Geographers study the material and symbolic transformation of the earth in relationship to both human and natural processes. In keeping with contemporary global shifts in culture, the environment, politics and economics, the boundaries of the geographic discipline are dynamic.
Dartmouth College houses the only Geography Department in the Ivy League, and students at Dartmouth study Geography as both a natural science and a social science. Human geography (a social science) is concerned especially with the political, economic, social, and cultural processes and resource practices that give definition to particular places and that are affected by them. Physical geography (a natural science) focuses on the earth systems that create the natural environment, such as weather, soils, biogeography, and earth sculpting processes. Geography courses at Dartmouth address a range of these key issues.

