GEOG 203: Cultural Geography
This course satifies the General Eduction requirement in Area D2: Nature and Development of Compex Societies. It is also a foundation course in the Geography Major
The course introduces the foundational concepts used by geographers to describe and study interrelationships within and between social groups, and between those groups and their environments. The course covers three broad topics: 1) Cultural geography (subjects include: popular and folk culture, language, religion, and ethnicity). 2) Economic geography (long-term globalization in production, distribution, and consumption, as well as environmental impacts of economic activity). 3) Population and political geographies (migration, population pressures on environments, and governance of and conflicts in geographic space). Throughout, the class refers to both small and large social groups in historical and contemporary contexts to explore these subjects.
Class Offerings, F09
203.1 – Cultural Geography: Baldwin 3 Units MW 10:45-12 Stev 1002
203.3 – Cultural Geography: Castagna 3 Units MW 5:25-6:40 Stev 1002
203.4 – Cultural Geography: Baldwin 3 Units TuTh 5:25-6:40 Stev 3072
Text
- RUBENSTEIN, 2008. Cultural Landscape:Introduction to Human Geography, 9th Edition
Learning Outcomes for Area D2: Nature and Development of Compex Societies
This subject area examines the emergence of complex societies and their diversity across time and space. Courses examine the ways in which societies and aspects of them function and interact, and the theoretical constructs that have been developed to explain these interactions and their social and environmental consequences.
1. Learn a variety of conditions in which complex social systems have emerged and in which they have transformed.
2. Acquire an appreciation for a significant range and diversity of societies across a broad temporal and geographic span.
3. Attain a basic geographical and historical literacy. Students will be able to identify the locations and the basic chronological framework of the cultures studied.
4. Study the ways in which aspects of these societies function and interact. These aspects include belief systems, social stratification, differential access to resources, gender, exchange, and conflict.
5. Learn current theoretical constructs that explain these phenomena.
6. Study ways in which societies interact with their physical environment. These include adaptations to, and modifications of, the environment as well as reactions to change in the environment.
Learning Objectives for the Geography Major:
#2. Understand the origins, characteristics, processes, and distribution of the world's major economic and political systems, and culture areas
#6. Understand how human actions modify the physical environment and how the physical environment impacts human systems
#7. Oral and Written Communication Skills