Human Geography Commons^™

Letter From The Editor, Christopher F. Meindl

Florida Geographer

No abstract provided.

The Paradox Of Survival: Gendered Food Insecurity, Labor Inequalities, And Coping Strategies During The 2023/4 Drought In Eastern Ethiopia, Meron E. Lemma

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In drought-prone regions of Eastern Ethiopia, recurring droughts profoundly reshape everyday life in ways that deepen existing gendered inequalities. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Fedis district, including semi-structured interviews with women, project implementers, and government officials, as well as group discussions with community members, this study explores how women experience, navigate, and resist the gendered impacts of drought. By attending to the sociopolitical dynamics of drought and the development interventions that accompany it, I analyze how these forces restructure labor, land, food systems, and authority in ways that reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities. Women’s coping strategies, ranging from begging and …

Commercial Attention Spaces: A Century Of Discourses, Measurements, And Models Of Attention In The Construction Of U.S. Advertising Markets, Jacob Saindon

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

A vast assemblage of networked devices populate our everyday spaces. Concomitant with the increasing ubiquity of media devices are advertisements. Indeed, many networked devices, specifically the “free-to-use” software applications, websites, or platforms displayed through them, are advertising-dependent. An assortment of firms within the commercial media industry—brands, agencies, publishers, vendors—work in concert to sustain a market for advertising. The core operation of the commercial media industry, I argue, is the production and exchange of attention as an economic object. In this study, I approach the production of attention and the framing of its markets as spatial processes. The continued growth of …

Flags As Symbols Of Place: Unpacking Geographic Meaning And Identity In Student Flag Designs, Carlos A. Morales-Ramirez

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Flags have been around for centuries; however, vexillology, the study of flags, was not officially coined until the 1960s. Despite this, there is still a need for more scientific and empirical research. Using qualitative arts-based research (ABR) methodology, this study investigates the creative journey of students in an undergraduate geography course as they design a flag for a place of their choosing. Students were asked to interpret the concept of ‘place’ through their flag designs while also incorporating flag design principles. The results showed that participants selected places tied to themes such as hometown, family, love, memories, and culture often …

Plastic Gerontologies: Epigenetic Clocks As Instruments Of The Profitable Medicalization Of Aging, Hans T. Purisch

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Epigenetic clocks are algorithms that use epigenetic biomarkers of aging to calculate an organism’s ‘biological age.’ Through discursive analysis of commercially available epigenetic clock marketing materials, scientific articles, and interviews with actors in the longevity biotechnology industry, this study examines the commercialization of epigenetic clocks in the form of consumer test-kits. The study argues that longevity biotechnology companies leverage the malleable and fluid qualities of epigenetic markers of biological age to extend the domains of profitable therapies. It shows that epigenetic clock companies market the dynamic qualities of epigenetic biological age measurements to redefine health around the project of optimizing …

Lust, Labor, & Legitimacy: Visibility And Precarity In Platformed Sex Work, Sable J. Augustyn

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis examines the labor of platformed sex workers, positioning their experiences as a site for understanding the entanglement of multiple intersecting economies. Through qualitative interviews, it explores how sex workers navigate platform infrastructures, manage audience engagement, and contend with visibility as both an economic necessity and a site of risk. Drawing on theories of emotional labor, visibility labor, and platform governance, the project highlights how sex work on digital platforms is shaped by overlapping systems of economic extraction, technological constraint, and cultural regulation. Platformed sex work emerges here as a layered and context-specific practice—embedded within creator ecologies, attraction economies, …

Woke-Lahoma: Anti-Trans Ideology On The Frontlines, Sarah H. Fogel

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

The past decade (2015-2025) of American politics has been marked by a sharp rise in anti-trans politics. Indeed, during this period, anti-trans rhetoric and legislation have become central to American conservative politics more broadly. As the Republican party under Donald Trump works daily to remake the federal government in its image, studying the recent past of Republican-controlled states like Oklahoma offers a window into the future of anti-trans politics at the national scale. This thesis uses a mix of discourse analysis of anti-trans media and participant observation at 2SLGBTQ+ Pride events to analyze the ideological underpinnings of the present-day anti-trans …

