| Unit name | Geophilosophy |
|---|---|
| Unit code | GEOG30047 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Joe Gerlach |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None. |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None. |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None. |
| School/department | School of Geographical Sciences |
| Faculty | Faculty of Science |
Why is this unit important?
Why is earth worth saving? Geophilosophy responds to this unsettling question, one posed against a backdrop of planetary transformation; social, environmental, and psychological. Harnessing interdisciplinary work in cultural geography, social theory, and continental philosophy, this unit examines contemporary post-humanist approaches to earth and world. In so doing, the unit studies contemporary research and scholarship that encourages us to make sense of an earth that participates in the act of thinking; geophilosophy. Acknowledging earth’s resistance to the geological marker ‘Anthropocene’, the unit explores and interrogates the significance of geographical concepts in navigating planetary crises in the Holocene. This foregrounds the unit’s examination of geography’s capacity to invent experimental forms of ecological ethics and novel forms of geopolitics. You will encounter and examine the conceptual and theoretical interrelations between space, world, time, politics, power, and ethics. Geophilosophy, in its animation of thinking’s relation to the world, invites you to speculate on nothing less than earth’s future.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study
This unit is part of the Geohumanities pathway of the geography degree programme. It is designed to consolidate and extend your learning in cultural geography, philosophy, qualitative research, the geohumanities, and social theory. The unit will develop and advance your theoretical analysis skills which, in turn, are essential to the successful completion of your dissertation. Likewise, this unit will also sharpen your skills in written expression and your aptitude in using and adapting qualitative techniques that examine concepts. Looking forward, the unit is also a potential staging post for those students considering postgraduate study at Masters level, not least in foregrounding the thematic content of Bristol’s MSc Human Geography: Society and Space.
An overview of content
Students will encounter and analyse cutting edge conceptual innovation in cultural geography, social theory, the geohumanities, and continental philosophy. Using this material, students will examine scholarship and research that animates earth and world in post-humanist terms; ranging from accounts that spotlight the significance of non-humans in mediating life, through to treatises that call for the hastened extinction of human beings. Research led, the unit will examine conceptual notions including, but not limited to: ecosophy, micropolitics, non-human rights, geocidal ethics, futurability, speculative geographies, and non-representational theory. Content will be underscored by an appeal to key theorists and interlocutors across philosophy, feminist social theory, and cultural geography, such as Baruch Spinoza, Rosi Braidotti, Claire Colebrook, Felix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, Cindi Katz, Bruno Latour, Thomas Nail, Veronica Della Dora, Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
The unit upends conventional thinking about earth. Students will be encouraged to stretch the limits of their conceptual thinking by exposing them to a vibrant and challenging range of theoretical materials. Likewise, the unit is designed to prompt students to decolonize their habits of thought, that’s to say, students will confront, question, and reflect on both the foundations of geographical thought and on the epistemic cultures of how they come to think the way they do as geographers. The ambition, here, is that students will no longer reach for readymade, off-the-shelf solutions to planetary crises. Instead, students on this unit will develop and imbibe the geophilosophical habit of questioning the question, and making the problem more, not less, problematic.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:
Your learning will centre on the complementarity of lectures and small-group seminars. Student-centred and interactive, lectures will deliver core materials and establish key provocations to structure the week’s learning. Seminars are student-led and designed to deepen subject-knowledge and to consolidate skills in theoretical analysis. They will comprise focussed discussions based on the week’s readings. You will have the chance to debate and discuss questions, concepts, and ideas with fellow students and academics. The expectation, therefore, is that you attend all seminars fully prepared to participate, and likewise that you are fully appraised of the reading material. You will also be encouraged to generate and develop questions to structure subsequent seminar dialogue.
Learning is predicated on reading. To consolidate your independent reading, academic-led reading support sessions will be provided: these will be supportive spaces in which to nurture your confidence in reading complex material. More importantly, they are an opportunity read exciting and compelling texts in geography and philosophy.
To develop your writing skills, and in preparation for the assessment, students will, for each seminar, submit brief written summaries of the week’s reading. These will be collated online and distributed to the class as a shared, collectively generated learning resource.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks
In anticipation of the summative exam, students will have the opportunity to compose a response to a formative examination question. The exam questions will be drawn from the learning material covered in the first half of the unit. Qualitative feedback tailored to the constraints of the subsequent summative assessment will be provided.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative)
Closed book examination (100%) [ILOs 1-4].
When assessment does not go to plan
Students will have the opportunity to complete an alternative examination paper in the reassessment period.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. GEOG30047).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
