MGEO - Master of Geography

Traditionally, geography has been studied together the social and natural phenomena. This seminar addresses the different ways of thinking about this relationship. Explore the concept of nature as a social construction, questions the dichotomy of nature vs.. culture and explores different ways of conceiving the nature and implications. It also delves into how the environment can influence or affect social history. It also asked for the ways humans have managed and transformed the natural environment. Finally he reflects on the conflicts associated with the use of and access to natural resources. Thus, it addresses the contributions of different fields such as environmental history and political ecology.

This seminar will discuss how the different disciplines of the social sciences approach the conception of spatial phenomena. It seeks to understand and explain the overlapping of spatial elements with social and historical processes and to reflect on the cultural conditions that mold those processes. To do that, we will consider the relationship between the cosmological and linguistic structure of a culture and its notions about space. The seminar also studies changes in the approach to spatial problems and their relationship to transformations of society as a whole. Lastly, the course will explore the coordination between the structures of perception and representation of space in a society and the power relations that these structures reflect and inculcate.

This course gives the student basic knowledge of physical geography as a field of knowledge, looking at the dynamics of the land surface and examining how it interacts with social dynamics in different contexts. To that end, we will examine the basic characteristics of the four subsystems that define the physical dynamics of the planet and the way they are interrelated. The course, then, provides the basis for understanding the functioning of the atmosphere (climatology), the mechanisms by which the earth’s crust evolves (geomorphology and geology), the dynamics of water as modeling the landscape and as a basic human resource (hydrogeography), and the factors that structure the distribution of living organisms on the planet, including the soil (biogeography).

This subject has three closely related objectives: first, that students learn to make maps of publishable quality, second, that they gauge the importance of map making in the performance of socio–spacial analysis and, third, that they approach cartography in critical fashion. For said effect, the subject is divided into two types of session: the workshop where the hands-on activity of designing and making maps is carried out, for which Adobe Illustrator software is used, and the seminar which is centered on the analysis of cartographic material and the discussion of readings which allow understanding cartography of an historically and culturally structured way of conceiving and representing space.

In this workshop second semester students will prepare their graduation project. Readings that contribute to the design of research proposals will be discussed, however, most of the sessions will be oriented to discussing the student’s progress.

In the third semester students prepare their graduation project coached by their director. The graduation project must demonstrate the student’s skills to state and develop a research problem concerning a topic of geographical interest and to contribute to knowledge, in addition to including an adequate literature management on the topic.

Masters students in Geography can take elective seminars in other postgraduate programs at the university.