AAG

Particular emphasis is given to the relation of social, political and
economic structure to spatial organization and social justice, and on
issues of race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, inequality, health and
disease, policing, power and social justice as they have been theorized
in critical social theories. Attention is also paid to how politicaleconomic
geographies combine in relations of dominance, governance
and resistance at a range of scales, from the urban to the regional to
the transnational.
ACADEMIC PLAN, ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS, AND
FINANCIAL AID:
Undergraduate: Quarter system. The University of Washington
admits undergraduate students on the basis of scholastic standing,
admission test scores, and adequacy of preparation for University
study while in high school or another collegiate institution. Neither the
College of Arts and Sciences nor the Department of Geography have
separate admissions requirements, but both have graduation
requirements. (Please request further information from the Office of
Admissions, Box 351280, University of Washington, Seattle,
Washington 98195).
Graduate: Quarter system. The departmental curriculum is flexible,
and programs of study are individually arranged to suit the needs of
the students. The Geography M.A. is a two-year program culminating
in the writing and defense of an MA thesis. The Geography Ph.D. is a
4-6 year program in which students develop a high level of expertise
of one or more specific areas within this discipline. The Ph.D.
culminates in the writing and defense of a doctoral dissertation.
Admission to the graduate program is competitive and requires a
minimum grade point average of B (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) with average
incoming GPAs usually much higher. Applicants must take the
GRE. Priority admission submission deadline: December 15.
Information on the graduate program may be obtained by accessing
our web site: https://geography.washington.edu/graduate-admissions
Note: The MGIS for Sustainability Management is administered
through Professional and Continuing Education, and has a separate,
stand-alone admission process:
http://www.gisonline.uw.edu/admissions/
FACULTY:
Luke Bergmann, Ph.D. 2012, Minnesota, Assistant Professor—
Nature-Society relations; political economy; globalization;
complexity; critical GIS and geovisualization; China.
Christine Biermann, Ph.D. 2014, Ohio State University, Assistant
Professor—political ecology, biodiversity conservation, nature
and race, critical physical geography
Michael Brown, Ph.D., British Columbia, 1994, Professor—urban,
political and health geography, sexuality, urban politics, political
theory.
Kam Wing Chan, Ph.D., Toronto, 1988, Professor—China,
urbanization, migration, labor, development, and the hukou
system
Mark Ellis, Ph.D., Indiana, 1988, Professor—immigration, internal
migration, race and ethnicity, labor markets
Sarah Elwood, Ph.D. Minnesota, 2000, Associate Professor—
relational poverty, visuality, critical geographies of technology,
mixed methods
Kim England, Ph.D., Ohio State, 1988, Professor—urban, social,
political and feminist geographies, work and employment, care
work, the home, critical social policy, social and feminist
theories
Steve Herbert, Ph.D., UCLA, 1995, Professor—political geography,
law and law enforcement, environmental regulation, qualitative
methods
Lucy Jarosz, Ph.D., UC, Berkeley, 1990, Professor and Chair—
political ecology of agriculture; critical food studies; hunger and
poverty; post-colonial, and feminist theory, qualitative
methodology, North America
Victoria A. Lawson, Ph.D., Ohio State, 1986, Professor—critical
development studies, relational poverty studies,
the Americas, Marxist, feminist and post-colonial theory
Jonathan D. Mayer, Ph.D., Michigan, 1977, Professor, Dept. of
Epidemiology; Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Medicine, Division of
Infectious Diseases; Dept. of Family Medicine, Dept of Health
Services; Clinical Faculty, Travel/Tropical Medicine, UW
Medical Center; International Health Program, Co-Director,
Undergraduate Program in Public Health—global health;
medical geography (infectious diseases and society, disease
ecology; health care delivery), HIV, especially in sub Saharan
Africa; HIV, gender and poverty; health policy; “slum health” in
Africa; infectious disease epidemiology; genetic and molecular
epidemiology; cardiovascular epidemiology; social determinants
of health and social epidemiology; tropical medicine and clinical
applications of medical geography; public health and global
health in the undergraduate curriculum
Katharyne Mitchell, Ph.D., UC, Berkeley, 1993, Professor—urban,
comparative studies of migration, education and philosophies of
immigrant education, social theory, Europe and Pacific Rim
Timothy L. Nyerges, Ph.D., Ohio State, 1980, Professor—geographic
information systems, spatial decision support systems and group
decision making, transportation and environmental analysis
using GIS, GIS and coastal resource management, humancomputer
interaction and spatial cognition
Matthew Sparke, Ph.D., British Columbia, 1996, Professor, Jackson
School of International Studies, Adjunct Professor, Global
Health—globalization, global health, political and economic
geography, social theory including post-colonial, Marxist,
feminist and anti-racist theory
Suzanne Davies Withers, Ph.D., UCLA, 1992, Associate Professor—
population geography and spatial demography, longitudinal and
quantitative methods, residential mobility & migration, urban
housing, and property rights.
Megan Ybarra, Ph.D. UC, Berkeley, 2010, Assistant Professor—
nature-society relations; postcolonial theory; political ecology;
transnational migrations; Latin America.
EMERITI FACULTY:
William B. Beyers, Ph.D., Washington, 1967, Professor Emeritus—
regional science, economic geography, geography of producer
services, regional analysis, geography of the Pacific Northwest
Richard L. Morrill, Ph.D., Washington, 1959, Professor Emeritus—
spatial organization, migration, diffusion and population,
regional planning and development, inequality
Craig ZumBrunnen, Ph.D., UC, Berkeley, 1973, Professor, Emeritus—
Russian, East European and Central Asia Studies Program, and
Middle East Studies Program, Jackson School of International
Studies and core faculty Urban Ecology
AFFILIATED AND ADJUNCT FACULTY:
Sunil Aggarwal, Affiliate Assistant Professor (also Palliative Medicine
Physician and Associate Hospice Medical Director, MultiCare
Auburn Medical Center, Auburn, Washington)—Pain Medicine,
Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Rehabilitation Medicine,
Cannabinoid Integrative Medicine: Geography of Access,
Delivery, and Development Psychoactive Biotic Therapeutic
Landscapes, Enclosures, and Seed Sovereignty, Social
Medicine, Health and Human Rights
Christian Anderson, Adjunct Assistant Professor (also School of
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington
Bothell)—how everyday practices intersect with broader
political-economic and cultural processes such as globalization
and gentrification in cities, inequality, structural violence, social
justice
Kathleen Braden, Affiliate Professor (also Department of
Geography, Seattle Pacific University)—Russian studies,
resources and technology
Richard Conway, Affiliate Associate Professor—regional economic
modeling
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