The 2005 CAUSE group, led by geography
professor Chris Benner, meets with members of
the Masiphumelele community.
Research in human geography spans across many disciplines and interests, including economics, politics, transportation, land use, development, planning, sociology, urban issues, history, cultures, gender, and medicine.
Current Research
Rethinking Urban Poverty: A Philadelphia Field Project
Rethinking Urban Poverty: A Philadelphia Field Project
is an interdisciplinary research initiative on urban poverty in the United States, using Philadelphia as a case
study for fieldwork. Dr. Lakshman Yapa encourages students to go
beyond questions of why people in poverty have low incomes, and instead to address why poor households have
problems with adequate nutrition, housing, transport, health care, and so on.
One Nation, Pulling Apart: Understanding Economic Poverty in America
One Nation, Pulling Apart is providing new understanding of the manifestation, meaning, and causes of enduring economic distress. By combining statistical analysis with policy evaluation and historical assessment of previous policy efforts, this project is elevating the issue of community economic distress to a new level. Under the direction of Dr. Amy Glasmeier, the project is reexamining community social and economic conditions nationwide, using a newly designed index of economic health and economic distress.
Political Geography
Political geographers research how physical place influences political activity and how global politics impact local decision-making. They describe the rise to power of political groups, the nature of their followings, and how these groups influence local, regional, and global places.
- Dr. Lorraine Dowler researches political tourism, women's roles in paramilitary organizations and political groups, gender and nationalism, and the geographies of hate crimes and whiteness.
- Dr. James McCarthy studies the development of capitalism as a social and economic system. He focuses on the social movements in environmental governance.
- Dr. Melissa Wright researches the politcs of border control issues, especially with the Maquiladora mestizas and feminist border politics. She is investigating the concept of "corporate citizenship" and new forms of localization for global capital.
Economic Geography
Economic geographers study
locations and distributions of industries, retail, and wholesales businesses, transportation, trade, and the changing
values of real estate. The Association of American Geographers careers page provides more information.
- Dr. Lakshman Yapa researches the developing world using
postmodern theories.
- Dr. Amy Glasmeier conducts research in regional development
and industrial innovation, regional development and the service sector, globalization and institutional development,
organizational learning, and intra-regional inequality. She also serves on the Center for
Spatially Integrated Social Science Advisory Board.
- Dr. Melissa Wright studies Mexico, Latin America, the Mexico-U.S. border, and
the export-processing zones of southern China, bringing together Marxist, feminist and poststructuralist theory
to explore the mutually constitutive relationships between capitalism and culture.
Urban Geography
Urban geography researchers focus on how, where, when, and why communities develop. Research includes examining support services such as transportation structures, building and zoning plans, and land values. Researchers in urban geography often collaborate with economic, human, transportation, historical, and political geographers to describe forces that shape cities and their policies.
- Dr. Deryck Holdsworth studies the historical geographies of office districts, settlement landscapes across North America, and preservation policy and practice.
- Dr. Amy Glasmeier researches technological change and the creation and maintenance of global competitive position, the development potential of service sector industries, and intra-regional inequalities.
- Dr. Melissa Wright researches the urban geographies in Mexico, Latin America, the Mexico-U.S. border, and the export-processing zones of southern China.
- Dr. Lakshman Yapa uses postmodern theories to describe poverty in the developing world.
Feminist Geography
Feminist geographers study women's roles in particular places and how women's roles are changing as a result of economic, social, or political factors.
- Dr. Lorraine Dowler is studying women's roles during times of war, especially in Northern Ireland, and more recently, in the Middle East. She is also the department head for the Women's Studies Department.
- Dr. Melissa Wright researches the gendering of work, global feminist movements, and the overlap between violence against women outside of the multinational corporation and the organization of production within it. She also teaches in the Women's Studies Department.
