Geography is one of the four early academic departments at Jahangirnagar University under the faculty of Social Sciences. The Department started its academic activities with a handful number of faculties and undergraduate students immediately after the independence of Bangladesh. Since then, the Department grew gradually and established itself at the forefront of higher learning institutions in the country. Although comparatively of a recent origin, the department has produced a number of Ph.Ds, which is highest in the university as well as among other geography schools in the country.

Departing from the traditional geography, the department placed emphasis on the modern applied approaches in its academic curricula and research activities suited to the study of humans and environment in a third world setting. This has attracted geographers from foreign university and different international links have been established through collaborative research and student exchange programs. Recently, the name of the department has been changed to Department of Geography and Environment in order to make the subject more relevant to the needs of the society. Accordingly, undergraduate and post-graduate curricula have been redesigned to adopt methodologies and techniques of analysis of environment and development issues.