Geography

University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2016-17 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.

About the Program

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

The undergraduate major in Geography is unusually broad and diverse, including the study of cultural, economic, political, historical, biophysical, urban and regional geography as well as cartography, quantitative methods, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing and fieldwork. Backgrounds in the natural and social sciences, history, and statistical methods may be useful to the geography major, with the mix and emphasis depending on the student's particular interests. Lower division requirements ensure that all students gain a broad understanding of the discipline, while upper division requirements are structured to allow students to specialize in the areas of their greatest interest.

Declaring the Major

Students may declare the Geography major after they have completed two of the three lower division requirements, completed at least 30 units, have a C (2.0) cumulative grade point average (GPA), and no prior infraction of the Undergraduate Code of Ethics and Climate Standard . Students should declare by the end of their sophomore year at Berkeley or by the start of their second semester if they are a transfer student. To declare, make an online appointment with the student academic adviser here: http://ensor.youcanbook.me. 

Honors Program

Students with an overall GPA of 3.5 or higher on all work completed at the University, and an average of 3.5 in courses taken in the Geography Department, may apply for the honors program, with the consent of a departmental adviser. The application should be made at the beginning of the senior year. A senior in the honors program must complete GEOG H195A and/or GEOG H195B consecutively, in which a thesis is required (usually over two semesters). Any faculty member in the department may administer an honors course. It is suggested that students approach faculty members with whom they have taken classes about mentorship during junior year. After deciding on the number of units (1-4 units) the student wishes to undertake, the student should see the student academic adviser for a course control number (CCN) and the departmental application. Upon successful completion of the program and graduation, the designation of "with Honors", "with High Honors", or "with Highest Honors” will be noted on the student's transcript and diploma.

Minor Program

The Department offers a Minor in Geography. Upon completion of all the requirements for the minor, students must see the academic adviser to fill out the “Confirmation of Minor Program” petition. Students should plan on filing this petition with the adviser during the finals week of the semester in which the last course is taken.

Visit Department Website

Major Requirements

In addition to the University, campus, and college requirements, listed on the College Requirements tab, students must fulfill the below requirements specific to their major program.

General Guidelines

  1. All courses taken to fulfill the major requirements below must be taken for graded credit, other than courses listed which are offered on a Pass/No Pass basis only. Other exceptions to this requirement are noted as applicable.
  2. No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs, with the exception of minors offered outside of the College of Letters & Science.
  3. A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 must be maintained in both upper and lower division courses used to fulfill the major requirements.

For information regarding residence requirements and unit requirements, please see the College Requirements tab.

Lower Division Requirements (3 courses)1

Select one course from each of the following groups:
Basic Physical Geography
Global Environmental Change (or equivalent)
Global Environmental Change (or equivalent)
Introduction to Earth System Science (or equivalent)
World Geography
World Peoples and Cultural Environments (or equivalent)
World Peoples and Cultural Environments (or equivalent)
Worldings - Regions, Peoples and States (or equivalent)
Globalization (or equivalent)
Globalization (or equivalent)
Justice, Nature, and the Geographies of Identity (or equivalent)
Global Ecology and Development (or equivalent)
Regional Geographies
Introduction to Development (or equivalent)
The Politics of Science and Technology (or equivalent)
California (or equivalent)
California (or equivalent)
Introduction to Central Asia (or equivalent)
The Urban Experience (or equivalent)
1

Transfer students who have had introductory courses elsewhere should consult with the staff academic adviser in order to avoid repeating lower division work.

Upper Division Requirements

Students select either the 5-2-1 Option or the 4-2-2 Option for fulfilling upper division major requirements.

5-2-1 Option

Select eight upper division courses:
Five courses from one specialty group (see below)
Two courses from the other specialty group (see below)
One methodology course (see below)

4-2-2 Option

Select eight upper division courses:
Four courses from one specialty group (see below)
Two courses from the other specialty group (see below)
Two methodology courses (see below)

Specialty Groups

Earth System Science
GEOG 140APhysical Landscapes: Process and Form (Required if your specialty group is Earth System Science) 14
GEOG 109Prehistoric Agriculture4
GEOG C135Water Resources and the Environment3
GEOG C136Terrestrial Hydrology4
GEOG 137Top Ten Global Environmental Problems4
GEOG C139Atmospheric Physics and Dynamics3
GEOG 142Climate Dynamics4
GEOG 143Global Change Biogeochemistry3
GEOG 144Principles of Meteorology3
GEOG C145Geological Oceanography4
GEOG C146Communicating Ocean Science4
GEOG 147Communicating Climate Science3
GEOG 148Biogeography4
GEOG 171Special Topics in Physical Geography3
GEOG 175Undergraduate Seminars4
Economy, Culture, & Society
GEOG 109Prehistoric Agriculture4
GEOG 110Economic Geography of the Industrial World (Required if your specialty group is Economy, Culture, & Society) 24
GEOG C112History of Development and Underdevelopment4
GEOG 123Postcolonial Geographies4
GEOG 125The American City4
GEOG 130Food and the Environment (Required if your specialty group is Economy, Culture, & Society) 24
GEOG N130Food and the Environment (Required if your specialty group is Economy, Culture, & Society) 23
GEOG 138Global Environmental Politics4
GEOG C152Course Not Available4
GEOG C157Central American Peoples and Cultures4
GEOG 159ACThe Southern Border4
GEOG C160AAmerican Cultural Landscapes, 1600 to 19004
GEOG C160BAmerican Cultural Landscapes, 1900 to Present4
GEOG 164The Geography of Economic Development in China4
GEOG 170Special Topics in Geography3
GEOG 172Topics in Social Geography4
GEOG 173ACross-listed Topics in Human Geography1-4
GEOG 175Undergraduate Seminars4
1

This course required for this specialty group.

2

One of these courses is required from this specialty group.

Methodology Courses 

GEOG 80Digital Worlds: An Introduction to Geospatial Technologies4
GEOG 180Field Methods for Physical Geography5
GEOG 181Urban Field Study4
GEOG 182Field Study of Buildings and Cities3
GEOG 183Cartographic Representation5
GEOG 185Earth System Remote Sensing3
GEOG 187Geographic Information Analysis4
GEOG C188Geographic Information Systems4

Minor Requirements

Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements and are noted officially on the transcript in the memoranda section, but they are not noted on diplomas.

