ecosystems at global and regional scales. We will also learn how the spatial and temporal patterns of these processes are interpreted and understood using maps produced from Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Position System (GPS) and satellite imagery. Using selected studies we will also examine the social forces that shape many of these systems to gain a broader understanding of the socio-environmental interconnections of these physical environments. The course consists of lectures, discussions, hands-on exercises, field excursions, and exams.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to cartography, visualization, and analyses of geospatial data, as well as hands-on experience with geospatial technologies in the GIS laboratory. Students will learn the basics of mapping/cartography (e.g. scale, projections, map design) and Geographic Information Systems. Students will create maps with commonly used digital data (e.g., aerial photographs, census boundaries, digital elevation models, etc.), and master basic methods of spatial analyses. Both concepts and techniques will be taught in this course. Hands-on assignments include classification of demographic data and query/analysis of vector and raster data. One and one half laboratory hours per week required. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to cartography, visualization, and analyses of geospatial data, as well as hands-on experience with geospatial technologies in the GIS laboratory. Students will learn the basics of mapping/cartography (e.g. scale, projections, map design) and Geographic Information Systems. Students will create maps with commonly used digital data (e.g., aerial photographs, census boundaries, digital elevation models, etc.), and master basic methods of spatial analyses. Both concepts and techniques will be taught in this course. Hands-on assignments include classification of demographic data and query/analysis of vector and raster data. One and one half laboratory hours per week required. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to cartography, visualization, and analyses of geospatial data, as well as hands-on experience with geospatial technologies in the GIS laboratory. Students will learn the basics of mapping/cartography (e.g. scale, projections, map design) and Geographic Information Systems. Students will create maps with commonly used digital data (e.g., aerial photographs, census boundaries, digital elevation models, etc.), and master basic methods of spatial analyses. Both concepts and techniques will be taught in this course. Hands-on assignments include classification of demographic data and query/analysis of vector and raster data. One and one half laboratory hours per week required. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The Neotropical realm refers to the biogeographic region that includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and South America's temperate zone. These areas provide a range of services-both locally and globally--including water sources, climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. They are also home to various human populations and support the livelihood of local and global human populations. This course provides students a basic understanding of the most important biophysical and social characteristics of the dominant landscapes of the Neotropics. Among others, these include tropical rain forests, Andean páramos, tropical dry forests, wetlands, deserts and temperate forests of southern South America. For each of these landscapes, we will analyze the key climatological, biogeographical and ecological processes and also study the peoples that live in them including indigenous communities, afro-descendants, and mestizos. Finally, using examples of these areas, we also analyze human-environment interactions including land change processes, biodiversity, resource and cultural conservation, and climate change impacts.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This class goes beyond the superficial media interpretations of the world's second largest region to complicate and ground our understanding of this fascinating continent. As geographers, we will place contemporary African developments in a historical and global context. Africa has a long history of influencing and being influenced by the outside world. Among other issues, we will explore how colonialism, and even more recent 'development' initiatives, have influenced current structures in Africa.  Furthermore, we will examine what restrictions, if any, the current world economic system places on development possibilities for the continent. The course provides a basic background in African history and bio-physical environments, leading to discussion of advanced topics in contemporary African studies. We will cover a broad range of sectoral themes, including: health and population dynamics; food and agriculture; cities and urbanization; rural life; parks and peoples; development and underdevelopment; politics and governance; and sociocultural geography and music.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course challenges students to critically examine contemporary global population issues and link these patterns and processes to local events and situations. Using the lens of Geography, we will investigate the dynamic interplay between individual, local, regional, national, and international scales and the implications of scale, culture and perspective in dissecting current population issues. We will also use individual countries as case studies to examine population policies. Students will acquire a working knowledge of the data and methods used by population geographers to describe and analyze changes in human populations at sub-national scales, and will implement these skills in an independent research project.