CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY - GEOG 2312 – SPRING 2011
9:25am – 10:40am TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS
STABLER HALL - ROOM 101
INSTRUCTOR INFO:
Dr. Jess C. Porter
Assistant Professor of Geography
Department of History
Office: 604D Stabler Hall
Phone: 501.569.8730
E-mail: jcporter@ualr.edu
Please use the following guidelines when contacting me by email:
 Use your university student email account
 In the "Subject" box include the course number (2312)
 Identify yourself in the email
 If you do not follow these guidelines, I may never see your e-mail
DR. PORTER’S OFFICE HOURS:
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Tuesday and Thursday
Or by appointment
REQUIRED TEXT:
Domosh’s The Human Mosiac, 11th Edition
ONLINE COURSE RESOURCE:
Blackboard: bb.ualr.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES
This course is a thematic approach to the study of human groups and activities around the world, including agricultural
practices, demographic trends, political behavior, religious beliefs, language patterns, folk and popular cultures,
ethnicity and ethnic landscapes, urbanization and industrialization.
The primary objectives of this course are centered on developing an understanding of the aforementioned topics by
learning and applying the five themes of geography: region, mobility, globalization, nature-culture, and cultural
landscape. By achieving these objectives, we will become better human geographers that are better able to understand
how and why the world (its peoples and environment) is the way it is.
GRADING
Course grades will be based on the following:
Exams (3 @ 100 points each)
Writing assignments (4 @ 50, 50, 25, 25)
300
150
TOTAL
450
Grades will be assigned based on the following percentages: A > 89.6, B >79.6, C > 69.6, D > 59.6, F < 59.6
EXAM PROCEDURES AND FORMAT
1.
All in-class exams are weighted equally and are non-comprehensive. Exam questions will be a combination of
multiple-choice, true-false, visual recognition, short-answer, and essay formats and will be based on the
lectures, class discussion, readings (textbook and web-posted articles), and videos. All exams must be taken at
the scheduled time and will be given neither earlier nor later except as noted below.
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2.
If you are going to miss an exam for an acceptable reason (see 3. below), YOU MUST CONTACT ME BY PHONE
OR IN PERSON BEFORE THE ABSENCE. If you have not contacted me and are absent from the exam YOUR
EXAM SCORE WILL BE 0, even if your excuse was an acceptable one. NO EXCEPTIONS!
3.
The four acceptable excuses for missing exams are:
(a)
University sponsored activities: These are usually related to varsity sports teams, cheerleaders, band
members, or class/major-related field trips or conferences. You must provide an official document from
the sponsoring group AND take the exam BEFORE the absence.
(b)
Jury duty and court appearances: You must provide an official document from the court/judge AND take
the exam BEFORE the absence.
(c)
Family emergency/death in the family: You may take the exam before or after the absence depending
on the circumstances, and, upon your return to class, must provide a letter from a parent or spouse
corroborating the situation AND their willingness to be called by me to confirm the absence. An
obituary or funeral program IS NOT sufficient unless you are specifically named as a participant or
surviving family member. Make-up exams must be completed within one week after the work was
missed at the latest.
(d)
Severe personal illness or injury: You may take the exam after the absence, and, upon your return to
class, must provide documentation from a doctor or hospital clearly indicating a health problem and
treatment before being given a make-up exam. If you are sick enough to miss an exam, you are sick
enough to seek medical attention. Also, unless the illness or injury strikes on the morning of the exam,
or you can document that you were incoherent or incapacitated prior to the exam, YOU MUST STILL
CONTACT ME before the absence. Make-up exams must be completed within one week after the work
was missed at the latest.
4.
While the above list of acceptable excuses for missing exams is exhaustive, for clarification purposes the
