Methods in Earth Science

This course provides a hands-on introduction to earth science and methods in geology, and it augments all the 100-level geology courses. Students will learn the fundamental tools of the trade and explore local geology on field trips. Interactive laboratory work will include projects on groundwater quality, landfill siting, geologic hazards, and earth materials. Students will also develop skills in reading topographic and geologic maps.

Environmental Geology

The only planet known to sustain life, Earth provides all the resources that sustain us, yet at the same time it can be an unpredictable and sometimes dangerous home. Floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural processes challenge our ingenuity, while we also contend with self-induced problems such as pollution, desertification, and even global climate change. This course examines earth processes, how these affect our lives, and how we can best live with and sustain our environment. May be taken for 200-level credit with permission of instructor.

American Literature I

A survey of American literature from the literature of exploration through the major authors of the mid-nineteenth century, with special attention to the formation of an American literary tradition, along with the political, social, and religious context that helped shape the imaginative response of American writers to their culture.

Modern British Poetry

This introduction to modern British poetry pays special attention to the emergence, consolidation, and dismantling of modernist poetry and poetics. It will link this literary history with, amongst other things, the loss of faith, the two world wars, and the relationship between monumental aesthetics, utopian poetics, and totalitarian politics. Writers will include Hardy, Yeats, Eliot, H.D., and Auden.

Getting Ahead in Geol/Geog

This course provides support and mentoring for geology and geography majors as they pursue internships, summer jobs, independent research, and careers. Experiences will include: resume and communication workshops; self-reflection and sharing opportunities for students returning from internships, work experiences, and semesters abroad; guidance on preparing for, selecting, and applying to graduate school; information about careers in education and teacher licensure; and discussion of new research in geology and geography.

British Romanticism

This class will examine the ways Romantic-era writers figured revolution and the reaction against it, in the wake of the French Revolution's spectacular but failed promises of liberty, fraternity, and equality for all. We will pay special attention to how British writers envisioned their own versions of freedom and equality, extending them to women, slaves, and the poor. Likewise we will explore how this project for social change was necessarily related to revolutions in language and aesthetics.

Third World Development

Offers an interdisciplinary perspective on social, economic, and political features of contemporary development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, regions referred to as the Third World or the South, and provides an introduction to theoretical origins and definitions of economic growth, development, and underdevelopment.

Urban & Regional Planning

This course examines in detail the fabric of urban and suburban settlement and commerce in the pre and post WW-II U.S. Field trips to the greater Springfield area are used to allow students to develop firsthand understanding of interactions between urban and suburban areas and to recognize the major changes to the human landscape driven by suburbanization and urban abandonment. This class will examine the section of Springfield slated for the MGM Casino Development.

GIS for Soc Sci & Humanities

This course introduces the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other geospatial technologies in the social sciences and the humanities. The student will learn to collect, process, and analyze quantitative data within the spatial (geographic) context where they occur. Course content may include research topics from current faculty.

Global Movements

The voluntary and involuntary movement of people around the globe is the focus of this course on migrations, refugees, and diasporas. Questions of borders, nativism, transnationalism, the global economy, and legality thread through this course as we consider the many social, cultural, environmental, economic, and political factors shaping decisions to leave a home or homeland. Historical and contemporary case studies, compelling theoretical texts, and geographic perspectives on these topics collectively animate our discussions.
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