Prof. Shannon O'Lear

Shannon O'Lear
  • Professor
  • KU Chancellors Club Teaching Professor 2024-2029
(she/her)

Contact Info

Office Phone:
785-864-2041
Department Phone:
785-864-5143
Fax:
785-864-5378
Malott Hall #3012

Biography —

I am a political geographer with interests in environmental geopolitics, critical geopolitics, the South Caucasus, and Science and Technology Studies (STS). An overarching objective of my work is to apply a critical, spatial awareness to bring new insights to bear on dominant understandings of human-environment relationships. I demonstrate this approach in my 2018 book, Environmental Geopolitics. I have also published work on climate science, geography and STS, geopolitics in Azerbaijan and Armenia, genocide and other forms of violence. I am finishing work on an edited book project for Edward Elgar’s Research Agenda series focused on geographies of slow violence. Currently, I am the interim Director of the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Kansas. I am also serving as an Expert on the Environmental Science and Human Security Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education (AC-ERE) of the National Science Foundation. I am serving as the Councilor for the Great Plains Rocky Mountain Region of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) through 2023 and am serving my second year on the AAG’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. As a response to the unusual circumstances this academic year, I am co-organizing a webinar series for the AAG with one track focused on early career concerns and another track focused on issues for leadership within the discipline. I hold a BA in Geography and Russian and a Master’s degree in Geography from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University.

Research —

Research interests:

  • Political geography of environmental issues
  • Environmental security and vulnerability
  • Political geography of former Soviet republics
  • Human dimensions of global change
  • South Caucasus region
  • climate science
  • violence
  • environmental geopolitics
  • Azerbaijan
  • Caspian Sea

Teaching —

Teaching interests:

  • human geography
  • political geography
  • geography of genocide
  • environmental policy
  • environmental geopolitics
  • critical geopolitics

