Economic geography has strong ties to economics, marketing, business administration, and international business. Political geography studies the spatial dimensions of political activity and decision making, from global scale issues like geopolitics and the balance of power to local scale issues like municipal zoning and annexation. Prominent areas of investigation at the international level include the political interaction between the world's countries, the interplay between nations and states in tense areas like the Middle East, the emergence of supranational units like the European Union, and the law of the sea. Closer to home, political geographers have researched voting patterns, reapportionment, and gerrymandering at the local, state, and regional levels. Political geographers have made especially valuable contributions to our understanding of spatial conflicts and their resolution, including cases like the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Political geography has strong ties to political science and international affairs.
Human geography makes abundant use of geography's emerging technical tools, especially geographic information systems, as well as traditional skills in statistics. At the same time, because of the many international career opportunities, human geographers often require advanced foreign language training. They also need a good background in basic physical geography given their interest in the environment. Students may also participate in the Chicago Urban Semester, an interdisciplinary program that can serve as an individualized minor. This concentration is particularly appropriate for students interested in graduate work or employment in American and other regional studies, geodemography, international affairs, international development, marketing, public affairs, and urban studies, as well as geography itself.