Geography

Geography bridges the social sciences and physical sciences in the pursuit of how humans affect and are affected by natural environment. Geographers examine many social/physical issues at every scale, such as housing development and habitat loss, insurance premiums and storm damage, commercial fishing and marine sustainability, transport flow and air pollution, energy needs and mineral exploitation, and intensive farming and deforestation. Geography is the study of place and space, in the same sense that history is the study of time. Geographers ask where where are things located? why are they located where they are? and how do we map them? Geographers are concerned with mapping how changes to the landscape, vegetation, animals, climate impact where humans live, socialize, work, trade, and form cultural and nationalist identities. They examine agricultural practices, industry, boundary disputes, urban decay, political ideologies, religious principles, and how these relate to perceptions of the environment, concern for global warming, and recycling/sustainability practices. All these can by mapped using computer-based GIS, GPS and satellite surveillance techniques with ever-improving geographic accuracy and precision.

The Geography major consists of 34 credit hours, and all at grade C- or better. All courses are 3 credits, except ones with Labs which are 4 credits.