Growth and Change - UTK Geography

research relationships with excellent facultymembers in several other departments at UT.We have been able to increase our scholar-ship, improve our curriculum, and continue ouroutreach programs. I have enjoyed basking inthe glow of the hard work of others.

I also have learned many new thingsin the past six years. Among the most impor-tant have been aspects of human nature(mostly my own), the importance of liberalarts education, and the central role we canplay in that endeavor. The University ofTennessee is populated by many extraordinar-ily gifted and dedicated people, some of thebest of whom are in this department. Workingwith the students, faculty and staff of theDepartment of Geography has reinforced mybelief that cultures of excellence and civilityneed not be mutually exclusive. For this I willalways be grateful.

The Depart-ment ofGeography isgoing througha significantgrowth spurt.We will addtwo newfaculty mem-

bers at the start of the next academic year.Dr. Liem Tran, who works in GIS and envi-ronmental geography, has accepted an ap-pointment as an Assistant Professor. Healready has research projects with our col-leagues at ORNL and TVA. Also joining ourfaculty will be Dr. Ronald Kalafsky. Dr.Kalafsky is a leader in the study of globaltrends in industrial geography. His work isfascinating and appeals not only to geogra-phers but also to anyone interested in thechanging global economy. We are thrilled tohave Drs. Tran and Kalafsky join our faculty.Another area of growth is in external funding.Drs. Sally Horn and Ken Orvis, along withLynn Champion of the College of Arts andSciences, have been awarded a $1.97 milliongrant for earth science outreach from theNational Science Foundation. That programwill start this semester.

Change is also in the offing, as thismarks my sixth and final year as DepartmentHead. The past six years have witnessedsubstantial growth in the Department. When Ibecame Department Head, we were justmoving into the Burchfiel Geography Building.Over the past six years, the number of majorshas increased by at least a factor of four, theamount of externally funded research hasrisen sharply, we have added three newfaculty lines, our students have won numerousawards, and we have developed collaborative

UTK GEOGRAPHYNewsletter of the University of Tennessee Department of Geography Spring 2006

Dept. of Geography304 Burchfiel Bldg.Knoxville, TN 37996

Growth and Changeby Bruce Ralston

The TGA Turns 20 The Tennessee Geographic Alliance

was created in 1986 by Dr. Sid Jumper as oneof seven pilot Alliances under the newlyestablished Geography Education Program ofthe National Geographic Society. Mr. GilbertGrosvenor, President and Chairman of theBoard of the National Geographic Society, hadcreated the Geography Education Program toaddress the alarming state of geographicilliteracy among the nation’s youth, as well asamong its adult population. Mr. Grosvenoroffered a small amount of start-up funding($6,000), and a promise of matching up to$50,000 in support obtained from state govern-ments and other sources to help fund Allianceprograms focused on K-12 geography literacy.Opportunities were also provided through theNGS Geography Education Program for the

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Tennessee Alliance to select some seventeachers in 1986, five in 1987, and four duringensuing years, to attend four-week all-expenses-paid geography institutes at the National Geo-graphic Society in Washington, DC. Those whoattended the NGS institutes in 1986, 1987, andbeyond, have joined hands with others complet-ing Tennessee Alliance institutes to provide acore of excellent and dedicated Teacher Con-sultants which continues to grow and mature. The Tennessee Alliance, initially operatingonly within the Knoxville area, decided that itsfirst task should be to go directly to experiencedteachers for information about their needs. Inresponse to a randomly distributed invitation tolocal area schools, a surprisingly large turnout of123 teachers attended an exploratory meeting onthe University of Tennessee, Knoxville campusduring the spring of 1986. The teachers werevirtually unanimous in asking for help in acquir-ing geographic content, and in asserting analready sufficient background in teachingmethods. They also asked for help in acquiringmaps and teaching materials. Thus came thedecisions of the Alliance to emphasize contentover method, to provide as rich an array ofmaterials to teachers as possible, to treatteachers as first class professionals, and toprovide continuing opportunities for them tointeract with distinguished university and privatesector geographers. The Alliance has also beenguided by a philosophy that promotes self-learning, that encourages development of“learning frameworks” rather than memorizationof places and facts about places, that providesfor active student involvement in their ownlearning, that emphasizes analytical processesthrough which students can adequately interpretthe dynamic world in which they live, and thatviews the desired end product of education asan open door to discovery rather than “knowing”a particular set of facts and figures. Emphasisis given to an understanding of utilizing the“geographic perspective” rather than memoriza-tion of places and facts about those places.

Under the leadership of Sid Jumper andTed Schmudde, who served as co-coordinatorsthrough the late 1990s, and now under theguidance of Kurt Butefish, the Alliance hasgrown to over 5000 members with area chaptersin eight cities around the state. The organizationhas expended over $3.5 million on geography

education, andprovided 42workshops ofone to fourweeks induration to1,061 teachers.Throughpartneringwith organiza-tions such asthe PopulationReferenceBureau, theUnited StatesGeologicalSurvey, Ameri-can Geophysi-cal Union,

Public Education Foundation and the GreatSmoky Mountains National Park, the Alliancehas been able to offer unusually creative andbeneficial programs for teachers. Moreover,in 1997, Mr. and Mrs. J. Harrison Livingstondonated $250,000, which was matched by the

NationalGeographicSocietyEducationFoundation(NGSEF) toestablish a$500,000endowment forthe Alliance.Additional sumswere providedfor the endow-ment (andmatched byNGSEF) by thefamily of BruceRalston, andthrough contri-

butions from teachers who had benefited fromAlliance programs, to raise the endowmenttotal to some $740,000. Later, after declinesin the stock market resulted in erosion of theendowment to approximately $600,000, theNational Geographic Society (NGS) trans-ferred $400,000 into the Tennessee Allianceendowment from the Williams Fund, a major

Sid Jumper

Ted Schmudde

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Investment Opportunities in Geography

The Tennessee Geography Education Fund –This endowment began in 1997 with gifts fromJ. Harrison Livingston and the TennesseeGeographic Alliance that were matched by theNational Geographic Society. Another endow-ment is being established and the NationalGeographic Society can match an additional$500,000.

Stewart K. McCroskey Memorial Fund –Established by the McCroskey family afterStewart’s death. This fund supports fieldresearch and professional travel by Geographystudents and faculty.

Sid Jumper Teachers’ Scholarship Fund –Established in 1995 when Sid Jumper steppeddown from the role of Head of the department,this fund supports graduate training for K-12teachers.

Bill & Donna Cobble Geography Enhance-ment Endowment – Proceeds from this fund,established in 1995 by Bill & Donna Cobble insupport of undergraduate education in Geogra-phy at UTK, are used to enhance the educa-tional experiences of undergraduate students.

Edwin H. & Elizabeth H. Hammond Endow-ment Fund in Geography – Established tohonor Professor Hammond, who retired in 1987and who continues to match gifts to the fund,this endowment brings a distinguished lecturerto the department each year.

Gifts to the Geography Department may be designed for a specific purpose or fund orgiven to the department’s Enrichment Fund as discretionary funding. Be assured that it willmake a difference! Existing funds are shown below. Please contact Bruce Ralston if youwould like more information or if you would like to target your gift for a purpose not shown.The Development Offices of the College and University would be pleased to have you askabout other forms of giving, such as bequests, charitable lead trusts, and gifts of the remainderinterest in a personal residence or farm, and they are set up to help you evaluate the tax ben-efits of different gift options. All contributors making gifts of a hundred dollars or more areeligible for University recognition via the Gift Club.

Robert G. Long Outstanding GraduateStudent Award Fund – The Robert G. LongAward, established to honor Professor Longwho retired in 1979, honors one or two gradu-ate students each year for superior scholarshipand service to the department. The students arerecognized on a plaque and receive checks of$50.

Geography Department Scholarship Fund –This fund provides one or more tuition scholar-ships to outstanding undergraduate geographymajors.

The Geography Department EnrichmentFund – This fund may be used to meet specialneeds as determined by the department faculty.In recent years, it has supplemented ouroperating budget and provided travel support toprofessional meetings for faculty and students.

The Geography Technological EnrichmentFund – Established in 1995 by two anonymousdonors, the funds are used to provide ourcomputer research labs and classrooms with upto date equipment and software.

Geography Endowment Fund – Donations areinvested by the university. The principalgenerates quarterly interest to the GeographyEnrichment Fund.

Please send your gift to: Department of Geography, 304 Burchfield Geography Building,University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0925. Make checks payable to:University of Tennessee, but also use the memo line on the check to indicate“Geography” and, if you wish, to indicate a specific fund.

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gift to NGS through a trust fund established bya former resident of Knoxville.

With funding from the NationalGeographic Society Education Foundation thatcovers travel expenses and resource materi-als, The Alliance is currently providing two-week programs that help teachers prepare forthe Geography PRAXIS exam and meet NoChild Left Behind “Highly Qualified” stan-dards. This program is in addition to bi-annualofferings such as spring and fall chapterprograms and statewide Geofest conferences.As the result of gifts from generous benefac-tors, the Alliance also sponsors two geographyteacher of the year awards, one for grades K-6 and one for grades 7-12, and an outstandinggeography lesson plan of the year award.

