Summer 2021 Course Announcements
GEOG 1001-200
Environmental Systems: Climate and Vegetation
Summer B Session, Online
July 6 – August 6
Instructor: Meghan Helmberger
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The objective of this course is to provide you with an introduction to the Earth’s climate system and patterns of world vegetation. We will emphasize the many linkages and feedbacks between the non-living (abiotic) and living (biotic) components of the earth system.
Topics we will cover include radiation, temperature, winds and pressure, the water cycle, climate change, and biomes. This course will prepare you for subsequent, more specialized courses in climatology, hydrology, ecology, and biogeography (ecosystems and cycles). This is a natural science course, and graphs and basic algebra-level math calculations will be used to help understand the concepts covered.
GEOG 1972-001
Environmentand Society
Maymester, Remote
May 1 – May 27
Instructor: Phurwa Gurung
phurwa.gurung@colorado.edu
What is ‘nature’ and how do people from different cultural worlds and histories know and interact with it differently? What kinds of dominant assumptions and power relations drive human transformation of the earth and its non-human inhabitants? How do such transformations often affect specific groups of people unevenly, and how are they responding to it? This course will critically examine these profound questions at the heart of environment-society relations today.
Topics we will cover include anthropogenic climate change, biodiversity conservation, wolves, waste, water, environmental racism, justice, and ethics. We will consider eight analytical perspectives that are useful to unpack how and to what effects environmental problems are defined and solutions proposed. Drawing on cases including from the United States, the Amazon, East Africa, India, and the Himalayas, we will pay special attention to the power dynamics involved in the conceptualization and management of nature, as well as to the specific inequalities and the social movements challenging them. By the end of the class, you will have a robust toolkit with which to interpret and critically engage in global environmental debates.
This class fulfills a MAPS requirement and a requirement for the Geography Major; it is also a great introduction to “Environment-Society” Geography Track.
GEOG 1972-581
Environmentand Society
Summer Session 1, Online June 1 – July 2
Instructor: Diego Melodiego.melo@colorado.edu
Continuing Education Course
Are you interested in studying global and regional environmental issues from a political ecology perspective? In this course, we explore ten analytical approaches that are useful to understanding the relationship between humans and the environment. Through a combination of lectures, readings, and documentaries we ask: What is “nature” and how do people in dzܲɾٳ 徱ڴڱԳٴǰconceptualize it differently? What drives human modification of the earth’s ecosystems, how are specific groups of peopledifferentially affectedby these modifications, and how are social movements throughout the world acting in response?Topics we will cover include anthropogenic climate change; environmental hazards, racism, and justice; wildlife conservation, land enclosures, and electronic waste; forest management, water-based social movements, and the rights of nature. We work toward an understanding of “nature” that is inseparable from the history of colonialism, capitalism, and the gendered division of labor, as we learn more about environmental justice debates in the United States, Ecuador, New Zealand, Tanzania, and India. After these fifteen weeks, you will have a sharp lens to interpret the social relations that have produced what we call "nature" and "the environment." Your perspectives on environmental activism will change forever!
This class fulfills a MAPS requirement and a requirement for the Geography Major; it is also a great introduction to “Environment-Society” Geography Track.
GEOG 1992-581
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Summer Session 2, Online
July 6 — August 6
Instructor: Rupak Shrestha
rupak.shrestha@colorado.edu
Continuing Education Course
Examines social, political, economic, and cultural processes creating the geographical worlds in which we live, and how these spatial relationships shape our everyday lives. Studies critical geopolitics, ecological change, international development, population dynamics, urbanization, and migration to explore how these processes work at global scales as well as shape geographies of particular places.
This class fulfills a MAPS requirement and a requirement for the Geography Major; it is also a great introduction to the “Human Geography” Track.
GEOG 3023-581
Statistics and Geographic Data
Summer Full Session, Online
June 1 – August 6
Instructor: Francis Naylor
francis.naylor@colorado.edu
Continuing Education Course
From fitness trackers to Facebook to polls on politics and other issues, our world is flooded with data. Careers in Data Science are in high demand, and technological and societal changes make data available on nearly everything.
