Introduction to Human Geography

Human geography examines the spatial organization of our interactions with each other and with the non-human environment. It focuses on intersections and connections as well as differences and divisions among people and places. GEOG 1100 introduces students to major traditions, themes, and theories of human geography by focusing on the patterns and processes of globalization and the interdependence of people and places around the world. While the emergence of global trade and transport networks, financial systems, and the internet are connecting us across great distances, we can also see growing income inequality, food insecurity, border nationalism, and the varied impacts of climate change dividing us more and more. In this course, students will investigate the processes that shape the spatial patterns in our world to ‘tell the story behind the map,’ examining the links between the global and local, the unevenness of political and economic development, the spatiality of cultural and social identities, the relationships between nature and society, and the material impacts of our ideas about - and representations of - the world. Topics may include economic and cultural globalization, political geographies, population dynamics and migration, human impacts on the environment, cultural landscapes, economic development, agriculture, and urbanization, among others.