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course focuses on the foundations of American urban development, from economic development to land use to housing patterns, and examines how and why urban housing markets operate as they do within American metropolitan regions. Topics covered in the course include: the metropolitan economy, land use patterns, urban housing supply and demand, the geography of urban housing markets, racial residential segregation, suburbanization, transportation, and public policy debates. By the end of the course, students will have mastered some of the methods used to describe metropolitan organization and change, and be able to analyze how changes in the economy and society relate to metropolitan land use.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Social scientists use qualitative methods to understand the ways in which societal associations operate and how people experience, contribute to, or try to change these associations. Qualitative methods are thus concerned with analyzing processes and how people experience them. This course trains students to use qualitative research methods to collect data, analyze it, draw authoritative conclusions, and observe professional research ethics. The course emphasizes how qualitative methods contribute to scientific research and how ethical treatment of research participants affects the practice of qualitative research. Above all, the course focuses on training students to conduct qualitative research that contributes to our understanding of human geographies. Students will develop these skills by engaging in a semester-long research project. Prerequisite(s): GEOG 111 or GEOG 113 or GEOG 115, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The goal of this new seminar-style course is to examine the role of sports in society, taking a critical, interdisciplinary, and international approach anchored in human geography while incorporating fields like sociology, history, and media studies. Key themes of the course include identity, embodied experience, and space and place. How do sports instill or reinforce a sense of national identity, especially in international competitions like the Olympic Games or the soccer World Cup? How do some places become "hotbeds" of sporting talent? How does participation in sports reinforce or challenge hierarchies based on race-, gender-, and sexuality-based identities? How do "street sports" such as skateboarding or parkour promote radical engagements with urban public space? Is new stadium development (as we've seen in the Twin Cities in recent years) actually a good economic investment? And how do new stadiums transform local urban spaces? We will explore these questions in intensive class discussions based on academic texts, popular media accounts, and documentaries. We plan (tentatively) to have local field excursions (for example, to learn about local impacts of new stadium development in the Twin Cities and to gather ethnographic data on the gameday spectator experience). Students will have the opportunity to pursue their own sports geography interests more deeply in a final project. Prerequisites: none.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Since the last century, Asia has experienced rapid urbanization. It is now home to over half of the world's most populated cities. By 2010, the urban population in the Asia-Pacific region had surpassed the population of the United States and the European Union combined. In this course, we will focus on cities in East, Southeast and South Asia. We will first contextualize the rapid urbanization in the region's changing political economy, and identify urban issues that are unique to this region. We will further explore different theoretical approaches to understand Asian cities; several of them challenge mainstream urban theories rooted in the experiences of West European and North American cities. Upon the completion of this course, students will acquire substantive knowledge on contemporary trends of urban development in Asia, and develop familiarity with related ongoing theoretical debates. In addition, students will conduct individual research projects to develop a deeper and more concrete understanding of the contemporary urbanization processes in Asia.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course connects students with urban social geography, which studies the social and spatial dimensions of city life. In this course, we will explore some of the ways in which urban society is organized geographically. We will also consider how the spatial patterns of urban life influence public policy issues in the North American context. Topics covered in this course include causes of racial segregation, debates about gentrification, sustainable urban development, the transition to shared governance in cities, and the delivery of urban services that affect the welfare of urban populations. Students will learn current research, engage debates about critical urban issues, and learn techniques useful for analyzing spatial patterns in the urban landscape. Prerequisite(s): GEOG 241 or GEOG 261 or GEOG 262 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course is designed to introduce the student to the theory and application of digital imagery data analysis in research. It emphasizes fundamental remote sensing concepts and utilizes remotely-sensed data for analyzing human-environmental issues such as deforestation, urban expansion, or other changes in land surface across space or time. The focus of this course is on the interpretation and applications of data from spaceborne systems (e.g. Landsat, Sentinel-2), but other sources of remote sensing data (e.g. unmanned aerial vehicles) will be introduced too. The course consists of lecture periods to provide a comprehensive understanding of concepts, labs that take you through the major mapping and analysis methods, and student projects. A basic understanding of geographic data is necessary to take this class. Students can satisfy this requirement by completing GEOG 225 (or showing equivalent knowledge) or by completing an asynchronous module provided by the instructor through Moodle. