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. Broadly speaking, my academic research specialties include (urban) geomorphology (the “Science of Scenery”), (cultural) stone/rock decay science, and landscape change/studies. Expertise in biocrusts, rock art, & humanistic geography round out my topical background, and I maintain regional interests in arid lands, Latin America, the Lesser Antilles, US Southwest, and Japan. Though well-known in my research areas, it’s really teaching that feeds my soul, and so I continually strive to help folks connect science-y concepts to everyday life by including some type of in situ, hands-on component and/or activity with/in the landscape. Whether that means observing around campus, fieldwork in the US Southwest or Arabian Desert, incorporating citizen science into my research, exploring the world via International Field Study Programs, or just looking out a window, each endeavor focuses on increasing appreciation for – and understanding connections between – landforms, people, and place.