Geography
To inquire about this program:
Admission Office | 312-362-8300
Imagine a world where the spatial relationships within and between people, places, environments and economies are made clear though exciting new conceptual and technological approaches. This is the promise of Geography -- rediscovered over the past two decades after exciting changes in Geospatial Technologies (GIS, computer mapping, satellite image processing, global positioning systems) and ways of conceptualizing the spatiality these technologies reveal. DePaul Geographers share a commitment to teaching and research that makes a world of difference -- for the people, places, environments, and processes that we study -- whether our approach is scientific, materialistic, humanist, or realist.
The study of geography builds a unique spatial perspective as it addresses both "human" and "physical" domains of knowledge and examines the interactions between them through space. Geographers apply methods such as observation, visualization, analysis, and modeling to explain the spatial organization of human and physical environments. The Department of Geography teaches students to reason spatially by applying geographic techniques and information technologies, including new technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In so doing, it helps students produce sophisticated understandings of the world, its people and environments, its economic structures and its cultures. Geographical perspectives foster skills that have broad applications in public policy, scientific research and visualization, and the private sector. Our graduates who have chosen to pursue advanced degrees go on to excel at the top graduate institutions in the discipline.
Geographic scholarship analyzes society-environment interactions, the spatial organization of industries, cities, and economies at global, regional and local scales, the roles of place, space, and landscape in the understanding of social and cultural change, and the design and production of maps and spatial databases. Geographers are also significant contributors to the earth sciences disciplines, particularly in developing sophisticated explanations of the spatial organization and interactions between the four earth systems: lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. Among all the earth science disciplines, it has the widest and most immediate professional applications.
