Areas of Interest

Cultural-historical geography, political-ecology, mountains, Canada

 

Education

BA Honours (1998), Geography. University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

MA (2001) and PhD (2005), Geography. York University, Toronto.

 

Teaching and Research

My work investigates intersections of ‘nature,’ ‘society,’ and relations of power in resource use and articulations of territorial sovereignty, both historically and in the present. With a focus on the Canadian province of British Columbia and the US Pacific Northwest, I have explored the politics of nature and resulting human geographies of early industrial forestry, anti-logging campaigns, aboriginal land and resource claims, transnational border space, and mountain recreation. All of these interests are reflected in the courses I offer through Huxley College and Canadian-American Studies.

 

Current research areas

Aboriginal Claims and the Politics of Nature in the Pacific Northwest

Historical Geographies of Nature and Recreation on Vancouver’s North Shore

 

Courses offered 2010-2011 (on sabbatical 2011-12)

Fall Quarter:

             EGEO 461  Natural Resource Management

             ESTU 588   Language, Discourse, and Environment

Winter Quarter:

             EGEO 201  Human Geography

             EGEO 328  Canada: Society and Environment

Spring Quarter:

             EGEO 201  Human Geography

             EGEO 425  Colonial Landscapes in the Pacific Northwest

 

Graduate Students

As an active advisor of graduate students who are pursuing a M.S. in Geography at WWU, I am interested in working with students who are curious about cultural, historical, and/or political-economic dimensions of geographical and environmental issues. Click here for more information as well as a list of recent graduate students whose theses I have advised.

 

Selected Publications

· Rossiter, David A., “British Columbia: Geographies of a Province on the Edge” in R. Tremblay and S. Lucas (eds.), Geographies of Canada. Brussels: Peter Lang (forthcoming).

· Wood, Patricia Burke and David A. Rossiter, “Unstable Properties: British Columbia, Aboriginal Title, and the ‘New Relationship’” in The Canadian Geographer / le Géographe canadien, 55(4), 2011, 407-425.

· Rossiter, David A., “Leave the Lemons at Home: Towards a Political Ecology of Border Space” in Geopolitics, 16(1), 2011, pp. 107-120.

· Rossiter, David A., “Resource Geography” in B. Warf (ed.), Encyclopedia of Geography, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2010, volume 5, pp. 2446-2451.

· Rossiter, David A., “Negotiating Nature: Colonial Geographies and Environmental Politics in the Pacific Northwest” in Ethics, Place, and Environment, 11(2), 2008, pp. 113-128.

· Rossiter, David A., “Producing Provincial Space: Crown Forests, the State, and Territorial Control in British Columbia” in Space and Polity, 12(2), 2008, pp. 215-230.

· Rossiter, David A., “Land Claims” in W.A. Darity (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, volume 4, pp. 340-341.

· Rossiter, David A., “Topography” in W.A. Darity (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd edition.  Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, volume 8, pp. 389-390.

· Rossiter, David A., “Lessons in Possession: Colonial Resource Geographies in Practice on Vancouver Island, 1859-1865” in Journal of Historical Geography, 33(4), 2007, pp. 770-790.

· Rossiter, David and Patricia K. Wood, “Fantastic Topographies: Neo-Liberal Responses to Aboriginal Land Claims in British Columbia” in The Canadian Geographer / le Géographe canadien, 49(4), 2005, pp. 352-366.

· Rossiter, David, “The Nature of Protest: Constructing the Spaces of British Columbia’s Rainforests” in Cultural Geographies, 11(2), 2004, pp. 139-164.

 Last updated: February 8, 2012

Department of Environmental Studies

Huxley College of the Environment

Western Washington University

516 High St.

Bellingham, WA

98225-9085

 

Phone: 360-650-3603

Fax: 360-650-2645

E-mail: david.rossiter@wwu.edu

    Lower Mainland, BC and Whatcom County, WA from Hollyburn Ridge. Photo: D. Rossiter, 2007

             Photo: T. Hellinga, 2010