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces students to the geographic study of development around the world, with a particular emphasis on the Global South. The geographic approach emphasizes: the highly uneven nature of development; processes that link and differentiate various areas of the world; connections between development and the natural resource base; and the power relations inherent in development discourse. The course has three main sections: an introduction to development theory; an investigation of various development themes; and an intense exploration of what works and what doesn't in development practice. While much of the development literature has focused on failure, a specific aim of this course will be to uncover and interrogate success stories.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course allows students to participate in a "real world" application of their GIS knowledge and skills in a collaborative research project setting. Project focus is on urban GIS and questions developed by and for neighborhoods and other community research organizations. Content of the course includes development of the research project, acquisition and utilization of data used in urban analysis, data manipulation and analytical techniques unique to urban GIS, and geographical data visualization. Laboratory work is required. Prerequisite(s): GEOG 225 and permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course focuses on the statistical methods that geographers use to describe and analyze places and themes. Students will learn both descriptive and inferential statistical methods for use in geographical research, including exploratory data analysis techniques, spatial statistics, geographic sampling, hypothesis testing, and regression analysis. The course provides students with experience in the application of statistical methods to spatial problems through the use of statistical software. Students will also learn to evaluate and develop statistical research designs, including preparation and presentation of an original research project. Prerequisite(s): Geography major or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The 21st century is an urban century. Half of the world's population now lives in cities, with the most rapid growth happening in the developing world. The globalized urban processes compel us to rethink existing urban theories as well as the very definition of cities. In this senior capstone seminar, we will explore three strands of scholarly works that expand our knowledge about contemporary global urbanism. The first focuses on the scholarship of neoliberal urbanism, which prioritizes North American and Western European urban experiences and shapes the mainstream thinking of cities. The second consists of on-the-ground variegated contestations, which reveal diverse urban living experiences and propose alternative approaches to the capitalist urbanization process. Finally, there is the scholarship challenging mainstream urban theories with a different epistemological stance. Among other things, it seeks to re-conceptualize urbanization from the global South. In addition to studying these important ways of thinking about global urbanism, students will conduct individual research projects to develop a deeper and more concrete understanding of the contemporary urbanization processes.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

A research seminar in which students conduct individual inquiry into problems in medical geography. Also known as health geography, this is a growing subdiscipline in geography that stands out for its theoretical debates, methodological diversity, and engagement with other disciplines from the natural and social sciences (e.g. biology, biomedicine, ecology, epidemiology, sociology, economics, anthropology, critical theory), while always grounded in the traditions of geographical inquiry. Topics and approaches to be covered include historical paradigms in medical geographic thought; international health and development; disease ecology; emerging infectious diseases; the social determinants of health; place or neighborhood effects; environmental justice; spatial epidemiology; and critical approaches to health, the body, and power. Since this is a seminar course we will also emphasize developing your skills in scholarly research and writing, as well as learning how to evaluate and integrate insights from different disciplines. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor. Completion of GEOG 256 prior is encouraged.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces students to geography, a dynamic field that focuses on human-environment interactions, spatial patterns, global connections, and regional differences. Students learn key analytical tools, concepts, and perspectives in geography and then explore the significance of these for understanding our world. Students also gain analytical and critical thinking skills unique to geography that will enrich their education in the liberal arts and propel them along their chosen career path or specialization. Course assignments emphasize hands-on and field-based learning activities. This is one of three introductory course options in geography. This course begins with an exploration of global flows and connections, and then takes you on a scholarly tour of the world, with stops in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Along the way, you systematically investigate major human and physical geography themes such as population dynamics and migration, agricultural change, human-environment interactions, health and disease, economic change and development, urbanization, and cultural shifts. Students may take only one of  GEOG-111, GEOG-113, or GEOG-115 as an introductory course for the Geography major or minor (students can also earn credit equivalent to this course by scoring a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in Human Geography).

