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Much of my research focuses on the governance and representation of global spaces, especially the ocean and the Internet. At the same time, I have maintained an interest in urban and regional politics and planning, conducting a number of studies of local environment-development conflicts and planning disputes. Although the divisions are somewhat arbitrary, I see my past and ongoing research projects falling into nine categories:
Ocean-SpaceSince the early 1990s, I have been writing about problems and opportunities in governing the ocean as a space that simultaneously is constructed as a fecund (and/or endangered) space of nature, an empty space that facilitates movement, a frontier suitable for expropriation and territorialization, an arena for scientific research, a force-field for miltary adventures, and a laboratory wherein alternative futures are imagined and practiced. I have published one book and four journal articles in this area:
Also, in addition to writing ocean-related entries in The Encyclopedia of Environment and Society (Sage, Paul Robbins ed., 2007), The Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Sage, Barney Warf ed., forthcoming), and The International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Elsevier, Rob Kitchin & Nigel Thrift eds., forthcoming), I have published two literature
reviews on
marine geography:
Cartography, Mobility, and SovereigntyOne of the main uses of the ocean is that it provides a surface for movement. Thus, from the beginning, my study of the ocean has included a concern with the ways by which people conceive of and represent the processes (and spaces) of mobility. After publication of the The Social Construction of the Ocean, however, I began to look at the relation of the ocean to mobility more systematically. Specifically, in this aspect of my research I focus on how it came to be that we perceive of land as "naturally" divided into sovereign, territorial state-society units that are locations for spatially fixed activities (production, reproduction, etc.) and how, conversely, the ocean has come to be perceived as an external space of movement, beyond society. My research in this area focuses on European imaginations between 1500 and 1800, and most of my work involves the study of maps, navigational manuals, and popular geography books from this era. My research in this area has been supported by: I have published three journal articles and one book chapter in this area:
For more on this project, listen to this Spring 2002 interview with me on FSU Headlines, a radio program produced by Florida State University's Office of Communications to highlight faculty and student accomplishments. Another good summary of the project can be found in this Summer 2005 news item published on the website of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Geography.
Arctic SovereigntyMy newest project, which in many ways is a further extension of my ocean work, examines the ways in which sovereignty is being asserted (or denied) by various actors in the Arctic. As the Arctic becomes an increasingly attractive zone for mineral exploitation and navigation, it re-plays many of the contradictory spatializations that have long characterized the ocean. That is, it is simultaneously a zone that invites territorialization and one that resists it, not least because the region's underlying materiality is so dynamic. My research in this area has been supported by the International Council for Canadian Studies and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Collaborators on various aspects of this project include Ron Doel (History @ Florida State University), Sandra Fabiano (Geography @ Florida State University), Hannes Gerhardt (Geosciences @ University of West Georgia), Rob Shields (Sociology and Art & Design @ University of Alberta), and Jeremy Tasch (Geogaphy & Environmental Planning @ Towson University). My first article in this area, "Climate Change and Contested Sovereignty in the Arctic," co-authored with Fabiano, Gerhardt, Shields, and Tasch, is under review with the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.
InfosphereMy interest in the infosphere (also known as cyberspace -- the world of electronic communications including, but not restricted to, the Internet) stems directly from my work on ocean-space. Like the world-ocean, the infosphere is an arena that is rhetorically constructed as beyond society's divisions, regulations, and mechanisms of spatial control. But, as is true with the world-ocean, this "a-social" construction is itself a social construct. For my work on the infosphere, I have teamed up with Stephen McDowell, John H. Phipps Professor in the Department of Communication at Florida State and, more recently, also Tami Tomasello, Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at East Carolina University. In this area, I have published three journal articles, all with Stephen McDowell, and one book, with Stephen McDowell and Tami Tomasello:
Forthcoming Publications: Together with Darren Purcell (University of Oklahoma), I have co-authored a chapter on "Power and Space in Electronic Communications," which will be appearing in the International Studies Association's Compendium Project.
Bridges & IslandsMy interest in oceans has led to my involvement with the community of critical island scholars who question the assumed nature of islands (and island cultures and biota) as isolated and homogeneous in favor of a perspective that recognizes porous borders and continual processes and practices of interconnection and internal differentiation. Once islands are reconsidered as points of contact, then oceans become critical spaces of connection, and attention must also be directed to the bridges (as well as maritime ocean routes) that bind the space of island dwellers. My work on islands has led me to assume a position on the Steering Committee of the International Geographical Union's Commission on Islands as well as a position on the editorial board of Island Studies Journal. Most of my work in island studies has centered on Key West, Florida, an island that is anything but isloated as it exists as a historic bridge between the U.S. and Cuba. Additionally, as a major tourist destination -- and, in particular, as a destination for gay male tourists -- the island is a space in which individuals negotiate between identities of "home" and "away," "familiar" and "exotic," "straight" and "gay," and "U.S.," "Latino," "Caribbean," and something all together different. My first publication on Key West, "Bridging the Florida Keys" appeared in the collection Bridging Islands: The Impact of Fixed Links (Godfrey Baldacchino, ed.). A second publication, "Key West's Conch Republic: Building Affective Sovereignties of Connection," co-authored with Thomas Chapman, Assistant Professor of Geography at Georgia Southern University, is currently under review with Political Geography.
