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Clark University
Geography
Researchers in the field in Alaska

Faculty members in the Graduate School of Geography disseminate their research findings in many ways, through articles in peer-reviewed journals, books, GIS software innovation, conference presentations and proceedings, and popular publications.

All recent faculty publications can be found in Clark’s Digital Commons. The Commons brings together articles that the School’s current faculty members have published and is an indication of the creativity, breadth of interest, and productivity of our faculty.

Principal Investigator(s) Grant Title Funding Agency
Asha Best and Lyndon Estes Methodologies for just urban futures: Using geospatial tools to address police violence Urban Studies Foundation
Mark Davidson Organising the 21st Century City: An International Comparison of Urban Alliances as Citizen Engagement Henry Halloran Trust
Lyndon Estes A region-wide, multi-year set of crop field boundary labels for Sub-Saharan Africa Lacuna Fund
Lyndon Estes Creating open agricultural maps and groundtruth data to better deliver farm extension services Tetratech for Gates Foundation
Lyndon Estes Combining spatially-explicit simulation of animal movement and Earth Observation to reconcile agriculture and wildlife conservation National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lyndon Estes Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative Promotional Credits Award Amazon Web Services
Lyndon Estes Continued Development of the Mapping Africa Active Learning Platform Omidyar Network
Lyndon Estes SERVIR: Unlocking the power of active remote sensing for ecosystem services modeling in the Amazon’s forest-agriculture interface NASA
Lyndon Estes CNH2-L: Feedbacks between Urban Food Security and Rural Agricultural Systems National Science Foundation
Abby Frazier Translating existing model results to aid in resource management planning for future precipitation extremes in Hawai’i and SE Alaska
 United States Geological Survey
Abby Frazier Routine Monitoring of Climate in the State of Hawai’i: Establishment of State Climate Divisions
 NOAA
Abby Frazier Scaling up the Hawai’i Drought Knowledge Exchange
 USFS
Karen Frey RAPID: Impacts of increased Light Transmittance on Ocean Heating, Primary Productivity, and Carbon Cycling Across a Pacific Arctic Continental Shelf Gradient
 National Science Foundation
Karen Frey Remote sensing of river carbon fluxes to the ocean NASA Carbon Cycle Science
Karen Frey Collaborative Research: The Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO)-A Change Detection Array in the Pacific Arctic Region National Science Foundation
Deborah Martin Planting Trees for Improved Community Health in Two Small Low-Income Cities in Massachusetts US Department of Agriculture
James Murphy Governing Sustainability through Place-Making: Eco-districts in the Pittsburgh Metro Region National Science Foundation
Robert Gilmore Pontius LTER-Plum Island Ecosystems: The impact of changing landscapes and climate on interconnected coastal ecosystems
 National Science Foundation
Robert Gilmore Pontius LTER-Plum Island Ecosystems: Dynamics of coastal ecosystems in a region of rapid climate change, sea-level rise, and human impacts National Science Foundation
Robert Gilmore Pontius Methods and software to understand and build the MapBiomas data. Instituto Humanize
John Rogan Planting resilient riparian forests for water supply and public health in under-served communities USDA/GroundworksRI
John Rogan Urban Greenspace and Air Quality: Demonstrating the positive influence of the Hadwen Arboretum on Local Air Quality Clark University
John Rogan Assessing urban heat island effects in the Clark University Hadwen Arboretum Clark University
Florencia Sangermano Collaborative Research: BoCP-Design US-Sao Paulo: Land use change, ecosystem resilience and zoonotic spillover risk. National Science Foundation
Florencia Sangermano Essential Biodiversity Variables – ScaleUp – Harnessing the power of GEE and GEO BON to bring EBVs from concept to application-ready global solutions in service of society GEO-Google Earth Engine Program
Florencia Sangermano Urban Heat Islands, Mosquito biodiversity, and the effect of vegetation as a regulating service in a city of Argentina National Geographic Society
Rinku Roy Chowdhury Collaborative research: MSB:FRA: Alternative futures for the American Residential Macrosystem National Science Foundation
Christopher Williams Avoided Deforestation as a Climate Opportunity in the US
 The Nature Conservancy
Christopher Williams Decision Support Tools for Global Assessment of Albedo Impacts on NCS from Reforestation and Avoided Deforestation The Nature Conservancy

Current Faculty Research Projects

Karen Frey pulling up water sample from ocean
Karen Frey

Impacts of thinning sea ice in Arctic

Karen Frey‘s research interests involve the combined use of field measurements, satellite remote sensing, and GIS to study large-scale linkages between land, atmosphere, ocean, and ice in polar environments.

Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation, NASA, U.S. Office of Naval Research

Current Projects:
Biological impacts of declining sea ice in the Pacific Arctic
Observing a network of biological hotspots in the Arctic
Detecting change in the Pacific Arctic region
Using satellite imagery to observe sea ice melt ponds

Karen Frey pulling up water sample from ocean
Karen Frey

Impacts of thinning sea ice in Arctic

Karen Frey‘s research interests involve the combined use of field measurements, satellite remote sensing, and GIS to study large-scale linkages between land, atmosphere, ocean, and ice in polar environments.

Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation, NASA, U.S. Office of Naval Research

Current Projects:
Biological impacts of declining sea ice in the Pacific Arctic
Observing a network of biological hotspots in the Arctic
Detecting change in the Pacific Arctic region
Using satellite imagery to observe sea ice melt ponds

Karen Frey

Impacts of thinning sea ice in Arctic

Karen Frey‘s research interests involve the combined use of field measurements, satellite remote sensing, and GIS to study large-scale linkages between land, atmosphere, ocean, and ice in polar environments.

Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation, NASA, U.S. Office of Naval Research

Current Projects:
Biological impacts of declining sea ice in the Pacific Arctic
Observing a network of biological hotspots in the Arctic
Detecting change in the Pacific Arctic region
Using satellite imagery to observe sea ice melt ponds

geographer Lyndon Estes
Lyndon Estes

Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa

Lyndon Estes is an environmental scientist who investigates the drivers and impacts of agricultural change, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. He conducts his research using new Earth observation technologies and a range of modeling techniques and works within interdisciplinary projects involving economists, agronomists, human geographers, decision scientists, hydrologists, climatologists, and computer scientists.

Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation, NASA, Omidyar Network

Current Projects:
Food security and farmers’ decision-making
Sustainability of farming practices in Zambia
Agricultural mapping in sub-Saharan Africa
Trade, food policy and resilience to drought risk

geographer Lyndon Estes
Lyndon Estes

Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa

Lyndon Estes is an environmental scientist who investigates the drivers and impacts of agricultural change, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. He conducts his research using new Earth observation technologies and a range of modeling techniques and works within interdisciplinary projects involving economists, agronomists, human geographers, decision scientists, hydrologists, climatologists, and computer scientists.

Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation, NASA, Omidyar Network

Current Projects:
Food security and farmers’ decision-making
Sustainability of farming practices in Zambia
Agricultural mapping in sub-Saharan Africa
Trade, food policy and resilience to drought risk

Lyndon Estes

Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa

Lyndon Estes is an environmental scientist who investigates the drivers and impacts of agricultural change, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. He conducts his research using new Earth observation technologies and a range of modeling techniques and works within interdisciplinary projects involving economists, agronomists, human geographers, decision scientists, hydrologists, climatologists, and computer scientists.

Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation, NASA, Omidyar Network

Current Projects:
Food security and farmers’ decision-making
Sustainability of farming practices in Zambia
Agricultural mapping in sub-Saharan Africa
Trade, food policy and resilience to drought risk

Chris Williams doing maps
Christopher A. Williams

Drought, fires, beetles and Earth’s biosphere

Christopher A. Williams investigates how Earth’s biosphere responds to natural and human perturbations such as severe drought, bark beetle outbreaks, fires, harvesting, and land cover changes. His approach combines field, lab, and remote sensing data with process-based modeling aimed at understanding how terrestrial biophysical and biogeochemical processes are influenced by hydroclimatic variability and disturbance.

Funding Agency: NASA

Current Projects:
Understanding forest change, carbon emissions 
Developing new tools to study carbon dynamics
How are greenhouse gases transported through air?

Chris Williams doing maps
Christopher A. Williams

Drought, fires, beetles and Earth’s biosphere

Christopher A. Williams investigates how Earth’s biosphere responds to natural and human perturbations such as severe drought, bark beetle outbreaks, fires, harvesting, and land cover changes. His approach combines field, lab, and remote sensing data with process-based modeling aimed at understanding how terrestrial biophysical and biogeochemical processes are influenced by hydroclimatic variability and disturbance.

