Teaching
Amanda Todd is a Lecturer of Human Geography within the Anthropology and Geography Department at Coastal Carolina University. She has been teaching geography courses for 17 years. Amanda teaches students to see and understand how geography impacts their daily lives, through purchases made, as tourist visiting places, and as citizens in local and global communities. She also strives to show how geography can be beneficial knowledge to have within many different career fields, as she has majors and non-majors in her classes.
In classes with Amanda, students receive traditional lectures, watch documentaries, and read articles or book chapters on topics related to the course. She also offers choices within assignments. The students can select the culture, region, or particular topic that interest them personally, or that would connect in with their future career. She also takes the students outside for various activities depending upon the course. These activities may include outside observation and awareness exercises, collecting soil samples, or building a labyrinth.
Speciality Geography Courses:
Spiritual Landscapes
Sacred Spaces, Sacred Paths
Sacred Spaces, Sacred Paths
This course covers the concepts of topophilia, biophilia, geophilia, and spiritual landscapes. The Spiritual Landscape course covers natural areas (geologic formations, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, etc.) Through the modern lenses of tourism impacts and economic development to historical accounts of ceremonial uses of sites, archeological findings, and mythology associated with sites and their uses today, students explore and learn how these places emanate power and why for different cultures. This course is taught in the Fall Semester online and has been Certified by the Coastal Office of Online Learning.
Sacred Spaces, Sacred Paths
Sacred Spaces, Sacred Paths
Sacred Spaces, Sacred Paths
This course covers sacred sites, sacred geographical areas, and sacred paths (pilgrimages). The Sacred Spaces, Sacred Paths course covers built environments in areas attributed with spiritual or sacred power and or energies (i.e., temples, churches, cemeteries, shrines, and labyrinths.) This course also covers how and why people create sacred space through understanding orientation in space and the local landscape. The students in this class design and build a labyrinth. Watch the videos below that highlight the construction of the labyrinth and student perspectives of the experiential learning opportunity. The course is typically offered every Spring Semester in a hybrid format.
Myth, Ritual, and Magic
Sacred Spaces, Sacred Paths
Myth, Ritual, and Magic
This course covers ancient & historical cultures’ supernatural beliefs, ritual practices, and mystical symbolism. Topics may include: witchcraft, altered states of consciousness, shamans, divination, magic, death rituals, UFO religions, and cult objects. We approach these topics through the study of folklore, mythology, historical, and archaeological evidence. This course is offered every other year typically in the Spring. Next projected offering Spring 2024.
additional Geography Courses:
Cultures and Environments
Cultures and Environments
Cultures and Environments
This course covers the human-environment interaction through time and space as a cross-listed course between Geography and Anthropology. The way Amanda approaches the course is based upon assessing the socio-cultural anthropological aspects of various case studies through elements of our earth. These elements may include topics related to: Fire, Water, Wind, Stone, Plants, Animals, and Humans. Topics vary by semester. The course is taught Spring and Fall Semesters.
Human Landscapes
Cultures and Environments
Cultures and Environments
This course explores the topics of human-environment interactions through the lenses of cultural, political, and spiritual ecologies. Topics may include population, tourism, and development; construction of roads and stream restoration/mitigation projects; and urban flooding issues. Pre-req for this course is Cultures and Environments. This course is offered every Fall Semester and involves a group project for completing a technical report for a section of campus.
regional Geography Courses:
World Regional Geography
World Regional Geography
World Regional Geography
This is the foundational course for understanding people and places. A standard course for geography majors and highly recommended for history and secondary education majors. Everyone in the world would benefit from a World Regional Geography class. Within each region at an introductory level we cover the physical and cultural geography of the region. Typically taught Summer Semesters online.
Geography of Oceania
World Regional Geography
World Regional Geography
Upper level regional course covering the physical and cultural geography of the region through time and space. Topics typically include the Hawaiians relationship to the natural environment, the sacred art of Hawaiian Hula Dance, and the migration patterns within Oceania. Mythology, current geo-political issues, and more are covered. Students in this course may make items and work hands on in crafting traditional items. Students may learn mythology and history associated with a chant (oli) or song (mele) and perform Hawaiian Hula.
Geography of Russia
World Regional Geography
Geography of Russia
Upper level regional course covering the physical and cultural geography of the region through time and space. Topics typically include the Buryats of Lake Baikal (a sacred body of water) and the environmental record of Russia along with protection and extraction of natural resources. Demographics are also covered along with language families and religions. This course is offered at various times depending upon needs and requests.
Courses Previously Taught
Physical Geography
Physical Geography and Earth Science
Cultural Geography
Cultural Geography and Population Geography
Regional Geography
Geography of the Non-Western World and Geography of Appalachia
Other College courses
College Transfer Success