Faculty
The Department of Geography, Environment, and Society has a world-class reputation for cutting-edge research across the breadth of geographical inquiry, including (1) human geography, (2) biophysical geography, and (3) geographic information science (GIS). Our research methods reflect our intellectual breadth, ranging from qualitative to quantitative, cartographic to computational. We offer our students a framework for understanding and engaging with the grand challenges facing society and our environment, combining scientific and humanistic inquiry to deliver a fresh and contemporary liberal arts education. We embrace community engaged research and have developed relationships with various communities during our research and teaching.
Regular Faculty
Adam Bledsoe
Specialties
Black geographies; African diaspora; Political geography
Bruce Braun
Specialties
Ecopolitics; Political ecology; Infrastructure studies; Philosophy & Geography; Green Urbanism; Anthropocene in social, political and ecological thought
Madelaine Cahuas
Specialties
Urban geography, cities and social justice; Women of color feminisms, intersectionality, race, gender, class; Race, settler colonialism, decolonial and anti-colonial theory; Citizenship, identity and belonging; Latinx geographies, Latinx Studies; Feminist methodologies, qualitative methods; Community-engaged research, scholar-activism, testimonio
Emily Fairfax
Specialties
Beavers; Ecohydrology; Remote Sensing; Wetlands; Riverscapes; Data Visualization; Science Communication
Logan Gall
Specialties
Spatial Data Science; Data Engineering; Hardware Sensors & Devices; Statistics
Vinay Gidwani
Specialties
Post-socialism and justice; Labor geographies; Marxism; Identity politics and subaltern social movements; Geographies of work; Agroecological transformations; Social theory; India
Daniel Griffin
Specialties
Tree-ring data & analysis; Paleoclimatology; Climate Change; Global Change Ecology
Katherine Klink
Specialties
Climate; Urban climatology; Wind power; Wind climatology; Climate variability; Environmental science
Steve Manson
Specialties
Biocomplexity; Environmental science; Geographic information science; Global change; Land use/cover change; Spatial analysis
Robert McMaster
Specialties
Geographic information science and spatial analysis; Geographic scale and cartographic generalization; Environmental risk assessment and environmental justice; Cartography, mapping, and geographic visualization
G. Narayanaraj
Specialties
Research and teaching integrate a wide range of field‑based biology and ecology with geospatial technologies to address challenges in natural resource conservation and the wildland–urban interface.; Fundamentals of Field Science; Forest Fire Ecology; Geographic Information Science (GISc); Behavioural Ecology - Animal Behaviour; Satellite Remote Sensing; Landscape Ecology; Experiential Learning
Arun Saldanha
Specialties
Music; Continental philosophy; Travel; Race; Feminist theory; Colonialism; Marxism
Abdi Ismail Samatar
Specialties
East and Southern Africa; Agrarian change; Botswana; Capitalist development; Development theory and the state; Environment and development; Ethiopia; Ethnic politics; Islamic world; political economy; Somalia; Third World
Eric Shook
Specialties
GIScience; Geospatial computing; GeoAI; Geospatial Data Science; Geospatial Education
Ying Song
Specialties
Geographic Information Science (GIS); Spatio-Temporal Modeling and Analysis; Transportation Geography; Time Geography
Di Zhu
Specialties
GIScience; GeoAI; Spatial Networks; Social Sensing; Human Mobility; Urban Complexity; Spatiotemporal Big Data; Human-Environment Interactions
Affiliate Faculty & Postdoctoral Fellows
Michael Goldman
Specialties
Transnational, Political Economic and Urban Sociology; Expert Networks of Finance, Development, Knowledge, and Power
Richa Nagar
Specialties
Blending/ interrupting genres and languages in antidisciplinary research; Politics of development; Intersectionality, translations, and people's theater; Feminisms, praxis, and people's movements
Emeriti Faculty
Philip Gersmehl
Specialties
geogrpahic education; spatial cognition; North America; physical geography
Helga Leitner
Specialties
Austria; European Union; Europe; European cities; new immigrants; immigrant incorporation and polictics in Minnesota; utility of GIS for community organizations and neighborhood revitalization; United States; urban and regional development; transnationalism, multiculturalism and immigrant incorporation; immigration policies and citizenship; globalization and international migration; environmental equity and justice
Eric Sheppard
Specialties
Livelihood struggles in the third world; Trade and uneven geographies of globalization; geographic information, technologies and society; environmental justice in the Twin Cities; geography of economic development; The spatial dynamics of capitalism; Urbanization and the global South; neoliberalism and its contestations
Richard Skaggs
Specialties
climate variability; climatology; long-term temperature trends; physical geography; weather
Roderick Squires
Specialties
Landscape and Society; Public Land History; Real Property Ownership, especially Public Lands; Public Policy; Rectangular Land Surveys; Public Records
Connie Weil
Specialties
agricultural colonization; Amazonian "development"; coca farming; human ecology; international cocaine trade; Latin America; medical geography; migration; tourism; impact of socioeconomic and environmental change on human health; health and health care inequalities; geographic education
In Memoriam
- John Adams
- Fraser Hart
- Phillip Porter
- Joseph Schwartzberg
- Dwight Brown
- Judith Martin
- Fred Lukermann
- Cotton Mather
- Mei-Ling Hsu
- John Rice
- Ward Barrett
- John Borchert
- Roger Miller