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PUBlic Professor Series features Johnston discussing the role of place in shaping our past, present and future

Just as every population cohort is presented with different sets of circumstances, every geographic location has associated with it, constraints and opportunities that are specific to time and place.

This is the fifth talk of the 2018-19 season for the Faculty of Arts & Science’s PUBlic Professor Series.

On Thursday, February 28, University of Lethbridge geography professor, Dr. Tom Johnston, will present The Geography of Circumstance. This is the fifth talk of the 2018-19 season for the Faculty of Arts & Science’s PUBlic Professor Series. The free event runs from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge and is open to the public.

Drawing on examples ranging in scale from the neighbourhood to the nation-state, from the micro scale to the macro, in this presentation Johnston will explore the manner in which geographic location, both in absolute and relative terms, plays a role in shaping futures and helps us explain the present and the past.

Before taking up his appointment at the U of L, Johnston earned degrees from the universities of Guelph and Waterloo, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Massey University in New Zealand. His research interests focus on resource policy analysis and structural change in rural systems, especially the agricultural sector. His current research projects include a study of the effectiveness of voluntary-adoption resource stewardship programming, and human dimensions of wildfire, especially the post-event recovery phase.

Johnston teaches courses on introductory human geography, agricultural geography, the rural-urban fringe, the geography of Canada and the history of geographic thought.

The final talk scheduled for 2018-19 will feature geography professor, Dr. Hester Jiskoot. Details on Jiskoot’s presentation can be found at: ulethbridge.ca/artsci/publicprofessor.