Concentration in Cities, Development and Justice (Bachelor of Science in Geography)

Students on Summer 2019, Fall 2019, or Spring 2020 requirements GEOGGLDCON

View Degree MapA semester-by-semester path to completing degree and major requirements

Requirements

The concentration requires at least 15 credit hours (including at least 12 credit hours at the 300–499 level), including the requirements listed below.

Select from the following courses:
- GEOG-G 221 Natural and Mathematical Sciences Topics in Geography (approved topics only; see academic advisor)
- GEOG-G 306 Current Issues in Globalization, Development and Justice (approved topics only; see academic advisor)
- GEOG-G 313 Place and Politics
- GEOG-G 314 Urban Geography
- GEOG-G 315 Environmental Conservation
- GEOG-G 316 Economic Geography
- GEOG-G 341 Ecological Restoration: Science, Politics, and Ethics
- GEOG-G 384 Food, Place and War
- GEOG-G 389 Humanitarianism and Displacement
- GEOG-G 391 Geography of International Development
- GEOG-G 411 Sustainable Development Systems
- GEOG-G 415 Advanced Urban Geography
- GEOG-G 417
- GEOG-G 426
- GEOG-G 441 Migration and Mobility
- GEOG-G 448 Capitalism and Nature
- GEOG-G 449 Political Ecology
- GEOG-G 469 Food and Global Poverty
- GEOG-G 474 Solidarity Economy in Latin America
- GEOG-G 478 Global Change, Food, and Farming Systems
- GEOG-X 473 Internship in Geographical Analysis (approved topics only; see academic advisor)
- GEOG-X 490 Undergraduate Readings and Research in Geography (approved topics only; see academic advisor)
- One (1) additional course from the Geographic Methods course list
GEOG-G 221 Natural and Mathematical Sciences Topics in Geography
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Exploration of an intriguing topic from a geographic perspective. Topics vary.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Summer 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE NMcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE NMcourse
GEOG-G 306 Current Issues in Globalization, Development and Justice
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
An examination of current problems concerning globalization, development and justice from a geographical perspective. The specific topic to be considered will vary from semester to semester.
Repeatability
May be repeated once with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 313 Place and Politics
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Geography and spatial relationships shape and are shaped by political processes. What drives the geography of elections and political parties, nationalism, environmental and urban movements, war, imperialism, and borders?
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 314 Urban Geography
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Study and interpretation of urban spatial structures, policies, and problems with an emphasis on geographic perspectives. Topics include urban housing markets, racial segregation, homelessness, and urban crime.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 315 Environmental Conservation
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Explores the environmental impact of global population growth, natural resources utilization, and pollution. Examines current problems relating to energy consumption, farming practices, water use, resource development and deforestation from geologic and ecological perspectives. Strategies designed to avert predicted global catastrophe will be examined to determine success potential.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SLcourse
GEOG-G 316 Economic Geography
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
The course familiarizes students with the global pattern of economic endeavor, and teaches basic economic geographic theory and how location decision making occurs.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 341 Ecological Restoration: Science, Politics, and Ethics
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Can humans restore ecosystems and undo the environmental harm they have caused? To what state/extent should ecosystems be restored? What drives the ecological restoration movement? Investigates the deeply interconnected history, philosophy, ecology, geomorphology, and political economy of restoration through readings, discussions, and fieldwork.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 384 Food, Place and War
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
What is the relationship between war, food and a distinctive sense of place? Uses literary nonfiction, including memoirs and histories, to examine how war shapes what people eat, how they get food, and how they use it to connect to communities and the places they inhabit.
Repeatability
Credit given for only one of GEOG-G 384 or GEOG-G 445.
- Summer 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 389 Humanitarianism and Displacement

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Examines the growth of the humanitarian aid system, particularly its unintended and unexpected effects. Explores how situations that call for humanitarian response arise, how nation-states and international agencies respond, what the role of NGOs is, and the position that beneficiaries are assigned in the system.
GEOG-G 391 Geography of International Development
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Addresses questions, such as why is global wealth so unevenly distributed, and what role does international assistance play in mitigating or exacerbating this, using theories of geographically uneven development, critical approaches to space and place, and a survey of \"solution spaces\" focused on mitigating inequality at multiple scales.
- Summer 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 411 Sustainable Development Systems
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
An examination of the notion of sustainable development and its meaning as well as the manner in which it has been implemented in the areas of resources, agriculture, water, transport, cities, and tourism. How such systems can be implemented in developing and developed countries will also be examined.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 415 Advanced Urban Geography
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
An in-depth examination of modern cities, growth dynamics, and sustainability. Explores a range of contemporary socioeconomic topics in an urban setting, including housing markets, segregation, crime, telecommunication, transportation, and regional development. Basic geographic models and spatial statistics are used to explore differences in urban areas.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 441 Migration and Mobility
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Geographers are turning attention to the processes that drive, regulate and accompany various scales of movement, the politics of mobility, and the experience and effect of mobility. A better understanding of mobility helps them investigate processes like globalization, migration, tourism, homelessness, security and transport, international flows as well as micro-scale bodily movements in more nuanced ways.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 448 Capitalism and Nature
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
How has nature been appropriated, reworked, and produced under capitalism; conversely, how does the materiality of nature shape the conditions of capitalism? In this seminar, we will investigate how relations between capitalism and nature have evolved from the end of feudalism through the current neoliberal era.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SLcourse
GEOG-G 449 Political Ecology
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
An introduction to political ecology, an approach which focuses on the political-economic context of natural resource conflicts with particular attention to issues of equity, justice, and power. Covers the theoretical lineage of political ecology, its development over the last twenty years, and current hot topics in the field.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-G 469 Food and Global Poverty
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
How is the production and consumption of food related to poverty and development? Explores how global food systems affect farmers, farmworkers, retailers and consumers; the ways scientific advances changed rural economies in the Third World; and the history of famine and contemporary food security issues.
- Summer 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE GCCcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SLcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SLcourse
GEOG-G 474 Solidarity Economy in Latin America
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Traces the histories, practices, and realities of solidarity economies throughout Latin America. Considers solidarity economy as a broad eco-system of values, relationships, and activities that allow for the advancement of an alternative framework of development centered on equity, cooperation, solidarity, self-management, and democracy.
- Summer 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE GCCcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE GCCcourse
GEOG-G 478 Global Change, Food, and Farming Systems
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Introduction to food production and consumption systems, emphasizing linkages to land use and social change on food/farming system sustainability. Topics include urbanization, population growth, and economic liberalization; farming livelihoods, gender, and poverty; biotechnology; agro-ecology, global health.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
GEOG-X 473 Internship in Geographical Analysis

Credits
1–6 credit hours
Prerequisites
Consent of instructor
Notes
Maximum of 3 credit hours will count toward major
Description
Supervised field experience in geography, normally in conjunction with approved work at a government agency or private firm. Requires 45 hours of work per 1 credit hour.
Repeatability
May be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours in GEOG-X 274, GEOG-X 374, GEOG-X 473 and GEOG-X 474.
Grading
S/F grading.

GEOG-X 490 Undergraduate Readings and Research in Geography

Credits
1–3 credit hours
Prerequisites
Consent of instructor
Description
Individual readings and research in geography.
Repeatability
May be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours in GEOG-G 450 and GEOG-X 490.
Concentration GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
1. At least 9 credit hours in the concentration must be completed at the 300–499 level.
2. Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the concentration.
3. A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the concentration—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
4. Exceptions to concentration requirements may be made with the approval of the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.