Cultural Geography

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Critically reflect on issues surrounding the collection of 'data' of various types, the limits of geographical research and strategies for addressing these.
• Apply key concepts and approaches to relevant cultural issues (such as heritage and society), and critically reflect on geographical work on culture.
• Identify appropriate research techniques, methods and (interdisciplinary) methodologies for the investigation in cultural geography (visual, ethnographic, science and technology studies, literary).
• Explain relationships between landscape, place and space.
• Present and structure ideas clearly in in-class discussion and oral presentations.
• Structure conceptual material and develop arguments in an in-depth, reasoned, ordered and motivated way
• Identify and assess the merits of a range of key cultural geography concepts and approaches, such as hybridity, representation/ non-representational theory, affect, material culture, mobility, sensory geographies and creative geographies.

Cultural geography is a field of vibrant scholarship within the discipline and this unit gives students and introduction to this body of work. Week by week students will be introduced to different areas of inquiry and conceptual fields in cultural geography. This will include debates surrounding the relationship between culture and nature, how our identity is shaped by experiences of space and place and the forces of power which are present in and shape space. The course also demonstrates how concepts prevalent in cultural geography effect methodologies and research used in geography. Throughout the course a number of case studies are drawn upon which exemplify the various conceptual themes of cultural geography; from teenage bedrooms to the Police Crime and Sentencing Act, and from graphic novels to the toppling of Edward Colston's statue.

Teaching and learning methods

The module is delivered via a weekly two-hour lecture and a fortnightly one hour seminar. Each session will usually feature a lecture outlining key conceptual issues and a case study in which this issue is present. Seminars will centre on in-depth exploration and student engagement with the lecture theme through focus on particular readings, images, films etc. Seminars will take place through a variety of formats such as presentations, debates and group discussions. The format of each seminar is disclosed in the handbook and will also be outlined the week before the seminar is to take place.

The module will draw upon local, national and international examples and will employ a diverse range of materials including academic, literary and popular texts, media accounts and film. Sessions are clustered into blocks reflecting contributor expertise.

The module comprises of two pieces of coursework.

For seminars, students will be split into groups at the start of the module and will be assigned a seminar leader.

Assessment strategy

The course is assessed by two essays each worth 50% which will focus on discussing and applying key approaches and concepts from each half of the module.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External