General Guidelines

  1. All courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements below must be taken for graded credit.
  2. A minimum of three of the upper division courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley.
  3. A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required for courses used to fulfill the minor requirements.
  4. Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements may be applied toward the Seven-Course Breadth requirement, for Letters & Science students.
  5. No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
  6. All minor requirements must be completed prior to the last day of finals during the semester in which you plan to graduate. If you cannot finish all courses required for the minor by that time, please see a College of Letters & Science adviser.
  7. All minor requirements must be completed within the unit ceiling. (For further information regarding the unit ceiling, please see the College Requirements tab.)

Minor Requirements

Upper Division Requirements
Select five upper division courses
At least one course must be selected from the Earth System Science specialty group.
At least one course must be selected from the Economy, Culture & Society specialty group.
Students should contact the student academic adviser to obtain a list of courses being offered each semester, which fall into these designated areas.

College Requirements

Undergraduate students in the College of Letters & Science must fulfill the following requirements in addition to those required by their major program.

For detailed lists of courses that fulfill college requirements, please review the College of Letters & Sciences  page in this Guide.

Entry Level Writing

All students who will enter the University of California as freshmen must demonstrate their command of the English language by fulfilling the Entry Level Writing requirement. Fulfillment of this requirement is also a prerequisite to enrollment in all reading and composition courses at UC Berkeley. 

American History and American Institutions

The American History and Institutions requirements are based on the principle that a US resident graduated from an American university should have an understanding of the history and governmental institutions of the United States.

American Cultures

American Cultures is the one requirement that all undergraduate students at Cal need to take and pass in order to graduate. The requirement offers an exciting intellectual environment centered on the study of race, ethnicity and culture of the United States. AC courses offer students opportunities to be part of research-led, highly accomplished teaching environments, grappling with the complexity of American Culture.

Quantitative Reasoning

The Quantitative Reasoning requirement is designed to ensure that students graduate with basic understanding and competency in math, statistics, or computer science. The requirement may be satisfied by exam or by taking an approved course.

Foreign Language

The Foreign Language requirement may be satisfied by demonstrating proficiency in reading comprehension, writing, and conversation in a foreign language equivalent to the second semester college level, either by passing an exam or by completing approved course work.

Reading and Composition

In order to provide a solid foundation in reading, writing and critical thinking the College requires two semesters of lower division work in composition in sequence. Students must complete a first-level reading and composition course by the end of their second semester and a second-level course by the end of their fourth semester.

Breadth Requirements

The undergraduate breadth requirements provide Berkeley students with a rich and varied educational experience outside of their major program. As the foundation of a liberal arts education, breadth courses give students a view into the intellectual life of the University while introducing them to a multitude of perspectives and approaches to research and scholarship. Engaging students in new disciplines and with peers from other majors, the breadth experience strengthens interdisciplinary connections and context that prepares Berkeley graduates to understand and solve the complex issues of their day.

Unit Requirements

  • 120 total units, including at least 60 L&S units

  • Of the 120 units, 36 must be upper division units

  • Of the 36 upper division units, 6 must be taken in courses offered outside your major department

Residence Requirements

For units to be considered in "residence," you must be registered in courses on the Berkeley campus as a student in the College of Letters & Science. Most students automatically fulfill the residence requirement by attending classes here for four years. In general, there is no need to be concerned about this requirement, unless you go abroad for a semester or year or want to take courses at another institution or through UC Extension during your senior year. In these cases, you should make an appointment to meet an adviser to determine how you can meet the Senior Residence Requirement.

Note: Courses taken through UC Extension do not count toward residence.

Senior Residence Requirement

After you become a senior (with 90 semester units earned toward your BA degree), you must complete at least 24 of the remaining 30 units in residence in at least two semesters. To count as residence, a semester must consist of at least 6 passed units. Intercampus Visitor, EAP, and UC Berkeley-Washington Program (UCDC) units are excluded.

You may use a Berkeley Summer Session to satisfy one semester of the Senior Residence requirement, provided that you successfully complete 6 units of course work in the Summer Session and that you have been enrolled previously in the college.

Modified Senior Residence Requirement

Participants in the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP) or the UC Berkeley Washington Program (UCDC) may meet a Modified Senior Residence requirement by completing 24 (excluding EAP) of their final 60 semester units in residence. At least 12 of these 24 units must be completed after you have completed 90 units.

Upper Division Residence Requirement

You must complete in residence a minimum of 18 units of upper division courses (excluding EAP units), 12 of which must satisfy the requirements for your major.

Student Learning Goals

Learning Goals for the Major

  1. Spatial, holistic thinking at the intersections of society, space, and nature
    1. Phenomena in place: Explain the spatial dimensions (location, place, landscape, region, and territory) of human life and the global environment—how human and earth science phenomena “take their place” on the surface of the earth.
    2. Earth systems: Comprehend how the Earth functions as a complex system of interacting components and how this system applies to and is affected by humanity.
    3. Scales of space and time: Understand processes operating at different spatial and temporal scales in the earth system and in human histories.
    4. Nature and society: Recognize natural resource flows through human systems and identify social constructions of nature and vulnerabilities to natural disasters.
    5. Interdisciplinarity: Combine insights from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to better understand the problems of the increasingly interconnected and ecologically fragile world.
  2. Addressing diversity in both human and physical geography
    1. Peoples and places: Discuss, interpret, and explain differences of wealth, power, health, and well-being between and within societies, and the processes that create these patterns.
    2. Physical processes: Discuss, interpret, and explain the diversity of—and the processes responsible for—the landforms, climates, and ecosystems that constitute our planet’s physical landscapes.
    3. Reading landscapes: Deduce questions and hypotheses through clues in material landscapes.
  3. Analysis and application for students who choose the Economy, Culture, and Society track
    1. Role of Space: Understand the function of boundaries, territories, places, networks, and other spatial forms in the workings of human societies.
    2. Power and landscapes: Understand the projection, protection, and contestation of power through the production of ideas, cultures, empires, and spatial forms.
    3. Roles of cities: Grasp the roles and forms of cities as records and motors of modern life, and the interactions of urban areas with hinterlands and global networks.
    4. Food systems: Compare and contrast agrarian and industrial food supply systems around the world.
    5. Society-environment interactions: Understand the mutual influences and ramifications of biophysical and social processes in the dynamics of societies at scales from the local to the global.
  4. Analysis and application for students who choose the Earth Systems Science track
    1. Earth system science: Analyze interconnected environmental systems with process-based geophysical, geochemical, and biological sciences in the context of current social environmental problems.
    2. Modeling: Construct models of the earth as a system of interconnected components, highlighting forcings and feedbacks.
    3. Experiments: Formulate and apply scientific hypotheses and devise tests for them.
    4. Science and society: Analyze and evaluate the role of science in shaping social forces, and being shaped by them.
  5. Application of basic skills in research, knowledge of literature, analysis, and communication
    1. Write clearly: Demonstrate ability to focus and elaborate on chosen topics.
    2. Read critically: Critically analyze and assess arguments in professional journals, public media, and advocacy literature.
    3. Empirical plus theoretical: Produce work with robust empirical research (that locates, interprets, and puts together relevant and reliable sources of information) as well as intellectual and theoretical rigor.
    4. Use of mapping: Understand the production, interpretation, and use of mapping in all its forms and scales.
    5. Applying quantitative skills: Apply basic quantitative skills such as statistics, algebra, and interpreting graphs.
    6. Analytical ability: Demonstrate analytical ability: including the ability to identify questions, differentiate descriptions from explanations, make connections between empirical observations and arguments, and differentiate between competing explanations of a given phenomenon.
  6. Lifetime skills
    1. Continuing concern: Show continuing concern, curiosity, and zeal for geography and for applying geographical understanding.
    2. Representing geography: Represent the usefulness of geography and geographical points of view to—depending on the circumstances—prospective employers, educators, policy makers, resource managers, developers, engineers, the public, and acquaintances.

