Geography

This course explores the processes and patterns of climate variability and change, and considers how these aspects of climate impact society. The course emphasizes the concept that climate is not only a determinant of human activities but is one of humankind's greatest resources. The course also examines how it can be one of humankind's greatest threats, due to the occurrence of climate extremes and anthropogenic-related changes to the global climate system. The course explores the relationship between climate and society; climate oscillations and teleconnections as well as the mechanisms underlying climatic variability; the nature of direct and indirect impacts of climate on society and the science of climate change and how climate change impact assessments are conducted; climate risk and its assessment; how climate knowledge can be applied to the problem of sustainable development.

In this course, students analyze the interplay between migration and health, i.e. the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of migrants. The ability of a migrant to integrate into a host society is based upon combined mental, physical, cultural, and social well-being. Absence of physical ill-health is not by itself sufficient for successful integration in a host society. However, the structural inequalities experienced by migrants have a significant impact on overall health and well-being. 

This course introduces conceptual approaches for understanding the myriad relationships between human societies and their biophysical environments. It addresses three key questions. First, how are nature and society interconnected? Second, what theoretical and methodological approaches can be used to study nature-society relationships? Third, how can societal relationships with nature be improved in ways that are sustainable and just? These questions will be explored using different social theories, particularly from the interdisciplinary field of political ecology, which will be applied to contemporary environmental issues. Students will learn how to critically think, discuss, and write about complex nature-society interactions.

Geographic information systems (GIS) are computer systems for the collection, storage, visualization, and display of geographically referenced information. A GIS can be used to ask and answer complex questions that have a spatial component. This course utilizes GIS to examine spatial data in relation to a range of environmental and socioeconomic issues. This course introduces GIS using a popular desktop package called ArcGIS 10.x. Students use this software and some additional programs, called ‘extensions,’ for vector and raster (grid-based) analysis. The course is problem-based. Students solve problems using the GIS and  demonstrate their new knowledge through homework projects, practical exams, and a research project.

This lecture-based course integrates theories and practices of environment and society as reflected in contemporary governance debates. The course explores the science and politics of environmental governance, examining the historical and contemporary practices by which human uses of natural resources have been governed. It analyses the knowledges, models, and theories that make up scientific understandings of biodiversity conservation, particularly participative and economic concepts and rationales. Through these areas, and drawing upon debates from various literatures, the course critically interrogates the ways in which human uses of natural resources in protected areas are considered as governable.