Funding Agency: NASA

Current Projects:
Understanding forest change, carbon emissions 
Developing new tools to study carbon dynamics
How are greenhouse gases transported through air?

Christopher A. Williams

Drought, fires, beetles and Earth’s biosphere

Christopher A. Williams investigates how Earth’s biosphere responds to natural and human perturbations such as severe drought, bark beetle outbreaks, fires, harvesting, and land cover changes. His approach combines field, lab, and remote sensing data with process-based modeling aimed at understanding how terrestrial biophysical and biogeochemical processes are influenced by hydroclimatic variability and disturbance.

Funding Agency: NASA

Current Projects:
Understanding forest change, carbon emissions 
Developing new tools to study carbon dynamics
How are greenhouse gases transported through air?

GilPontius
Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr.

GIS and land change science

Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr. is an environmental statistician who creates new quantitative methods for land change science and geographic information science (GIS), helping investigators analyze the interaction between humans and the environment.

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

Current Project:
Changes in Plum Island’s watersheds

GilPontius
Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr.

GIS and land change science

Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr. is an environmental statistician who creates new quantitative methods for land change science and geographic information science (GIS), helping investigators analyze the interaction between humans and the environment.

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

Current Project:
Changes in Plum Island’s watersheds

Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr.

GIS and land change science

Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr. is an environmental statistician who creates new quantitative methods for land change science and geographic information science (GIS), helping investigators analyze the interaction between humans and the environment.

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

Current Project:
Changes in Plum Island’s watersheds

Chowdhury
Rinku Roy Chowdhury

Humans’ interactions with the environment

Rinku Roy Chowdhury’s research focuses on the institutional, ecological and spatial diversity of human-environment interactions in forest-agricultural mosaics (Mexico), urbanizing ecosystems (multiple sites in the U.S.), and coastal mangrove vulnerability to anthropogenic and climate change (the Americas and South Asia).

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

Current Projects:
Understanding human impact on Everglades
Extreme weather and cities vulnerability
Residential parcels and the environment in US cities

Chowdhury
Rinku Roy Chowdhury

Humans’ interactions with the environment

Rinku Roy Chowdhury’s research focuses on the institutional, ecological and spatial diversity of human-environment interactions in forest-agricultural mosaics (Mexico), urbanizing ecosystems (multiple sites in the U.S.), and coastal mangrove vulnerability to anthropogenic and climate change (the Americas and South Asia).

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

Current Projects:
Understanding human impact on Everglades
Extreme weather and cities vulnerability
Residential parcels and the environment in US cities

Rinku Roy Chowdhury

Humans’ interactions with the environment

Rinku Roy Chowdhury’s research focuses on the institutional, ecological and spatial diversity of human-environment interactions in forest-agricultural mosaics (Mexico), urbanizing ecosystems (multiple sites in the U.S.), and coastal mangrove vulnerability to anthropogenic and climate change (the Americas and South Asia).

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

Current Projects:
Understanding human impact on Everglades
Extreme weather and cities vulnerability
Residential parcels and the environment in US cities

John Rogan
John Rogan

GIS, remote sensing and landscape ecology

John Rogan’s research focuses on landscape ecology, fire ecology, optical remote sensing, and geographic information science.

Funding Agency: Climate and Land Use Alliance

Current Project:
Impact of mining on forests in Asia, Latin America

John Rogan
John Rogan

GIS, remote sensing and landscape ecology

John Rogan’s research focuses on landscape ecology, fire ecology, optical remote sensing, and geographic information science.

Funding Agency: Climate and Land Use Alliance

Current Project:
Impact of mining on forests in Asia, Latin America

John Rogan

GIS, remote sensing and landscape ecology

John Rogan’s research focuses on landscape ecology, fire ecology, optical remote sensing, and geographic information science.

Funding Agency: Climate and Land Use Alliance

Current Project:
Impact of mining on forests in Asia, Latin America

Anthony Bebbington
Anthony Bebbington

Extractive industries, communities and conflict

Anthony Bebbington’s work addresses the political ecology of rural change, with a particular focus on extractive industries and socio-environmental conflicts, social movements, indigenous organizations, and livelihoods.

Funding Agency: Climate and Land Use Alliance

Current Project:
Impact of extractive industries on communities

Anthony Bebbington
Anthony Bebbington

Extractive industries, communities and conflict

Anthony Bebbington’s work addresses the political ecology of rural change, with a particular focus on extractive industries and socio-environmental conflicts, social movements, indigenous organizations, and livelihoods.

