Our students have also been successful in winning highly competitive spots in the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates at sites around the country. Interested in getting research experience? Check out our faculty web profiles to see the types of research our faculty are conducting and schedule a time to talk with faculty whose research interests you. A great way to get into research is to offer to work with a professor on a project he or she is conducting. Selected faculty research projects provide funding for student research assistants through grant awards and through a generous gift from the Oaklawn Foundation (Word).
Geography students conduct research under the guidance of a faculty mentor, typically to complete an honors pathway in the degree. Students conducting research may earn academic credit as Geog 197/198, typically in the junior year, or as Geog 297/298, typically in the senior year.
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Rebuilding Community
Senior Rachael Carrell spent the summer conducting research for her senior thesis and working with an organization in Humacao, Puerto Rico, an experience that she says has been pivotal to her education. Made possible with funds from the Office of Undergraduate Research, which offers advice and research funding opportunities, Carrell worked with Proyecto de Apoyo (PAM), an organization in a rural neighborhood that aims to develop an emergency plan so that the community will be able to respond more effectively and efficiently to future catastrophes.
As the community was still recovering from Hurricane Maria, Carrell made herself available for any other tasks they needed help with, from working in the orchards and conducting data entry, to cleaning out an abandoned school so it could be converted into a community center. “A big focus of mine is to be conscious of my privilege and my position as a student and an outsider. Not only do I want to make sure that my work and presence here is not extractive, I am trying to do my best to support the community as much as I can.”
Carrell was especially impacted by the interdisciplinary nature of the work PAM performs in Humacao, noting she got “to see first-hand how the leaders of the organization are actively seeking help from people of all different specialties and professions. This helps me both better understand the skills geographers have to offer in a context or project like this, and give me the opportunity to experience how geographers can collaborate with people of other specialties to work towards a shared goal.”
Geography 273: Advanced Topics in Political Economy and Ecology
Seeing Green -The Cultural Politics of Consuming Nature. What is it that makes popular culture so popular? How is our experience of the physical world and material reality shaped, distorted and redefined by the work of imagination? How does marketing and cultural imperialism relate to popular culture? Drawing on multiple forms of critique and analysis, this course examines how a variety of media texts within this popular culture help to shape, redefine, and reconstruct our understanding of nature, the environment, and environmentalism.
Student Project #1: Creating Environmental University (PDF)
Student Project #2: Vermont a Local's Guide
Geography 244: Dendrochronology
Dendrochronology is the study of tree rings and what tree rings can tell us about the past. This course introduces students to the principles and theory, as well as field and lab techniques used by dendrochronologists to unravel the mysteries contained within tree rings.
Student Project #1: The La Platte River Marsh (Powerpoint)
Geography 153: Arctic Canada
Canada is an arctic nation with over one third of its land surface dominated by northern forests and tundra landscapes. This course seeks to acquaint students with the physical, biological, cultural, political, historical and economic characteristics of the Canadian Arctic.
Student Project #1: New Opportunities and Challenges (PDF)
Geography 274: Social Justice and The City
The formation and evolution of cities has always depended on social inequality – marginalized racial/ethnic/religious populations have been separated into ‘ghettos’, gender has shaped one’s access to public spaces, the poor have been squeezed out (or in) to the worst sections of town, the disabled and elderly have been immobilized by physical barriers, uneven surveillance and policing fan the flames of hate and violence, and the exploitation of labor has built monuments to the rich.
Student Project #1: Poverty and Education in Philadelphia
Student Project #2: Sexuality and Public Space in Austin, TX
Student Project #3: Sexuality and Health/Violence in Chicago
Student Project #4: Poverty and Housing in Oakland, CA
Student Project #5: Poverty and Housing in Washington, DC
Student Project #6: Race, Age, and Health in New Orleans, LA
Student Project #7: Environmental Justice (Race and Health) in Miami, FL
Student Project #8: Education and Dis/Ability in Baltimore
Student Project #9: Ethnicity and Food in San Francisco
Student Project #10: Race and Transportation in Atlanta
GEOG 186: Qualitative Research Methods
“College Life in a Pandemic: Experiencing and Enacting
The COVID-19 pandemic has surely shaken up many aspects of life, not shying away from the lives of college students across the globe. How has social interaction and the college experience shifted for UVM students this year?