Rate My Professor Ethan Bottone

Dr. Ethan Bottone serves as Associate Professor of Geography and Assistant Chair in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Northwest Missouri State University, having joined the institution in 2020. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, an M.S. in Geography from Ohio University, and a B.A. in Geography/Biology from the University of Mary Washington. In his role, he teaches courses including People and Culture of the World, Global Sustainability, American Landscapes, Environmental Justice, Cities & Urban Design, and advises students in geography-related programs such as majors in Geography and Geographic Information Science, as well as the Minor in Sustainability.

Bottone is a broadly trained geographer whose research centers on the intersection of critical studies, tourism, and sustainability. His primary research line explores landscapes and mobility networks of the Green Book, a Jim Crow-era travel guide for Black travelers, with particular emphasis on tourist homes as forms of resistant hospitality against institutional white supremacy. Additional interests encompass critical tourism and memory, including dark tourism spaces associated with the RMS Titanic, minor league baseball mascots, and interstate visitor centers. Key peer-reviewed publications include “Your Home – Away From Home: Tourist Homes and Hospitality as Resistance” in Tourism Geographies (2023), “Jim Crow Journey Stories: African American Driving as Emotional Labor” in Tourism Geographies (2022, co-authored), “On Doing Justice to Black Mobility and Movement in the Classroom” in The Geography Teacher (2024, co-authored), “Beyond Accessibility: Exploring the Representation of People with Disabilities in Tourism Promotional Materials” in Journal of Sustainable Tourism (2021, co-authored), and “The Mapping Behind the Movement: On Recovering the Critical Cartographies of the African American Freedom Struggle” in Geoforum (2021, co-authored). Book chapters feature “Atmospheric Instability in Dark Tourism: Spatial Construction of Conflicting Affective Atmospheres at the Titanic Museum & Attraction” (2025) and “Please Mention the Green Book: The Negro Motorist Green Book as Critical GIS” (2020). He contributes as Co-Editor for Material Culture of the Pioneer America Society and has delivered public lectures such as “Contesting Memory through Space: The Potawatomi Trail of Death.” In March 2026, he was promoted to associate professor.