Lecturer Biographies
Bios 2003 Tours Travel Program, 2003 AGS Publications
[July through December]
Last Updated:
December 5, 2003
The AGS Travel Program
AGS Lecturer Biographies [2002 Tours]
Dr. George Demko
French Riviera & Iberian Peninsula, September 2002
Dr. George J. Demko is Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College, and a faculty member at Charles University in Prague. He received his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University, and has been a visiting professor at a number of institutions, including Moscow State University and Swarthmore College. Dr. Demko is a specialist in geopolitics and population geography, and has written 17 books and more than 90 articles, including Regional Economic Development Problems and Policies in Eastern and Western Europe, Reordering the World: A Geopolitical Perspective on the 21st Century, American Perceptions of Europe on the Cusp of the 21st Century, and Modern Maritime Piracy. He is also a specialist in international crime fiction, and writes a regular column on mysteries set in foreign countries (his web site is www. dartmouth.edu/~gjdemko). Dr. Demko has been the Geographer of the U.S. Department of State, and Vice President and President of the Association of American Geographers. He recently received the Gold Medal of Charles University for a lifetime of contributions to geographical knowledge and the promotion of international intellectual cooperation. Dr. Demko is a Fellow of the American Geographical Society, a contributor to the Geographical Review and FOCUS on Geography magazine, and a member of the Board of Editors of FOCUS on Geography.
Dr. Ronald Wixman
Danube River, September 2002
Dr. Ronald Wixman is a Professor of Geography at the University of Oregon. He is a specialist in southeast Europe and the former Soviet Union. Dr. Wixman has visited the region more than 30 times and is an expert on the region's ethnic culture, folk dance, and religion. Dr. Wixman earned his B.A. from Hunter College, his M.A. from Columbia University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He has taught on a range of subjects relating to ethnic geography, the geography of religion, cultural geography, and ethno-political geography of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Dr. Wixman is the author of numerous books, articles, and papers. Throughout your Danube River tour, Dr. Wixman will discuss a variety of topics relating to the cultures and customs of the areas we visit.
Dr. W. George Lovell
The Western Caribbean, September 2002
Dr. W. George Lovell was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. After graduating from the University of Glasgow (1973) with an M.A. in regional and systematic geography, he moved to Canada and earned two degrees from the University of Alberta (M.A., 1975; Ph.D., 1980). Since 1979, Dr. Lovell has taught at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he is Professor of Geography. His primary research interest is colonial Latin America, especially native responses to imperial domination, patterns of indigenous survival, and the connection between Old World disease and New World depopulation. The regional setting that he is most familiar with is Central America, but over the years he has conducted research throughout Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. His work takes him often to Spain, for research spells at the Archive of the Indies in Seville. Dr. Lovell's publishing credentials include seven book titles in eleven different editions. The recipient of the 1995 Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Research Award from the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, he is a fluent speaker of Spanish, and is co-editor of the journal Mesoamérica, the premier forum for scholarly research on Central America. Dr. Lovell is a Fellow of the American Geographical Society, and a member of the editorial advisory board of AGS' Geographical Review, to which he has contributed several articles.
Dr. Peirce Lewis
Transcontinental Rail Journal, October 2002
Dr. Peirce Lewis is Professor Emeritus of Geography at Pennsylvania State University. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography at the University of Michigan, and his B.A. (summa cum laude) in Philosophy and History at Albion College. For four decades, Dr. Lewis has been a student of American physical and human landscapes - especially the urban and rural landscapes created by 'ordinary' Americans. His writings on these subjects have been published widely and have been honored nationally and internationally. He has served as President of the Association of American Geographers, and has been awarded fellowships by the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Dr. Lewis is a recipient of the Lindback Foundation Award, Penn State's highest award for distinguished teaching, and a national award as a distinguished teacher at the college level by the National Council for Geographic Education. He has traveled extensively in the US and abroad, and has lectured to numerous academic and non-academic audiences throughout North America. Among Dr. Lewis' publications are New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape, and a recent article, The Landscapes of Mobility, which describes America's romance with transportation, and how transportation technology has shaped America's history and landscape. He has been a Fellow of the American Geographical Society for many decades, and has written for AGS' Geographical Review.
Dr. David J. Keeling
Chilean Fjords, November 2002
Dr. David J. Keeling is a professor and Head of the Department of Geography and Geology at Western Kentucky University. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Oregon. Dr. Keeling's research interests include regional development, global resources, economic growth, and transport in the peripheral regions of South America, particularly in Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Geography and Latin American studies, and has published numerous books, including Contemporary Argentina: A Geographical Perspective, articles, and reviews on the region. Dr. Keeling's travels include more than 175 countries - two million miles through the Americas, Europe, the C.I.S., the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Oceania - and he has visited Chile many times. He lectures widely (and has lectured on AGS study tours since 1995), and he is very active in professional organizations. His lectures on this trip will address such issues as deforestation, Chile's economic sustainability, the ozone hole, and the Falkland Islands conflict. Dr. Keeling is currently a Councilor and the Webmaster of the American Geographical Society.
Dr. Robert Kent
Antarctica, November 2002
Dr. Robert Kent is Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Akron, Ohio.
He earned his B.A. and M.A. in Geography at the University of California, Davis, and his Ph.D. in Geography at Syracuse University. Dr. Kent's research interests
include human geography, Latin American studies, regional and urban development and planning, and thematic cartography. He has served as a consultant to United States
Agency for International Development on regional planning and development in Peru, Bolivia, and Pakistan; and as a Latin America expert for Microsoft Corporation and
Holt, Rinehart, and Winston Co. He held a Senior Fulbright Lecturer Fellowship in Argentina in 1993-94. Dr. Kent has edited or co-edited two books, and contributed
sections to a number of volumes and several encyclopedias, including many articles on South America for Microsoft's Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia. He has published
many articles, reports, field studies and book reviews, including articles contributed to AGS' Geographical Review. Dr. Kent
is a Fellow of the AGS and has led three previous trips for the organization, including one to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego in 1995.
Click on 2003 Lecturer Bios for the biographies of Lecturers on the 2003 Tours.
Click here to link to the AGS travel program site.
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