Dr. Peter R. Waylen, Chair

March 2007

Welcome to the Department of Geography at the University of Florida. The University is a top-ranked, Research One, land-grant university, and one of sixty-two member institutions of the exclusive Association of American Universities. The Department covers a range of topics in contemporary geography. Our 14 regular faculty, various adjuncts and assistants, over 50 graduate students, and approximately 80 undergraduate majors, provide rich and lively cultural and learning environments. We offer BA and BS undergraduate degrees and MA, MS and PhD degrees in Geography. Faculty and graduate student research interests fall under three broad headings of Economic Geography, Physical Geography and Resource Management. Within these, individual interests include, business geography, care of the elderly, housing and regional and international development. Human interaction with the physical environment provides the focus for our work in climatology, geomorphology, hydrology, land use and tropical agriculture. We also possess excellent facilities for teaching and research in the technical fields of GIS, remote sensing, and cartography. There are strong ties on campus with the interdisciplinary Center for Latin American Studies and the Center for African Studies, to which many faculty are affiliated. The department plays a leading role in the Land Use Environmental Change Institute (LUECI) and is a partner with the School of Natural Resources and Environment. We have an impressive number of award-winning teachers, and all are committed to providing a challenging education, research, and public service. We hope that our new website will provide you with an introduction to how we work to understand the complex relations among people, places, and environments.

Interested in Applying to Geography at UF for Graduate school?

News

• Matthew Wein, BA 05, was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame as part of its Spring 2008 class. Since 1921 UF has been honoring students who demonstrate outstanding leadership and a commitment to academics, the campus and community with this prestigious distinction. While at UF Matthew was a member of several organizations including Florida Blue Key where he served as Homecoming General Chairman in 2005. Matthew graduated in 2005 from the Department of Geography and received his certificate in business geography. As a graduated student in the Department of Political Science Matthew continued his studies with the Geography faculty. Matthew graduated with his Master of Arts degree in May of 2008 and now works as a geographic and data analyst for the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

• Dr. Julie Silva has received the prestigious NSF CAREER Award for 2008. Her award-winning research project, which will be funded $459,000 over a 5-year period, will examine how nature tourism affects poverty and inequality in the southern African region by investigating two case study countries: Namibia and Mozambique. The study will look at the relationship between nature tourism, inequality, and poverty at the regional, community, and household levels, while also accounting for environmental, economic, and cultural diversity between and within countries.

• Dr. Julie Silva is the winner of the American Association of Geographers' Nystrom Award awarded annually for the best doctoral thesis in our discipline.  Her paper is titled 'Neoliberalization and inequality in Mozambique: A case study in the use of iterative mixed methods.'   Dr. Corene Matyas was a finalist last year, and in the year before that UF graduate Dr. Andres Guhl made it to the same stage. For three consecutive years the Nystrom final has had some sort of UF representation.

• Risa Patarasuk, a doctoral student was recently awarded a Marilyn Little Fellowship by Altrusa International to support travel costs for her fieldwork on environmental change in her native Thailand.
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