Geographical or environmental factors, such as
landscape, flora and fauna, are obviously of some importance in
explaining why history unfolded differently on different continents.
The idea that some form of environmental (or geographical)
determinism has affected the fate of human societies is therefore as old as it is controversial. While this perspective was in retreat
for most of the twentieth century, it has made an impressive
comeback in recent years with the publication of influential books
and academic articles. The purpose of this course is to discuss
critically some of this recent literature and to examine how
"geography" and "the environment" might have impacted the
development of agriculture, complex technologies, writing,
centralized government and how, in the process, it has shaped the
current world economic map. While the subjects discussed are often
technical, the assigned readings are accessible to students with no
previous backgrounds in scientific disciplines or geographical
research.
Mandatory Readings
Course format
The course format will alternate between formal
classes and open discussions. Students are expected to have read the
assigned texts in advance.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The course has three (3) main
objectives:
1) To provide a broad
survey of how geographical and environmental factors have impacted
the development of 1) human
civilization; 2) To provide some historical perspective on the
current processes of globalization; 3) To advance students'
skills in critical analysis and
writing.
ASSIGNMENTS
% OF GRADE
DATE DUE
1) Proposal for Term Paper 2) Term
Test 3) Term Paper 4) Final Exam
5% 20% 40% 35%
Jan 23 Feb 6 March 26,
5PM TBA
As per the University Grading Practices Policy,
please note that "after the methods of evaluation have been made
known, the instructor may not change them or their relative weight
without the consent of at least a simple majority of the students
enrolled in the course. Any changes shall be reported to the
division or the department."
How to Query or Challenge
a Mark
Please note that you have two weeks
from the date an item is returned in class to ask for the item to be
remarked. Contact the Course Instructor for all queries about course
marks, or if you wish to challenge a mark. Absolutely no item will
be remarked after the two-week period has passed. Material submitted
for remarking must be accompanied by a brief written
explanation detailing your reasons for dissatisfaction with the
original mark (such as an addition error or something you think the
marker may have missed). A request for a remark without a written
explanation will not be acted
upon.
Please note that you are allowed two questions where you and the
instructor can agree to disagree (meaning you believe that you are
entitled to a higher mark, but your instructor disagrees) without
penalty. Beginning with the third question where you and your
instructor disagree, one point will be taken off your final mark by
question for which a revised mark was requested by you and denied by
the instructor.
Additional
readings, both mandatory and suggested, are listed below. Most of
the readings are freely accessible from anywhere. Some of them,
however, may require you to use a UofT terminal or user
code.
TESTS
A set of questions will be given in advance.
Students will be asked to answer a number of these during the test.
Note that Power Point slides presented during the lectures WILL NOT
be posted online. No documentation is allowed during the
tests.
Please read the course syllabus before e-mailing a question
or expect a one line answer telling you to look it up if the answer
is already there.
Always use your University of Toronto
e-mail address (@utoronto.ca) for all course-related communications.
E-mails from other domains (e.g., hotmail, Rogers, gmail, yahoo,
etc.) may be filtered as spam and will at any rate be ignored.
Always include the course code (e.g., GGR329) as part of your
subject line, along with your full name and student number in the
body of the e-mail. E-mails will be answered during office hours as
promptly as possible. Please note that I do not open attachments and
will not answer during week-ends.
The first person that you
should e-mail concerning department- or program-related queries or
to submit documentation regarding a missed assignment, quiz, or test
is the Academic Counsellor for Geography/Environment, Sabrina
Ferrari (sabrina.ferrari@utoronto.ca).
E-mail
should NOT be viewed as an alternative to meeting with the TA or
professor during office hours. Nor should e-mail be used as a
mechanism to receive private tutorials (especially prior to tests)
or to explain material that was covered in missed lectures. Not
receiving replies to e-mails from the TA or professor, or not
receiving them in time, will not be an acceptable excuse for pleas
for extensions to assignment or exam deadlines.
Students are
advised to consult http://www.enough.utoronto.ca/ for information on
university policy concerning the appropriate use of information and
communication technology.
TERM PAPER
Students are given the choice between: 1) a 15 page
essay on a topic of their choice; 2) a 15 page review essay of a
book (or two) dealing with topics covered in class. Team work is
allowed, but my expectations are greater (20 pages for a team of
two; 25 pages for a team of three). The choice of topic or book(s)
must be approved by the instructor. These assignments will be
discussed in class. Book
suggestions.
Your choice of topic or book must be approved by
the instructor before turning in your proposal. Those of you who
would like to submit a book suggestion are asked to provide a link
to the publisher's webpage devoted to the book or, if no such thing
exists, to the Amazon or another large bookseller webpage devoted to
the book.
