Course schedule

 

Note:  schedule and readings subject to change. 

 

         I.       The Discipline

1.      August 25: Intros

                                                                      i.       Carl O. Sauer, "The Education of a Geographer." Reprinted from The Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 46 (1956): 287-99.

                                                                    ii.       Peter Kropotkin, ÒWhat geography ought to be.Ó  1885.

                                                                  iii.       AAG, Statement of Professional Ethics.

Additional reading:

                                                                  iv.       Steven Harrison, Doreen Massey, Keith Richards, Francis Magilligan, Nigel Thrift, and Barbara Bender. 2004.  ÒThinking across the divide: perspectives on the conversations between physical and human geography.Ó  Area, 36(4): 435-442. 

                                                                    v.       Mei-Po Kwan.  2004.  ÒBeyond difference: from canonical geography to hybrid geographies.Ó  Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94(4): 756-763.

 

2.      September 1:  Approaches to the history of geography

                                                                      i.       Questioning Geography, pp. 1-54

                                                                    ii.       David Livingstone. 1992.  ÒShould the history of geography be x-rated? telling geographyÕs story.Ó  In The Geographical Tradition.  Malden, MA: Blackwell. pp. 1-31.

                                                                  iii.       Mona Domosh.  ÒTowards a feminist historiography of geography.Ó  Transactions of the British Institute of Geographers.  16 (1991): 95-104

                                                                   iv.       David Harvey, "On the History and Present Condition of Geography: An Historical Materialist Manifesto," Professional Geographer, Vol. 36, No. 1 (February 1984): 1-11.

                                                                    v.       Laura Pulido, ÒReflections on a white discipline.Ó  The Professional Geographer 54(1): 42-49.

 

      II.       Making Geography Scientific

3.      September 8: Enlightenment traditions

 

Following up on history of geography

                                                                      i.       Nick Clifford. 2009.  Entry for ÒPhyscial Geography.Ó In Gregory, et al., eds. The Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th Edition (pp. 531-538). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

                                                                    ii.       Nick Clifford. 2001.  ÒPhysical geography – the naughty world revisitedÓ (Editorial).  Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, 26: 387-389.

                                                                  iii.       QG: 80-95

 

Enlightenment traditions

                                                                  iv.       Alexander von Humboldt

1.      Browse the Humboldt digital library.

2.      Read the Intro to The Cosmos, pp. 1-9 (1858). 

3.      View HumboldtÕs plant geography (online, interactive version).

                                                                    v.       David R. Stoddart, "Darwin's Impact on Geography," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 56 (Dec., 1966): 683-698.

                                                                  vi.       Stuart Elden. 2008. ÒReassessing Kant's geography.Ó  Journal of Historical Geography 35 (2009): 3-25.

 

4.      September 15 – Moderinizing Geography

                                                                      i.       QG, pp. 55-79

                                                                    ii.       Halford Mackinder. 1996 (1904). ÒThe Geographical Pivot of History.Ó In J. Agnew, et al., eds.  Human Geography: an essential anthology.  Malden, MA: Blackwell. Pp. 536-551.

                                                                  iii.       Richard Hartshorne. ÒWhat Kind of a Science is Geography?Ó The Nature of Geography.  Lancaster, PA: AAG.  1939.

                                                                  iv.       Friedrich Ratzel.  1996 (1896). ÒThe Territorial Growth of States.Ó In J. Agnew, et al., eds.  Human Geography: an essential anthology.  Malden, MA: Blackwell. Pp. 525-535.

                                                                    v.       Ellen Churchill Semple, ÒOperation of Geographic factors in historyÓ (Chapter 1).  In Influence of Geographic Environment on the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-geography.  New York: Russell and Russell, 1911.

 

5.      September 22: Critical reflections – Working with Uncertainty

                                                                      i.       QG, pp. 96-114

                                                                    ii.       Michel Foucault, ÒWhat is Enlightenment?Ó In Rabinow, P. ed. The Foucault Reader.  New York: Pantheon Books, 1984, pp. 32-50.

                                                                  iii.       Jorge Luis Borges, On exactitude in science. 1946.

                                                                  iv.       Donna Haraway. ÒSituated Knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective.Ó Feminist Studies, 1988, 4(3): 575-599.

                                                                    v.       Bruno Latour. 1999. ÒCirculating Reference.Ó In PandoraÕs hope: essays on the reality of science studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Pp. 24-79 (Chapter 2).

 

    III.       Key Debates

6.      September 29: Earth systems

                                                                      i.       QG, part 3: 115-150

                                                                    ii.       Ron Johnston.  2005. ÒGeography (and geographers) and earth system science.Ó  Geoforum 37:7-11.

                                                                  iii.       A.J. Pitman.  2005. ÒOn the role of Geography in Earth System Science.Ó Geoforum 36: 137-148.

                                                                  iv.       Nick Clifford and Keith Richards.  2005. ÒEarth system science: an oxymoron?Ó  Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 30:379-383.

                                                                    v.       Student selections (Tony, Adrienne, Nate; leaders)

1.       Bales, R. C., N. P. Molotch, T. H. Painter, M. D. Dettinger, R. Rice, and J. Dozier (2006), Mountain hydrology of the western United States, Water Resour. Res., 42.

