30151 - Geography (LM)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide students with the geographical tools to understand and critically discuss global changes inherent to the classical domains of human geography: population, environment, territory. Starting from the acquisition of the concepts and theoretical and methodological tools fundamental to the discipline, the course intends to focus on topical issues such as demography and migration, linguistic and cultural diversity of the planet and environmental problems.

Course contents

The course is designed as an introduction to human geography. After dealing with the history and evolution of geographical thought, the main concepts and key words of human geography will be covered.


Particular attention will be paid to major contemporary issues such as the eco-climatic crisis, and related transcalar policies, and the impact of the crisis on socio-environmental transformations through the perspectives of geography, political ecology and geopolitics.


Furthermore, the tools for understanding field research methodologies in geography will be provided, through some case studies (forests and exploitation in Italy and Germany / mountains and conservation and development policies in the Alps / water policies in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan) to allow students not only to understand with which methods geographic phenomena are studied, but also to provide a general basis on how to convey their own research (with essays or theses).

Readings/Bibliography

STUDENTI FREQUENTANTI

Lezione in classe di 20 minuti, individuale/gruppo max. 3 persone

I materiali delle lezioni, a cui si aggiunge per approfondimento il seguente testo:

Minca, Claudio. Appunti di geografia. Cedam, 2022.

STUDENTI NON FREQUENTANTI

Minca, Claudio. Appunti di geografia. Cedam, 2022.

Pellizzoni, Luigi. Introduzione all'ecologia politica. Il Mulino, 2023 (Introduzione e prima parte del capitolo 1)

Teaching methods

The course for frequent participants follows a flipped classroom and homework course as an integral part of the final examination. In the first part of the course, the lecturer will lecture, while in the second part there will be mini-lessons prepared by the students themselves (in groups). The final grade is given by (1) an in-class presentation of a geography-related topic to be developed in groups and the oral examination. The topics of the presentations will be decided with the students during the course, and the basic material on which to prepare will be provided by the lecturer.

Assessment methods

The final assessment for attending students consists of the mini-lesson and the oral test evidence. For non-attending students there will only be the oral examination on the topics related to the texts to be prepared. More information on the project can be found in the previous section, Teaching Methods. In addition, instructions on how to develop the project, deadlines, and assessment methods will be given during the first lesson.


Each group will choose a topic (political geography, urban geography, geography of the environment, geopolitics of climate change, heritage geography, etc.) and prepare a 15-minute presentation to be given in class during the second half of the course. The presentations will be followed by a discussion or in-depth study of the topic presented.


EXAM ASSESSMENT FOR ATTENDING STUDENTS


For the examination, attending students prepare the two papers described above during the course.

Methods of verifying learning

For attending students, the two assessment moments are aimed at verifying understanding of the geographical, social, and cultural phenomena described in the course of the lectures, introduced both through the lectures given by the lecturer and through the work carried out by the students and discussed in class. The didactic methodology adopted by the lecturer envisages that the students are not passive recipients but active participants in the learning process. Therefore, an attempt will be made to stimulate the students‘ personal reflection on the phenomena studied, both in class, where participation in the discussion of the topics covered is considered a fundamental element that the lecturer will use to assess the students’ interest in deepening their knowledge of the geographical facts discussed, and during the examination, during which the students will be invited to propose their own reflections and examples to explain the theoretical aspects studied. In addition, the assessment cannot fail to take into account the student's communication skills, which require not only an appropriate knowledge of the course content but also the appropriateness of language necessary to demonstrate that they have understood and internalised the themes of the discipline.

EXAM ASSESSMENT FOR NON ATTENDING STUDENTS

Non-attending students must study the entire syllabus presented in the bibliography, and are NOT required to study the lecture slides, or prepare in-class tests.

Methods of verifying learning

For non-attending students, the examination test is aimed at verifying understanding of the geographical, social, and cultural phenomena studied in the examination texts. During the examination the student will be invited to propose his/her own reflections on the geographical facts inherent to the course, also through the use of examples aimed at explaining the theoretical aspects studied. In addition, the assessment cannot fail to take into account the student's communication skills, which require not only an appropriate knowledge of the course content but also the appropriateness of language necessary to demonstrate that they have understood and internalised the themes of the discipline.

 

Teaching tools

Students who, for reasons dependent on disabilities or specific learning disorders (SLD), need compensatory or dispensatory tools must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it/per-studenti .

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Zinzani