EES 709 GEOGRAPHIC THOUGHT AND
THEORY |
|
Instructor: |
Dr. Marianna Pavlovskaya |
Office location: |
HN 1003F (Hunter College) and GC TBA |
Office hours: |
Th 16-17 (at GC) and by appointment at Hunter College |
Email: |
mpavlovAThunter.cuny.edu (See Email rules) |
BlackBoard login page: |
|
Syllabus page: |
http://www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/~mpavlov/
and click on
course link EES709 Geographic Thought and Theory |
This course reviews the intellectual history and examines the diverse theoretical perspectives that constitute the field of the American human geography today. Given the breadth of the field, we will primarily focus on the key later developments including positivism to Marxism, feminism, and post-structuralism while paying attention to their many contemporary intersections. We will read foundational texts illustrating these perspectives and engage with recent articles and books. We will specifically discuss how the key geographic concepts such as place, space, and time are employed to understand the processes of class, race, gender and sexuality as well as uses of nature. Students will learn to differentiate between theoretical frameworks while reading the literature and theoretically locate their own research. Students will lead discussions, write weekly response papers, a midterm paper and a final paper, and present their final paper in class at the end of the semester.
BlackBoard: http://bb.hunter.cuny.edu (syllabus, course schedule, grades, discussion board, digital readings)
YOU MUST HAVE WORKING BB ACCOUNT IN ORDER TO ACCESS THE COURSE.
Creswell, Tim. 2013. Geographic thought: A critical introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.
Other weekly required readings will be available on BB.
We will also select 2-3 books to read during the semester based upon research interests of this group.
We
will read chapters from some of the following (and other) books:
The following collections are useful references for this course and your future courses.
The Dictionary of Human Geography. 5th edition. 2009. Wiley-Blackwell. Edited by Derek Gregory, R. J. Johnston, Geraldine Pratt, Michael Watts, and Sarah Whatmore. A handy source book of social theoretical terms as used by geographers.
Cloke, Paul, Phil Crang, Mark Goodwin, Joe Painter, and Chris Philo. 2004. Practising human geography. Sage publications.
Hubbord, Phil, Rob Kitchin, and Gill Valentine,
eds. 2008. Key texts in human geography.
Holloway, S. L., S. P. Rice, and G.
Valentine, eds. 2003. Key concepts in geography.
Sheppard, E. S., and T. J. Barnes, eds. 2002. A companion to economic geography. Blackwell.
Trevor J. Barnes, Jamie Peck, Eric Sheppard 2012 The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography.
Nelson, L., and J. Seager, eds. 2005. A Companion to Feminist Geography. Blackwell.
Dear, M. J., and
Geoffrey Martin and Preston James, All Possible Worlds. New York: Wiley, 3rd Edn. 2005
Agnew, J., D. N. Livingstone, and A.
Rogers, eds. 2003. Human geography: An essential anthology.
Cloke, P., C. Philo, and D. Sadler. 1991. Approaching Human
Geography An Introduction to Contemporary Theoretical
Debates. New York & London: The Guilford Press. A
good introduction to theory prior to feminism. Available
on internet for $5.
David Livingstone, The Geographical Tradition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1992.
Harvey, David. 1973. Social Justice and the City. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. 2006. A Postcapitalist Politics. University Of Minnesota Press.
Gibson-Graham, J.K. 1996. The end of capitalism (as we knew it): A feminist critique of political economy.
Anne Godlewska and Neil Smith, eds. Geography and Empire. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1994.
Brown, Jacqueline N. 2005. Dropping Anchor, Setting Sail: Geographies of Race in Black Liverpool. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Wright, Melissa W. 2006. Disposable women and other myths of global capitalism. Routledge.
Hackworth, Jason R. 2006. The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism. Cornell University Press.
Mitchell, Don. 2003. The right to the city: Social justice and the fight for public space. Guilford Press.
Simone, Abdou Maliq. 2004. For the City Yet to Come: Changing African Life in Four Cities. Duke University Press.
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. 2007. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California.University of California Press.
