Visiting Geographical Scientist Program – Approved Speakers
The following geographers have expressed a willingness to serve as Visiting Geographical Scientists. Speakers have expressed a particular desire to address the topics listed; however, some may be willing to address additional issues. Speakers who are not on the VGSP speaker list are welcome but are subject to GTU/AAG approval. Please confirm their status as a GTU member and forward their vitae to the attention of the VGSP at the AAG.
See a snapshot of past VGSP visits
Waquar Ahmed
Department of Geography, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203-5017
Voice 813-206-4352, E-mail Waquar.Ahmed@unt.edu
Current research topics: Geographies of Capitalism, multi-national corporations, foreign direct investments, geographies of development, energy infrastructure, state-society relations, governance, social movements, social theory, and India.
Charles S. Aiken
Department of Geography, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0925
Voice 423-974-2418, E-mail csaiken@utk.edu
Current research topics: Impact of Civil Rights and Voting Rights
in the Nonmetropolitan South; Redistribution of the American
Black Population; Geography as Revealed in Fictional Literature.
Derek H. Alderman
University of Tennessee, 303 Burchfiel Geography Building,
Knoxville, TN 37796-0925
Voice 865-974-0406, E-mail dalderma@utk.edu
Current research topics: Geographies of Public Memory; Heritage,
Tourism, and Commemoration; Politics of Culture, Space, and Regional Identity;
Power and Politics of Place Naming; Cultural and Historical Geography of the American South; Geographic Images and Representation of Place; Innovations in Geographic Education; Martin Luther King, Jr. Street Naming.
Sarah Witham Bednarz
College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX 77843-3148
Voice 979-845-3651, E-mail s-bednarz@tamu.edu
Current research topics: Geography Education; Geography Education Research; Preparing 21st Century Skilled Students; Innovative Teaching and Learning in Geography and The Geosciences; Women in Geography.
Daniel Block
Chicago State University, 9501 S. King Drive, Chicago, IL 60628
Voice 773-995-2310, E-mail dblock@csu.edu
Current research topics: Geographies of Food and Agriculture, Urban Farming, Community Geography, Food Access and Health Disparities, Regulation, Chicago, Urban Geography, Race and Health, Community Geography.
Stanley D. Brunn
Department of Geography, University of Kentucky,
Lexington, KY 40506-0027
Voice 859-257-6947, E-mail brunn@uky.edu
Current research topics: Writing and Publishing as a Professional Geographer; Central Asian Landscapes; Geographies of Religion; Engineering Earth: The Impacts of Mega-engineering Projects; Geographers: The Consummate Professionals.
David R. Butler
Department of Geography, Texas State University – San Marcos, San Marcos, TX 78666-4616
Voice 512-245-7977, E-mail db25@txstate.edu
Current research topics: Geomorphology and Biogeography in the Rocky Mountains; Impacts of Environmental Change on Physical Systems; and in general, Geomorphology or Biogeography or The Rocky Mountains general, Geomorphology or Biogeography or The Rocky Mountains.
Barbara P. Buttenfield
Department of Geography, CB-260, University of Colorado,
Boulder, CO 80309-0260
Voice 303-492-3618, E-mail babs@colorado.edu
Current research topics: Visualization and Geographic Modeling; Multi-scale Databases; Data Generalization; Information Design and Representation; Mapping Uncertainty; Internet Data Delivery; Interface Design and Usability Evaluation.
Jessie Clark
Department of Geography, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89557
Voice 775-784-6345, E-mail jessieclark@unr.edu
Current research topics: Turkey, Kurdistan, Feminist Political Geography and Geopolitics, Security, Gender and Development, Gender and Nationalism
Michael P. Conzen
Committee on Geographical Studies, University of Chicago,
5828 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637
Voice 312-702-8308, E-mail m-conzen@uchicago.edu
Current research topics: The Personality of American Cities; American Cultural Landscapes; U.S. Ethnic Homelands; American Pictorial County Atlases; German ‘Latin’ Colonies in America; Frontier Urban planning in the United States; Explorations in Comparative Urban Morphology (U.S., Brazil, Italy, China); Beginnings of the Modern Wine Industry in Northern California
Brittany Cook
Department of Geography & Anthropology, Louisiana State University,
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Voice 225-578-6077, E-mail brittanycook@lsu.edu
Current research topics: Feminist political geography; political ecology; agriculture; critical development studies; rural livelihoods; olives; wheat; community geographies; social reproduction; racial capitalism; commodity chains and quality; gender; labor; food; heritage; Southwest Asia
Kenneth E. Corey
Department of Geography, Michigan State University,
East Lansing, MI 48824-1117
Voice 517-432-4750, E-mail kenneth.corey@ssc.msu.edu
Current research topics: Urban and Regional Technology Planning for Local and Regional Intelligent Development; Planning Practice in the Global Knowledge Economy; The Singapore Model for Information and Communications Technology-based Development; Technology Corridors and Intelligence Corridors in Asia; and Global Information Society; Digital Development.
