The Champaign Pools on Fraser Island in Queensland, Australia , September 2008
Michael W. Longan
Associate Professor of Geography, Department of Geography and Meteorology at Valparaiso University.
Me on the train in the rain in Tiny
Town, Colorado
(Summer 2000)
Ph.D. University of Colorado
at Boulder, 2000
M.A. University of Arizona 1995
B.A. University of Colorado
at Boulder 1993
Specialties: Communication Geography, Cultural Geography, Urban Geography, Urban Planning, Rural Geography, Landscape, neighborhood and community activism, China, Japan, and Australia.
Teaching
During Spring 2009 I am teaching:
In the Fall of 2009 I am scheduled to teach:
Courses that I have taught at VU include
World Human
Geography, Urban
Geography, Cartography
, Research Design,
Environmental
Conservation, Economic
Geography, Urban
Geography, Urban
and Regional Planning, Culture,
Nature, Landscape, Economic
Geography, Geography
of Asia: China and Japan , The
Country and the City, and Geography
of Cyberspace
I also serve as advisor for the Urban Studies Minor.
I am the faculty advisor for the Geography Club.
Previously to teaching at VU I taught at Gustavus Adophus College in St. Peter, Minnesota and at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Research
I have research interests in urban, cultural,and communication geography. My main research focus is on the geography of cyberspace. Currently I am working on a Virtual Regional Geography of Northwest Indiana which asks questions about what Northwest Indiana looks like from the perspective of cyberspace. I am interested in how and why people represent places in Northwest Indiana online. I hope to find out more about how the Internet is (or is not) helping to transform local politics, aid in local economic development, and foster social ties.
I am beginning to do research on the geography of social networking on sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter.
In addition to this research on the Internet and community I have also published research on"everyday virtual reality" focusing upon the representation and production of landscape in video games. I am interested in the extent to which the activity of virtual landscape production in video games may subvert or reinforce dominant ways of seeing and producing landscapes in the "real world."
Me
and the Fremont Troll
Under the Aurora Bridge in Seattle
(Summer 1998)
I have also written about the the use of the Internet in geography education.
In the past I organized an informal faculty seminar on Qualitative Data Analysis and I am available to consult with faculty and students on campus about qualitative research and using NVivo.
I am the Communication Director for the Communication Geography Specialty Group of the AAG.
I am on the Editorial Board of Places Online.
At Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia (September 2008).
The Biggest
Ball of Twine in Minnesota.
(Darwin, Summer 2000)
My car parks in silent reverence before mysterious Carhenge
in Alliance, Nebraska.
(Summer 2000)
At the Mingsha Shan
near Dunhuang, China
(Summer 2006)
At Stonehenge
(Summer 2003)
Interests
I regularly
go line dancing.
Since
I bought a house with a big garden plot, I have become a Gardener.
I was
faculty advisor for the VU
Hockey Club played intramural floor hockey for the Chiefs and am
a big fan of the Gustavus
Hockey Team. I have never actually played ice hockey but have vowed
to do so someday.
I have
been exploring the bike
trails of Northwest Indiana as time and weather permit.
I was
a member of the Trombone
Choir and the Brass
Choir at Gustavus.
When
I lived in Boulder, I played Trombone in the Boulder
Concert Band.
I was
a member of the CU Bands including the CU Basketball Band and the C.U. Golden Buffalo Marching
Band. The highlight of my marching band career was a trip to the
Aloha Bowl in Hawaii.
I was
a member of the Pride of Arizona
Marching Band while at the University of Arizona.
I'm
from Lakewood, Colorado
where I attended Green
Mountain High School.
Recent Travels
In
September and October of 2009 I went to Queensland Australia and traveled
from Brisbane to Cairns stopping at Fraser Island and the Whitsundays
along the way. I also snorkeld on the Geat Barrier Reef and visited
the Daintree National Park.
In
March 2008 I went to Boston for the AAG meeting.
In
July 2007 I went camping North of Fort Collins, Colorado.
In
June 2007 I had an opportunity to spend a day in New Orleans to see
the recovery efforts (and lack of recovery) first hand.
In
April 2007 I went to San Francisco for the AAG meeting and spent a day
walking around one of my favorite cities.
In
May and June of 2006 I traveled to China with faculty from VU. We visited
Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hangzhou among other places.
In
June 2004 I traveled to Boulder Colorado for the Geography
Faculty Development Alliance's Early Career Faculty Workshop. See
the GEO/MET
Teaching Resource Center for some valuable teaching resources I
found as a result of participating in this workshop.
In
May and June 2004 I traveled to Japan and China with a group of faculty
from VU.
In
June 2003 I traveled to Cambridge, London, and Cardiff.
I have
returned to Minnesota several times since I moved to Indiana and regularly
go home to Colorado for the holidays.
Here
are some pictures from my summer 2002 trip to Northern Minnesota.
At the Home
Office in Wahoo, Nebraska
(Summer 2000)
A brotosaurus at Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, South
Dakota (Summer 2000)
On Mt. Fuji
(May 2004)
On top of St. Paul's Cathedral in London
(Summer 2003)
