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Profile:
I am a doctoral student, studying part-time. My job requires a lot of travel and/or long hours, so I’m only occasionally on campus.
I’m working on my dissertation research proposal to use the original Public Land Survey System (PLSS) survey notes and plats to reconstruct the cultural landscape of recently-ceded Native American lands in what was the Mississippi Territory c. 1820-40. The core spatial focus will be between Tupelo and Pontotoc MS, to cover what should have been the Chickasaw "heartland" at Removal. I will build this archive using GIS and database technologies. This archive will then be used to explore (a) the cultural landscape as documented in the survey vs. other sources of information, and (b) patterns of inscription and absence of Native American cultural features as created by the Euro-American surveyors.
I've been lucky in having the opportunity to re-invent myself every few years. I've worked in anthropology, public administration, policy analysis, urban and regional planning, and information technology (at various levels from programmer and system administrator through software engineer and data architect). I figure I’ve got time for two or three more professions before I’m done.
Background
I have had over 20 years experience in local government, with agencies ranging from an Indian tribe to city planning to a regional river authority. I also hold professional certifications from the American Institute of Certified Planners, the Project Management Institute, and the GIS Certification Institute.
I am now a Senior IT Consultant at Westin Engineering, which specializes in applications of information technology to water and wastewater utilities. I specialize in enterprise data architecture and information technology strategic planning. I previously spent nine years as Software Engineering Manager at PlanGraphics, Inc. (an international information technology and systems integration consulting firm specializing in GIS), and over two years at Atos Origin, Inc., in their Business Intelligence and data warehousing practice.
Professional Goals
My intent in pursuing graduate education is to achieve a better balance between applied techniques and a broader theoretical understanding. My research interests include (a) historic geography, especially in urban and cultural topics, and (b) issues of conceptualization, categorization, and representation of geospatial facts, especially in GIS applications.
Personal Stuff
I do have a real life beyond the office and classroom — although my family points out that there’s still too damned little of it! Stuff I enjoy includes: reading (thank the gods!) especially history and SF, intelligent or at least interesting conversation, cats, drinking good beer, cooking, blacksmithing, and large caliber handguns.
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