Spatializing The Tax Code: Using Property Records To Locate The Fiscal Face Of Rentiership, Michael J. Mccanless

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation analyzes how the tax code shapes housing financialization in mid-sized US cities. Employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates critical computational analysis with qualitative fieldwork in Memphis, I examine the role of public rent-seeking in shaping housing financialization in U.S. cities. The first article analyzes the property tax appeal strategies of corporate landlords and their implications for public revenues and municipal budgets. The second article explores how the IRS 1031 exchange provision—which allows for capital gains deferrals when the proceeds of a property sale are reinvested in a ‘like-kind’ property—facilitates the movement of capital from high-cost coastal markets into …

The Houston Climate Justice Museum As A Catalyst For Environmental Justice: Exploring The Intersection Of Art, Activism, And Creative Placemaking In Houston, Texas, Aylin Castro

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis explores how the Houston Climate Justice Museum (HCJM) functions as a site for environmental/climate justice education through art and community engagement. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, this research examines how the museum’s curating practices generate new understandings of environmental in/justices, fosters local partnerships, and creates a welcoming space for community dialogue. Findings show that the HCJM does more than exhibit art, it demonstrates how art can be leveraged to advance both activist and educational projects. This study positions the HCJM as a model for how local and justice orientated museums and cultural spaces can contribute …

Making Slums Legible, Visible And Calculable: Geospatial Technologies And The Governance Of Urban Land In Mumbai, Sanjana Krishnan

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation examines how geospatial technologies are used to make slums in Mumbai legible, calculable, and hypervisible, and how these practices reshape urban land governance. It situates mapping, remote sensing, and algorithmic systems within their political-economic contexts, showing how technologies intending to see the city often function as instruments of dispossession. The research has three interconnected empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter traces the history of slum mapping in Mumbai, from their absences in early development plans to their selective hypervisibility under the contemporary governance regimes. Using critical cartographic methods, it highlights how novel technologies such as remote sensing, biometric …

Livelihood Adaptive Strategies And Marginalization In Decision-Making: A Study Of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (Glof) Vulnerable Communities In Northern Pakistan, Sobia Shah

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study examines livelihood adaptation strategies and the dynamics of marginalization in decision-making within communities vulnerable to Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in Gilgit-Baltistan, Northern Pakistan. Grounded in a vulnerability framework encompassing exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, it addresses two objectives: identifying household and community-level adaptation strategies to GLOF risks and analyzing structural drivers of marginalization in adaptation decision-making. A mixed-methods design was used, combining a systematic review of GLOF measures in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region with a household survey of 150 respondents in Hassanabad and Hoper valleys. Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) assessed how socio-demographic, economic, institutional, and …

Assessing High-Speed Rail (Hsr) Policy And Politics In Washington State: Avoiding The Mistakes Of The Past, Landen K. Hashimura

All Master's Theses

While international standard high-speed rail (HSR) has yet to be successfully completed in the US, there is a national interest in the topic, as evidenced by recent federal initiatives to research HSR across various corridors. The Cascadia Corridor has been identified as a region with high potential for HSR, leading to an ongoing study in the State of Washington. Given the tumultuous history of American HSR development, the Cascadia HSR initiative needs to avoid the mistakes of the past. Two major contributing factors to this failure to build HSR are uneven political support for HSR and poor policy frameworks. Despite …

How Much Antisemitism Is There In The United States? Incidences Vs. Impacts, Ira Sheskin

FIU Law Review

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) (www.adl.org), founded in 1913, is one of the nation's premier civil rights organizations and was formed to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all. Every year since 1979, the ADL has published an Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in the US (https://www.adl.org/resources/report/audit-antisemitic-incidents-2023). The Audit receives significant publicity and is important in communicating the problem of serious antisemitic incidents and the year-to-year increases in such incidents. But, based on surveys of American Jews, the Audit underestimates the extent to which American Jews are being impacted by antisemitism. Survey data …

