Jack Swab (he/him) | University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences

Jack Swab (he/him)

PhD Candidate

****As of August 2024, I am a faculty member in the Department of Geography & Sustainability at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I can be reached at jswab@utk.edu***

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I am a geographer broadly interested in the nexus of human geography and GIS/cartography. Specifically, I examine the effectiveness and utility of COVID-19 maps and the limits of these visualizations in public health communication as they relate to local administrative boundaries. I am also very interested in queering the practices of GIS/cartography, utilizing these tools to create alternative futures, more inclusive communities, and better geospatial practices. More broadly, I am interested in technological evolution in cartography, map libraries, the intellectual history of geography, map studies, and queer spatial histories.

I am also serving as the Vice-Chair/Chair/Past-Chair for the American Association of Geographers Cartography Specialty Group from 2022-2024. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns you may have about the Cartography Specialty Group!

Contact Information

jswab@uky.edu

1422 Patterson Office Tower

Education

University of Kentucky, MS Library Science (2022)

University of Kentucky, MA Geography (2020)

Penn State, BS Geography & BA History (2017)

Research Interests

Critical cartography & GIS
History of Cartography
urban geography
Map Libraries
Science and Technology Studies
Geographic thought and methodology
mixed methods
Boundaries
Health Geographies
Queer Geography

Affiliations

Geography
American Association of Geographers
North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS)

Selected Publications

Selected Publications:

Refereed Articles

[Accepted on 1/15/24] Swab, Jack. Assessing Geography’s Place in U.S. Higher Education: An Analysis of Undergraduate Geography Course Enrollment from 1948-2000. The Professional Geographer.

[Early Online] Swab, Jack. Variations on a Theme: Understanding and Contextualizing Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Typologies. Journal of Maps & Geography Libraries.

[Early Online] Craig, Bethany; Swab, Jack; DeBruin, Jed. Bowling for Better: Reforming World Geography Bowl to Create a More Inclusive Geography. The Professional Geographer.

[Early Online] Seitz, David; Cockayne, Daniel; Good, Ryan Z.; Hannum, Kathryn L.; Kroepsch, Adrianne C.; Rhodes, Mark; Swab, Jack; Worth, Nancy. Critical geographers teaching and working in STEM higher education: reckoning with the institution and learning from each other. Journal of Geography in Higher Education.

[Accepted on 3/30/23] Swab, Jack. Beyond “Clerical Cartography”: Gender and the (Re)Production of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps in the 1920s. The Cartographic Journal.

2022 Swab, Jack and Gieseking, Jack. Toward Queering the Map 2.0: a Conversation with Michael Brown, Lawrence K. Knopp, and Bo Zhao. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 24(4), 416-435.

Refereed Abstracts

2023 Swab, Jack. Changing Desires and Aims in Public Health Mapping in the United States, 1920-2020. Abstracts of the ICA, 6, 251.

2021 Swab, Jack. Intellectual Property and Maps: Legal Protections for Cartographic Works from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century. Abstracts of the ICA, 3, 282.

2019 Swab, John. Mapping a Nation: Daniel Carter Beard’s Time as a Surveyor for the Sanborn Map Company. Abstracts of the ICA,1, 359.

Commentaries & Conversations in Refereed Journals

2023 Craine, Jim; Davidson, Ron; Deis, David; Lawrence, David; Scacco, Debra; and Swab, Jack. The Maps with X-Ray Eyes: The Sanborn Map Collection. Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers.

2018 Swab, John and Babcock, Todd. Surveying Northeastern Pennsylvania: Contextualizing the Flower-Walker Collection at the Tioga Point Museum. Journal of Maps and Geography Libraries, 14:1, 9-20.

Book Reviews

2022 Swab, Jack. Review of “Cartography: The Ideal and Its History” by Matthew Edney. Cartographic Perspectives, 98, 74-75.

2019 Swab, John. Review of “The Feminist Bookstore Movement: Lesbian Antiracism and Feminist Accountability” by Kristen Hogan. Antipode, p. 1-6. [https://radicalantipode.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/14.-john-swab_ak.pdf]

2018 Swab, John. Review of “Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History” by Mark Monmonier. Cartographic Perspectives, 90, 110-112.