* Information for portions of this history of the Alliancewas taken from Dr. Sid Jumper's article Geography at theUniversity of Tennessee that appeared in the manuscriptThe Role of the South in the Making of AmericanGeography: Centennial of the AAG, 2004, Edited by JamesO. Wheeler and Stanley D. Brunn.

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Writing Geography for the Publicby Lydia M. Pulsipher

Geographers have much to offer inthe public forum. Our research can positivelyinfluence public policy and offer insights thatmodify the everyday attitudes of Americans. But too often geographers spend the lion’sshare of their time writing only for theircolleagues and students, not the public.

After helping to organize severalsessions at national meetings of the Associa-tion of American Geographers encouraginggeographers to write more for the public, Idecided to offer a seminar at UT in whichgraduate students would write several itemsfor the public press all based on their ownresearch: press releases, letters to the editor,OpEd pieces for newspapers, articles orstories for children, and pieces for popularmagazines. An emphasis was placed onwriting for a variety of audiences — youngand old, and not just those who are likely toagree with the writer. The goal was to get thestudents to appreciate that writing for thepublic could be not only an important educa-tional service, but also a rewarding career-enhancing experience, hence the agreement

was that during the semester each studentwould attempt to publish at least one piece inthe public press. At our last session, allparticipants in the seminar mailed off a finaldraft of an article to the editor of a popularmagazine.

Within days of the end of the semes-ter, Paul McDaniel, who studies migration andimmigration issues in the American South,announced that on December 20th he hadpublished an OpEd piece, “Enforcement-OnlyImmigration Bill Ignores Underlying Issues,”at the avowedly conservative opinion web-site,OpinionEditorials.com. Let’s hope in the nearfuture the work of UT Geographers will beread in airline magazines, in newspapers, onwebsites, and in other popular venues wheregeographers have heretofore feared to tread.

Lydia Pulsipher wasrecognized as a NationalCouncil for GeographicEducation DistinguishedMentor at the November,2005 meeting in Birming-ham, AL. A special papersession was held in herhonor. Departmentstudents KendraMcSweeney, TobyApplegate and LisaZagumny gave papers aspart of that session.

Coming AttractionsHere is some biographical information

about our newest hires.

Dr. Ronald Kalafsky received hisM.A. degree from the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill and his Ph.D. degreefrom the State University of New York atBuffalo. His dissertation research focused onlocation trends in the tool manufacturingindustry. After completing his degree he wasan Assistant Professor in the Business Admin-istration Department at Daemen College inAmherst, New York. In 2004, he moved toGeography at UNC Charlotte. His work takeshim around the globe, studying the connectionsbetween local and global economic change.

Geography Students Get Their Feet WetStudents in Carol Harden’s spring 2005 Water Resources class completed a set of broad- andreach-scale assessments of subwatersheds of Beaver Creek in Knox County to identify potentialsources of water quality problems and to practice protocols and skills learned in class. This servicelearning project not only took the students to the streams, but also brought agency personnel into theclassroom. TVA and Knox County Engineering provided support and training for the project;representatives from Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the UT WaterResources Research Center also came to hear student presentations at the end of the semester.Students provided TVA and the county with written reports, PowerPoint presentations, and dataentered into a customized database.

Carol Harden (4th from left) and Geography 436 students during atraining session on Third Creek.

Geography 436 students documenting a culvert locationduring training on Third Creek.

Dr. Liem Tran was born in Vietnamwhere he received B.E. and M.E. degreesfrom HoChiMinh City University. With thehelp of a Fulbright Fellowship, he went on toobtain M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geographyfrom the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In1999 he went to Penn State as a PostdoctoralFellow. Since 2003, Dr. Tran has been anAssistant Professor at Florida Atlantic Univer-sity. Liem is the author of numerous articlesand has received a good deal of funding fromthe National Science Foundation and theEnvironmental Protection Agency.

Faculty andStaff News

ned. Unfortunately, the hurricane destroyedand flooded New Orleans to the extent thatthe field trip had to be canceled. Some housetypes may be totally lost. Persons displacedby the hurricane filled motels and hotels inBaton Rouge and caused the 2005 meeting tobe canceled. Rain from the hurricane alsodestroyed approximately half of the cottoncrop on the Aiken farm in north Mississippi.

Tom Bell and Peggy Gripshover.After receiving the “Dr. Radical” award fromthe graduate students this year, there was littleelse for Tom to accomplish---but alas, he isnot resting on his laurels (besides, they aretooitchy) and continues to pursue his eclecticinterests in geography. Tom has been workingwith Dr. Larry Gorenflo, a biodiversity re-search scientist with Conservation Interna-tional in Washington, DC on a major reviewarticle that examines the application of geo-graphic location theory in anthropology andarchaeology for the Journal of Archaeologi-cal Research.

Tom and Peggy’s research on 30years of retail change in central Iowa is set toappear as a chapter in Ben Ofari-Amoah’sBeyond the Metropolis (University Press ofAmerica). Another chapter contributor to thatvolume is UT grad Criss Smith, who is anassistant professor at Clemson University. Thebook covers a variety of issues regardingsmaller urban places. Tom also wrote anotherbook chapter to be published by RoutledgePress (2006) that focuses on the use of placeand popular culture in the plays and movies ofNeil Labute. Tom presented a paper based onhis preliminary research at the recentSEDAAG meeting in West Palm Beach,Florida. Tom continues his interest in musicgeography and he and graduate student SaraBeth Keough and UT grad Ola Johanssonorganized two sessions on music geographyfor the Chicago AAG meeting. British musicgeographers George Revill, John Gold andAndrew Leyshon will be presenting papersthere as will several other American geogra-phers. They should prove to be excitingsessions. Tom is working with OlaJohansson on a paper that examines thegeographical aspects of the tours of musicianson the road to support their music.

And speaking of music…Tom andPeggy were able to catch up with Tom’s rock

Charles Aiken. Charles was aparticipant in the James Agee Celebration heldduring April 2005. He led a walking tour ofthe setting of A Death in the Family, which islargely in the Fort Sanders neighborhood.Humanities Tennessee, a state agency,provided a grant for printing a multi-colorbrochure of a self-guided tour. The brochuresare at state and city welcome centers and arepart of an endeavor to encourage elite tourismin Tennessee. Charles has a few of thebrochures and will be glad to mail one tointerested persons.

Charles' book, William Faulkner andthe American Landscape, has been acceptedfor publication in 2007 by the University ofGeorgia Press. Charles read the paper, “OnePlace, Three Industries: The Evolution ofAmerican Manufacturing 1800-2005,” at the2006 National Meeting of the Association ofAmerican Geographers in Chicago. Thepaper discusses the three eras of Americanmanufacturing illustrated by three industriesnear the Knoxville airport.

Charles was to have given the ban-quet address, “William Faulkner and theAmerican Civil War,” at the 2005 joint meet-ing of the Pioneer Society of America andEast Coast Historical Geographers at Louisi-ana State University in October. A field trip toNew Orleans to view house types was plan-

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Fences.” Peggy’s teaching responsibilitiesinclude Cultural, Economic, World Regional,and the Geography of Tennessee. Lastsummer she led a Tennessee GeographicAlliance workshop for teachers preparing forthe PRAXIS exam in geography as part of the“No Child Left Behind” program. She hasserved on two Knoxville community taskforces, one concerning the proposed comple-tion of the James White Parkway, and thesecond a planning committee for Hastie ParkNatural Area. In her civilian life, Peggyvolunteers for HABIT, an animal-assistedtherapy organization run by the UT VetSchool. She and “Sophie,” her AustralianShepherd, visit with Alzheimer’s patients at alocal nursing home. Peggy still plays tenniswhen she can and has even gotten Tom out onthe court. Tom and Peggy have also beentaking some “Rails to Trails” bicycling adven-tures as part of an experiment to refute, onceand for all, “Intelligent Design.”

Kurt Butefish continues in his roleas coordinator of the Tennessee GeographicAlliance. This past year saw the Allianceconcentrate on getting Tennessee teachersprepared to meet the qualifications mandatedby the No Child Left Behind Legislation. In2004, the Alliance received a two-year grantfor $93,000 from the National GeographicEducation Foundation to design and hostworkshops across the state to see that geogra-phy teachers in grades 7-12 meet the qualifi-cations by the deadline of August 2006.During the summer of 2005, the Alliancehosted workshops in Memphis, Nashville, andKnoxville. During the summer of 2006, it willagain host a workshop in Knoxville. Focus ofthe workshops has been preparing teachers topass the Geography PRAXIS exam, one ofthe qualifying benchmarks for teachers. Todate, all of the teachers that have completedthe workshop and taken the PRAXIS examhave passed. The Alliance also hosted a one-week workshop on Geography and Educa-tional Technology at Mt. Juliet High School inMt. Juliet Tennessee during summer 2005.Eighteen teachers received special training insoftware and web-based resources that willhelp them add a spark to their teaching andsatisfy the students insatiable appetites for allthings technological.

musician son Brian Bell when Weezer playedNashville this summer. They spent some timewith Brian and Peggy (or “Peggy 2” as she isnow referred to) touring the Nashville areaand even took them to eat at the famousLoveless Café. Not exactly health food, butwithout a doubt, a cultural experience thatBrian and Peggy wouldn’t get in SouthernCalifornia! As this article is being written,Weezer’s third single (“Perfect Situation”)released off of their fifth album (MakeBelieve) is number five on Billboard’s modernrock chart. Tom’s daughter, Leia Bell, hasbecome a major figure in the world of musicposter art and produced the tour poster andthree T-shirt designs for the most recentWeezer tour. She and her partner PhilSherburne do their best to keep up with theirtwo energetic young lads—Cortez, who justturned four, and Ivan, who will be two inJanuary. Leia is having a major showing ofher one-of-a-kind artistic prints this month andher work can be viewed (and purchased—hint, hint) at her website (leiabell.com).

