Core Programs & Research Clusters
The Department is known for high quality research and graduate education in human geography, and we are currently adding faculty in physical geography in accordance with our strategic plan, and funded in part through our RCTF designation, to build up a focused research cluster in Earth Surface Systems. Program strengths include close faculty/student interaction, flexibility in designing an appropriate plan of study, and research training in seminar environments. Emphasis at both the M.A. and Ph.D. levels is placed on theoretical and methodological training. This training is closely integrated with both breadth and depth in substantive literatures. Student research also is empirically rich, with data often acquired through off-campus fieldwork. Members of the faculty are committed to assisting students in disseminating their research through publications in professional journals and presentations at conferences, and in obtaining external funding. Graduate students also gain valuable experience as instructors with full responsibility in undergraduate courses. Rounding out graduate students' experiences is their active participation in departmental governance and service as members of departmental committees.
Faculty and student research in the Department focuses on interrelated thematic clusters. Research seminars are organized around topics relevant to these clusters. The thematic content of seminars varies in accordance with the current interests of graduate students and faculty. The research clusters we presently identify are:
Cultural Studies: Interpretation and analysis of the built environment; space and representation; the political economy of landscape production; US roadscapes; regional imagery; media studies; popular culture; the social construction of community; historic preservation; recreation, tourism and society.
Development Studies: Policies and practices of development; political economy perspectives on development; anti-development and postcolonial theory; household survival strategies; the relations between migration, transportation, tourism, and economic development; environmental management and sustainable development.
- Earth Surface Systems: Fluvial, coastal, and soil geomorphology; hydrology; earth surface systems; systems modeling issues and problems.
Environmental Geography: Critical Theories of Nature (political ecology, ecological economics, green social movements, environmental sustainability, the politics of environmental management and conservation policy); Environment and Development (post-colonial environmental history, models of environmental management in development, local environmental movements in developing areas, global environmental policymaking);Resource geographies of Asia and the United States (especially oil); Trade, Markets and Environment (markets in ecosystem services, fair trade networks, neoliberal environmental policy, environmental policies of multinational corporations). Faculty has particular regional interests in Australia, Western China, the Indian sub-continent, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. -
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Political Geography: Questions of states, territory, and law; citizenship; migration and immigration; transnationalism; post-colonial and imperial geographies; Islamist politics; feminist geopolitics; political economy of environmental movements; political economy of globalization discourses and practices; and the local politics of urban and economic development. Faculty have particular regional and country-based interests in Latin America (especially Mexico), Middle East (especially Turkey), the European Union (UK, France, and Germany), and the United States.
Social Geography: Health care, disease, and society; the geography of AIDS; the geography of aging and the life course; poverty and social policy; race and gender; human behavior in space and time; population and migration studies; spatial structure of social networks; transportation of disadvantaged groups.
Social Theory: Theories of human spatiality; marxist, neo-marxist, and post-marxist theory; regulation theory; postmodernism and poststructuralism; feminist theory; queer theory; identity theory; race theory; geographic thought and society; technology and society.
Urban Geography: The local state; urban social fragmentation; conflicts over urban growth and development; economic impacts of transportation systems; urban historical geography; urban landscapes.
Economic Geography: regional economic restructuring; global financial systems; space-time convergence; information and telecommunications; geography of multinational corporations; impacts of foreign direct investment and trade.
Faculty have regional expertise in South and Southeast Asia, Japan, the Himalayas, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East (particularly Turkey), the Central Asian republics, Western Europe, and Canada and the U.S. (particularly the Upland South).
In addition, students have access to faculty with expertise in a variety of methodological areas, including quantitative, especially multivariate statistics and modeling; mathematical demography; automated and production cartography; field methods; GIS and GPS; air photo interpretation; and qualitative research methodologies, including experiential methods; critical ethnography; textual and visual methods and deconstruction.
