Geography

Dartmouth Alums with this Major

• The Hanover Town Planner, Hanover Town Hall
  (New Hampshire, Dartmouth '78)
• Natural Resources Manager, The Alaskan Department of Natural Resources
  (Alaska, Dartmouth '82)
• Associate, J. P. Morgan Chase Bank (Connecticut, Dartmouth '02)
• Law Clerk for Judge Jose L. Linares, U.S. District Court, District of NJ (New Jersey, Dartmouth '02)
• U. S. Department of Justice, New Program Development, Counterpart International (Washington D.C., Dartmouth '06)
• President & Owner, Golden Eagle Resort (Vermont, Dartmouth '76)
• US Naval Attache, Rabat, United States Navy (Morocco, Dartmouth '82)
• GIS Manager, Research Triangle Institute (North Carolina, Dartmouth '82)
• Operations Director, Maine Organic Farmers/Gardners Assoc. (Maine, Dartmouth '86)
• Environmental Health Specialist, State of Hawaii Transportation Dept (Oregon, Dartmouth '89)
• Medical Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control (Georgia, Dartmouth '90)
• Architect, Shepley Bulfinch Richardson Abbott (Massachusetts, Dartmouth '92)
• Counsel to the Board, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Washington D.C., Dartmouth '97)
• Urban Designer, Brown & Keener Bressi (Pennsylvania, Dartmouth '98)
• Peace Corps Volunteer, Peace Corps El Salvador (El Salvador, Dartmouth '04)
• Mayor, Panama City (Panama, Dartmouth '83)
• Geography Teacher, Rythovius College (The Netherlands, Dartmouth '02)

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Major Description

Geographers study the material and symbolic transformation of the earth in relationship to both human and natural processes. In keeping with contemporary global shifts in culture, the environment, politics and economics, the boundaries of the geographic discipline are dynamic. For example, environmental change, international development, globalization, and new spatial technologies exemplify important arenas of study in geography. Theories of space, scale, location, place, region, mobility and displacement allow geographers to critically analyze change in both human and physical environments.

Skills Acquired

What is this?

• Critical and Analytical Thinking.
• Possessing and applying knowledge of how people, places, and regions are linked by global networks and processes (e.g., globalization, international trade, immigration, Internet technology, global climate system)
• Technical skills. For example, Identifying, explaining, and finding meaning in spatial patterns and relationships (e.g., site conditions, how places are similar and different, the influence of a land feature on its neighbors, the nature of transitions between places, how places are linked at local, regional, and/or global scales). Using quantitative methods to process spatial data for the purpose of making calculations, models, and inferences about space, spatial patterns, and spatial relationships. Using interviews, questionnaires, observations, photography, maps, and other techniques for measuring geographic information in the field. Understanding the underlying theories and methods related to acquiring an object without contacting it physically (e.g., aerial photography, radar, and satellite imaging). Using GIS and maps to acquire, manage, display, and analyze spatial data in digital form
• Research & Presentation skills
• Social responsibility and respect for diversity-- Using knowledge about population diversity (e.g., gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, disability) to interpret social, economic, and political issues in different places.
• The Environment: Knowing and applying geographic information about relationships between nature and society (e.g., pollution from industrial development, economic effects of drought). Knowing and applying geographic information about geology and the processes that shape physical landscapes (e.g., soils, hydrology, topography, erosion). Knowing and applying geographic information about weather, climate, and atmospheric processes (e.g., temperature, precipitation, air quality). Knowing and applying geographic information about ecosystems and ecological processes (e.g., vegetation, wildlife, natural habitats).

Possible Career Paths

For students planning to terminate their formal education with the bachelor's degree, geography provides both the regional and world perspective required of responsible citizens. For the same reason geography is especially valuable for those who plan to enter graduate work in business administration, planning, law, or medicine.

Geography also offers a number of rewarding opportunities in teaching at all levels of the educational system. The potential of applying the geographic approach in government and private enterprise is increasing considerably, although many positions will not carry a geography title. Many employment opportunities exist for individuals trained in geographic information systems, cartography, remote sensing, and computer mapping. Roughly a quarter of all professional geographers today find employment in government either at the state or local levels, or in a variety of federal agencies, the armed forces, and in international organizations. Geographers hold such job titles as cartographer, geographic analyst, map curator, land officer, international economist, forest ecologist, soil conservationist, and climatologist.

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