Module GEOG2561: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

Department: Geography

GEOG2561: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To develop understanding of contemporary social and cultural issues
• To introduce the changing ways in which geographers have approached social and cultural issues
• To develop with students their understanding of key approaches, issues, theories and debates in social and cultural geography

Content

• The module will involve a core set of lectures which will introduce key current themes and debates in social and cultural geography. These may include, for example:
• The geographies of exclusion and inequality
• Social and cultural identities
• Cultural landscapes
• Materiality, emotion and affect
• Conflict and contestation

Learning Outcomes

• Students are expected to be able to:
• Demonstrate understanding of key approaches, theories and debates in social and cultural geography
• Critically assess and debate a number of the current questions facing social and cultural geography
• Demonstrate appreciation of the spatialities of social and cultural phenomena, and of competing explanations for these, and develop clear lines of argument
• Show a detailed understanding of selected areas of social / cultural geographical research through extended reading

• Understand and synthesise some key literatures in social and cultural geography
• Demonstrate detailed understanding of a selection of key issues covered by the module

• Demonstrate information management skills, including gathering information from a range of bibliographic and electronic sources
• Demonstrate planning an effective and well argued essay
• Demonstrate skills of critical assessment and analysis in relation to key literatures and debates
• Demonstrate the development of ideas and argument in written work

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Teaching and Learning: Background information and key concepts will be introduced in lectures
• In seminars, students will develop and demonstrate more detailed understanding and their skills of critical assessment
• In their independent learning, including reading widely, students will deepen their understanding of different perspectives and explanations - seminar preparation and time set for reading in the course will also encourage this
• Assessment: Preparing an annotated bibliography, and receiving formative feedback, will help to practice the skills that lead to learning outcomes as above
• The essay will allow students to practice and build on these literature-related and critical appraisal skills, as well as to demonstrate detailed understanding of specific topics and debates
• The exam will allow students to demonstrate broader understanding of the subject, to put together substantiated arguments, and to connect themes across the module.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment is provided through written individual and generic feedback on the annotated bibliography. Feedback is also given on summative coursework that will help students in exam preparation.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University