Geography

The course provides an introduction to the study of lake sediments, commonly used methods, and inferences derived from lake-sediment analyses. Characteristics of lake sediments, abiotic and biotic components of lake sediments, and the response of lake systems to environmental and climate change are discussed. Practical analyses include initial lake-sediment description, smear-slide analysis, common sample-treatment methods, and the separation, documentation, and identification of macro- and microscopic organic remains. Paleoecological and paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on lake sediments are demonstrated. 

In this course, students engage in practical fieldwork to map, measure, and describe saltmarsh geomorphology, ecology, and the action of biophysical processes that shape coastal wetlands through a mini-project carried out on the wetlands in Dublin Bay. In this endeavor, they place particular emphasis on the socio-economic and political dimension of saltmarsh restoration in an urban context.

This course considers the characteristics and political dynamics of the unprecedented geographical construction of the European Union. It examines how the European Union is highly exposed due to its geographical location because it is a recent territorial entity of a new kind. It discusses how the EU does not invade anyone, but it is constantly expanding its territory: is it an empire? It has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: is it a power? What is its place in the world? The EU is a multilingual, multinational, and multiterritorial entity: can it be a country or a state? The EU is driven by political life: what is its electoral geography? The course is based on the interactive pedagogy of the flipped classroom: students learn about resources and facts during the week and apply them in group workshops during the course sessions. Students prepare and present serious simulation games.

This course discusses the basic concepts and principles that underpin geomorphic landforms and processes operating at the Earth's surface in a great variety of landscapes around the globe. It presents the significance of time and space scales for recognizing process-form linkages in different environments and the interactions between fluids and sediment transport that result in the formation and development of a variety of landforms.

This course examines tourism as a lens to explore key issues of globalization and economic development and to demonstrate how tourism, a global phenomenon, influences local people’s lives. Course objectives are to 1) introduce key concepts relevant to tourism and globalization; 2) apply theoretical frameworks to the analysis of contemporary issues of the globalization of tourism, and the complex  relationships that link local, regional, national and international processes and patterns of tourism development; 3) explore the relationships between the forces of globalization, multinational tourism corporations, and the state and civil society; and 4) interrogate the economic, political and social ramifications of the systemic sources of power and inequality which are reflected in and sustained by international tourism. Finally, this course will also consider the future of tourism with regard to new sectors and trends such as ecotourism, adventure tourism, and the effects of social media and the Internet, along with what travel will look like in a post-COVID-19 world both in and beyond Hong Kong.

This course examines city systems and theories of urban location; internal spatial structure of the city; commercial and industrial location; social areas; neighborhood and land use change; and urban trends and public policy.

Climate change is not a modern phenomenon, as Earth’s systems are dynamic and rarely stable over extended periods of time. Climate variability occurs across multiple spatial and temporal scales, but we generally lack long enough scientific or historical records to directly measure most long-term patterns of climate change. Palaeoceanography fills this void by providing evidence of past changes in ocean conditions including temperature, salinity, productivity, circulation, and ecology. These variables are typically reconstructed through analyses of the geochemistry, microfossil composition, and organic contents of ancient marine sediments that have either been exposed on land or collected through seafloor drilling. Palaeoceanography offers an opportunity to reconstruct past climate change across timescales, providing a broader context for studying modern climate change.

The course examines the organization of spaces from the point of view of population (i.e. recognition of spatial patterns and dynamics, with population as the focus) and the relevance of the study of population dynamics with special reference to their spatial implications for development. Examples from both the developed and the developing world are be used to treat an introduction to population geography, data, spatial measures and mapping, population characteristics (such as age, sex, nuptiality, households, urban-rural patterns, and socio-economic), components of population change, population distribution, world population growth, and distribution.

This methodological workshop imparts basic reflexes when it comes to thematic cartography. The course focuses on a limited number of skills that are systematically addressed methodologically and then put into practice in subsequent sessions. This dual approach (methodological and practical) develops critical faculties when using, researching, making, and ordering maps, while considering the feasibility and practical difficulties underlying the construction of these images.

How do different actors shape, relate to, sustain or contest the shifting orthodoxies of development? This course is organized as a genealogy of development policy thinking from post-war decolonization onwards. It gives students an essential introduction to the evolution of international development as a global project from its post-World War II origins to the present day. It maps out the key moments (of innovation, crisis, and reinvention) in that evolution and the shifts in thinking that underpin changes in global development agendas/policy.