GEOG3111

Students will explore the biophysical spaces and sociopolitical project we know as Minnesota. Participants will expand their perspectives by engaging with a curated set of readings and multimedia to engage in writing and interactive discussion. Field trips to key sites will facilitate experiential observation. Course topics include geology, climatology, ecology, immigration, agriculture and food, urban development, and water as a medium central to state identities. This course complicates and nuances the overly simplified understandings of Minnesota that so many of us bring to our daily lives. We explore the colonial origins of Minnesota statehood and the establishment of UMN as a Land Grant Institution near Bdote, a spiritual center in Indigenous traditions including those of regional Dakota communities. This course is run as an upper division seminar style course, centering student engagement and proactive participation.

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