Professor Of Geography Research Articles

Everyday Las Vegas: Local Life in a Tourist Town

Everyday Las Vegas: Local Life in a Tourist Town By Rex J. Rowley Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2013. XV+ 251pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, and index. $24.95, ISBN 978-0-87417-905-7.Everyday Las Vegas is about the experience of actually living, working, and raising a family in the city of Las Vegas . As the author points out, it is often surprising to people that there is a city beyond the Strip, with grocery stores, suburbs, doctor's offices, and everything else one might find in a normal city Las Vegas is similar to, but different from, many other western American metropolitan areas . Rex Rowley is well suited to write about this city, as he grew up in Las Vegas and is now a geography professor. He has an insider's perspective and plenty of experience in the city, and has done research on the geography of casinos, particularly their spread off the Strip into locally-oriented entertainment centers (discussed in chapter seven) .The objective of the book is to provide the locals' view and experience of living in the city in the 1990s and early 2000s . The first two chapters review the history and geography of the city Chapter two is particularly interesting as it discusses the sites and situations of Las Vegas and provides a good discussion of the geography, climate, and natural hazards of the city Vegas' origin in a varied physical environment at the intersection of several fundamentally different cultures is described in detailFrom the third chapter onward, the book is largely based on interviews conducted with 177 locals between 2005 and 2008, with major themes identified in their responses . Chapter three is about the transience of people in the city, the slippery definition of what a local is, and how people came to live in Las Vegas . Chapter four is about the transience of the built environment, followed by a chapter on perceptions of traffic and driving in the city, as well as the problems of maintaining adequate infrastructure for constantly increasing traffic . As noted in chapters six and seven, living in Las Vegas means being aware of and, in your own way, making peace with the presence of the 'other Las Vegas': the Strip, tourists, gambling, and the sex industry For many locals, this means going nowhere near the Strip or other tourist locales . Chapter eight discusses the religious lives of Las Vegas residents, which is surprisingly rich and diverse, yet locals must often work hard to convince outsiders religion even exists in the city A concluding chapter summarizes these issues and provides some updates for how the city has changed since the recessionChapters four and five best capture the conditions of life in Las Vegas . The first is concerned with the loss of familiar landscapes in what was the fastest-growing large metropolitan area in the country, as well as one that had little regard for the past . Growth was perhaps the leading industry in the city, an addiction that neither individuals nor communities could resist, despite the uncertainties and the impacts on quality of life . …

Geopolitics on trial: politics and science in the wartime geopolitics of Gudmund Hatt

The history of Danish geographers during the Second World War is almost synonymous with that of Gudmund Hatt (1884–1960), the Professor of Human Geography at Copenhagen University. Hatt was a key figure in the development of Danish geography and assumed the role of a public intellectual, particularly through his geopolitical analyses as they unfolded in a staggering number of radio speeches, newspaper essays, books and articles during the late 1930s and early 1940s. But this industriousness, which accelerated during the first years of the Nazi-German occupation of Denmark (9 April 1940–5 May 1945), was also the direct reason for Hatt's hard downfall – academically as well as personally. For his wartime activities, Hatt was as the only Danish university professor tried by a post-war public servants' tribunal. It found that he had engaged in ‘dishonourable national conduct’ during the occupation and dismissed him from his professorship. Drawing on archives and published sources from the period, the paper focuses on Hatt's wartime activities and geopolitical analyses in the complicated political context of the occupation, and it pays particular attention to the conflict between ‘science’ and ‘politics’ as it crystallised in the post-war trial of Hatt.

Useful Collection — Or Publishing Opportunity?

