GEOGRAPHY 3: SYLLABUS INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

Fall 2010 Tuesday & Thursday 8:00 -- 9:15 INTRODUCTION

Dr. Michael R. Curry 1209B Bunche Hall

Geography 3 is a one-term introduction to modern cultural, social, and historical geography, and to subsequent courses in these fields in the Geography Department at UCLA. Geography is one of the oldest of disciplines, dating in the West to well before the birth of Christ. Traditionally its concern has been the way in which people have fashioned a home for themselves on the earth. Once upon a time this mostly meant looking at agricultural settlements, but today cultural geography is concerned with a much wider range of ways in which peoplein an age of automobiles and airplanes and the Internetlive in the world. The goal of the course is not to force you to learn large numbers of facts about this or that. Rather, it is to teach you to look at the world through the eyes of a cultural geographer. COURSE REQUIREMENTS The course will consist of lectures two times per week and a discussion session once a week. Your grade will be based on three elements:

Exams: There will be two exams, both in class. The first will count 22.5% of your grade, and the second 27.5% of your grade. There will be no exam during final exam week.
Will the second exam be cumulative? Yes.

Projects: There will be one project. It will count 25% of your grade. Details will follow. Participation: The remaining 25% of your grade will be determined by your participation in class.
Note that grades on the project and on participation, for a total of 50% of your grade, will largely be determined by what you do in discussion sections. If you are taking the course Pass/No pass you must receive a grade of C (i.e., not C-) in order to pass. Grading is done on a curve. In general, though, improvement in performance over the course of the term will be given consideration in the computation of final course grades. TEXTS There is a course reader, available at: Course Reader Materials 1080 Broxton Avenue - Main Entrance! 1081 Westwood Blvd (Entrance for customers with special needs) Phone: (310) 443-3300

OFFICE HOURS, ETC. My office is at 1156 Bunche Hall. My telephone there is 310-825-3122. I do not use voicemail. My office hours will be Tuesday 12:30 to 1:30, Wednesday 10:00 to 11:00, and by appointment. I am often in my office; feel free to stop by at other times, so long as my door is open. I may also be reached by e-mail at CURRY@GEOG.UCLA.EDU. I typically answer my e-mail pretty quickly. I do, though, sometimes have trouble receiving mail from certain Webmail accounts, like AOL and Hotmail. If you put Geog 3 somewhere in the subject line my spam filter will let your message through. To receive mail you will need to make certain that your mailbox is not full. DISCUSSION SECTIONS You will receive a portion of your grade based on class participation. This means that you will be expected to contribute to class discussions, and to have done the readings and required assignments by the BEGINNING of class. If you have questions, please ask your TAs; if they don't know the answer right away, they will find out and let you know. OTHER THINGS

Laptop computers, texting, etc.

Over the last several years an increasing number of students have begun using laptop computers in class. For those using computers to take lecture notes there are some clear advantages. On the other hand, there are factors that mitigate against the use of computers and of cell phones for texting, etc. To the extent that they are being used in class for purposes other than taking notes, their use is a distraction to the student. Research shows that people simply are not able to multitask; if you are using a computer for something other than taking notes or are using a cell phone you are not paying attention. Second, and more important, when students use cell phones or use their computers for Web surfing, checking e-mail, watching movies, and other purposes, they distract the students around them. As you may imagine, this has for everyone become an increasing problem; my own observation in looking at computer use in other facultys classes is that at any given time at least forty percent of computer screens have nothing to do with the lecture. I am asking that you not use cell phones in class, and that you not use computers for other than note taking. Some of my colleagues have simply banned the use of computers in class; in the event that there is not significant compliance with this request, I may be compelled to follow their lead.

Academic honesty
It is essential, on both moral and legal grounds, that you be graded only on your own work. The University takes charges of cheating and plagiarism very seriously, and either can result in your dismissal. Cheating is taking advantage of the work of others. Plagiarism is representing the work of others as your own, without giving appropriate credit. Pasting into your work a sentence from the Wikipedia or some other online source without both enclosing it in quotation marks and noting the source is plagiarism.

