Undergraduate Major and Double Major

Your Advisor and the Learning Plan

Whether you're planning to major, double major or minor in geography, the first thing you should do is talk with the undergraduate advisor in geography (Professor James Murphy email: jammurphy@clarku.edu) who will help you get started and will set you up with a geography advisor.

Each student is required to prepare a formal learning plan, which helps you make connections between the courses you take and your educational goals. The learning plan is typically a single page in length, and requires signatures by the student, the faculty advisor, and the Director or the Undergraduate Advisor, before Graduation Clearance is granted.

In addition by January 31 of the senior year, students complete a learning synopsis.  The synopsis will provide a comprehensive assessment of the Geography major as experienced by the student. Requires the signature of your faculty advisor before Graduation Clearance is granted.

*Both the Learning Plan and Learning Synopsis can be found in the Guide to the Major.

Requirements

The major and double major have five components:  (1) Core Courses, (2) Skills Courses, (3) Specialization Courses, (4) a Research Applications Experience and (5) a Capstone Experience.

Geography majors are required to take a minimum of 10 Geography courses in accordance with the following guidelines:

Core Courses

(4 courses)
Core courses emphasize core geographic concepts and ways of creating knowledge; courses in the core are designed to help you build frameworks for understanding the world. The core courses must be selected from one of the following broad disciplinary core areas.

We strongly encourage you to take the core courses early in your program. Core courses are often prerequisites for 200-level courses. Here are the four core areas of geographic knowledge and the central questions addressed in each:

Nature and Society: Analyzes the ways that human societies have used, shaped and constructed nature; impacts of societies, economies and cultures on ecological systems; and societal and environmental consequences of the interaction.

Globalization, Cities and Development: Examines the ways that space and location shape economic, sociopolitical and cultural life; ways that economic, sociopolitical and cultural factors shape space and location; relationships between these processes and the dynamics of urban life.

Earth Systems Science: Examines how Earth systems (ecosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere) naturally function, how these systems interact with one another, and how they are affected by human activities.

Geographic Information Science: Examines the acquisition, analysis and communication of geographic information; principles and techniques important in cartography, remote sensing, geographic information systems and spatial analysis.

Each year, several 000- and 100-level courses are designated as core courses in each of these areas. In special cases, a 200-level course may be used to fulfill a core course requirement, subject to the approval of the student's advisor and either the Undergraduate Advisor or the Director of the School of Geography.

Skills Courses

(2 courses)
Skills courses give you the opportunity to acquire and apply research, literacy, numeracy, and mapping skills for generating and interpreting knowledge. Our goal is for students to become critical thinkers and to have an understanding of how knowledge is created.

Every student seeking a major or minor in Geography is required to take Geography 141 Research Methods (offered each year) and one additional skills course in an area appropriate to the student's specialization, as detailed in his or her learning plan (discussed above). Formal approval of this elective skills course is implied by the advisor's signature on the learning plan. You should complete Research Methods before taking 200-level courses in geography.

Note that with the approval of the student's advisor, comparable courses in other departments can be substituted as skills courses. However, this does not reduce the total number of Geography courses required for the major. Thus students for whom a substitution has been granted will need to take an additional Geography course to ensure that a total of 10 courses are taken.
Bottom line on skills requirement: 141 (or a similar research methods offered by another department) and one other skills courses, for a total of two courses focused on building skills.

Specialization Courses

(4 courses)
Specialization courses give you an opportunity to explore a specific subject area in depth. Majors are required to take four specialization courses, three of which must be at a 200-level and one of which may be either at a 100-or 200-level. Specialization courses are subject to approval by the student's advisor and must reflect a logical combination of courses as specified in the formal learning plan. Formal approval of the elective specialization course is implied by the advisor's signature on the learning plan.

In general, you should take your core courses and skills courses before taking your specialization courses, which focus on giving you the chance to apply skills in research and problem solving. The Geography Department encourages students to take internships; these normally count as 200-level courses and would be considered part of your specialization.

Research Application Experience

(Major & Double Major only)
To fulfill the research applications requirement all geography majors must complete an independent research project and present the findings at a public event at Clark (e.g., Academic Spree Day, a Departmental poster session (offered every term)) or at other appropriate venues (e.g., professional meetings). All students must clearly articulate the problem being analyzed and the project must involve research design, data collection, analysis, and a reporting of the results through the public presentation. The research applications requirement can only be met after a student has completed GEOG 141-Research Methods (or an approved equivalent from another program). A research applications project can be conducted through a research project that is part of any 200-level course in geography or through any other research project where the student is directly advised by a faculty member in the School of Geography (e.g., directed study, honors thesis, or HERO project).
To register for Research Applications Experience see instructions below.

The Capstone Experience

(Major & Double Major only)
The capstone experience enables majors to link their particular interests/specializations to established schools of thought in the discipline of geography. To meet the requirement, students will write a 5 page (minimum) literature review as part of any 200-level geography course (including directed studies, HERO, or an honors thesis); a course that will ideally be taken during the student’s final year. The literature review will situate the student’s specialization in the major within wider trends and traditions in the discipline of geography. Specific guidance on how to write this review will be given by the professor leading the course or supervising the research project. If desired, and as determined by the supervising professor, the capstone paper may be factored into the final grade for a course.
To register for Capstone Experience see instructions below.

Instructions for Research Applications & Capstone Experience Completion

Student must choose a 200-level course through which to fulfill each requirement.
  1. Students must declare, in writing, their intention to meet the research applications requirement or capstone through the course at least two days prior to the end of the add-drop period of the semester when they wish to get credit. The declaration must be given to, and approved by, the professor teaching the course or advising them on their research applications or capstone experience.  
  2. Students must register for GEOG201 Research Experience or GEOG202 Capstone Experience, both are pass/no-credit courses run by the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) in the given year.
    a. The DUS will create a space for the student in GEOG201 or GEOG202 once she/he is notified by the student’s project advisor (via email). In this email notification, the supervising professor will briefly describe the research applications project or literature review (in one or two sentences) and a copy of this email will be placed in the student’s file as evidence of the agreement between the professor and the student.
    b.  It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that their advisor notifies the DUS. Once the DUS has given the student permission for GEOG201 or GEOG202 the student must then formally register through Banner Web for the course.
  3. Once the student has successfully met the expectations as agreed to with the advising professor, the student must make sure that the advising professor notifies the DUS that a passing grade should be administered. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure their advisor notifies the DUS of her/his successful completion of the project or capstone paper.
  4. Without a passing grade for the Research Applications and Capstone Experience courses, the student will not be able to graduate.

    Special Note:
    Professors have the right to decline a Research Applications or Capstone Experience request from any student and no faculty member is expected to have more than 5 research applications or capstone students in any semester. Thus it is imperative that a student carefully considers the professors and courses she/he will to work with and use to meet these requirements and that she/he contacts the relevant professor in the semester prior to the beginning of the course.

    Double Counting of Courses
    Double counting of courses takes place at Clark in many situations but within the geography major there is no double counting allowed. All students must complete 10 geography courses in accordance with the plan described above and all students must register for and complete a Research Applications Experience project (pass/no credit) and a Capstone Experience paper (pass/no credit).