Derek H. Alderman

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Teaching & Advising

Teaching & Advising& Mentoring-Related Honors: Distinguished University Teaching Achievement Award, NCGE (2002); Robert L. Jones Award for Outstanding Teaching, ECU (2004); Scholar-Teacher Award, ECU (2005); Distinguished Professor of Teaching Award, ECU (2005); UNC Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching Award, ECU (highest teaching award within UNC system) (2009); Distinguished Mentor Award, National Council for Geographic Education (2017); Outstanding Teaching Award (Graduate Level), Department of Geography & Sustainability, University of Tennessee (2022), George J Miller Award for Distinguished Service to Geography Education, NCGE (2023), Outstanding Graduate Research Mentor & Outstanding Graduate Student Support Awards, Graduate Student Senate, University of Tennessee (2024), Susan Hardwick Excellence in Mentoring Award, AAG (2024), Outstanding Advocate Award (Graduate Level), Department of Geography & Sustainability, University of Tennessee (2025).

My Thoughts on Teaching as “Place-Creating” (Comments from Address to Fall Faculty Convocation, 2009, East Carolina University). Citation for my 2023 George J Miller Award for Distinguished Service to Geography Education (gratitude to Kurt Butefish for writing this).

Graduate Student Advisor/Major Professor for:

    • Shannon Arnold (MS, 2011, thesis), Sustainable Tourism, East Carolina University, “Legislative Perceptions of Sustainable Tourism: The Case of the North Carolina General Assembly.”
    • Stefanie Benjamin (MS, 2011, thesis), Sustainable Tourism, East Carolina University, “Lost in Mount Airy/Mayberry: The Importance of Tourist Profiles in Sustainable Tourism Planning.”
    • Ethan Bottone (PhD, 2020, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “The Green Book and a Black Sense of Movement: Black Mobilities and Motilities during the Jim Crow Era.”
    • Jordan Brasher (PhD, 2020, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “From South of the Mason-Dixon Line to South of the Equator: A Critical Exploration of the Transnational Contours of Confederate Memory.”
    • Luke Brice (MS, 2024, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee (co-advisor with Tracey Norrell), “Labor Trafficking on the Global Sporting Stage.”
    • Janna Caspersen (PhD, 2018, dissertation, Geography, University of Tennessee, “Crowdsourcing the Reputation of Martin Luther King: Twitter as a Place of Memory.”
    • Matt Cook (PhD, 2016, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Critical Historical Geographies of Slavery.”
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    • Jacob “Alex” Cooper (MS, 2020, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Making Orange Green? A Critical Geographic Approach to Carbon Footprinting Tennessee Football Tourism.”
    • Bethany Craig (MS, 2022, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Scars as Cartography: Bodily Commemoration and Memorials.”
    • Anna Eskridge (MA, 2007, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “The Politics of Anti-Kudzu Legislation in Missouri: An Analysis of Discourses and Material Practices Surrounding Exotics Eradication.”
    • Emily Frazier (PhD, 2019, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Providing Refuge: Faith-Based Resettlement and Refugee Integration in the USA” (co-advisor with Micheline van Riemsdijk, Uppsala University, Sweden).
    • Glenn Gentry (MA, 2004, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Walking with the Dead: An Analysis of Ghost Walk Tours in Savannah, Georgia.”
    • Justin Gross (MA, 2006, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Bridging the Festival Gap: Comparing Organizers’ Perceptions of Visitors to a Survey of Visitors to the Carolina Renaissance Festival, 2005.”
    • Hannah Gunderman (PhD, 2018, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Popular Geopolitics, Empathy, and Cultural-Media Geographies in Doctor Who Fandom.”
    • Laura Heavner (MA, 2006, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “The Power of Photography: Gender and Racial/Ethnic Images in North Carolina Tourism Brochures.”
