In the shadowed halls of our institution, the Geography Department stands as guardian to a domain at once familiar and profoundly alien—the earth’s varied surface, whose intricacies belie the illusion of terrestrial stability. While allied in spirit to Geology, the discipline of Geography pursues, with stoic independence, a deeper and more singular contemplation of those forces that have shaped the land into forms whose origins all too often evade the comfort of everyday understanding.
Each autumn, those initiated into the study of Geography are afforded the opportunity—nay, the challenge—of a week-long field immersion. This venture, convened in concert with the Geology Department, acquaints participants with the vagaries and ambiguities of the land firsthand. As the pale days of spring emerge, additional, day-long excursions, calibrated for the concerns of geographical inquiry, invite students to confront the boundaries between the charted and the unknown.