Policy Press, 2013 PB, 400pp, £19.99, 978-1447305132 Danny Dorling is professor of geography at Oxford University. This book is a collection of articles showing his view, as a geographer, on the social determinants of health. His thesis is that greater social inequality in a country (largely income inequality) is positively correlated with poorer health outcomes. This is not simply due to increased poverty. Health outcomes are worse for the rich as …

Portugal, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Geographical study

Portugal, o Mediterrâneo e o Atlântico [Portugal, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic]:2 regardless of their branches of study, areas of expertise, or even epistemological views of the geographical praxis and theorization, very few Portuguese geographers would not claim knowledge of, and reverence for, this seminal piece and, more generally, of its author’s work. Un-arguably one of (if not) the most distinguished and recognised Portuguese Geography professors and researchers, and one of the most important european geographers of the XXth century, Orlando ribeiro (1911-1997) numbered among his many career achievements the creation of the renowned Centre for Geographical studies of the University of Lisbon and the organization of the first post-war congress of the international Geographical Union (1949), a group for which he was elected vice-president in 1952. as stated in the website dedicated to the spreading of his life and worki, “particularly important landmarks [hence definitely not falling short from those mentioned earlier] of his career are Portugal, o Mediterrâneo e o Atlântico, one of his best known works of synthesis, first published in 1945, and the creation of Finisterra in 1966, a journal that still continues as one of the major publications to divulge the Portuguese geography, at a national and international level.” Given the previously stated, the intended purpose of this text is – through the association of these two landmarks, and taking the opportunity for dissemination provided by an issue of finisterra published in english – to contribute to expand on the festivities of the centenary of his birth, which took place all around the year 2011, through the presentation and reviewing of the latest (the 8th)ii and celebratory edition of Portugal, o Mediterrâneo e o Atlântico, published in that same year. the Portugal presented in this book through the hand of this regionalist and humanistic geographer is a markedly rural one; one with a predominantly agrarian economy; one deeply marked by history, and physiographic and climatic features; one resulting from the combination of a myriad of Mediterranean and atlantic influences whose human expressions were still widely visible at the time of its original writing (1945). synthetically, the author expands

Book Reviews

Yannis M. Ioannides of Tufts University reviews, “Keys to the City: How Economics, Institutions, Social Interactions, and Politics Shape Development” by Michael Storper. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Considers the explanations we use for city and regional growth and development and presents a toolbox for answering important questions, drawing from economics, economic geography, and economic sociology. Discusses workshops of the world economy—people, jobs, and places; the motor of urban economies—specialization; disruptive innovation—geography and economics; cities and individuals—how we shape cities, but not the way we want to; the ““where” of development; communities and the economy; robust action—society, community, and development; technology, globalization, and local interaction; local context—the genius of cities; face-to-face contact; exit or voice?—politics, societies, and city-systems; and justice, efficiency, and cities—whether regions should help one another. Storper is Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Professor of Economic Sociology at Sciences Po, Paris, and Professor of Urban Planning and Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles.”

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

La renovación de la enseñanza de la geografía en el Instituto del Cardenal Cisneros de Madrid hacia 1912

The aim of this paper is to provide new elements of knowledge about the teaching of geography in Spanish institutes in the early twentieth century. Between 1900 and 1910, approximately, there was an interesting methodological movement to renew that teaching school discipline, little known yet. A group of high school teachers designed new educational tools to improve the teaching of geography, among which there were new manuals, and especially school atlas. In this text is presented one of them. It is the Special Geography Atlas of Spain published in 1910 by Jose Esteban y Gomez, Professor of Geography and History of the Cardenal Cisneros Institute in Madrid. That Atlas had a wide circulation. In two subsequent editions of 1912 and 1917, the author introduced changes in its contents. It was used by many students, like Juan Manuel de Villodas y Revilla, when he did second high school at the Cardenal Cisneros Institute in 1912. Its practical workbook of geography of Spain, based on the aforementioned atlas, is available on the website www.ceimes.es. This paper argues that the atlas of Jose Esteban y Gomez shows the deep relationship between geography and statistics in 1910. It also presents a detailed analysis of this teaching tool that will allow further study of the role played by the teaching of geography in shaping national identity in sectors of Spanish society during the early twentieth century

Michael E. Bonine: Professor of Geography and of Near Eastern Studies

Michael E. Bonine: Professor of Geography and of Near Eastern Studies

Folder 5, box 92

This short paper is concerned with a map of central Japan that the later University of Chicago Professor of Geography, Chauncy Harris, drew in September 1944, when he was assigned as an US Army Private to work at the headquarters of the Research and Analysis Branch, Office of Strategic Services. The map provided a functional classification of Central Japanese cities, highlighting those that specialized in manufacturing. It was precisely these set of cities that were targeted for firebombing by the US Airforce from March 1945.

