Courses

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.

icon of digital map and earth

GEOG 181 Our Digital Earth
Instructors: Sarah CooleyAmy LobbenJohnny 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)

Geo Color

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)

crowd of people

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


Fall 2023

Number Course Title Instructor
141 Natural Environment Fonstad
201 World Regional Geography (WEB) McLees
281 The World and Big Data Luan
323 Biogeography Gavin
341 Population & Environment Cohen
393 Data-Driven Cartography Fish
391 Social Science Research & Inquiry TBD
CAS Career Readiness McLees/Amtma
410L   nn
4/533 Fire & Natural Disturbances Gavin
4/542 Urban Geography (Hybrid) McLees
4/565 Environment and Development TBD
4/581 GlScience I (Hybrid) Fish
4/582 GIScience II Kohler
4/585 Remote Sensing I TBD
490 Drones & Mapping Fonstad
4/594 Spatial Analysis Luan
608 Graduate Student Workshop Cohen
612 Theory & Practice in Geography II Su

Winter 2024

Number Course Title Instructor
141 Natural Environment Gavin
142 Human Geography: Our Globalized World (WEB) McLees
181 Our Digital Earth Lobben
199/250 Geography of Adventure Kohler
202 Geography of Europe Murphy
321 Climatology Bartlein
342 Globalization & Development (WEB) Buck
360 Watershed Science & Policy McDowell
CAS 420 Career Readiness McLees/Amtmann
4/521 Advanced Climatology Bartlein
4/523 Advanced Biogeography Gavin
4/541 Political Geography Murphy
4/568 Food Systems (Hybrid) McLees
4/581 GIScience I (Hybrid) Fish
4/582 GIScience II TBD
4/585 Remote Sensing I TBD
4/591 Advance GIS: Python Kohler
4/593 Advanced Cartography Fish
611 Theory & Practice in Geography I Walker
613 Thesis writingworkshop Lobben

Spring 2024

Number Course Title Instructor
141 Natural Environment (WEB) TBD
142 Human Geography: Our Globalized World TBD
181 Our Digital Earth Cooley
199 The Global Drug Trade Sy
208 Geog of the US & Canada (Hybrid) McLees
282 Programming for SDS Ryan
322 Geomorphology Fonstad
361 Global Environmental Change TBD
343 Society, Culture, and Place (Hybrid) McLees
391 Career Readiness McLees/Amtmann
4/544 Cultural Geography (Inside-Out course) Cohen
4/561 Environmental Alteration TBD
4/581 GlScience I TBD
4/584 Topics: GIS & Public Health Luan
4/586 Remote Sensing II TBD
4/590 Topics: Drones & Mapping Lamping
4/590 Topics: Web Mapping Merson
4/590 Topics: Geospatial Data Applications Ryan
4/597 Qualitative Methods Johnson
607 GIScience Luan
608 Graduate Student Workshop TBA