Galveston, Texas

The Galveston Field course is a three day field trip that examines both physical and human dimensions of the Houston-Galveston landscape. Students are exposed to concepts in urban geography through visits to The Woodlands, a planned community, downtown Houston and the redeveloped Strand and historic districts in Galveston. Students also study coastal processes and hazards, including a historical overview of 1900 Galveston Hurricane.

US-Mexico Border and Mexico City

Dr. Wendy Jepson co-teaches a bi-national graduate seminar “Environment and Society on the Mexico-U.S. Border” with students and faculty from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City) and the Instituto de Geografia-UNAM (Mexico City). In addition to lectures and discussion via TTVN, all students and faculty meet on the border for a five-day field trip along the border in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The course culminates in a day-long research seminar in Mexico City hosted by our Mexican counterparts.

Participants met with local activists fighting government agencies and chemical companies for clean up of this abandoned agro-chemical plant, located in the historically Mexican-American neighborhood in Mission, Texas. The plant produced DDT and Agent Orange, some of the most deadly chemicals, for Texas’s agricultural industry and the Vietnam War.

Students and faculty have time to visit some of Mexico City’s historic places, including the National Cathedral on the Zocalo (Central Plaza) and archeological sites, including Teotihuacán.

	Reception photo taken after the research presentations at the Institute of Geography (UNAM) in Mexico City (May 2006).		Student and faculty on their way to meet fisherfolk of the Laguna Madre, the coastal region south of Matamoros, Mexico (February 2006).