Summary of Graduate Program

Students from a wide-range of backgrounds are encouraged to apply. In human geography, faculty interests cover a number of interrelated topics, including urban global geopolitical relationships; adaptive management of forest resources, social problems such as poverty and residential segregation, and the impact of policies designed to alleviate them; and the effects of military expenditures on local economies. Physical geography faculty interests include hurricane climatology and hazards, biogeography, and climate change. Remote sensing and GIS are integrated into departmental research on urban growth dynamics, transportation geography, and landscape-scale monitoring and assessment of ecological change.

Faculty and student research on these topics are carried out in a number of locations. While some students' research projects have taken them around the world, many find that Florida itself is a fascinating laboratory for study, as this state presages many of the social and environmental problems emerging in an era of rapid economic and political change. Members of the FSU Department of Geography, students and faculty alike, feel a responsibility to help solve critical issues of the area in which they live, and there is no limit to the questions one can investigate, as the forces of rapid growth press on a particularly sensitive environment and as the state seeks to restructure its international linkages within an evolving global economy.

While in residence, funded students gain credentials and experience in teaching and research, assisting faculty in the classroom and on research projects. By the time they graduate, most doctoral students will have experience as instructors holding full responsibility teaching undergraduate courses and many will have presented results of their research at professional conferences or in academic journals. The Department strongly supports graduate student attendance at academic conferences and provides financial assistance for travel and lodging when funds allow. Florida State University is a national-status research university, and the Department and University provide a full range of computational, library, and other resources for graduate students.

Please consult the 2007 - 2008 Department of Geography Graduate Handbook [Adobe Acrobat required] for more detailed information about our degree programs.

Apply for a Graduate Degree in Geography