Worldings: Regions, Peoples, and States

Full episode transcript: https://americancultures.berkeley.edu/about/berkeley-pedagogy-podcast/episode-3-worldlings-regions-peoples-and-states "Heck, my major is math, and I've barely taken any humanities classes in my life, but this sure was worth it." So states one student reflecting on their time in Dr. Jake Kosek's American Cultures course, Geography 10AC. Drawing students from across the disciplinary spectrum, and for many their first experience of a Geography classroom, the unifying theme of the class is the contested relations, practices, and processes in the making of central geographic concepts (empire, space, nature, and dispossession), concepts that often go unexamined and yet are deeply woven into the fabric of our lives. Geography's central concepts pepper the pages of newspapers almost every day –in stories of structural racism, immigration policies, international finance capital, the military industry, genetic engineering, global warming, natural disasters, surveillance, poverty, and terrorism. The conceptually capacious and literally global scale of the course is grounded in the intentional relationships created by Jake and the teaching team. A 'politics of care' pervades the student experience, fostering close listening and the unicorn of safe and brave spaces for deep study. Dr. Jake Kosek, a faculty member at UC Berkeley's Department of Geography, was honored in November 2021 as one of the recipients of the 2021 American Cultures Excellence in Teaching Award.