About the Department

The UNC-CH Geography Department specializes in five teaching and research themes. These are (1) the Geographies of Earth Systems Science, (2) Geographic Information Science, (3) Nature-Society and Human-Environment Relations, (4) International Development and Globalization, and (5) Social Spaces.

Earth System Science geographers, including Professors Band, Doyle, Konrad, Moody, Song, Robinson and Walsh, focus on issues of hydrologic and fluvial systems, sediment transport, biogeography and ecosystem carbon budget processes, landscape level nutrient cycling, hydro-climate, climate variability and ecosystem response.

Geographic Information scientists including Professors Walsh, Band, Emch, Moody and Song focus research on spatial analysis of human systems of the tropics, urban environments and biogeographic distributions. They develop and apply state-of-the-art techniques in remote sensing, image processing and terrain analysis to a variety of ecosystem and human-environment problems.

Geographers in the department interested in issues relating to Nature-Society and Human-Environment Relations focus on analytical and theoretical perspectives in ecology, cultural ecology, political ecology, and science studies. These include Larry Band, Steve Birdsall, Martin Doyle, Michael Emch, Arturo Escobar (adjunct: Anthropology), John Florin, Ken Hillis (adjunct: Communication Studies), Scott Kirsch, Melinda Meade, John Pickles, Steve Walsh, Wendy Wolford.

Geographers working on issues related to International Development and Globalization focus their work on issues relating to the global economy, transnationalism, global cultures and health, and the Global South, with particular foci on the processes of globalization (and the anti-globalization and global justice movements they have stimulated) that are re-shaping the geographies of international and local capital, labor, technology, information, health, goods and services. Individual faculty members study the cultural, urban and economic systems of the United States, Central America, Brazil, South Africa, Central Europe, and South and East Asia. They develop and use a variety of social science theory and approaches. They include Altha Cravey, Scott Kirsch, Melinda Meade, John Pickles, Steve Walsh, Wendy Wolford, Arturo Escobar (adjunct: Anthropology).

Geographers in the Social Spaces cluster have current research interests in political economy, cultural-social geographies, and health geographies. In addition, the study of social spaces introduces students to various aspects of the history and philosophy of geography, spatial analysis and public policy, social theory and cultural studies, gender studies and feminism, and science and technology studies. Faculty members in this cluster include Steve Birdsall, Altha Cravey, John Florin, Scott Kirsch, Melinda Meade, John Pickles, Wendy Wolford,  Arturo Escobar (adjunct: Anthropology), Jim Fraser (associate research professor: Center for Urban and Regional Studies), Ken Hillis (adjunct: Communication Studies).

The department has substantial research funding from a variety of sources including NSF, NASA, USDA, and EPA, as well as from state agencies and private foundations. The department has strong connections with major research and teaching centers at UNC including the Carolina Environment Program, the Curriculum in Ecology, the Carolina Population Center, the University Center for International Studies, the Curriculum in International and Area Studies, the Sheps Center for Health Service Research, Women's Studies, the Center for Urban and Regional Studies, the Latin American Studies Program, the Center for East European and Russian Studies, the Odum Center for Social Science Research, and the University Program in Cultural Studies.