642 Geography of Pennsylvania
Class | Registration opens 2/3/2025 11:00 AM
Pennsylvania is one of the richest, most diverse, and most dynamic landscapes in the US. It is also, in places, one of the most poor and parochial.
In this course we will use the exemplary landscape of Pennsylvania to learn about the field of geography and about our home state. The field of geography provides powerful tools to understand how people live in their worlds.
We will approach Pennsylvania thematically, as a typical human geography textbook would: what resources are available on the land, which people came to use those resources, how they adapted to that land, how they earn livings, how they created full social lives, what the land came to mean to them, how their towns are shaped and used, and so forth.
Here is a tentative list of topics:
- What does geography do?
- Cultural / symbolic landscapes
- The physical land we live on, as an organizing principle
- The pre-European world
- Immigration, ethnicity and identity
- Organization of the industry and the economy
- The shape of our towns and cities
- The car, freeways, and the modern city
- Mapping class, race, power, gender
This class will meet 2:30-4:30 p.m. on 3/11, 3/18, 3/25, 4/8, 4/15 and 4/22 (no class on 4/1) at the Union County Government Center. Although the class will not meet at the Union County Government Center on Apr. 1, an optional alternative activity may be offered for that date.
Ben Marsh
BEN MARSH is professor emeritus of geography and environmental studies at Bucknell University where he taught about human ecology, mapping, and Pennsylvania landscapes. Raised in central Pennsylvania, he has taught and written extensively about the state, including co-authoring chapters in A Geography of Pennsylvania and in The Atlas of Pennsylvania. He has previously taught BILL courses about mapping and about food and the environment.