Seminars
Graduate and Undergraduate Classes
Geo 409G GIS and Science: Fundamentals (Kennedy)
Geo 441G Fluvial Forms and Processes (Phillips)
Geo 490 G American Landscapes (Raitz)
Geo 491G Japanese Landscapes (Karan)
Geo 505 Practicum in Cartography (Gilbreath)
Geo 530 Biogeography and Conservation (Phillips, Turkington)
Geo 542 Political Geography (Brunn, Secor, Wood)
Geo 544 Human Population Dynamics (Watkins)
Geo 545 Transportation Geography (Leinbach)
Geo 546 Tourism and Recreation Geography (Brunn)
Geo 550 Sustainable Resource Development and Environmental Management (Robertson)
Geo 551 Japanese Multinational Corporations (Karan)
Geo 585 Aging and Environment (Rowles)
Geo 560 Independent Work in Geography (Raitz)
Graduate Seminars
Geo 600 Introduction to Methods in Geography (Ehrkamp, Mutersbaugh, Robertson, Samers)
Geo 610 Advanced Analytical Methods in Geography (Leinbach, Samers, Wood)
Geo 702 Concepts in Geography (Roberts, Schein, Secor)
Geo 705 Advanced Geographic Methods (Ehrkamp, Roberts, Samers, Secor, Schein, Shannon)
Geo 706 Advanced Field Studies (Phillips, Turkington)
Geo 707 Development of Geographic Thought (Schein, Roberts, Samers, Ehrkamp)
Geo 711 Cultural Studies and Geography (Crutcher, Schein, Raitz)
Geo 712 Development Studies and Geography (Leinbach, Samers, Wood)
Geo 713 Economic Geography (Ehrkamp, Roberts, Samers, Secor, Wood)
Geo 714 Political Geography (Brunn, Ehrkamp, Mutersbaugh, Roberts, Samers, Secor, Wood)
Geo 715 Geography and Social Theory (Ehrkamp, Mutersbaugh, Roberts, Schein, Secor)
Geo 717 Urban Geography (Brunn, Crutcher, Ehrkamp, Samers, Wood)
Geo 720 Regional Studies (Brunn, Karan, Leinbach, Mutersbaugh, Samers, Secor)
Geo 721 Seminar in Physical Geography (Phillips, Robertson, Turkington)
Geo 722 Social Geography (Brunn, Mutersbaugh, Roberts, Secor)
Geo 731 Earth Surface Systems (Phillips, Robertson, Turkington)
Geo 740 Research Internship (Director of Graduate Studies)
Geo 741 Teaching Practicum (Faculty)
Geo 742 Preparing Future Faculty (Faculty)
Geo 743 Research Proposals and Grant Writing (Faculty)
Geo
748-001 Master's Thesis Research (Raitz)
Geo
749-001 Dissertation Research (Raitz)
Geo
768-001 Research Credit for Master's Degree (Raitz)
Geo
769-001 Research Credit for Doctoral Degree (Raitz)
Geo
772-001 Special Research Problems in Geography (Raitz)
Research Facilities
The Department of Geography has departmental offices for faculty and graduate students in the Patterson Office Tower. Across the plaza, Miller Hall is home to additional offices, laboratories, and the Department's Gyula Pauer Cartography and Geographic Information Laboratory with up-to-date computing, GIS, and mapping capabilities. The Laboratory's facilities support professional graphics workstations and ARC/INFO and other GIS, statistical, and visualization software. Geography students also have access to the University's excellent computational facilities. The W. T. Young Commonwealth Library houses over 2.6 million volumes. The library's holdings include a special Appalachian collection, a collection of Kentucky geographer Ellen Churchill Semple's papers, and a separate map library. It is also a regional depository for U.S. Census, Federal, and United Nations documents.
The Department maintains strong linkages with interdisciplinary research centers and programs on campus, including the Appalachian Center; the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging; The Kentucky Transportation Center; The Committee on Social
Theory; The Women's Studies Program; and The Environmental Systems Program. In addition, the University's new Japan Studies program is led by a geographer. These and other programs offer students an opportunity to engage with scholars from a broad range of disciplines. In addition, students may gain valuable international field experience through participation in the summer field courses organized each year in Yatsushiro, Japan, and Oaxaca, Mexico.
Applications and Admissions
Admission to the Geography Graduate Program at the University of Kentucky is internationally competitive. We strongly encourage applications for matriculation in the Fall semester (rather than Spring or Summer semesters). Applicants should submit their materials by January 15 to ensure a complete review. Applications will be accepted and decisions will continue after the January 15 date, but later applications may miss financial aid decision deadlines. The financial aid decision making process is separate from, and follows, the admissions process (and is detailed below).
