The Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara: History, Curriculum, and Pedagogy

While the Association of American Geographers celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2004, the Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, celebrates its 30th. This paper is a summary of the history of the department, as gleaned from written records and interviews with many of the protagonists. Included is a discussion of the curricula for the BA, BS, MA, and PhD programs, with special attention paid to the pedagogy of approach. The paper concludes with an examination of the highlights of the department's mission statement, which shows the common departmental philosophy toward the discipline and the highly interdisciplinary treatment of geography at UCSB.