Casey D. Allen

A multiple award-winning teacher-scholar, Fulbright Scholar (Jordan), and advocate for fieldwork and experiential education, I’ve held faculty, staff, and administrative posts at several different institutions since beginning my journey into higher education over two decades ago. As a Geographer, I dislike separating the physical realm from the human realm and find myself regularly working at the human-environment interface. Broadly speaking, my specialties include (urban) geomorphology (the “Science of Scenery”), (cultural) stone/rock decay, and landscape studies. Expertise in rock art, humanistic geography, and soils/biocrusts, round out my topical background. Though well-known for research in those areas, it’s really teaching that feeds my soul, and so I continually strive to help folks connect geographical/spatial concepts with everyday life by including some type of in situ, hands-on component and/or activity with/in the landscape. Whether that means just observing around campus, fieldwork in the US Southwest or Arabian Desert, incorporating citizen science & community engagement into my research, exploring the world via Geography by Rail®, or just looking out a window, each focuses on increasing appreciation for – and understanding connections between – Earth’s landscapes and life.