2.        Overpeck, J.T., et al. 2005. Arctic System on Trajectory to New, Seasonally Ice-Free State. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 86: 309-316.

3.        Annotated references 

 

7.      October 6: Nature/Society

                                                                      i.       Raymond Williams, ÒNature.Ó  In Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, revised edition.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1983, pp. 219-224.

                                                                    ii.       Clarence Glacken. Traces on the Rhodian Shore.  Preface, pp. vii-xii, 1967. Excerpted in Agnew, J. et al., eds. Human Geography: an essential anthology.  Malden, MA: Blackwell. Pp. 246-251.

                                                                  iii.       Watts, M.  ÒNature:Culture,Ó  In Cloke and Johnston, eds.  Spaces of geographical thought.  London: Sage, 2005, pp. 142-174.

                                                                  iv.       Student Selections (Mason, Amanda, Beth, Kristin)

1.      Annotated References

2.      K. McAfee.  1999.  ÒSelling nature to save it? Biodiversity and the rise of green developmentalism.Ó  Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 17(2):133-154.

3.      M. Sahlins.  1996. ÒThe sadness of sweetness: the Native anthropology of Western cosmology.Ó  [comments and reply optional].  Current Anthropology, 37(3): 395-428.

 

8.      October 13: Place in all its senses

                                                                      i.       QG, 167-185, 226-240

                                                                    ii.       Yi-Fu Tuan.  ÒSpace and place: a humanistic perspectiveÓ (1974). In Agnew, J. et al., eds. Human Geography: an essential anthology.  Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1996, pp. 444-457.

                                                                  iii.       Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks.  New York: International Publishers, 1971, p. 447-8. Read all of p. 447 and 448 up until the ÒNote.Ó  You may also want to read this brief definition of ÒPhilosophy of Praxis.Ó

                                                                  iv.       Doreen Massey.  ÒPolitics and Space/Time.Ó  New Left Review, 1992, no. 196, pp. 65-84.

                                                                    v.       Edward Said.  Orientalism,  25th Anniversary Edition.  New York: Vintage Books.  Pp. 1-9, 49-73.

                                                                  vi.       Student selections (Grant, Jenn, Amy)

1.      Michael Dear and Steven Flusty. 1998.  ÒPostmodern urbanism.Ó  Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 88(1):50-72.

2.      Annotated references.

 

9.      October 20: Cartography/GIS

                                                                      i.       QG: 189-205

                                                                    ii.       Dawn Wright, Michael Goodchild, and James Proctor. 1997.  ÒGIS: tool or science? Demystifying the persistent ambiguity of GIS as a ÔtoolÕ versus Ôscience.ÕÓ Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 87(2): 346-362.

                                                                  iii.       John Pickles. 1997.  ÒTool or science? GIS, technoscience, and the theoretical turn.Ó  Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 87(2): 363-372.

                                                                  iv.       Jeremy Crampton and J. Krygier.  2006. ÒAn Introduction to Critical Cartography.Ó  ACME, 4(1): 11-33.

                                                                    v.       Denis Wood. 2003. ÒCartography is dead (thank God!).Ó  Cartographic Perspectives, 45: 4-7.

                                                                  vi.       Student selections (Julie Hicks, Petra, Julia Uhlendorf)

1.      Robert McMaster and Eric Sheppard.  2004. ÒIntroduction: Scale and Geographic Inquiry.Ó In Sheppard and McMaster, eds. Scale and Geographic Inquiry: Nature, Society, and Method. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 1-22.

2.      Annotated References.

 

Additional readings (not required)

                                                                vii.       Mei-Po Kwan.  2002. ÒFeminist visualization: re-envisioning GIS method in feminist geography.Ó  Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 92(4): 645-661.

                                                              viii.       Michael Goodchild. ÒSpatial information science.Ó Keynote Address.  Fourth International Symposium on Spatial Data. 1990.

                                                                  ix.       John Snow.  1855. On the mode of communication of cholera.  Review Part I and map.

 

10.  October 27: Quantitative approaches

                                                                      i.       QG 206-225, 241-257

                                                                    ii.       Mei-Po Kwan, 2004. ÒBeyond difference: from canonical geographies to hybrid geographies.Ó  Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 94(2): 756-763.

                                                                  iii.       Trevor Barnes, 2009.  ÒÔNot only É but alsoÕ: quantitative and critical geography.Ó The Professional Geographer, 61(3): 292-300.

                                                                  iv.       Student selections

1.       Poon, Jessie PH. "Quantitative methods: not positively positivist." Progress in Human       Geography 29 (2005): 776-72.

2.       Wagner, Helene H., and Marie-JosŽe Fortin. 2005. Spatial analysis of landscapes: concepts and statistics. Ecology 86, no. 8 (8): 1975-1987.

3.       Annotated References 

 

IV.  The uses and abuses of geography

 

11.  November 3: Climate Change

                                                                      i.       Guest: Mark Serreze

                                                                    ii.       QG: 277-293

                                                                  iii.       David Demeritt.  2001.  ÒThe construction of global warming and the politics of science.Ó Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 91(2): 307-337.

