Current Students

Ian M. Dunham is a Ph.D. student in the GUS department. Originally from Colorado, Ian holds a B.A. in Geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an M.A. in Geography from Temple. In addition to his professional experience in the public and private sectors, Ian has worked in the GUS Department as a Research Assistant and as a Teaching Assistant for the following courses: World Urban Patterns, Global Cities, GIS, and Digital Mapping. Some of Ian’s current research interests include: economic geography, GIScience and methods of quantitative statistical analysis, technological innovation and entrepreneurship, and environmental sustainability.

Ryan Good is a full-time student in the M.A. in Geography and Urban Studies program. His research interests lie in the areas of urban economic development, neighborhood change, and gentrification. While at Temple he has worked as an intern at the Clean Air Council, a local environmental organization, on issues related to goods movement and the Philadelphia ports. Originally from Washington, DC, Ryan brings to his research a diversity of experience in the urban non-profit sector, including low-income home repair, affordable housing development, restorative justice, and conflict mediation. He has an M.A. in Theological Studies, with a concentration in Theology and Ethics, and a B.A. in Physics.

Megan Heckert is a second year PhD student in urban studies.  Her research interests are in spatial analysis and the role of community greening in neighborhood revitalization.  In particular, she is focusing on assessing the economic, environmental, and social impacts of greening vacant lots in Philadelphia.  Prior to returning to GUS (she also completed her MA in geography in GUS in 2004), Megan worked with local geospatial software development company Azavea and the environmental service-learning nonprofit Delaware Valley Earth Force.  She also served for two years as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and earned her BS in aquatic biology from Brown University. 

Brandon Hoover is a full-time M.A. student in Geography and Urban Studies. He began the program with a broad interest in urban community development and sustainability; however, since starting the program his interests have further developed into more specific areas like economic distribution and the local job market, urban housing, and sustainable planning and policy, with particular interest being paid to urban food access. Prior to joining the Temple community Brandon worked with Urban Tree Connection in Philadelphia addressing food inequality, and is now an RA with the Center for Sustainable Communities looking more intently at local Philadelphia food networks. He has a B.A. in Theological Studies from Eastern University.

Mahbubur Meenar, a doctoral student in the Urban Studies program, has spent the last decade working as a GIS analyst, planner, and architect. He works full time as a researcher and educator at Temple University’s Center for Sustainable Communities. He has served as the principal investigator and or co-investigator in a number of funded research studies, taught four graduate and undergraduate level courses at the Department of Community and Regional Planning, and published in journals, book chapters, and professional magazines. His research interests include hunger and food insecurity, GIS-based environmental modeling, sustainable urban design, and the role of digital technologies and visualization in community engagement. He also serves as a Temple University Faculty Mentor and a voting member of Ambler Campus Sustainability Council. He earned a bachelor degree in architecture from Bangladesh University of Science and Technology and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Chris Mizes is a Master’s student in Geography and Urban Studies. He is broadly interested in political economy, social theory, environmental justice, the politics of knowledge production, methodology and the theory, policy and practice of ‘development’ (at multiple scales). More specifically, he is interested in studying local and regional economies through a diverse economies framework that makes visible the shifting practices of economy that communities perform through multiple forms of enterprise, labor and exchange. Methodologically, he anticipates using a mix of participatory action research, ethnography, and (qualitative) GIS. Chris is a project associate at Clean Air Council where he is primarily working on air quality issues in Philadelphia’s port communities. He has a B.A. in Political Science from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri.

mizes@temple.edu

Liv Raddatz is a PhD student in the GUS department. Before starting the PhD program in 2010 she completed the M.A. program in Geography and Urban Studies in the GUS department. Liv grew up in Hamburg, Germany where she also graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Hamburg in 2008. Over the course of her graduate studies she has developed a general interest in the mobility of populations and the importance of cities as the crucial geographical unit that sends and receives migrants and shapes economic outcomes. Today, her academic work focuses on labor market integration of EU-migrants in metropolitan areas of the enlarged European Union.

Mike Schwebel is a first year PhD student in the Urban Studies Program where his research interests include sustainable planning & design and environmental policy.  Recently completing a M.S. in Environmental Sciences and Policy, concentrating in Environmental Planning at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Mike has a variety of experience in urban planning, campus design, community charette facilitation, and implementation of LEED projects.  Previously, Mike attained a Bachelors of Landscape Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University.  A registered LEED AP, he will soon sit for his final State Board Exam to become a licensed and registered Landscape Architect (RLA).

Kelly Elizabeth Sloane is a Ph.D. student in Urban Studies.  She holds a B.A. in American Studies from Pennsylvania State University and a M.A. in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. She is interested in the ideological, legal and social history of race, ethnicity and citizenship and the maintenance of socioeconomic ‘class’ and place in the United States.  Her current research is centered on the 2007 Supreme Court case Parents Involved In Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, Et Al.