Rate My Professor Christine Drennon

Christine Drennon is an associate professor of sociology and anthropology and director of the Urban Studies program at Trinity University, joining the faculty in 2002. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.A. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a B.S. in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Drennon's academic interests center on urban geography and community development, particularly examining San Antonio's inner-city neighborhoods, the interplay of housing, education, and community development, and patterns of economic segregation and inequity in the city. She has served as research director for the City's Promise Neighborhood Planning Grant and Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant, as well as the Choice Neighborhood Implementation project.

In her scholarship, Drennon has published several key works, including "Social Relations Spatially Fixed: Construction and Maintenance of the School Districts of San Antonio" in Geographical Review (2006), "Teaching Geographic Information Systems in a Problem-based Learning Environment" in Journal of Geography in Higher Education (2005), "The Sanctity of Balkan Borders: The Map-Making and Map-Using process Following World War I" in Hagar: International Social Science Review (2003), and "Finding Order on the Balkan Peninsula" in Geographical Review (2002). She received the 2014 Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar Award from the Urban Affairs Association and SAGE Publications, recognizing her scholarship and commitment to urban community issues, and delivered the plenary address at the association's national conference in San Antonio. Drennon's research has contributed to policy changes, such as San Antonio's adoption of an equity-based budget, one of the first among large U.S. cities, and she advocated for the Promise Implementation Grant transforming the Eastside neighborhood. She teaches courses like The Urban Experience, Geographic Information Systems, Urban Geography, Issues in Community Development, and Urban Education, involving students in hands-on urban research projects across San Antonio. Additionally, she engages in community outreach through collaborations with local agencies and school districts and serves as a university thought leader in public discussions on urban inequalities.