Emeritus and Adjunct Faculty Directory

Dr. DAVID J. KEELING is the Emeritus University Distinguished Professor of Geography. He served as Department Head from 2001 to 2017. In 2019 he was recognized by the Royal Geographical Society (UK) with the Alan Hay Award for contributions to transport geography. As a cultural geographer, he addresses issues of transportation, sustainable development, globalization, urban growth, and regional change, with Latin America and Europe his primary areas of research. His recent research projects include an analysis of Iceland's transport environment (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7567469/), an analysis of Argentina's airline networks (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692319309159), a review of Argentine territorial identity, a critique of Argentina's claims on the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), an analysis of Comuna 13 in Medellín, Colombia, an evaluation of research on Latin American transport issues, a three-year-long decadal assessment of research on transportation issues published in Progress in Human Geography, globalization's impact on Latin American societies (published in the Journal of Latin American Geography, transportation challenges for Latin America [published in 2008 in the Journal of Latin American Geography), landscape changes in World Cities, and the cultural geography of Rock and Roll music. He has written updated chapters on Transportation and the Southern Cone for the 7th edition of Latin America and the Caribbean (Blouet and Blouet (2015): Wiley). Dr. Keeling’s most recent project is a chapter in the Companion to the American Landscape (Routledge, 2022) that addresses the current relationship between popular music and the built environment. Dr. Keeling served on the Board of Councilors for the American Geographical Society until 2014 as the Society's Assistant Treasurer, and he served for eight years as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Transport Geography. In his role as a Fellow of the AGS, he contributed Op Ed pieces on issues of geopolitical or economic change, observations on current geopolitical issues, and he continues to lecture around the world representing the AGS and WKU on educational geography expeditions. Dr. Keeling previously directed a research project in Colombia with the support of the American Geographical Society's Bowman Expeditions. Dr. Keeling also led multiple departmental study abroad programs to various corners of the globe, with past department programs visiting Chile (2005), Australia (2002), Turkey, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Mexico, England, Belgium, Egypt, and France, and with recent KIIS programs in Argentina or Chile (2010, 2011, 2015). More detailed information about his research publications and course offerings can be found at scholar.google.com (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=CrN9YRYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate)

Dr. Keeling retired from WKU in June, 2021. For more information about his research topics and agenda, contact Dr. Keeling at david.keeling@wku.edu