BA in Geography

Geographers examine the spatial relationships between people, places, environments and economies using innovative conceptual and technological approaches. Exciting technological changes, from computer mapping software like Google Earth, to satellite image processing, and global positioning systems (GPS), make geography a fascinating discipline to study. DePaul's geographers share a commitment to 'hands on' teaching and research that makes a world of difference for the people, places, environments and processes that we study. Geographers apply methods such as observation, visualization, analysis, and modeling to explain the spatial organization of human and physical environments. Geographical perspectives foster skills that have broad applications in public policy, research and the private sector. The Department of Geography teaches students to reason spatially by applying geographic techniques and information technologies, including new technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This helps students produce sophisticated understandings of the world, its people, environments, economic structures and cultures. Geospatial analysis and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a rapidly-growing multi-billion dollar industry. Geotechnology was named by the U.S. Bureau of Labor as a “hot” area for job growth in both 2005 and 2010 and it is estimated that over the next ten years, demand for geospatial analysts will exceed supply as the geospatial technology industry grows to ten times the size of the video games industry. Geography holds a comparative advantage as a discipline that straddles fields in the social and natural science disciplines and, as a result, Geography has courses in every DePaul learning domain. This breadth of courses makes Geography the ideal double major at DePaul and the range of classes offered means that geography is an exceptional foundation for a variety of careers that explore questions of spatial organization and require regional knowledge. The study of geography builds a unique spatial perspective that sits at the intersection of "natural" and "social" science, and it addresses both "human" and "physical" domains of knowledge, examining the interactions between them through space.? Program Concentrations/Tracks: Standard Concentration, GIS and Geotechnology, Nature-Society Studies, Urban Development and Planning. Learning Outcomes - Students will be able to: Define and describe the fundamental quality of the spatiality of phenomena and analyze that characteristic using either qualitative or quantitative methodologies and communicate the results of that analysis clearly in speech and writing. Formulate a cogent research question about the spatial character of a physical, socio-cultural, or environment-society phenomenon and express that question in the form of a research plan or proposal. Collect, identify and apply spatial data in either primary (including field work), or secondary sources. Interpret spatial patterns of economic inequalities and their relation to built and natural environments. Use with competence one or more of the several geo technologies (i.e. remote sensing, geographical information systems, etc.) and articulate effectively the results of that use in speech, text, image, or map. Articulate in speech and writing the significance and application of the society-space and nature- society dialectics to environmental change. Describe and differentiate processes of globalization and their effects on regions, physical systems, cultures, and political divisions. Career Options: Sustainability and conservation, Public policy and diplomacy, urban planning, Imaging and mapping, Research, Natural resource management/consulting, Energy and technology work, Environmental monitoring and management.