                                                                  iv.       Steven Schneider.  2001.  ÒA constructive deconstruction of constructionists: a response to Demeritt.Ó Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 91(2): 338-344.

                                                                    v.       David Demeritt.  2001. ÒScience and the understanding of science.Ó Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 91(2): 345-348.

                                                                  vi.       Mike Hulme, 2008.  ÒGeographical work at the boundaries of climate change.Ó  Transactions, 33:5-11.

                                                                vii.       Gita Laidler.  2006. ÒInuit and scientific perspectives on the relationship between sea ice and climate change: the ideal complement?Ó  Climactic Change, 78(2-4): 1573-1480.

 

12. November 10: Development

                                                                      i.       Neil Smith. 1997.  ÒThe Satanic Geographies of Globalization: Uneven Development in the 1990s.Ó  Public Culture, 10(1): 169-189.  

                                                                    ii.       James Ferguson and Larry Lohman.  1997 (1994).  ÒDevelopment and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho.Ó In Rahnema, M. and V. Bawtree, eds.  The Post-Development Reader.  London: Zed Press. Pp. 223-233. 

                                                                  iii.       Jeffrey Sachs, et al. 2001. ÒThe Geography of Poverty and Wealth.Ó  Scientific American 284(3): 70-75.

                                                                  iv.       Paul Collier, 2003.  ÒThe Market for Civil War.Ó  Foreign Policy, May/June 2003; 38-55.

                                                                    v.       Michael Watts, 2003. ÒEconomies of Violence; More Oil, More Blood.Ó  Economic and Political Weekly, 38(48): 5089-5099.

                                                                  vi.       Victoria Lawson, 2007.  ÒGeographies of Care and Responsibility.Ó  Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 97(1):1-11.

Supplemental viewing

                                                                vii.       VIDEO: World Bank. 2008.  ÒWorld Development Report 2009.Ó  Available on YouTube.

 

13. November 17: Geography and Empire

                                                                      i.       Guest: John OÕLaughlin

                                                                    ii.       Trevor J. Barnes. 2008. ÒGeographyÕs underworld: the military–industrial complex, mathematical modeling and the quantitative revolution,Ó Geoforum 39: 3–16.

                                                                  iii.       Richard A. Beck. 2003.  ÒRemote Sensing and GIS as Counterterrorism Tools in the Afghanistan War: A Case Study of Zhawar Kili Region.Ó The Professional Geographer, 55(2): 170-179.

                                                                  iv.       John OÕLaughlin.  2005.  ÒThe war on terrorism, academic publication norms, and replication.Ó  The Professional Geographer, 57(4): 588-591.

                                                                    v.       Richard A. Beck. 2005.  ÒReplies to Commentaries by OÕLaughlin and Shroder.Ó The Professional Geographer, 57(4): 598-608.

                                                                  vi.       Robert Kaplan.  ÒThe Revenge of Geography.Ó  Foreign Policy, May/June 2009.

                                                                vii.       (Various).  2009. ÒGeography writes back: Response to KaplanÕs ÔThe Revenge of Geography.ÕÓ  Human Geography, 2(2): 33-51.

 

Supplemental reading

                                                                      i.       Jack Shroder, 2005.  ÒRemote Sensing and GIS as Counterterrorism Tools in the Afghanistan War: Reality, Plus the Results of Media Hyperbole.Ó The Professional Geographer, 57(4): 592-597.

 

 

 

November 24 – no class (Fall Break)

 

14. December 1: Restoration/conservation

                                                                      i.       Guest: John Pitlick

                                                                    ii.       William Cronon.  1996. ÒThe Trouble with Wilderness.Ó  In W. Cronon, ed.  Uncommon Ground: rethinking the human place in nature.  New York: W.W. Norton.  Pp. 69-90.

                                                                  iii.       John C. Schmidt, et al. 1998.  ÒScience and values in River Restoration in the Grand Canyon.Ó  BioScience, 48(9): 735-747. **Be sure to read Table 3 carefully.**

                                                                  iv.       Tim P. Barnett and David W. Pierce, 2008.  ÒWhen will Lake Mead go dry?Ó  Water Resources Research, 44 (10p).

                                                                    v.       Balaji Rajagopalan, et al. 2009.  ÒWater supply risk on the Colorado River: Can management mitigate?Ó  Water Resources Research, 45 (7p).

 

15. December 8: The future of Geography?

                                                                      i.       QG: 294-307

                                                                    ii.       Nigel Thrift.  2002.  ÒThe future of Geography.Ó Geoforum 33: 291-298.

                                                                  iii.       Nicholas J. Clifford.  2002. ÒThe future of Geography: why the whole is less than the sum of its parts.Ó Geoforum 33: 431-436.

                                                                  iv.       Ron Johnston.  2002. ÒReflections on Nigel ThriftÕs optimism: political strategies to implement his vision.Ó Geoforum 33: 421-425.

                                                                    v.       Billy Lee Turner.  2002. ÒResponse to ThriftÕs Ôthe future of Geography.ÕÓ Geoforum 33: 427-429.