Advising

The student academic adviser, Marjorie Ensor, helps students plan and execute their coursework in the major program and answer questions concerning requirements and course substitutions. You can make online appointments with her here: http://ensor.youcanbook.me.

Professors Laurel Larsen and Jake Kosek are the designated undergraduate faculty advisers for 2016-2017. They may be consulted on any other questions concerning the major during their office hours or by special appointment.

Students are also encouraged to seek substantive advice on academic matters from other faculty who share their interests or with whom they have had classes.

Information on general Letters & Science requirements should be obtained from a college adviser in the L&S office in 206 Evans Hall.

Courses

Geography

GEOG 1 Global Environmental Change 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2014 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2013 First 6 Week Session
The global pattern of climate, landforms, vegetation, and soils. The relative importance of natural and human-induced change, global warming, forest clearance, accelerated soil erosion, glacial/postglacial climate change and its consequences.
Global Environmental Change: Read More [+]

GEOG N1 Global Environmental Change 3 Units

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
The global pattern of climate, landforms, vegetation, and soils. The relative importance of natural and human-induced change, global warming, forest clearance, accelerated soil erosion, glacial/postglacial climate change and its consequences.
Global Environmental Change: Read More [+]

GEOG 4 World Peoples and Cultural Environments 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2014 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2013 Second 6 Week Session
Historical and contemporary cultural-environmental patterns. The development and spread of cultural adaptations, human use of resources, transformation and creation of human environments.
World Peoples and Cultural Environments: Read More [+]

GEOG N4 World Peoples and Cultural Environments 3 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
Historical and contemporary cultural-environmental patterns. The development and spread of cultural adaptations, human use of resources, transformation and creation of human environments.
World Peoples and Cultural Environments: Read More [+]

GEOG 10 Worldings - Regions, Peoples and States 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Geography is a way of thinking deeply and expansively about the world we inhabit and this course is designed to transform how you think about, understand and engage in its makings and re-makings.  Ideas central to the field of geography such as space, nature, empire and globalization animate the histories and politics of each of these issues and many other cases.  Our approach will not be to simply learn about the regions of the world, but to think critically and geographically about how region's, peoples and states and other foundational concepts have come into being and how they might be otherwise.
Worldings - Regions, Peoples and States: Read More [+]

GEOG 20 Globalization 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
How and why are geographical patterns of employment, production, and consumption unstable in the contemporary world? What are the consequences of NAFTA, an expanded European Community, and post-colonial migration flows? How is global restructuring culturally reworked locally and nationally?
Globalization: Read More [+]

GEOG N20 Globalization 3 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
Global economics and politics are undergoing a revolution. Transnational enterprises, international trade, and digitized finance are merging its formerly separate national economies. New regional and transnational treaties and institutions, from the EU and NAFTA to the IMF, the WTO and the World Bank, are arising to regulate the new global economy. Power is being transferred from national states to these institutions, not always smoothly or in predictable ways. This course is about this medley.
Globalization: Read More [+]

GEOG 24 Freshman Seminar 1 Unit

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

GEOG 31 Justice, Nature, and the Geographies of Identity 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2014, Fall 2012
The intersection of nature, identity, and politics pepper the pages of newspapers almost every day from stories of toxic waste sites, crime, genetic engineering to indigenous struggles, and terrorist tendencies. In all these and many other cases, ideas of race, class, and gender intersect with ideas of nature and geography in often tenacious and troubling ways. Our approach will be to understand these traditional ideas of environmental justice as well as to examine less traditional sites of environmental justice such as the laboratory, the war zone, the urban mall, and the courtroom.
Justice, Nature, and the Geographies of Identity: Read More [+]

GEOG C32 Introduction to Development 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2015
This course is designed as an introduction to comparative development. The course will be a general service course, as well as a prerequisite for the upper division 100 series. It is assumed that students enrolled in 10 know little about life in the Third World countries and are unfamiliar with the relevant theory in political economy of development and underdevelopment. The course will be structured around three critical concepts: land, labor, and work.
Introduction to Development: Read More [+]

GEOG 35 Global Ecology and Development 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Summer 2013 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2012 First 6 Week Session
Problems of Third World poverty and development have come to be seen as inseparable from environmental health and sustainability. The course explores the global and interconnected character of environment and development in the less developed world. Drawing on case studies of the environmental problems of the newly industrializing states, food problems, and environmental security in Africa, and the global consequences of tropical deforestation in Amazonia and carbon dioxide emissions in China, this course explores how growth and stagnation are linked to problems of environmental sustainability.
Global Ecology and Development: Read More [+]

GEOG 37 The Politics of Science and Technology 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2012
This course examines how shifting understandings of science and technology have radically remade some of our most basic social and biological categories and concepts. The course explores the field of science and technology studies. In particular, students will explore formations and understandings of truth, objectivity, universality of science and technology, and the consequences of these cultural formations in contemporary debates around the world.
The Politics of Science and Technology: Read More [+]