This past year Peggy Gripshoverconducted research on such wide-rangingtopics as motorcycle culture, dog agilitydiffusion, and the Chicago Cubs. She pre-sented a paper at the 2005 SEDAAG meetingon, “The Dragon,” a stretch of U.S. Highway129 that straddles the Tennessee and NorthCarolina state lines and has become a pilgrim-age site for motorcyclists and sports carenthusiasts alike. Peggy’s 2005 AAG paperexamined the diffusion of dog agility fromEurope to the United States and the changingroles of companion animals in Americanfamilies. She has also been busy doingresearch for a paper she presented in aspecial session on Chicago neighborhoods forthe 2006 AAG meeting being organized by UTgrads Mike Cornebise and Ola Johansson.Peggy’s paper focused on the cultural land-scape changes within the Lake View neigh-borhood around Wrigley Field known as“Wrigleyville.” This research will serve as thebasis for a book chapter that is set to appearin an edited volume on the social history of theChicago Cubs (Routledge Press 2006). InNovember, 2005 she presented a publiclecture in Jonesborough, TN, sponsored byHumanities Tennessee, on the cultural mean-ing of fences as part of a Smithsonian Institu-tion traveling exhibit called, “Between

Anita Drever. Last summer Anitacompleted a two year summer fellowship atthe German Institute for Economic Researchin Berlin. During that time she finished up theanalysis for a project looking at the role ofethnic networks and neighborhood geographyin the job search process for immigrants. Sheis hopeful that her findings will have a positiveimpact on welfare to work programs inGermany.

A recent article of Drever’s in UrbanStudies on ethnic neighborhoods in Germanyhas received considerable attention in bothacademic and political circles. The GermanFederal government commissioned a report onthe state of immigrant integration in Germanyand Drever’s controversial findings in theUrban Studies article were favorably re-viewed therein. Drever was invited in Marchto join a small group of segregation expertsfrom Germany and around Europe to provideinput for another government commissionedreport on immigrant segregation and integra-tion in Germany. Drever will not be travelingto Germany this summer, but she will continueher work on immigrant issues in Germanyfrom this side of ‘the pond’ instead.

Drever’s research on Latino migrationto Tennessee and the American South is alsogoing well. She received a professionaldevelopment award to study Spanish inCuernavaca, Mexico last year and she submit-ted an NSF grant to look at how changinglabor recruitment strategies are affecting thegeography of Latino settlement in Tennesseethis winter. A book chapter she wrote onLatino migration to Tennessee will appear inprint this coming summer. Drever has enjoyedpresenting her Latino migration research tocommunity groups and getting both under-graduate and graduate students interested inimmigration issues.

Ron Foresta. Ron chaired thedepartment’s search committee for an urban/economic geographer this spring. He finishedup the Land Between the Lakes book, whichwill go out to publishers this summer. A paperbased on that research was presented at theAAG meetings in Chicago in March. One ofhis students, Jen Rogalsky, will defend herdissertation in May after several years teach-ing in New York State. Last summer, Ronspent two weeks at the Universidad Andina in

Quito, Ecuador as part of UT’s exchangeprogram with that university. He continueschairing the department’s undergraduateprogram committee, which oversaw extensivecatalog changes to bring our offerings intoconformity with the new Arts and Sciencescurriculum, and he continues serving on theadvisory board of Virginia Tech’s departmentof geography.

Carol Harden. Carol has ongoingresearch in East Tennessee and in the Ecua-dorian Andes. Her work in the Andes focuseson the water-retention properties of páramosoils and the glacial history of Cajas NationalPark, where old surfaces are well-preservedunder the páramo soil. She presented thepaper, “Cajas National Park as Water Source:Soil-water Relationships in a Glaciated,Andean Watershed,” at the AAG meeting inDenver in April 2004. Following a month inEcuador in May-June 2005, she submitted areport to the National Park and in Sepember.2005 presented the paper, “Glacial geomor-phology and soil development in Cajas Na-tional Park, Ecuadorian Andes” at the SixthInternational Conference on Geomorphologyin Zaragoza, Spain. The paper is now underreview for publication. She also presented“Soils and the Glacial History of Cajas Na-tional Park, Ecuador” as a poster at theSEDAAG meeting in West Palm Beach,Florida in Novovember 2005. She continues topursue her interest in the relationships be-tween headwater streams and their water-sheds, particularly in East Tennessee. Thisyear, she has been involved in the BeaverCreek Task Force and the Little River Asso-ciation.

Carol was honored with the Distin-guished Career Award of the AAG Mt.Geography Specialty Group at the 2005meeting in Denver. Also in 2005, she waselected as a national councilor of the AAGand completed a 3-year term as the Publica-tion Officer of the International Association ofGeomorphologists. With former student JudyGrable, Carol has an article in press in EarthSurface Processes and Landforms, and, withformer student Glenn Hyman, a chapter onSouth America in press in the forthcomingbook in The Physical Geography of LatinAmerica. [T. Orme, T. Veblen and K. Young(eds.) Oxford: Oxford University Press]. She

has two additional articles and a book chapterin review.

Carol served as advisor for two Ph.D.students who graduated in December 2005.Lisa Boulton’s dissertation was “Spatio-temporal patterns of geomorphic adjustment inchannelized tributary streams of the lowerHatchie River basin, West Tennessee.” She isnow an Assistant Professor of Geography atthe U. of Alabama. Martin Lafrenz, now aninstructor at Portland State Univ., completedhis dissertation “A watershed classificationsystem based on headwater contributing areasin Great Smoky Mountains National Park.”

Sally Horn. Sally traveled to CostaRica in March 2005, along with Ken Orvisand graduate student Scott Roberts, for fieldwork funded by The A.W. Mellon Foundation.Their goal was to add new sediment cores tothe suite of samples from highland and low-land sites that are under study as part ofefforts to document prehistoric human activityand climate change on Costa Rican ecosys-tems. In May Sally returned to Costa Rica asa Visiting Professor in the Laboratory ofArchaeology. While in Costa Rica she gaveseveral lectures and workshops and was madean honorary member of the Costa RicanAnthropological Association, in recognition ofher efforts (along with collaborators andstudents) to understand the environments andenvironmental impacts of early Costa Ricansocieties.

During the Summer and Fall of 2005,Sally focused on soil and sediment coring atseveral sites in the Knoxville area and in GreatSmoky Mountains National Park. A numberof students, faculty, and friends of the depart-ment assisted with the field work.

Several publications on research inCosta Rica and elsewhere finally appeared in2005, including her co-edited book withMaarten Kappelle of The Nature Conser-vancy, “Páramos de Costa Rica” (http://www.inbio.ac.cr/ES/compras/carrito/detalle_producto.phtml?146), which focuseson modern and ancient landscapes, biota, andhuman interactions on Costa Rica’s high,treeless mountains peaks. The book containsseveral chapters authored by Sally, KenOrvis, and former UT graduate studentBrandon League, and a photo by CarolHarden, who has also conducted research in

the Costa Rican páramos. Other 2005publications include:

Driese, S.G., Li, Z-H, and Horn, S.P.Late Pleistocene and Holocene Climate andGeomorphic Histories Interpreted from 23,000yr B.P. Paleosol and Floodplain Soils, South-eastern West Virginia, USA. QuaternaryResearch 63: 136–149.

Haberyan, K.A., and Horn, S.P.2005. Diatom Paleoecology of LagunaZoncho, Costa Rica. Journal ofPaleolimnology 33: 361–369.

Anchukaitis, K., and Horn, S.P. 2005.A 2000-year Reconstruction of Forest Distur-bance From Southern Pacific Costa Rica.Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,Palaeoecology 221: 35–54.

Kennedy, L.M., Horn, S.P., and Orvis,K.H. 2005. Modern Pollen Spectra from theHighlands of the Cordillera Central, Domini-can Republic. Review of Palaeobotany andPalynology 137: 51–68.

Orvis, K.H., Lane, C.S., and Horn,S.P. 2005. Laboratory Production ofVouchered Reference Charcoal From SmallWoody Samples and Non-woody PlantTissues. Palynology 29: 1-11.

