Elevator Definitions of Geography, Geog 609, Fall 2009

Geography is the study of spatial relationships. Geographers are interested in what makes different places different, how remote locations interact, and how humans and the natural environment affect one another. Sarah

Geography isn't the study of where things are, it's the study of why it matters where they are. Vincent

Geography encompasses both social and earth science disciplines as it relates to space. It is the study of people and/or environmental systems with respect to time and place. Denise

Geography is the study of anything in reference to where it occurs on the earth's surface. Geography is concerned with how populations, events, objects, and ideas are connected through time and space and why those connections are important. Amanda

Geography is a way of thinking about the world. While many disciplines have a narrow focus in the way they analyze questions or problems, geography crosses boundaries by focusing on how space, identity, and the spatial distribution of things influences the world. This lens can be applied to a wide range of issues, spanning from religion to rivers. Laurie

Geography is the study of everything on earth! Geographers study how things (such as cultures, languages, plant communities, or the shape of rivers, for example) vary across space and through time, and we tend to be especially interested in interactions between humans and the environment. Aquila

Geography can be broken down into two different categories: cultural and physical. Cultural geography is the study of how people relate to their location and physical geography is the study of physical landscapes. Gretchen

Geography is like a jack of all trades, multidisciplinary (i.e. traversing many disciplines) but maintaining its mastery with its concern over spatial relationships. Easther

[Geography is] the study of the surface of the earth and its inhabitants, including the patterns, processes, and landscape impacts of humans and their institutions. Nancy

Geographers study practically every subject, from environmental change to international relations; what they all have in common is that changes in time and space are considered in their studies. Jenn

Geography is where the hard and soft sciences, the human and physical meet on the map. Geographers study that interaction looking for patterns in place and space. Heather

Geography looks at the spatial relationship among things in the natural and human environment around us to find cause and effect relationships that can help explain the systems that shape our world. Ben

Geography is the scientific study of the places, people, and patterns that form our global landscape. René

Geography is the study of the human and physical processes affecting places and regions of the world. It is a broad field of study about the interactions between the human existence place and space. Meche

Geographers are interested in a vast array of topics that are of interest to other disciplines as well, disciplines such as economics, politics, ecology, earth sciences. But what distinguishes geography is that geographers start by look-ing at spatial patterns and are convinced that spatial patterns can reveal significant meaning about underlying proc-esses and that you can't understand processes without taking into account how things are related geographically. For instance, an economist might focus just on numeric values of supply and demand between various trade part-ners, whereas an economic geographer would also want to know how various trade partners are located relative to each other and the geographic barriers or opportunities for trade. Matt

Geography is the study of earth and all its forms of life and life’s ways as seen on land, in the air, and in the water. Walter

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