Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0650-6008
Date Available
7-14-2099
Year of Publication
2024
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
Geography
First Advisor
Matthew W. Wilson
Abstract
The boundary is a central concept in geographic inquiry. This dissertation brings together three studies of public health, population enumeration, and the growth of geographic education in higher education, to examine the role of boundaries historically. Three different boundaries are considered: between expertise and the lay public in public health communication, between areas for population enumeration, and between types of US universities in the history of geographic education. The dissertation argues that boundary issues must be explored historically, and that tracing how historical decisions have contemporary impacts on the transgression, construction, and solidification of boundaries is critical to understanding how to address these issues.
The first study examines the transgression of communicative boundaries in the construction of public health maps. Situating this form of communication in the work of two geographers–Peter Gould and Alan MacEachren, I analyze how technological changes in cartographic production parallelled a transition of public health maps from expert to public use. I utilize this history to specifically consider the development of interactive digital maps and increasing desires for an individualized approach to address public health issues. This development allowed public health maps to transition from tools for experts to tools for public use, which became especially apparent in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The second study examines the construction of Census tract boundaries in Chicago. Here, I trace how sociologists at the University of Chicago advanced their work as a particularly scientific understanding of the city and used their work to assist the Census Bureau in implementing Census tracts across the United States. This chapter specifically considers the historical role of geographic and sociological thought, to understand how and why geographers were largely excluded from these discussions during the initial formation of the enumeration system.
The third study examines the distinctions between types of universities in the growth and decline of geographic education in late 20th century US higher education. By bounding these types of universities (using data from the Directory of College Geography) I trace when and in what type of institutions, geographic education experienced the greatest growth. Here, I argue that geography’s inability to define and differentiate itself from other aligned disciplines collided with the solidification of institutional roles in the second half of the twentieth century to lead to the erosion of geography education from the 1970s onward. Specifically, I argue that the role of the regional comprehensive institutions in geographic education has been long overlooked and that declines in this sector of higher education have significantly eroded geography’s strength in American higher education.
The dissertation concludes by arguing that a historical lens is important for understanding the conceptual work of the boundary in geographic inquiry—whether the actual boundary of Census enumeration or the more virtual distinctions made in geographic inquiry. While not intended to be an exhaustive understanding of the boundary, these studies illustrate the enduring role of boundaries for communicating, sorting, counting, and providing the mechanism of distinction that makes geography possible and impactful.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2024.359
Recommended Citation
Swab, John, "TRANSGRESSED | CONSTRUCTED | SOLIDIFIED EXAMINING BOUNDARIES IN PUBLIC HEALTH, POPULATION, AND HIGHER EDUCATION" (2024). Theses and Dissertations--Geography. 102.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/geography_etds/102