C. W. (Bud) Minkel. Bud com-pleted a two-year term as Chairman of theBoard of Trustees of the South-East Consor-tium for International Development (SECID)and continued to serve as President of theU. S. National Section, Pan American Instituteof Geography and History (PAIGH), a spe-cialized agency of the OAS. He traveled toPeru for the presentation of a new book,Analisis Urbano de Piura-Castilla, Peru, 2005,which summarizes the results of a five-yearresearch project on the boundary regionbetween Ecuador and Peru. In October 2005,he chaired a panel on the history of theConference of Latin Americanist Geographersand presented a paper on “Background toCLAG” at a meeting of that organization inMorelia, Mexico.

Bruce Ralston. Bruce is currentlyworking on three GIS related projects: theTennessee Overhill Project sponsored byHumanities Tennessee, the Legal Aid InternetMapping Project sponsored by the EastTennessee Legal Aid Society, and the KGISsoftware migration project. This year he has

been serving on several Boards of Directorsincluding the Tennessee Geographic Informa-tion Council, Humanities Tennessee, and theTennessee Geographic Alliance. He alsoserves on the United States GeographicInformation Foundation Academic Panel, andthe Association of American GeographersCensus Advisory Committee. This summerBruce will work on developing a new courseon GIS database systems. He also hopes towork with his long-time friend and colleague,Dr. Cheng Liu, on a book on GIS softwaredevelopment.

John Rehder. John begins his thirty-ninth year this fall at Tennessee. His bookAppalachian Folkways has been honoredwith two awards. In October 2004, ThePioneer America Society awarded him withthe Fred Kniffen book award. As some of youknow, Kniffen was John’s major professor atLSU in the 1960s so it was a special honor forJohn to receive the Kniffen Prize. In 2005, theAssociation of American Publishers recog-nized his Appalachian Folkways withhonorable mention in the Sociology andAnthropology category of awards. In thespring of 2005, his paper “ Hensley, Kentucky:A Twentieth-Century Pioneer Folk Settle-ment“ was published in Material Culture, thepeer-reviewed journal of the Pioneer AmericaSociety.

John continues his research on theongoing book Tennessee’s Log Buildings forthe Center for American Places. His fieldresearch this year has taken him over much ofTennessee from Mountain City in the north-east corner of the state to Giles County andbeyond; and so far this year he has encoun-tered no more rattlesnakes and no meth labs,whew! The book project is moving alongslowly with over 4,300 log structures in 42counties in the catch. At the moment, this is asfar as the data will allow so he is now map-ping and writing up the material.

John’s grandchildren, Allen (7) andEmma (5) have been delightful recently“ helping” him photograph some of the logstructures up at the Museum of Appalachianear Norris, Tennessee. In November he wasthe Showcase speaker for the pregamefestivities prior to the football game withVandy. He still enjoys serving on the editorialboard for the University of Tennessee Press

and has re-upped for another three years. Stillonly fair at golf and no fishing to report, Johnsays he needs to get out and do more hikingand fishing this year even though he recentlywent on a two day+ overnight hike to MountLeConte. Judy, Karen, Ken and Angie alongwith his field assistants Allen and Emma aredoing fine this year.

Shih-Lung Shaw. Shih-Lung hasstayed busy and traveled a lot! After his stayin China during his leave from UT and aninvited trip to The Netherlands for an Interna-tional Specialist Meeting on Informationand Communications Technologies, Every-day Life and Urban Change, Shih-Lungreturned to Knoxville near the end of 2004.He then taught three courses in Spring 2005(including the first-time offer of GIScienceSeminar) to make up the teaching load whilehe was away. In March of 2005, Shih-Lungwas invited by the Transport Department ofHong Kong Government to offer a Geo-graphic Information Systems for Transpor-tation (GIS-T) Workshop to transportationmanagers, planners and engineers in HongKong. In April of 2004, he gave a paper atthe annual AAG meeting in Denver. Of goodnews at the AAG meeting was that his Ph.D.student, Hongbo Yu, won the First Place ofStudent Paper Competition of the GIS Spe-cialty Group. This was the third consecutiveyear that Dr. Shaw’s graduate students hadwon a student paper award from either theTransportation Geography Specialty Group orthe GIS Specialty Group of the AAG. At theend of Spring 2005, Shih-Lung was invitedback to Hong Kong by The Chinese Univer-sity of Hong Kong to be a visiting professor.The Transport Department of Hong KongGovernment also invited him to offer a secondGIS-T Workshop. During his five-week stayin Hong Kong, he was also invited to give twotalks at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou,China. Shortly after his return to Knoxville,Shih-Lung went on another invited trip in Julyof 2005 to deliver a lecture at the SpatialPerspectives on Analysis for CurriculumEnhancement (SPACE) Workshop – GISand Spatial Modeling for the Undergradu-ate Social Science Curriculum at The OhioState University, Columbus, Ohio, which wasfunded by the U.S. National Science Founda-tion. In October of 2005, Shih-Lung was

invited to participate in a Peer Exchange andSpecialist Meeting of GPS and Time-Geography Applications for ActivityModeling and Microsimulation that wasorganized by the Center for Spatially Inte-grated Social Science at University of Califor-nia, Santa Barbara and sponsored by the U.S.Federal Highway Administration. In Novem-ber of 2005, he co-presented a paper withHongbo Yu at Research Symposium ofSocieties and Cities in the Age of InstantAccess held on the campus of University ofUtah, Salt Lake City.

On the funded projects, Shih-Lung isworking with Louis Gross (EEB), MichaelBerry (Computer Science) and SuzanneLenhart (Mathematics) on a three-year, $1.4million National Science Foundation (NSF)project. In addition, he has an ongoing re-search project to design and develop anEnvironmental Justice GIS application forTennessee Department of Transportation.Shih-Lung also recently received a UTProfessional Development Award to work onSpace-Time GIS for Analyzing PopulationMigration Histories. Shih-Lung and BruceRalston also are on a project team withCH2M HILL and ESRI that has been selectedby Knox County/KGIS/KUB/City of Knoxvilleto design and develop a comprehensive GISsolution. In addition, Shih-Lung has a re-search grant proposal, with colleagues atHong Kong Baptist University and HongKong University to develop spatiotemporalGIS analysis functions for infectious diseasemodeling (e.g., avian flu). This proposal iscurrently under review by Hong Kong Re-search Fund for the Control of InfectiousDiseases (RFCID).

On publications, Shih-Lung has a co-authored article with former student AndrewDye, titled “A GIS-Based Spatial DecisionSupport System for Tourists of the GreatSmoky Mountains National Park”, that hasbeen accepted for publication in Journal ofRetailing and Consumer Services. He alsohas an article of “Spatial Patterns of DomesticPassenger Transport and Competitive Situa-tions of Chinese Airlines”, co-authored withresearchers at the Chinese Academy ofScience, published in Geo-InformationScience Journal (a Chinese journal withEnglish abstracts). In addition, Shih-Lung hasa co-authored manuscript with former student

Jessica Tharpe, titled “An Empirical Studyof Telecommuting Patterns in the AtlantaRegion”, that is currently under review byUrban Geography. Shih-Lung also hasworked with Hongbo Yu on a manuscriptsubmitted to International Journal ofGeographical Information Science and abook chapter based on their paper submittedto the Research Symposium of Societies andCities in the Age of Instant Access.

In the Geography Department, Shih-Lung continues to serve as Chair of theGraduate Program Committee and sharesresponsibilities of managing the computer labs.He also chaired the search committee for anew faculty in Geographic InformationScience/Physical Geography and served as asearch committee member for another newfaculty in urban/economic geography. Inaddition, Shih-Lung serves on the editorialboards of Journal of Transport Geographyand Southeastern Geographer.

Lydia Pulsipher. Lydia’s textbook,World Regional Geography: Global Issues,Local Lives, W.H.Freeman, NYC (co-authored with her son, Alex, with the essentialhelp of husband Conrad Goodwin) is nowbeing revised for the 4th edition to come out in2007. The book is used in nearly 200 collegesand universities in the U.S. and in severalother countries. This year the course forwhich this book is used at UT, World Geogra-phy, was chosen as the focal point for theprominent UT lecture series, Conversationsabout World Affairs, which is part of theQuality Enhancement Project of the university.Many of the 10 speakers featured are peopleLydia came across while doing research forthe textbook.

Lydia and her husband Mac haverestarted their work in Montserrat with aproject on a 17th century ruin that will be thecenter of the new post-volcano capital city forthe island. Whenever possible they travel toSlovenia and Central Europe where Lydia hasthree graduate students doing their research.

Will Fontanez, Henri Grissino-Mayer, Ken Orvis, Pam Sharpe, andDenise Stansberry were unable to contributeto this edition of the newsletter. However,please know that they are all well and remainintegral to the success of the Department.

