Rate My Professor Timothy Anderson

Timothy Anderson is an Associate Professor of Geography at Ohio University, where he has held his position since August 1996. Prior to this, he served as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Earth Sciences department at Ohio University from August 1995 to May 1996. With a Ph.D. in Geography, Anderson is recognized as a historical geographer whose research focuses on settlement geography and regional cultural identities in the United States. His work also examines the production of cultural landscapes associated with Germanic diasporas in North America and Europe. Anderson is affiliated with the Contemporary History Institute at Ohio University.

Anderson's contributions to the field include editing the volume Settling Ohio: First Peoples and Beyond, published by Ohio University Press in 2022. This work explores the diverse settlement histories of Ohio, from Indigenous peoples through various ethnic groups to the Civil War era, integrating perspectives from geography, history, and genealogy. The book was selected as one of the Library of Congress Great Reads. He has received funding from the Ohio University Baker Fund for research on German Catholic settlement patterns and Ohio University Research Council grants. In 2013-2014, Anderson served as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in Physical Sciences at the University of the West Timisoara, Romania, during which he wrote dispatches on regional cultural dynamics. Anderson has advised numerous master's theses in Geography, covering topics such as small-scale gold mining and livelihood vulnerability in Ghana (2020), gendered perspectives on flood risk in urban Kenya (recent), and cultural landscapes. He co-organized the Settling Ohio conference and has delivered public lectures, including 'Settling Ohio in the Early Republic: A Genealogical Geography' at the Lyceum Luncheon Series in 2024 and discussions at Science Café events on the same theme with historian Brian Schoen. His methodological approach combines genealogical research with spatial analysis to illuminate ethnic settlement patterns, such as Pennsylvania migrants in Ohio circa 1850 and diverse groups along the Miami and Erie Canal.