Overview of Course

Cultural geography examines spatial variations of human elements. It studies the patterns of a population, religion, economic activities, beliefs, cuisine, language, popular culture, and other human behaviors. Place impacts culture, culture affects a place, and culture varies from place to place. Cultural geography emphasizes how culture is expressed and symbolized in our surroundings and offers an opportunity to understand the diversity of culture and places. Culture is a lens through which people understand the practices and exchanges that occur in their daily lives. This course will use a combination of lectures, maps, case studies, short papers, videos, assignments, and group discussions to provide students with the necessary tools to understand cultural elements in different parts of the world. We will focus extra emphasis on many of the regions and locations we will travel to during our voyage.