Submitted by Josef Robert Eckert
on
Welcome to our newest graduate student cohort! You'll find their biographies below. We can't wait to see what you do with your time here.
Julian Barr. BA, History, Lindenwood University; MS, Geography, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. My primary research interests include: the geography of sexuality with a focus on urban space, feminist geography, geography of food, and issues of social justice within human geography.
Christopher R. Cox. BA Political Science, Sonoma State University; MS, Political Science, Portland State University. Research interests: historical geography of industrialization, the human/nature divide, Marxist geography of historical capitalism. Analytical frameworks: world-ecology, ecological Marxism, transcendental/ontological realism, world-systems analysis. Interests/hobbies: music, walking, activism. Interesting facts: traveled to 17 countries on 3 continents, was a musician for 20+ years, plays in the band Junkyard Empire.
Lauren Drakopulous. BA, Anthropology, Univ. of South Florida; MS, Environmental Science and Policy, Univ. of South Florida.
Maeve Dwyer. BA, Critical Geography, Political Economy, Asian Studies, Bard College.
Lee Fiorio. BA, Geography, McGill University. My primary research interests are in spatial demography, geographic information systems and geostatistics with a focus on residential segregation and internal migration in the United States. For four and a half years, I worked as a methodologist at NORC at the University of Chicago where I helped design sampling frames for large-scale social science surveys. This work exposed me to many of the issues inherent to quantitative geographic data collection and analysis both from a statistical as well as philosophical point of view. Outside of geography, I enjoy playing music and writing songs, honing my bridge game, and pondering the cultural history of garbage.
Adam Kowalski. BA, University of Pennsylvania, Anthropology; MA, Marine Studies, Univ. of Washington. I join the Geography Department with an interest in the sustainable management of our coastal and offshore resources. Specifically, I hope to focus on better understanding the application of decision support tools for marine spatial planning efforts. My current research is supported by the IGERT Program on Ocean Change here at UW. Since moving to Seattle four years ago, I have found it more and more difficult to leave. There never seems to be a shortage of new places to see and explore. Since last year, I have been a member of Cascade Backcountry Ski Patrol, which just gives me another reason to go skiing all year-round.
Ayanda MasileIa. BA, Geography and Asia Studies, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; MS, Geography, Virginia Polytechnic Institute. I grew up in Indiana, PA and Morgantown, WV. Following the completion of high school, I stayed in my hometown, where I did my undergraduate degree at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I began studying Japanese at that time, which ended with a study abroad in Nagoya, Japan in 2009. During my sophomore and junior years, I became active with local environmental groups, and made a certain shift from psychology to geography to focus on environmental analysis. I also became involved in several campus civil rights groups, which exposed me to many issues related to health, economic (in)equality, disability, and LGBTQ wellbeing. When I started my Master’s degree at Virginia Tech, I transitioned to medical geography with a focus on rural American Indian communities. Prior to coming to Seattle, the furthest west I had ever been was Detroit. I left my parents, brother, and the few family members I have in the United States on the East Coast. Onward to the next adventure!
Andrew Romero. BA, Management, Business Administration, University of Alaska, Anchorage. AAS, Computer Science and Technology, Heald College, Honolulu, HI. Research interests in labor geographies and divisions of labor, economic geography.