About the Geography Bachelor’s Program
The Bachelor of Arts in Geography and the Environment combines a liberal arts education with the technical skills necessary to be successful in the modern workforce. The undergraduate program also provides a solid foundation for those students who wish to pursue graduate study in geography or a related professional field.
As a discipline, geography provides a unique framework for understanding our world based on location. Geography is concerned with where things are located, why they are located where they are, and how these work together to form a tapestry of human and physical landscapes across the surface of the Earth. The degree program emphasizes coursework in both the social and physical sciences to provide students with a broad understanding of the world’s physical environment and the human experience in that world.
Students completing the degree program will have the knowledge, tools, and technical skills necessary to understand and address many of the social and environmental problems facing society and the planet at large. This allows students in geography to pursue their interests in a wide variety of topics including social and cultural change, globalization, urbanization, impacts of climate change, natural resource management, natural hazards, food and water security, resilience, and sustainability.
Students in the geography program are strongly encouraged to pursue a minor in Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST). When taken together, the GIST minor provides students with knowledge and technical expertise in geographic information science. Courses in the minor cover geographic information systems (GIS), database design, spatial analysis, satellite remote sensing, cartographic design, and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).
Students who graduate from our program have gone on to become emergency managers, urban planners, GIS specialists for city and county governments, faculty members, and researchers in federal labs. Careers are possible in a variety of government, private industry, and academic institutions.
Communication Literacy Requirement. Communication literacy in geography is illustrated by competence in reading, writing, oral presentation, and cartography. Our faculty members endorse a project-driven curriculum. Courses in the Communication Literacy Plan for the B.A. in Geography and the Environment are GEOG 3337 , GEOG 3355 , GEOG 4360 , and GIST 3300 .
