Education

• Ph.D. (Geography), McMaster University, 2003
• M.A. (Geography and Planning), The University of Toledo, 1997
• B.A. (Hons) (Geography and Resource Development), University of Ghana, 1991

Teaching

I joined the Department of Geography at Marshall University in fall 2010 after graduating from McMaster University with a Ph.D. in 2003, and teaching a variety of physical geography, human geography, and land use planning courses at Central Michigan University from 2004 to 2009. Here at Marshall, my teaching responsibilities include Economic Geography, Urban Geography, Principles and Methods of Planning, Urban Land Use Planning, and Geographic Research.

Research

I have two main research interests. One is the broad determinants of urban land use behavior regarding residential, commercial, and industrial land use. I am particularly interested in planning, zoning, and subdivision regulation. My current work involves tracking the physical wellness of residential neighborhoods and examining the link between municipal code violations and the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of urban residents. Students can participate in my longitudinal studies of neighborhood physical wellness by becoming involved in the collection of periodic data on physical attributes of neighborhoods, and/or conducting the preliminary analysis of the data using basic descriptive statistics and GIS.

My second interest, the geography of health, has focused on understanding spatial variations in cardiovascular disease outcomes, particularly at the ecological level. I am also interested in studying the public health implications of urban planning, and residential, commercial, and industrial land use.

Publication

Godwin Djietror and Joseph Inungu. 2008. Spatial patterns and covariates of heart disease death rates in Michigan, 1998-2004. The Internet Journal of Health. Volume 8 Number 1