Geography

Alumni

Graeme Aggett

Graeme Aggett, Ph.D. 2005, is an ex-Royal Marine Commando (40 Cdo., 1981-83; 42 Cdo., 1984-87) who left the UK in 1988 traveling to New Zealand and Australia to play rugby.  While in New Zealand, Graeme studied for a BSc. (Auckland, 1993) and MSc. (Auckland, 1995), and played for the Auckland University Rugby Football 1st XV. 

His main research interests included geomorphology, climatology, GIS, remote sensing, and the application of GI technologies to natural hazard assessment and mitigation.  His master's thesis was sponsored by the New Zealand Earthquake Commission (EQC), and assessed the earthquake risk to New Zealand's capital city, Wellington.  On completion of his thesis, Graeme moved to the capital to take two-year position as 'GIS Professional' at Victoria University of Wellington.  Among other tasks, Graeme worked with Professor Michael Crozier and several graduate students in a landslide research group, and was also involved with Dr. John McKinnon in developing a concept called MIGIS (Mobile Interactive GIS).  The aim of MIGIS is to utilize portable GI technologies to enhance Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) work and to develop new PRA techniques, aims that were successfully tested during a pilot project at a hill tribe village in Thailand (1997).

Andreas Baas

Andreas Baas was born in Alkmaar, cheese capital of the Netherlands. He obtained his Bachelor and Master degrees at the Department of Physical Geography and Soil Science at the University of Amsterdam, where he worked on a numerical self-organization model for simulating vegetated dune development. He has completed his Ph.D. work looking at the behavior and formation of aeolian sand streamers. His main interests lie in aeolian geomorphology, complex dynamical systems and philosophy of science.

Yongxin Deng

J. Dallas Dishman

Prior to joining the USC Department of Geography, J. Dallas Dishman received his B.A. in Geography from Indiana Purdue University at Indianopolis (IUPUI) in 1992.  In late summer of 1994, Dallas said goodbye to Indiana and hoped on the "Southwest Chief" bound for the USC Department of Geography.  Upon arrival, Dallas began working very closely with Michael Dear, who as served both his M.A. and Ph.D. supervisor (as well as his sailing instructor).  During his residency at USC, Dallas' studies ranged from medical geography to social theory.  His Master's work examined the early emergence of digital communities on the Internet and their implications for expanding notions of "gay community."  Dishman's doctoral research explored anti-gay violence in the City of West Hollywood using a mixed methodology to model both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of anti-gay hate crime across space and time.  He completed his dissertation in 2002.  Dallas is currently the Program Director of the David Geffen Foundation in Beverly Hills, where he overseas the Foundation's philanthropic activities in the areas of HIV / AIDS, Civil Liberties, Cultural Arts, Jewish Community Services, and Healthcare.  In his spare time, he can be found sailing with his former advisor, rock climbing in the Santa Monica Mountains or cycling along the California coast.  Dallas currently lives in Brentwood, California with his partner Dimitri Czupylo (USC Annenberg School, '96) and his dog Trip.

Steve Flusty

Well...what can we say?  BEHOLD!  Professor Flusty completed his doctoral program at USC in 2002 and he is currently Assistant Professor of Geography at York University in Toronto.  His book titles include:

1. De-Coca-Colonization: Making the Globe from the Inside Out (2003, Routledge) 
2. The Spaces of Postmodernity: Readings in Human Geography (2001, Blackwell)
3. Icons: Magnets of Meaning (1997, Chronicle Books)
4. Building Paranoia: The Proliferation of Interdictory Space and the Erosion of Spatial Justice (1969, Forum Publication, No. 11)
   

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Martin Kammerer

Martin Kammerer specializes in fluvial geomorphology and sediment transport.  Working with Dr. Bernard Bauer, his dissertation was a field investigation of spatial performance patterns of sediment transport models when bed roughness was accounted for by stress partitioning.  He did his undergraduate work at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and received his Master's degree from Arizona State University, where he worked on heavy metals in stream sediments under Dr. Will Graf. Martin.  He gathered academic experience as faculty member and Chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Whittier College where he taught Environmental Sciences, Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Cartographic Methods, GIS, Physical Hydrology, and Integrated Field Methods.  He has been active as a scientific consultant to local government agencies and various non-profit organizations working on stream-channel restoration and naturalization design.  He now holds a scientific staff position at the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy where he continues to work on stream rotation and urban storm water projects.  Martin remains a member of the academic research community at USC, holding a post-doctoral research assistant position.

Mary Roche

Django Sibley

Django is a USC Geography MA graduate (1993).  Thesis: Divisions of Labor in Policing: Police, Communities and Sex Offender Control.  Django is currently working in the LAPD Office of Inspector General as a Special Investigator.  He and his wife, Amanda, are expecting a baby soon.  Django, concerned about his fatherly reponsibilities informs us, "the job pays well, so we should be able to keep him or her."

Thomas Sigler

James Tyner

James A. Tyner (Ph.D. 1995) is currently an associate professor in the Department of Geography at Kent State University.  Along with his teaching responsibilities, he continues to publish in the fields of population, political, and social geography.  His publications include:

1. Made in the Philippines: Gendered Discourses and the Making of Migrants (2004, Routledge)
2. Iraq, Terror, and the Philippines: Will to War (2005, Rowman & Littlefield)
3. The Geography of Malcolm X: Black Radicalism and the Remaking of American Space (2005, Routledge)
4. Oriental Bodies: Discourse and Discipline in U.S. Immigration Policy, 1875-1943 (2006, Lexington)

He currently lives in Munroe Falls, Ohio with his wife Belinda and daughter Jessica.

Gregg Wassmansdorf

 USC Geography Masters (1993), PhD studies to 1997.  Gregg is currently Vice President, Corporate Services and Site Selection Practice Leader at Colliers International, an international real estate services firm.  His primary functions is helping corporate clients with real estate strategy and location decisions for offices, plants, warehouses and other facilities.  Gregg lives and works in the Toronto (Canada) region, and consults with clients across North America and internationally in such markets as Puerto Rico, Panama, Brazil, Eastern Europe, and Asia.  Gregg and his wife Catherine, also a USC Geographer, have two fabulous children, Daniel and Emily.  He can be reached at his personal e-mail address: gregg.w@canada.com.

Alon Yaari

Alon (MS 1999) is currently senior project manager at Vestra Resources, Inc. here in Southern California.