Research and teaching in human geography is focused on the spatial dimensions of cultural, economic, and political processes. Faculty and graduate research draws upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to explore key questions in cultural, historical, economic, political, behavioral, and urban geography. We rely upon different theoretical and philosophical approaches to critically examine a broad range of geographic themes including the social consequences of globalization and economic development, the geopolitics of world trade, the historical and contemporary geography of urbanization, the spatial politics of cultural identity, the social and legal implications of geographic information technologies, and the history of geographical thought. Our current areas of regional specialization include North America, Latin America, Europe, South and East Asia, East Africa, and the Middle East.

• Robert Bednarz
• Sarah Bednarz
• Christian Brannstrom
• Michael Ewers
• Peter Hugill
• Wendy Jepson
• Kathleen O'Reilly
• Erik Prout
• Johnathan Smith
• Daniel Sui

• Effects of geo-spatial technologies on the acquisition of spatial perception (R. Bednarz)
• Applications of spatial thinking skills to understand/negotiate environments (S. Bednarz)
• Environmental governance of modern agriculture in Brazil (Brannstrom)
• How geopolitical transitions occur in the global system: the role of technology and the historical importance of culture (Hugill)
• Geographies of water and poverty along the U.S.–Mexico border (Jepson)
• Constructions of space and politics of development in Rajasthan, India (O’Reilly)
• Geography of Texas (Prout)
• Secular humanism in the early nineteenth-century United States (Smith)
• Surveillance technologies and privacy in the digital age (Sui)

The Critical Geography Working Group examines the philosophical underpinnings of recent scholarship in critical geography. The aim of the CGWG is to provide faculty and graduate students a forum to read and discuss classic and contemporary texts that engage critical approaches to space, place, and the environment. For more information, click here.