WELCOME FROM THE DEPARTMENT HEAD

Welcome to the Department of Geography and Regional Development (GRD) at the University of Arizona, USA. GRD is part of a top-ranked, Research One, land-grant university and we cover the entire range of contemporary geography. With 15 regular faculty, 19 adjunct and affiliated faculty, over 50 graduate students, and approximately 180 undergraduate majors, GRD is a rich, lively learning environment.

We offer the BA degree in Geography, the BS degree in Regional Development, and the MA and PhD degrees in Geography. We offer to undergraduate students Minors in Geography, Regional Development and Geographic Information Science. In the BA in Geography, we feature concentrations in Environmental Studies, Social and Cultural Geography, or Development Studies. Faculty and graduate student research interests range broadly, including the sustainability of cities; social theory and culture; climatology and environmental impacts in the American Southwest; economic development; landscape ecology and forest restoration; human impacts of global climate change; geographic epidemiology; international development and environmental sustainability; conflict over the public presentation of ethnic identity; local government restructuring; spatial interaction modeling; American migration; European fertility; GIS/visualization; environmental policy; and remote sensing of fire-induced vegetation change.

We also teach the full gamut of contemporary topics in geographic education at the undergraduate and graduate level, where we have an impressive number of award-winning teachers. We are committed to computer-assisted education, research, and public service and hope that this website will provide you with an introduction to how we work to understand the complex relations among people, places, and environments.

John Paul Jones, Department Head