Type of Degree

B.A., Undergraduate Minor

School or College

College of Arts and Sciences

Area of Study

Arts, humanities, social sciences

Program Format

On-campus, Full-time

Program Overview

The department of geography celebrated fifty years of teaching and research at UVM in 2016-2017. For five decades the department has developed a scholarly profile in the College of Arts and Sciences and the University, highlighting spatialized thinking about social and natural environments, from local to global scales of analysis. We also participate in the interdisciplinary Geospatial Technologies minor, and in interdisciplinary undergraduate degree programs in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Global and Regional Studies, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, and Vermont Studies.

How Are Courses in Geography Structured?

Geography courses are taught at the introductory 1000, 2000, 3000 level. Introductory courses are offered either as lectures or as first-year seminars, giving students an opportunity to learn about the breadth of the discipline and some of the problems and challenges geographers take on. Intermediate courses dive into the subfields, building strength in writing and analysis. Advanced courses are offered in small seminar format, with high levels of discussion, a research or project experience (often with community partners), and opportunities to get out “into the field.”   

Students having a discussion in a lab

Curriculum

From the UVM Catalogue:

 

Outcomes

How Does a Degree in Geography Prepare Graduates for the World?

The study of geography at the university level equips students with many of the same analytical
and conceptual skills as other liberal arts disciplines, but our emphasis on understanding the spatial dimensions of both physical and human phenomena is unique. Further, the study of geography trains students to appreciate the importance of a broad, international, interdisciplinary, and comparative perspective. A geography major provides students with technical skills, a focus on environment and society, and local-regional-global interpretive capacity that is increasingly important for an informed citizenry. A geography minor provides students with a foundation in human and/or physical geography, geographic techniques, regional studies, and important sub-disciplinary fields such as urban/rural studies, climate studies, and political ecology. Our graduates go on to graduate programs in geography or cognate fields at some of the best programs in the country and develop careers in academia, education, law, governmental and non-governmental organizations, consulting, and the field of international development. Upon completion of the BA degree, students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate familiarity with the breadth of the discipline of geography and deeper comprehension of at least one subfield
  2. Identify and articulate the connections between theoretical concepts and empirical data
     
  3. Demonstrate basic competence in the research methods of geography, as well as the ability to produce and assess representations of geographical data
     
  4. Conduct clear and rigorous communication through written and oral means
     
  5. Critically engage with and contribute to the production of knowledge through the review of existing scholarship and the conduct of original research using Geographic skills
     

Careers

  • Cartographer
  • Climatologist
  • Emergency Management
  • Geographical information systems officer
  • Hydrologist
  • Lawyer
  • Professor, higher education
  • Remote sensing analyst
  • Surveyor
  • Teacher
  • Urban/town planner
  • Public policy

Where Alumni Work

  • Associates in Rural Development
  • Burlington Housing Authority
  • Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission
  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • The Nature Conservancy
  • National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
  • National Geographic Society
  • National Imagery and Mapping Agency
  • National Weather Service
  • Senate Internship Program
  • The State of Vermont
  • U.S. Forest Service
  • Vermont Public Radio

Graduate Schools

  • Cambridge University
  • Miami University
  • New Mexico
  • Utah University
  • University of Maine
  • Yale University