Curriculum Vitae

Mark Troy Burnett, Ph.D.

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself”
                                                                                   —John Dewey

Current Position

            Adjunct Professor—Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles
            Adjunct Professor—Department of Earth Science-Geography, Santa Monica College

Education

(2005) Ph.D. Geography. University of California—Los Angeles

• Dissertation: Making a Capitol City— National Identity and the Post Socialist Transformation of Bratislava (UCLA 2005)

            (2000) M.A. Geography . University of California—Los Angeles

• Masters Thesis: The Dissolving of Czechoslovakia: A Critique of Federalism in Theory and Practice.

(1994) B.A. Economics. University of California—Santa Barbara

(1994) B.A. Environmental Studies. University of California—Santa Barbara

University and College Teaching Experience

(2004-present) Adjunct Professor—University of California Los Angeles, Department
of Geography

Courses Taught:

• Conservation, Political Ecology, and Environmentalism in the Developing World (Summer 2006). Topics: demographics, urbanization, and environmental sustainability; tropical deforestation; environmental health; biodiversity. Case studies from Africa, Latin America, post-socialist Europe, and Asia.

• Topics in Global Environmentalism (Summer 2006). Topics: questions of population, resource use, poverty, and environmental degradation/health; analysis of global economic restructuring and its connections to changing organization of production and resulting environmental impacts; examination of emergent local and regional coalitions for self-reliance and sustainable development. Case studies from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the U.S

• Regional Geography of Europe—Imagining and Organizing Modern European Space (Spring 2006). Topics: conceptualizing “Europe” as a region; political, economic, and social geography of the European Union; urbanism and urban geography; nationalism and the “European” identity; EU expansion

• Economic Geography and Globalization (Spring 2006). Topics: spatiality of the industrial revolution; evolution of the capitalist world system; economic geography of the modern developed and developing world; evolution of regional trading blocs (NAFTA, EU, African Economic Community, ASEAN); globalization, anti-globalization, and American hegemony.

• Cultural Geography of the Modern World—A Critical Approach (Winter 2006). Topics: cultural landscapes of the urban environment; culture wars and cultural politics; history of cultural geography from Carl Sauer to Denis Cosgrove; gendered spaces and sexual identities; national identity and the spaces of the city; post-structuralism; the cultural turn in geography; landscape semiotics.

• Introduction to Cultural and Human Geography (Winter 2006). Topics: nature/culture and human societies; demographics; demography of North America; concepts in urban and political geographies; geographies of material transformation.

• Geography of Los Angeles (Fall 2005). Topics: historical and contemporary development of Los Angeles; The role of nature in the spatial development of Los Angeles; Regional built environment and the Los Angeles school of urban studies; Postmodern cultural studies and the shaping of the city.

• Global Environment and Health (Fall 2005). Topics: the politics of health ecology; urbanization and environmental health; concepts in environmental and health policy; population ecology; environmental toxicology and epidemiology.

• People and the Earth’s Ecosystem—Introduction to Environmental Science (Summer 2005; Summer 2006). Topics: ecology and ecosystem structure; biodiversity; political ecology; environmental ethics.

• Biogeography and Ecology (Summer 2004). Topics: evolutionary processes; conservation and biodiversity issues; habitat restoration; and the politics of conservation.

(2000-present) Adjunct Professor—Santa Monica College, Department of Geography  

Courses Taught:

• Geography of California (Fall 2001-Summer 2003). Topics: California environments and social policy; history; cultural landscapes; the history of the geographic development of Southern California; politics and immigration; globalization and California as a global economic node.

• Physical Geography Lecture (Spring 2001-Summer 2006). Topics: introduction to GIS; climatology; geodesics and spatial methodology; Earth’s energy balance; atmospheric processes and circulation patterns; oceanic processes and circulation; lithospheric processes—plate tectonics; rock cycle; volcanism; fluvial geomorphology; glacial morphology; coastal processes; eolian and desert landscape formation. 

• Physical Geography Lab (Spring 2001-Summer 2006). Lab experiments include: Earth energy budgets; weather and climate; topographic analysis; rock and mineral analysis; plate tectonics; volcanism; fundamentals of cloud formation and precipitation; mass wasting; weathering; coastal geomorphology; glacial geomorphology; introduction to GIS.

