Department of Geography - Dr. Paul F. Starrs

Dr. Paul F. Starrs

University of Nevada, Reno Mail Stop 154
Department of Geography, Mackay Science
Reno, NV 89557
775 784-6930 (office)
775 784-6995 (department office)
775 784-1058 (fax)
email: starrs@unr.edu
Curriculum Vitæ

Research Statement
Professor Paul Starrs teaches cultural and historical geography at the University of Nevada, in Reno, where he works on a variety of topics associated with the geography of the so-called "New West." His first book, Let the Cowboy Ride, was published by John Hopkins University Press in 1998. He has published some 90 articles, book chapters, and reviews on topics that include cyberspace, everyday landscapes, migration and the evolution of the Great Basin , urban geography, and a suite of resource-based issues. He also does research on the woodlands and people of Mediterranean Europe, and available soon will be a book cowritten with his Nevada colleague, the photographer Peter Goin, on the Black Rock country of northwestern Nevada , home to the annual Burning Man event. He is currently engaged with several additional book-length projects. Though city born and raised, Paul maintains an enduring affection for the West's many rural places.

Research Areas of Interest
Cultural and historical geography, the American West, graphic representation, regional geography, natural resources and population

Professional Preparation
University of California at Berkeley PhD 1989 Geography
University of California at Berkeley M.A. 1984 Geography
University of California at San Diego B.A. 1980 Special Studies: Utopian Communities
Deep Springs College, California 1975–1977

Courses Taught
Introduction to Cultural Geography, Research Methods, Geographic Thought, Historical Geography, The American West, Nevada, Cartography, Advanced Cartography, Seminar in Cultural Geography, Geography & Film, Europe, North America [undergraduate courses]
Field Methods, Historical Geography, Cultural Geography (graduate), Cartography & Graphic Representation, History and Nature of Geography [graduate courses]

Career Recognition / Award

Foundation Professorship, 2007, title & award, Foundation Professor of Geography.
CASE–Carnegie Foundation Nevada Professor of the Year, 2005, National award for teaching excellence.
Regents Teaching Award, 2004; (Nevada System of Higher Education) system-wide award for excellence in teaching.
F. Donald Tibbitts University Outstanding Teacher Award, University of Nevada, University of Nevada, Reno, 2000–2001.
Mousel-Feltner Award for Outstanding Research, Recipient of College of Arts & Science outstanding researcher award, University of Nevada, Reno, 1998–1999.
Alan Bible Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Arts & Science, University of Nevada, Reno, 1997–1998.
Fulbright Scholar, Senior Fulbright Scholar: Quincentenary Postdoctoral Researcher in Spain.

Selected Publications --- Books(See Curriculum Vitæ for full list)

