 |
|
|
|
The Graduate School of Geography offers a major, minor and electives for undergraduates and a Ph.D. program. Qualified Clark undergraduates can take advantage of an accelerated fifth year program that leads to a B.A./M.A. in Geographic Information Science. An M.A. in Geographic Information Science for Development and Environment is available through a shared program with the Department of International Development, Community and Environment. |
|
 |
Undergraduate Minor
Your Advisor and the Learning Plan
Whether you're planning to major, double major or minor in geography, the first thing you should do is talk with the undergraduate advisor in geography (Professor James Murphy email: jammurphy@clarku.edu) who will help you get started and will set you up with a geography advisor.
Each student is required to prepare a formal learning plan, which helps you make connections between the courses you take and your educational goals. The learning plan is typically a single page in length, and requires signatures by the student, the faculty advisor, and the Director or the Undergraduate Advisor, before Graduation Clearance is granted.
Requirements
The minor has 3 components: (1) core courses, (2) a skills course, and (3) specialization courses.
Core Courses (2 courses)
Core courses emphasize core geographic concepts and ways of creating knowledge; courses in the core are designed to help you build frameworks for understanding the world. The core courses must be selected from one of the following broad disciplinary core areas or by selecting Geog 011 and core courses from three of the four core areas.
We strongly encourage you to take the core courses early in your program. Core courses are often prerequisites for 200-level courses. Here are the four core areas of geographic knowledge and the central questions addressed in each:
- Nature-Society and Global Environmental Change. How have societies used, shaped, and constructed nature? What are the impacts of various societies, economies, and cultures on ecological systems?
- Globalization, Cities, and Development. How have space and location shaped economic, social, political, and cultural life? How have economic, social, political, and cultural life shaped space and location? How is globalization changing these processes? How do these processes relate to the dynamics of urban life?
- Earth Systems Science. What are the interactions involving the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere?
- Geographic Information Science. Geographic Information Science is concerned with the acquisition, storage, analysis and communication of geographic information. This includes applied skills in Cartography, Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis.
Each year, several 000- and 100-level courses are designated as core courses in each of these areas. In special cases, a 200-level course may be used to fulfill a core course requirement, subject to the approval of the student's advisor and either the Undergraduate Advisor or the Director of the School of Geography.
Skills Courses (2 courses)
Skills courses give you the opportunity to acquire and apply research, literacy, numeracy, and mapping skills for generating and interpreting knowledge. Our goal is for students to become critical thinkers and to have an understanding of how knowledge is created.Every student
seeking a minor in Geography is required to take Geography 141: Research Methods (offered each year) and one additional skills course in an area appropriate to the student's specialization, as detailed in his or her learning plan. Formal approval of this elective skills course is implied by the advisor's signature on the learning plan.
Note that with the approval of the student's advisor, comparable courses in other departments can be substituted as skills courses. However, this does not reduce the total number of Geography courses required for the major. Thus students for whom a substitution has been granted will need to take an additional Geography course. You should complete Research Methods before taking 200-level courses in geography.
Specialization Courses (3 courses)
Specialization courses give you an opportunity to explore a specific subject area in depth. Majors are required to take three specialization courses, two of which must be at a 200-level and one of which may be either at a 100-or 200-level. Specialization courses are subject to approval by the student's advisor and must reflect a logical combination of courses as specified in the formal learning plan (see below). Formal approval of the elective specialization course is implied by the advisor's signature on the learning plan.
In general, you should take your core courses and skills courses before taking your specialization courses, which focus on giving you the chance to apply skills in research and problem solving. The Geography Department encourages students to take internships; these normally count as 200-level courses and would be considered part of your specialization.
More details can be found in the links to the Academic Catalog in the box at top, right.
|
|
|
Academic Catalog & Requirements
|
|
|
|
|
Professor Susan Hanson (right) with Dan Pomerleau '04 and Sara Levenson '04. Read more.
|
|
Additional Resources
|
|
|
|
You may also be interested in:
|
|
|
|
