Faculty Spotlight: Paul Jackson, Postdoctoral Fellow

Paul Jackson is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geography.  He investigates how scientists and experts grapple with the interaction between humans and the urban environment, focusing on those experts who presume that this interaction produces populations that are deficient, disadvantaged, and/or diseased.

He interrogates these relationships in a variety of time periods: 

• how cholera and marshland was thought to make cities inherently unhealthy (1870s-1890s);
• how religious pilgrims were blamed global pandemics (1890s-1920s);
• how inner-city environments were feared to lower children's IQ (1950s-1960s); and
• how environmental toxins are suspected to be the cause of the autism epidemic (1990s-present). 

Paul's work has been published in Antipode and Cultural Geographies. He has taught courses on Toxic Geographies and Urbanization & the Environment. He also shares his office with an old codger named Alphie who barks at students and shamelessly begs for treats.