Geodemographics: People, Diversity, and Place | Geography 245
Students gain an understanding of the connections between population processes (fertility, mortality, and migration) across time and space and the production of societal dynamics and diversity in the United States. National, regional, and local scales are considered. Simple to complex forms of geodemographic analysis and geovisualization techniques are mastered. Currently engaging with QGIS and Tableau visualizations. (usually offered Fall quarter)
Genealogical Geographies | Geography 455
Research seminar in geospatial genealogy, focuses on family genealogy and geographical analysis. Explores historical and population geographies, and our discipline’s growing relationship to genealogy and family history. Seminar discussion and practicums relate individual family trees’ data with broader economic, political, and cultural phenomena in time and space. Enables students to apply their various methodological trainings, such as qualitative interpretation, quantitative analysis, GIS, and geovisualization. Currently engaging with Storymaps and a variety of geospatial technologies. (usually offered Spring quarter)
Urban GIS | Geography 461
Senior seminar examines a range of urban applications of GIS, including crime, environmental justice, emergency and disaster management, geodemographics, housing disparities, public health, and transportation. The guiding theoretical framework is one of Just Sustainabilities – the integration of concepts of social justice with concepts of sustainable cities. The course provides deep examination of GIS, data structures, data sources, and analytical techniques for urban research. Currently engaging with a variety of desktop and web mapping technologies, both proprietary and open source. (usually offered Winter quarter)
Advanced Quantitative Methods: Geospatial Statistics | Geography 426
Introduces spatial statistics and advanced statistical techniques in geographic research using Geographic Information Systems. Methods reviewed include multiple regression analysis, clustering, hotspots, spatial autocorrelation, geographically weighted regression, grouping techniques, and space-time data analysis and visualizations. Emphasizes the application and interpretation of methods. Currently engaging with ArcPro and R statistical language. (offered Summer quarter)
Geographies of Housing | Geography 445
Senior seminar focuses on urban housing and current debates within the literature. Examines the production and reproduction of urban space through the lens of housing, one of the most visible reflections of disparity and social justice in the city. Topics include the meaning of housing, foundations of property and home ownership, discrimination, fair and affordable housing, differential access, homelessness and squatting, the history of public housing, private neighborhoods and social exclusion, evictions, and housing movements. (offered Spring quarter)
GIS Workshop | Geography 469
A senior capstone experience enabling students to engage in teams with a community sponsor to develop and implement a GIS project tailored to the community organization. Lecture topics address project management principles, ethical practices, industry standards, and developments in the field of GIS, with emphasis on community engagement. Students develop and share their expertise as team members. Currently engaging with a variety of desktop and web mapping technologies, both proprietary and open-source. (usually offered Spring quarter)
Undergraduate Honors Seminar | Geography 497
Provides honor students with a senior research experience to develop and complete a senior research project. Students learn to define and develop research questions, construct a theoretical framework, propose a research project, conduct empirical research, analyze and interpret their discoveries, and disseminate their research findings. Students gain experience applying for research funding, and gaining approval from the institutional review board for ethical research practices.
Geography 526: Graduate Seminar: Current Topics in Geospatial Statistics
Graduate seminar on geospatial statistics and spatial demography. Topics vary with each offering but generally combine issues of population health with advanced quantitative spatial methodologies.
Geography 581 | Health Services 585: Graduate Seminar: Space, Place, Health and Disease: The Geography of the Opioid Epidemic(s) in America
This graduate research seminar explores the geography of the opioid epidemic(s) in the United States. The course begins with the geography and epidemiology of pain (chronic through acute), and journeys through the production of prescription opioids, the geography of prescribing, the politics of monitoring, and the epidemiology of prescribing practices. The journey continues by exploring spatial patterns of overdose, death, and dying, the geography of illicit drugs and public health responses to overdose, and the accessibility of treatment for opioid use disorder. Students gain a rich understanding of the importance of place and space from this close study of the opioid epidemic(s).
In parallel, this course provides students with advanced training in GIS for geospatial health research. Analytical techniques such as mapping uncertainty, web mapping, proximity analysis, patterns and hot spot analysis, spatial/temporal analysis, colocation analysis, geographically weighted regression, and Bayesian smoothing techniques for rate stabilization are reviewed using hands-on exercises, primarily with ArcGIS Pro. Students gain a rich understanding of the geospatial techniques frequently applied in spatial health research. (offered Spring quarter, with Prof. Jonathan Mayer).