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.

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.

The course provides an integrated analysis of biogeography, environmental change, and hydrology within each of the biomes found in the African continent: forest, savanna, desert, coast, wetland, mountain, and Mediterranean environments. It also discusses the impact and significance of human activity on African environments by exploring debates about land degradation, climate change, biodiversity and depletion, and conservation and development.

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.

A systematic introduction to the processes operating on the surface of the earth, their spatial variation and their contribution to the spatial patterning of life on earth. The course stresses interactions among the earth's energy balance, weather, ecological resources and human impacts on environmental systems.

This course surveys the major geographic regions of the world in terms of environmental features and resource distributions, economic mainstays, population characteristics, cultural processes, social relationships, and patterns of urbanization and industrial growth. In addition to these topical foci, we use various sub-fields of geography to animate different regions. This approach provides a sense of depth while we also pursue a breadth of knowledge about the world.

Concentration on individual artistic development. Emphasis will be placed on experimentation, thematic development, and critical review. Students may elect to take this course more than once.

In addition to learning basic paper chemistry in this course, students collect usable sections of a variety of plants wherever they live throughout the summer and in the Pioneer Valley in the fall during the course. These plants are examined and recorded before and after drying, then cooked and processed to become paper pulp. Students conceive and construct their art projects inspired by the historical, biological, ecological, and personal aspects of plants as well as their physical qualities.

This course focuses on the issues surrounding body and space through installation, performance, and public arts. Students explore the possibilities of body as an energetic instrument, while investigating the connotations of various spaces as visual vocabulary. The self becomes the reservoir for expression. The course examines the transformational qualities of the body as the conduit that links conceptual and physical properties of materials and ideas.