    • Allison Hueber (MA, 2011, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Analyzing Resident Place Satisfaction in a Tourist Destination through Auto-Photography: The Case of Southern Shores.”
    • Richard Kennedy (MA, 2013, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Automobility, Hospitality African American Tourism, and Mapping Victor H. Green’s Negro Motorist Green Book.”
    • Jennifer Mann (MA, 2010, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “The Coast as a Vernacular Region.”
    • Suzanne McArdle (MA, 2008, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: The Myspace Lesbian and Her Material Social World.”
    • Arnold Modlin, Jr. (MA, 2008, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Back of the Plantation Museum: An Evaluation of the Representation of Slavery at North Carolina Historic Sites.’
    • Terri Moreau, (MA, 2008, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Can You Hear the Voices on the Walls? How Graffiti is known in Punitive and Tolerant Public Spaces.”
    • Christopher McPhilamy (MA, 2004, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “The Effect of Travel Patterns on Geographic Literacy: Using the World Wide Web to Survey U.S. College Students.”
    • L.J. Palmer-Maloney (PhD, 2012, dissertation), Coastal Resources Management, East Carolina University, “Human-Environment Interaction & Water Complexities: Mustering Science and Policy for a Coastal Resources Management Approach to Counterinsurgency Operations.”
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    • Micah Ortiz (MS, 2025, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Field of Forgotten Dreams: The Role of Memorial Myopia in Representing Black Baseball History in Birmingham, Alabama.”
    • Jennifer Ott (MS, 2025, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Campus Social Infrastructure for International Students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK).”
    • William Caleb Parker (MA, 2007, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “The Politics of Church Space: North Carolina’s United Methodist Clergy Respond to Homosexuality.”
    • Jeff Prince (MA, 2003, internship report), Geography, East Carolina University, “’Eat Mo’ Shad: An Analysis of Festival Making in Grifton, North Carolina.”
    • Tyler Sonnichsen (PhD, 2017, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Capitals of Punk: Paris, DC, and the Circulation of Urban Counter-narratives.”
    • James Tripp (MA, 2004, internship report), Geography, East Carolina University, “Flood Insurance and Hazard Mitigation: The Role of the Community Rating System.”
    • Yael Uziel (MS, 2021, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Messy Zoning and Studentification: The Case of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Tennessee.”
    • Emma Walcott-Wilson (PhD, 2019, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Tour guides as place-makers: Emotional labor, plantation aesthetics, and interpretations of slavery in South Carolina.”
    • Robert Walker (MS, 2019, non-thesis project), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Defining the Temporal and Geospatial Boundaries of the Great African American Migration in the United States.”
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    • Heather Ward (PhD, 2010, dissertation), Coastal Resources Management, East Carolina University, “Creating the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument: The Pivotal Role of Media Geography and Policy Entrepreneurs.”
    • Matt Watterson (MA, 2010, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Evaluating the Sustainability of Heritage Tourism and Historic Preservation in New Bern, North Carolina.”
    • Reagan Yessler (MS, 2021, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Social Inequity in Memories of Shakespeare: The Fetishizing Power of the Globe Theatre”
    • Jihwan Yoon (PhD, 2017, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “The Korean Comfort Women Commemoration Campaign”: The Role of Intersectionality, Symbolic Places, and Transnational Circulation in Politics of Memory and Human Rights.”
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In progress

      • Seth Kannarr (PhD), Geography, University of Tennessee
      • Katrina Stack (PhD), Geography, University of Tennessee

Graduate Student Advisory Committee Member for:

    • Christopher Acuff (PhD, 2017, dissertation), Political Science, University of Tennessee, “Beyond the City-County Divide: Race, Referenda, and Representation in Consolidated Governments.”
    • Sam Bowden Akbari (PhD, 2023, dissertation), Geography, Rutgers University, “’Symbols and Systems!’: Exploring the Politics of Urban Fallism in the U.S, South.”
    • Michaelina Antahades (MS, 2011, non-thesis project), Sustainable Tourism, East Carolina University, “Racial Images in State Travel Guides: A Study of the Carolinas.”
    • Rosemary Ayelazuno (MS, 2023, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Examining housing experiences among International Students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK).”
    • Andy Baker (PhD, 2013, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “IndyCar Races and the Marketing of Places: A Geographic and Marketing Exploration of IndyCar Racing in the United States.”
    • Melanie Barron (PhD, 2016, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Remediating a Toxic Town: Power, Place, and Justice in Anniston, Alabama.”
    • Scott Basford (MS, 2014, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “International Student Migration for Development: An Institutional Approach to the Norwegian Quota Scheme.”
    • Stefanie Benjamin (PhD, 2015, dissertation), Educational Foundations and Inquiry, University of South Carolina, “Telling a different narrative: Exploring the values and challenges of performing enslaved community members’ stories at US southern plantation museums”
    • Robert Best (MA, 2005, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “The Spatial Politics of Gerrymandering.”
    • Mary Biggs (PhD, 2023, dissertation), Geography, UNC-Chapel Hill, “Playing in a Painful Past: Challenges and Opportunities of Interpreting Slavery in Leisure Landscapes at Plantation Museums”
    • Matt Blaylock (PhD, 2017, dissertation), History, University of Tennessee“Appalachian Aristocrats: How Tourists, Elites, and Mountaineers Created a New Western North Carolina, 1880-1920.”
    • Ruth Bowling (MS, 2014, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “The Antagonist Art Movement: Creating Community through Art Spaces.”
    • Justin Briggs (MA, 2010, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Locational Aspects of Adaptive Reuse: The Case of North Carolina Textile Mills.”
    • Daniel Brock (PhD, 2022, dissertation), Anthropology, University of Tennessee, “An Archaeological Study of Pit Cellars and Identity in Tennessee.”
    • Charles Brown, Jr. (MA, 2004, thesis), Recreation & Leisure Studies, East Carolina University, “Customer Satisfaction Based on Perceived Value of Stay at a Premiere Golf Resort.”
    • Rachel Campbell (MA, 2008, internship), Geography, East Carolina University, “The Design of a Postal Code System for Trinidad and Tobago.”
    • Patia M. Connell (MS, 2010, thesis), Biology, East Carolina University, “Predator out of Place: The Differential Impacts of Native and Non-Native Crayfish on Bufo Tadpoles.”
    • Neil Conner (PhD, 2015, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Contested Notions of Irishness: Social integration and the multiple intersections of ethno-racial, religious, and national identities in Dublin, Ireland.”
    • Shaundra Cunningham (PhD, 2022, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Sermon Geographies: Black People as Spiritual Cartographers in South Carolina.”
    • Heather Davis (PhD, 2022, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Genealogy Tells: Using Older Women’s Experiences of Gendered Health Inequity and Familial Mortality to Inform Health and Aging Policies Across East Tennessee.”
    • Michael Edwards (MA, 2006, thesis), Exercise and Sports Science, East Carolina University, “NASCAR as Postmodern Sport.”
    • Valerie Grussing (Ph.D., 2009, dissertation), Coastal Resources Management Program, East Carolina University, “Reanimating the Graveyard: Heritage Tourism Development of North Carolina Shipwrecks.”
    • Sean Hawley (MA, 2009, internship), Geography, East Carolina University, “Greenville Utilities Commission: GIS Training Plan, 2009.”
    • Bradley Hinger (MS, 2018, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Racism unwritten: the materiality of memory and ‘Southering’ beyond the text.”
    • Joshua Hodge (PhD, 2019, dissertation), History, University of Tennessee, “Alabama’s Public Wilderness: Reconstruction, Natural Resources, and the End of the Southern Commons.”
    • Lavinia Horner (PhD, 2018, dissertation), Modern Foreign Languages & Literatures, University of Tennessee, “Cultural Heritage Superimposition in the Novels of Emmanuel Robles and Maissa Bey.”
    • José Izquierdo (MS, 2014, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Belgian Identity Politics: At a Crossroad between Nationalism and Regionalism.”
    • Devyn Kelly (MS, 2023, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee. “Knoxville is Home Because I Have Made it That Way”: Drag Family and the Politics of Joy in Knoxville, Tennessee.