GEOG 40 Introduction to Earth System Science 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
The goals of this introductory Earth System Science course are to achieve a scientific understanding of important problems in global environmental change and to learn how to analyze a complex system using scientific methods. Earth System Science is an interdisciplinary field that describes the cycling of energy and matter between the different spheres (atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, and lithosphere) of the earth system. Under the overarching themes of human-induced climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and biodiversity loss, we will explore key concepts of solar radiation, plate tectonics, atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and the history of life on Earth.
Introduction to Earth System Science: Read More [+]

GEOG 50AC California 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
California had been called "the great exception" and "America, only more so." Yet few of us pay attention to its distinctive traits and to its effects beyond our borders. California may be "a state of mind," but it is also the most dynamic place in the most powerful country in the world, and would be the 8th largest economy if it were a country. Its wealth has been built on mining, agriculture, industry, trade, and finance. Natural abundance and geographic advantage have played their parts, but the state's greatest resource has been its wealth and diversity of people, who have made it a center of technological and cultural innovation from Hollywood to Silicon Valley. Yet California has a dark side of exploitation and racialization.
California: Read More [+]

GEOG N50AC California 3 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2015 Second 6 Week Session
California had been called "the great exception" and "America, only more so." Yet few of us pay attention to its distinctive traits and to its effects beyond our borders. California may be "a state of mind," but it is also the most dynamic place in the most powerful country in the world, and would be the 8th largest economy if it were a country. Its wealth has been built on mining, agriculture, industry, trade, and finance. Natural abundance and geographic advantage have played their parts, but the state's greatest resource has been its wealth and diversity of people, who have made it a center of technological and cultural innovation from Hollywood to Silicon Valley. Yet California has a dark side of exploitation and racialization.
California: Read More [+]

GEOG C55 Introduction to Central Asia 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course will introduce the student not only to ancient and modern Central Asia, but also to the role played by the region in the shaping of the history of neighboring regions and regimes. The course will outline the history, languages, ethnicities, religions, and archaeology of the region and will acquaint the student with the historical foundations of some of the political, social and economic challenges for contemporary post-Soviet Central Asian republics.
Introduction to Central Asia: Read More [+]

GEOG 70AC The Urban Experience 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 First 6 Week Session
We will track the historical evolution of the American city. We'll look at the economics of city life, at the organization of metropolitan political power, and at the aesthetics of the urban scene--to see how the core cultural themes of American urban life have endured over time while continuously adjusting to new circumstances. Our approach is to focus on major themes in urban life and to show how various groups have had different kinds of experiences in these urban realms.
The Urban Experience: Read More [+]

GEOG 80 Digital Worlds: An Introduction to Geospatial Technologies 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
An introduction to the increasingly diverse range of geospatial technologies and tools including but not limited to geographical information systems (GIS). Via a mix of lecture and lab-based instruction, students will develop knowledge and skills in web-mapping and GIS. How these tools are used to represent fundamental geographic concepts, and the wider socioeconomic context of these technologies will also be explored.
Digital Worlds: An Introduction to Geospatial Technologies: Read More [+]

GEOG N80 Digital Worlds: An Introduction to Geospatial Technologies 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 8 Week Session
An introduction to the increasingly diverse range of geospatial technologies and tools including but not limited to geographical information systems (GIS). Via a mix of lecture and lab-based instruction, students will develop knowledge and skills in web-mapping and GIS. How these tools are used to represent fundamental geographic concepts, and the wider socioeconomic context of these technologies will also be explored.
Digital Worlds: An Introduction to Geospatial Technologies: Read More [+]

GEOG C82 Oceans 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course offers multidisciplinary approach to begin answering the question "Why are oceans important to us?" Upon a physical, chemical, and geologic base, we introduce the alien world of sea life, the importance of the ocean to the global carbon cycle, and the principles of ecology with a focus on the important concept of energy flow through food webs. Lectures expand beyond science to include current topics as diverse as music, movies, mythology, biomechanics, policy, and trade.
Oceans: Read More [+]

GEOG 88 Data Science Applications in Geography 2 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017
Data science methods are increasingly important in geography and earth science. This course introduces some of the particular challenges of working with spatial data arising from characteristics specific to such data. These issues will be explored in a series of modules deploying data science methods to investigate contemporary topics in geography and earth science, relating to climate science, hydrology, population census and remote sensing of environment. No prior knowledge is assumed or expected.
Data Science Applications in Geography: Read More [+]

GEOG 98 Directed Group Study 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Lectures and small group discussion focusing on topics of interest that vary from semester to semester.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

GEOG 100 Field Study of Cuba: Landscapes of Power, Production, Promise 6 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
Field course in the cultural geography. Using the landscape as our reference, we will explore the historical transformation of Cuban cities, town, and countryside from colonial times up to the present. Focus our exploration through two particular perspectives: attention to production in key sectors of the Cuban economy at different historical moments, and the ways their attendant forms of labor, ownership, technology, and trade shape the cultural landscape. The other major point of reference for this course is representations of Cuba as a place: what has Cuba stood for over time, to Cubans and to outsiders, and how have these stories played out in the forms and functions of the Cuban land
Field Study of Cuba: Landscapes of Power, Production, Promise: Read More [+]

GEOG 109 Prehistoric Agriculture 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2012
Agricultural origins and dispersals in the light of recent biological and archaeological evidence.
Prehistoric Agriculture: Read More [+]

GEOG 110 Economic Geography of the Industrial World 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
Industrialization, urbanization, and economic growth in the global North. Locational patterns in manufacturing, retailing, trade, and finance. Geographic dynamics of technical change, employment, business organization, resource use, and divisions of labor. Property, labor, and social conflict as geographic forces. Local, national, and continental rivalries in a global economy, and challenges to U.S. dominance.
Economic Geography of the Industrial World: Read More [+]

GEOG C112 History of Development and Underdevelopment 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Historical review of the development of world economic systems and the impact of these developments on less advanced countries. Course objective is to provide a background against which to understand and assess theoretical interpretations of development and underdevelopment.
History of Development and Underdevelopment: Read More [+]

