With less than three weeks until classes begin, Fall 2017 course prep is in full swing right now. Now that I’m officially a full-time lecturer at the University of Tennessee for this year, I’ll post the four courses that I’ll be teaching with a little commentary on each. If you or an undergrad you know is interested in any of these classes, let me know!
From what I understand, none of these classes have any prerequisites or co-requisites. None are restricted to Geography students, either. Students in Anthropology, Sociology, History, Global Studies, Film or Media studies are all encouraged to enroll.
GEOG 101: World Regional Geography
MWF 10:05 – 11:00 AM / BEES 266
(classicwines.com)
This will be my fourth time teaching the nuts-and-bolts Geography course (my third time at UTK). This has a bit of overlap with the Introduction to Physical Geography course (GEOG 131), but mainly focuses on a broad introduction to Human Geography, focusing on various world regions. It’s hard enough to exhaustively cover a single place in one semester much less the entire globe, but this class gives students a better understanding of what Geography actually is and equips them to move forward with the discipline and the countless others that it touches.
GEOG 320: Core Concepts in Cultural Geography
MWF 2:30 – 3:25 PM / HBB 136
We added this course to the catalog late, so we have plenty of spaces available. Please feel free to share this flyer with anyone who may be interested.
I had the rare privilege of teaching this course for the first time last Fall while I was still a PhD candidate. Fortunately, I had a great multidisciplinary group of students from departments as diverse as Anthropology, Chemistry, and Business. We took a field trip to the East Tennessee History Center to visit the ‘Come to Make Records’ exhibit about the St. James Hotel recording sessions and the early history of Country music in Knoxville. We compiled a pretty great list of things that make the South ‘the South,’ including a few that I’d never really considered. We also experimented with alternative formats for the final project, giving the students a chance to use more creativity than traditional research papers usually allow. I’m looking forward to teaching it for the second time.
GEOG 344: Population Geography
T/Th 9:40 – 10:55 AM / HSS 064
(dcclubbing.com)
Earth’s population is at a point now where it’s (1) impossible to ignore the effects of the Anthropocene and (2) at a general tipping point in terms of humanity, resources, and our role as active agents in the Earth’s reproduction. Also, to phrase it less academically, 7 BILLION PEOPLE DEAR GOD HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!? This class effectively answers that question and discusses this crucial crossroads at which the human race has found itself. We will be discussing population science and why humans do the crazy things they do just to survive depending on their place in the world.
GEOG 371: Exploring Europe
T/Th 11:10 AM – 12:25 PM / BGB 101
I’m going to write something soon as a more expansive preview of what’s to come in this class, but I couldn’t be more excited to have the chance to teach this. Europe has been, in one form or another, the engine of Globalism, the crossroads of “East” and “West” and worthy of outsider fascination for centuries, even millennia. For now, I’m excited to begin the class with this quote by one of the best English philosopher-historians, and go from there: “I’m from Europe; where the history comes from!” – Eddie Izzard.
My contact information will go on all of my syllabi, but just in case, people can reach me at tsonnich [at] utk [dot] edu and in my office in Burchfiel Geography Building 309, or on the phone at 865-974-6033.
Sonic Geography 