Human activities and physical processes happen in places. Geography is the study of spatial dimensions and interactions with an aim to identify and understand pattern, process, and place. Geographers study how things move across space -- groups of people, ideas, cultural trends, disease vectors, glaciers, and climate impacts – as well as how spatial movement may be altered by different kinds of borders including political borders, economic borders, and physical borders such as ecosystem boundaries and urban infrastructure. How are some languages and cultural practices amplified by social media, for instance, while other languages and traditional cultures remain isolated? Geography examines layers of processes and interactions in order to generate a fuller picture and a more nuanced understanding. Rather than look only at social norms, or political trends, or environmental patterns, geographers understand the importance of bringing different layers of information and perspective together. In addition to interpreting and geovisualizing spatial data at multiple spatial scales (e.g. global, regional, urban, personal), geographers aim to understand connections between processes and places and to generate informed questions and critical thinking towards policy solutions and theoretical frameworks.

Why choose/pursue Geography?

If you are curious about why places are sometimes unique, connected, similar, and changing,

If you are interested in understanding how maps may be both helpful and misleading,

If you are intrigued by multi-dimensional problems of either human systems, environmental systems, or human-environment interactions,

If you value critical thinking that questions everyday assumptions about how the world works,

If you would like to develop employable skills in the interpretation and presentation of spatial data...

Then consider majoring or minoring in Geography (BA, BS, BGS), or pursuing one of our departmental certificates in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or Climate and Climate Change.