The application process requires materials to be submitted to two separate places:
1. You should submit to the University of Kentucky Graduate School the following:
- Official Application Form
- Application Fee
- Two official transcripts from each University attended
- Official GRE scores (click here for more information)
- Official TOEFL scores if your first language is not English (click here for more information)
For additional information, please visit the Graduate School's web site. The mailing address is:
University of Kentucky
Graduate School
101 Gillis Building
Lexington, Kentucky, 40506-0033 USA
telephone (859) 257-4613
fax (859) 323-1928
2. You should submit directly to the Director of Graduate Studies in the Geography Department the following:
- Copies of material sent to the Graduate School (transcripts, GRE and TOEFL scores). Unofficial copies are acceptable.
- Three letters of reference from persons who can evaluate your potential for success in our graduate program
- A statement of your goals and objectives in which you discuss your areas of scholarly interest, any research directions you may wish to pursue, and how your interests and goals fit with those of the University of Kentucky's Graduate Program in Geography (about two pages double-spaced)
- One sentence requesting consideration for assistantships and fellowships (if desired)
- A resume or Curriculum vitae (if available)
Applications are reviewed by a Department of Geography faculty committee (the Graduate Committee), which makes a recommendation to the Department's Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), who is responsible for admissions decisions. Questions about the application process and the status of applications may be directed to the DGS. The Graduate Committee does not emphasize one aspect of the application over any other, but takes the entire package under consideration, and is motivated in its decision making by the applicant's potential for success in graduate study in general, and graduate study in our department in particular.
The department welcomes students with undergraduate concentrations in related fields. In some cases students without an academic background in Geography may be required to complete additional coursework so as to gain appropriate foundational knowledge.
We especially encourage applications from women and students from minority populations. The University of Kentucky has several special fellowships for minority graduate students. The DGS or the Graduate School's Office of Recruitment may be contacted for further details.
We encourage applicants and prospective applicants to visit the Department and the University of Kentucky to learn more about our graduate program. A visit gives the prospective student a valuable opportunity to see the campus and our facilities and to meet with faculty and graduate students to discuss interests and goals. In addition, a visit is a chance to explore the wonderfully liveable city of Lexington and its beautiful Bluegrass surroundings. To schedule a visit, contact the DGS. For information about Kentucky see our About Us section.
Financial Aid
Financial aid decisions are made subsequent to the admissions process, in much the same manner (file review by the Graduate Committee and recommendation to the Director of Graduate Studies). We begin evaluating applications for financial aid after January 15, and applicants wishing to be competitive and wanting to be considered for the full range of aid possibilities listed below should have their applications in by that date. A very high proportion of students in our graduate program are supported by Teaching Assistantships, Research Assistantships, or Fellowships of various kinds. The major types of financial aid available are described below.
- Teaching Assistantships (TAs). These are awarded on a competitive basis by the Department's Graduate Committee faculty. TAs typically work 20 hours each week during the academic year. TAs in the M.A. program usually assist professors in introductory courses, gaining practical experience in instruction, student advising, grading, and exam preparation. TAs who are students in the Ph.D. program normally have their own introductory course for which they assume full responsibility. The Chair of the Department, in consultation with the DGS and TAs, makes decisions on TA assignments. Summer teaching is available on a limited basis. First year TAs are required to attend a University TA orientation prior to the first day of classes. The University also requires that international TAs (ITAs) from non- English speaking countries participate in an ITA orientation. In addition, the Department offers a one credit-hour teaching practicum course each Fall semester for all TAs. This course is required of all new TAs, but all incoming first year students are encouraged to take the course and it is open to all graduate students in Geography interested in teaching. In addition, TAs can use the support services and resources of the University of Kentucky Teaching and Academic Support Center.
Research Assistantships (RAs) may be obtained through a variety of sources, including faculty research grants, research positions affiliated with other units on campus, and special projects within the department. RAs generally assist faculty members with several aspects of a research program thereby gaining valuable research experience.