Tree Crops, a Permanent Agriculture: Concepts from the Past for a Sustainable Future

J. Russell Smith (1874–1966), a professor of geography at Columbia University, witnessed the devastation of soil erosion during his extensive travels. He first published his landmark text, Tree Crops, A Permanent Agriculture in 1929, in which he described the value of tree crops for producing food and animal feed on sloping, marginal, and rocky soils as a sustainable alternative to annual crop agriculture less suited to these lands. A cornerstone of his thesis was using wide germplasm collection and plant breeding to improve this largely underutilized and genetically unexploited group of plants to develop locally adapted, high-yielding cultivars for the many climatic zones of North America. Smith proposed an establishment of “Institutes of Mountain Agriculture” to undertake this work. For a variety of reasons, though, his ideas were not implemented to any great degree. However, our growing population’s increasing demands on natural resources and the associated environmental degradation necessitate that Smith’s ideas be revisited. In this review, his concepts, supported by modern scientific understanding and advances, are discussed and expanded upon to emphasize their largely overlooked potential to enhance world food and energy security and environmental sustainability. The discussion leads us to propose that his “institutes” be established worldwide and with an expanded scope of work.

The world until yesterday: what can we learn from traditional societies?

The no. 1 bestselling author of Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel explores the profound lessons that traditional societies offer us today. Over the past 500 years, the West achieved global dominance, but do Westerners necessarily have better ideas about how to raise children, care for the elderly, or simply live well? In this epic journey into our past, Jared Diamond reveals that traditional societies around the world offer an extraordinary window into how our ancestors lived for the majority of human history - until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms. Drawing on decades of his own fieldwork, Diamond explores how tribal people approach essential human problems, from health and diet to conflict resolution and language, and discovers they have much to teach us. Jared Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the seminal million-copy-bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was named one of Time's best non-fiction books of all time, and Collapse, a number 1 international bestseller. A professor of geography at UCLA and noted polymath, Diamond's work has been influential in the fields of anthropology, biology, ornithology, ecology and history, among others.

Prática social: uma estratégia para ensinar e aprender a Geografia escolar

Summary: The present article is the result of discussions and reflections about the teaching of professor of geography and necessity of social practice teaching placement learning school of geography. The objective of this paper is to promote a reflection on the importance of the geographical knowledge represented in the historical process of the formation of geographical science, its transformation into a compulsory curriculum component considerations about the social practice of teachers and school geography education relate to Critical-historical Pedagogy.

Western Faculty Profile: Dr. Irena Creed

Dr. Irena Creed is a Professor of Biology, Geography, and Earth Sciences at Western University. She is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Watershed Sciences, as well as the founder of the Watershed Research Facility — an advanced environmental monitoring, analytical, and modelling facility at Western. With a focus on developing a predictive understanding of watershed systems, Dr. Creed conducts research at sites around the world. WURJHNS First Year Representative Janis Chang had the opportunity to interview Dr. Creed and learn more about her research and her career.

Antonín Strnad (1746–1799) – the first professor of physical geography at Charles University in Prague

