The course proceeds by introducing students to core human geographical concepts, such as culture, place, and landscape; it encourages discussion and critical reflection on questions related to cultural identity, including its formation, distribution, and the interactions it provokes with elements of the human and natural world; and it helps students develop a sense of both spatial patterns and processes inherent in landscapes at different moments in time and in different places.

Places or locations can be linked physically through processes of migration, tourism, trade, and investment, and represented (or ‘imagined’) through media such as newspapers, film, music, art and literature. These processes are influenced by, and impact on, the natural and cultural landscapes.