Martha WorksProfessor and ChairDepartment of Geography P.O. Box 751 Portland, OR 97207-0751 Phone: 1 (503) 725-3165 mworks@pdx.edu |
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Courses:
I regularly teach the following courses:
Research Paper Guidelines (for all classes)Environment and Society: Global Perspectives: GEOG 230
Book Review Guidelines (PDF file)
Research Interests
My primary research interest is in the cultural geography of Latin America. I am interested in the cultural ecology, culture history and cultural landscapes of the region. I also have research interest in culture history and cultural landscapes of North America.My master's thesis and dissertation research were on agricultural change in Western Amazonia (eastern Peru). My master's thesis (1980 Arizona State University) was on agricultural and land use changes in an active colonization frontier (the Central Huallaga River valley); my dissertation (1984 Louisiana State University) was on the social and spatial repercussions of agricultural change among the Aguaruna Indians of the Alto Mayo River valley.
Subsequent research projects have been on dooryard gardens of Moyobamba (in the upper or Alto Mayo valley); an analysis of material culture and trade in Spanish Colonial New Mexico; the impact on settlement patterns of changing relations between hispanics and Indians in northern New Mexico; and an historical landscape study of a neighborhood in Portland, Oregon.
Current research projects include:
-- A project in collaboration with Keith Hadley of the Geography Department at Portland State University looks at the intersection of human and environmental influences on the pine forests of Michoacan, Mexico. Funding by a National Geographic Society research grant supported two seasons of field work. We are interested in how human use of forests (industrial, material culture, timber, grazing), forest policy (various layers of regulatory controls), and forest dynamics (reseeding, fires, impact of selective cutting) have influenced composition and distribution of forests in a region with a high spe cies diversity of pines. Two geography master's degree students helped with the field work and are completing their theses as part of this project--A project in collaboration with Tom Harvey of the Geography Department at Portland State University and funded by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has analyzed the impact of rapid suburban development along the Urban Growth Boundary in the Portland metropolitan area on rural land use change. Using surveys of residents and analysis of air photos and parcel data we were able to gauge changes in the rural landscape and in residents attitudes toward continued urban growth. See web page at: http://www.rlua.pdx.edu/