GEOGRAPHY I

The course is a basic core course in the bachelor’s degree programme in 'Conservation of Cultural Heritage and Performing Arts Management'. It is divided into two sections, one assigned to students whose surnames begin with the letters M to Z.
The course provides an overview of the key concepts in cultural geography.

-understanding the role of geographical representations in the making of imaginaries and identities at different scales
-acquiring basic knowledge of the main concepts in cultural geography: space, place, landscape
-developing an appreciation of the key transformations in contemporary urban spaces
-understanding the spatial economies of heritage and the spaces of memory, also in conflict environments

No specific prerequisites.

The course is divided into four parts: the first two (I and II) furnish an introduction to the history of geographical thought and key geographical concepts; the second two analyse (III) the contemporary spaces of cultural geography: cities and the transformation of urban landscapes and (IV) the spaces of memory and heritage.

Lesson Plan:

1. Introduction: The 'Geographical Gaze'?

I: Mapping the World: Geography and Representation

2. Geography and cartography
3. Discovering the world: geography, explorations, and colonialism
4. Imagining today's world: the spaces of geopolitics

II: The Geographical Space

5. What is a place?
6. Landscape as a 'way of seeing'
7. Practicing the landscape

III: Geographies of the City

8. Urban space
9. Urban regeneration: gentrification and other transformations
10. City/identity: subjectivity, space, and difference
11. 'Mobile cities': cities, migrations, and tourism

IV: Geography, Heritage, and Spaces of Memory

12. A geographical conception of heritage?
13. Heritage economies
14. Heritage and spaces of memory
15. Heritage and/in war

Minca, C. (Ed.). (2022). Appunti di geografia. CEDAM.

The final exam is a written, in-class test, with 6 open-ended questions.
Every answer is worth 5 points (on a total of 30).
The exam lasts 120 minutes.

The aim of the exam is to assess students' knowledge of the topics covered on the course and their ability to apply these to an analysis of the key concepts of cultural geography.

written

28-30L: full and well-articulated understanding of the main topics engaged in lectures and the course textbook
26-27: good understanding of the main topics engaged in lectures and, to a lesser degree, in the course textbook
24-25: fair but not fully comprehensive understanding of the main topics engaged in lectures and in the course textbook
22-23: superficial understanding of the main topics engaged in lectures and in the course textbook
18-21: only limited understanding of the main topics engaged in lectures and in the course textbook

Frontal lectures with class discussion and group exercises.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development