Human Geography

Human Geography (lecture) - Fall 2020

What is human geography?

Human geography explores the economic, sociopolitical, cultural and biophysical processes that shape peoples experience on Earth. Collectively, these experiences draw upon the circumstances of billions of individuals over hundreds-of-thousands of years and vast sections of Earth. Ergo, it is virtually impossible to capture all human experience during our time together. However, by drawing upon current circumstances and public opinion, it is my hope that students will leave my introductory course more informed about the human experience. Like skills learnt during my course will hopefully be utilized by students as a means for future study.

What about course materials?

In lieu of using a textbook, I have chosen to offer students the opportunity to learn more about human geography through content made available by think tanks[1]. These think tanks operate by performing research on topics of economic, sociopolitical, cultural and biophysical importance. I will use this publicly available content in lecture as a means to guide students in their exploration of human geography. My teaching assistant, Cayton Moore (cayton.t.moore-1@ou.edu), will augment this content in discussion. In addition, I encourage students to bring a computer (e.g. laptop, phone, tablet) to lecture and discussion to follow along, sound off.

Where is your course's syllabus?

My syllabus for Human Geography (GEOG 1103-020) situated in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at The University of Oklahoma will be made available by August 25, 2020 (i.e. my course's first day of class): here and via Canvas[2]. In the meantime, if you have any questions about my course (e.g. accommodations, assignments, attendance, enrollment, grading, masking requirements, etc) just let me know by contacting me via phone or email: here.

Content[3]

Introduction

World Population (Cilluffo and Ruiz 2019) - Thu, Aug 27

Rural, Suburban and Urban Communities in America (Parker et al. 2018) - Tue, Sep 1

Data Philanthropy (McKeever et al. 2018) - Thu, Sep 3

Artificial Intelligence (Anderson, Rainie and Luchsinger 2018) - Tue, Sep 8

The Ignorance Project (Rosling and Rönnlund 2020) - Thu, Sep 10

Economics

Globalization (Council on Foreign Relations 2020a) - Tue, Sep 15

Dollar Street (Rönnlund 2020) - Thu, Sep 17

Differential Privacy (Goroff et al. 2020) - Tue, Sep 22

Job Automation (Wike and Stokes 2018) - Thu, Sep 24

Defund the Police (Auxier 2020) - Tue, Sep 29

Sociopolitical

Coronavirus (Council on Foreign Relations 2020b) - Thu, Oct 1

Coronavirus Policy in America (Tolbert et al. 2020) - Tue, Oct 6

Americans on Social Media (Mitchell et al. 2020) - Thu, Oct 8

Election Polling in America (Kennedy 2020) - Tue, Oct 13

Illegal Immigration in America (Krogstad et al. 2019) - Thu, Oct 15

Culture

Defining Generations (Dimock 2019) - Tue, Oct 20

Language (Stokes 2017) - Thu, Oct 22

Religion (Skirbekk et al. 2015) - Tue, Oct 27

Americans on Religion (Smith et al. 2019) - Thu, Oct 29

American Decline (Parker, Morin and Horrowitz 2019) - Tue, Nov 3

Biophysical

Wearing out the World (Sierra 2020) - Thu, Nov 5

Americans on Science (Kennedy and Hefferon 2019) - Tue, Nov 10

Americans on Climate Change and Environment (Funk and Kennedy 2020) - Thu, Nov 12

Precision Meteorology (Chilson 2019) - Tue, Nov 17

Future of Infectious Disease (Cosford 2019) - Thu, Nov 19

Bibliography

Anderson, Janna, Lee Rainie and Alex Luchsinger. "Artificial intelligence and the future of humans." Pew Research Center (2018). https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/12/10/artificial-intelligence-and-the-future-of-humans/.

Auxier, Richard C. "What Police Spending Data Can (and Cannot) Explain amid Calls to Defund the Police." Urban Institute (2020). https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/what-police-spending-data-can-and-cannot-explain-amid-calls-defund-police.

Chilson, Phillip. "How Drones Can Improve Weather Prediction." Filmed September 2019 in Norman, Oklahoma. Ted video, 17:06. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu_NFLpqrYE.

Cilluffo, Anthony and Neil G. Ruiz. "World’s population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century." Pew Research Center (2019). https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/worlds-population-is-projected-to-nearly-stop-growing-by-the-end-of-the-century/.

Cosford, Paul. "The future of infectious disease." Filmed March 2019 in Chester, England. Ted video, 13:39. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeSIJrmg7nU.