Parts of my Key West research have been funded by Florida State University's DeVoe L. Moore Center. Another area of my island research -- and one that links with my interests in Arctic sovereignty, oceans, and mobilities -- revolves around the reconceptualization of Canada as an archipelago rather than as a continental landmass. An article on this topic -- "Reterritorializing Canada: Arctic Ice's Liquid Modernity and the Imagining of a Canadian Archipelago", co-authored with Phillip Vannini (Communication & Culture @ Royal Roads University), Godfrey Baldacchino (Sociology & Anthropology and Institute of Island Studies @ University of Prince Edward Island), Lorraine Guay, and Stephen Royle (Geography and Centre of Canadian Studies @ Queen's University - Belfast) -- is currently under review with Cultural Geographies. CitiesEven as the bulk of my research has centered on spaces of mobility that are not generally associated with every-day life (ocean-space and the infosphere), I have maintained a consistent secondary interest in cities, in particular the politics of urban planning. My first urban article (in fact, my first article in a refereed journal) was based on my experience prior to graduate school directing a community group in New York City opposing a large development proposed for the Atlantic Terminal site near downtown Brooklyn. A second article, which was sparked by observations made while conducting an industrial history consultancy for the National Park Service, examines the role of ideology in the built environment and social relations of a small Rhode Island mill village: After a hiatus of several years from urban scholarship, I began to reconsider the politics of urban planning in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. When the disaster hit, in August-September 2005, I had just begun a year-long position as a fellow with the Center for Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I took advantage of my position there to organize a multi-disciplinary conference on the implications of Katrina for urban theory, Reflections on Katrina: Place, Persistence, and the Lives of Cities. This conference spawned a partnership between myself and Rob Shields, Henry Marshall Tory Chair and Professor in the Departments of Sociology and Art & Design at the University of Alberta (and keynote speaker at the conference). Rob and I have since edited a book, What is a City? Rethinking the Urban After Hurricane Katrina, which was published in 2008 by University of Georgia Press.
Miscellaneous Environment & DevelopmentIn the background of almost all of my work is a concern for the twin concepts of nature-society relations (or "the environment" for short) and political economy (or "development" for short). Everyday understanding of contemporary social issues pits these two concepts against each other, but in fact both concepts are heavily contested (and it's debatable whether either concept even should exist as a category of understanding). In addition to my work on oceans and cities that employs and questions these concepts, I have co-authored two articles that specifically look at the politics (and political economy) of environmental management, both of which pay particular attention to the meanings that individuals ascribe to place and nature. One of these is an article co-authored with Dianne Rocheleau, Professor of Geography at Clark University, and Patricia Benjamin, Assistant Professor of Geography and Earth Sciences at Worcester State College, on the political history of environmental management in rural Kenya. The second article, co-authored with George Clark, now Director of Harvard University's Environmental Information Center, uses data derived from a study that we conducted for Massachusetts' Metropolitan District Commission to examine the role of attachment to place in the politics of watershed management in exurban Massachusetts.
Hegemony, Ideology, & CultureAs a political geographer, I maintain a side-interest in the ideologies that drive social movements and the processes of hegemony (and counter-hegemony) that bind and fragment societies. To this end, I have engaged in a number of scholarly debates about the role of culture and ideology in politics, focusing in particular on the U.S.:
This research connects with a broader interest in political theory and the changing meaning of sovereignty amidst global change. To explore these questions further, I am currently editing a special issue of Political Geography on "Displacing Sovereignty," which should be published in 2009 or 2010. My co-editors on this project are Reece Jones (University of Hawai'i) and Fiona McConnell (Queen Mary University of London).
EducationSince beginning my career as a geographer, I have remained involved in environmental and geographic education, not just as a practitioner, but also as a researcher and as someone who can contribute to geographic education below the university level. In addition to conducting a number of consultancies for local museums, educational institutes, and the U.S. Department of Education, I have published two research articles on geographic pedagogy, served as lead academic consultant for a series of instructional geography videos, and produced a series of documentary case-study workbooks to complement Prentice Hall's human geography textbooks:
Other Publications: I have also recently written Scale in Cyberspace, a component of a training packet for high school teachers preparing students for the Human Geography Advanced Placement examination, which was published in 2007. Much of my other work in education is centered on the FSU Social Science & Public Affairs LLC, which I direct. In addition, I am co-principal investigator on a project producing a series of energy efficiency public service announcements and a mini-documentary on the topic as part of a research and production team headed by Andy Opel (Associate Professor in FSU's Department of Communication). This work is being funded by FSU's Institute for Energy Systems, Economics, and Sustainability.
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