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Urban ecology is both a concept and a field of study. It focuses on the interactions between humans, urban ecosystems, and the built environment. With over half of the world's population now living in cities, cities have assumed a critical role in shaping local, regional, and global ecologies. In this course, we will examine the distinctiveness of the interconnected urban biophysical, socio-economic, and political processes. In order to disentangle the complexity of human-environment relations in cities, we will take an interdisciplinary approach and learn theories and concepts in natural science ecology, environmental studies, geography, urban planning, sociology, and public policies. We will use our campus and the Twin Cities as a "living laboratory" and apply these theories and concepts to laboratory exercises, field observation, case studies, and research on contemporary urban sustainability initiatives.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to cartography, visualization, and analyses of geospatial data, as well as hands-on experience with geospatial technologies in the GIS laboratory. Students will learn the basics of mapping/cartography (e.g. scale, projections, map design) and Geographic Information Systems. Students will create maps with commonly used digital data (e.g., aerial photographs, census boundaries, digital elevation models, etc.), and master basic methods of spatial analyses. Both concepts and techniques will be taught in this course. Hands-on assignments include classification of demographic data and query/analysis of vector and raster data. One and one half laboratory hours per week required. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to cartography, visualization, and analyses of geospatial data, as well as hands-on experience with geospatial technologies in the GIS laboratory. Students will learn the basics of mapping/cartography (e.g. scale, projections, map design) and Geographic Information Systems. Students will create maps with commonly used digital data (e.g., aerial photographs, census boundaries, digital elevation models, etc.), and master basic methods of spatial analyses. Both concepts and techniques will be taught in this course. Hands-on assignments include classification of demographic data and query/analysis of vector and raster data. One and one half laboratory hours per week required. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to cartography, visualization, and analyses of geospatial data, as well as hands-on experience with geospatial technologies in the GIS laboratory. Students will learn the basics of mapping/cartography (e.g. scale, projections, map design) and Geographic Information Systems. Students will create maps with commonly used digital data (e.g., aerial photographs, census boundaries, digital elevation models, etc.), and master basic methods of spatial analyses. Both concepts and techniques will be taught in this course. Hands-on assignments include classification of demographic data and query/analysis of vector and raster data. One and one half laboratory hours per week required. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course introduces you to the study of human-environment interactions from a geographic perspective, with a special emphasis on food and agriculture.  We examine environmental issues in a variety of geographic contexts (Global South and Global North) and the connections between environmental problems in different locations.  Beyond agriculture, we also explore other sectoral issues in relation to farming and food security.  These themes include: human population growth, consumption, biodiversity, climate change, and environmental health.  We try on a number of theoretical lenses from geography's broad human-environment tradition (such as physical geography, cultural ecology, commodity chain analysis, political ecology, resource geography, the human dimensions of global change, hazards geography and environmental justice).  In other words, we not only explore a range of agricultural and environmental issues, but also grapple with theory and how this informs our understanding of the human-environment interface.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces you to the interdisciplinary study of cities and emphasizes a geographical lens. The central point of the course is to examine how the built environments of cities are shaped by human activity and how, in turn, urban life is shaped by the built environment. The course focuses on American cities and Minneapolis-St. Paul in particular. This course takes advantage of Macalester's location by introducing you to the urban environment of the Twin Cities and connecting you to its history, landscapes, communities, and institutions through case studies, field study exercises, and visits with experts working in organizations and institutions in the local community. This course will demand a lot from you, but it should be a lot of fun and offer a formative learning experience, not only about cities, but about the discipline of geography, the liberal arts, and even yourself. Field work required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores the ways in which diverse groups of people interact with the natural environment to produce the contemporary landscapes (human and physical) and regional differentiation (social and cultural) of the U.S. and Canada. The course emphasizes patterns of human settlement, economic activity, and land use, with special attention given to social and legal issues relevant to Native populations in the U.S. and the historic and current status and development of Native lands. Case studies and a field study to the Boreal Forest region of northern Minnesota will be used to demonstrate broad themes at a more personal scale.