Funding Agency: Climate and Land Use Alliance

Current Project:
Impact of extractive industries on communities

Anthony Bebbington

Extractive industries, communities and conflict

Anthony Bebbington’s work addresses the political ecology of rural change, with a particular focus on extractive industries and socio-environmental conflicts, social movements, indigenous organizations, and livelihoods.

Funding Agency: Climate and Land Use Alliance

Current Project:
Impact of extractive industries on communities

Deborah Martin
Deborah Martin

Place identity, property, politics and people

Deborah Martin is an urban geographer with interests in place identity, local politics, legal geography, qualitative methodologies, and social movements, particularly neighborhood activism.

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

Current Project:
Community land trusts in the Twin Cities

Deborah Martin
Deborah Martin

Place identity, property, politics and people

Deborah Martin is an urban geographer with interests in place identity, local politics, legal geography, qualitative methodologies, and social movements, particularly neighborhood activism.

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

Current Project:
Community land trusts in the Twin Cities

Deborah Martin

Place identity, property, politics and people

Deborah Martin is an urban geographer with interests in place identity, local politics, legal geography, qualitative methodologies, and social movements, particularly neighborhood activism.

Funding Agency: National Science Foundation

Current Project:
Community land trusts in the Twin Cities

James Murphy

Sustainability in the Global South

James Murphy’s research elucidates the structures, agencies, relationalities, and spatialities shaping contemporary economic geographies and examines the prospects for more just, sustainable, and resilient forms of development in the Global South.

Funding Agency: Regional Studies Association

Current Project:
Future success for Kenya’s Konza Techno City

James Murphy

Sustainability in the Global South

James Murphy’s research elucidates the structures, agencies, relationalities, and spatialities shaping contemporary economic geographies and examines the prospects for more just, sustainable, and resilient forms of development in the Global South.

Funding Agency: Regional Studies Association

Current Project:
Future success for Kenya’s Konza Techno City

James Murphy

Sustainability in the Global South

James Murphy’s research elucidates the structures, agencies, relationalities, and spatialities shaping contemporary economic geographies and examines the prospects for more just, sustainable, and resilient forms of development in the Global South.

Funding Agency: Regional Studies Association

Current Project:
Future success for Kenya’s Konza Techno City

Faculty News

Featured Books

Rise of the Hybrid boo
Yuko Aoyama

The Rise of the Hybrid Domain: Collaborative Governance for Social Innovation

This book explores how corporations, states, and civil society organizations develop common agendas, despite the differences in their primary objectives.

Learn More
Rise of the Hybrid boo
Yuko Aoyama

The Rise of the Hybrid Domain: Collaborative Governance for Social Innovation

This book explores how corporations, states, and civil society organizations develop common agendas, despite the differences in their primary objectives.

Learn More
Yuko Aoyama

The Rise of the Hybrid Domain: Collaborative Governance for Social Innovation

This book explores how corporations, states, and civil society organizations develop common agendas, despite the differences in their primary objectives.

Africa's information revolution book
James Murphy

Africa's Information Revolution: Technical Regimes and Production Networks in So

An in-depth examination of the development and economic geographies accompanying the rapid diffusion of new ICTs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Learn More
Africa's information revolution book
James Murphy

Africa's Information Revolution: Technical Regimes and Production Networks in So

An in-depth examination of the development and economic geographies accompanying the rapid diffusion of new ICTs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Learn More
James Murphy

Africa's Information Revolution: Technical Regimes and Production Networks in So

An in-depth examination of the development and economic geographies accompanying the rapid diffusion of new ICTs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Bebbington book cover
Anthony Bebbington

Subterranean Struggles

Blending perspectives from geography/political ecology, an essay collection that probes the resurgence of investment in mineral & hydrocarbon extraction.

Learn More
Bebbington book cover
Anthony Bebbington

Subterranean Struggles

Blending perspectives from geography/political ecology, an essay collection that probes the resurgence of investment in mineral & hydrocarbon extraction.

Learn More
Anthony Bebbington

Subterranean Struggles

Blending perspectives from geography/political ecology, an essay collection that probes the resurgence of investment in mineral & hydrocarbon extraction.

IEP logo
Anthony Bebbington

Industrias Extractivas, Conflicto Social y Dinamicas Institutionales en la Tegio

Review book by Anthony.

