Human Geography at the University of South Carolina

The Department has an active and vibrant program in human geography that involves many faculty members and students. Faculty members engaged in human geographical research specialize in the following sub-fields: cultural landscapes, cultural/political ecology, economic, hazards, health, identities and space, migration, political-economy, political/geopolitics, population, transformation and development urban, and vulnerability. Their research interests focus on three main areas:

• Societal change, sustainability, and human security;
• Culture, place, and power;
• Environmental transformations.

These interests are also reflected in course offerings at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Human Geography Faculty (regional interests noted)

Edward R. Carr:

Development theory and practice; food and livelihood security; migration; human dimensions of global change; ethnographic and archaeological methodologies (Sub-Saharan Africa, Spain)

Susan L. Cutter:

Hazards and risk; vulnerability science; environmental policy, management, and justice; human dimensions of global environmental change

Kirstin Dow:

Environmental change; hazards and vulnerability; environmental justice; urban ecosystems

John F. Jakubs:

Urban; urban planning; settlement patterns (North America)

Amy Mills:

Cultural landscapes and historical memory; discourses of nationalism, modernity, and gender in space; place and identity (Middle East)

Related Faculty

Many other members of the department's faculty have research interests related to human geography. The department also shares collegial relations with allied fields and faculty members across campus.

Recent Graduate Courses & Seminars (not all are regularly offered)

GEOG 515 Political and Military Geography
GEOG 520 Advanced Regional
GEOG 701 History of Geographic Thought (concepts) (Carr)
GEOG 713 Seminar in Economic Geography
GEOG 721 Environmental Security (Cutter)
GEOG 721 Nature, Development, and Globalization (Carr)
GEOG 735 Seminar in Political Geography
GEOG 810 Contemporary Readings in Human Geography (Carr)