Culture, Society and Space

The spatial turn in the social sciences in the late twentieth century reinvigorated many aspects of contemporary human geography, including the study of place, power, regional change, race, gender, identity, and representation. Students wishing to study human geography have the opportunity to focus their studies around specific themes and course clusters in cultural, social, economic, and political geographies.

Current research includes such topics as: landuse consequences of tobacco restructuring, agrarian social movements, space, identity, and representation, social geographies of race, space, and gender in North Carolina, and globalization and international development.

In addition, the study of social spaces introduces students to various aspects of the history and philosophy of geography, spatial analysis and public policy, social theory and cultural studies, gender studies and feminism, and science and technology studies.

Associated Faculty

Steve Birdsall, Altha Cravey, John Florin, Banu P. Gökariksel, Scott Kirsch, Melinda Meade, John Pickles, Wendy Wolford, Jim Fraser, Arturo Escobar (adjunct: Anthropology), Ken Hillis (adjunct: Communication Studies).