Karen Culcasi
330 Brooks Hall, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506
Voice 304-293-0383, E-mail karen.culcasi@mail.wvu.edu
Current research topics: Critical Geopolitics; Politics of Identity; Feminist Geopolitics, Gender and Conflict, Migration and Refugees, Critical Cartography and the Politics of Representation; the Middle East and the Arab World; Syrian Conflict; Syrian Refugees; Palestinian-Israeli Conflict; Palestinian Refugees; Arab Americans and Migration.
Meredith DeBoom
Department of Geography, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208
Voice 803-777-4605, E-mail deboom@mailbox.sc.edu
Current research topics: African politics; China’s geopolitical rise; climate justice; development; green energy transitions; human rights; mining; political geography; postcolonial politics; resource conflict; uranium; violence.
Jennifer Devine
Texas State University, 601 University Dr., San Marcos, TX 78666
Voice 512-245-3937, E-mail devine@txstate.edu
Current research topics: South – Central American Politics, Human-Environmental Relations, Community Resource Management, Grassroots Social Movements, Global Drug Policy, Feminist and Critical Race Theories, Tourism and Heritage Management.
Michael S. DeVivo
Department of Social Sciences, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Rapids, MI 49503-3295
Voice 616-234-4410, E-mail mdevivo@grcc.edu
Current research topics: History of Geography; Leadership; Conflict Resolution; African Wildlife Conservation and Community Development; Immigration and Ethnicity in America; Geography Education via Distance Learning.
William E. Doolittle
Department of Geography and the Environment,
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 7812-1098
Voice 512-4232-1581, E-mail dolitl@mail.utexas.edu
Current research topics: Discoveries and Epiphanies during Fieldwork; the Spanish-Caribbean-Mexican Origins of the North American Cattle Ranching System; American Agriculture.
Roger M. Downs
Department of Geography, 312B Walker, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
Voice 814-865-1915, E-mail rd7@psu.edu
Current research topics: Spatial Thinking in Geography; Geography Education; Popularization in Geography; Cognitive Mapping; Hendrik van Loon: A Geographic Popularizer; Richard Edes Harrison: Cartographer Extraordinaire.
Maria Fadiman
Department of Geosciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431
Voice 561-297-3314, E-mail mfadiman@fau.edu
Current research topics: Ethnobotany (the relationship between people and plants), Conservation and Cultural Knowledge in Rural Areas across the Globe Focusing on Latin America and Africa, Indigenous and Local People’s Use of the Environment.
Caroline Faria
Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1697
Voice 512-231-8496, E-mail cvfaria@austin.utexas.edu
Current research topics: Sub-Saharan Africa (specifically South Sudan); Women’s Activism; Nationalism & Gender; Feminist Political Geography; Critical Development & Postcolonial Geographies; Feminist & Critical Race methodologies.
Doug Gamble
Department of Geography and Geology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403
Voice 910-962-3778, E-mail gambled@uncw.edu
Current research topics: Applied Climatology; Coastal and Island Environments; Caribbean and southeastern United States; Climate Change.
Miriam Gay-Antaki
Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Voice 505-277-0111, E-mail mgayantaki@unm.edu
Current research topics: Human dimensions of climate change; climate science, policy and action; feminist decolonial geography; political ecology; science and technology studies; Latin America; Mexico; climate justice
Philip Gersmehl
New York Center for Geographic Learning, 1006N Hunter College, 695 Park Avenue, New York NY 10065
Voice 651-398-7372, E-mail pgersmehl@gmail.com
Current research topics: Geographic Education; Spatial Cognition.
