Geography at UNC Chapel Hill

 Environmental Science and Policy   
Geo-visualization and Geographical Information Sciences  
Nature-Society Interactions and Political Ecology
Globalization, Political Economy, and International Development   
Places, Spaces, Cities, and Landscapes

The Department of Geography at UNC Chapel Hill is active in undergraduate teaching, mentoring, and research, it has strong programs of graduate education and training, and its faculty members are engaged in a wide range of research and public service activities in other countries, across the US, and in North Carolina.  Faculty members in Geography currently direct the Carolina Institute for the Environment, the Center for Galapagos Studies, and the Southeast Regional Climate Center, while others serve on the Advisory Boards of the University Program in Cultural Studies, the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, the Center for European Studies, the EU Center, the Carolina Asia Center, the Institute for the Study of the Americas, and the Office of Study Abroad. Many are actively engaged in international research projects or study abroad programs, such as those in Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Ecuador, India, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Slovakia, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, and Turkey, as well as many local research sites in North Carolina.

Faculty and student teaching and research deals with issues of importance to local and state communities as well as broader problems of regional, national and global significance.  These include concentrations in: earth systems science; land cover land change science; political economies and political ecologies of economic and environmental change; immigration and community dynamics; the study of the Galapagos; globalization and international development;  changing patterns of employment and work; geographies of health; and memory, place, and identity.  Faculty and students work closely together to develop programs of study tailored to the specific needs of undergraduate and graduate students alike.

Undergraduate students are able to develop a focused area of study in environmental geography, human-social geography, or geographic information science.  Many participate in faculty research projects, study abroad programs, and exchange and joint degree programs with our partner universities such as those at the National University of Singapore and Kings College University of London.  After graduation geographers typically go on to work in professions dealing with environmental management, urban and regional development, land-use planning, GIS and mapping, and teaching.

Graduate students concentrate their studies in one or two of five overlapping themes:

• Environmental geography and earth systems science
• Nature and society
• Geographic Information Science
• Culture, society, and space
• Globalization and international development

RESEARCH GROUPS
Faculty and students are involved in a range of externally funded research projects. These currently include:

• 3Cs: counter-cartographies collective
• The Baltimore Ecosystem Study (NSF, USGS, USDA)
• The Changing Nature(s) of Land (Mellon Foundation)
• Diversity and Conformity in Muslim Societies (Mellon Foundation)
  
• Ecuador Projects
• Galapagos Projects
• The Global Apparel Project (NSF)
• Nang Rong Thailand Projects (NSF, NIH, NASA, Mellon)
• Environmental and Social Mapping Project in North Carolina
• Producing and Consuming Women's 'Islamic' Dress: The New Veiling-Fashion Industry in Turkey (National Science Foundation)
  
• Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Species On and Around Military Installations (NSF, DoD)
• Spatial Health Research Group
  

The Department of Geography supports the University's core values encouraging diversity and equal educational and employment opportunities throughout the University community. These values are articulated in the University's non-discrimination policy and by the office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.  The Department also supports the University's Gender Inclusive Language Policy 9-16-09.