following excuses ARE NOT valid and WILL NOT be accepted: vacation travel, personal/social/family functions
(including weddings, reunions), job conflicts, fraternity/sorority functions, homecoming, oversleeping (even
due to power outages or inconsiderate roommates), routine medical/dental/legal appointments, being
arrested/in jail, and anything else that does not fall under 3. above.
5.
Advance and make-up exams will be a different format than the exam given to the rest of the class. Make-up
exams may be all essay. Furthermore, students arriving at an exam late must still complete the exam within the
remaining class period.
ATTENDANCE CHECKS
Attendance is not required, but you are expected to attend the entire class period each day. I reserve the right to
periodically check attendance.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Four writing assignments (see attached instructions) will include, a “thinking spatially” writing assignment (3-5 pages, 50
points) that will focus on your understanding and interpretation of a cultural landscape, a Google Earth cultural
landscapes activity (5-8 pages, 50 points) and your write-ups (1-2 pages each, 25 points each) from your cultural
exposures.
TENTATIVE EXAM DATES
Exam 1 – February 24
Exam 2 – March 31
Exam 3 – May 5
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SCHEDULE AND IMPORTANT DATES
The schedule for this class will remain fluid. I will keep you posted on any changes to exam dates via classroom and
Blackboard announcements.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
1.
The grade cut-offs are firm; for example, a percentage score of 89.4 will be a B. No individual extra credit or
"redo" work is possible for this class. There is no possibility of a grade being changed except for a genuine
computational error on my part. This is why it is important to keep your papers and assignments once they have
been returned to you.
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No course scores or grade information will be divulged over the phone or e-mail. Blackboard will be used to
report course scores and will be the only place exam scores can be obtained besides my office.
3.
Incomplete grades (I) will be given only in the case of extended, verifiable illness that occurs after the automatic
W period. Even if you have notified me during the semester of your situation, you must also contact me at the
end of the semester to confirm your cause of absence and to discuss arrangements for finishing the incomplete
work.
4.
Office hours will not be observed on university or student holidays; see schedule below.
5.
It is the policy of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to create inclusive learning environments. If there are
aspects of the instruction or design of this course that result in barriers to your inclusion or to accurate
assessment of achievement – such as time-limited exams, inaccessible web content, or the use of non-captioned
videos – please notify the instructor as soon as possible. Students are also welcome to contact the Disability
Resource Center, telephone 501-569-3143 (v/tty). For more information, visit the DRC website at
http://ualr.edu/disability/.
6.
I do not provide copies of my notes or presentations. It is your responsibility to get in-class notes and
announcements from another member of the class.
7.
Attend class every day and take detailed notes as much as possible. Exams questions will be drawn from
everything assigned and discussed in the class.
8.
Don’t wait until the last week to start worrying about your grade if your scores are not as high as you hoped.
Take advantage of the instructor’s office hours for questions/concerns.
Classroom Behavior and Expectations
 TURN OFF all phones, iPods, and other electronic devices and refrain from noisy behavior during class. DO NOT
TEXT IN CLASS!!! Feel free to make yourself as comfortable as is appropriate in a classroom setting. However, please
do not read newspapers or magazines during class, or engage in other activities that are distracting to your
classmates or me (i.e. personal stereo equipment, talking, sleeping, tardiness, Sudoku). Students habitually violating
these rules are subject to dismissal from the class for Academic Misconduct and a course grade of F.

