Human Geography with GIS

The mission of the Geography Department is to introduce students to the substance and methods of spatial theory and analysis. We are committed to offering a curriculum that contributes to our students' appreciation of an increasingly complex world.

Geography shares with other social sciences an interest in the human condition. What distinguishes geography is its methods of examination. We seek to understand spatial patterns, how they change through time, and the underlying processes responsible for them. Accordingly, geography is sensitive to issues such as scale, area, and distance, whether measured in miles, minutes, or the mental metric of a particular individual. It is our objective to share the value of these concepts with our students while recognizing that the spatial perspective neither precludes nor devalues the importance of diverse contexts and ideas.

Geography has a legacy of studying the distribution of both human and physical phenomena. While undoubtedly easier to treat these as wholly separate sub-disciplines, we believe that such separation is artificial and sacrifices the understanding that results from integrated knowledge of physical and human systems. Accordingly, it is our goal to provide a general framework for understanding the relationships between people and their physical environments.