Research

Professors in the geography department participate in a variety of research activities. These activities cross national and international boundaries and frequently provide opportunities for student collaboration. Students interested in conducting undergraduate research projects are encouraged to contact a potential faculty sponsor early in their academic careers. Summer research is especially encouraged and can be supported by the School of Arts & Sciences' generous summer fellowship program.

The first step to finding the right research opportunity for you is to find a professor whom you enjoy working with and whose work appeals to you. They will be able to help you find appropriate opportunities in your field of interest.

Geography professors at Richmond perform research in numerous areas including:

  • Biocultural diversity
  • Boundaries and borderlands
  • Carbon offsetting in universities and colleges
  • Climate change science and policy
  • Community forest management
  • Connectivity of natural resources
  • Ecotourism
  • Energy infrastructure and dam-building
  • Indigenous peoples' land and resource rights
  • International peace parks
  • Landscape ecology
  • Multiethnic regional autonomy movements
  • Political and economic integration
  • Tropical conservation and development
  • U.S National Parks

There is a special emphasis on the Western hemisphere and a strong interest and expertise in Central and South America, as well as the Mid-Atlantic, New England, and Pacific Northwest of the United States. Students are invited to begin undergraduate research projects early in their academic careers. Recent students have studied:

  • Agro-industrial development in Africa
  • Alternative economic strategies of indigenous peoples
  • Amazon fisheries
  • Climate change mitigation in East Africa, Central America and the Caribbean
  • Dam-building and indigenous rights
  • Ecotourism in the Caribbean
  • Environmental education
  • Forest carbon offsets in Costa Rica and Panama
  • Gender and the Environment
  • Indigenous land use
  • Participatory mapping
  • Race and Ethnicity in Nicaragua
  • Remote sensing of illegal logging in Amazonia
  • Sustainable hunting practices in Peru