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Environmental and physical geographers examine both physical geographic processes that take place on Earth as well as human-environment or nature-society relations. Drawing from the natural and social sciences, environmental and physical geographers study water politics and practices, environmental degredation and restoration, as well as the socio-cultural and political-economic processes that govern the use and management of environmental resources. Students trained in environmental and physical geography go on to work in a number of public and private industries as well as in organizations dedicated to the maintanence and restoration of our region’s and world’s natural resources.

Within "environmental and physical geography," we offer courses in the following areas:

• Biogeography
• Environmental Geography
• International Environmental Issues
• Hazards
• Land and Water Resources
• Physical Geography
• Watershed Processes
• Climatology
• Environmental Assessment 

Geographers employ a number of different techniques for collecting, studying, and analyzing spatial data. These techniques include both quantitative and qualitative approaches, while also stressing important computer-centered technologies. Many students trained in these techniques go on to work in a number of different public and private industries, from planning departments to environmental assessment agencies to non-profit community based organizations.

Within the “techniques,” we offer courses in the following areas:

• GIScience
• Remote Sensing
• Cartography/geovisualization
• Spatial Statistics
• Field Methods
• Qualitative Methods
• GIS/GPS

Human Geography 

Human geographers examine a number of wide-ranging topics, with an emphasis on the spatial distribution and organization of cultural practices, social groups and identities, economic and political phenomena, health practices and indicators of health, and historical patterns. Human geographers also focus in-depth on the place-based practices of gender, race, sexuality, and ethnicity as well as nationalism, ability/disability, and community, to name just a few. Within the human geography curriculum, there is also a strong emphasis on urban geography as well as development (and rural) geography. Human geographers draw from the spectrum of geospatial techniques, including GIS and qualitative methodologies. Students trained in human geography do a number of things, including planning, teaching, and development work.

Within “human geography,” we offer courses in the following areas:

• Economic Geography
• Feminist Geography
• Political Geography
• Social (and Cultural) Geography
• Urban Geography 

Urban Studies 

Urban Studies is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that complements degree programs in Geography, Anthropology, Economics, Sociology, History, Environmental Science and Policy, as well as many other Liberal Arts and Health and Human Service disciplines.

Geography is an inherently global discipline, with a strong emphasis on regional studies as well as globa socio-cultural and political-economic processes and practices. Within this area of specialization, students can take courses that examine, in-depth, various area studies. Students with an interest in global studies, often double-major in another discipline, such as history, political science, or international studies. Students with degrees in this area may also pursue the California Single-Subject Credential in History/Social Science, or do work as various as the peace corp or international business.

Within "global studies," we offer courses in the following areas:

• World Regional Geography
• East, South, and Southeast Asia
• Russia and Its Neighbors
• Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean
• South America
• Middle East and North Africa
• Europe
• US and Canada
• Geography of the Global Economy
• World Cites
• Political Geography 

The ������ Geography Department joins the and fellow departments within the College of Liberal Arts in condemning the racism, violence, and systemic inequities in the United States that contribute to the disproportionate incarceration and deaths of Black people at the hands of police. We pledge to support our students, faculty, and all activist teacher-scholars in combating anti-Blackness and racism affecting all people of color in all its forms. We stand in solidarity with Black geographers, Black communities, protesters, and especially those who are grieving for the loss of precious lives. Acknowledging the specific histories of Blacks in America, we commit to making Geography a discipline inclusive and equitable for Black geographers and, by extension, all people. We pledge to incorporate into our curriculum and service activities solutions for changing our policing systems, including making ������ safer and harassment-free for Black students, faculty and staff, and investing in communities of color, especially addressing the enrollment and retention of Black students in Geography and at ������. Recognizing that our discipline has been complicit in maintaining racist structures, we commit to using the tools and theories of Geography to expose the systemic spatial inequalities evident today, and, through our curriculum and in solidarity with community organizations, to analyze and generate solutions to systemic patterns of inequality and injustice.

As educators, we share the following resources and collections of readings that center and uplift the scholarship of Black geographers, thinkers, activists, organizers, and allies:

• (organized by the University of British Columbia’s Department of Geography)
• (University of Minnesota Press, Library of Open Access Titles)
• (published by Antipode Online)
• (organized by the Politics, Groups, and Identities journal)
• , by Aretina R. Hamilton
• From Verso Press: Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter, edited by Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton; , by David Correia and Tyler Wall; and , by Alex S. Vitale
• , by Andrea J. Ritchie, and associated
• (documents how race, class, and gender influenced every aspect of the multifaceted U.S. conservation movement from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century)
• (a collection of nature themed poems from Black writers across history, edited by poet Camille Dungy)