Why Major in Geography?
Geography is an area of study concerned with the relationship between society and the environment. Geographers study and analyse the relationships between human activities and the natural and built environment. Thus, Geography is a discipline that combines both the physical and the social sciences and provides students with the skills and conceptual frameworks needed to understand the complex processes shaping the world around us
Environmental geographers study earth surface processes, such as weather and climate, biological diversity, landform evolution, and global environmental change.
Human geographers investigate issues such as cultural landscapes and their change, urban patterns and social problems, natural resource management, agricultural change, political and economic development, and migration and demographic patterns.
Most importantly, Geography is a discipline that seeks to contribute to the creation of just societies and sustainable environments
How do you know if you want to be a geographer?
1. Are you curious about places in the world?
If so, geography channels this interest into study of the makeup of places and what makes them tick.
2. Do you like to look at maps?
The geographer's first inclination is to put information on a map in order to see how it looks spatially.
3. Do you prefer the window seat on airplanes?
Geography explains the constantly changing patterns of human activity and natural phenomena on the landscape.
4. Are you interested in foreign areas?
Many geographers specialize in a particular part of the world such as Latin America, Europe, Asia or Africa.
5. Do you like to work outside?
Many geographers obtain field data in environments that range from wilderness areas to cities.
6. Are you a problem solver?
Geographers are naturally curious about how the world is arranged. They ask questions about WHERE things are located and WHY they are found there.
7. Are you good at seeing connections among seemingly unrelated processes?
Geographers learn to integrate ideas about human behavior, social institutions, and the natural environment.
8. Can you adapt to rapid technological change?
Geography has been transformed by monumental changes in computer and satellite technology.Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have revolutionized the way geographers collect, store, analyze, and present spatial information.
9. Do you try to see the big picture?
Something about geographers' minds causes them to look for the way places fit together, interact with one another, and are influenced by larger, more global forces. Geographers think big!
10. Are you interested in connections between humans and the environment?
Geographers see the world as the human habitat, one that we have transformed and that has transformed us.
© 1996-1999 The Association of American Geographers