GEOG 123 Postcolonial Geographies 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2013, Fall 2012
Postcolonial studies focus on how processes of colonialism/imperialism continue even after the formal dissolution of empire. A central argument of this course is that critical human geography can make important contributions to understanding the interconnections between forces at play in different parts of the world. Drawing on concepts of space, place, culture, power, and difference, its purpose is to provide a set of tools for grappling with the conditions in which we find ourselves, and for thinking about the possibilities for social change.
Postcolonial Geographies: Read More [+]

GEOG 125 The American City 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Spring 2010, Spring 2009
The American city, palimpsest of a nation. It all comes together in the modern metropolis: economy, society, politics, culture, and geography. Cities as the economic engines of capitalism, centers of industry, finance, business, consumption, and innovation. Cities as political powers and political pawns, and the government of cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas. Cities as magnificent constructs, built of concrete, credit and land rents, from skyscrapers to housing tracts, freeways to shopping malls, airports to open spaces. Cities as landscapes of social division by class, race and nationality, and the turf battles from mean ghetto streets to the hideaways of privilege.
The American City: Read More [+]

GEOG 130 Food and the Environment 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
How do human populations organize and alter natural resources and ecosystems to produce food? The role of agriculture in the world economy, national development, and environmental degradation in the Global North and the Global South. The origins of scarcity and abundance, population growth, hunger and obesity, and poverty.
Food and the Environment: Read More [+]

GEOG N130 Food and the Environment 3 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 First 6 Week Session
How do human populations organize and alter natural resources and ecosystems to produce food? The role of agriculture in the world economy, national development, and environmental degradation in the Global North and the Global South. The origins of scarcity and abundance, population growth, hunger and obesity, and poverty.
Food and the Environment: Read More [+]

GEOG C135 Water Resources and the Environment 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2016
Distribution, dynamics, and use of water resources in the global environment. Water scarcity, water rights, and water wars. The terrestrial hydrologic cycle. Contemporary environmental issues in water resource management, including droughts, floods, saltwater intrusion, water contamination and remediation, river restoration, hydraulic fracturing, dams, and engineering of waterways. The role of water in ecosystem processes and geomorphology. How water resources are measured and monitored. Basic water resource calculations. Effects of climate change on water quantity, quality, and timing.
Water Resources and the Environment: Read More [+]

GEOG C136 Terrestrial Hydrology 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
A quantitative introduction to the hydrology of the terrestrial environment including lower atmosphere, watersheds, lakes, and streams. All aspects of the hydrologic cycle, including precipitation, infiltration, evapotranspiration, overland flow, streamflow, and groundwater flow. Chemistry and dating of groundwater and surface water. Development of quantitative insights through problem solving and use of simple models. This course requires one field experiment and several group computer lab assignments.
Terrestrial Hydrology: Read More [+]

GEOG 137 Top Ten Global Environmental Problems 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Conceptualizing global environmental problems is difficult because of the complexity of the issues, the magnitude of the problems, and the different time scales of action versus reaction. These issues apply both to the natural earth system as well as human societies. This course will examine the scientific basis underlying the largest environmental threats, and then reframe the issues to explore the societal basis of those problems. Class is not open to freshmen.
Top Ten Global Environmental Problems: Read More [+]

GEOG 138 Global Environmental Politics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
Political factors affecting ecological conditions in the Third World. Topics include environmental degradation, migrations, agricultural production, role of international aid, divergence in standard of living, political power, participation and decision making, access to resources, global environmental policies and treaties, political strife and war.
Global Environmental Politics: Read More [+]

GEOG C139 Atmospheric Physics and Dynamics 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course examines the processes that determine the structure and circulation of the Earth's atmosphere. The approach is deductive rather than descriptive: to figure out the properties and behavior of the Earth's atmosphere based on the laws of physics and fluid dynamics. Topics will include interaction between radiation and atmospheric composition; the role of water in the energy and radiation balance; governing equations for atmospheric motion, mass conservation, and thermodynamic energy balance; geostrophic flow, quasigeostrophic motion, baroclinic instability and dynamics of extratropical cyclones.
Atmospheric Physics and Dynamics: Read More [+]

GEOG 140A Physical Landscapes: Process and Form 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Understanding the physical characteristics of the Earth's surface, and the processes active on it, is essential for maintaining the long-term health of the environment, and for appreciating the unique, defining qualities of geographic regions. In this course, we build an understanding of global tectonics, rivers, hillslopes, and coastlines and discover how these act in concert with the underlying geologic framework to produce the magnificent landscapes of our planet. Through our review of formative processes, we learn how physical landscapes change and are susceptible to human modifications, which are often unintentional.
Physical Landscapes: Process and Form: Read More [+]

GEOG 140B Physiography and Geomorphologic Extremes 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
In this course we review the physical landscapes and surface processes in extreme environments: hot arid regions, glacial and periglacial landscapes, and karst terrane. Using this knowledge, plus an understanding of tectonics and temperate watersheds (gained from prerequisite courses), we explore how unique combinations of geomorphic processes acting on tectonic and structural provinces have created the spectacular and diverse landscapes of North America. Regions to be explored include the Colorado Plateau, Sierra Nevada, North Cascades, Northern and Southern Rockies, Great Plains, Appalachian Highlands, and Mississippi Delta.
Physiography and Geomorphologic Extremes: Read More [+]

GEOG 142 Climate Dynamics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
The course presents a conceptual basis for understanding of the workings of the global climate system, and how they conspire to bring about change. The goal is to give the student a climate dynamics basis for understanding global climate change. Covered topics include observations of the climate system; the earth's energy balance; atmospheric radiative transfer; atmospheric circulation; the role of the ocean and the cryosphere; climate variability on various timescales; climate feedbacks and climate change.
Climate Dynamics: Read More [+]

GEOG 143 Global Change Biogeochemistry 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2009
How does the chemical makeup of Earth make it suitable for life? And how does life in turn alter the chemistry of our planet? Biogeochemistry is the field of science that explores the imprint of biota (including humans) on the chemistry of the ocean, land and atmosphere. This interdisciplinary field addresses global problems, including climate change feedbacks, air quality, land use change, and marine ecosystem health. We will provide an overview of the major biogeochemical cycles, discuss the biogeochemistry of major ecosystems, and introduce the major biogeochemical questions being asked today. We also cover measurement techniques, including hands-on activities to introduce students to experimental methods and data analysis.
Global Change Biogeochemistry: Read More [+]