The paper is concerned with the life of Antonín Strnad (1746–1799), who became the outstanding representative of mathematics, astronomy and physical geography at the Artistic Faculty of Charles University in Prague. Main professional activities, methodological approaches and research results of professor Antonín Strnad are emphasized, namely in relation to physical geography. <b>Antonín Strnad (1746–1799) – první profesor fyzické geografie na Univerzitě Karlově v Praze</b> Druhá polovina 18. století byla jedním z významných období rozvoje přírodních věd na Univerzitě Karlově v Praze. Významnou osobností matematiky, astronomie a fyzické geografie Artistické (Filosofické) fakulty se v té době stal Antonín Strnad. Narodil se 10. srpna 1746 v Náchodě ve východních Čechách a získal rozsáhlé vzdělání jako student Jezuitského řádu v Brně, Uherském Hradišti a Olomouci. Antonín Strnad pracoval v Praze od roku 1771, a to nejprve jako asistent Josefa Steplinga (1716–1778), který byl zakladatelem astronomické a meteorologické observatoře v Klementinu (1751). Ředitelem této observatoře se Antonín Strnad stal v roce 1781, dále byl administrátorem Matematického muzea (1774–1785) a ředitelem Královské české společnosti věd (1787–1788). V roce 1784 se Antonín Strnad stal členem Meteorologické vědecké společnosti v Mannheimu a spolupracoval s podobně zaměřenými společnostmi v Berlíně, Vídni a Lipsku. Profesorem matematiky a fyzické geografie byl jmenován v roce 1778, děkanem Artistické fakulty v roce 1792 a rektorem Karlovy-Ferdinandovy Univerzity v roce 1795. Antonín Strnad inicioval záchranu a generální opravu Staroměstského orloje, proslulá byla jeho vědecká knihovna a vynikající odborné i populární přednášky. Zdůrazňoval nezbytnost systematických a přesných pozorování přírodních procesů a jevů, rozvíjel matematiku a fyzickou geografii jako součásti přírodních věd a publikoval řadu odborných i populárně-naučných prací, zabývajících se zejména meteorologií a matematickou geografií. Podstatným rysem Strnadovy rozsáhlé činnosti byl vyhraněný smysl pro využívání výsledků odborné práce ve prospěch společnosti. Upřesnil geografickou polohu observatoře v Klementinu, prováděl zde pravidelná meteorologická měření, včetně sledování změn magnetické deklinace, pozoroval zatmění Slunce a Měsíce, popsal historicky známé katastrofické jevy, např. velmi chladné zimy, horká léta, krupobití, povodně a pády meteoritů a byl zaníceným průkopníkem agrometeorologie. Vyčerpávající práce a neutěšená ekonomická situace rodiny podlomily jeho zdraví. Antonín Strnad zemřel po těžké nemoci 23. září 1799 na zámku Sazená a je pohřben na hřbitově u kostela Sv. Klimenta v Chržíně u Velvar ve středních Čechách. V současné době je uznáván jako jedna z nejvýznamnějších osobností Univerzity Karlovy v Praze v osvícenecké době.

Tennessee log buildings: a folk tradition

Drawing on more than four decades of research, Tennessee Log Buildings examines one of the Volunteer State s most precious and fast-disappearing traditions. From the pioneer era through the mid twentieth century, folk builders in Tennessee used logs to construct cabins, barns, other outbuildings, schools, and churches. In warm, accessible prose that often makes this deeply researched work read like guidebook, John Rehder explores the varied styles and architectural characteristics of these fascinating structures, including their floor plans, the types of timber used, and the different notches that were cut into the logs to secure the structures. Profusely illustrated with over one hundred images, Tennessee Log Houses traces the evolution of log houses from one-room (or single-pen) dwellings to more elaborate homes of various types, such as saddlebags, Cumberland houses, dogtrots, and two-story I-houses. Rehder discusses the historic settlement patterns and building traditions that led to this variety of house types and identifies their particular occurrences throughout the state by drawing on surveys conducted in forty-two counties by teams working for the Tennessee Historical Commission (THC). Similarly, he explores disparate barn and outbuilding types, including the distinctive cantilever barns that are found predominantly in East Tennessee. Sprinkled throughout the book are engaging anecdotes that convey just what it is like to conduct field research in remote rural areas. Rehder also describes in detail a number of the state s exceptional log places, among them Wynnewood, an enormous structure in Middle Tennessee which dates back to the early nineteenth century and which suffered severe tornado damage in 2008. As the author notes, many of the buildings originally identified in the THC investigations have now vanished completely while others are in serious disrepair. Thus, this book not only offers an instructive and delightful look at a key part of Tennessee s heritage but also makes an eloquent plea for its preservation. Until his death in 2011, JOHN B. REHDER was a professor of geography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He first joined the UT faculty in 1967. He was the author of Appalachian Folkways, which won the Pioneer America Society s Fred B. Kniffen Book Award in 2004, and Delta Sugar: Louisiana s Vanishing Plantation Landscape, which won the Vernacular Architecture Forum s 2000 Abbott Lowell Cummings Award.

