GEOG 340 - Advanced Urban and Regional Studies

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as ESCI 340 and ENST 340) Topic for 2013/14a: Ethnic Geography and Transnationalism. This seminar is a multidisciplinary discussion of the changing theoretical discourses on studying ethnic groups in America ranging from assimilation, multi-culturalism to transnationalism. We contrast the historical experiences of the European immigrants and the experiences of contemporary Hispanic and Asian populations in different urban locations in the U.S. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which ethnic spaces are constructed through the practices of the ethnic population and the larger society. The topics include immigration in the context of global history, race, ethnicity and identities, cultural assimilation and integration, changes in gender relations, and transnational linkages.

Topic for 2013/14b: Arctic Environmental Change. Arctic environments define a geographic region that is important to understand both in terms of its distinctive biogeographic patterns and functions and because it is subject to some of the most dramatic environmental alterations associated with global climate change. This course takes a biogeographic and landscape ecological approach to examining how this region contributes to global biodiversity, and why it contributes disproportionately to the regulation and change of the earth’s climate system. What characteristics define these environments and make them especially vulnerable to positive feedbacks in a changing climate? How might climate changes alter landscape structure and composition, and what are the implications of these changes for the distribution of plants and animals in the region? What are global implications of these changes? We examine current literature and data to explore these questions about ongoing and anticipated environmental change in arctic regions. Some background in understanding earth systems or climate change is helpful. 2013/14a: Ms. Zhou. 2013/14b: Ms. Cunningham.

One 3-hour period.