Rate My Professor Kenneth Madsen

Kenneth D. Madsen is a Professor of Geography at The Ohio State University Newark campus in the Department of Geography. He earned his Ph.D. in Geography from Arizona State University in 2005, an M.A. in Geography from Arizona State University in 1999, and a B.A. in International Studies from Graceland College in 1989. His academic career includes serving as Assistant Professor of Geography at Ohio State University Newark from 2008 to 2016, followed by promotion to Associate Professor in 2016, and subsequently to full Professor. Prior to Ohio State, he worked at Tohono O’odham Community College as Instructor from 2006 to 2008, Coordinator of Distance Education in 2005-2006, and Research Analyst in 2004. Earlier roles include Study Abroad/International Student Advisor at The University of Texas at Arlington from 1990 to 1997.

Professor Madsen's research centers on political and cultural geography, borders and bordering processes, border barriers and walls, the effects of border law enforcement on Arizona border communities especially the Tohono O’odham Nation, indigenous sovereignty, immigration controls, legal mechanisms for border construction, indigenous-academic interactions, and geographic processes in film and fiction. Notable publications include "Institutionalising the Exception: Homeland Security Section 102(c) Waivers and the Construction of Border Barriers" in Geopolitics (2022), "Terminus Unleashed: Divine Antecedents of Contemporary Borders" in Journal of Borderlands Studies (2021), "Iconographic Landscapes of Borders and Immigration Controls" in The Routledge Companion to the American Landscape (2023), "The alignment of local borders" in Territory, Politics, Governance (2014), "Barriers of the US-Mexico border as landscapes of domestic political compromise" in cultural geographies (2011), and "Local impacts of the balloon effect of border law enforcement" in Geopolitics (2007). He has earned awards including the Service Award from Ohio State Newark (2015, pre-tenure category), Scholarly Accomplishment Award (2012, pre-tenure category), Multi-Cultural Affairs Faculty/Staff Awards (2010, 2009), and Common Good Awards from Tohono O’odham Community College (2008, 2007). Madsen teaches courses such as GEOG 3600: Space, Power and Political Geography, GEOG 2750: World Regional Geography, and participates in the Ohio Prison Education Exchange Project, delivering Inside-Out courses. He serves on graduate committees in Geography and is a Board of Directors member for the Association for Borderlands Studies (2024-2027).