Do we do the past differently now? An interview with David Lowenthal

The purpose of the interview was to talk to David Lowenthal about the imminent release of his updated version of The Past Is a Foreign Country, a seminal work on history, memory and nostalgia which profoundly influenced debates on heritage culture following its initial publication in 1985. David served in the US Army during World War Two and during his long and distinguished career as a cultural geographer taught at Vassar College and the University of the West Indies. He is now emeritus professor of geography at University College London. His books include West Indian Societies (1972), Landscape Meanings and Values (with Edmund Penning-Rowsell, 1986), The Politics of the Past (with Peter Gathercole, 1989) and The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (1997). The interview took place in London on 24 September 2012.

A continuity of ideas? salme nõmmik, edgar kant and the development of economic geography in soviet estonia

The aim of this article is to analyse the accommodation of Estonian geographical science into that of the Soviet Union after World War II. The process is viewed in the context of scientific and political developments in the Soviet Union on the basis of the scientific legacies of Edgar Kant (1902–1978), the first professor in economic geography in the pre‐war Republic of Estonia, and Salme Nõmmik (1910–1988), the first professor of economic geography in Soviet Estonia. Kant, who was recognized abroad and was probably the first who proposed to apply Walter Christaller's (1893– 1969) central place theory, namely, in reorganization of Estonian rural communities (1935–1938), was in disgrace in Soviet Estonia where his works were actively criticized. This article distinguishes, for the first time, different periods in the reception and valuation of the scholarly activities of Kant in Estonia during the Soviet period. On the basis of the archival documents of the Estonian Historical Archives, the department of manuscripts of the University of Tartu Library, and archive of the University of Tartu, it appears that in her investigations, Nõmmik often made use of the concepts Kant had put forward before the war. As a result, Estonian geography managed to secure an important position in the discipline of economic geography in the USSR.

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

Book Reviews

Annika Sunden of The Swedish Pensions Agency reviews, “Saving for Retirement: Intention, Context, and Behavior” by Gordon L. Clark, Kendra Strauss, and Janelle Knox-Hayes. The EconLit abstract of this book begins: “Explores the behavioral revolution and its implications for understanding financial decision making and saving for the future. Discusses environment and behavior; risk propensities; sophistication, salience, and scale; being in the market; housing, retirement saving, and risk aversion; the demand for annuities; the ““new” paternalism; and pension adequacy and sustainability. Clark is Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford, Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting Professor at Monash University, and a Professorial Fellow at St. Peter's College, Oxford. Strauss is a University Lecturer in the Geography Department at the University of Cambridge and a Research Associate in the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow. Knox-Hayes is Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Research Associate at the Oxford University School of Geography and the Environment. Bibliography; name and subject indexes.”

Introduction: Rethinking Practices for Enhancing Diversity in the Discipline*

Patricia SolísaPATRICIA SOLÍS is Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives at the Association of American Geographers, Washington, DC 20009. E-mail: . Her current projects center on geography's role in interdisciplinary collaboration, broadening participation in the discipline, and international engagement of higher education in developing regions, particularly Latin America. Her academic interests include studies on scientific collaboration, use of geographic technologies for environment and development, and geographic research and education for sustainability. & Ines M. MiyaresbINES M. MIYARES is Professor of Geography and Chair of the Department of Geography at Hunter College, New York, NY 10065. E-mail: . Her research and teaching focus on geographies of immigration and ethnicity, particularly of Latinos in the United States and of the social construction of race and ethnicity in Hawaii. a Association of American Geographers b Hunter College