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Geography
Do you: Watch TV? Travel to places outside Hawaii? Read the newspaper? Can you do any of the above without knowledge of geography? We all live in an interconnected world, but few of us know about the world around us.
Geography studies people and places; it studies where things are found on Earth, and the reasons for their location. So geography always asks two questions: Where are people and activities found on the Earth? Why are they found there?
Geography is both natural science and social science. It studies the distribution and patterns of physical, human, and technical components:
Physical Geography includes the study of climates, landforms, and ecosystems (GEOG 101: The Natural Environment).
Human Geography includes the study of regions, culture, population, political patterns, livelihoods (agriculture, industry, services), urbanization, and impacts on the environment (GEOG 102: World Regional Geography; GEOG 122: Geography of Hawaii, and GEOG 151: Geography and Contemporary Society).
Technical Geography includes cartography (map making), geographic information systems (computer geography), and remote sensing (satellites and air photography).
Course Descriptions
Visit the Liberal Arts Syllabus Index for syllabi available online.