Debarchana Ghosh
Department of Geography, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269
Voice 860-486-4292, E-mail debarchana.ghosh@uconn.edu
Current research topics: Structural and social determinants of health; health disparity among the vulnerable populations; healthcare accessibility; community engagement; GIS applications for health research; mixed methods; mapping, cartography; social network analysis.
Michael R Greenberg
Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
Civic Square, 33 Livingstone Avenue, Rutgers University,
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1958
Voice 848-932-2383, E-mail mrg@rci.rutgers.edu
Current research topics: Risk Analysis; Public Health; Environmental Policy; Nuclear Energy Policy; Transportation Security.
John Fraser Hart
Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Voice 612-625-6080, E-mail frase002@umn.edu
Current research topics: The American Landscape; Redundant and Recycled Farmsteads; Population Change in the Upper Lake States; The Modernization of American Agriculture; North American Cultural Landscapes.
Timothy Hawthorne
Department of Sociology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-1360
Voice 407-823-1030, E-mail timothy.hawthorne@ucf.edu
Current research topics: Geographic Information Systems; Critical GIS; Community Geography; Citizen Science; Health Geographies; Participatory Methods; Mixed Methods; Service Learning; Geographic Education; Drones; Belize.
Robert L. Janiskee
Department of Geography, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208
Voice 803-777-6739, E-mail janiskee@sc.edu
Current research topics: Community Festivals as Cultural Expression; History-Themed Tourism and Travel; Event Tourism; Ecotourism;
America’s National Parks.
David H. Kaplan
Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242
Voice 330-672-3221, E-mail dkaplan@kent.edu
Current research topics: Nationalism and Ethnonationalism in the US and World today, Ethnic Segregation and its Consequences, Ethnic Economies, Urban Redevelopment, Writing and Publishing as a Professional Geographer, History of Geography as a Discipline, Sustainable Transportation.
Cadey Korson
Massey University, School of People, Environment and Planning, Private Bag 102904, North Shore, Auckland 0745, New Zealand
Voice +64 9 213 6475, E-mail C.Korson@massey.ac.nz
Current research topics: Critical geopolitics, political development of sub-national island jurisdictions, and Indigenous rights in the Francophone Pacific; Indigenous placemaking and urban governance; Popular culture and geography education; Commemoration and national identity.
Priscilla McCutcheon
Department of Geography, University of Kentucky, 853 Patterson Office Tower, Lexington, KY 40506-0027
Voice 859-257-6057, E-mail priscilla.mccutcheon@uky.edu
Current research topics: Alternative food movements, sustainable agriculture, Black geographies, race and racism, microaggressions, spirituality and religion.
Robert B. McMaster
Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Voice 612-625-6080, E-mail mcmaster@umn.edu
Current research topics: Cartographic Generalization; Risk Assessment and GIS; GIS and society.
Don Mitchell
Department of Geography, Syracuse University, 144 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244-1020
Voice 315-443-2605, E-mail dmmitc01@maxwell.syr.edu
Current research topics: Cultural Geography; Historical Geography; Labor; Social Theory; Marxist Approaches to Geography; Public Space.
Ines M. Miyares
Department of Geography, Hunter College, 695 Park Ave,
New York, NY, 10065
Voice 212-772-5443, E-mail imiyares@hunter.cuny.edu
Current research topics: Population/Social Geography, Immigration and Refugee Policy, Urban Ethnic/Cultural Geography, Latin America, Geographies of Hawaii.
Burrell E. Montz
Department of Geography, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858
Voice 252-328-6230, E-mail montzb@ecu.edu
Current research topics: Natural Hazards Vulnerability, Policy
and Mitigation; Social Science Applications to Meteorology; Water Resources Planning and Management.
John M. Morgan III
Center for Geographic Information Science, Towson University,
8000 New York Rd, Towson, MD 21252
Voice 410-704-2964, E-mail jmorgan@towson.edu
Current research topics: GIS Education; Geographic Information Systems
William G. Moseley
Department of Geography, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN 55105-1899
Voice 651-696-6126, E-mail moseley@macalester.edu
Current research topics: Human-environment and development geographer with research interests in political ecology, tropical agriculture, food security, land tenure, rural development and Africa.
Darrell Napton
Department of Geography, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007-0648
Voice 605-688-4511, E-mail Darrell_Napton@sdstate.edu
Current research topics: Agricultural Geography in California and the Corn Belt; Recent Changes in United States Land Use and Land Cover; Driving Forces of U.S. Land Use Change.
