Academics | Geography

Dr. Tracy DeLiberty, Interim Department Chair

Dr. Tracy DeLiberty, Interim Department Chair

About Our Department

The department of Geography is a wide-ranging department providing instruction and research in the broad discipline of geography, studying how physical, biological, and cultural processes shape the landscape in which we live and cause regions to differ from each other. We provide six different degree programs, an internationally known research agenda, and a long tradition of service and outreach in education and climatic data services.

Our Degree Programs

Our offerings range from undergraduate minors through the PhD, with degrees offered in Geography, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Climatology, Land-Surface Processes, and Geography Education. We also serve students from across the University with a certification program in Geographic Information Science and courses in other technical areas.

» Check Out Our Geography Degree Programs brochure!

We take pride in quality of teaching as well as excellence in research. We emphasize hands-on and outside work, with field experiences from the Arctic to Guatemala, as well as in the forests, streams, and beaches of Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and the human landscapes of Newark, Wilmington, and Philadelphia.

Geographers investigate processes that explain the location of human and natural phenomena, as well as the interactions between people and their environment. A broad range of interests characterizes geography and reflects its position simultaneously in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Students who major in geography may, if they choose, specialize. The department has an excellent program in climatology, for instance, and research may be undertaken through its Center for Climate and Land-Surface Change. Other areas include biogeography, conservation, cultural-historical geography, urban geography, and geomorphology. Skills in geographic information science (GIS), remote sensing, cartography, and spatial data analysis are also studied by geography majors. Students are required to take an introductory sequence of courses and a capstone course to provide a common background for all majors. During the senior year, majors may, at their option, undertake a research paper under the direction of their program advisors.

The department also offers programs leading to the Master of Arts, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Geography. The graduate program provides the opportunity for students to interact frequently with a staff whose interests touch upon one of three themes: climatology, land-surface processes, and human geography.

The human geography program covers a broad range of themes approached from cultural-historical, socio-economic and humanistic perspectives. All three subareas intersect for work in such areas as sea-ice dynamics and monitoring, glaciology, landscape evidence of climatic change, human influences on climate, climate and human health, and human interactions with the physical landscape. Interdisciplinary work with other departments and colleges is encouraged.

The climatology program emphasizes physical, synoptic, dynamic, and water budget climatology. The land-surface processes emphasis includes work on geomorphology, periglacial landforms, permafrost, and flows of water and trace chemicals through the biota and the soil.

Our Facilities

Located in Pearson Hall on the Newark campus, the department houses the University's Center for Climate and Land-Surface Change and the Office of the State Climatologist for Delaware. Facilities include laboratories for cartography, microclimatology, biogeography, geographic information science and computer analysis. The department is well-equipped with microclimatic and other fieldwork instrumentation and workstations and related peripherals for GIS and remote sensing work. The department also maintains high-end UNIX servers for modeling and data analysis, good connections to university-wide computing resources, and connections to SURA-Grid for supercomputing needs.