Graduate StudentNews

Andy Baker is a first year Ph.D.student working under the tutelage of TomBell. He received his B.S. in Geography andB.S. in Finance from Eastern Illinois Univer-sity in the spring of 2003. In June 2005, Andycompleted his M.A. in Geography at OhioUniversity, successfully defending his thesistitled, “When the Engines No Longer Roar: ACase Study of North Wilkesboro, N.C. and theNorth Wilkesboro Speedway.” His thesisresearch was published in the Fall 2005 editionof Now & Then: The Appalachian Maga-zine. Andy has presented his research on thehistorical geography of NASCAR at the 2005Appalachian Studies Association. As a gradu-ate student in the UT Geography Department,Andy hopes to continue research in culturaland sports geography, adding a specializationin Geographic Information Science. During thesummer of 2005, Andy instructed at Ivy TechCommunity College in his hometown ofIndianapolis, Indiana, teaching a course inWorld/Regional Geography.

Joe Burgess is a second-year M.S.student working in the PaleoenvironmentalResearch Lab. His M.S. research will focuson modern pollen distribution in lakes in CostaRica, as affected by distance from shore andother factors. These data are critical forinterpreting signals of past environmentalchange in sediment cores. Joe visited studysites in October 2004 along with graduatestudents Marty Arford and Zack Taylor. Hewas most impressed with the poisonoussnakes he encountered.

Kendrick Curtis is a second year Ph.D.student. He graduated with a B.S. from theUniversity of North Alabama in the spring of2000. In December 2003 he graduated with aM.S. in Geography from the University ofTennessee. From 2002 until 2004 Kendrickwas employed as a Community Planner withthe Tennessee Department of Economic andCommunity Development’s Local PlanningAssistance Office. Kendrick’s research

interests include land development on theurban/rural fringe and GIS. His currentresearch is focused on the emerging use ofdecentralized wastewater treatment technol-ogy and its potential for freeing developmentof traditional wastewater infrastructureconstraints.

Jeff Dahoda is an M.S. studentfocusing on GIS applications in water re-sources, working with Carol Harden. Histhesis, GIS Analysis of Factors AffectingAcidity in Crab Orchard Creek Watershed,Cumberland and Morgan Counties, Tennessee,analyzes flow paths to sampling sites relativeto the spatial distribution of factors affectingstream acidity in a watershed with a history ofsurface mining. He previously received a B.A.in Geology from Miami University (Ohio,1980) and a M.S. in Exercise Physiology fromthe University of Wyoming (1996), enteringthe Geography graduate program in 2003following a 16-year strength and conditioningcoaching career. The spring and summer of2005 Jeff worked on the Beaver Creek LandUse Mapping Project for the TennesseeValley Authority and University of TennesseeWater Resources Research Center. In theprevious summer of 2004 he did GIS mappingfor the Southeastern Water Policy Initiative,specifically mapping databases of elementsimportant to clean coal power production forthe Southern States Energy Board. Previouswork experiences include Exxon Coal Re-sources, Mobil Nufuels Exploration, ARCOand Chevron Exploration Divisions (oil & gas),The Wyoming State Archeologist Office, andLarson-Tibesar Archeological Consulting, Inc.

Angela Danovi is a first year M.S.student. She received her B.S. degree inPlant and Soil Science concentrating inEnvironmental Sciences and Natural Re-sources from the College of Agriculture at theUniversity of Tennessee in May 2003. Hercurrent interests are in physical geography andwater quality. This year Angela’s researchhas involved analyzing relationships betweensediment and water quality in Beaver Creek.After completing her Bachelor’s degree,Angela spent a year on the AmeriCorps waterquality team of Knoxville providing researchand data collection assistance to TDEC andTVA. During that time, she also implemented

the Adopt-A-Watershed program within theKnox County Schools. Recently, Angelacompleted a six-month internship with StrataEnvironmental of Knoxville.

Sarah Deane is a first year M.S.student. She received her B.A in Geographyfrom the University of Tennessee, Knoxville inthe spring of 2003. Her current focus is onGIS and Climatology. Currently she is work-ing on a USDA Forest Service project withTVA, involving research in the CumberlandMountains region. Her thesis work will likelyfocus on paleoclimatology and the study ofmineral sediments using a scanning electronmicroscope. From February of 2004 throughAugust of 2005, Sarah worked as a mappinganalyst in Fairfax, Virginia before she decidedto pursue her Master’s degree at UT. She isinterested in possibly pursuing a career inconservation after graduation.

Justin Hart is a second year Ph.D.student with concentrations in Biogeographyand Forest Dynamics under Henri Grissino-Mayer. He received a B.S. degree in Environ-mental and Earth Science in 2002 from theUniversity of Memphis. In 2004, he received aM.S. degree with concentrations in Biogeog-raphy and Environmental Science under Dr.David Shankman at the University of Ala-bama. His thesis research investigated theviability of disjunct eastern hemlock popula-tions at its southern boundary in centralAlabama. Justin’s Ph.D. research concernsdisturbance dynamics in secondary hardwoodforests on the Cumberland Plateau. Theresults of this study will be implemented intolandscape level conservation efforts for theregion coordinated by multiple private, state,and federal agencies. In addition to his Ph.D.research, Justin has a number of ongoingprojects including: documenting the cumulativeeffects of alien species on forest decline in thesoutheastern U.S., relating vegetation patternsto physiography, documenting forest change inan East Tennessee natural area, quantifyingthe influence of charcoal hearths on ridgetopforest communities on the Western HighlandRim, and comparing stand characteristics ofold and second growth forests in the Tennes-see Valley.

Chad Hellwinckel is a third yearPhD. student. He received his M.S. in Agri-cultural Economics from the University ofTennessee in 1996, and a B.S. in Economicsand Urban Studies from St. Olaf College in1991. Chad has served as a Peace Corpsvolunteer in Panama and with the U.S. ForestService as a wilderness trail crew member inNew Mexico and a fire lookout in Arizona.Chad received world renown for breaking theconsecutive back-flip record in January of2001. Chad is currently working full time withthe University of Tennessee’s AgriculturalPolicy Analysis Center. His work focuses oncomputer simulation model design and imple-mentation for agricultural land-use and policyscenarios. Current projects include building ageographically precise terrestrial carbonsequestration model, and a model to estimatepotential quantities of biomass available fromagricultural lands for energy uses. He ismarried and has a three year-old son.

Sara Beth Keough is a third yearPh.D. student. She received her B.S. inHistory and her B.A. in Spanish from Jack-sonville University in 2000, and her M.S. inGeography from Virginia Tech in 2003. Herresearch interests lie in urban/economicgeography, music and cultural geography, withan emphasis on Canada. Sara Beth’s disserta-tion research looks at how local music radioprogramming in Newfoundland, Canadainfluences local and regional identity. Shecurrently teaches World Regional Geographyand has served as a guest speaker on musicgeography topics with the Tennessee Geo-graphic Alliance. This past summer, Sara Bethattended the Canadian and Australian meetingof the International Association for the Studyof Popular Music in St. John’s, Newfoundland,and she has presented numerous papers at theSEDAAG and AAG meetings. In her sparetime, Sara Beth can be found running, roadbiking, hiking, or playing trumpet in a localcommunity band.

Chad Lane is a third year Ph.D.candidate. He received his M.S. in Geogra-phy here at the University of Tennessee in thespring 2003 and received his B.S. in Environ-mental Science from the University of Denverin the spring of 2001. Chad is interested inhuman-environment interactions, variations in

tropical vegetation through time, and climatechange. Past variations in climate have haddrastic impacts on human populations andvegetation worldwide and will continue to doso well into the future. Understanding theseclimate variations and their environmentalimpacts is essential for predicting and prepar-ing for future climatic changes. Chad’s studysites are small lakes located at mid-elevationson the southern flank of the Cordillera Centralin the Dominican Republic. He is analyzingstable isotopes in organic matter and calcare-ous deposits, fossil pollen grains, and fossilcharcoal fragments in sediment cores frommultiple lakes to reconstruct human, climate,and vegetation history. His dissertationresearch grew from a National GeographicSociety-funded project on environmentalhistory in the Dominican Republic directed byProfessors Ken Orvis and Sally Horn. Chadis also co-advised by Dr. Claudia Mora in theDepartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences.Chad was awarded a Yates DissertationFellowship from the University of Tennesseethis year for his dissertation research. Hewas also very excited to receive two disserta-tion grants this year, one from the Associationof American Geographers (AAG) and onefrom the Biogeography Specialty Group of theAAG. In addition, Chad was elected to be thefirst ever Graduate Student Representative forthe Biogeography Specialty Group of theAAG. Chad is currently the Head GraduateTeaching Assistant for Geography 131:Geography of the Natural Environment.

