Human Geography Concentration

Human Geography in Action

Tents in mountains

Winter is Coming! A scene from a village in the summer monsoon months in Sikkim near the Indo-China border. Village women are returning home after gathering firewood in preparation for winter while the men are out collecting caterpillar fungus in the alpine meadows. This photo was captured while conducting preliminary research for my dissertation project titled, ‘Caterpillar Fungus and the Making of Borderland Lives in Sikkim, India.’ Photo: Tsering Lhamo.

Students at Events

Graduate Student lunch with Dr. Cindi Katz, the Keynote speaker to the our 2025 Mapathon.

Giant Map of Colorado

Giant Colorado Map used by alumna, Rebecca Theobald, at a demonstration event.

Crowd in Nepal city with engraved metal bell in foreground
Leishan, 2012. Sometimes fieldwork isn't that exciting

Leishan, 2012. Sometimes fieldwork isn't that exciting. Photo: Tim Oakes

Uncooperative horse. Household in Drido, Qinghai, Tibetan Plateau. This horse they hoped to ride has other ideas. Photo: Emily Yeh.

Uncooperative horse. Household in Drido, Qinghai, Tibetan Plateau. This horse they hoped to ride has other ideas. Photo: Emily Yeh.

Human Geography

Population, economics, public health, politics and culture, urban housing and development, GEO-justice, and regional geography

Human geography first and foremost involves the study of human beings--more specifically, of the organization of human activity and of spatial patterns as they affect and, in turn, respond to the world about us.  The processes under study derive from distinct, but interactive, substructures: pursuit of livelihood (economic), social interaction (socio-political), and historical inertia and meaning (cultural).  The products are change, conflict, diffusion, differentiation, and repetition in the human organization of the land.  These same human processes will interact with biophysical processes, (e.g., air quality or plant introductions) to shape humanized landscapes and regional character.  Human geographers typically investigate problems associated with locational strategies and human decisions.  Such problems cut through subjects as diverse as analysis of regional markets, racial segregation in cities, migration flows, hazardous sites, international development, medieval landscape patterns, or formulation of impact statements.

Courses in this Concentration

Lower Division

  • GEOG 1100: Colorado Geographies: Environment, Society and Change in the Centennial State
  • GEOG 1200: Climate Change Geographies: Science, Impacts, and Action
  • GEOG 1972: Sustainable Futures, Environment & Society
  • GEOG 2053: Mapping a Our World
  • GEOG 2092: Advanced Human Geography
  • GEOG 2112: Sounds Travels: Musical Geographies
  • GEOG 2212: Location, Location, Location: Introduction to Affordable Housing and Urban Development Geographies
  • GEOG 2552: Healthy Places, Toxic Spaces: Geographies of Wellbeing, Risk, and Care
  • GEOG 2692: Foundations in Public Health

Methods

Upper Division Electives (organize by sub-categories):

Environment, Society, and Sustainability

GEO-Justice

  • GEOG 3672: Who Runs the World? Sex, Power, and Gender in Geography
  • GEOG 3682: International Development: Economics, Power, and Place
  • GEOG 3742: Power, Place, and Contemporary Culture
  • GEOG 3782: Environmentalism, Race, and Justice
  • GEOG 4112: Development and Social Wellbeing: Understanding Policy and Practice with Fieldwork in India
  • GEOG 4292: Migration, Immigrant Adaptation, and Development
  • GEOG 4302: Latinx Geographies
  • GEOG 4712: Political Geography
  • GEOG 4772: Food & Power

Housing/Urban Development

  • GEOG 3612: Reimagining Cities: Spaces of Power, Privilege, and Possibility
  • GEOG 3622: Cities of the Global South
  • GEOG 3662: Economic Geography
  • GEOG 4602: Global Perspectives on Urban Resilience and Sustainability Planning

Public Health

  • GEOG 3692: Introduction to Global Public Health
  • GEOG 4292: Migration, Immigration Adaptation, & Development
  • GEOG 4542: Public Health Capstone Research Methods: Environmental Interventions to the Mental Health Epidemic
  • GEOG 4692: Climate Change and Health
    GEOG 4693: GIS and Public Health
  • GEOG 4792: Human Health and the Environment
  • GEOG 4852: Health and Medical Geography

Regional Geography

  • GEOG 3812: Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean
  • GEOG 3822: China's Diverse Geographies: Environment, Society, Politics
  • GEOG 3832: Love & War Geographies: Imperialism, Militarism, and Development in South Asia
  • GEOG 3862: Global Africa: Environment, Development, and Culture
  • GEOG 3882: Geography of the Former Soviet Union