Geographers examine the spatial relationships between people, places, environments and economies using innovative conceptual and technological approaches. Exciting technological changes, from computer mapping software like Google Earth, to satellite image processing, and global positioning systems (GPS), make geography a fascinating discipline to study. DePaul's geographers share a commitment to 'hands on' teaching and research that makes a world of difference for the people, places, environments and processes that we study. Geographers apply methods such as observation, visualization, analysis, and modeling to explain the spatial organization of human and physical environments. Geographical perspectives foster skills that have broad applications in public policy, research and the private sector. The Department of Geography teaches students to reason spatially by applying geographic techniques and information technologies, including new technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This helps students produce sophisticated understandings of the world, its people, environments, economic structures and cultures.
Geospatial analysis and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a rapidly-growing multi-billion dollar industry. Geotechnology was named by the U.S. Bureau of Labor as a “hot” area for job growth in both 2005 and 2010 and it is estimated that over the next ten years, demand for geospatial analysts will exceed supply. Geography holds a comparative advantage as a discipline that straddles fields in the social and natural science disciplines and, as a result, Geography has courses in every DePaul learning domain. This breadth of courses makes Geography the ideal double major at DePaul and the range of classes offered means that geography is an exceptional foundation for a variety of careers that explore questions of spatial organization and require regional knowledge. The study of geography builds a unique spatial perspective that sits at the intersection of "natural" and "social" science, and it addresses both "human" and "physical" domains of knowledge, examining the interactions between them through space.