Seeing and Recording Cultural Landscapes: Geography of the Pacific Northwest

Description

Cultural landscapes are geographical representations of social ideas and structures, cultural traditions, and physical landforms and processes. This class will investigate the various ways that cultural landscapes are created and maintained. The class will emphasize the nexus between human innovation and environmental conditions from theoretical perspectives. Urban and rural landscapes will be considered with emphasis on the Pacific Northwest and public landscapes. Cultural landscapes are seen within the eye of the beholder, the more you are able to recognize cultural processes that transform landscapes, the more meaningful the landscape becomes. Reading a cultural landscape is a qualitative process and requires qualitative research methods. The class will include information and practice of qualitative research methods including oral history, participant observation, interview and interpretation of observed geographies.

This class will be taught at the graduate level for graduate credit. Undergraduates desiring four credits or two credits of Pacific Northwest geography may enroll in the class.

Graduate students and four credit undergrads are expected to attend all classes, engage in seminar and participate in qualitative research. Two credit undergraduates are expected to attend Monday night class meetings, engage in seminar and write one essay on the geography of the Pacific Northwest.

Required Textbooks:

• Jackson and Kimberling, Atlas of the Pacific Northwest, 9th edition, OSU Press.
• Additional text on ethnographic research methods for grad students