GEOG 144 Principles of Meteorology 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2011, Fall 2008, Fall 2004
Weather development in relation to different scales of atmospheric circulation including analysis and forecasting with examples from the Northeastern Pacific-Western North American area.
Principles of Meteorology: Read More [+]

GEOG C145 Geological Oceanography 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Spring 2010, Spring 2008
The tectonics and morphology of the sea floor, the geologic processes in the deep and shelf seas, and the climatic record contained in deep-sea sediments. The course will cover sources and composition of marine sediments, sea-level change, ocean circulation, paleoenvironmental reconstruction using fossils, imprint of climatic zonation on marine sediments, marine stratigraphy, and ocean floor resources.
Geological Oceanography: Read More [+]

GEOG C146 Communicating Ocean Science 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
For undergraduates interested in improving their ability to communicate their scientific knowledge by teaching ocean science in elementary schools or science centers/aquariums. The course will combine instruction in inquiry-based teaching methods and learning pedagogy with six weeks of supervised teaching experience in a local school classroom or the Lawrence Hall of Science with a partner. Thus, students will practice communicating scientific knowledge and receive mentoring on how to improve their presentations.
Communicating Ocean Science: Read More [+]

GEOG 147 Communicating Climate Science 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
For upper division undergraduate students interested in improving their conceptual understanding of climate science and climate change through engaging in activities, demonstrations, and discussions, while also developing their science communication skills to advance the public’s climate literacy. The course will combine science content, active teaching and learning methods based on how people learn, and how to engage in effective interactions.
Communicating Climate Science: Read More [+]

GEOG 148 Biogeography 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Changing distribution patterns of plants and animals on a variety of spatial and temporal scales. The effects of "continental drift," Pleistocene climatic change, agricultural origins and dispersals. The ecology of invasions and extinctions. Island biogeography.
Biogeography: Read More [+]

GEOG C148 Biogeography 4 Units

Terms offered: Not yet offered
The course will provide a historical background for the field of biogeography and the ecological foundations needed to understand the distribution and abundance of species and their changes over time. It will also discuss developing technologies (including genomic tools and environmental models) together with the availability of big data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to examine the relevance of the field to global change biology, conservation, and invasion biology, as well as sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.,Terms offered: Spring 2018
The course will provide a historical background for the field of biogeography and the ecological foundations needed to understand the distribution and abundance of species and their changes over time. It will also discuss developing technologies (including genomic tools and environmental models) together with the availability of big data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to examine the relevance of the field to global change biology, conservation, and invasion biology, as well as sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.
Biogeography: Read More [+]

GEOG C148 Biogeography 4 Units

Terms offered: Not yet offered
The course will provide a historical background for the field of biogeography and the ecological foundations needed to understand the distribution and abundance of species and their changes over time. It will also discuss developing technologies (including genomic tools and environmental models) together with the availability of big data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to examine the relevance of the field to global change biology, conservation, and invasion biology, as well as sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.,Terms offered: Spring 2018
The course will provide a historical background for the field of biogeography and the ecological foundations needed to understand the distribution and abundance of species and their changes over time. It will also discuss developing technologies (including genomic tools and environmental models) together with the availability of big data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to examine the relevance of the field to global change biology, conservation, and invasion biology, as well as sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.
Biogeography: Read More [+]

GEOG C148 Biogeography 4 Units

Terms offered: Not yet offered
The course will provide a historical background for the field of biogeography and the ecological foundations needed to understand the distribution and abundance of species and their changes over time. It will also discuss developing technologies (including genomic tools and environmental models) together with the availability of big data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to examine the relevance of the field to global change biology, conservation, and invasion biology, as well as sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.,Terms offered: Spring 2018
The course will provide a historical background for the field of biogeography and the ecological foundations needed to understand the distribution and abundance of species and their changes over time. It will also discuss developing technologies (including genomic tools and environmental models) together with the availability of big data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to examine the relevance of the field to global change biology, conservation, and invasion biology, as well as sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.
Biogeography: Read More [+]

GEOG C148 Biogeography 4 Units

Terms offered: Not yet offered
The course will provide a historical background for the field of biogeography and the ecological foundations needed to understand the distribution and abundance of species and their changes over time. It will also discuss developing technologies (including genomic tools and environmental models) together with the availability of big data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to examine the relevance of the field to global change biology, conservation, and invasion biology, as well as sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.,Terms offered: Spring 2018
The course will provide a historical background for the field of biogeography and the ecological foundations needed to understand the distribution and abundance of species and their changes over time. It will also discuss developing technologies (including genomic tools and environmental models) together with the availability of big data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to examine the relevance of the field to global change biology, conservation, and invasion biology, as well as sustainable food systems and ecosystem services.
Biogeography: Read More [+]

GEOG C155 Race, Space, and Inequality 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017
This course examines the the spatial configurations of inequality and poverty and their relationship to race through an analysis of the historical, theoretical and ethnographic conceptualizations, practices, and lived experiences of that relationship. The course will cover the topics of race, space, and inequality through four interwoven thematic lenses of formation, implementation, normalization, and resistances.
Race, Space, and Inequality: Read More [+]

GEOG 157 The Politics of the Anthropocene 4 Units

Terms offered: Not yet offered
This course seeks to trace the rise of the anthropogenic epoch as a political epistemology, changing material milieu, and amorphous and contested political signifier. The notion of the Anthropocene challenges the very boundaries of nature and culture that have plagued and defined modernity. Natural forces and inanimate objects from storms and bodies, ocean flows and river currents, soil layers and chemical reactions are more and more commonly understood as always already natural/cultural. What are the differential ways that the universal categories of the human at the heart of the concept of the Anthropocene mask the differential responsibility and liability for these epochal changes?