Be in your seat on time to minimize classroom disruptions. The doors will not be propped open due to the disruption
sounds from outside and late students entering can cause the class. Be on time. If you know you will be late
beforehand, you will be admitted if you have spoken with me prior to class.

Due to the short amount of time available for me to get into the room after the previous class has cleared out and to
get the lecture presentation started, and to similarly get out of the way for the next instructor after our class is
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finished, please refrain from approaching me with questions before class. Please wait until after class or come to my
office with your questions.

All students are required to perform their own work. Students caught cheating on exams, map quizzes, or writing
assignments, or representing their work as someone else’s or vice versa, will be charged as appropriate under the
university’s Academic Integrity Policies. Cheating on quizzes will be assessed a level 1 sanction (0 on the affected
work) whereas plagiarism or other forms of cheating on writing assignments and cheating on exams will result in a
sanction (F for the course) as outlined in Part III. D. in the UALR Student Code of Conduct. Refer to the appropriate
university
web
pages
and
policies
for
more
information
on
academic
misconduct
(http://ualr.edu/deanofstudents/index.php/home/academic-integrity//).

It does not matter to me what grade you need in the class; you get the grade you earned based on your point total
and the scale and that is final.

All students are expected to maintain a working e-mail address at the university and to log into Blackboard regularly
for ancillary information and updates. On occasion, I may need to send out a broad informational e-mail to all
students through Blackboard. If your e-mail is out-of-date or absent, you will miss the info but you are nevertheless
responsible for it.
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
ASSIGNMENTS ONE AND FOUR – CULTURAL EXPOSURE
The cultural exposure assignments are worth 25 points each. It sounds risqué, but I assure you it is not
(unless you make it so). For this assignment, I challenge you to expose yourself to two cultural experiences
that are foreign to you. If you are an atheist, perhaps you could attend Catholic mass? If you have never eaten
Japanese food, then go with a friend to Sushi Cafe for dinner. Check out a rodeo or go to a gay bar, or for that
matter a gay rodeo. Perhaps you could attend a roller derby or the symphony? How about a trip to an Asian
super market? Maybe you could visit a working farm? How about a trip to Republican or Democrat
headquarters to talk political ideology? Why not take a long walk around a cemetery? If you have an idea but
you are not sure where to find it, I'd be happy to try and help. Be creative and be honest! I expect you to find
some NEW things to do.
Once you have been exposed, you will write a short description of your experience. What did you
learn? What did you like or not like? Has it changed your perceptions or understandings in any way? This
narrative will be an absolute minimum of one page of text and a maximum of three pages of text. Feel free to
include photos. The first cultural exposure assignment is due February 10th. The second cultural exposure
(assignment four) is due April 21st.
ASSIGNMENT TWO – CULTURAL LANDSCAPES IN GOOGLE EARTH
*To complete this exercise, you will need to use a computer equipped with Google Earth software. In
this exercise you will be examining and describing cultural landscapes. You will utilize screenshots from Google
Earth combined with short narratives that you will compose that discuss the image.
Your assignment consists of finding four unique cultural landscapesin Google Earth. Larger scale images
(more detail/smaller area) work best. When you find a cultural landscape that you will use, simply go to Edit,
Copy, Copy Image in Google Earth and then Paste it into Word. Each image should be about 2/3 of a page. Be
certain the latitude and longitude are visible at the bottom of the image. For your narrative, please use
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standard one inch margins, calibri or arial typeface, and 10 or 12 point, double-spaced font. Each narrative
should be approximately one-half to one page of double-spaced text. Draw on your experience and thought
processes from your first assignment to construct thoughtful, detailed narratives.
For two of your locations, use places that you know and can provide some insight through personal
experience or knowledge. The other two locations should be locations that you have not visited. At least one
location must be outside the United States. Find something interesting on Google Earth and do some research
(the Internet is fine here) that will provide information for your narrative. Annotate the images with letter
labels and symbols.
This assignment is worth 50 points. You will be graded on your ability to follow directions, full
completion of the assignment, quality of writing, and your ability to integrate cultural geography into the
assignment via terminology and spatial analysis. You must turn in your assignment in the drop-box of
Blackboard. The assignment is due March 3rd.
All four images must have location information and a cultural landscape narrative. An example follows:
Location: Beaver State Park, Beaver County, Oklahoma, USA
Narrative: This image is a recreation-based cultural landscape in the panhandle of Oklahoma. The fact that it
is a landscape created for recreational purposes speaks to the relative affluence of the society in which it is
located.
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In this image, a golf course (A) can be seen as well as an open dune area (D) and some all-terrain
vehicle (ATV) trails (C). The activities that take place in this landscape have a dramatic impact on the dune
landscape. This is a semi-arid location where degradation or removal of vegetation causes the dunes to
become active and mobile. This has occurred in areas C and D as a result of ATV’s not allowing vegetation to
become established. Also notice the connectivity of the trail network that has developed. Primary trails lead to
a number of smaller tributary trails. The sand surfaces are more stable on the golf course because of watering
that takes place to maintain the grass cover for the course.
The line labeled B is a fenceline. There is a notable discrepancy in the density of vegetation from one
side of the fence to the other. In this case, cattle grazing has thinned the vegetation on the east side of the
fence.
The north-south highway in the image is impacted by the active dunes in the recreation area.
Prevailing winds can blow sand across the highway. This results in additional costs to maintain this
transportation corridor. The nearby community of Beaver, Oklahoma benefits from this cultural landscape
through econmic development related to the park. This includes the establishment of local motels and
restaurants to serve visitors to the park. There are more of these service establishments in Beaver than one
would expect for such a small community.
ASSIGNMENT THREE – THINKING SPATIALLY
Utilizing the attached reading from Kerski (National Council for Geographic Education 2008) as a guide,
you will write a three to five page commentary on the cultural landscape of the place of your choosing. It can
be UALR, Little Rock, your home town, or some other place with which you are familiar. You will identify ten
cultural landscape features in this assignment. Number your observations like Kerski and be sure you include
the spatial component in your assessment. I encourage you to utilize terminology and concepts that we have
learned about over the course of the semester. This assignment will be an absolute minimum of two full,
double spaced pages. This assignment is worth 50 points and is due April 7th.
Late Submissions
I will accept late papers with a penalty of 10 points per working day.
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