Faculty Fellows 2003

Revising History and Theory of Geography
(450:470) Course

Kevin St. Martin
Department of Geography, FAS

Robin Leichenko
Department of Geography, FAS

Geography is by nature an intercultural discipline. Many of our undergraduate courses directly address the cultural, economic and environmental dimensions of globalization. We also offer courses on the geography of most world regions including, for example, Africa, Latin American, the Caribbean Borderlands, Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Middle East, and East Asia. Yet the capstone theoretical course for our majors, History and Theory of Geography, emphasizes only traditions of Western thought in geographic research. This project entails substantial revision of History and Theory to incorporate examination of geographic research and thought from non-Western traditions.
History and Theory entails an intellectual inquiry into the discipline of Geography, examining the practice of Geography in both historical and contemporary times. The course considers how the academic discipline of Geography originated, evolved, struggled, and currently stands and attempts to place the history of Geography within a social and scientific context. The proposed revisions would incorporate study of geographic thought from non-Western perspectives. A multi-cultural and global context will be developed early in the course and will provide a framework with which to examine contemporary geographic thought. The broad goal of the revised course will be to provide students with exposure to a diversity of thought from different cultural/historical traditions in geography that will inform both a historical and contemporary examination of geographic theory and practices.

Dr. Kevin St. Martin is an economic/resource geographer with a specialization in the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). He is interested in critical analyses of economic and resource management discourses. His current research focuses on the discourse and practice of fisheries science and its implications for both resource management and community-based economic development. His interest in GIS has lead to an examination of the use of GIS in participatory scientific and resource management initiatives. Dr. St. Martin has received funding for several fisheries related research projects that combine his interests in community/economy with participatory GIS. He teaches courses on the history and theory of geography (both undergraduate and graduate) and GIS. He is currently developing a course on community and the economy.
Dr. Robin Leichenko is an economic geographer. Her research addresses the regional impacts of economic globalization in advanced and developing countries. She is especially interested in the consequences of global economic change for vulnerable regions and vulnerable populations. She teaches courses in economic geography, economic globalization, history and theory of geography, and research methods. Her current research projects include a study of the impacts of international trade on employment and income inequality across U.S. rural regions, and two international, collaborative studies of the effects of economic globalization on rural vulnerability to climate change, one in India and the other in Mozambique. Her recent scholarly articles have appeared in journals including Economic Geography, Growth and Change, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Global Environmental Change, Urban Studies, and Journal of Regional Science.