Geography Knowing geography enables people to understand the relationships between people, places and environments and to map information about them into a spatial context. Education in geography involves exploration of a number of fundamental topics, including the physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth’s surface, the characteristics and distribution of ecosystems on Earth’s surface, the characteristics, distribution and migration of human populations, and the complexity of Earth’s cultural mosaics. The current geography faculty are Jamie Whelan, Gay Gomez and Steven Rainey. They offer courses that include introductory geography, which provides a broad introduction to the major themes and concepts in geography; various offerings in regional geography, including world regional geography, and courses that focus on particular world regions such as North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe; physical geography; cultural geography; cartography and geographic information systems; the geography of world religions; and environmental geography. We encourage you to contact the department and individual faculty members if you have additional questions.