Teaching & Advising

I teach courses ranging from introductory undergraduate courses to advanced graduate seminars. I enjoy teaching and engaging with all sorts of students. I encourage students to work hard and extend themselves. While I make sure that students learn new material in my courses, I also encourage (and expect) students to be self-consciously critical about what they are learning. I help students practice critical thinking and work with them to develop and sharpen their analytic skills. In these politically divided and divisive times, teaching about international affairs and about inequality can be especially challenging, but absolutely crucial.

I recently developed a new introductory course: GEO 161 Global Inequalities that is taken mostly by non-majors. I regard it as a wonderful opportunity to introduce students to a geographical approach to questions of inequality and poverty. In the past I have offered other courses such as: GEO 260 Geography of Third World Development; GEO 455 Economic Geography; and GEO 542 Political Geography, for undergraduates. At the graduate level I have often taught GEO 702 Concepts in Geography, and I regularly teach GEO 713 Theories of Development and Anti-Development. Additional recent seminars have included courses on Globalization and on Economic Geography. I have taught the one-credit professional development course, Preparing Future Faculty, in the past as well. As part of the program offered by the Committee on Social Theory, I have participated in several team-taught multidisciplinary graduate seminars.

I relish working with students at all stages who share my broad intellectual interests. I have advised undergraduates who have completed special topics majors, honors theses, and/or undergraduate research projects. Working with graduate students is something I really enjoy.

M.A. students for whom I served as main advisor:

  • 1993, Jeff Popke, on the faculty at East Carolina University
  • 1994, Ray Barrufalo, went on to Ph.D. program at UK
  • 2002, Jayme Walenta, went on to Ph.D. program at University of British Columbia
  • 2002, Frank Filleback, went on to Ph.D. program at Louisiana State University
  • 2003, Jason Strange, went on to Ph.D. program at University of California Berkeley
  • 2005, Chris Metzo, on the faculty at Minnesota State University
  • 2005, Abby Foulds, went on to Ph.D. at UK
  • 2005, Chris Blackden, went on to Ph.D. at UK
  • 2007, Stephanie Blessing, community organizer, Ohio
  • 2009, Andrew Boulton, went on to Ph.D. program at UK
  • 2011, Jessica Schmid, AmeriCorps, Pittsburgh

Ph.D. students for whom I served as main advisor:

  • 2001, Carl Dahlman, on the faculty at the University of Miami, Ohio
  • 2002, Mary Curran, on the faculty at Eastern Connecticut State University
  • 2003, Margo Kleinfeld, on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
  • 2004, Matthew Kurtz, consultant and adjunct faculty at Carleton University, Ontario, Canada
  • 2005, John Hintz, on the faculty at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
  • 2005, Josh Lepawsky, on the faculty at Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada
  • 2005, Kyong-Hwan Park, on the faculty at Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Rep. of Korea
  • 2009, Maggie Walker, on the faculty at the University of Louisville
  • 2010, Jackie Salmond, adjunct faculty at Florida Gulf Coast University
  • 2010, Juli Hazlewood, on the faculty of Trent University (Canada) in Ecuador
  • 2011, Garrett Graddy, on the faculty at American University, Washington DC
  • 2013, Abby Foulds, research staff at the UNiversity of Pitsburgh
  • 2014, Chris Blackden, GIS analyst, Lexington KY

Currently, I am the main advisor for the following graduate students:

  • Kelsey Hanrahan
  • Patrick Bigger (Co-advising with Morgan Robertson)
  • Jessa Loomis

The University of Kentucky has a Postdoctoral Fellowship program and I have acted as a mentor for several Postdoctoral Fellows, including:

  •    2009-10, Dr. Trushna Parekh, on the faculty at Texas Southern University
  •    2002-3, Dr. Kathleen O’Reilly, on the faculty at Texas A and M
  •    2002-3, Dr. Tara Maddock, working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  •    1998-9, Dr. Caroline Nagel, on the faculty at University of South Carolina
  •   1995-7, Dr. Kristine Miranne, on the faculty at Wayne State University

If you are interested in the Graduate Program in Geography or in the Postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of Kentucky, do not hesitate to contact the Department’s Director of Graduate Studies or the office of the Vice President for Research, respectively.  If you are considering either of these opportunities and you have interests that overlap with my own, please send me an email.