Undergraduate Course Catalog 2011-2012
College of Liberal Arts
» http://www.unh.edu/liberal-arts/
Geography (GEOG)
» http://www.unh.edu/geography
» Click to view course offerings
Chairperson: Blake Gumprecht
Professor: Russell G. Congalton, Alasdair D. Drysdale
Associate Professor: Blake Gumprecht
Assistant Professor: Joel N. Hartter, Mary D. Stampone
Lecturer: Biniam Iyob
Geography is the study of how and why things vary from place to place around the world. Geographers study the environment. They study the geography of human activity. They study places and all that makes them distinctive. They study how people interact with the natural world.
Geography is a multifaceted and inherently interdisciplinary field. It is an integrating discipline, drawing on knowledge from many other fields in order to understand geographic patterns and the character of individual places. Geography is also a way of looking at the world. Nearly any subject can be viewed through a geographic lens.
The Department of Geography at UNH is strongest in cultural, political, urban, historical, and environmental geography, climatology, and geotechniques. Individual faculty members possess regional specialties in New England, North America, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Japan.
The geography major provides undergraduates with a solid foundation in geography while enabling them to develop a specialization in one of the three main areas of geography — human geography, environmental geography, and geotechniques. A geography degree will prepare students to pursue a wide variety of careers or enter graduate school.
UNH geography graduates have gone on to careers as teachers, geographic information systems analysts, pilots, environmental consultants, hurricane hunters, city planners, emergency medical physicians, meteorologists, land surveyors, real estate agents, sports psychologists, “Jeopardy” clue researchers, cartographers, marketing managers, financial portfolio strategists, transportation planners, social analysts, travel consultants, college professors, and more.
Requirements
To earn a bachelor of arts in geography, students must complete 10 geography courses with a minimum grade of C-minus — five core courses, four courses in one of three areas of concentration, plus one elective. Students must select an area of concentration within six months of declaring geography as their major.
Core courses
All geography majors must complete five core courses:
GEOG 401, Regional Geography of the Western World
GEOG 402, Regional Geography of the Non-Western World
GEOG 572, Physical Geography
GEOG 581, Human Geography
GEOG 658, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
The core courses are intended to provide students a basic understanding of human, physical, and world regional geography, plus geographic information systems. They should be taken as early as possible in a student’s program because they provide a foundation for more advanced coursework.
Students are encouraged to complete GEOG 595, Statistics for Geographers, or another introductory statistics course approved by their advisor before enrolling in GEOG 658.
Human geography concentration
Intended for students most interested in the geography of human activity, including population, urban, cultural, political, and economic geography.
Students must complete three of the following, including one course at the 600-level or above:
GEOG 582, Economic Geography
GEOG 583, Urban Geography
GEOG 584, Political Geography
GEOG 588, Geography of Food
GEOG 680, Historical Geography
GEOG 685, Geography of Population and Development
GEOG 690, Geography of Third World Development
Students must complete one of the following regional geography courses:
GEOG 510, Geography of New England
GEOG 514, Geography of the United States and Canada
GEOG 540, Geography of the Middle East
GEOG 541, Geography of Japan
GEOG 550, Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa
Environmental geography concentration
Intended for students most interested in the geography of the natural environment, including weather, climate, landforms, biogeography, and human-environment interactions.
Students must complete three of the following, including one course at the 600-level or above:
GEOG 473, Elements of Weather
GEOG 560, Geography of Natural Hazards and Disasters
GEOG 573, Biogeography
GEOG 574, Geography of Landforms
GEOG 670, Climatology
GEOG 671, Advanced Weather Analysis
GEOG 673, Environmental Geography
Students must also complete GEOG 595, Statistics for Geographers, or another statistics course approved by their advisor.
Geotechniques concentration
Intended for students most interested in geographic information systems, aerial photo interpretation, remote sensing, photogrammetry, and other geographic techniques.
Students must complete three of the following:
GEOG 650, Field Methods in Geography
GEOG 757, Photo Interpretation and Photogrammetry
GEOG 759, Digital Image Processing for Natural Resources
GEOG 760, Geographic Information Systems in Natural Resources
Students must also complete GEOG 595, Statistics for Geographers, or another statistics course approved by their advisor.
Additional regulations
Students entering UNH beginning in August 2010 must pass a comprehensive examination in their senior year to fulfill the Discovery capstone requirement.
Candidates for a degree must satisfy all of the University Discovery Program requirements in addition to satisfying the requirements of each individual major program. Bachelor of arts candidates must also satisfy the foreign language proficiency requirement.
The university’s foreign language requirement can be fulfilled by the following languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Latin, or Greek. Other languages will be considered by petition.
No course may fulfill both a major requirement and a General Education or Discovery category requirement, except when geography is a student’s second major.