The Politics of the Anthropocene: Read More [+]

GEOG C157 Central American Peoples and Cultures 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2012, Spring 2011, Fall 2004
A comparative survey of the peoples and cultures of the seven countries of the Central American Isthmus from a historical and contemporary perspective.
Central American Peoples and Cultures: Read More [+]

GEOG 159AC The Southern Border 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
The southern border--from California to Florida--is the longest physical divide between the First and Third Worlds. This course will examine the border as a distinct landscape where North-South relations take on a specific spatial and cultural dimension, and as a region which has been the testing ground for such issues as free trade, immigration, and ethnic politics.
The Southern Border: Read More [+]

GEOG 160B American Cultural Landscapes 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 1997, Spring 1996
Introduces ways of seeing and interpreting American histories and cultures, as revealed in everyday built surroundings--homes, highways, farms, factories, stores, recreation areas, small towns, city districts and regions. Encourages students to read landscapes as records of past and present social relations, and to speculate for themselves about cultural meaning.
American Cultural Landscapes: Read More [+]

GEOG C160A American Cultural Landscapes, 1600 to 1900 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
Introduces ways of seeing and interpreting American histories and cultures, as revealed in everyday built surroundings-- houses, highways, farms, factories, stores, recreation areas, small towns, city districts, and regions. Encourages students to read landscapes as records of past and present social relations and to speculate for themselves about cultural meaning.
American Cultural Landscapes, 1600 to 1900: Read More [+]

GEOG C160B American Cultural Landscapes, 1900 to Present 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Introduces ways of seeing and interpreting American histories and cultures, as revealed in everyday built surroundings--homes, highways, farms, factories, stores, recreation areas, small towns, city districts, and regions. Encourages students to read landscapes as records of past and present social relations, and to speculate for themselves about cultural meaning.
American Cultural Landscapes, 1900 to Present: Read More [+]

GEOG 164 The Geography of Economic Development in China 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
This course focuses on four issues in contemporary China: (1) the transformation of the socialist state, (2) the environmental politics, (3) the interplay of gender and class in the transitional society, (4) urban expansion and the changing rural-urban dynamics, and (5) global China. Each of these issues will be examined with reference to critical theories of development and histories of China's modernization. This is a lecture course designed mainly for upper level undergraduate students with preliminary background in East Asian-Chinese studies or development studies.
The Geography of Economic Development in China: Read More [+]

GEOG 170 Special Topics in Geography 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
This course is designed to provide a vehicle for instructors to address a topic with which they are especially concerned; usually more restricted than the subject matter of a regular lecture course. Topics will vary with instructor. See departmental announcements.
Special Topics in Geography: Read More [+]

GEOG 171 Special Topics in Physical Geography 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Summer 2016 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2015
This course is designed to provide a vehicle for instructors to address a topic in physical geography with which they are especially concerned; usually more restricted than the subject matter of a regular lecture course. Topics will vary with instructor. See departmental announcements.
Special Topics in Physical Geography: Read More [+]

GEOG 172 Topics in Social Geography 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2011, Fall 2009
This course is designed to provide a vehicle for instructors to address a topic in social geography with which they are especially concerned; usually more restricted than the subject matter of a regular lecture course. Topics will vary with instructor. See departmental announcements.
Topics in Social Geography: Read More [+]

GEOG 173A Cross-listed Topics in Human Geography 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2010, Spring 2007
This course is designed to accommodate cross-listed courses offered through other departments, the content of which is applicable to geography majors. Content and unit values vary from course to course.
Cross-listed Topics in Human Geography: Read More [+]

GEOG 175 Undergraduate Seminars 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
A reading and research seminar for undergraduate students. Topics will vary with instructor.
Undergraduate Seminars: Read More [+]

GEOG C179A GC-Maker Lab I: Skills and Theory 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2016
In the environmental and biological sciences, one of the biggest challenges in transitioning from student to researcher is learning how to measure something without an off-the-shelf device. This course will provide the theoretical background and the practice of building a Gas Chromatograph (GC) system for environmental research. The first semester is for students who seek to develop fundamental skills in instrumental development and design. The second semester (c179b) is only open to those who have taken this first semester course and will entail the construction of a working gas chromatograph system. This class will be especially useful for students who wish to pursue research following graduation.
GC-Maker Lab I: Skills and Theory: Read More [+]

GEOG C179B GC-Maker Lab II: Instrument development 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017
In the environmental and biological sciences, one of the biggest challenges in transitioning from student to researcher is learning how to measure something without an off-the-shelf device. This course will involve the actual building a gas chromatograph (GC) system for environmental research. In addition, we will provide the option of building a mini datalogging sensor for measuring basic environmental parameters using the Arduino platform. This course offered in the spring semester is only open to those who have taken this first semester course (c179A), which covers the fundamental skills required to undertake this project. This class is designed for upper division undergraduates to early graduate students.
GC-Maker Lab II: Instrument development: Read More [+]

GEOG 180 Field Methods for Physical Geography 5 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Field introduction to geomorphology, biogeography, and California landscapes. Students conduct field experiments and mapping exercises. Results of field projects are analyzed and presented as a technical report. Oral field reports are required for some trips.
Field Methods for Physical Geography: Read More [+]

GEOG 181 Urban Field Study 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
Introduction to the metropolitan Bay Area: its history, economy, social makeup. Evolution of urban landscapes and spatial patterns. Social justice and conflict in the city. Business and industry location, real estate and housing, producing and consuming in the city. Regional characteristics of class, race, gender and politics.
Urban Field Study: Read More [+]

GEOG 182 Field Study of Buildings and Cities 3 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2015 First 6 Week Session
Traveling on foot and by BART—and with on-site lectures and discussions about architecture, urban design, cultural landscapes, and spatial patterns in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, and Pleasanton—students in this course will explore the historical geography of the American city since 1850. Enrollment limited to 25 students. No pre-requisites. Both undergraduate and graduate students are welcome.
Field Study of Buildings and Cities: Read More [+]

GEOG 183 Cartographic Representation 5 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
Problems in the representation of quantitative and qualitative data on thematic maps.
Cartographic Representation: Read More [+]

GEOG 185 Earth System Remote Sensing 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This lecture-lab course is focused on Earth system remote sensing applications, including a survey of methods and an accompanying lab. This first part of the course will cover general principles, image acquisition and interpretation, and analytical approaches. The second part will cover global change remote sensing applications that will include terrestrial ecosystems, Earth sciences, the hydrosphere, and human land-use.
Earth System Remote Sensing: Read More [+]

GEOG 187 Geographic Information Analysis 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
A spatial analytic approach to digital mapping and GIS. Given that recording the geolocation of scientific, business and social data is now routine, the question of what we can learn from the spatial aspect of data arises. This class looks at challenges in analyzing spatial data, particularly scale and spatial dependence. Various methods are considered such as hotspot detection, interpolation, and map overlay. The emphasis throughout is hands on and practical rather than theoretical.