Lindsay Naylor
Department of Geography, 125 Academy Street, Newark, DE 19716
Voice 302-831-8271, E-mail lnaylor@udel.edu
Current research topics: Feminist Political Geography, Feminist Material Geopolitics, Diverse Economies, Decolonial Thinking, fair trade, food sovereignty, food justice, the body and material relations.
M. Duane Nellis
Office of the President, 150 Administration Building, Box 42005, Lubbock, Texas 79409-2005
Voice 806-742-2121, E-mail pres.webmaster@ttu.edu
Current research topics: Environmental Constraints; Information Technology Applications in Botswana.
Marie Price
Department of Geography, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20052-0042
Voice 202-994-6187, E-mail mprice@gwu.edu
Current research topics: Migration; Latin America; Globalization; Geographic Education; Immigrant Integration; Immigrant Entrepreneurship; Diasporas; Global Cities.
Philip R. Pryde
Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182
Voice 619-594-5525, E-mail ppryde@mail.sdsu.edu
Current research topics: Biodiversity Protection in the Post-Soviet Russian Federation; California’s Salton Sea: Migratory Lifeline or America’s Dead Sea.
Anthony R. Orme
Department of Geography, University of California,
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1524
Voice 310-825-1071, E-mail orme@geog.ucla.edu
Current research topics: Quaternary Environments (Climate Change, including Ocean and Lake Changes); Coastal Environments (Barrier-Lagoon Systems, Dunes and Wetlands); Watershed Geomorphology and Management; The Physical Geography of Africa.
Jonnell Allen Robinson
Department of Geography, Syracuse University, 144 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244-1020
Voice 315-443-4890, E-mail jdallen@syr.edu
Current research topics: Community Geography; Participatory GIS; Engaged Scholarship; Medical Geography; Urban Geography.
David J. Rutherford
Department of Public Policy Leadership, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677
Voice 662-915-1337, E-mail druther@olemiss.edu
Current research topics: Geography of Religions and Belief Systems; Geography Education; Global Environmental Issues; Geography of the Colorado Plateau; Major Forces of Change in the Contemporary World; Climate change; Geography of Southern California and the Channel Islands.
Rickie Sanders
Department of Geography and Urban Studies, Temple University, 309 Gladfelter Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19122
Voice 215-204-5650, E-mail rsanders@temple.edu
Current research topics: Critical Geography Education (Learner
Centered Education, Engaging Students in Geography Classrooms, Critical Inquiry around Geographical Issues); Urban Geography (Public Space, Visualizing the Urban Environment, Framing Globalization); Photography and Visual Analysis as a means of Understanding the Urban Landscape (Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy, Reflections and Juxtapositions, Dialogues, Gender).
Gary W. Shannon
Department of Geography, University of Kentucky,
Lexington, KY 40605-0027
Voice 606-257-2931, E-mail gwshan00@pop.uky.edu
Current research topics: Telemedicine: Restructuring the Medical Care Landscape in the 21st Century; GIS Applications in Health Care Planning; The Geography of Mental Health Care: From Street to Asylum to Street once again; New and Re-emerging Infectious and Contagious Diseases.
Kate Swanson
Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, 92182-0003
Voice 619-594-3508, E-mail kswanson@mail.sdsu.edu
Current research topics: Poverty and Inequality; Children and Youth; Migration; Latin America; U.S./Mexico Border Region
Rebecca Torres
Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C1200, Austin, TX 78712
Voice 512-232-1580, E-mail rebecca.torres@austin.utexas.edu
Current research topics: Migration; Rural Development; Agriculture; Gender; Tourism; Activist Scholarship.
Antoinette M.G.A. WinklerPrins
Department of Geography, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824
Voice 517-515-3665, E-mail antoinet@msu.edu
Current research topics: Amazonian Dark Earths and the Implications for the Conservation and Development of the Region; Political Ecology as a Framework for Development; From Channels to Gardens: Anthropogenic Landscapes of Amazonia; Historical Geography of Jute Cultivation in the Amazon; Home Garden; Social Networks and Agrodiversity; Local Soil Knowledge; Urban Agriculture.
Leon Yacher
Department of Geography, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1355
Voice 203-392-5825, E-mail yacher@southernct.edu
Current research topics: Central Asia; History of Geography in Latin America; Latin America; Connecticut Geography.