Transportation Fellowships are available for students combining a one year program in Advanced Transport Systems Management with their M.A. or Ph.D. Degree. Interested students should write directly to Professor Michael Samers, Academic Coordinator, for further details
Fellowships. Exceptional applicants may be nominated by the department for one of a number of fellowships offered through the Graduate School, which are allocated on the basis of campus-wide competition. There are several types of fellowship, including several dedicated to minority students. For details see the Graduate School Fellowships page.
Teaching Assistantships and most other forms of financial aid include tuition scholarships. In addition, most of these forms of financial aid include health insurance.
Fellows and TAs are normally supported for the following time periods: incoming M.A. students, two years; incoming Ph.D. students, four years; successful M.A. students who continue in our program receive a further three years support for the Ph.D., that is, five years in total. These award periods are contingent upon the student's satisfactory progress in the degree
program, and upon the maintenance of the department's current levels of support.
Graduate Student Life
Graduate students are valued members of the vibrant intellectual community centered in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky. Graduate students enjoy learning in a friendly and collegial atmosphere where there are ample opportunities for interaction with faculty, adjunct faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and fellow students. We deliberately foster an open and inclusive scholarly community, in which a diverse group of students can flourish.
The cornerstones of the Graduate Program are the seminars offered each semester. The required courses are offered on a regular basis and serve to provide a strong background in theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues in geography. In addition, students take seminars in areas related to their own research interests. Very often projects completed in seminars are the basis for papers students submit for publication or papers presented at scholarly meetings. Master's thesis and Ph.D dissertation topics frequently emerge out of seminar settings and are developed in close consultation with an advisor and a thesis committee. Click here for a list of recent UK thesis titles.
As part of the process of departmental governance, Graduate Students have the opportunity to develop professional skills through participation in a range of departmental activities. Graduate students work with faculty on departmental committees, and are involved in planning the Colloquia Series, the annual Fall Picnic, and the Ellen Churchill Semple Day celebrations each spring.
Geography graduate students enjoy participating in the interdisciplinary programs at the University of Kentucky. Many graduate students take seminars in the programs offered through the Women Studies Program, the Committee on Social Theory, and complete Graduate Certificates in these and other areas such as Environmental Systems. Research centers, such as the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, the Appalachian Center, and the KentuckyTransportation Center also offer opportunities for Geography graduate students.
Graduate students from our program have an excellent record of participation at scholarly meetings. Each year several students participate in conferences, including the Cincinnati Mini-Conference on Critical Geography, the meetings of the South East Division of the Association of American Geographers (SEDAAG), and the national meetings of the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Graduate students also collaborate in organizing sessions at these and other meetings. Each year there are funds available on a competitive basis from the Graduate School to support participation in scholarly meetings and conferences.
In addition, graduate students are active in the major professional associations and the discipline scholarly community more broadly, serving on the boards of AAG Specialty Groups, managing electronic listservs, and participating in other organizational activities.
Most graduate students at the Ph.D. level, and many in the MA program, submit research papers, book reviews, and/or review articles, for publication in premier journals. Recent publications by University of Kentucky Geography Graduate students have appeared in Gender, Place and Culture, Political Geography, Geography of the Post-Soviet Union, Professional Geographer, Ecumene, The Journal of Historical Geography, Urban Geography, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. Several students have authored chapters in edited collections. Some students have been active in developing web-based texts and materials for publishers and for the University of Kentucky Office of Distance Learning. Graduate students are assisted in publication by faculty members and learn about this and other aspects of professional development in the one-credit course titled Preparing Future Faculty offered each year and open to all graduate students.
Graduate Students have had success in applying for extra-mural funding and faculty members are committed to working with students in this process. In addition, GEO 710 offers the chance to develop research proposals. Recently, geography graduate students have been very successful in obtaining nationally competitive grants and awards. Over the past four years, students have been awarded fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the National Security Education Program, and the Rockefeller Humanities Program. In addition, students have been awarded research funds from the J. William Fulbright Dissertation Program and the National Science Foundation. The Graduate School has an incentive program that adds some matching funds to national awards.
Students in our graduate program have a range of professional goals and career plans. In the later stages of their degree program, students work with their Advisor and Advisory Committee to develop strategies for success in the job market. Recent graduates have obtained a variety of jobs in academe, the private sector, and government. The Graduate Program maintains contact
with alumni through an e-mail listserv, receptions at AAG meetings, and regular mailings.
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