Return to Geography Course Pages
| Jump down for lectures notes (downloaded as pdf) |
| Instructor: Prof. Nathan Sayre email: nsayre@berkeley.edu office phone: 643-4084 office: 589 McCone Hall office hours: T,Th 3:45-5 |
Class Location: 10 Evans Class Time: TuTh 2-3:30 Course control number: 36403 Units: 4 |
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| GSI: Naomi Schulz email: naomischulz@berkeley.edu office: 583 McCone office hours: W 10-12 GSI: Jessica Taal email: jessie_@berkeley.edu office: Brewed Awakenings Coffee Shop office hours: Th, 3:45-5:45 GSI: Dyuti Sengupta email: dyutis@gmail.com office: 569 McCone office hours: T 4-5, F 10-11 GSI: Liam Reidy email: lreidy@berkeley.edu office: 197 McCone office hours: Th 12-2 |
Discussion Sections: All sections meet in 135 McCone
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| The world is comprised of regions—this basic contention, as old as Western civilization, is at once commonsensical and problematic. To be sure, one can draw lines on a map that divide the world into areas with distinctive patterns of culture and language, climate and vegetation, economy and society. But lines on a map never match reality perfectly: There are always moments or places where lines blur, and countless other ways one might plausibly classify the earth’s surface and peoples. Moreover, the lines need to move as time passes and realities change. Regions, then, are not fixed or timeless, natural or neutral. If they are objectively grounded it can only be because the natural and social processes that create regional patterns are objective processes. Regions are the geographical byproduct of geology, ecology and history. This course approaches the world’s regions, peoples and states in terms of processes rather than lines on a map. We will look at the world, and we will attempt to absorb and understand some of its social and natural diversity. The emphasis, however, will be on how these patterns have been produced over time and space. We will also consider the strengths and weaknesses of thinking about the world in terms of regions. |
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Requirements and Grading:
You must complete all four components to receive a passing grade in the course. |
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| Books: (available at Ned’s and ASUC) Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel Eric R. Wolf, Europe and the People Without History Mike Davis, Planet of Slums John L. Allen, Student Atlas of World Geography There is also a reader available at Copy Central on Hearst (just west of Euclid). It contains the readings marked with an asterisk (*) in the schedule below. |
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| Research Project: The research project will be ongoing throughout the semester. Each discussion section will divide into two teams, and each team will define a “region” to study. In the final four lectures of the semester, each GSI’s teams will constitute a panel and present their findings. Each student will also turn in an annotated bibliography and a 4-6-page double-spaced paper summarizing his/her individual research. The presentation will be worth 10% of the final grade, with all team members receiving the same grade. The bibliography (5% of the final grade) and paper (10%) will be graded individually. More information about the research project will be handed out in lecture. Please note: This course has been revised as part of a University project to introduce research assignments into selected large enrollment courses. After the semester ends, project staff will examine a random subset of completed research assignments from these courses to learn more about undergraduate students' research skills. Student names will be removed from the sampled assignments before they are studied. Thus, this secondary review will not affect the students' grades and will be used only to improve future courses. |
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| Podcast: Audio of the course lectures will be available for downloading from: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses. Please note that technical problems may cause any given lecture to be unavailable in this way. |
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| Course website: We will be using the university’s new online service: http://bspace.berkeley.edu. Please go to the site and log on using your CalNet ID and passphrase. If you are registered for the course, a tab should appear automatically for Geography 10. |
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| Academic Integrity: Any test, paper, report or homework submitted under your name is presumed to be your own original work that has not previously been submitted for credit in another course. All words and ideas written by other people must be properly attributed: fully identified as to source and the extent of your use of their work. Cheating, plagiarism and other academic misconduct will result in a failing grade on the assignment, paper, quiz or exam in question and will be reported to Student Judicial Affairs. |
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