Unit information: Journeying: Discovering the World, Creating Ourselves in 2014/15

Unit name	Journeying: Discovering the World, Creating Ourselves
Unit code	GEOG16002
Credit points	20
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Mayhew
Open unit status	Open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Geographical Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Description including Unit Aims

This unit is a panoramic survey of the most remarkable journey in history: that of human cultures from the earliest hominids to our modern complex societies. The focus is on the interrelationship between humans exploring their world and the ways in which the resultant knowledge of the world has shaped human societal developments, both positive and negative. Positively, we have moved from being driven by environmental forces in early, autarchic societies to being able to traverse, describe and control the world and our social structures in modern societies. Negatively, there has been a massive price to be paid for the expansion of our geographical and societal horizons in terms of social surveillance and repression, of resource depletion, and of the domination and destruction of cultures through communication.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be appraised of the massive transformations in human knowledge of the globe over the long run and be able to critically judge the successes and the costs of these transformations. Students should also see the close interconnections between travelling of space, describing what is discovered and the construction of social structures. On completion of this unit students should be able to:

• Present a broad brush treatment of the history of human migration and exploration

• Analyse the interactions between migration, exploration and the construction of knowledges about the globe

• Analyse the interconnections between exploration, knowledge and power structures within historical and contemporary societies.

The following transferrable skills are developed in this Unit:

• Written and verbal communication

• Analytical and interpretative skills

• Problem definition

• knowledge construction

• Planning

Teaching Information

20 lectures; 5 open unit tutorials/drop-in sessions

Assessment Information

Unseen Written examination (1 ½ hours)

Reading and References

Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration (Oxford University Press, 2006). ISBN: 978-0-19-929590-5 Hannah Higgins, The Grid Book (MIT Press, 2009). ISBN: 978-0-262-51240-4 S. Oppenheimer, Out of Eden: the peopling of the world. (Robinson Publishing, 2004) ISBN 978-1-841198941Mark Monmonier, Spying with Maps: Surveillance Technologies and the Future of Privacy (Chicago University Press, New edition, 2004). ISBN: 978-0-226-534282. David Lyon, Surveillance Studies: An Overview (Polity Press, 2007). ISBN: 978-0-745- 635927