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]

Selected Publications (See Curriculum Vitæ for full list)

Paul F. Starrs, Let the Cowboy Ride — Cattle Ranching in the American West, (Baltimore,
Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press) [Creating North American Landscapes,
Center for American Places], 1998.

Paul F. Starrs, Heather Van Wormer, and Jeanne Harrah. Downtown Reno and the Railroad,
Report to the Surface Transportation Board, Section for Environmental Analysis;
“Historical Development and Growth of Downtown Reno Project,” 1997; 44 pages.

Paul F. Starrs, David R. Stoddart, and Phil Hoehn, San Francisco Bay: Its History &
Development in Maps, Catalogue to an Exhibition in the University of California Library,
Association of Pacific Coast Geographers; 1993.

Paul F. Starrs, “The Barn Where It Belongs,” IN Sagebrush Vernacular: Rural Architecture in
Nevada, edited by Stephen R. Davis, 20–26. Reno: Nevada Humanities Committee;
2003.

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, “Perspectives on Cultural Values of California Oaks,” Oaks in California’s
Changing Landscape: Proceedings of the Fifth Oak Symposium, edited by Richard Standiford ,
Douglas McCreary, and Kathryn L. Purcell, General Technical Report, PSW-GTR-184,
(Albany, California: IHRMP / University of California, and Pacific Southwest Research
Station, USDA Forest Service, 2002), pp. 21–30. (Dual format: proceedings CD–ROM and
printed volume, 2002).

Pablo Campos Palacín, Richard Standiford, Lynn Huntsinger, David Martin-Barroso,
Pedro Mariscal-Lorente, and Paul F. Starrs, “Working Woodlands: Public Demand,
Owner Management, and Government Intervention in Conserving Mediterranean
Ranches and Dehesas,” Oaks in California’s Changing Landscape: Proceedings of the Fifth
Oak Symposium, edited by Richard Standiford , Douglas McCreary, and Kathryn L.
Purcell, General Technical Report, PSW-GTR-184, (Albany, California: IHRMP / University
of California, and Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 2002), pp.
511–528. (Dual format: proceedings CD–ROM and printed volume, 2002).

Paul F. Starrs, “Grazing Western American Public Land as the Wild’s Saving Grace,”
Seminario Beneficios Comerciales y Ambientales de la Repoblación del Arbolado del Monte
Mediterráneo, edited by Pablo Campos Palacín and Gregorio Montero González, Volume
I, pp. 164–170. Consejo Superior de Investigaciónes Científicas, Instituto de Economía y
Geografia, Centro de Investigación Forestal, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y
Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria; Madrid, Spain, 2001.