About Geography at FSU

Welcome to the Department of Geography at FSU. We are a resourceful and dynamic group of 13 faculty, 1 emeritus professor, 2 staff, 67 graduate students pursuing masters and doctoral programs, and around 160 undergraduate majors in geography and environmental studies.

Founded in 1925, the discipline of geography to us means understanding the critical role of spatial reasoning for representing and explaining our rapidly changing world. As such, our research expertise covers three major areas of study.

(i) Geographic Information Science

Faculty expertise and interests in GISci include research in land use modeling and data integration (Mesev), Bayesian and stochastic analysis (Elsner), transport accessibility and network flows (Horner), remote sensing (Mesev and Yang), environmental applications (Yang), and population applications (Jordan). Research and teaching is conducted in two fully-equipped and purpose-built labs with all major GIS and remote sensing proprietary software and dedicated GIS graduate assistants.

Quite notably, in addition to traditional Master's and Ph.D. programs in GISci, we offer the only one-year applied professional Master's degree in GISci in the Southeast. This program blends theoretical course work with real-world professional opportunities, and may be taken on a part-time basis. As do all our graduate programs, the professional masters program in GIS boasts a stellar placement rate.

(ii) Political and Economic Geography

This area of expertise has a long tradition at FSU and explores a range of topics, in particular, poverty and hunger (Kodras), geopolitics and national identity (O’Sullivan), producer services, international trade and the geography of telecommunications and cyberspace (Warf), political ecology (Klooster), electoral politics and geographic education (Leib), governance of global spaces and marine territoriality (Steinberg), and fertility and mortality (Jordan).

(iii) Human-Environmental Interactions

The third group of proficiency bridges the gap between the social and natural landscapes by addressing issues that examine specifically, hurricane mitigation and damage (Baker and Elsner), community forestry, conservation and management in Latin America (Klooster), and governance of global resources (Steinberg).