Kenneth Foote photo portrait
Professor Emeritus of Geography • American & European Landscape History; GIScience & Internet Techniques; Geography in Higher Education • Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1982

Email: ken.foote@uconn.edu

I taught at CU from 2000 to 2013.  In 2013, I moved to the University of Connecticut to head the geography program. The link to my UConn website is: http://foote.geography.uconn.edu/

My interests are in cartography and geographic information science particularly Internet-based applications; American and European landscape history, focusing on public memory and commemoration; and issues of geography in higher education particularly instructional technologies and professional development for early career faculty.

I've led a number of instructional materials development projects in the Web including The Geographer's Craft Project and the Virtual Geography Department Project, funded by the National Science Foundation.  Since 2002 I have led the Geography Faculty Development Alliance, funded initially by the NSF, to provide professional development opportunities for early career geography faculty. I am also co-PI on the AAG's Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education (EDGE) Project, also funded by NSF.  I have served as president of the National Council for Geographic Education (2006) and president (2010-11) of the Association of American Geographers.  I have received the AAG's J.B. Jackson Prize (1998), the AAG's Gilbert Grosvenor Honors in Geographic Education (2005), the Royal Geographical Society's Taylor and Francis Award (2012); the Education Award of the University Consortium for GIScience (2013) and the National Council for Geographic Education's Distinguished Mentor Award (2013).  

Much of my research in cultural geography focuses on issues of how events of violence and tragedy are marked (or not marked) in landscape.  Debate over commemoration is often highly contentious and can expose deep divides within society over how to interpret and represent the past.  I am also very interested in the development of national commemorative traditions in the U.S. and Europe, racialized landscapes, the commemoration of African-American, Chinese-American, Japanese-American and Jewish-American historical sites, heritage tourism, and historical GIS. 

In my spare time I rehearse and perform early music on flute, recorder, and viola da gamba.  My wife and I have twin boys born in February 2003.  When we can manage it, we foster and adopt ex-racing greyhounds and whippets though, currently, we care for an American foxhound.

CLASSES at CU: GEOG 2053: Mapping a Changing World | GEOG 4043: Cartography 2: Interactive and Multimedia Mapping | GEOG 4742: Landscape, Society and Meaning  GEOG 5003: Elements of Geographic Information Systems | GEOG 5161: Research Design in Human Geography  

WORKSHOPS: Geography Faculty Development Alliance | Putting Your Course Online | 

PROJECTS: Geographers in the Web | The Geographer's Craft Project  | Virtual Geography Department Project