Courses

Undergraduate Courses

50 First-Year Seminar: Mountain Environments (3). This course is on understanding the physical geography of mountain environments and the processes that have created them, shaped them, and sustained them.

53 First-Year Seminar: Battle Park: Carolina’s Urban Forest (3). An introduction to the study of urban forest landscapes through a series of field experiences in Carolina’s Battle Park.

54 First-Year Seminar: Global Change and the Carolinas (3). An examination of the ways in which change in the global physical environment, human induced and natural, might impact the Carolinas.

55 First-Year Seminar: Landscape in Science and Art (3). Explores viewing landscape from the perspective of science and of art, and investigates how an integration of both leads to a better understanding and appreciation of a landscape.

56 First-Year Seminar: Local Places in a Globalizing World (3). An examination of the relationship between globalization and localization in order to think about how we, as individuals and groups, can make a difference in the world.

57 First-Year Seminar: Dogs and People: From Prehistory to the Urbanized Future (3). People developed dogs as a living tool that is being modified to current urban social and demographic needs.

58 First-Year Seminar: Making Myth-Leading Memories: Landscapes of Remembrance (3). This course considers memorial landscapes created to reinforce values symbolized by the person, group, or event memorialized. It looks at how disagreements and cultural changes affect memorial landscape interpretation.

59 First-Year Seminar: Space, Identity, and Power in the Middle East (3). This seminar examines the role traditional and modern spaces play in representations of the Middle East and how Middle Easterners engage these contested spaces to construct their cultural and political identities.

60 First-Year Seminar: What Is Health Care? (3). This course will examine a variety of aspects of health care, including the biomedical system, health care in non-Western countries, alternative practitioners, beliefs about health, health policies, the role of various media, and healthy places. The emphasis is on the social sciences (geography, anthropology, sociology, mainly) of health.

61 First-Year Seminar: Climate Change in the American Southeast (3). Seminar participants, working in small groups, will run climate models and investigate current climate trends, combining the results to create scenarios of future climate for the southeast United States.

62 First-Year Seminar: The Culture of Technology (3). This first-year seminar uses the lens of culture to explore systems of meaning and values, and relations of social power, that are invested in technologies.

63 First-Year Seminar: The Problem with Nature and Its Preservation (3). Alternative conceptualizations of nature in Western culture and how these meanings help create the landscapes in which we live and allow us to evaluate the implications of efforts to preserve nature.

64 First-Year Seminar: Vietnam (3). Explores modern Vietnam and situates the American war in broader spatial and historical context. Draws on fact, fiction, and visual media to introduce a fascinating place, rich in history, and to animate a geographic imagination students can take anywhere.

89 First-Year Seminar: Special Topics (3). Special topics course. Content will vary each semester.

110 Geography of Environmental Systems (3). The laboratory and its parent course focus on the geomorphic, hydrologic, and biogeographical aspects of environmental systems with attention to local examples. No laboratory.

111 Weather and Climate (3). An introduction to the nature and causes of weather variability and climate change and their impact on human activity. No laboratory.

115 Maps: Geographic Information from Babylon to Google (3). Introduces the science and art of map making and will lay the conceptual foundation necessary to understand how and why maps are made and used.

120 World Regional Geography (PWAD 120) (3). A survey of the geographic structure of human activity in major world regions and nations. Emphasizes current developments related to population, urbanization, and economic activity.

121 People and Places (3). This course examines places and the connections between places to build critical understandings of the role of human geographies in global economic, political, social, and cultural systems.

123 Cultural Geography (3). How population, environment, and human culture as expressed in technology and organization interact over space and time.

125 Cultural Landscapes (3). Explores how everyday culture helps create the landscapes and places in which we live and what these landscapes tell us about ourselves.

130 Geographical Issues in the Developing World (3). Population and ecological aspects of problems in the urban, industrial, and agricultural development of developing nations from a geographical perspective.

210 Global Issues in the 20th Century (ANTH 210, GLBL 210, HIST 210, POLI 210) (3). See GLBL 210 for description.

212 Environmental Conservation and Global Change (3). Survey of environmental change as driven by physical processes and human activity. Problem-solving methods are explored. Focus on issues such as global warming, ozone depletion, deforestation, extinction, pollution, wetland loss. This course will provide significant background in physical geography in the context of today’s most pressing environmental concerns and with reference to the societal implications and management strategies. (No lab.)

