Geography

This course focuses on the geography and impact of the Mediterranean sea on its surrounding countries. It examines the environmental and geopolitical impacts of the Mediterranean.

The course is an introduction to soil degradation. It covers historical developments in soil degradation, causes and forms of soil degradation (biological, chemical, physical), the extent of soil degradation in Ghana, the GLASOD project, use of GIS to assess soil degradation, and principles and methods of rehabilitation and reclamation of degraded soils – regulations, policies, and community involvement.

This course develops students’ critical understandings of debates within cultural and historical geography and related disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. The course focuses on the emergence of representational approaches within cultural and historical geography, outlining their proximity to cultural studies and social theory, before exploring a range of approaches to the materiality of culture, from consumption to "things." The intellectual trajectories covered are explored through a range of sites, locations, spatialities, and empirical examples including, but not limited to: landscape, architecture and built space; racialization and spatiality; spaces of consumption, display and exhibition; regulated and policed spaces; artistic and creative spaces; spaces of practice, and so on. The course ends by considering the ‘rematerialization of cultural and historical geography’ offering students an accessible grasp of the theoretical staging grounds of debates at the forefront of the discipline.

This course provides a geographical and critical perspective to global development, with a focus on energy transition processes in and in relation to the global South. It provides a fundamental understanding of the challenges related to sustainable development from the perspective of the global South by focusing on energy transitions. The course looks at historical transitions to fossil energies as well as the discussions on transitions away from fossil energies. It discusses how the systems and conditions for energy transitions are shaped by historical and uneven relations between the Global South and North. Core issues of energy and development and energy transitions are addressed from the perspective of the global South and placed in the context of global sustainability. The awareness of a spatial perspective to development problems and processes enable students to identify and understand the impact of regional and global processes on people’s lives in specific places.