human geography

Dr. Jordan Blekking
• Assistant Professor
Food accessibility, food security, food environments, food systems, human-environmental interactions, spatial analysis, geographic information science

Teaching and Research Interests:  food accessibility, food security, food environments, food systems, human-environmental interactions, spatial analysis, geographic information science. Broadly, I am interested in human-environmental interactions and how these interactions are linked to social-spatial inequalities, which shape livelihood and wellbeing outcomes, like food security. Nearly all of my research involves partnering with on-the-ground practitioners, and I tend to use […]

Dr. Yao Li
• Assistant Professor
GIScience, Health and Medical Geography, Human Mobility, Spatial Data Analysis/Mining/Programming, Web GIS, Data Visualization
McEniry 429

Yao Li, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Geographical Sciences. His research primarily focuses on exploring the spatial dynamics of various health issues. For instance, he investigates how human mobility influences disease transmission and how the spatial patterns of parasites can reveal the transmission routes of infectious diseases. Another […]

Dr. Alexandra Turgul
• Assistant Teaching Professor
Water conflict and cooperation, water policy, human-environment interactions, environmental justice, political ecology, sustainability, middle east geography and politics

I am a human geographer with a background in international relations, Middle Eastern studies, and the broader social sciences. My teaching and research take a critical, multi-scalar approach to the study of human-environment interactions to understand how people and the environment mutually shape one another. I am particularly interested in how and why communities and […]

Dr. Gang Chen
• Professor
Remote Sensing, Environmental Sustainability, Geospatial Big Data Analytics, Human-Environment Interaction

Teaching and Research Interests Remote Sensing Environmental Modeling Urban Sustainability Forest Disturbances Machine Learning Click here to read more about Dr. Chen

Dr. Youngseob Eum
•Assistant Professor
Urban Analytics, Spatial Epidemiology, Human Mobility, Geospatial Data Science
McEniry 314

Teaching and Research Interests:* GIScience* Urban Analytics* Health and Medical Geography* Spatial Data Science* Human Mobility

Dr. Michael Ewers
• Associate Professor • MA Geography Graduate Program Director
Migration, Work, Economic Geography, Middle East
McEniry 309

I am a human geographer and interdisciplinary social scientist. My research and creative scholarly work focus on three areas: 1) migration and globalization, 2) worker welfare and inequality, and 3) human capital and sustainable economic development. My overall goal is to understand who moves where and why in a global context; how individuals and groups […]

Dr. William (Bill) Graves
• Professor
Urban/Economic Change, Cluster Development, Sustainable Cities
McEniry 428

Teaching and Reasearch Interests Urban Change Sustainable Economic Systems Business Geographics Knowledge Industry and Economic Development Economic Change in the South

Dr. Colleen Hammelman
• Associate Professor • PhD Geography Graduate Program Director • CHARP Director
Urban Geography, Food Justice, Immigration

Click here to read more about Dr. Hammelman

Dr. Fushcia-Ann Hoover
• Assistant Professor
Green Infrastructure, Environmental Justice, Urban Planning, Socio-ecological Systems

Biography Dr. Fushcia-Ann Hoover is an interdisciplinary researcher specializing in social-ecological urban systems. She employs a range of approaches and perspectives from the fields of planning, engineering, social and environmental sciences. Her research centers environmental justice, green infrastructure planning, and relationships between people, place and the environment. Dr. Hoover joined the department in 2021 as […]

Dr. Heather Smith
• Levine Scholars Program Director • Professor
Urban Social Geography, Community Engaged Scholarship

Teaching and Research Interests Urban & Social Geography Immigrant Settlement & Adjustment Globalizing Cities & New Gateways Urban Revitalization & Gentrification Socio-spatial Polarization Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Click here to read more about Dr. Smith

Jamie Strickland
• Senior Lecturer
Population Geography, Geographic Education, Cultural Geography and the South

Teaching and Research Interests Population Geography Aging Geographic Education Cultural Geography and the South Population and Environment Interactions Click here to read more about Jamie Strickland

Dr. Jean-Claude Thill
• Knight Distinguished Professor
Transportation and Mobility Systems, Sustainable Urbanization, Trade Cities and Globalization, Geospatial Data Science

Teaching and Research Interests Sustainable Urbanization Transportation and Mobility Systems Geographic Information Science (GIS-T) Spatial Modeling Regional Science International Comparative Urbanization Click here to read more about Dr. Thill

Dr. Deborah S.K. Thomas
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research • Professor
Disasters, Environmental Health, Global Health, Human-environment Interaction
McEniry 312 (Research Office)

Deborah S.K. Thomas, PhD is the Associate Vice Chancellor of Research and Professor of Geography at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In this role, she oversees operations and special initiatives for research and innovation across the university. Her research focuses on disasters and environmental health with more than 25 years of experience in the […]

Dr. Michelle Zuñiga
• Assistant Professor
Neighborhood change, Latinx communities, Community Planning, Environmental Justice
McEniry 308

Michelle E. Zuñiga, AICP (she/her/ella) holds a PhD in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy from the University of California, Irvine. Since 2012, Michelle has focused her research on Latinx communities particularly, low-income, immigrant communities and how they experience and respond to environmental injustice and threats of displacement. Michelle explores their perspectives and experiences in […]