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Whether the twenty-first century will be dominated by the "rising Asia" has spurred recurring debates in policy and academic circles. But what is Asia? How can we understand this diverse region where more than half of the world's population resides? In this course, we will first deconstruct the idea of Asia as a cartographic entity to excavate the layered social-cultural meaning and geographical diversity of the "Asias." We will also place the "Asias" in a global context to reveal how contemporary Asia anchors the changing world political economy and cultural imaginations outside the West. We will begin with important theoretical debates on (East) Asian development that prevailed in the 1980s and 1990s, including discussions about the colonial past, the path-dependency of development and uneven industrialization, regional disparities and mega-urbanization. We will then use these debates as the foundation to explore the contemporary globalizing Asia. What are the important connections between Asian countries, and with other parts of the world? What are the roles of the "Asias" in international governance and geo-politics? Can China replace the United States as the dominant geo-economic power? These are the questions we will explore in this course.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the geographical dimensions of health and disease, emphasizing global and domestic public health issues. Key approaches and themes include the social determinants of health; health equity; how place influences individual health; health equity; epidemiological mapping and spatial analysis; environmental health; environmental justice; the relationship among demographic change, economic development, and population health; the geography of pandemics; the disease ecology approach to infectious and vector-borne diseases; and the challenges of global health governance in the 21st century, with special emphasis on emerging infectious diseases.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The study of environmental hazards stands at a key point of intersection between the natural and social sciences. Geography, with its focus on human-environment interactions, provides key analytical tools for understanding the complex causes and uneven impacts of hazards around the world. We will explore the geophysical nature and social dimensions of disasters caused by floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires. For each of these hazard types, we apply theoretical concepts from major hazards research paradigms, including quantifying the human and economic impacts of disaster; assessing, managing, and mitigating risk; and reducing the impacts of disaster, not only through engineering works but also by reducing social vulnerability and enhancing adaptive capacity. Looking into the future, we will discuss how global-scale processes, such as climate change and globalization, might affect the frequency, intensity, and geographical distribution of environmental hazards in the decades to come.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

We now live in a world where the majority of the population already lives in cities. And yet every year, hundreds of millions of people continue to move into cities to pursue a better future. The contemporary social, economic, and political changes are intrinsically linked to divergent urban processes across the world. This paramount shift poses important theoretical and empirical questions to our age. This course uses the critical perspective of "global urbanism" to both contextualize and connect different urban experiences across places. We will introduce various urban settings and demonstrate how complex relations between urbanization, globalization, and economic development produce spatial unevenness and social inequality. We will study the dominant paradigm of world and global cities, which prioritizes development trajectories of cities in the global North, and discuss contesting views focusing on "ordinary cities" from the global South. Drawing on case studies in the developed and less-developed world, we will also learn how to apply the relational comparative urbanism approach as well as regionally based theoretical perspectives to comprehend the diverse urban landscapes around the globe.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Social scientists use qualitative methods to understand the ways in which societal associations operate and how people experience, contribute to, or try to change these associations. Qualitative methods are thus concerned with analyzing processes and how people experience them. This course trains students to use qualitative research methods to collect data, analyze it, draw authoritative conclusions, and observe professional research ethics. The course emphasizes how qualitative methods contribute to scientific research and how ethical treatment of research participants affects the practice of qualitative research. Above all, the course focuses on training students to conduct qualitative research that contributes to our understanding of human geographies. Students will develop these skills by engaging in a semester-long research project. Prerequisite(s): GEOG 111 or GEOG 113 or GEOG 115, or permission of instructor.In Fall 2024, students in the class will work collaboratively with the East Side Freedom Library (ESFL) to conduct interviews and archival research to investigate how immigration has shaped the development of the Payne-Phalen neighborhood on the East Side of St. Paul. Research findings will be shared with a wider public by elaborating on a walking tour that ESFL has created to examine development and change on the east side of St. Paul through specific stories about people and places in the neighborhood.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