Normally, students will be required to
submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of textual
similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so,
students will allow their essays to be included as source documents
in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used
solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply
to the University's use of the Turnitin.com service are described on
the Turnitin.com web site. >
Full legal statement
Students are permitted, under our conditions of use, to opt-out of
using Turnitin. If a student chooses not to submit an assignment
through Turnitin, the instructor will need to find alternative
arrangements to check their work as rigorously. Students will not be
penalized for choosing to opt out, but they will be asked to have a
short meeting with the instructor and be asked questions about their
research methodology and work.
You are required to submit a hard copy of the assignment as
instructed in the syllabus for the TAs to grade and annotate
Electronic copies will be submitted by students through Turnitin.
Please not that submitting your paper through
Turnitin.com or making alternative arrangements before the deadline with
your professor is not optional. Failure to do so will result in a grade
of 0 for your term paper. Failure to submit your paper on turnitin.com
before the deadline will result in the same late penalty as if you had
not submitted your hard copy.
Department of Geography Late assignment/Missed
Test Policy
This is the departmental policy for late
assignments and missed tests. Please note that the penalty related
to your proposal is different. In this particular case, I apply my
own policy as specified on the syllabus.
Missed Term
Work (Assignment/Lab - as per Department of Geography policy):
Late assignments will be subject to a late penalty of 10% per day
(including weekends) of the total marks for the assignment.
Assignments submitted five calendar days beyond the due date will be
assigned a grade of zero. Academic accommodation can be made when an
assignment is late or a student is unable to write a term test/quiz
for University.
Missed Term Work (Quiz/Test - as per
Department of Geography policy): In courses with final exams,
there will be no re-writes or make-ups for term tests/quizzes missed
for University-accepted, verifiable reasons. Instead the final exam
will be re-weighted by the value of the term test/quiz. In courses
with no final exam, re-writes may be scheduled at the discretion of
the instructor.
Informing Your Professor and Submitting
Appropriate Documentation:
1. The following steps must be completed in order
to be considered for academic accommodation for any course work
such as missed tests or late assignments:
2. Students must
inform their professor in writing (e-mail is acceptable) within 24
hours of a test date/assignment due date of any circumstances that
prevent them from writing a test or submitting an assignment on
time.
3. Students must submit a University-accepted
documentation (e.g., U of T Student Medical Certificate) within one
week of a missed assignment due date or test date. Failure to
submit appropriate documentation will result in a grade of zero.
Please submit original documentation in person to Sabrina Ferrari
(Academic Counsellor, Room DV-3282 Department of Geography).
Medical Certificates MUST include the following statement: "This
student was unable to write the test on [date(s)] for medical
reasons." Documentation must show that the physician was consulted
within one day of the test or assignment due date. A statement
merely confirming a report of illness made by the student is not
acceptable (such as, "This patient tells me that he was feeling
ill on that day."). Failure to comply with this policy will result
in a grade of zero for the test or assignment in
question.
4. A petition for academic accommodation must be
completed and submitted along with the University-accepted
documentation (#3, above) within one week of a missed assignment
due date or test date. Petition forms are available in person from
Sabrina Ferrari, Rm. DV-3282.
Please note that the written explanation and
documentation that you submit represents an appeal from you,
requesting the opportunity to account for that portion of your grade
in some other manner. If an appeal is not received, or if the appeal
is deemed unacceptable, you will receive a grade of zero for the
item you missed. If the appeal is granted - that is, your reason for
missing the item is considered acceptable by the committee - then a
mechanism for accounting for the grade value of the missed item will
be discussed.
Once all documentation has been received, the
petition for academic accommodation will be reviewed by a
Departmental Committee. Students will be informed of the Committee's
decision within 2 weeks. Note that holidays and pre-purchased plane
tickets, family plans (unless critical, such as death of an
immediate family member), your friend's wedding, lack of
preparation, or too many other tests are not acceptable excuses for
missing a quiz, a test, or an item of term
work.
Expectations/Classroom Behaviour/Behaviour in
the Academic Setting
Our expectation of you is that you will show respect
to the Course Instructor, TAs, other faculty, staff, and fellow
students. This includes arriving on time and staying for the entire
class (so you don't disturb others by your late entry or early
departure); listening quietly (so you don't disturb others by your
chatting or online activities); approaching your course work with an
open, honest spirit and enthusiasm; and otherwise adhering to the
Code.
In turn, you can expect the Course Instructor, staff,
and TAs to show respect to you and your fellow students; to deliver
the best course that they possibly can; to communicate their
enthusiasm for the material; to maintain fairness in all aspects of
course delivery and assessment; and otherwise to adhere to the
University's Code of Behaviour on Academic
Matters.
