Faculty

Dawn Bowen
Associate Professor
B.A., Mary Washington College; M.A., University of Maine; Ph.D., Queen's University
dbowen@umw.edu

Dawn Bowen is fascinated by people and places. She teaches classes in Human Geography, the regional geography of Eastern and Western North America, Latin America, and Field Methods. She also teaches a sustainable development course in Costa Rica. Her research focuses on ethnic settlement in Canada’s boreal forest and the northward of expansion of agriculture.

Curriculm Vitae (pdf format)

Jacqueline Gallagher
Assistant Professor
B.Sc., University of Wales, College of Swansea; M.Sc. Memorial University of Newfoundland; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles.
jgallagh@umw.edu

Jackie Gallagher's interests include Quaternary science and geomorphology, particularly the evolution of landscapes over time, as well as field methods, biogeography and the geography of natural hazards. She will be teaching geographic information systems and mobile GIS through GPS. Recent research is focused on the Kissimmee River restoration and Lake Okeechobee, in Florida.

Curriculum Vitae (pdf format)

Stephen Hanna
Professor and Department Chair
B.A., Clark University; M.A., University of Vermont; Ph.D., University of Kentucky
shanna@umw.edu

Stephen Hanna's teaching and research interests include economic geography and development, cartography and geographic techniques, and the interactions of culture and economy in the production of tourism destinations. In the latter context he is especially interested in the roles media representations play in the creation of heritage tourism spaces.

Curriculum Vitae (Web page)
Curriculm Vitae (pdf format)
Media Relations information

Joseph W. Nicholas
Associate Professor
B.A., Bemidji State University; M.S., University of North Dakota; Ph.D., University of Georgia
jnichola@umw.edu

Joe Nicholas's teaching and research interests include Alpine Periglacial Geomorphology, Quaternary Environments, Climatology, and Biogeography. His principal research area has been the La Sal Mountains of southeastern Utah, where he has studied rock glaciers and other talus landforms for clues to Holocene climate change.
Curriculum vitae

Melina Patterson
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Rutgers University
mpatters@umw.edu

Melina Patterson's areas of specialization include political and urban geographies and tend to focus on historical processes that produce contemporary spatial patterns of social inequality. She researches the political and spatial dynamics of schools and educational policy, the dynamics of community organizing around public institutions, the legacy of racial segregation and the emergence of the modern world-economy.
Curriculum vitae

Donald N. Rallis
Associate Professor
B.A., B.Sc (Hons) University of the Witwatersrand; M.A., University of Miami;
Ph.D., Penn State University
dnrallis@umw.edu

Donald Rallis's teaching and research interests include world regional geography, urban geography, and regional geographies of East and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Australasia.

Curriculum vitae

Brian R. Rizzo
Assistant Professor
B.A., M.A. University of Western Ontario; Ph.D. University of Virginia.
rizzo@umw.edu

While an undergraduate geography major - decades ago, Brian became involved with a new area of geography that would evolve into Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In the 20+ years since, he has been involved in developing GIS data structures and applications to address a wide range of issues. Brian's research focus's on global climate change as it relates to the biogeographic distribution of vegetation and Infrastructure management within a GIS framework.

Curriculum vitae

Farhang Rouhani
Associate Professor
B.A., University of California; M.A., Ph.D., University of Arizona
frouhani@umw.edu

Farhang Rouhani's teaching and research interests encompass several significant aspects of political, urban, and cultural geographies, including the cultural and political dimensions of globalization; nationalism, transnationalism, and state formation in the Middle East; the geography of telecommunications;and the socio-spatial politics of everyday life.
Curriculum vitae