    • Alicia Laffoon (PhD, 2017, dissertation), Elementary Education, University of Tennessee, “Elementary Pre-service Teachers’ Attitudes toward Digitized Visual Primary Sources in Social Studies.”
    • Elin Langholm (MA, 2002, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Ecotourism in Dominica.”
    • Rhiannon Leebrick (PhD, 2015, dissertation), Sociology, University of Tennessee, “Environmental Gentrification and Development in a Rural Appalachian Community: Blending Critical Theory and Ethnography.”
    • Russ Lewis (Ph.D., 2009, dissertation), Coastal Resources Management, east Carolina University, “Towards Defining a Coast: Delineating the North Carolina Coast through Policy, Cultural, and Scientific Perspectives.”
    • Gavin Malone (PhD, 2012, dissertation), School of Environment, Flinders University (Australia), “Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in  Adelaide, South Australia.”
    • Marvin N. McFadyen (MA, 2002, internship report), Geography, East Carolina University, “GIS and Local Elections Administration.”
    • Jessie Messina (MA, 2009, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “A Word Frequency Analysis of HIV/AIDS Policies in Four African Countries.”
    • Calvin Mires (PhD, 2014, dissertation), Coastal Resources Management, East Carolina University, “The Value of Maritime Archaeological Heritage: An Exploratory Study of the Cultural Capital of Shipwrecks of the Atlantic.”
    • Katherine Morris (PhD, 2016, dissertation), Sociology, University of Tennessee, “The Scruffy City: Development in Knoxville, TN.”
    • Alison Murray (MS, 2012, thesis), Sustainable Tourism, East Carolina University, “Factors Influencing Brand Loyalty to Craft Breweries in North Carolina.”
    • Shamaury Myrick (MA, 2006, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Legacy of Mistrust: The Challenges of Participatory Planning in West Greenville, North Carolina”
    • Jill Naar (MA, 2010, thesis), Recreation and Leisure Studies, East Carolina University, “International Tourism Later in life: Innovation Theory Related to Benefits Gained.”
    • Velvet Nelson (MA, 2003, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “Representation and Images of Ecotourism in Grenada.”
    • John Nichols (PhD, 2020, dissertation), English, University of Tennessee, “Bioregional Ethics in the Literature of the United States.”
    • Daniel Pizappi (PhD, 2022, dissertation), English, University of Tennessee, “Reading Pantemporality: The Present, Past, and Future of Slavery and Abolition in US Fiction Post-1945.”
    • Casey Price (PhD, 2025, dissertation), History, University of Tennessee, “Given to This Land: Mapping Settler Colonialism in Kituwah, 1682-1810.”
    • Joseph Roberts (MS, 2015, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Four Dimensional Approach to Center City Transformation: A Case Study of Knoxville, Tennessee, 1884-1950.”
    • Helen Rosko (MS, 2015, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Drinking and Remaking Place: A Study of the Impact of Commercial Moonshine in East Tennessee.”
    • Gwen Ruttencutter (PhD, 2018, dissertation), Educational Psychology & Research, University of Tennessee, “Getting Gritty with It: An Examination of Self-Directed Learning and Grit among Doctoral Students.”
    • Hope Smith (PhD, 2017, dissertation), Anthropology, University of Tennessee, “Adorned Identities: An Archaeological Perspective on Race and Self-Presentation in 18th-Century Virginia.”
    • Jeremy Smith (PhD, 2021, dissertation), Sociology, University of Tennessee, “The ‘Puppycide’ of Policing: How the Law Rationalizes the Police Killing of ‘Dangerous Dogs.”
    • Matthew Smith (PhD, 2017, dissertation), English, University of Tennessee, “Translating Chopin’s Parrot: Local Color Louisiana and the Limits of Literary Interpretation, 1865-1914.”
    • Hannah Soblo (PhD, 2022, dissertation), Rhetoric, Writing, and Linguistics, University of Tennessee, “Layering Landscapes: Linguistic Commodification and Semiotic Layering in United States’ Recreational Spaces.”
    • Brandon Story (PhD, 2019, dissertation) English, University of Tennessee. “Appalachian Modernism.”
    • Mimi Thomas (MS, 2018, thesis), Geography, University of Tennessee, “The Ever-Changing Role of the East Side Gallery: The Relationship between Memorialization and Urban Redevelopment.”
    • Lindy Westenhoff (PhD, dissertation, 2022), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Purpose in Place: Discerning and Forefronting Forgotten Landscapes using the Methodological Lens of Augmented Reality.”
    • Melissa Wicks (MA, 2007, thesis), Geography, East Carolina University, “The Academic Aspirations of Foreign Born Latino Youth in Rural North Carolina.”
    • Whit Winslow (MS, 2012, thesis), Sustainable Tourism, East Carolina University, “How Do You Fly…Fish: Environmental Behavior, Travel, and Sport Involvement of Fly Fishers in North Carolina.”
    • Yessler, Reagan (PhD, 2024, dissertation), Geography, University of Tennessee, “Cosplay, Community, and Queerness in Cosplay Spaces of Tennessee.”
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In progress

