Dr. Betty Schmitz
College of Arts and Sciences
Box 353765
 

The Geography Department is very interested in having a student intern during Spring Quarter, to help us:

• compile learning objectives across our undergraduate curriculum, relevant to understanding the social/geographic origins and uses of difference;
• identify what (a sample of) undergraduates, graduate TAs, faculty, and alumni feel would be useful learning outcomes for our BA graduates;
• briefly research available curricular materials from peer Geography programs across the US and Canada to gain any possible insights on teaching and discussing difference and diversity in the context of Geography education;  and
• work with our Curriculum Committee to identify shortcomings between extant learning objectives and perceived needs.

We feel that the University's discussion of "diversity" in the curriculum badly needs to attend to:

• disentangling the myriad meanings of the word "diversity," which (we feel) refers to a set of different processes that divide social groups along lines of power and access;
• recognition of the roles that geographic distance and geographic interaction (and distinctions in these roles at the international, regional, and intra-urban scales) play in maintaining, reinforcing, and reducing social differences and their use to maintain power differentials;  and
• the difficulties in addressing these issues in the classroom.

Our goal is to use the four tasks to assist us, and the University, deal with the three difficulties.  These are ambitious tasks for one quarter, but five major efforts within the Department should ease the first two tasks:

• The Geography Learning Objectives and Outcomes Project (G-LOOP) has resulted in a compilation of learning objectives for most undergraduate courses, and for the undergraduate "concentrations" or curricular foci (see one concentration's example).  These objectives will be an important starting point for the research.
• G-LOOP began with a large number of one-on-one faculty interviews, and the project's most recent milestone was a faculty retreat in January.  These efforts have made the faculty well-prepared to identify and discuss (with the intern) specific learning objectives for our courses and concentrations.
• The Geography Graduate Student Association has a committee of students committed to increasing the racial, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity of the graduate student body.  These students would likely be eager to meet with such an intern.  (In fact, I suspect that one of the longer-lasting benefits of this effort will be to reinvigorate communication between graduate students and faculty regarding learning objectives in general and difficulties (a) through (c) in particular).
• This quarter, Dr. Rick Roth and I are instituting what we colloquially call an "exit course" for graduating seniors (Geography 495C, Intellectual and Professional Development for Geographers).  Its overriding objective is for participants to develop their own ways of expressing what they’ve learned and in what ways they're capable, as they graduate.  It is not a required course, but we have 21 registered students.  Our plans for the two-credit course include preparation of learning portfolios, explicit assessment of the undergraduate program, and two invited panels of alumni who will discuss what elements of their educations have proven most valuable:  each of these three element will provide a good opportunity for us to think about the issues of teaching and learning about social difference, its social and geographic creation, and its uses.
• The department's Curriculum Committee is spending this academic year developing proposals for substantial change in the undergraduate curriculum, and the proposed project would raise issues that could inform their proposals.

For these reasons, we would appreciate the opportunity to work with an intern, and think the experience could prove useful for the University.
 

Sincerely,
James W. Harrington, Jr.
Professor and Chair