• Human Geography (Summer 2000).  Topics: political, economic, urban cultural geography; theories of place and place making; demographics; human settlement patterns, GIS. 

(2001) Adjunct Professor—California State University, Dominguez Hills, Department of
Geography and Earth Science

Courses Taught:

• Geography of North America (Summer 2001). Topics:  political and economic geography of contemporary North America; historical and regional geographic development.
• Natural Processes and the Earth’s Physical Systems (Summer 2001).  Topics: Earth’s natural processes and ecological systems—atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere.

(2003-2004) Teaching Fellow—UCLA Honors College

Course Taught:  

•  Collapses of Past Societies and their Lessons for Our Own Future                   (Winter 2003; 2004). Topics: politics and the environment; current environmental   policy and action; the fate of civilizations.

(2003) Teaching Fellow—UCLA International Institute, and the Office of the Chancellor

Courses Taught:

• The U.S. and the World Post 9/11 (Spring 2003). Topics: post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy issues within the contexts of: the Iraq War; Israel-Palestine conflict; U.S. national interests and security; homeland security; Russia and the EU; China, North Korea, and Japan; and Latin America. 

(2001-2002; 2004-2005) Teaching Fellow—UCLA Institute of the Environment

Courses Taught:

• Global Environmental Science (Fall 2001-Winter 2002; Fall 2004-Winter 2005) Topics: political and social environmental issues; environmental policy and law; urbanization and environment degradation; ecosystem and ecological processes; global warming; atmospheric and oceanic pollution.
• Environmental Ethics and Ideals; Past, Present and Future (Spring 2002; 2005) Topics: western and non-western environmental philosophy; stewardship ethics; deep ecology; postmodern environmental ethics; ecofeminism; bioregional ethical systems.

(1999-2002) Teaching Associate—UCLA Department of Geography

Courses Taught:

• Cultural Geography (Fall 1999; 2003)
• Biogeography (Winter 2000) .
• Physical Geography (Spring 2000; Fall 2002)
• People and the Earth’s Ecosystem (Fall 2000)

(2001-2003) Graduate Student Researcher—UCLA Department of Geography

• (Fall 2003). Research assistant for Geography Professor Jared Diamond. Helped secure research grant for instructional enhancement.
• (Winter 2001; Spring 2001). Research assistant for Geography Professor and Department Chair, John Agnew.  Researched for an undergraduate Political Geography textbook.  Wrote vignettes on relevant political geography topics: War on Drugs and the Mexico-U.S. Border; Ruthenian Nation-State Building; Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; Nagorno-Karabakh Nationalism.

(1999-2004) Graduate Student Reader/Grader—UCLA Department of Geography

Courses Taught:

• Political Geography (Fall 1999; 2000; 2002; 2004) Professor John Agnew
• European Urban Geography (Winter 2000). Professor John Agnew

(In progress: derived from dissertation chapters)

• “Post-socialist urban geography of Bratislava, fifteen years after the velvet revolution” Journal of Urban Geography
• “Post socialist Architecture and Monumentality” The Annals of the American Association of Geographers
•  “The Dissolution of Czechoslovakia—the role of the capital city” Journal of National Identities
• “European Union Eastward Expansion and the Post-Socialist Transformation of Bratislava” Journal of European and Regional Studies
• “Forging National Identity in a City that Rejects It: Slovaks and Bratislava” Journal of National Identities

(2002)

• Wrote Vignettes for Agnew, John. 2002 Making Political Geography
• Vignette 1: “Drug Traffickers Have No Respect for National Boundaries”
• Vignette 2: “Why Israel and Palestine Cannot Coexist on the Same Territory”
• Vignette 3: “Hail Ruthenia”
• Vignette 4: “Stamp Collecting Makes the World Go Round: National Identity in Nagorno-Karabakh”

American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting

• (Spring 2003).  Session Chair: Places, Cities, and the Political Geography of Europe
• Paper/Presentation Title: Prague—The Capital City and the Dissolution of Federal Czechoslovakia

Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

• (Spring 2001). Presented two lectures to undergraduate urban studies students. Topics
• Geography of Consumption, the Culture of Materialism and the Making of the Shopping Mall
• Making Slovakia, A Narrative of Place and National Identity Formation in Post Velvet Revolutionary East Central Europe.

