ON-GOING RESEARCH

RESEARCH TOWARD PUBLICATION

Segregation by Class

My area of study uses GIS to study the social sciences, with an emphasis on segregation and suburbanization in the Chicago area. I have studied these themes comparing 1980 and 1990 census data, and now am investigating changes to 2000. In particular, I am interested in segregation not on the basis of race -- the typical marker in segregation studies -- but rather by class and especially by class within the standard racial/ethnic communities. This is an update and expansion of work I presented at the Association of American Geographers' annual meeting in 1995.

I try when possible to involve students in my research, and several have participated in this work by way of independent studies and theses. I encourage others interested in this area of research to contact me.

Similarly, any student undertaking a thesis under my primary guidance must agree in advance that the work will be of publishable quality for a juried journal. After the work is completed, we will rewrite and submit the work for publication, normally with the student receiving primary authorship. Elizabeth Sanders was the first publication under this new policy, with paper which used GIS to measure trends in Bird Populations, published in the Bulletin of the Illinois Geographic Society, Fall 2003.

Community On-line Forum

I'm collecting data on Bughouse, the on-line forum for which I am Faculty Advisor. This is a unique university forum, possibly the first one created by volunteer effort which offers anonymous identities to users, yet contains a host of controls which makes it possible to monitor posts and ultimately hold users responsible for their own contributions. A report on this experiment may be useful to others.

OTHER RESEARCH

Retooling and Skill Upgrade

I have become very interested in open source software and am preparing to teach myself how to manage databases and create elaborate svg-delivered cartographic projects with open source options such as SQL, PHP, and SVG. An open source course authoring system may be my answer to Blackboard for an interactive virtual classroom. I have resisted using Blackboard, NEIU's chosen course authoring software, in favor of more accessible, more flexible, less expensive, and more local solutions, such as .html. I am helping to establish and maintain a server for G&ES on which databases will reside for SVG projects, which will be the major assignment in my new course, Interactive Cartography.