Geographic Theory of Place and Space
Seminar
Course Description
This course explores the meaning of two of Geography鈥檚 most fundamental concepts: place and space. It will look at diverse geographic approaches to these concepts from a variety of epistemological standpoints, consider their implications for research, and trace how geographers and other social scientists and artists have incorporated a critical approach to place and space into their work.
2025-2026:
Our everyday lives are intimately bound up with the spaces and places we inhabit, from our use of digital technologies to navigate city streets to the decisions of nation-state governments to firm up sovereign borders through tariffs and immigration. This course will introduce students to three key orienting principles in geography: Space, Place, and Scale. We will explore some of the canonical works in geography while also being attuned to the (sometimes imperial) geographies of this knowledge production. Our foray into geographic thought will therefore span a variety of re-spatializations of theory that take seriously feminist, Black, Indigenous and anti-colonial studies through examining the relationships between society, space, mobility, place, environments, and bodies. This course will ask students to dive deeply into both peer reviewed articles and monographs (books!) to distill key substantive arguments, but also to learn how to read such texts, to understand diverse methods, and to conceptualize large research projects. Course assessments will provide students the opportunity to develop and communicate their understanding in written and creative formats. This course is intended to appeal to a wide range of students across disciplines while giving a firm grasp of core geography concepts.
Learning Outcomes
- Synthesize and communicate foundational theories in critical geographic approaches to space, place, and scale
- Describe how settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and imperialism have shaped canonical geographic knowledge production
- Explain how Indigenous, Black, feminist, and anti-colonial scholars use a variety of methodological approaches to understand space and place
- Apply geographic theories to contemporary real-world examples
- Identify what makes an effective, well argued, and geographically-sensitive dissertation-length project
- Communicate complex ideas in written, oral, and visual form
Assessments
Subject to Change
- Seminar participation
- Seminar facilitation
- Weekly written reading reflections
- Space and place journal
- Final term project (research paper, report, or creative output)