Globalization, Development and Cities

Rationale

Our global society is more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. Globalization of trade and commerce has increased national wealth and our appetite to consume commodities, technologies, art and culture from around the world. We continue to create spectacular cities to represent our cultural, technological and architectural achievements. But even as we continue to generate extraordinary wealth, we live in a world that is riddled with social and environmental unsustainability, poverty, inequality, discrimination, prejudice, marginalization, terror and conflict. The objective of this track is to train students to understand the complexities of our global society, our cities and our unequal geographies of life and livelihood. Upon graduating, students will find themselves well trained to pursue doctoral degrees, or careers in government, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, teaching, diplomacy and elsewhere.

Required Courses (Departmental)

  • GEOG 5160: Foundations of Geographic Thought
  • GEOG 5800: Research Design and Geographic Applications
  • GEOG 5950: Thesis (6 hours, counts as 2 courses) OR GEOG 5900: Special Problems (3 hours) and GEOG 5920: Research Problems in Lieu of Thesis (3 hours)

Globalization, Development and Cities

(Choose at least 3 courses from this group)

  • GEOG 5210: Seminar in Urban Geography
  • GEOG 5245: International Development
  • GEOG 5300: Globalization, Conflict and Resistance
  • GEOG 5420: Critical Resource Geography

Techniques

(Choose at least 2 courses from this group)

  • GEOG 5185: Statistical Research Methods in Geography
  • GEOG 5190: Spatial Statistics
  • ANTH 5031: Ethnographic and Qualitative Methods
  • SOCI 5210: Introduction to Social Statistics
  • GEOG 5510: GIS for Applied Research
  • GEOG 5550: Advanced Geographic Information Systems
  • ECON 5020: Seminar on Economic Data Acquisition and Analysis
  • PSCI 6320: Quantitative Political Research Methods

Other Recommended Courses

(Choose enough courses to achieve 36 hours in total, including hours taken above)

  • GEOG 5700: Global Environmental Change
  • GEOG 5150: Water Resources Seminar
  • ECON 5000: Economic Concepts
  • ECON 5330: Advanced Macroeconomic Theory
  • ECON 5750: Urban Economics
  • ECON 5850: International Trade
  • PSCI 5625: Democracy and Democratization
  • PSCI 5830: International Conflict
  • SOCI 5350: Seminar on Urbanization