Peter Goin and Paul F. Starrs, Black Rock (Reno: University of Nevada Press; 2005). (Awarded 2006 “IPPY” as Best Regional Non-Fiction in Independent Publisher Book Awards; also, Outstanding Trade Illustrated Book, 2006, Association of American University Presses.)
Paul F. Starrs, Let the Cowboy Ride — Cattle Ranching in the American West, (Baltimore, Md: The Johns Hopkins University Press) [Creating North American Landscapes, Center
Publications — articles, essays, chapters, &c
Paul F. Starrs, “The Short, Short, Story of Nevada’s Missing Mexicans,” Association of American Geographers Newsletter, December 2008, 43 (11): 6-7.
Paul F. Starrs and Gary J. Hausladen, “Vegas in Film,” Association of American Geographers Newsletter, November 2008, 43 (10): 1, 6-7. Paul F. Starrs, “On Learning to Love Landscape” [Review Article], Journal of Historical Geography, 34 (3): 363–370, 2008.
Paul F. Starrs, “Picturing California & The West: The ‘Competent Vaquero,’ Ed Borein,” In Coloring the West: Watercolors and Oils by Edward Borein, pp. 5–23 (Santa Barbara, California: Santa Barbara Historical Museum Diamond Jubilee, 2007). [Excerpt published as “Ed Borein: Picturing California and the West,” in American Art Review, November-December 2007, 19 (6): 90–97, 167.
Paul F. Starrs, “When the Dozers Came, Only Music Was Left: Ry Cooder on Chávez Ravine,” [Geographical Review Essay], Geographical Review, 97 (3): 404–417, 2007.
Paul F. Starrs, “Words Meet Deeds on the Land,” in Home Land: Ranching and a West That Works, edited by Rick Knight and Laura Pritchett, pp. 134–146, [Denver, Colorado: Johnson Books and the Rocky Mountain Land Library], 2007.
Lynn Huntsinger and Paul F. Starrs, “Grazing in Arid North America: A Biogeographical Approach,” (thematic issue, guest edited by H.N. Le Houérou, Parcours et producíon animale en zone aride: etat des connaissance en 2006), Sécheresse, Vol. 17, Nos. 1-2, 219–233, 2006. Paul F. Starrs, “Why We Write Poetry about Cowboys . . . ,” The 22nd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, The Western Folklife Center, Elko, Nevada, Jan. 28 to Feb. 4, 2006, pp. 10–13, Jan. 2006; also streaming audio at http://cybercast.westernfolklife.org/2006/
Paul F. Starrs, “El Pensamiento Evolucionista de Sauer, Glacken y Parsons en la escuela de geografía de Berkeley: Fe en la diversidad y escepticismo sobre la globalización, La incidencia de la especie humana sobre la faz de la tierra (1955–2005), edited by José Manuel Naredo and Luis Gutiérrez; pp. 137–182 (Granada, Spain: Editorial Universidad de Granada and Fundación César Manrique); 2006.
Gary J. Hausladen and Paul F. Starrs, “L.A. Noir,” Journal of Cultural Geography, Fall 2005, 23 (1): 43–69.
Paul F. Starrs and John B. Wright, “Utopia, Dystopia, and Montana’s Church Universal and Triumphant,” Geographical Review, Jan. 2005, Vol. 95 (1): 97–121.
Jonathan London, Paul F. Starrs, and Louise P. Fortmann. “Power Plants and Forest Plans: Two Decades of Mobilization in a Mountain Forest Community,” in: Community and Forestry: Where People Meet the Land, edited by Robert G. Lee, Donald R. Field, Chapter 7, pp. 116–137 (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press; 2005).
Paul F. Starrs, “An Inescapable Range, or the Ranch as Everywhere,” in Western Places, American Myths, edited by Gary Hausladen, pp. 57–84 (Reno: University of Nevada Press; 2003).
Paul F. Starrs, “Ranching: An Old Way of Life in the New West,” in Ranching West of the 100th Meridian: Culture, Ecology, and Economics, edited by Richard L. Knight, Wendell C. Gilbert, and Ed Marston, (Covelo, Calif., and Washington, D.C.: Island Press; 2002), pp. 3–23.
Paul F. Starrs, with Carlin F. Starrs, Genoa I. Starrs, and Lynn Huntsinger, “Fieldwork… With Family,” Geographical Review, January–April 2001, Vol. 91, Nos 1 & 2, pp. 74–86.
Paul F. Starrs, “The Millenial Hawaiian Paniolo” Rangelands, October 2000, Vol. 22, No. 5, pp. 24–28.
Paul F. Starrs, “Region, Reveries, and Reverence,” Yearbook of the Association of Paciﬁc Coast Geographers, 1999, Volume 61, pp. 193–207.
Paul F. Starrs and Lynn Huntsinger, “The Cowboy & Buckaroo in American Ranch Hand Styles,” Rangelands, October 1998, Vol. 20, No. 5, pp. 36–40.
Paul F. Starrs, “Work in the Sierra Nevada — Picturing Productivity,” in From Exploration to Conservation: Picturing the Sierra Nevada, pp. 49–68 (Reno: Nevada Museum of Art and The Wilderness Society, 1998).
Paul F. Starrs, “Connecting the Continent: Esmeralda County, Nevada, and the Atlantic and Paciﬁc Railroad Survey of 1853,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Fall 1997, Vol. 40, No. 3, 232–252.
Paul F. Starrs, “The Sacred, the Regional, and the Digital,” Geographical Review, April 1997, Vol. 87, No. 2, pp. 193–224.
Paul F. Starrs, “The Public as Agents of Policy in the Sierra Nevada of California and Nevada,” Chapter 6, Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress, Volume II, Assessments and Scientific Basis for Management Options, Davis: University of California, Centers for Water and Wildland Resources; October 1996, pp. 125–144.
Paul F. Starrs, “The Nature of the Present-Day American West,” in: The Changing American Countryside: Past, Present, and Future — National Rural Studies Committee, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, College Park, Maryland; Western Rural Development Center, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, April 1996, pp. 107–114.
Paul F. Starrs and Lynn Huntsinger, “The Matrix, Cyberpunk Literature, and the Apocalyptic Landscapes of Information Technology,” Information Technology and Libraries [Chicago, Illinois], December 1995, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 251-257.
Paul F. Starrs and John B. Wright, Jr., “Great Basin Growth & the Withering of California’s Paciﬁc Idyll,” Geographical Review, [New York: American Geographical Society), October 1995, Vol. 85, No. 4; pp. 224–244.