Academic Integrity/Honesty or Academic
Offenses
It is your responsibility as a student at the
University of Toronto to familiarize yourself with, and adhere to,
both the Code of Student Conduct and the Code of Behaviour on
Academic Matters.
This means, first and foremost, that you
should read them carefully.
The Code of Student Conduct is available from the U
of T Mississauga website (Registrar > Academic Calendar >
Codes and Policies) or in your print version of the Academic
Calendar.
The Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters is
available from the U of T Mississauga website (Registrar >
Academic Calendar > Codes and Policies) or in your print
version of the Academic Calendar.
Another helpful document that you should read is
How
Not to Plagiarize, by M. Procter.
Further Thoughts on Academic
Honesty: The Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters states
that:
"The University and its members have a
responsibility to ensure that a climate that might encourage, or
conditions that might enable, cheating, misrepresentation or
unfairness not be tolerated. To this end all must acknowledge that
seeking credit or other advantages by fraud or misrepresentation,
or seeking to disadvantage others by disruptive behaviour is
unacceptable, as is any dishonesty or unfairness in dealing with
the work or record of a student." ―University of Toronto
Mississauga Academic Calendar
This summarizes what we are all trying to
achieve through the implementation of this Code―both students and
faculty. We are trying―together―to create an atmosphere of fairness
and honesty, in which people can learn and receive appropriate
credit for work that they have done. Note that the Code refers
specifically to expectations for faculty members, not just
for students. It is my responsibility, as a member of the faculty of
the University of Toronto, to be familiar with these expectations
and adhere to them. There are many additional academic requirements
that we are expected to meet with regard to the integrity of course
materials, returning of marked work to students, maintenance of
student privacy, fairness, grading practices, and others. My TAs and
I will make every possible effort to meet these
expectations.
Accessibility
U of T Mississauga and the AccessAbility
Resource Centre are committed to the full participation of students
with disabilities in all aspects of campus life. The
AccessAbility Resource Centre provides academic
accommodations and services to students who have a physical,
sensory, or learning disability, mental health condition, acquired
brain injury, or chronic health condition, be it visible or hidden.
Students who have temporary disabilities (e.g., broken dominant arm)
are also eligible to receive services. All interested students must
have an intake interview with an advisor to discuss their individual
needs.
Students who require accommodation are advised to
visit the AccessAbility Resource Centre as early as possible
to have their needs assessed, as it may take some time to process
the application.
I also recommend Nature as
Historical Protagonist, The Tawney Memorial Lecture 2008 (Economic
History Association) by Professor Bruce M.S. Campbell (Queen's
University of Belfast) (video)
LECTURE SCHEDULE
Lecture 1 (Jan 2): Is Geography (and Climate)
Destiny? Part I Lecture 2 (Jan 9): Out of Africa Lecture 3
(Jan 16): Collision at Cajamarca Lecture 4 (Jan
23): Farmer Power, Part I (Deadline for Term Paper
proposal) Lecture 5 (Jan 30): Farmer Power, Part II Lecture 6 (Feb 6): Term Test Questions Lecture
7 (Feb 13): Germs and "Virgin Soils" (Feb 20): Provincial Holiday - no class Lecture 8
(Feb 27): No class Lecture 9 (March
5):
Writing, Technology and Government Lecture 10 (March 12): Around
the World, Part I Lecture 11 (March 19): Around the World, Part
II Lecture 12 (March 26): Is Geography (and Climate) Destiny?
Part II Final Exam: TBA
LECTURE 1 (Jan 2): Is
Geography (and Climate) Destiny? Part I
1) Diamond, Ch. 3 2) George Raudzens, 1999,
"Military Revolution or Maritime Evolution? Military Superiorities
or Transportation Advantages as Main Causes of European Colonial
Conquests to 1788," The Journal of Military History 63 (3):
631-641.
Episode 1 of the
PBS-National Geographic series on Guns, Germs and Steel :- video
| - summary
| - full
transcript | YouTube
version (Exceptionally this year, I am asking you to watch the
video on your own.)
Lectures 10-11 (March 12-19): Around the
World, Parts I & II
Mandatory readings
Episode 3 of the
PBS-National Geographic series on Guns, Germs and Steel : -
video
| - summary
| - full
transcript | YouTube
version (Exceptionally this year, I am asking you to watch the
video on your own.)
1) Diamond, Ch. 15-16. 2) Diamond, Ch. 17-19. 3) For those of
you who have a 2003 (or later) edition of the book, read the "2003
Afterword: Guns, Germs and Steel Today." For those of you who have
an earlier edition, read "How
To Get Rich," A Talk by Jared Diamond, June 7, 1999. 4)
10
Centuries of European History in 5 Minutes 5) Tom Hunt, "Pacific
colonisation one big 'pulse'." Stuff.co.nz, 29 December
2010.
