Professor
307 St. John's College
(204) 474-8241
Email
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Courses Offered:
Introduction to Human Geography
GEOG 1280 - Winter Term
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Current Research Projects
One of the principal interests in contemporary cultural geography concerns interpretations of identity and place with emphasis on competing identities and contested places. Building on an emerging body of social theory, this research investigates identities and places as different ethnic and religious groups understand them. Appropriate areas to conduct this work are those of religious settlement and what are commonly called ‘ethnic islands’ and the Mormon settlements at Nauvoo (Ill) and Voree (WI) are being investigated. A related concern is with those locations that are developed as heritage tourism sites with questions of authenticity and cultural reinvention.
Some current research challenges many of the prevailing assumptions concerning appropriate ways to study human geography. One such emphasis focuses on the development of a set of concepts—derived from the psychological tradition of behavior analysis—concerning the human geographic analysis of behavior, and on the application of the concepts to problems of landscape evolution. Of particular concern are the concepts of rule-governed behavior and establishing operations.
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Recent Publications
2010: Human Geography. Toronto: Oxford University Press, seventh edition, 658pp.
2007: Canada in the Contemporary World. Toronto: Emond Montgomery Press, Co-author, Grade 9 textbook, 350pp.
2006: The World Today: Its People and Places. Winnipeg: Portage and Main Press. Project Coordinator and Senior Author, Grade 7 textbook, 315pp.
2005: Cultural Geography: Environments, Landscapes, Identities, Inequalities. Toronto: Oxford University Press, second edition, 455pp.
2004: Human Geography. Toronto: Oxford University Press, fifth edition, 538pp.
2003: ‘“After-The-Fact Causality”: A Different Direction For Cultural Geography,’ Area, 35, 4, 418-426.
2002: ‘Explaining Landscape Change: Group Identity and Behavior,’ Behavior Analyst Today, 3, 2, 155-160.
2001: ‘Following Rules in the Intermontane West: Nineteenth Century Mormon Settlement,’ The Behavior Analyst, 24, 1, 57-73.
2001: ‘Initiating an Affair: Human Geography and Behavior Analysis,’ Behavior Analyst Today, 2, 4, 283-289.
2001: Human Geography. Toronto: Oxford University Press, fourth edition, 436pp.
In addition to these recent publications I have also published two other books—Historical Analysis in Geography (Longman 1984) and Explorations in the Understanding of Landscape (Greenwood 1989) and about fifty refereed articles.