  • Brian Boyce (PhD), Geography, University of Tennessee
  • Tatianna Griffin (PhD), Anthropology, University of Tennessee
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COURSES TAUGHT

Introductory level

  • Geography of Recreation: Cultural Geography of Leisure (East Carolina Univ.)
  • Global Issues and Society (Georgia College & State University)
  • Introduction to Geography (Georgia College & State University, East Carolina University)
  • Introduction to Human Geography (University of Georgia, University of Tennessee)
  • Peoples, Places, and Environments (East Carolina University)
  • Power of Place (Honors Course) (East Carolina University)
  • Resources, Society, and the Environment (University of Georgia)
  • World Regional Geography (Georgia Southern University)
  • World Geography, Developed Regions (East Carolina University)

Upper-division, undergraduate

  • Cultural Geography (Georgia Southern University, Georgia College & State University)
  • Geographic Images (East Carolina Univ.)
  • Geographies of American Popular Culture (University of Tennessee)
  • Geography of American South (Georgia Southern University)
  • Geography of Tourism (East Carolina Univ.)
  • Historical Geography of the United States (East Carolina Univ.)
  • Maps, Society, and Power (University of Tennessee)
  • Political Geography (Georgia College & State University)
  • Practicing Geography (University of Tennessee)
  • Sothern Spaces and Places (University of Tennessee)
  • Urban Geography (Georgia Southern University)

 Graduate level

  • Advanced Geographic Images (East Carolina University)
  • Cultural Geography (Georgia Southern University, Georgia College & State University)
  • Geography of American South (Georgia Southern University)
  • Introduction to Geographical Research & Professional Development (University of Tennessee)
  • Political Geography (Georgia College & State University)
  • Seminar in Cultural Geography (East Carolina University)
  • Seminar in Geography of American South (University of Tennessee)
  • Seminar in the Geography of Heritage (East Carolina University
  • Seminar in Maps, Society, and Power (University of Tennessee)
  • Seminar in Places of Memory (University of Tennessee)
  • Seminar in Public Memory (University of Tennessee)
  • Seminar in Race and Public Memory (University of Tennessee)
  • Seminar in Tourism Geographies (University of Tennessee)
  • Topics in Qualitative Methods (University of Tennessee)
  • Topics in Cultural Geography (University of Tennessee)
  • Tourism Development (East Carolina University)
  • Urban Geography (Georgia Southern University)

 

 

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