CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE U.S. (GEOG 2130H)

 

Spring Semester 2001

TR 200-315 p.m.

 

Dr. Andrew Herod, 209 GGS Building.  Tel: 542 2856

Email: AHEROD@ARCHES.UGA.EDU

 

Office Hours: By appointment.

 

This course examines the varied cultural geography of the United States.  The aim of the course is to encourage students to think about questions of cultural identity, culture formation, and cultural politics from a distinctly geographical or spatial perspective.  Not only is there a geographic dimension to the formation of cultures and cultural identities, but these identities themselves take on geographic patterns which then shape the human landscape.  Indeed, it is the formation of the landscape, as both a material or physical “thing” and as a symbolic or ideological construction, which is at the center of contemporary cultural geography.  Hence, in this course we will examine both geographical patterns and processes of cultural landscapes but also the creation of symbolic representations of the American landscape as viewed at different historical time periods and by different cultural groups.

 

Required Text:  A reader for the class is available at Athens Blueprint and Copy Shop, 269 W. Dougherty St (548 0656).  You should call ahead before going there and tell them that you need to come by to pick up a copy of the reader and can they have one ready for you.

 

Course Requirements:

 

First Exam                               200 points

Final Exam                              200 points

Term Paper                              500 points

Discussion/ class exercises            100 points

 

Exams will cover lecture materials and class readings.  Each exam is cumulative.

 

Outline for Term Papers:  Each student will write a term paper that relates to the theme of the class.  In your research paper you might want to address some of the following issues: what is the geography of what you are studying? how do we explain these geographical patterns? what changes in these patterns are taking place? are there local, regional, national, or global dimensions to your topic?  The paper should be typed, double spaced with good grammer and no typos, and be between 15 and 20 pages long, excluding bibliography.  You must include a bibliography which lists all your sources.  If you take a piece of information from a source and do not identify the source, this is called PLAGIARISM.  Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty punishable by the University.

 

Term papers are due in class on Tuesday April 17, 2001.  The paper will be evaluated on the basis of both clarity of ideas and clarity of presentation.  Papers will be marked down half a letter grade for every day late.

 

UGA policy on academic integrity (cheating):  The University rules on cheating (in all its forms) are quite clear.  Students guilty of cheating will receive at a minimum an F for the course and a notation on their transcript that they have been found guilty of academic dishonesty.  More severe penalties can also be imposed.  If you are having problems with the material we are covering in class, please come and see me as soon as possible.

 

 

Important Dates to Remember:

 

Tuesday Feb. 20, 2001:  First Exam.

 

Thursday Mar. 1, 2001:  Mid-point of semester.

 

Mar. 5 – 9, 2001: Spring Break

 

Tuesday April 17, 2001: Term paper due.

 

Tuesday May 8, 2001, 330-630: Final Exam.

 

 

Course Outline:

 

Topic 1:  Basic Definitions

 

                        What is cultural geography?

                        The idea of a cultural landscape

 

Cosgrove, D. (1984): “Introduction” and “The idea of landscape” (1984) in Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape, pp. 1-38.  Barnes and Noble: Totowa, NJ.

 

Anderson, K.J. (1987): “The idea of Chinatown: The power of place and institutional practice in the making of a racial category” in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers 77(4):580-598.

 

Ley, D. (1995):  “Between Europe and Asia: the case of the missing sequoias” in Ecumene 2(2): 185-210.

 

Topic 2:  What is race and ethnicity?

 

                        Does culture = race?

                        How are race and ethnicity socially constructed?

                        How are race and ethnicity spatially constructed?

 

Begley, S. (1995):  “Three is not enough: Surprising new lessons from the controversial science of race” in Newsweek (February 13): 67-69.

 

Cooper, R. (1984): “A note on the biologic concept of race and its application in epidemiological research” in American Heart Journal 108(3): 715-723.

 

Omi, M. and Winant, H (1994):  “Racial formation” in Racial Formation in the United States, pp.53-76.  Routledge: New York.

 

Brown, P. (1998): “Biology and the social construction of the ‘race’ concept” in Ferrante, J. and Brown, P. (eds.) The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States, pp.131-138.  Longman: New York.

 

Potter, D.M. and Knepper, P. (1998): “Comparing official definitions of race in Japan and the United States” in Ferrante, J. and Brown, P. (eds.) The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States, pp.139-156.  Longman: New York.

 

 

 

Topic 3:  Mythmaking in America: America Before and After 1492

 

                        Native Americans and the landscape

                        Native Americans through European eyes

 

Denevan, W.M. (1992):  “The pristine myth: The landscape of the Americas in 1492” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82(3): 369-385.

 

Cosgrove, D. (1984): “America as landscape” in Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape, pp. 161-188.  Barnes and Noble: Totowa, NJ.

 

Logan, L. (1992):  “The geographical imagination of Frederic Remington: The invention of the cowboy West” in Journal of Historical Geography 18(1):75-90.

 

Radford, J.P. (1992):  “Identity and tradition in the post-Civil War South” in Journal of Historical Geography 18(1): 91-103.

 

Gulley, H.E. (1993):  “Women and the Lost Cause: preserving a Confederate identity in the American Deep South” in Journal of Historical Geography 19(2): 125-141.

 

 

Topic 4: Migration to and in the Americas

 

                        Understanding migration at different geographical scales

                        Implications of migration

 

Knowles, A.K. (1995): “Immigrant trajectories through the rural-industrial tradition in Wales and the United States, 1795-1850” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers 85(2):246-266.

 

Sassen, S. (1994):  “America’s immigration ‘problem’” in Pincus, F.L. and Ehrlich, H.J. (eds.) Race and Ethnic Conflict, pp.176-185.  Westview Press: Boulder, CO.

 

Sassen, S. (1988): “The new immigration” in The Mobility of Capital and Labor, pp.55-93.  Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

 

Guerin-Gonzales, C. (1993):  “The international migration of workers and segmented labor: Mexican immigrant workers in California industrial agriculture, 1900-1940” in Guerin-Gonzales, C. and Strikwerda, C. (eds.) (1993) The Politics of Immigrant Workers: Labor Activism and Migration in the World Economy Since 1830, pp.155-174.  Holmes and Meier: New York.

 

 

Topic 5: The political geography of race and ethnicity

 

                        What is gerrymandering?

                        Are there “objective” political boundaries?

                       

Aiken, C.S. (1987): “Race as a factor in municipal underbounding” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers 77(4): 564-579.

 

Morrill, R.L. (1994):  “Electoral geography and gerrymandering: Space and politics” in Demko, G.J. and Wood, W.B. (eds.) Reordering the World: Geopolitical Perspectives on the Twenty-First Century, pp.101-119.  Westview Press: Boulder, CO.