Geography
The Geography Department is an instructional department within the College of Arts and Sciences that supports significant research activities in various types of geographic study, including climate change, cartography, development studies, environmental history, environmental risk, ethno-territorial conflict, fluvial geomorphology, GIScience, landscape ecology, international political economy, political ecology, remote sensing, and wildfire. The Geography Department is a vibrant community of faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate majors.
Students are encouraged to develop skills in communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and data analysis as they explore subjects that ask them to think holistically about the systems that shape our planet. Our faculty help students see the amazing complexity that shapes our planet and our experiences within it. Our classrooms provide inclusive and engaged learning environments so that students find their own interests to explore, helping them make meaning and find their place in the world.
Faculty
Daniel P. Buck, associate professor (political economy, food geographies, East Asia). BA, 1987, California State, Chico; MA, 1996, PhD, 2002, California, Berkeley. (2008) See Asian Studies
Mark Carey, professor (environmental history, human geography, environmental justice, and science and technology studies). BA, 1991, State University of New York at Potsdam; MA, 1998, University of Montana, Missoula; PhD, 2005 University of California, Davis. (2010) See Environmental Studies
John Christian, assistant professor (glacier and ice-sheet dynamics, climate, earth-system models). BA, 2014, St. Olaf College; PhD, 2020 University of Washington. (2023)
Shaul E. Cohen, associate professor (political, environmental, cultural; Middle East). BA, 1983, Clark; MA, 1987, PhD, 1991, Chicago. (1996)
Carolyn Fish, assistant professor (geographic information system science, cartography). BS, 2008, Pennsylvania State; MS, 2010, Michigan State; PhD, 2018, Pennsylvania State. (2018)
Mark Fonstad, associate professor (geomorphology, remote sensing, hydrology). BA, 1995, Wisconsin, Madison; MA, 1997, Ohio; PhD, 2000, Arizona State. (2011)
Daniel G. Gavin, professor (biogeography, paleoecology, climate change). BA, 1992, Dartmouth College; MS, 1997, PhD, 2000, Washington (Seattle). (2006)
Leigh Johnson, associate professor (political ecology, development, economic geography). BA, 2003, Columbia; PhD, 2011, California, Berkeley. (2016)
Nicholas P. Kohler, associate teaching professor (geographic information systems, cartography, human-environmental relations). BA, 1989, Princeton; MA, 1997, PhD, 2005, Oregon. (2006)
Melissa Lucash, assistant research professor (forest ecology, climate change, wildfire, spatial modeling, landscape ecology). BS,1993, MS, 1996, PhD 2005, Syracuse. (2020) See Environmental Studies
Leslie McLees, associate teaching professor; undergraduate advisor (urban geography, urban agriculture, Africa). BS, 1999, Washington State; MA, 2004, University of Hawaii, PhD, 2012, University of Oregon. (2014)
Jennifer Miller, professor (spatial data science, geographic information system science); BA, 1992, The University of Miami, Coral Gables; MA, 1997, The Ohio State University; PhD, 2003, University of California at Santa Barbara. (2026)
Laura Pulido, professor (critical ethnic studies, environmental justice, Chicano studies). See Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies.
Xiaobo Su, professor (cultural politics, tourism and urban conservation, China). BArch, 2000, Southeast University (Nanjing); MSc, 2003, Sun Yat-sen University; PhD, 2007, National University of Singapore. (2007)
Peter A. Walker, professor (cultural and political ecology, US West, Africa). BA, 1986, California, Berkeley; MS, 1990, Harvard; PhD, 1997, California, Berkeley. (1997) See Environmental Studies
Emeriti
Patrick J. Bartlein, professor emeritus. BA, 1972, MS, 1975, PhD, 1978, Wisconsin, Madison. (1982)
Stanton A. Cook, professor emeritus. AB, 1951, Harvard; PhD, 1960, California, Berkeley. (1960)
Amy K. Lobben, professor emeritus. BA, 1991, MA, 1996, Georgia State; PhD, 1999, Michigan State. (2004)
W. Andrew Marcus, professor emeritus. BS, 1978, Stanford; MA, 1983, Arizona State; PhD, 1987, Colorado. (2001)
Patricia F. McDowell, professor emeritus. BA, 1971, MA, 1977, Illinois Institute of Technology; PhD, 1980, Wisconsin, Madison. (1982)
Alexander B. Murphy, professor emeritus. BA, 1977, Yale; JD, 1981, Columbia; PhD, 1987, Chicago. (1987)
Alvin W. Urquhart, professor emeritus. AB, 1953, MA, 1958, PhD, 1962, California, Berkeley. (1960)
Ronald Wixman, professor emeritus. BA, 1968, Hunter; MA, 1972, Columbia; PhD, 1978, Chicago. (1975)
The date in parentheses at the end of each entry is the first year on the University of Oregon faculty.