Problems
If you have problems with any part of the course, the best thing to do is to try to resolve them. There is a standard chain of command for the resolution of problems. First, see your TA. If that doesn't work, see me. If that doesn't work I can tell you what to do next. If you wish to dispute the way in which a particular exam question was graded, there is a procedure that you will need to follow. At the appropriate time we will provide you with the necessary details. SCHEDULE

Topic Introduction

Class 1

Date 23 Sept. 2010

Topic Introduction

Readings Bauman, Zygmunt (2004) 'Identity', in Identity: Conversations with Benedetto Vecchi. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 9-32. Tuan, Yi-Fu (1980) 'Rootedness versus sense of place', Landscape, 24 (1): 3-8.

The new cultural geography: Place and landscape

28 Sept. 2010

The world

Cosgrove, Denis (1985) 'Prospect, perspective, and the evolution of the landscape idea', Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, NS 10: 46-56; 59-61. (Available on class website) Crosby, Alfred W. (1997) 'Space', in The measure of reality: Quantification and western society, 1250-1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 95-108.

30 Sept. 2010

Making regions

Seed, Patricia (1995) 'Conclusion: The habits of history', in Ceremonies of possession in Europe's conquest of the New World, 1492-1640. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 17993. Wilson, James Q., and Kelling, George L. (1982) 'Broken windows: The police and neighborhood safety', The Atlantic Monthly, 249 (3): 29-38. Jacobs, Jane (1961) 'The uses of sidewalks: Safety', in The death and life of great American cities. New York: Random House, pp. 29-54.

5 Oct. 2010

The neighborhood

7 Oct. 2010

Home (1)

DeJean, Joan (2009) 'The architecture of comfort', in The age of comfort: When Paris discovered casual--and the modern home began. New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 44-66. Fischer, Claude S. (2010) 'Public spaces', in Made in America: A social history of American culture and character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 161-95.

12 Oct. 2010

Home (2)

Strasser, Susan (1989) 'New products, new habits', in Satisfaction guaranteed: The making of the American mass market. New York: Pantheon, pp. 89-123.

14 Oct. 2010

The workplace

Crawford, Matthew B. (2009) 'The separation of thinking from doing', in Shop class as soulcraft: An inquiry into the value of work. New York: Penguin, pp. 37-53. Nippert-Eng, Christena E. (1996) 'Territories of the self: Recognizing the home-work boundary', in Home and work: Negotiating boundaries through everyday life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 34-83.

19 Oct. 2010

Nature

Scott, James C. (1998) 'Taming nature: An agriculture of legibility and simplicity (Excerpt)', in Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 263-86. Cronon, William (1996) 'The trouble with wilderness; or, getting back to the wrong nature', in Uncommon ground: Rethinking the human place in nature. New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 69-90.

9 10 New geographies 11

21 Oct. 2010 26 Oct. 2010 28 Oct. 2010

Wrapup EXAM #1 Restaurant, coffeehouse Oldenburg, Ray (1999) 'The American tavern', in The great good place : cafs, coffee shops, community centers, beauty parlors, general stores, bars, hangouts, and how they get you through the day. New York: Marlowe & Co., pp. 165-82. Spang, Rebecca L. (2000) 'Private appetites in a public space', in The invention of the restaurant : Paris and modern gastronomic culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, pp. 64-87.

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2 Nov. 2010

Enclaves

Szasz, Andrew (2007) 'Suburbanization as inverted quarantine', in Shopping our way to safety : how we changed from protecting the environment to protecting ourselves. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 56-95. Duneier, Mitchell, and Carter, Ovie (1999) 'Sidewalk sleeping', in Sidewalk. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, pp. 157-72. Schweik, Susan M. (2009) 'The law in language', in The ugly laws: Disability in public. New York: New York University, pp. 85-107.

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4 Nov. 2010

Homeless

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9 Nov. 2010

The new workplace

Sennett, Richard (1998) 'Illegible: Why modern forms of labor are difficult to understand', in The corrosion of character : the personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. New York: Norton, pp. 64-75.

11 Nov. 2010 15 16 Nov. 2010 Mr. ZIP and the new neighborhood

Veterans Day holiday

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18 Nov. 2010

Virtual worlds

Morley, David (2000b) 'Postmodern, virtual, and cybernetic geographies', in Home territories: Media, mobility, and identity. London: Routledge, pp. 171-84. Morley, David (2000a) 'Borders and belongings: Strangers and foreigners', in Home territories: Media, mobility, and identity. London: Routledge, pp. 204-17. Thanksgiving holiday

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23 Nov. 2010

A globalized world

25 Nov. 2010 18 19 30 Nov. 2010 2 Dec. 2010 Wrapup EXAM #2