Deborah G. Martin, Ph.D
Professor of Geography
Graduate School of Geography
Clark University
Worcester, MA 01610-1477
Email: demartin@clarku.edu
Phone: (508) 793-7104
Office: Room 201A, Jefferson Academic Center
Dr. Deborah (“Deb”) Martin received her M.A. (1994) and Ph.D. (1999) degrees in geography from the University of Minnesota, and her B.A. in geography and international studies from Macalester College. Before coming to Clark in the fall of 2004, she taught at the University of Georgia for five years.
Research
Urban, social, political geography, law and geography, qualitative methods, concepts of place, and social movements
Martin is an urban geographer with interests in place identity, local politics, legal geography, qualitative methodologies, and social movements (particularly neighborhood activism). She has conducted research in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Athens, Georgia, on place, meaning and representation in community organizing and local politics. Currently, Deb is engaged in two research projects. The first, through Clark’s HERO program with Geography colleague John Rogan and undergraduate researchers, examines the socio-ecological dimensions of tree planting programs in Massachusetts. The second, with colleagues James DeFilippis (Rutgers) and Joe Pierce (Florida State), examines the legal, social, and community dynamics of housing Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. The National Science Foundation funds this latter project. Both of these projects allow investigations into various aspects of place identity and place-making, geography and law, and human-environment relations. Deb advises graduate students working on a range of topics, loosely coalescing around various themes, including activism, politics, place, social theory, and qualitative research.
Courses Offered
GEOG 020: American Cities: Changing Spaces, Community Places
GEOG 141: Research Methods
GEOG 258/356: Utopian Visions, Urban Realities
GEOG 310: Qualitative Research Methods
GEOG 366: Topics in Urban Geography
GEOG 368: Development of Western Geographic Thought
Selected Publications
Shdema, I., & Martin, D. (2021). Place Identity Among Native Minorites: Lessons from Arabs in Isreal.Geographical Review, 1–20.
Pierce, J., DeFilippis, J., Williams, O. R., Martin, D., Kruger, R., & Hadizadeh Esfahani, A. (2021). Ownership is a habit of mind: how community land trusts expose key consensual fictions of urban property. Urban Geography.
Martin, D. G., Hadizadeh, E., Azadeh, Williams, O. R., Kruger, R., Pierce, J., & DeFilippis, J. (2020). Meanings of limited equity homeownership in community land trusts. Housing Studies, 35(3), 395–414.