215 Introduction to Spatial Data Science (3). This course will introduce students to data science with a focus on spatial (geographic) data, data that are referenced to a location on Earth’s surface. Students will learn concepts and techniques to apply various facets of data science practice, including data collection, management, and integration, descriptive modeling, exploratory spatial data analysis, and communication via visualization and mapping. Real world examples and datasets spanning physical, social, and health sciences will be used throughout the course..

225 Space, Place, and Difference (WMST 225) (3). Gender, race, and class are examined in terms of the spatial patterns of everyday life, regional patterns, and global patterns.

228 Urban Geography (3). Explores the evolution, patterns, and processes of urbanization and development of cities and city systems. Emphasis on the origin, growth, and spatial distribution of cities and on the internal spatial organization of activities within cities.

232 Agriculture, Food, and Society (3). A study of environmental parameters, cultural preferences, technological developments, and spatial economic infrastructure that result in world patterns of food consumption, production, and distribution.

237 Natural Resources (3). An analysis of selected biological and mineral resources of the world with particular emphasis on their distribution, utilization, and management policies and on their social and economic implications.

253 Introduction to Atmospheric Processes (ENEC 253) (4). Prerequisites, MATH 231 and either CHEM 102 or PHYS 114. Includes one-hour laboratory. Atmospheric processes including radiation, dynamics, and thermodynamics are emphasized. Circulations across a range of temporal and spatial scales are described. Links between environmental problems and the atmosphere are explored.

259 Geography of Latin America (3). An introduction to Latin American geography through an examination of how the region came to be distinct and how social, political, and economic processes continue to define it.

260 North America’s Landscapes (3). A survey of the cultural and physical landscapes of the United States and Canada. Emphasis on landscape evolution, present distributions, and interactions between people and their environment.

261 The South (3). Present-day southern United States, approached historically through a study of its physical, economic, and cultural environment.

262 Geography of North Carolina (3). A survey of the cultural, economic, and physical diversity of North Carolina. Emphasizes regional patterns, historical changes, and the appearance of the landscape.

263 Environmental Field Studies in Siberia (ENEC 263) (4). See ENEC 263 for description.

264 Conservation of Biodiversity in Theory and Practice (ENEC 261) (3). See ENEC 261 for description.

265 Eastern Asia (ASIA 265) (3). Spatial structure of population, urbanization, agriculture, industrialization, and regional links in China, Japan, and Korea.

266 People and Environment in Southeast Asia (3). Sociological, biophysical, and geographical elements are integrated to examine interactions of population and environment in Thailand and neighboring countries. Diverse data sources and perspectives will be used to examine local to global issues.

267 South Asia (ASIA 267) (3). Introduces students to the geography of South Asia, including an overview of the physical environment, cultural practices, and economic development. Emphasizes the political geography of South Asia and political and social processes such as nationalism and colonialism that have played a formative role in the region.

268 Geography of Africa (3). Focuses on dynamic sociocultural, political, economic, and environmental issues shaping contemporary sub-Saharan Africa to develop an understanding of major drivers of stark physical, environmental, and socioeconomic contrasts across the continent and trajectories for the future. Themes include land use and environmental change, historical legacies, urbanization, economic growth, and trade.

269 Human-Environment Interactions in the Galapagos Islands (3). The social and ecological implications of resource conservation and economic development in a World Heritage Site are examined in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador.

270 Geography of Contemporary China (3). This course provides a systematic introduction to China as an emerging political and economic power. From a geographic perspective, this course addresses uneven human and physical landscapes, the historical evolution and current status of the natural environment, economic development, and human well-being.

293 Internship (3). Open to junior and senior geography majors. Geography internships combine substantive geographic work experience with an academic project designed to integrate theory and practice. Field work is included.

295 Undergraduate Research in Geography (3). Permission of the instructor. For students who wish to participate in departmental research programs. Course may not be taken more than twice.

296 Independent Study (1–21). Permission of the instructor. Special reading and research in geography under the supervision of a selected instructor. Course may not be taken more than twice.

370 Introduction to Geographic Information (3). A survey of geographic data sources including maps, photos, digital images, Census information, and others. Emphasis is on appropriate uses, limitations, and skilled interpretation in physical and human geography applications.

390 Contemporary Topics in Geography (1–12). Exploration of topics in contemporary geography.

391 Quantitative Methods in Geography (3). This course provides an introduction to the application of statistical methods to geographic problems and to statistical packages in their solution. Attention given to spatial data analysis and sampling methods.

392 Research Methods in Geography (3). Introduces geographic research methods and develops skills to conduct independent research. Themes include spatial analysis, knowledge production, methodology, theory and evidence, and principles of informed argument. Students gain experience with multiple methods applicable to the study of diverse topics.