Dr. Wendy Jepson

Research

I am a broadly trained geographer interested in human impacts on the environment (land and water resources), the political economy of environmental change, economic geography of new energy systems, sustainability, and environmental justice issues. I draw from a diverse analytical toolkit to study these topics, including integrating satellite remote sensing with socio-economic surveys, qualitative methods, archival research and field observation.

I am currently working on three major research projects: (1) expansion of modern agriculture and land conversion of the Brazilian Cerrado and the Amazon; (2) water security in colonias on the US-Mexico Border; and (3) economic geography of wind-energy sector.  In addition, I directly address policies and environmental governance as related to all three research projects.

Please see the ongoing research projects' pages if you are interested in joining the department as a graduate student.  I am actively recruiting new students every year, so please contact me if you are thinking about graduate studies in geography.

OPEN FOR APPLICATIONS - Graduate Research Assistantship for Water Security Project - Click here for information on how to apply.

Awards

• National Science Foundation, "Household water security in low income, rural and peri-urban communities in south Texas" (Geography and Spatial Science, 8/2009-1/2013)
• Wind Energy Initiative, "Socio-economic impacts of wind energy," subcontract with NextEra Energy Resources/TCU, with Christian Brannstrom (TAMU), 1/09-12/10
• Glasscock Stipendiary Fellowship, "On the Poverty of Water: Discourses of Water Scarcity and Poverty in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas," Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, Texas A&M University, 9/2008-9/2009
• Montague Scholar for the College of Geosciences, Center for Teaching Excellence, Texas A&M University (2006-2007)
• NSF IGERT: Applied Biodiversity Science: Bridging Ecology, Culture, and Governance for Effective Conservation (Fitzgerald and Stronza are PIs, Dr. Jepson serves as one of 15 Faculty participants and actively contributed to proposal development), 2007-2012
• Research Grant, Texas A&M University and CONACYT (Mexico), 2006-2007, for the project "An Integrated Assessment of Cross-Border Land and Water Use Changes in the Lower Rio Grande/Bravo Valley Since 1990" (with Christian Brannstrom, Casey Walsh and Gustavo Garza)
• Planning Grant, Mexican-American and Latino Research Center, Texas A&M University, 2006-2007
• Nystrom Dissertation Award, Finalist, Association of American Geographers, 2005

Selected Publications

• Jepson, W., Brannstrom, C., Filippi, A. (accepted). Access Regimes and Regional Land Change in the Brazilian Cerrado, 1972-2002.  Annals of the Association of American Geographers
• Millington, A., and Jepson, W., eds. (2008). Land Change Science in the Tropics Boston. Springer Publications.
• Jepson, W. and A. Millington, (2008) The Changing Countryside. In Millington, A. and Jepson, W. (eds.), Land Change Science in the Tropics. Springer Publications, Boston
• Jepson, W., Brown, J.C., and Koeppe, M. (2008). Agricultural Intensification on Brazil’s Soybean Frontier in Southern Rondônia. In Millington, A. and Jepson, W. (eds.), Land Change Science in the Tropics. Springer Publications, Boston.
• Jepson, W., Brannstrom, C., and Stancato, R. (2008). Brazilian Biotechnology Governance: Consensus and Conflict over Genetically Modified Crops. In Otero, G. (ed.), Food for the Few: Neoliberal Globalism and Biotechnology in Latin America. University of Texas Press, Austin, pp. 217-242.
• Brannstrom, C., Jepson, W., Filippi, A., Xu, X., and Redo, D. (2008). Land Change in the Brazilian Savanna (Cerrado), 1986-2002: Comparative Analysis and Implications for Land-Use Policy. Land Use Policy 25(4): 455-608
  
• Brown, J. C., Jepson, W.,  Lomas, J.,  Kastens, J., and Price, K. 2007. Multi-temporal, moderate spatial resolution remote sensing of modern agricultural production and land modification in the Brazilian Amazon. GIScience and Remote Sensing, 44(2):117-148.
• Jepson, W. 2006. Private Agricultural Colonization on a Brazilian Frontier, 1970-1980. Journal of Historical Geography, 32(4):839-863.
• Jepson, W. 2006. Producing a Modern Agricultural Frontier: Firms and Cooperatives in Eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil. Economic Geography, 82(3):289-316.
• Jepson, W. 2005. Spaces of Labor Activism, Mexican American Women and the Farm Worker Movement in Texas’s Lower Rio Grande Valley. Antipode, 37(4):679-702.
• Jepson, W., Brannstrom, C., and Stancato, R. 2005. A Case of Contested Ecological Modernization: Governance of Genetically Modified Crops in Brazil. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 23:295-310.
• Jepson, W. 2005. A Disappearing Biome? Reconsidering Land-Cover Change in the Brazilian Savanna. The Geographical Journal, 171(2):99-111.
• Jepson, W. 2004. Of Soil, Situation and Salubrity: Medical Topography and Medical Officers in Nineteenth-Century British India. Historical Geography, 32:137-155.
• Brown, J.C., Jepson, W., and Price, K. 2004. Expansion of Mechanized Agriculture and Land-Cover Change in Southern Rondônia, Brazil. Journal of Latin American Geography, 3(1):97-103.
• Jepson, W. 2002. Globalization and Brazilian Biosafety: The Politics of Scale over Biotechnology Governance. Political Geography, 21:905-925.

Students

Current

• Abinheety Goel, Doctoral Candidate (Geography), Chair
  Doctoral Dissertation: "Institutional Change and Women's Resource Security in the Omkareshwar National Park Complex, India"
• Edlyn Walsh, PhD Student (Geography), Chair
  
• Audrey Joslin, PhD Student (Geography; IGERT), Chair
• Dhananjaya Katju, PhD Student (Geography; IGERT), Chair
• Craig Hutton, PhD Student (Geography; IGERT), Committee Member
• Danny Redo, Doctoral Candidate (Geography), Committee Member
• David Toledo, PhD Student (Ecosystem Science and Management, IGERT), Committee Member
• Nicole Persons, MS Student (Geography; Wind Project), Committee Member

Graduated

• Rajanesh  Kakumani, MS Student (Urban Planning), Committee Member
• Sunny Lim, MS Student (History), Committee Member
• Chelsea Hanchett, Undergraduate (Geosciences), Senior Thesis
• Anna Nordfeldt, MS Student (Geography), Committee Member

Courses

• GEOG 201 - Introduction to Human Geography
• GEOG 202 - Global Village (World Regional Geography)
• GEOG 330 - Resources and Environment
• GEOG 430 - Environmental Justice (Writing Course)
• GEOG 620 - Land-use and Land-cover Change
• GEOG 622 - Environment and Society on the US-Mexico Border

Affiliations and Service

• Associate Editor, Journal of Latin American Geography (2008-2010)
• Elected Board Member, Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers (2007-2010)
• Elected Board Member, Economic Geography Specialty Group, AAG (2008-2010)
• Fellow, Mexican-American and US Latino Research Center, Texas A&M University
• Chair, Committee on the Status of Women in Geography (AAG Standing Committee, 2007-2010)
• Ex-Oficio Member, Enhancing Diversity Committee (AAG Standing Committee, 2007-2010)
• Editorial Board Member, GeoJournal