Geographic Information Analysis: Read More [+]

GEOG C188 Geographic Information Systems 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course introduces the student to the rapidly expanding field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It addresses both theory and application and provides the student with a dynamic analytical framework within which temporal and spatial data and information is gathered, integrated, interpreted, and manipulated. It emphasizes a conceptual appreciation of GIS and offers an opportunity to apply some of those concepts to contemporary geographical and planning issues.
Geographic Information Systems: Read More [+]

GEOG H195A Honors Course 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
Required for Honors in Geography. Students will write a thesis. One or two semesters, at the instructor's option; if two semesters, credit and grade to be awarded upon completion of the sequence.
Honors Course: Read More [+]

GEOG H195B Honors Course 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Required for Honors in Geography. Students will write a thesis. One or two semesters, at the instructor's option; if two semesters, credit and grade to be awarded upon completion of the sequence.
Honors Course: Read More [+]

GEOG 197 Field Study in Geography 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Supervised experience in application of geography in off-campus organizations. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required.
Field Study in Geography: Read More [+]

GEOG 198 Directed Group Study 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Fall 2016

Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

GEOG 199 Supervised Independent Study 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017

Supervised Independent Study: Read More [+]

Faculty and Instructors

+ Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.

Faculty

Jeffrey Q. Chambers, Associate Professor. Forests, climate change, trees, tropical forests, remote sensing, Drought.
Research Profile

John Chiang, Professor. Climate change, climate dynamics, ocean-atmosphere interactions, paleoclimate.
Research Profile

Kurt Cuffey, Professor. Continuum mechanics, climate, geomorphology, glaciers, glaciology, climate history, stable isotopes, geographical thought.
Research Profile

William E. Dietrich, Professor. Morphology, earth and planetary sciences, geomorphology, evolution of landscapes, geomorphic transport laws, landscape evolution modeling, high resolution laser altimetry, cosmogenic nuclide analysis.
Research Profile

You-Tien Hsing, Professor. China, geography, political economy of development in East Asia, the process of international economic restructuring, cultural and institutional configuration in the processes of Taiwanese direct investment, growth in Chinese cities, business networks.
Research Profile

Lynn Ingram, Professor. Geophysics, geology, earth and planetary science, geography, stratigraphy with strontium isotopes, paleontological, paleoclimate, California climate change, paleosalinity, shellmounds, geochemical data, paleoclimatic and paleo-environmental reconstruction in aquatic environments using sedimentological.
Research Profile

G. Mathias Kondolf, Professor. Ecological restoration, landscape architecture, environmental planning, fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, environmental geology, environmental impact assessment, riparian zone management.
Research Profile

Jake Kosek, Associate Professor. Cultural politics of nature and difference; cultural geography, science and technology studies; critical race theory; critical cartography; biopolitics; human and the non-human; and environmental politics.

Laurel G. Larsen, Assistant Professor. Hydroecology, geomorphology, complex systems, restoration ecology, environmental modeling, wetlands, sediment transport, environmental fluid mechanics.
Research Profile

Jovan Scott Lewis, Assistant Professor. Jamaica and the USA; constructions and infrastructures of poverty, inequality, race (blackness), economy, and the market.
Research Profile

Beatriz Manz, Professor. Latin America, human rights, peasantry, migrations, social movements, political conflict, Mayan communities in Guatemala, issues of memory, grief.
Research Profile

David O'Sullivan, Associate Professor. Spatial analysis, complexity, spatial models.
Research Profile

Robert Rhew, Associate Professor. Geography, terrestrial-atmosphere exchange of trace gases, atmospheric chemistry and composition, halogen biogeochemistry, stratospheric ozone depletion issues, coastal salt marsh, chaparral, desert, tundra, boreal forest, grassland.
Research Profile

Nathan F. Sayre, Associate Professor. Climate change, endangered species, rangelands, political ecology, pastoralism, ranching, environmental history, suburbanization, human-environment interactions, environmental geography, range science and management, Southwestern US, scale, community-based conservation.
Research Profile

Harley Shaiken, Professor. Mexico, labor, globalization, education, United States, geography, work organization, issues of economic and political integration in the Americas, information technology, skill.
Research Profile

David B. Wahl, Assistant Adjunct Professor.

Lecturers

Alicia Cowart, Lecturer.

Seth R. Lunine, Lecturer.

John Stehlin, Lecturer.

Visiting Faculty

Melanie Feakins, Visiting Assistant Professor.

Emeritus Faculty

A. Roger Byrne, Professor Emeritus. Historical biogeography, vegetation change, prehistoric agriculture, pollen analysis, history of late-Pleistocene/Holocene environment, fossil pollen.
Research Profile

Orman E. Granger, Professor Emeritus.

Paul Groth, Professor Emeritus. Architecture, vernacular architecture, urban geography, suburban America, cultural landscape studies, housing (US).
Research Profile

Gillian P. Hart, Professor Emeritus.

Michael Johns, Professor Emeritus. Latin America, development, geography, culture of cities.
Research Profile

Norman Miller, Professor Emeritus. Hydroclimate modeling and assimilation and analysis, climate change impacts to sociology-economic and ecological sectors.
Research Profile

Theodore M. Oberlander, Professor Emeritus.

Robert R. Reed, Professor Emeritus.

Richard Walker, Professor Emeritus. Race, environment, urbanism, politics, geography, resources, economic geography, regional development, capitalism, cities, California, class.
Research Profile

+ Michael J. Watts, Professor Emeritus. Islam, development, Africa, social movements, political economy, political ecology, geography, South Asia, peasant societies, social and and cultural theory, US agriculture, Marxian political economy.
Research Profile

Contact Information

Department of Geography

507 McCone Hall

Phone: 510-642-3903

Fax: 510-642-3370

Visit Department Website

Department Chair

Nathan Sayre, PhD

599 McCone Hall

Phone: 510-664-4072

nsayre@berkeley.edu

Undergraduate Faculty Adviser (Human Geography)

Jake Kosek PhD

585 McCone Hall

Phone: 510-642-3903

jake@berkeley.edu

Undergraduate Faculty Adviser (Physical Geography)

Laurel Larsen, PhD

595 McCone Hall

Phone: 510-642-3903

laurel@berkeley.edu

Undergraduate Major Adviser (Grad & UG), Lead

Marjorie Ensor

517 McCone Hall

Phone: 510-642-3904

ensor@berkeley.edu

Student Academic Adviser (Grad & UG)

Bobby Ewing

509A McCone Hall

Phone: 510-664-7698

rewing@berkeley.edu

Back to Top