Geography

This course focuses on qualitative research methods within geography. The aim is to provide the students with basic knowledge of how to understand, plan, carry out, write up, and evaluate qualitative research. The course begins by discussing what qualitative research is and how knowledge is established. This is followed by discussions on research ethics, positionality, and representationality within qualitative research. Building upon this knowledge, the course turns to how to develop, plan, and carry out a qualitative research project. Qualitative methods such as interviews, participant observation, and questionnaires are introduced. Qualitative data processing such as coding and computer software available for this are then be introduced. The last part of the course is devoted to the analysis, writing, and presentation of qualitative research. As such, the course takes the students through all the import steps related to qualitative research, from planning, carrying it out, treating the data, evaluating the validity, writing it up, to presenting it.

This course offers an introduction to world cultural diversity. Topics include: the Arab world; monsoon Asia; the Slavic world; the western world; Latin America; Sub-Saharan Africa; metageographies-- culture, geographic imaginations, and the geopolitics of spatial structures; contemporary sharing of world cultures-- globalization, consumption, and cultural goods/flows; diasporas-- cultural identity across space and the dislocation of geographic realms.

This course introduces major concepts and definitions in political geography followed by a brief introduction of the intellectual history and lineage of political geography. The course then examines theoretical issues and empirical cases, grouped into a number of topics. The tenet of this course is to show how world order and the lived experiences of people are shaped by, but also reshape, the respective capacities of, and interactions between, state regimes. It is to show that sovereignty, territoriality and nation-state matter a great deal in defining global economy, social transformation and culture. Topics investigated in the course include: classical geopolitical theories; global economy and the world-system; critical geopolitics; globalization and the regulation of difference; imperialism and post-colonial geographies; territoriality, sovereignty and the border; nation-state, nationalism and citizenship.

Taiwan is an island country rich in biodiversity. It is located between the Eurasian Plate and Philippine Sea Plate, and its geological structure is quite young. The orogeny in Taiwan form many towering mountains, so even though Taiwan is in the tropical and subtropical zone, a temperate climate is still found at high altitudes. Taiwan is also known for a high percentage of endemic species, because in the Ice Age, Taiwan was connected to Eurasia. After the Ice Age, Taiwan was isolated by the ocean, and many lives gradually evolved into endemic species on the island. Now, the proportion of endemic species in Taiwan is about 71% mammals, 17% birds, 22% reptiles, 31% amphibians, 19% freshwater fish, 25% plants, and 60% insects. Although the land area of Taiwan is only 0.027% of the total of the world, the number of species is as high as 3.8%, which is 150 times the global average. Furthermore, the marine species around Taiwan are about 10% of the world, which is 361 times the average. Taiwan is not a country with large territory, but has rich biological resources. This course invites guest speakers in different fields to talk about the geography, wildlife, ecosystem, and culture of Taiwan. The course studies the natural environment of Taiwan through lectures and field trips.