In this course, we teach you how to understand and model the relationships between data and your world. You'll learn how to collect data, learn modeling techniques, and develop questions that we can answer with statistical methods. The course is hands-on and will guide you in using the latest statistical software to produce graphics, answer questions, and find patterns about the world around us.
This course does not assume any previous experience with statistics. It satisfies the statistics requirement for the Geography major, and serves as a great introduction to data modeling for any Geography major or minor.
GEOG 3053-100
Geographic Information Science:Mapping
Summer A Session, Online
June 1 – July 2
Instructor: Sarah Kelly
sarah.kelly@colorado.edu
Mapping and data visualization supports many tasks in Geography, Environmental Studies, Earth Sciences and Human and Social Sciences. Maps can help you explore spatial data, perform analysis, and present meaningful results. Knowing how to put together a database and process layers of terrain, water, roads, and thematic data (vegetation, population, etc.) in order to make a map is an extremely useful skill that many employers are seeking. Come learn what it is all about!
This course provides a technical introduction to mapping and information design in a GIS environment. We’ll cover principles of scientific visualization, graphical design, and mapping. You’ll learn how to manipulate scale, work with and change map projections, how to select informative colors, how to classify map data, and how to symbolize data, and how to quantify patterns of error on maps. In lab, you will design maps and create a working cartographic database. By the end of this course, you will be capable of creating high quality cartographic displays and work comfortably with Desktop ArcGIS software to process spatial data.
Some prior experience with Apple or Windows computing is expected. No previous experience in ArcGIS or mapping technologies is required. GEOG 3053 is a prerequisite for the Geography GIS courses. A beginning course in statistics is strongly recommended and may be taken concurrently.
GEOG 3251-001
Mountain Geography
Maymester, Online
May 1 – May 27
Professor Peter Blanken
blanken@Colorado.EDU
The world’s mountains are fascinating and mysterious landscapes. Created by geologic activity, shaped by water and ice, and transformed by vegetation and human activity, mountain landscapes offer a unique perspective into historical and current events. Using mountain landscapes as our study area, this course will examine the interactions and connections among key topics in physical and human geography. Daily presentations and frequent hands-on activities will apply geographic concepts to the Colorado Rockies as well as mountain ranges around the world. To explore ourmountain landscapes, local examples will be used to examine how wildfire impacts localforests and human communities, andinvestigate how historic mining andcontinuing human activities have shaped themountain landscapes in our backyard.
GEOG 3682-581
Geography of International Development
Summer Session 1, Online
June 1 – July 2
Instructor: Gabriella Subia Smith
gabriella.subiasmith@colorado.edu
Continuing Education Course
In the time of COVID-19, we are entering an unprecedented era of International Development. As the virus, social injustices, political upheavals, and economic crises rage on around the world, it is important for us to consider the role development has played in getting us to where we are today and what development will look like going forward. In this class, we will look at the origins and history of development as an international capitalist project and also movements demanding a better, more inclusive development.
GEOG 3692-100/101
Introduction to Global Public Health
Summer A Session, Online/Remote
June 1 – July 2
Dr. Gay Lynn Olsen
gay.olsen@colorado.edu
Introduction to Global Public Health
Summer B Session, Online/Remote
July 6 – August 06
Instructor: Juan Ramirez
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GEOG 3692-581
Introduction to Global Public Health
Summer Session 2, Online
July 6 – August 6
Instructor: Xiaoling Chen
xiaoling.chen@Colorado.edu
Continuing Education Course
We are living in a most connected world, but paradoxically with the least human interaction due to the coronavirus pandemic. Coronavirus, Ebola, mental health, aging populations, and primary health care are key issues in a world where diseases cross borders rapidly, but health care resources may not. In this course, we build upon case studies across the globe and examine how biological, social, and cultural factors interact and affect the health and well- being of individuals, communities, nations, and the world. We explore the dynamic, complex field of global public health, and examine improvements in global health, existing and future challenges, health inequalities, health systems, international health agencies, and social justice in health. We trace the development of global health back to the colonial era and apply a Geographical perspective to understand how differences in population health and health systems are produced and perpetuated. Lastly, in addition to the colonial lens, we examine alternative histories of global public health as part of a broader effort to decolonize Health scholarship. By taking this course, students will gain a toolkit of Geographical methods and theories to critically engage with key issues of global public health.