Evan Larson successfully defendedhis M.S. thesis entitled “SpatiotemporalVariations in the Fire Regimes of WhitebarkPine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) Forests,Western Montana, USA, and Their Manage-ment Implications” in the fall of 2005, and willgraduate with an M.S. in Geography and agraduate minor in Environmental Policy in thewinter of 2005. His graduation will culminate ashort but exciting career at The University ofTennessee, during which he garnered exten-sive knowledge (and hopefully wisdom) fromhis committee of Henri Grissino-Mayer, SallyHorn, Ken Orvis, and Dave Feldman, andfrom other professors whom he was fortunateenough to have worked with while at the sametime exploring the area and mountains thatsurround Knoxville. During his two years at

UT, Evan was awarded an NSF GraduateFellowship Honorable Mention, a Biogeogra-phy Specialty Group of the Association ofAmerican Geographers Research Grant,Honorable Mention in the BiogeographySpecialty Group of the Association of Ameri-can Geography Master’s Student PaperCompetition, two Stuart K. McCroskeyMemorial Fund Research Grants, and theRobert G. Long Outstanding Graduate StudentAward from the Department of Geography.He also greatly enjoyed his time as a GraduateResearch and Graduate Teaching Assistantfor his first three semesters and as the HeadGraduate Teaching Assistant his final semes-ter. Evan was involved with several researchprojects conducted by Henri Grissino-Mayerand the personnel of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science, and also initiated an age-structure analysis of the forests in the SevenIslands Wildlife Refuge on the French BroadRiver in eastern Tennessee. He bids a fondfarewell to the faculty, staff, and students ofthe UT Geography Department as he contin-ues his graduate education as a Ph.D. student,University Graduate Fellow, and EPA STARGraduate Fellow in the Geography Depart-ment at the University of Minnesota.

Jonathan Law is a first-year M.S.student. He graduated summa cum laudefrom Auburn University in December of 2004with a B.A. in Geography. He is interested inmany topics, such as gentrification and urbansprawl, and his thesis will focus on topicsrelating to urban geography. He has workedas an intern with the City of Columbia, SCPlanning Department and is a member of thePhi Beta Kappa honorary.

Xumei Liu is a first-year M.S.student. She received her Bachelor Degree inSurveying and Mapping Engineering fromChina University of Geosciences in thesummer of 2003. Her current focus is on GIS,transportation and urban geography. Upon herarrival in August 2005, she was highly im-pressed by the gorgeous landscapes in theU.S., especially in the southern part of thecountry. Currently, she is working as a Teach-ing Assistant for Geography 101. She isfascinated with Geography and determined todedicate her life to Geography study andteaching.

David Mann is a second-year Ph.D.student. His M.A. research focused ondendroarcheological investigations at theSwaggerty Blockhouse in Cocke County,Tennessee. His current focus is on environ-mental processes in the Subalpine ecosystemof western Montana. Specifically he isresearching the response by high-elevationtrees to both recent and past climate variabilitycaused by oceanic-atmospheric circulationpatterns (such as the Pacific Decadal Oscilla-tion) which operate across hemispheric spatialscales. His doctoral dissertation assesses howclimate shifts have caused treelines to ad-vance upslope or retreat downslope in theNorthern Rocky Mountains. Objectives of hisresearch include the assessment of short-term(<100 yrs) variability in air temperatures in ahigh elevation mountain ecosystem, develop-ment of an understanding of the response bytrees to monthly and seasonal climate variabil-ity, and the reconstruction of the climatichistory and variability of the ecosystem asthey relate to broad-scale changes in ocean-atmospheric circulation patterns. In thesummer of 2004, David conducted fieldworkin western Montana to collect wood samplesfrom living trees and remnant wood at highelevation sites. Three hundred sixty onesamples were collected at eight sites. Woodsamples were processed during August 2004and resulted in a base line tree-ring chronologydating from AD 1250 to AD 2003 in westernMontana.

Paul McDaniel is a second yearM.S. student. He received his B.S. in Geog-raphy with minors in History and GeographicInformation Science from Samford Universityin the spring of 2004. As a human geographerPaul’s research interests focus on migration,particularly to the U.S. South. He is alsointerested in the regional geography of Asiaand Latin America. His master’s thesisresearch examines immigrant-owned entre-preneurial establishments in Birmingham,Alabama. At the SEDAAG conference in2005, Paul presented a paper, “‘¿Cuál es sutrabajo?’: Labor Characteristics of theHispanic Community in Birmingham, Ala-bama”. He received an outstanding teachingassistant award in spring of 2005, and in thesummer of 2005 he received a grant from theMcClure Fund for the Study of World Affairs

to study Spanish in central Mexico. He alsohelped to coordinate Geography AwarenessWeek in November 2005. Each semester,Paul has enjoyed delivering a guest lectureabout his travels in Thailand and Burma to asection of Geography 101.

Hal Millegan is a first year Ph.D.student. He received his B.S. in Civil Engi-neering from Texas A&M University in theSpring of 1980 and his M.S. in Civil Engineer-ing in the Fall of 1997. His Masters Thesiswas “An Assessment of Potential forBenefit from Integrating GeographicInformation Systems Technology into LifeCycle Management of Infrastructures; AFocus for Infrastructure ManagementPractice,” A&M Press, 1997.

Some of his published articles include:“How to Save Time and Money With aGIS”, Local Government Agenda Magazine,with Rebecca Von Gotten, and “GIS — AnOld Dog with New Tricks”, Milepost Maga-zine.

Some Committees and Boards onwhich he has served are: Smithwick WaterSupply Corporation, Board of Directors,(2000-2002), Capitol Area Planning Council(CAPCO) GIS Planning Council (1996-97),Western Infrastructure Leadership Institute,Board of Directors, University of NewMexico and Arizona State University (1993-94), and Texas Department of InformationResources Advisory Committee, (MemberSubcommittee on GIS Application Spatial DataStandards; 1991-92).

Hal is a Registered ProfessionalEngineer (P.E.), licensed to practice in Ten-nessee and Texas. He has worked in stateand local government, academia, and privatepractice over the last 25 years.

Melany Noltenius is a second yearPh.D. student. She received her B.S. inCommunications in 1990 and M.S.P. inPlanning in 2004 from the University ofTennessee. Her thesis was titled “TransitOriented Development, Park and Ride, andTransit Station Placement along Bus RapidTransit Corridors: A Study of the SevierCounty, Tennessee Route.” She hopes tocontinue studying transportation planningissues, specifically the transportation optionsselected during emergency evacuations. She

placed first in the 2003 district wide technicalpaper competition sponsored by theInstitute of Transportation Engineers (ITE),and has led a discussion on the possibility ofpassenger rail in East Tennessee at theTennessee Chapter ITE meeting. In 2005 shewon the 2004 Geospatial Information &Technology Association (GITA) scholarship.

Scott Roberts is a second year M.S.student. He received his B.S. in Geographyfrom Appalachian State University in thespring of 2002. He is currently an intern withTennessee Valley Authority’s EnvironmentalImpacts and Controls division. His researchinterests include examining the relationshipsamong dynamic landscapes and watershedresources and biogeographical patterns, aswell as the use of Geographic InformationSystems for environmental modeling. He isconducting an on-going assessment of theinfluence of hemlock on riparian environmen-tal conditions and the potential impacts toriparian ecosystems from the decline and lossof hemlock in Great Smoky Mountains Na-tional Park. This study is being funded by theTennessee Valley Authority and the Carlos C.Campbell Fellowship.

Allison Stork is an M.S. studentworking with Professors Horn, Orvis, andGrissino-Mayer to unravel the environmentalhistory of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas.She received her B.A. in Geography andEnglish from the State University of NewYork at Geneseo in May 2003. Allison isconducting pollen and charcoal analyses ofsediment cores, from West Pond, in thePaleoenvironmental Research Laboratory todetermine vegetation change, fire history, andany anthropogenic influences on the land-scape. One goal is to try to tie the fire recordin the sediments to tree-ring evidence of fire inthe surrounding watershed. She is alsoworking with Dr. Tankersley at TVA, doingenvironmental GIS.

Zack Taylor received his M.S. inGeography from UT in August and immedi-ately began Ph.D. work. His thesis recon-structed 5000 years of environmental historyusing a sediment core from a lake in lowlandBolivia. He is still trying to identify a disserta-tion topic, but is interested in using

paleoenvironmental data to help understandthe relationships between prehistoric humansand their environments. This past summerZack taught an introductory physical geogra-phy class and mentored students for the Mathand Science Regional Center at UT. Hismentoring class evaluated the effects ofstream restoration at IJAMS Nature Center inSouth Knoxville.

Elizabeth Trail is a second yearM.S. student. She received her B.S. inPolitical Science from the University ofTennessee in the summer of 2003. Hercurrent focus is the urban form of postapartheid South African cities. Specifically sheis researching the effect of national and localpolicies on the spatial form of Cape Town.She is using GIS to map new development andinformal settlements data and is finding theapartheid layout still very entrenched. Thispast summer she worked in MCA planningoffices in Cape Town, South Africa. She dealtmainly with local economic development andurban growth boundaries in various cities inthe Western Cape Province.

Chris Underwood is a second yearM.S. student. He received his B.S. in Envi-ronmental Health from East Tennessee StateUniversity in the fall of 1997. His currentfocus is on dendroclimatology. Specifically, heis interested in climate reconstruction in thePacific Northwest. Upon finishing his M.S.research, Chris will move into the Ph.D.program here at the University of Tennessee,where he will continue his research in dendro-chronology. He is an active member of AAGand SEDAAG. He is a volunteer with theTennessee Geographic Alliance, assisting withits workshops as well as with the annualGeographic Awareness Week activities.Currently, along with completing his M.S.requirements, he is working on a dendrochro-nology project with the United States ForestService in the Rogue River-Siskiyou NationalForest, Oregon.