Council on Foreign Relations, 2020a. "Globalization" (accessed August 13, 2020). https://world101.cfr.org/global-era-issues/globalization.

___ , 2020b. "Coronavirus" (accessed August 13, 2020). https://www.cfr.org/coronavirus.

Dimock, Michael. "Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins." Pew Research Center (2019). https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/.

Funk, Cary and Brian Kennedy. "For Earth Day, how Americans see climate change and the environment in 7 charts." Pew Research Center (2020). https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/21/how-americans-see-climate-change-and-the-environment-in-7-charts/.

Goroff, Daniel, Dan Kifer, Frauke Kreuter and Ian Schmutte. "Differential Privacy for Economists." National Bureau of Economic Research (2020). https://www.nber.org/econometrics_minicourse_2020/index.html#.

Kennedy, Brian and Meg Hefferon. "What Americans Know about Science: Science Knowledge Levels Remain Strongly Tied to Education; Republicans and Democrats Are about Equally Knowledgeable." Pew Research Center (2019). https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/03/28/what-americans-know-about-science/.

Kennedy, Courtney. "Key things to know about election polling in the United States." Pew Research Center (2020). https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/05/key-things-to-know-about-election-polling-in-the-united-states/.

Krogstad, Jens Manuel, Jeffrey S. Passel and D. Cohn. "5 Facts about illegal immigration in the U.S." Pew Research Center (2019). https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/.

McKeever, B., S. Greene, G. MacDonald, P. Tatian and D. Jones. "Data Philanthropy: Unlocking the Power of Private Data for Public Good." Urban Institute (2018). https://www.urban.org/research/publication/data-philanthropy-unlocking-power-private-data-public-good.

Mitchell, Amy, Mark Jurkowitz, J. Baxter Oliphant and Elisa Shearer. "Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable." Pew Research Center (2020). https://www.journalism.org/2020/07/30/americans-who-mainly-get-their-news-on-social-media-are-less-engaged-less-knowledgeable/.

Parker, Kim, Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Anna Brown, Richard Fry, D. Cohn and Ruth Igielnik. "What unites and divides urban, suburban and rural communities." Pew Research Center (2018). https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/05/22/what-unites-and-divides-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities/.

Parker, Kim, Rich Morin and Juliana Menasce Horowitz. "Looking to the Future, Public Sees an America in Decline on Many Fronts." Pew Research Center (2019). https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/03/21/public-sees-an-america-in-decline-on-many-fronts/.

Rönnlund, Anna Rosling. "Dollar Street." Gapminder (accessed August 11, 2020). https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street/.

Rosling, Hans, Anna Rosling Rönnlund. "The Ignorance Project." Gapminder (accessed August 13, 2020). https://www.gapminder.org/ignorance/.

Sierra, Gabrielle. Interview (Wearing the World Out) with Linda Greer, Elizabeth Segran and Amber Valletta. Council on Foreign Relations. Podcast audio. April 19, 2020. https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/wearing-world-out.

Skirbekk, Vegard, Phillip Connor, Marcin Stonawski and Conrad Peter Hackett. "The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050." Pew Research Center (2015). https://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/.

Smith, Gregory A., Alan Cooperman and Besheer Mohamed. "In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace." Pew Research Center (2019). https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/.

Stokes, Bruce. "What It Takes to Truly Be ‘One of Us’." Pew Research Center (2017). https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2017/02/01/what-it-takes-to-truly-be-one-of-us/.

Tolbert, Jennifer, Cornelia Hall, Kendal Orgera, Natalie Singer, Salem Mengistu, Marina Tian and Amrutha Ramaswamy. "State Data and Policy Actions to Address Coronavirus." Kaiser Family Foundation (2020). https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/state-data-and-policy-actions-to-address-coronavirus/.

Wike, Richard, and Bruce Stokes. "In Advanced and Emerging Economies Alike, Worries About Job Automation." Pew Research Center (2018). https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2018/09/13/in-advanced-and-emerging-economies-alike-worries-about-job-automation/.

  1. More information about think tanks here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_tank.
  2. The University of Oklahoma (OU) uses the Canvas learning management system for courses. Every course that I teach at OU will feature a related Canvas course site in addition to what I make available on my website. Information about Canvas as it relates to specific coursework that I teach at OU will be conveyed to enrolled students in a syllabus during that course's first day of instruction. More information about OU's Canvas here: https://www.ou.edu/teachanywhere/instructional-technology/canvas.
  3. Content for my course goes from first to last date, sequentially, moving down page.