Glacial Deposits.indd - Department of Geography - Geology - Illinois ...

as a visiting instructor of geography. His interests include cultural geography, sense of
place, cultural landscape, GIS, and the intersection of GIS and qualitative methods. In
the fall he taught Human Geography (140) and Geographic Information Systems (303).
In the spring he again taught these two courses, along with Cultural Geography (331)
centered on urban culture and environment. R.J. also taught a two-day introductory GIS
workshop in December and another in May, both of which were offered under the
GEOMAP program to members of the community at large. He helped mentor two
graduate students, one in Illinois State’s Renewable Energy program and another in the
School of Information Technology, on their research that employed GIS to understand
the impacts of wind farms on property values and socio-spatial patterns of wireless
network security, respectively. R.J. continues several research threads he began during
his graduate career. He has three manuscripts currently in review from his dissertation
about local sense of place in Las Vegas. One is a historical geographical sketch of Las
Vegas’s reaction to the coming of Boulder (Hoover) Dam (submitted to Nevada Historical
Society Quarterly); another explores urban senses of community using present-day Las
Vegas as a case (Urban Geography); and the third is an ethnographic study of religion in
Sin City (Geographical Review). He also is working on a book proposal for his
dissertation to be submitted for review this summer. Expanding on his Las Vegas work,
R.J. began exploring the water issues in the Las Vegas region, specifically focusing on
the local understanding and perception of a project to import hundreds of thousands of
acre-feet of water from the arid Great Basin 200 miles north of the southern Nevada
metropolis. He presented a piece of this work at the 2010 AAG meetings in Washington,
D.C. R.J. also continues to work with Dr. John Kostelnick and Dr. Dave McDermott
(Haskell Indian Nations University) on GIS-based mapping and representation of
potential sea-level rise. Their work was recently featured in a special issue of National
Geographic entitled “Nature’s Fury.” He is also collaborating on sea-level-rise mapping
projects with the London School for Economics LSE Cities program as well as a film
production company in England working on a documentary about climate change to be
broadcast by National Geographic. R.J. has thoroughly enjoyed his time at Illinois State.
He has developed lasting relationships with both faculty and students and will miss both
when he begins a new position as Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of
Wisconsin-Platteville in the fall of 2010.
Email: rjrowle@ilstu.edu
William E. Shields, Lecturer in Geology. B.S., 1999, and M.S., 2001, Illinois State University.
Bill is continuing his work this year to support online education at Illinois State and has
been appointed by the vice-president to lead consultant for the University’s Virtual
Campus in the 3D computer simulation program Second Life. This year Bill received The
Presidential Award in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring by President
Obama for his participation with the outreach group Project Exploration. Project
Exploration works to ensure communities traditionally overlooked by science—
particularly minority youth and girls—have access to personalized experiences with
science and scientists. This is one of only three groups in the country to receive this
distinguished honor. Email: weshiel@ilstu.edu
Michael D. Sublett, Professor of Geography. B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa), 1966, and M.A., University
of Missouri-Columbia, 1967; Ph.D., 1974, The University of Chicago. Mike arrived at
Illinois State in 1970, chaired the Department from 1978 to 1988, has coordinated the
Geography internship program since 1987, and has served as co-organizer of the
annual Geography Career Fair since its inception in 1990. He just completed his fortieth
year on the faculty at Illinois State. Within a year of his 1970 arrival on campus, the
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