Saskia L. van de Gevel is a Ph.D.candidate working in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science under Henri Grissino-Mayer.She received her B.S. degree in ForestScience from Pennsylvania State University in2000 while working on dendroecological

projects in Dr. Marc Abram’s Forest EcologyLaboratory. In 2002, Saskia received a M.S.degree in Forest Ecology from SouthernIllinois University under Dr. Charles M.Ruffner. Her thesis research investigated theinfluence of land-use history on the forestdevelopment of the Illinois Ozark Hills. Saskiahas also worked on research projects ineastern hardwood forests (Harvard Forest,Petersham, Massachusetts) and longleaf pineecosystems (Tall Timbers Research Station,Tallahassee, Florida). Saskia has been in-volved with many research projects at UT’sLaboratory of Tree-Ring Science includingdating historical structures and quantifyingland-use history through forest compositionchanges. In July 2005, Saskia volunteered as agroup leader at the North AmericanDendroecological Fieldweek in McCall, Idaho.Currently, her dissertation research investi-gates the complex stand dynamics and distur-bance history of endangered whitebark pineecosystems in the northern Rocky Mountains.Saskia’s whitebark pine research is supportedby a National Science Foundation DoctoralDissertation Research Improvement Grant.This Fall semester, she is teaching Geography131: Introduction to the Natural Environment.Saskia has presented papers at AAG meetingsin New Orleans, Philadelphia, Denver and theWhitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundationmeeting in Glacier National Park, and hashelped present outreach talks to communitygroups over the past year. Saskia also re-ceived the Department of Geography’s RobertE. Long Outstanding Graduate Student awardin May 2005.

Jonathan Witcoski is a second-yearM.S. student. He earned a B.A. in Geogra-phy and Anthropology from PennsylvaniaState University in 2004. His researchinterests are in GIS, cultural geography, andarchaeology. He worked as intern for Na-tional Geographic in the fall of 2003, andobtained the McClure Grant to learn Greek inAthens, Greece. He was also one of the 2005Geography Awareness week Coordinators forthe Tennessee Geographic Alliance. He hasworked on archaeological projects in South-eastern Oregon and Maine, and in Tennesseehas worked or volunteered on projects in theCumberland Gap National Park, Falls CreekFalls State Park, and Townsend.

Andrew Wunderlich is a third-yearM.S. student in Geography. He received aB.A. in Geography from the University ofTennessee in the spring of 2002. His graduatework has focused primarily on urban planningand development utilizing GIS analysis.Current projects include overseeing GISanalysis and cartographic production for theBeaver Creek Green Infrastructure designplan. This project is part of an ongoing effortto plan and manage the natural and communityresources of a rapidly developing suburbanwatershed in north/northwest Knox County.The plan is being developed under the guid-ance of two professors in the School ofArchitecture and Design at UT. In the fall of2003 and spring of 2004, Andrew was anintern and contract employee of the NationalGeographic Society Maps Division as a GISanalyst at their headquarters in Washington,D.C. Projects there included page maps andfoldout supplement maps featured in theNational Geographic magazine, as well as dataquality control and creation of thematic mapsfor the National Geographic Atlas of theWorld, Eighth Edition. Additionally, Andrewhas worked as a cartographer in the Carto-graphic Services Laboratory since the summerof 2000, and is currently a teaching assistantfor the introductory cartography class.

The following is a list of the Ph.D. andMasters Degrees awarded by the Departmentsince 2004. The person granted the degree,dissertation or thesis title, and committee chair areincluded.

PhDs

Johansson, Ola B. (Aug. 2004)Changing Governance, Business Elites, and LocalRegulations in NashvilleRon Foresta

Foraker, Margaret D. (Aug. 2004)A Socio-spatial Analysis of Rural Poverty in EastTennesseeCharles Aiken

Continued on Page 20

Degrees Granted Since 2004 (Through December 2005)

Students and Faculty in Action

[Below] Graduatestudent JasonGraham sieving soilcharcoal samples inthe AdvancedPhysical GeographyTeaching Lab in theBurchfiel GeographyBuilding.

[Above] Eight students fromAnita Drever’s Fall ’05 UrbanGeography class tour theMonterey Mushroom facility inMonterey, TN. Robert Moore(white shirt), Quality AssuranceManager for MontereyMushroom, hosted the class.Ken Orvis (far right) was alongfor the ride. The trip allowedthe students to observe the kindof work being done by Latinosin East Tennessee as well asmeet with workers to discusstheir immigration experience.

[Left] Carol Hardenhigh in Cajas NationalPark in the EcuadorianAndes. Carol wasstudying the water-retention properties ofpáramo soils and theglacial history of theNational Park. AFulbright and UT’sGlobal EnvironmentalChange Research Groupprovided funding supportfor the project.

[Right] UndergraduateJim Sexton recovering asoil core in Great SmokyMountains NationalPark, as part of a studyby Sally Horn and HenriGrissino-Mayer ofcharcoal in park soils asevidence of fire history.

[Left] Sampling the mud-water interface core from alake in the Bahamas, aspart of research onHolocene climate historyfunded by a grant to SallyHorn, Ken Orvis, andHenri-Grissino-Mayer fromthe National GeographicSociety. Photo shows R toL: Ken Orvis and graduatestudents Sarah Deane andAllison Stork.

[Above] Bringing upsubmerged, subfossil woodfor tree-ring analysis froma lake in the Bahamas aspart of research funded bythe National GeographicSociety. From L to R:Sarah Deane, Allison Stork,and Ken Orvis.

We heard from a number of ouralumni after the request went out in the2005 edition of the Newsletter. Some sentbrief updates (below) and a couple sentletters with fond remembrances of their timeat UT (following pages). Thank you forletting us know how you are doing. If youwould like to provide an update for the ’07newsletter, just email it to Kurt Butefish [email protected]. or complete the form onpage 23 and mail it to the department.

Ben BaylessB.A. 1984

Ben wrote that he is still flying forFedEx as a co-pilot on MD-11s, mostly oninternational routes. He now lives in Colum-bia, TN.

Derrick T. LeSueurB.A. 1989

Derrick has worked with UnitedParcel Service since 1986. He married theformer Karen Porter in 2000. Karen is also aUTK alumnus (B.A. 1985, Biology) andcurrently works for the University in Tele-phone Services.

Kim PilarskiM.S. 1996

I have been working as the SeniorWetland biologist with TVA’s Natural HeritageProject since 1997, in charge of wetlandassessment for TVA projects across the 7-state TVA region. My son Ian is now (2004-2005) a freshman at the University of theSouth in Sewanee, TN studying EnvironmentalStudies and running track and cross country. My daughter Alex will be a freshman next

Degrees...Continued from Page 17

Yu, Hongbo (Aug. 2005)Temporal GIS Design of an Extended Time-geographic Framework for Physical andVirtual ActivitiesShih-Lung Shaw

Boulton, Mary Alice (Dec. 2005)Spatio-temporal Patterns of GeomorphicAdjustment in Channelized Tributary Streamsof the Lower Hatchie River Basin, WestTennessee.Carol Harden

Lafrenz, Martin D. (Dec. 2005)A Watershed Classification System Based onHeadwater Contributing Areas in GreatSmoky Mountains National ParkCarol Harden

Masters

Dye, Andrew S. (Aug. 2004)Developing Habitat Suitability Models: AnExample from Great Smoky MountainsNational Park, Tennessee and North Carolina,USA, Using the Land Snail VitrinizonitesLatissimus LewisHenri Grissino-Mayer

Ralston, David M. (Aug. 2004)Non-thesis Project - GIS Software Applica-tion Design, Customization, and Implementa-tion.Shih-Lung Shaw

Jolly, Brooks A. (Dec. 2004)The Effectiveness of the Chemical Perturba-tion Index for Monitoring Water Quality inThree Mixed-use Urban Watersheds, Knox-ville, TennesseeCarol Harden

Hall, Kelley Ann (May 2005)The Transition to Neotraditionalism: The Caseof Huntersville, North CarolinaRon Foresta

Schlachter, Kyle J. (Aug. 2005)Macroscopic Sedimentary Charcoal as aProxy for Past Fire in Northwester CostaRicaSally Horn

Alumni Updates

Larson, Evan R. (Dec. 2005)Spatiotemporal Variations in the Fire Regimesof Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.)Forests, Western Montana, USA, and TheirManagement ImplicationsHenry Grissino-Mayer

year (2005-2006) at Mars Hill College, whereshe received a scholarship to play NCAA Div.II soccer. My parents are healthy and happyand living in Naples, FL where my dad ishelping Dr. Jack Benhart (John Benhart’s dad)research a book on development in CollierCounty and it’s impact on the environment. My dad at age 82 is enthusiastically serving asDr. Benhart’s tour guide and “regional advi-sor.”

