Associate Professor
Population, GIS, rural geography, and migration

barcus@macalester.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Holly Barcus is a broadly trained population geographer teaching introductory and advanced GIS classes as well as a population geography course. While the focus of the population course is on understanding and critically assessing global, national and local population trends and issues, the GIS courses takes a more applied approach by challenging students to consider problem-solving strategies that embrace an explicitly spatial perspective.

Her research interests fall at the intersection of population and GIS. Barcus is specifically interested in the patterns and processes of change occurring in rural communities and the resulting migration, service provision, and housing dilemmas.

Her recent research projects focus on the changing racial and ethnic composition of rural places and the implications for rural population growth, planning and development. One of the primary analytical and mapping tools that Barcus uses in her research is a Geographic Information System; an invaluable tool for assessing spatial patterns and evaluating the underlying processes and factors that influence change at multiple scales.

In 2004, Holly Barcus and Cynthia Werner initiated a project in the western aimag of Bayan-Ulgii Mongolia to better understand the on-going migration of Mongolia Kazakhs between Mongolia and Kazakhstan during the transition period between 1991 and 2010. For information about the project, photos, publications and more, see the website, The Mongolian Kazakh Diaspora.

SELECTED WORKS OF HOLLY BARCUS in the Macalester Digital Commons

PAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE IN THE MACALESTER DIGITAL COMMONS:

Transformation of China's Landscape: Assessing the Multiple Scales of Change in Shanghai, Beijing, and along the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River
Author: Holly R. Barcus
Publication: Macalester International
Date: 2007

Courses

• GEOG 225: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
• GEOG 254: Geography of World Population Issues
• GEOG 364: Geographic Information Systems: Concepts & Applications
• GEOG 370:  Rural Landscapes and Livelihoods
• GEOG 488: Migrants, Migration & the Global Landscape of Population Change