Department of Geography
Solving Tomorrow's Problems Today
Our faculty are active and leading researchers in critical areas of scholarship and policy like urbanization and planning, global and sustainable development, climate and environment, and geospatial science. We work closely with students on diverse research topics including urban development, migration, culture, urban landscapes, watershed management, fire, landscape ecology, climate change, food security, and more.
Miami University is a public, undergraduate-centered, liberal arts institution. Our Department of Geography reflects a discipline that trains students to ask questions and address problems about the world’s peoples, cultures, daily lives, and environments.
We offer undergraduate and graduate degrees that not only foster integrative knowledge and critical thinking skills, but their application to real-world problems. While our primary focus is on undergraduate education, we offer a high-quality graduate experience for students interested in close collaboration with a faculty mentor.
Graduates of our programs have demonstrated success in securing employment and entrance into competitive graduate programs.
Our Mission and Vision
We prepare students to apply integrative thinking and technical skills to linked social and environmental challenges through a dynamic curriculum, student engagement, and high-impact research.
Our vision is to connect people, places, and environments for a more sustainable world.
Find your Path
Geographers and Planners Explore
- diverse and uneven patterns of development
- how ecosystems and livelihoods respond to global change
- the changing meaning of citizenship in a diverse, mobile and global society
- observe, analyze, and visualize a changing world
- policy options for mitigating or adapting to environmental change
- planning for more sustainable cities
The Department of Geography offers:
- two undergraduate majors
- two minors
- one graduate degree
- one certificate program
Research
Student and faculty research in the Department of Geography explores various dimensions of geographic change: from environmental, to urban, to political-economic.
Faculty Research
Faculty in the Department of Geography are active researchers and leading scholars in important areas of scientific inquiry and policy. The department has particular expertise in::
- Global and Sustainable Development: impacts of globalization and structural change, diverse people and places; race, ethnicity, gender, identity and citizenship.
- Urban Geography and Planning: dynamic urban processes and patterns, cultural landscape; critical studies of power and place and mobility; urban and transportation planning.
- Geospatial Science: Earth observations, remote sensing, GIS, open source coding, data science and analytics, land-use/land-cover change modeling, and program management.
- Human-Environmental Interaction: human-driven environmental change, climate change impacts and adaption, biodiversity, natural resource management, and hydrology.
Student Research
All students gain experience in individualized research in collaboration with faculty. Undergraduates have diverse opportunities to undertake independent research or participate in faculty research, and all students do in-depth research in required undergraduate capstone courses. All graduate students do advanced experiential research through thesis or internships. Along the way, they develop critical project-management, data-collection, and critical-thinking skills. Projects have brought students to diverse places across the globe, from Oxford and Chicago in America's Midwest to Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Geospatial Analysis Center
The Geospatial Analysis Center (GAC) serves as the hub of geospatial research and activities in support of education, research, and outreach activities at Miami University. Housed in the Department of Geography, the GAC supports individual students, faculty, and staff with geospatial data and analysis needs. It is the access point for licensed geospatial software and geographic information systems (GIS) data. The GAC provides consulting services in the areas of geospatial data and analyses.
The Geospatial Analysis Center is located in the Department of Geography in Shideler Hall. Requests for research, contracts, and geospatial outreach can be emailed to Robbyn Abbitt (abbittrj@MiamiOH.edu).
Learn More
Explore Geography
Give to the Geography Department
Help us prepare the next generation of leaders in the geographical fields—and our society as a whole. We have numerous scholarships, grants, and programs accepting contributions from donors like you.
Department of Geography