Blake SartinB.A. 1996, MIA ABT student1280 Echo TrailWatkinsville, GA 30677

I have been employed as the GISManager for the Northeast Georgia Regionaldevelopment Center in Athens, GA sinceOctober 2001. I serve as the primary GIScontact for 12 counties and 54 cities, whichequals lots of questions. Also busy with plentyof GIS development projects, as well astraining intern staff on the care and feeding ofGPS units. I was also one of the first group toreceive the GISP certification in October2003. When I’m not at work, my wife Tonyaand I are staying busy with two young’uns, 5and 2. We also are expecting a third (andfinal!) in early November, so we are gearingupfor a hectic winter. Still surviving in BulldogCountry, but always taking weekend trips backto Tennessee; in fact, more trips than shouldbe considered healthy.

Jessica Wall (formerly Jessica Tharpe)M.S. 2003

Jessica is GIS Coordinator atARCADIS in Atlanta, Georgia. She wroteDr. Shaw to thank him “…for all the time youtook with me making sure I was prepared totake on real world GIS.” She is happy toreport that her department is currently under-going rapid growth.

Megan YorkM.A. 1997

I recently moved back to the mainlandafter living in Honolulu for seven years. Whilein Honolulu, I worked in affordable housingand as an urban planner. I had the opportunityto work on diverse projects in Hawaii, Japan,

and Diego Garcia. For example, I developeda comprehensive plan for over 15,000 acres ofland owned by the Department of HawaiianHome Lands in Kauai. I am now living inMontclair, New Jersey with my husband andtwo sons. Currently, I am working for aplanning firm specializing in affordable hous-ing, community planning, and grant writing. Despite the change in climate, I am happywith my new life in Jersey.

C.Bickley FosterB.A . Geography, 19522818 N. Edwards StreetWichita, KS [email protected]

Although you probably are hoping tohear about the career activities of recentgraduates, I thought some might find it inter-esting to look back 52 years from a 1952graduate. [Mr. Foster sent this letter to theDepartment in February of 2005 – Editor]After my B.A. in geography, I was encour-aged by a woman professor and the directorof the Tennessee State Planning Commissionto go to the University of North Carolina, oneof the five colleges teaching city planning atthat time. This was somewhat unique be-cause geography did not appear to position aperson for employment other than teaching. Iwas the only geography graduate in thePlanning Course. Most students were fromliberal arts. I naively thought that I couldwork for TWA and travel the world! Afterreceiving my MCRP at U.N.C., I worked 19years as a planner/director: for Bucks County,Pennsylvania when it was the fourth fastestgrowing county in the U.S.; for LancasterCounty, PA., for Wichita-Sedgwick County,KS; and then for Campus Planner of WichitaState University. For the past 32 year, I haveoperated Foster & Associates, PlanningConsultants during which we’ve worked forover 100 municipalities in Kansas. In 1984, Ireceived my law degree from WashburnUniversity. My point is – geography gave mea great start in my employment career – andas an avocation, my wife and I have traveledto 27 countries. We find life more interestingand can relate to the world better because weare global minded people.

Now for the reason I decided torespond to the invitation for “news.” Having

read the [2005] Department Newsletter withconsiderable interest, I am amazed andpleased that the students and faculty areengaged in so many different fields of geogra-phy for study and research. Not only isgeography a wonderful background foremployment today, but it provides a personalperspective for the dynamics of living in theworld. I think that world geography should bea prerequisite introductory class for all under-graduate degrees.

A little more history. Our classeswere made more interesting at the time by theinsight and stories of veterans from W.W.II.Whereas the professors had not alwaystraveled as much due to the war and post-warconditions, the veterans were often called onto provide an additional learning experience.One veteran had been captured by the Ger-mans near the end of the war and marchedacross Germany at night while staying in barnsduring the daytime. With the Russians ap-proaching from the east, the prisoners wereturned around and marched back westwarduntil finally liberated. He had first handknowledge of German agriculture and particu-larly the potato skin soup and boiled pig’s liverhe was fed that actually kept him healthy.

For the students learning to use GISmapping, I am reminded in my cartographyclass that I researched and made a dot map ofthe density of mules in Tennessee by countiesbased on 1950 Census data. This was animportant indicator of socioeconomic condi-tions in that county. The dots had to becompletely round and I was proud of myefforts. Since the class was immediatelyafter lunch, I had to carry my map to thecafeteria. Now while I may have forgottenthe major cash crop of Columbia (not cocainethen) from my college education, I will neverforget that I got gravy on my map in the lunchline. The professor was an understandingperson and I received an A grade, became aPhi Kappa Phi honoree and learned to neverplace food or drink near an important map!

My congratulations to the studentswho chose to major in geography. You canlook forward to a productive, interesting andenjoyable life.

Luisa FreemanUTK Geography Master’s degree, 1983

Greetings UTK Geographers!

Sorry I have been out of touch for solong. I really enjoy receiving the departmentalnewsletter and reading about faculty, alumniand student activities. Seems like the physicalplant is a far cry from when I was there in thelate 70s (very impressive!), and that theenthusiasm and intellectual capacity are still asstrong as ever. I need to come visit, perhapslater this year. Tell me when would be a goodtime. Are you still keeping an AdvisoryCommittee of alumni? I would love to speak tothe students if an opportunity presents itself –particularly if a post-lecture cocktail party isalso involved.

I have stayed firmly within energyresearch throughout the past 20 years (!)since leaving UTK Geography. The late 70senergy efficiency movement has maintainedmomentum, waxing and waning with thevarious administrations, but a constant in theutility industry. I have been working as anindependent consultant to electric and gasutilities in the U.S., regulatory agencies hereand overseas and more recently for a fewbigger organizations such as The World Bankand United Nations Development Program. (Imean programme.) While throughout this timeI have continued to evaluate energy programsas my bread and butter, my more recent workhas involved capacity building and training ofregulatory staffs at nascent governmentagencies that are being formed as govern-ment-owned energy sectors undergoprivatization. (That is, privatisation.) Editorialquirks aside, this international work has beenthe most fun of all, taking me to South Africaand Egypt several times each, and also toexotic spots such as Zambia, the CzechRepublic and Albany, New York.

I can hear Sid Jumper asking me,“But what’s geographic about all of that?”(Bless him, he never did quit needling meabout my undergraduate degree in Economics,but I loved him anyway…) Well, the skill setsfor one – all those Quant Methods courses soably taught by Bruce, and the Urban Geogra-phy concepts for another, thanks to Tom Bell.I do a lot of primary research in my evaluationwork, and always examine whether geo-

Please Keep Us Up To DatePlease share your news with us, and other alumni, especially if you have anew address. Return this form to Kurt Butefish, 304 Burchfiel GeographyBuilding, Knoxville, TN 37996-0925, or email to [email protected]. We’llinclude your update in the next newsletter.

Name: ________________________________________________

Degree(s) if any; and Year(s): ______________________________

Address: ______________________________________________

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NEWS… (employment, career activities, family, achievements,awards, publications, travel, other... please attach additional sheetsas necessary):

communicate relatively technical results inclear, simple language for policymakers,regardless of the fancy or not-so-fancymethods used to get there. So thanks toomust go to Charles Aiken and SingletonStation Road, which taught me not only toobserve with a careful eye, but to be able totell about it with a good story.

I’ve been living in the Washington,DC area for the past ten years, working athome and being a mom to my 8-year-old sonSammy. I hope you are all well and thrivingunder Chairman Bruce. My very best wishesto you and give me a holler as to when mightbe a good time to visit. Don’t hesitate to callme either if you are ever in town – it would befun to catch up.

graphic differences exist in acceptance rates,behavior, market accessibility and othervariables when examining the impact of atechnology, program or policy. In my workoverseas, what is always most fascinating arethe more extreme differences in energy sectorchallenges that exist in urban versus ruralcontexts – everything from technology,delivery systems, governmental policies topopulations’ socio-demographics and evenlanguages. These are great, interesting andfun research challenges and I hope to keep atthem for many more years to come.

To mention yet one more UTKprofessor, I must note that the basis of mycareer success has been in an ability to

U.S. PostagePAID

The Univeristyof Tennessee

Department of GeographyUniversity of Tennessee304 Burchfiel Geography BuildingKnoxville, TN 37996-0925

Spring 2006

The Newsletter of the University of Tennessee Department of Geography

The University of Tennessee does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, religion,national origin, age, disability, or veteran status in provision of educational programs and services oremployment opportunities and benefits. This policy extends to both employment and admission to theUniversity.

The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, or disability in its educationprograms and activities pursuant to the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IXof the Education Amendments of 1979, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Ameri-cans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.

Inquiries and charges of violations concerning Title VI, Title IX, Section 504, ADA or the AgeDiscrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) or any of the other above referenced policies should bedirected to the Office of Equity and Diversity (OED), 1840 Melrose Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37996-3560,telephone (865) 974-2498 (V/TTY available) or 974-2440. Requests for accommodation of a disabilityshould be directed to the ADA Coordinator at the UTK Office of Human Resources, 600 Henley Street,Knoxville, TN 37996-4125.

E01-1038-001-06

Growth and Change - UTK Geography

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