Slum Area Detection In Dhaka City, Bangladesh, Using Satellite Remote Sensing And Deep Learning, Soubhoon Sadeq Shinjini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dhaka City, a rapidly growing megacity and high-density developing area in Bangladesh, faces numerous urbanization challenges. Among these, informal settlements or slum areas pose serious concerns for authorities and policymakers striving to improve living conditions for slum dwellers. Dhaka City’s slums are characterized by high-density, one- or two-story structures made of low-cost materials, often located adjacent to natural water bodies and lacking basic public infrastructure (Ahmed 2014; Iqbal 2014; Jahan 2012). The need for accurate and up-to-date data on these settlements is crucial for researchers and policymakers, particularly for implementing slum upgradation and resettlement programs. However, traditional field surveys for …

Gender Equality And Social Capital Empowerment Of Rural Women, Nuraedah Nuraedah, Syamsul Bahri -

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

This study explores the role of social capital in empowering rural women, focusing on how social networks, trust, and community norms contribute to gender equality and women's decision-making. Despite the recognition of gender equality as a fundamental right, rural women continue to face structural barriers that limit their access to resources and opportunities. By examining the interaction between social capital and women's empowerment, this research aims to fill the gap in understanding the mechanisms that support women's empowerment in rural areas. The research adopts a qualitative approach, utilizing in-depth interviews with 30 women from various villages in Indonesia, complemented by …

Workable Seams, Jackson Mills Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In Jackson Mills Smith’s Workable Seams, readers encounter the stories, landscapes, and lives of rural Knox County, Indiana, from the oscillating vantage of a Hoosier boy raised with a Cajun sensibility. After relocating from Louisiana to the river bottoms of the crossroad state at a young age, the speaker gradually uncovers a local history only previously understood in fragmentary shards and fading glimpses.

Alternating between semi-lyrical embodied experiences and memories, documentary pieces in conversation with the state’s historical archive, and the retelling of exaggerated local yarns, poetry is a means of inquiry in Workable Seams. Topics range from …

Family Roots And Research Journal Unm Emeritus Professor José A. Rivera, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

This article is an abbreviated life narrative of UNM Emeritus Professor of Community and Regional Planning, José A. Rivera. It begins with highlights of his family ancestry and continues with an account of his educational experiences K-12 and into a decade of university life as a student while earning a bachelor’s, two master’s and a doctorate. He taught at UNM for 35 years while also conducting research in his areas of interest, mostly in community irrigation studies, mutual aid societies, and rural development. The main body in the article focuses on positions he held at UNM and on publications that …

An Exploratory Study Of Ukrainian Refugee Resettlement Patterns And Education Resource Needs In Poland, Marta Gintowt

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine that started in late February 2022 triggered a refugee crisis that reverberated throughout Europe. During the onset of the invasion, an estimated five million Ukrainian refugees, mostly women, children, and the elderly, fled to countries in Europe and beyond. Countries were not prepared for the magnitude of the initial influx of refugees, who are a vulnerable population who require specific immediate and long-term supports. As three years have passed since the start of the war, the needs of refugees have evolved, and resources providing educational support to refugee children have taken on increased importance. …

Operationalizing Intersectionality Analysis For Urban Agriculture In Quito, Ecuador, Laine N. Young

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis outlines the results of a case study in Quito, Ecuador with the municipally led participatory urban agriculture project, AGRUPAR, an internationally recognized project that promotes women’s empowerment, traditional knowledge, agroecology, and livelihoods. It works to improve the lives of those experiencing high levels of poverty in Quito. This dissertation applies an intersectional analysis to urban agriculture research to enhance attention to power relations, social justice, and equity within its scholarly and practical realms. Intersectionality is an understanding that people have unique experiences of oppression based on their unique social location (what intersecting social categories they belong to) and …

Integrating Indigenous Values And Community Strengths To Achieve Indigenous Food Sovereignty And Community Well-Being In The Ka’A’Gee Tu First Nation, Northwest Territories, Jennifer K. Temmer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Northern Indigenous communities face disproportionate impacts from interconnected challenges related to climate change, food security, health, and cultural preservation, that threaten traditional food systems and practices. While there is a growing recognition of the importance of community-driven solutions, existing frameworks fail to integrate Indigenous values and local priorities effectively. This research addresses this gap by exploring how the Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation (KTFN) is responding to these crises through climate change adaptation efforts focused on food system sustainability as a pathway to self-sufficiency and community well-being. To contribute to these efforts, this dissertation uses Participatory Action Research to facilitate community-driven …