Graduate Student Theses / Dissertations Supervised

Wheeler, Candace. The Comstock Cemeteries: Changing Landscapes of Death. MS Geography, 2008, 187 pages.

Grace, Pamela Lynne Lewiston. Cathouses on a Hot Tin Roof? Legal Prostitution and Urban Growth in Washoe and Storey Counties, Nevada. MS Land Use Planning Policy, 2008, 104 pages.

Clarke Munnerlyn, Stacey. Sweet Prospects: Organic Ice Cream in the Sierra Nevada Foothills, MS Geography, 2007, 108 pages.

Gushue, Stephen. From Eden to an Endless Subdivision: Cultural Explorations into the Emerging Coyote Springs Landscape, MS Geography, 2007, 129 pages.
Lohry, Jerome L. The View from Here: The 1841 Bidwell-Bartelson Party Perception of the Emigrant Trail, MS Geography, 2007, 122 pages, UMI-AAT 1442851.

Jimenez, Ethan E. Good Phở Business: A Socio-Spatial Analysis of Reno, Nevada’s Vietnamese Community, MS Geography, 2007, 118 pages, UMI-AAT 1442873.

Ferranto, Shasta. Conservation of Mule Deer in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. MS, Geography, 2006, 165 pages. UMI-AAT 1438913

Barron, Patrick. Between Lama dei Peligni and Colledimacine: A Regional Geography (of Boundaries) of the Majella Massif and Aventino Valley, Abruzzo, Italy. MS, Geography, 2004, 363 pages. UMI-AAT 1423374

Hall, Stephen L. Utah in Nevada: Expected and Abberant Landscapes in the Mormon Village of Panaca, Nevada. MS, Geography, 2004, 150 pages. UMI-AAT 1425294

MacDonald, Kristin Selinder. Hollywood North: An Examination of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, as a Surrogate Place in United States Location Filmmaking. MS, Geography, 2003, 115 pages. UMI-AAT 1414438

Gillis, Christopher Allan. Landscapes along the Road: A View of Historical Geography along US 395. MS, Geography, 2002, 115 pages. UMI-AAT 1410227

Baines, Elizabeth Anne. Mortality and Migration: A Study of the Comstock Lode. MS, Geography, 2000, 70 pages. UMI-AAT 1402348

Fielder, Aaron Franklin. Unsettling of the West: The Demise of Cities in Washoe County, Nevada, 1845–1945. MS, Land Use Planning Policy, 2000, 463 pages. UMI-AAT 1402335

Friedsam, Barbara L. Running Wild: Moab, Utah, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. MS, Geography, 1999, 139 pages. UMI-AAT 1398537

Hennecke, Cynthia. Downstream Water Quality Standards and Upstream Discharges under the Clean Water Act. MS, Geography, 1998, 115 pages. UMI-AAT 1389861

Hess, Ronald H. Procedure to Update Transportation Map of the Bedell Flat, Nevada, Quadrangle from High-Resolution Satellite Imagery. MS, Geography, 1998, 50 pages. UMI-AAT 1393052.