Learn More
IEP logo
Anthony Bebbington

Industrias Extractivas, Conflicto Social y Dinamicas Institutionales en la Tegio

Review book by Anthony.

Learn More
Anthony Bebbington

Industrias Extractivas, Conflicto Social y Dinamicas Institutionales en la Tegio

Review book by Anthony.

Urban politics book cover
Mark Davidson, Deborah Martin

Urban Politics: Critical Approaches

Thought provoking discussion of contemporary urban politics places key issues in a geographical context.

Learn More
Urban politics book cover
Mark Davidson, Deborah Martin

Urban Politics: Critical Approaches

Thought provoking discussion of contemporary urban politics places key issues in a geographical context.

Learn More
Mark Davidson, Deborah Martin

Urban Politics: Critical Approaches

Thought provoking discussion of contemporary urban politics places key issues in a geographical context.

Economic Geography book cover
Multiple Professors

Key Concepts in Economic Geography

Yuko Aoyama, James Murphy, Susan Hanson
A new kind of textbook that forms part of an innovative set of companion texts for the human geography sub-disciplines.

Learn More
Economic Geography book cover
Multiple Professors

Key Concepts in Economic Geography

Yuko Aoyama, James Murphy, Susan Hanson
A new kind of textbook that forms part of an innovative set of companion texts for the human geography sub-disciplines.

Learn More
Multiple Professors

Key Concepts in Economic Geography

Yuko Aoyama, James Murphy, Susan Hanson
A new kind of textbook that forms part of an innovative set of companion texts for the human geography sub-disciplines.

social conflict book cover
Anthony Bebbington

Social Conflict, Economic Development and Extractive Industry

The extraction of minerals, oil and gas has a long and ambiguous history in development processes – in North America, Europe, Latin America and Australasia.

Learn More
social conflict book cover
Anthony Bebbington

Social Conflict, Economic Development and Extractive Industry

The extraction of minerals, oil and gas has a long and ambiguous history in development processes – in North America, Europe, Latin America and Australasia.

Learn More
Anthony Bebbington

Social Conflict, Economic Development and Extractive Industry

The extraction of minerals, oil and gas has a long and ambiguous history in development processes – in North America, Europe, Latin America and Australasia.

Clark logo
Anthony Bebbington

Mineria, Movimientos Sociales y Respuestas Campesinas

Este libro trata de la relación entre minería, desarrollo y democracia en los países andinos y Guatemala; relación difícil de analizar, subraya.

Learn More
Clark logo
Anthony Bebbington

Mineria, Movimientos Sociales y Respuestas Campesinas

Este libro trata de la relación entre minería, desarrollo y democracia en los países andinos y Guatemala; relación difícil de analizar, subraya.

Learn More
Anthony Bebbington

Mineria, Movimientos Sociales y Respuestas Campesinas

Este libro trata de la relación entre minería, desarrollo y democracia en los países andinos y Guatemala; relación difícil de analizar, subraya.

Cultural encounters with the environment book cover
Douglas Johnson

Cultural Encounters with the Environment

A distinguished group of contributors offers a fresh and original view of contemporary geography

Learn More
Cultural encounters with the environment book cover
Douglas Johnson

Cultural Encounters with the Environment

A distinguished group of contributors offers a fresh and original view of contemporary geography

Learn More
Douglas Johnson

Cultural Encounters with the Environment

A distinguished group of contributors offers a fresh and original view of contemporary geography

10 geographic ideas book
Susan Hanson

10 Geographic Ideas That Changed the World

In these thought-provoking, witty essays, some of America’s most distinguished geographers explore ten geographic ideas that have literally changed the world.

Learn More
10 geographic ideas book
Susan Hanson

10 Geographic Ideas That Changed the World

In these thought-provoking, witty essays, some of America’s most distinguished geographers explore ten geographic ideas that have literally changed the world.

Learn More
Susan Hanson

10 Geographic Ideas That Changed the World

In these thought-provoking, witty essays, some of America’s most distinguished geographers explore ten geographic ideas that have literally changed the world.

Contact Information

Graduate School of Geography

Office Location

  • Jefferson Academic Center, Room 220
    950 Main Street
    Worcester, MA 01610

  • 1-508-793-7336
  • 1-508-793-8881 fax
  • geography[at]clarku[dot]edu