Geography

This course offers a study of "sustainable development," based on the notion that human development can only be sustainable when environmental boundaries are respected. The course introduces the main concepts, ideas, and theories related to the term sustainable development. The course explores humanity’s immense impact on the earth’s systems and the underlying drivers of these unsustainable trends. Furthermore, sustainable development requires an understanding that inaction has consequences. Students review some of the contemporary ideas about how to achieve a more sustainable society.

The Arctic is expected to become more important in the coming decades as climate change makes natural resources and transport routes more accessible creating threats to fragile ecosystems and societies as well as economic opportunities. Satellite data collected since 1979 shows that both the thickness of the ice in the Arctic and range of sea ice have decreased substantially, especially during the summer months. The melting of the ice facilitates natural resource exploration in the high north. U.S. Geological Survey estimates from 2008 suggest that 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of undiscovered natural gas reserves are located in the Arctic Circle. Moreover, the retreating and thinning of the ice opens up new trade routes. This course enables and relies on the participation of graduate and advanced undergraduate students in the Arctic Circle Assembly conference in Harpa, Reykjavik. Students are required to attend the Arctic Circle Assembly. Students have to attend one class shortly before the Assembly and one class shortly after the Assembly.

This is an advanced course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. There are three versions of this course; this course, “GEOGRAPHY OF DEVELOPMENT,” UCEAP Course Number 176 and Bologna course number 19695, is associated with the LM in Local and Global Development degree programme. One of the other versions, “GEOGRAPHIES OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES,” UCEAP Course Number 177A and Bologna course number 81952, is associated with the LM in History and Oriental Studies degree programme. The final version “GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES,” UCEAP Course Number 177B and Bologna course number 95931, is associated with the LM in Local and Global Development degree programme.
Climate change offers the opportunity for a multidisciplinary analysis. The course discusses various aspects of the topic through a primarily geographical approach. The course is structured into three parts. Part one introduces climate change as a global phenomenon, with its natural and anthropogenic root causes. Students discuss and reflect on the socio-spatial inequalities inherent in the climate crisis. Part two analyzes climate governance, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Post Kyoto adaptation and mitigation strategies. In addition to the policy-making process, the course critically examines theoretical frameworks of adaptation, notions of climate justice, and intersectional approaches to addressing the climate crisis and its colonial roots. Part three concerns climate change and mobility. The course examines the complex interconnections between climate change and (im)mobility. Empirical examples are drawn from the #ClimateOfChange [https://climateofchange.info/publications-press/] interdisciplinary research project to contextualize the climate crisis as it is manifested, resisted, and understood from diverse locations across the globe. At the end of the course students show understanding of some of the global challenges the population of the planet has been facing since the second half of the twentieth century. Among these, the critical relation with the natural resources and with the concept of development and, above all, climate change, with its connections to territorial development, ecological risk, food security, and the consumption of natural resources. At the end of the course, the students have acquired the theoretical and empirical tools to critically analyze the global strategies of climate resilience and cooperation and the relation between climate change and tourism.

From the local to the global perspective, economic activity is unevenly distri­buted. Economic geography is concerned with describing, understanding, explaining, and influencing econo­mic territorial patterns and processes. This course overviews economic geography approaches and key concepts. Moving from the local/regional level to the global, main conceptual ideas on the spatial development of industries and of regions at various scales are discussed. This is done through the lens of main actors: firms/entrepreneurs, labor, and institutions. Spatial economy involves a wider societal context surrounding economic processes: socio-cultural, institu­tional, and relational network patterns and characteristics. The course is also an introduction to geography as a wider discipline, and pays attention to the economic landscape of the Netherlands. Course includes real world cases, tutorials, and assignments, and participants actively carry out project assignments that are not only literature based but also include a fieldtrip and fieldwork.

The undergraduate research program places students in research opportunites to conduct indpendent research under the supervision of a Chinese University of Hong Kong faculty. Students are expected to spend approximately 15 to 20 hours per week in independent research as well as attend lectures and labs.

The Earth is unique in our solar-system by being both geologically active and hosting a myriad of life. This module introduces the study of Planet Earth, from planetary formation to the present-day processes that control our climate. The course covers topics including the dawn of the solar system, the dynamic nature of the solid Earth, and the surface processes that shape the planet. We introduce oceanography, atmospheric science and the cryosphere to understand how climate has and will continue to change with time. Fieldwork will be introduced as two half-day excursions and you will gain experience critically assessing scientific data, working in groups, and giving oral and written presentations.

Political geography studies the links between power and space. This course focuses on the role of territorial states in our world. The relationship between states and their territories constantly changes but remains important to understanding the geopolitical changes related to different conceptualizations of what a nation-state is. This course considers questions such as how states control their territories and how the political order of different geographical areas is organized. It also analyzes the links between the political organization of these territories and the way their societies and economies change. The course provides an overview of contemporary political geography, its background as a sub-discipline, its main subjects, concepts, and theoretical underpinnings, as well as considers a selection of ongoing debates on issues where power and space are at stake. Some major themes covered in the course include the nature and formation of states and the global state system, the role of nationalism and territorial identities, how and why political systems change over time and how this relates to dynamics in other fields, the role of geographical scale levels in politics and how and why political systems vary between different parts of the world. While different scale levels are discussed, the emphasis is on the macro-level of the transforming nation-state, their geopolitical relations, and how citizens react and relate to these political structures.

This course examines the main processes that combine to influence the development of Earth’s surface and the formation of and changes to landscapes. The origins and development of landforms, particularly in the humid tropics, are explored, as are the characteristics, functioning, dynamics and interactions within and between major associated ecosystems. Human-induced landform and ecosystem modifications are also considered. 

The focus of the course is on the relations between terrestrial ecosystems and global climate systems. Seen in a historical and present perspective as well as on a temporal and spatial scale, the interactions between climate and ecosystem are put in perspective of the ongoing and future climate change. Further, the course explain how models and data bases are used to develop future climate scenarios and reconstruction of previous climate conditions, as well as the anthropogenic role in the present changes in climate.