Wolff, R. D., and S. A. Resnick.
1987. Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical., 239-68.
Baltimore/London: The
Brenner, N., and N. Theodore, eds. 2004.
Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban Restructuring in North America and
Logan, J. R., and H. L. Molotch. 1987. Urban Fortunes: A Political Economy
of Place.
Moss, Pamela, and Karen Falconer Al-Hindi, eds. 2008. Feminisms in geography: Rethinking space, place, and knowledges. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Pratt, G. 2004. Working feminism.
Harvey, D. 2000. Spaces of hope.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. And many other books.
John Pickles, A History of Spaces. New York: Routledge, 2004.
The class meets once a week. Each session will begin with my
short lecture to introduce a topic and/or presentation of the readings by the
students assigned to lead the discussion. The rest of the class will be devoted
to the discussion. Last week will include final paper presentations to the
class.
If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to read the assigned literature and post the reaction paper.
Reaction papers |
15% |
Class participation |
25% |
Two short midterm papers |
20% |
Final paper |
35% |
Short reaction papers (300-500 words) to weekly readings. Please do not
summarize but discuss what you found to be most important, engaging, or
troubling. All papers must be proofread and clearly written. They should be posted to the discussion board on BB no
later than 5pm Wednesday evening. They will be read not only by me but by
all the students. The papers will be 1 point each (0 if you do not post it).
Late submissions will earn lesser points. I will provide feedback to your
papers in the first couple of weeks of the class. Please print these papers as
well and hand them in, in addition to posting to BB.
Class discussions are essential. You must read ALL the assigned readings and
be ready to talk about them. Discussion leaders will briefly introduce the
readings (5 min for all readings) and formulate two questions for discussion.
Two midterm papers are due in the middle of the
semester. These are short 5 page research papers that analyze class readings to
date. Midterm paper questions and requirements are posted on BB.
This paper is to help you to think about your research in
relation to the many theoretical, philosophical, and epistemological
perspectives in today’s geography. It will include the analysis of the class
readings as well as some literature from your research area. Requirements for
the final paper are posted on BB.
CUNY and
PLAGIARISM will not be tolerated and all university rules regarding its occurrences will be strictly followed.
Please email questions regarding the course. I usually respond by the next day (excluding weekends). Please specify EES709 in the subject line and sign your full name.
All Graduate Center students have personal e-mail accounts, BlackBoard and internet access. The current class schedule with the assigned readings and discussion schedule will be on Black Board.
While libraries provide access to many on-line publications, only articles
and books published by academic press should be used as a source for your
papers. This means that they went through a review process and their academic
quality is guaranteed.
Please contact EES CEO Prof. Cindi Katz (ckatzATgc.cuny.edu) and secretary Ms. Lina McClain (lmcclainATgc.cuny.edu) for help with BB and library access.
List of selected geography journals
Th, Aug 28 |
First class |
Th 9/25 |
No class |
The 11/27 |
No class – Thanksgiving break |
Th 12/11 |
Last
class |
Please see BB for detailed Class Schedule. This schedule is subject to change.
Weeks |
Dates |
Topics |
1 |
8/28 |
Introduction and logistics |
2 |
9/4 |
Paradigm shifts in human geography. Early geographies. |
3 |
9/11 |
Modern geography, Enlightenment, and Empire |
4 |
9/18 |
Spatial science and post-positivist geography |
5 |
10/2 |
Marxist geography then and now |
6 |
10/9 |
Humanistic geography then and now. 1st midterm paper is due. |
7 |
10/16 |
Feminist geography then and now |
8 |
10/23 |
Post-modernism and post-structuralist geographies |
9 |
10/30 |
Geospatial technologies and production of knowledge. 2st midterm paper is due. |
10 |
11/6 |
Space, time, and scale: Relational geographies |
11 |
11/13 |
Nature and society: Post-human geographies |
12 |
11/20 |
Post-colonial geographies |
13 |
12/4 |
Enacting other worlds |
14 |
12/11 |
Final paper presentations |
|
12/16 |
Final paper due |