Picture source: A world map that shows the global spread of novel coronavirus, Nextstrain/nextstrain.org
GEOG 3822-581
Geography of China
Summer Session 1, Online
June 1 – July 2
Instructor: Xi Wang
xi_wang@colorado.edu
Continuing Education Course
China is one of the fastest changing countries on earth. With hundreds of new cities under construction, rapidly accumulating wealth among the middle and upper classes, a precarious environment and resource-base, and rising geopolitical ambitions, understanding a changing China is more important now than ever before. Yet as China’s influence grows, it seems to become more misunderstood than ever.
This course aims to explore China’s changes, as well as dispel common myths about contemporary China, through the lens of human geography.
We explore China’s diverse environmental and cultural landscapes, its historical geography, and the challenges of rural development, urbanization, environment, energy, and climate change.
GEOG 4292-200
Migration, Immigrant Adaptation, and Development
Summer B Session, Remote
July 6 – August 6
Instructor: Kevin Mason
kevin.mason@colorado.edu
In our rapidly globalizing world, international migration flows have become increasingly complex as issues ranging from economic insecurity to climate change to conflict have compelled people to migrate. Indeed, for some communities in the Global South, migration is a way of life, a key development process, and even a survival strategy. In this course, we’ll explore the contemporary and historical landscapes of international migration with an additional focus on development and immigrant adaptation.
We begin the course by exploring theories that explain why people move. We’ll also discuss important historical and contemporary international migration flows and focus in-depth on flows of economic migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, and people displaced by political turmoil and climate and environmental change. We’ll then make sense of the ways migrants incorporate into their new communities — transforming themselves and the community in the process — while maintaining connections to their home countries.
Other key questions we’ll explore in this course include:
- What are the root causes of irregular/undocumented migration?
How can migration policy better manage immigration and avoid
irregular movement? - How do different identities (e.g., gender, racial, or ethnic)
influence how people experience the migration process? - What are the consequences of migration for migrants, the
communities they leave, and the places they settle into?
Throughout the course, we’ll draw on case studies of migration systems from around the globe including the US, Latin America, the European Union, the Middle East, and Australia. For these reasons, this course can either satisfy the Global or US Diversity General Education requirements.
GEOG 4603/5603
GIS in the Social and Natural Sciences
Maymester
May 10 - May 27M-F 9:00 - 12:00
Professor Stefan Leyk
stefan.leyk@colorado.edu
This class will be taught online and class meetings and in-class exercises will be held as video conference sessions.
Prerequisites:
Familiarity with file management tasks in Windows, confidence in working with software tools. Students are encouraged to set up their own laptops with software provided (ArcGIS with student licenses).
This course is designed as an introductory class to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) suitable for students (graduate and undergraduate) from Geography, Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Ecology/Biology, Anthropology, Economy, Education or Sociology who are interested in learning about GIS tools and their underlying principles and how to apply GIS to analytical and mapping-related tasks.
Students will get basic skills for working in a GIS environment without formal prerequisites in Cartography or Statistics. I will introduce basic theoretical and practical elements of GIS and GIScience that are important to get started on a GIS project, handling and managing geospatial data, creating maps and conducting GIS analysis. Students will work in ArcGIS and QGIS software on tasks typically encountered in the social and natural sciences.
We will meet in the KESDA computer lab in the Geography building. The format of class meetings will alternate between lecture/demo/in-class exercise components and computer exercises. This way concepts discussed in lecture will be directly put in practice to better understand underlying mechanics, results, problems and important implications resulting from decisions made based on such results.