BobOliver

Robert Oliver, Assistant Professor, Office: 103 Major Williams

Phone: 540-231-5523
At Virginia Tech Since: August 2007
Education: PhD (Queen's University, Canada, 2008)

Email: oliverr@vt.edu

 

  • Research Interests:

    The Geography of the Modern City; The Politicization of Urban Public Space; Social & Cultural Geography; Urban-Political Geography Qualitative Methods; Geography of North America.

    I am currently working on a grant from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) [see http://www.olympic.org/olympic-studies-centre?articleid=112831 ]. Entitled, “Toronto’s Olympic Ambitions: An Investigation of the Olympic Bidding Legacy in one Modern City” this research investigates how various interest groups in Toronto have used bids for the Olympic Games as an occasion to redefine the vision for the city’s waterfront.  

    Put simply, my research focuses on the politics of urban public space. Questions concerning the formation of public policy, the production of social space, waterfront development and the symbolic utility of sport are at the forefront of my work.

  • Teaching:

    Philosophy
    In all the courses that I instruct my goal is to offer students an invitation to participate in an intellectual conversation. I encourage all participants to become actively involved in lectures and strive to help students imagine themselves as knowledgeable actors. We would be well served to remind ourselves that as geographers often our first understanding of space begins with the space of experience. I try to offer students opportunities for critical self-reflection on individual experience and I aim to show students that their opinions and judgment matter while challenging them to think about alternative viewpoints/arrangements.

    Recent Courses
    GEOG 4984: Public Space in the Modern City
    GEOG 4984/5984: Urban Sustainability
    GEOG 3244: The U.S. City
    GEOG-1004 Intro Human Geography
    GEOG 2984: Geography of North America
    GEOG-4984 SS: Sport, Space & Society

  • Recent publications:

    Articles
    Oliver, R. 2011. "Toronto's Olympic Aspirations: A bid for the Waterfront." Urban Geography. Vol. 32, 6, pp. 767–787.

    Book Reviews
    Oliver, Robert. 2011. Begging as a Path to Progress: Indigenous Women and Children and the Struggle for Ecuador's Urban Spaces (review). Journal of Latin American Geography, Volume 10, Number 1, pp. 207-209 (Review).

    Oliver, Robert. 2010. Heterotopia and the City: Public Space in a Postcivil Society edited by Michiel Dehaene and Lieven De Cauter (review). Journal of Regional Science. Vol. 50(4), pp. 905-906. (Review)