Geography offers a wide range of courses that delve into human relationships with the environment and the analysis of systems that produce the variety of places in the world around us. Geographers have a tradition of field work, which can be difficult in a classroom setting. Our courses ask you to work with real data about real situations around the world, giving you a chance to understand the processes shaping places, from the climate to politics, geomorphology to environmental and social injustice.
The University of Oregon course catalog offers degree plans and a complete list of undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of Geography.
Featured Courses
Geography offers a wide range of pathways to explore the processes shaping places on our planet. The following course have been popular with students who are interested in the pressing issues of our time and some of the tools with which we can understand them.
GEOG 181 Our Digital Earth
Instructors: Sarah Cooley, Amy Lobben, Johnny Ryan
Explore the wide variety of data and techniques geographers can use to analyze systems and processes. This course introduces spatial data, GIS, remote sensing, cartography, and how anyone can make an app to collect and display spatial data. This is a powerful class to understand the democratization of data that is used to make important decisions. This class also counts for Social Science Core Ed requirement. (No pre-reqs)
GEOG 321 Climatology
Instructor: Patrick Bartlein
The world, both people and places, is now being severely impacted by climate change, but the scientific understanding of how climate operates remains widely unknown by the general public. This class introduces students to the main drives of the earth’s climate, how we can study climate from the distant past to help inform our understanding of the current trajectories of climate change. This class count for a Science Core Ed requirement (Pre-req: GEOG 141)
GEOG 341 Population and the Environment
Instructor: Shaul Cohen
One of the defining narratives of our time has been the threat of overpopulation. As population clocks tick upward, many 'solutions’ to the problem of too many people have been proposed. From China’s One Child Policy to actually encouraging people in some European countries to have more children. What is at the core of this hypothesis and what are other ways we can understand the relationship with the people and the planet that can help us better understand the impacts on Earth’s finite resources? This class counts as a Social Science Core Ed requirement (No pre-reqs).
Upcoming Courses
The provisional 2023-2024 course plan is below. Please look at the codes at the bottom of the page to understand specifically what each course can count towards within the Geography and Spatial Data Science and Technology majors, the Geography and the Climate Studies minors, and for the graduate program. Note that you cannot use the same course for two requirements within the same major. As always, this schedule is provisional and subject to change.
Fall 2023
Winter 2024
Spring 2024
Concentration key:
CPP = Culture, Politics & Place
EES = Economy, Environment & Sustainability
EVS = Environmental Systems
GIS = Geographic Information Systems
WSP = Water Science & Policy
Fall 2023
Number | Course Title | Instructor | Undergraduate | Concentration | Graduate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
141 | Natural Environment | Fonstad | Intro Core |
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181 | Our Digital Earth | Kohler | Intro Core |
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201 | World Regional Geography (WEB) | McLees | Advanced Core |
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281 | The World and Big Data | Luan | Advanced Core, SD Core |
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323 | Biogeography | Gavin | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS |
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341 | Population & Environment | Cohen | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP, EES |
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393 | Data-Driven Cartography | Fish | Breadth: GIScience | GIS |
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CAS 417 | Career Readiness | McLees/Amtmann | Launchpad |
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4/533 | Fire & Natural Disturbances | Gavin | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS | Biophysical Geography |
4/542 | Urban Geography (Hybrid) | McLees | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP | Human Geography |
4/581 | GlScience I (Hybrid) | Fish | Breadth: GIScience, SD Core | GIS | Techniques |
4/582 | GIScience II | Kohler | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/585 | Remote Sensing I | Fonstad | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/594 | Spatial Analysis | Luan | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
607 | Sem: Nature, Power & Marx | Buck |
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| Human Geography |
608 | Graduate Student Workshop | Cohen |
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| Core |
612 | Theory & Practice in Geography II | Su |
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| Core |
Winter 2024
Number | Course Title | Instructor | Undergraduate | Concentration | Graduate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
141 | Natural Environment | Gavin | Intro Core |
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142 | Human Geography (WEB) | McLees | Intro Core |
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181 | Our Digital Earth | Lobben | Intro Core |
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202 | Geography of Europe | Murphy | Advanced Core |
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209 | Geography of Middle East & North Africa | Moradi | Advanced Core |
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321 | Climatology | Christian | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS |
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342 | Geography of Globalization (WEB) | Buck | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP, ED |
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360 | Watershed Science & Policy | McDowell | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS, WSP |
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ES 399 | LatinX Geographies | Pulido | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP |
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399 | Global Carnegie | Cohen |
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ENVS 4/510 | Landscape Ecology | Lucash | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS | Biophysical Geography |
CAS 417 | Career Readiness | McLees/Amtmann | Launchpad |
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4/523 | Top: Climate Change and Biodiversity | Gavin | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS | Biophysical Geography |
4/541 | Political Geography | Murphy | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP | Human Geography |
445 | Culture, Ethnicity & Nationalism (Inside-Out) | Cohen | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP |
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ENVS 450 | Political Ecology | Walker | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP, EES | Human Geography |
4/568 | Contemporary Food Systems | McLees | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP, EES | Human Geography |
4/581 | GIScience I (WEB) | Dietz | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/582 | GIScience II | Kohler | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/590 | Top: R for Earth Systems Science | Bartlein | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/591 | Advance GIS: Python | Kohler | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/593 | Advanced Cartography | Fish | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
611 | Theory & Practice in Geography I | Walker |
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| Core |
613 | Research Design | Lobben |
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| Core |
632 | Progress in Human Geog | Cohen |
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Spring 2024
Number | Course Title | Instructor | Undergraduate | Concentration | Graduate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
141 | Natural Environment (WEB) | TBD | Intro Core |
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142 | Human Geography | Carey | Intro Core |
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199 | The Global Drug Trade | Su | Intro Core |
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199 | Global Wildfire | Lucash | Advanced Core |
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208 | Geog of the US & Canada (Hybrid) | McLees | Advanced Core |
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281 | The World and Big Data | Dietz | Advanced Core |
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322 | Geomorphology | Fonstad | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS, WSP |
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343 | Society, Culture, and Place | Moradi | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP |
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361 | Global Environmental Change | Christian | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS, WSP |
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399 | Programming for SDS (WEB) | Ryan | SD Core |
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399 | Global Carnegie | Cohen |
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4/510 | Mountain Geographies | Fonstad | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS, WSP | Biophysical Geography |
4/510 | Urban Political Ecology | McLees | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP, EES | Human Geography |
4/525 | Hydrology | Cooley | Breadth: Biophysical Geography | EES, EVS, WSP | Biophysical Geography |
ASIA 480 | Chinese Economy | Buck | Breadth: Human Geography | CPP |
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4/581 | GlScience I | Kohler | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/586 | Remote Sensing II | Kohler | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/589 | Drones & Mapping | Lamping | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/590 | Topics: Web Mapping | Merson | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
4/590 | Topics: GIS and Public Health | Ryan | Breadth: GIScience | GIS | Techniques |
607 | Sem: Biophys/Climate | Christian |
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| Seminar Physical |
608 | Graduate Student Workshop | Cohen |
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| Core |
633 | Progress in GIS | Fish |
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