Richard Thurau
Richard Thurau, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor in the Aviation and Aerospace Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Topic: Geography
David Parr
David Parr, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Geospatial Sciences in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
His research interests include social and technical aspects of the GeoWeb, and using citizen science to collect and monitor data. Parr has published research articles in Transactions in GIS, Media, Culture, and War, and the Journal of Applied Geography. He has presented research internationally and at conferences including the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, the National Council of Geographic Education, the OpenStreetMap State of the Map conference, the International Geographers Union, and the Applied Geography conference.
Parr received a doctorate in Geographic Information Sciences a masters in Geography from Texas State University.
Sara Jackson Shumate
Sara Jackson Shumate, Ph.D., is a human geographer and the director of the Center for Individualized Learning at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Shumate has been teaching geography since 2004 in various other universities including University of British Columbia, York University, Central New Mexico Community College, Community College of Aurora and University of Colorado Boulder. She also volunteered with numerous organizations over the years as a writer, research analyst, teacher and trainer.
Her research interests include sustainability studies, economic geography, political geography and political ecology. Shumate has conducted research on how mining infrastructure development in Mongolia transforms livelihoods and landscapes. She also works with MSU Denver students to analyze sustainability practices in the Denver Metro Area, including surveying the Auraria Campus for the Auraria Sustainable Campus Program to better understand travel behaviors and calculate campus greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.
Shumate received her doctorate in geography from York University in 2015, a master’s in geography from University of British Columbia in 2006 and a bachelor’s degree in international studies from University of Washington in 2003.
Antonio C. Bellisario
Antonio Bellisario’s academic training is at the intersection of the fields of International Developing Planning and Environmental Geography. Current research and writing projects are at the crossroads between sustainable development (understood as a mechanism that protects ecologies while at the same time expands socio-economic equity) and the politics of resource management.
At a personal level, what drives his research agenda is his willingness to seek out opportunities for research collaboration and a strong desire to bring these experiences to the classroom to reach students. Bellisario’s regional specialization is South America, with a focus on Chile.
His early research and publications have been focused on the topic of land politics centering on the social contestation about farming and food production in Chile. In this research and publications, he has analyzed the political competition from organized non-governmental groups and political parties in society to shape the planning actions and policies of government.
As for his current research, Bellisario is working on four projects. The first project is an assessment of water resources and the impact of agricultural and mining activities in the water budget of the Aconcagua river basin in Central Chile. The second project is the ongoing collaborative analysis on the urban experience and urban popular culture during the Allende socialist government in Chile. The third project investigates the evolution of land use patterns in Chile, with a longitudinal study of a sample of farms from a rural municipality to track agricultural transformations (he and his team have a working draft for publication). The fourth project is a collaboration with Marco Marquez and Rodrigo Contreras (both professional planners practicing in Chile) that critically analyzes, with the use of key case studies, the effectiveness of territorial planning instruments in Chile.