COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course introduces students to the field of human geography. It aims to understand how
places across the globe are interconnected and how these connections are shaped by the
cultural, political, and economic practices of different people around the world. We will begin
by considering the larger historical context of globalization and population change, with a focus
on longstanding debates about migration and resource scarcity. Lectures and reading materials
will also examine more recent concerns about climate change, sea-level rise, and the growing
threat they pose for densely populated cities and coastal regions. The course explores these
issues from a geographical perspective by focusing on key concepts in the discipline: namely,
space, place, scale, and landscape. Students will learn how these concepts have been theorized
and understood in different sub-fields of geography (e.g. political geography, urban geography,
environmental geography, etc.) They will also learn to apply geographic theories in the context
of real-world problems and see how the research of geographers can contribute to practical
solutions at local, national, and international levels.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students in this course will be able to achieve the following learning objectives:
• Define fundamental terms and key concepts in human geography.
• Locate the major settlement patterns, economic regions, and cultural divisions across
the globe and explain how they developed geographically
• Identify demographic changes and how they alter economic and political development
across the globe
• Apply concepts in geographical information science and technology to problems of
human geography
• Identify major processes that create political and cultural difference and how they shape
regional conflicts and environmental change
• Identify how cultural practices and belief systems shape landscapes
• Compare and contrast the processes of economic development in different regions.
• Compare and contrast the impact of globalization (economic, cultural and
environmental) on the core, periphery and semi-periphery