• (September 1999).  Paper presented: Territory, Identity, and Politics in the post-Socialist Czechoslovak Context

(Fall 2002-Spring 2003/Fall 2004-Spring 2005)   Fellow, UCLA Institute of the Environment
(Spring 2003)   Fellow, UCLA International Institute
(Summer 2002)   Research-Mentor Fellowship—UCLA Graduate Division

Dissertation Chapters

I. Theoretical Orientation

• National identity and nationalism in a post-socialist context
• The nationalization of place
• Architecture, monumentality and place
• Capital cities and national identity

 

II. Historical Geography—Poszon-Pressburg-Bratislava and the Creation of an Enduring
“Pressburger” Identity

• Ethnicity and national identity in the city

III. National Identity and Bratislava—the Making of a Slovak Territory and a Slovak Capital

• Bratislava and Czechoslovakia’s primate capital—Prague

IV. Post 1989 National Identity Resurgence and the Capital City

• Regionalism and Slovak nationalism
• Bratislava during the era of Meciarism
• Post 1989/1993 political-administrative reforms

V. Socialist Urbanization and Urbanism

• The “idea” of the socialist city
• Bratislava, urbanism, and the socialist city experience

VI. Post-Socialist Urban Transformation

• De-industrialization, industrial blight and re-industrialization
• Expansion of the CBD
• Housing sector, transportation, and infrastructure transformation

VII. Architecture and Monumentality in Post-Socialist Bratislava

• Socialist architecture and the city
• Post-socialist architecture and the city

Languages

Slovak (read and speak, intermediate level)
Czech (read and speak, basic level)
German (1 Year College level)
French (3 years High School)

Research Methodologies

• Qualitative: archival; participant observation; interview techniques; document analysis; discourse analysis
• Quantitative: took a graduate course on statistical methods—use of linear models, discriminant functions, and factor analysis to analyze problems in political geography

• Geographic Information Systems: ArcGIS/ESRI Software version 9.0.  Utilized GIS program, techniques, and lab samples for Physical Geography courses.  Global Environmental Science course lab—GIS analyses of Southern California Vegetation.
• Microsoft PowerPoint: All course lectures in this format
• Microsoft Excel: All course grading organized with Excel spreadsheets
• Have designed and maintained Web-pages for courses

(2002-2004) Education and Curriculum Consultant—Los Angeles Unified School District

• Designed and administered tutorial sessions for Teacher Credentialing program and the Single Subject Assessment Examination (SSAT).  Topics: U.S. Government and Civics; Economics; Geography; World History; and U.S. History. 

(1996-2002) Labor Law and Environmental Consultant—Cal Safety Compliance Corporation, Los Angeles, CA.

• Manager of international labor law compliance division, South and Southeast Asian branch. Managed staff of 20, with projects in the following countries: China/Hong Kong; Taiwan; Thailand; Philippines; Malaysia; Indonesia; India; Bangladesh; Pakistan; and Sri Lanka. 
• Independent consultant and project manager.  Helped design and update international labor law monitoring data and compliance programs for the following corporations: Kmart; Wal-mart; Warnaco; Reebok; and Gymboree.
• Independent Environmental Consultant. Helped design environmental management system and monitoring program based on the ISO 9000/14000 environmental standards for responsible corporate practices.  

(1999-2001) Independent Site Development-Spatial Consultant—Location Targeting
Consultants, Los Angeles, CA. 

• Collected on-site locational and structural data for commercial banks for an integrated GIS database system.  Fieldwork conducted in the following U.S. States: Arizona; Ohio; Michigan; West Virginia; and Texas.

(1994-1996) Peace Corps Volunteer—Slovak Republic

• Environmental development consultant for rural, non-governmental organization.  Instrumental in design of the organization’s mission statement and initial research projects; Conducted environmental education seminars for local leaders and high school students; Represented organization in ecological projects and meetings throughout the region (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, and the Netherlands).  Lobbied government officials and policy makers and conducted non-violent civil protest on most pressing environmental issues: Mohovce/Bohunice Nuclear power stations; Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam project on the Danube.