Dr. Martha Geores

 
Education

PhD  Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1993
JD  New York University School of Law, 1977
BA  Sociology, Bates College (Lewiston, Maine), 1973

Research Interests

• Society and Sustainability
• Social construction of landscapes
• Common property
• Human Dimensions of Global Change

Dr. Geores' research interests center on the interaction between human and physical systems as they are played out on the landscape. Of particular concern is the sustainability of social and cultural systems in the face of local and global economic and environmental change. The cultural meaning attributed to natural phenomena and landscapes is an essential element of social sustainability. Systems of ownership and management of resources along the continuum from public to private are central to this theme.

Representative Publications

Geores, Martha  Common Ground: The Struggle for Ownership of the Black Hills

National Forest Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.

Carter, Catherine L. and Martha E. Geores, 2006. “Heaven on Earth: The Shakers and

their Space” Geographies of Religion and Belief Systems 1(1) October 2006 http://www.gorabs.org/journal/issues/2006/index.htm.

Geores, Martha E.  2003. “The Relationship between Resource definition and Scale:

Considering the Forest”  in Nives Dolsak and Elinor Ostrom (eds) The Commons in the NewMillennium: Challenges and Adaptation, MIT Press, pp. 75-97.

Geores, Martha and Gesler, Wilbert (1999) Compromised space: The Negotiated

Reality of the Therapeutic Environment In Therapeutic Landscapes: The Dynamic Between Place and Wellness, A. Williams, Ed., (Lanham, MD: University Press of America), pp.99-122

Prince, S.D. and M. E. Geores (1999) Global Vegetation production and human

activity: a case study In GIS in Natural Resource Management: Balancing the Technical-Political Equation, E. Moran, Ed., (Santa Fe, NM: High Mountain Press).

Geores, Martha and Cirrincione, J. (1998) Teaching about ethnicity and gender in the

developing world: "Burying Otieno" as a Role-Play Women's Studies Quaterly, Fall/Winter 1998, 26(3/4): 202-214

Geores, Martha (1998) Surviving on a Metaphor: How Health = Hot Springs Created

and Sustained a Town In Place and Health: Making Connections in Geographic Research, Robin Kearns and Wilber Gesler, editors, Syracuse University Press, 1998, pp. 36-52.

Geores, Martha (1998) The Historic Role of the Forest Community in Maintaining the

Black Hills National Forest as a Complex Common-Pool Multiple Use Resource Mountain Research and Development, 18(1): 83-94

Recent PhD Dissertations Directed

Christopher Steele. 2007. “The Emergence of a Local Memorial Landscape in the

Aftermath of a Violent Tragedy: A Study of Baltimore’s Dawson Murders 2002-2005.

Barbara Kearney  2006. “Exerting Local Power Over a Federal Process: Stakeholder

Negotiation Process in the Canyon Forest Village Land Exchange Process, 1992-2002”

Catherine L. Carter.  2005.  “The Role of Theology in the Production of Space in

Shaker Societies. (Best Student Paper, GORAB Speciality Group, AAG)

Claire Jantz.  2005.  “Analyzing Forest Change and Policy in Washington, D.C.

Suburban Counties.

Francis Lindsay. 2005. “Discerning Intra-Metropolitan Patterns of Producer Service

Establishment Local Using Geographic Information Systems.

James W. Wilson. 2005. “Historical and Computational Analysis of Long-Term

Environmental Change: Forest in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia” (Best Student Paper: Historical Geography Specialy Group, AAG).

 

James W. Wilson. 2005. “Historical and Computational Analysis of Long-Term

Environmental Change: Forest in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia” (Best Student Paper: Historical Geography Specialy Group, AAG).

 

 

 

 

Teaching

Director, Geography Honors Program

Environmental Science and Policy Program, Advisor for Land Use Concentration

Affiliate Faculty Department of Women’s Studies

Graduate Courses Offered: Population and the Environment, Human Dimensions of Global Change, Qualitative Methods, Introduction to Human Geography

Undergraduate Courses Offered: Culture and Natural Resource Management (capstone for ENSP Land-Use), Population Geography, Regional Geography of the Caribbean (Study Abroad).