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Module GEOGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA

Module code: GY235
Credits: 5
Semester: 1
Quota: 140
Department: GEOGRAPHY
International: Yes
Overview Overview
 

The purpose of this module is to bring the systematic branches of human geography you have been learning in second year to bear to the case of North America. This module pays particular attention to the historical and cultural geographies in North America, paying attention to social geographies of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality. The module is organised according to key geographic themes, using specific regions in the US, Mexico and Canada as case studies, to explore spatial processes according to a historical approach. We begin with a brief introduction to the US, Canada, and Mexico, including a discussion of the recent US Presidential elections. We then move back in time, looking at nature-society in the period of colonial encounters between Native Americans and European traders, missionaries, and settlers. Next, we look at the history of slavery and race relations, as tied to the development of a plantation and trans-Atlantic export economy, focusing on the regions of Africa, the Caribbean and the American South. We then turn a discussion of urbanisation and immigration, with a particular focus on cities and ethnic communities. We continue with these themes in the next section by examining historical and regional changes in transportation, industrialisation, urbanisation, to discuss the rise of shock cities, such as Chicago and the US Midwestern 'Industrial Belt', which we contrast to a later period marked by the rise of the US 'Sunbelt' and suburbanisation. We then look to a series of recent developments, including US post-industrial landscapes and increased segregation; Quebecois nationalism and Metis and First Nations movements; the US-Mexico Wall and the history of borderlands; and questions of multiculturalism, language and identity in the US and Canada.

Open Learning Outcomes
 
Open Teaching & Learning methods
 
Open Assessment
 
Open Autumn Supplementals/Resits
 
Open Timetable
 
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