University of Richmond Geography professor, Dr. David Salisbury, rescued a three-toed sloth while in the Amazon Rainforest. While sloths can swim, the current in the Jurua River in Peru was too strong at the time for the sloth to make it safely across.
We’re pleased to recognize our 2024 departmental award winners:
Outstanding Senior Geographer: Matteo Gonzalez
Exemplary Geography Research Award: Shaoting Wen
Exemplary Service Award: Eli Beech-Brown
Outstanding Service to the Spatial Analysis Lab: Caitlin Fay
The Department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability prepares students to explore and understand cultural, bio‐physical, and geospatial environments, and their interactions and transformations, thereby empowering our students to shape a just and sustainable world. Geography professors offer exciting, experiential courses on a range of important issues like global climate change, industrialization, resource management, agricultural change, urbanization, land use, deforestation, and hydrology. Students will learn to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related geospatial technologies to prepare them for exciting employment and research opportunities in many different fields.
Each year the Department of Geography, Environment, & Sustainability, the Environmental Studies Program, and Global Studies Program partner to bring noteworthy speakers and scholars to Richmond to present lectures related to our global environment. All events are free and open to the public.
Elizabeth Baughan, associate professor of classics and archaeology, Lauren Henley, assistant professor of leadership studies, and Beth Zizzamia, Special Analysis Lab GIS operations manager, along with students Sydney Cameron, ’26, Alex Harry, ’26, Angela Nguyen, ’27, and Katherine Stobie, ’26, presented “Students Collaborating with Community in Richmond’s Black Cemeteries” at the IMPACT National Conference.
Mary Finley-Brook was promoted to professor of geography, environment, & sustainability. Finley-Brook specializes in environmental policy, climate justice, public health, energy transition, affordable access to renewable energy technologies, and equity in environmental, climate and energy governance.
Stephanie Spera was promoted to associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability. Her research seeks to understand landscape-level human-environment feedbacks regarding social, economic, and environmental drivers and consequences.
Mary Finley-Brook, associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, published Climate Crisis, Energy Violence: Mapping Fossil Energy’s Enduring Grasp on Our Precarious Future with Elsevier Press.
A summer internship introduced senior Courtney Simpson to a career in sustainable investing. A return offer ensured she can continue to pursue her newfound interest.
“Go With the Flow,” an online mapping project from the University of Richmond and Southside ReLeaf, is featured.
Geology professor David Kitchen authored this piece, originally published in The Conversation.
Geography, environment, and sustainability professor Todd Lookingbill is quoted.
Geography, environment, and sustainability professor Stephanie Spera is quoted.
The University of Richmond's Scholarship Repository shares faculty publications with a world-wide audience. The map below shows where articles from geography faculty are being read around the globe.
Mailing address:
Department of Geography, Environment, & Sustainability
Carole Weinstein International Center, 3rd Floor
211 Richmond Way
University of Richmond, Virginia 23173
Phone: (804) 287-8661
Fax: (804) 484-1577
Spatial Analysis Laboratory: (804) 484-1518
Department Chair: David Salisbury
Major Advisors: Mary Finley-Brook, Todd Lookingbill, Kyle Redican, David Salisbury, and Stephanie Spera
Academic Administrative Specialist: Nancy Propst
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