BSc Geography with International Study / Course details

This course offers students a conceptual and geographical grasp of key debates within human geography. Most notably, the course will explore how geographers have understood and examined the geopolitics of nation-states, national identity and borders, the politics and process of international migration, changing interpretations and representations of landscape and culture, creativity, consumption and place-making within the built environment, and the social geographies of the city and the countryside through such issues of homelessness, informality and difference.. Using a range of contemporary examples from both the Global North and the Global South, the course will help students understand the ways in which geographical debates have shaped our knowledge of culture, place, politics, the urban and the rural. The knowledge base developed through these varied examples and debates will be of use to students in years 2 and 3 where course units directly develop some of the themes introduced here.   

By the end of the course unit, you should be able to:

• demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of key concepts in social, cultural, urban and political geography.
• demonstrate an ability to analyse and conceptualise real world problems within an academic framework.
• display an ability to critically interpret and evaluate different theoretical and methodological frameworks for understanding issues in human geography.
• critically reflect upon varied sources of evidence in human geography and display an ability to analyse sources.  

The course will be structured around a semester of 12 weeks with 2 study weeks, the lectures will be ordered as follows;

1.    Introducing Human Geographies II: performativity, cultures and sense of place (SMH and SW)

2.    Gender, Sexuality and Identity in the Geographical Discipline (SMH)

3.    Gender, Sexuality and Identity in Everyday Life (SMH)

4.    Moral Geographies (SMH)

5.    Emotional and Embodied Geographies (SMH)

6.    Study week

7.    Urban restructuring and gentrification: studentification

and cultural quarters (SW)

8.    Rural geographies: from the utopian idyll to the rural ‘other’ (SW)

9.    Study week

10. The cultural politics of landscape – power, materiality, representation (SW)

11. Memory, heritage and material culture (SW)

12. Conclusion: overview and revision (SMH and SW) 

The course unit will be delivered by 20 hours of lecture-based material (including short exercises and in-class debates). The lectures will introduce students to a variety of issues within contemporary human geography, and will encourage students to reflect upon and discuss how geographers have thought about, researched and worked on, the real world relevance of these key issues. Students will be expected to complete reading between lectures and to undertake some preparation work for in class exercises. Sessions will draw upon a range of resources, including powerpoint slides which will be posted to Blackboard for all sessions, links to relevant web resources, core readings and video clips. A comprehensive archive of all sources and links will be compiled on Blackboard for student use, along with details of the course assessment. 

The course will be assessed through a two hour examination, consisting of two essays. 

The core text for this module is:

Cloke, P, Crang , P and Goodwin, M (eds) (2014) Introducing Human Geography (3^rd edition), Routledge, London

Indicative Additional Readings

Anderson, J. (2009) Understanding cultural geography: places and traces London, Routledge.

Clifford, N. Holloway, S.L. Rice, S.P. and Valentine, G. (eds) (2008) Key concepts in geography London, Sage.

Cloke, P. Crang, P. and Goodwin, M. (eds) (2014) Introducing human geographies London, Routledge.  

Edensor, T., Leslie, D., Millington, S. and Rantisi, N. (eds) Spaces of vernacular creativity London, Routledge.

Jackson, P. (1980) Maps of meaning: an introduction to cultural geography Unwin Hyman, London. (Reprinted 1992 and 1994, Routledge, London and New York).

Nayak, A. and Jeffrey, A. (2011) Geographical thought: an introduction to ideas in human geography Oxford, Prentice Hall.

Pain, R., Burke, M., Fuller, D. Gough, J., MacFarlane, R. and Mowl, G. (2001) Introducing Social Geographies London, Hodder Arnold.

Key Journals

Area

Geography Compass

Progress in Human Geography

Social and Cultural Geography

Cultural Geographies

Urban Geography

STUDY WEEKS IN WEEKS 6 AND 9

Timetable: TBC