As climates continue to change and indications of ecological stress emerge across the globe, the concept of resilience and resilient socio-ecological systems, has gained support across different scientific communities. Although the concept of resilience has its roots in the ecological sciences literatures, new inquiries into the many dimensions of resilience are emerging, including the greater inclusion of humans in social-ecological systems and the inter-linkages between social, cultural and economic dimensions of resilience. Scholars argue that rural resilience is a pathway towards an end goal of sustainability, one in which the linked socio-ecological circumstances of a community are able to adapt to and survive when faced with significant shocks. Such shocks may include changing climates and natural disasters on the ecological end of a spectrum to the ability of communities to adapt socially to economic crises, such as economic restructuring on the other end of a spectrum. Community resilience inherently involves engaging multiple and many voices and perspectives from within a community to address small and large crises. Community engagement practices are one strategy for creating resilience at the community scale, but other scales, such as ecological systems scales, or individual resilience are also embedded in concepts of resilience. In this course, we will explore the varied conceptualizations of “resilience” from ecological and sustainable development framings to more individual, community, and spiritual conceptualizations. We will specifically discuss the concept of resilience at various spatial scales, from the individual to community-scale practices of resilience. Topics are likely to include agricultural resilience, cultural resilience, livelihood adaptation strategies for resilience. Guest lecturers will provide case studies from around the world presented by scholars from these places who are actively working in resilience studies and will complement discussions, readings and field excursions.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Monuments to enslavers, colonizers, torturers, dictators, war criminals, and other unsavory historical figures often garner substantial news media attention and hold symbolic and cultural significance. The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police forces in 2020 reignited an ongoing global discussion over such monuments that points to their continuing importance as a global issue and their role in political efforts to reshape narratives around national and regional identities. Monuments are also increasingly connected to movements to decolonize places and pursue (or deny) social justice. This interdisciplinary geography course focuses on monuments and memory within a contemporary global context. It surveys controversies over tearing down, re-contextualizing, removing, renaming, and relocating problematic monuments and memorials, as well as efforts to construct new monuments (sometimes called counter-monuments or counter-commemoration) to underrepresented, colonized, or otherwise marginalized groups. Monuments to enslavers across the Americas in countries like the United States and Brazil and to colonizers in Europe, Africa, and Asia will occupy much of the course reading and discussion. The course will also involve a field-based component in which we physically visit, reflect on, and interpret local memorials in the Twin Cities area.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary study of how digital technologies create and mediate social, spatial, and political formations. We will focus on how these technologies entrench or restructure existing class, racial, gender, and global inequities and attend to the ways they make (often complicated) space for collective resistance. Students will gain a strong grasp of core geographic concepts as well as modes of analyzing how these concepts are reshaped in the digital era. Our readings include critical perspectives from a range of geographic locations, structured into four thematic units: ‘Identity and Belonging across Virtual/Material Space: A Critical look at Apps,’ ‘Race, Surveillance, and Policing in Urban Spaces,’ ‘Redefining War, Borders and Sovereignty,’ and ‘The Shifting Landscapes of Labor.’ We will pay particular attention to emerging methods for researching the digital, and students will work throughout the course towards a final project that draws on their own ethnographic research into a digital field site.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course allows students to participate in a "real world" application of their GIS knowledge and skills in a collaborative research project setting. Project focus is on urban GIS and questions developed by and for neighborhoods and other community research organizations. Content of the course includes development of the research project, acquisition and utilization of data used in urban analysis, data manipulation and analytical techniques unique to urban GIS, and geographical data visualization. Laboratory work is required. Prerequisite(s): GEOG 225 and permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the fundamental theories of geospatial analysis as they relate to knowledge discovery and decision-making. We will begin with an overview of why "Spatial is Special” including definitions of geospatial data types (vector vs. raster), spatial dependence, heterogeneity, and stationarity. These foundational concepts will then be implemented in conventional spatial analysis methods including: Spatial Autocorrelation, Spatial Regression, Point- Pattern Analysis, and Interpolation. More advanced topics will be based on student interest and could include: Spatial Scaling, Networks, Geographically Weighted Regression, Clustering, and Weighted Linear Combinations in Suitability Analysis. Major assignments in the course encompass problem-solving and techniques application to demonstrate how geospatial thinking is used to address real-world issues.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

A research seminar in which students explore and discuss current transportation research and issues and conduct an individual inquiry into transportation geography, from the effects of transportation on urban form and land use to the environmental and human dimensions of transport. Through readings, discussions, guest speakers, and local field experiences, students are introduced to a variety of research areas and applications, data sources, and research methods. We will also take advantage of our location within the Twin Cities metropolitan area to host alumni who are currently working in transportation, in order to gain exposure to a professional view of the field. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials