GEOG 061 – ISEE:SL: Geography of Vermont
This course both introduces students to the study of place, landscape and environment in Vermont, and offers students an opportunity to "learn by doing." The class covers the physical and social geographies of Vermont in order to better understand environmental and place-based issues. We will undertake a service learning project with the Planning Commission of Greensboro, Vermont to help them develop their next town plan which seeks to balance affordability, environmental stewardship, and rural development goals.
GEOG 174 – Rural Geography
This course is an introduction to the field of Rural Geography. We will focus on the geographies of rural communities at three scales: the global, regional within the United States, and the state of Vermont. The class will consider some of the most pressing and enduring concerns in rural communities including: demographic change and migration, the effects of economic restructuring, commodification of the countryside, shifts in agricultural practices and economies, poverty, health, landscape change, resource-based economies, tourism, spatial relations, and social service depletion. All the while we will ask how such phenomena impact the lives of the people who live in rural places. Students will gain an awareness of the ways in which narratives about the rural are circulated in film, literature, commentary, and music, and how these narratives either reflect or distort the rural experience. In the final portion of the term we will examine how factors such as class, gender, race, sexual orientation, and age influence personal experiences of particular rural places, sensitive to the fact that there are many ‘rurals’ across the globe, the United States, and within Vermont communities.
GEOG 245 – People&Nature in Rural Places
This course considers how rural landscapes are produced, perceived, and lived in by different groups of people around the world. We will read theoretical and empirical works from geographical, sociological and anthropological perspectives, and review popular or everyday narratives about rurality and nature. Our goals are to better understand how people understand and live in ‘rural nature’ today and to imagine changes that could lead to healthy and sustainable futures for both humans and non-humans.