Bio
Robert Shepard is an Assistant Professor of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences. A population geographer, his research blends quantitative spatial data with critical humanistic inquiry to analyze geographic disparities relating to race, ethnicity, gender, and class. Previously appointed as the GIS Specialist at University of Iowa’s Digital Scholarship and Publishing Studio, Robert has strong interests in teaching and promoting geospatial technologies and web GIS in service of interdisciplinary exploration within the digital humanities. In addition to his ongoing work with the digital project, Placing Segregation, he serves as a scholarly advisor to related emerging digital scholarship efforts. He is a Center for Great Plains Studies fellow.
Research and Current Projects
- spatial residential segregation patterns
- medical access and food deserts in the Great Plains
- interactive cartography
Courses
GEOG 317 Cartography
GEOG 417 Web
GEOG 425 Scientific Visualization in Cartography
GEOG 441 Geographies of Health
Selected Publications
2020 Robert Shepard. 2020. “Placing Segregation.” Chapter in Crowdsourcing, Constructing and Collaborating: Methods and Social Impact of Mapping the World Today. Edited by Nida Rehman, Saba Sharma and Siddharth de Souza. Bloomsbury Publishing. June 2020.
2016 William G. Thomas III, Kaci Nash, and Robert Shepard. 2016. Places of Exchange: An Analysis of Human and Materiél Flows in Civil War Alexandria, Virginia. Civil War History. Vol. 62, Number 4. Dec. 2016.
2015 Robert Shepard. 2015. “Historical Geography, GIS and Civil War Washington.” Chapter in Civil War Washington: History, Place and Digital Scholarship. Edited by Susan Lawrence. University of Nebraska Press.
2014 Robert Shepard. 2014. The Role of Gender in Rural Population Decline in Kansas and Nebraska, 1990-2010. Great Plains Research, Volume 24, Number 1. Spring 2014.