Selected Publications —

O'Lear, S., Pickett, N. (2024). Chornobyl Body Politics: Making Environmental Violence Visible. Exploring Environmental Violence Perspectives, Experience, Expression, and Engagement. (pp. 25-49). Cambridge University Press. [ 9781009417150].
O'Lear, S. (2021). A Research Agenda for Geographies of Slow Violence: Making Social and Environmental Injustice Visible. Edward Elgar Pub. [9781788978026].
O'Lear, S. (2021). Environmental Change and Human Security Research Directions for the National Science Foundation. National Science Foundation.
Pickett, N., Henkin, S., O'Lear, S. (2020). Science, Technology, and Society Approaches to Fieldwork in Geography. The Professional Geographer - Issue 2 | Volume 72. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2019.1639204.
O'Lear, S. (2020). A Research Agenda for Environmental Geopolitics: . Edward Elgar Pub. [9781788971232].
Reiz, N., O'Lear, S., Tuininga, D. (2018). Exploring a critical legal cartography: Law, practice, and complexities. Geography Compass - Issue 5 | Volume 12. https://doi.org/10.1111/GEC3.12368.
O'Lear, S. (2018). Environmental Geopolitics: . Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc. [9781442265806].
O'Lear, S., Furlong, K., Akhter, M., Forest, B., Sneddon, C. (2018). Concrete Revolution: Large Dams, Cold War Geopolitics, and the US Bureau of Reclamation. The AAG Review of Books - Issue 1 | Volume 6. https://doi.org/10.1080/2325548X.2018.1402286.
O'Lear, S. (2018). Environmental Politics. The Companion to Environmental Studies, edited by Noel Castree, Mike Hulme, and James D. Proctor. (pp. 321-324). Routeledge. [978-1-138-19219-5, 978-1-138-19220-1, 978-1-315-].
O'Lear, S., Heilke, T., Omelicheva, M., Hanley, E. (2016). This isn’t your usual obstacle course: Critical pedagogy with Special Operations Forces. Geoforum - Volume 75. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.GEOFORUM.2016.06.023.
Reiz, N., O'Lear, S. (2016). Spaces of Violence and (In)justice in Haiti: A Critical Legal Geography Perspective on Rape, UN Peacekeeping, and the United Nations Status of Forces Agreement. Territory, Politics, Governance - Issue 4 | Volume 4. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2015.1114963.
O'Lear, S. (2016). Unconventional Classroom: Critical Work with Special Operations Forces Officers. Annals of the Association of American Geographers - Issue 3 | Volume 106. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2016.1145512.
O'Lear, S. (2016). Climate science and slow violence: A view from political geography and STS on mobilizing technoscientific ontologies of climate change. Political Geography - Volume 52. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.POLGEO.2015.01.004.
Trimbach, D., O'Lear, S. (2015). Russians in Estonia: Is Narva the next Crimea?. Eurasian Geography and Economics - Issue 5 | Volume 56. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2015.1110040.
O'Lear, S. (2015). Geopolitics and climate science: the case of the missing embodied carbon. Reframing Climate Change. (pp. 100-115). Routledge. [9781138794368].
O'Lear, S., Dalby, S. (2015). Reframing Climate Change: Toward Ecological Geopolitics. Routledge.
O'Lear, S., Pickett, N., Biersack, J., Trimbach, D. (2014). Book review: The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate. Progress in Human Geography - Issue 4 | Volume 38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132513498549.
Biersack, J., O'Lear, S. (2014). The geopolitics of Russia's annexation of Crimea: narratives, identity, silences, and energy. Eurasian Geography and Economics - Issue 3 | Volume 55. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2014.985241.
O'Lear, S., Briggs, C., Denning, G. (2013). Environmental Security, Military Planning, and Civilian Research: The Case of Water. Environment - Issue 5 | Volume 55. https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.2013.824327.
O'Lear, S. (2013). The Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies. Doris Wastl-Walter, ed. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011. 705 pp., figs, maps, tables, names index, places index. $157.50 cloth (ISBN 9780754674061). The AAG Review of Books - Issue 2 | Volume 1. https://doi.org/10.1080/2325548X.2013.827029.
O'Lear, S., Tuten, A. (2013). Environment and Conflict: Security, Climate Change, and Commodity Resources. The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations - Issue 1 | Volume 14.
O'Lear, S. (2013). Environment. The Ashgate Research Companion to Critical Geopolitics. (pp. 305-322). Ashgate Pub Co. [9781409423805].
O'Lear, S. (2012). Response to my critics. Dialogues in Human Geography - Issue 3 | Volume 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820612461613.
O'Lear, S. (2012). Review of the book The Return of Private Property: Rural Life after Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Azerbaijan by Lale Yalçin-Heckmann. Anthropos - Volume 107.
O'Lear, S. (2011). Borders in the South Caucasus. Defense and Security Analysis - Issue 3 | Volume 27. https://doi.org/10.1080/14751798.2011.604486.
O'Lear, S., Diehl, P. (2011). The Scope of Resource Conflict: A Model of Scale. Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations - Issue 1 | Volume 12.
O'Lear, S. (2010). Environmental Politics: Scale and Power. Cambridge Univ Pr. [9780521765763].
O'Lear, S., Egbert, S., . (2009). Geography of Genocide. Space & Polity - Issue 1 | Volume 13.
O'Lear, S. (2008). Azerbaijan. Nations and Nationalism. (pp. 97-118). Abc-Clio Inc. [9781851099078].
O'Lear, S., Whiting, R. (2008). Which Comes First, The Nation or The State? An analysis of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Caucasus. National Identities - Issue 2 | Volume 10.
O'Lear, S., O?Lear, S., O'Lear, S. (2007). Azerbaijan's resource wealth: political legitimacy and public opinion. Geographical Journal - Issue 3 | Volume 173. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2007.00242.x.
O'Lear, S., Diehl, P. (2007). Not Drawn to Scale: Research on Resource and Environmental Conflict. Geopolitics - Issue 1 | Volume 12. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650040601031263.
O'Lear, S., O?Lear, S., O'Lear, S., Gray, A. (2006). Asking the right questions: environmental conflict in the case of Azerbaijan. Area - Issue 4 | Volume 38. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2006.00704.x.
Diehl, P., Allee, T., Frasier, D., O'Lear, S. (2006). Introduction. Conflict Management and Peace Science - Issue 4 | Volume 23.
O'Lear, S., Diehl, P., Frazier, D., Allee, T. (2005). Dimensions of territorial conflict and resolution: tangible and intangible values of territory. GeoJournal - Issue 4 | Volume 64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-005-5801-5.
O'Lear, S. (2005). Resource concerns for territorial conflict. GeoJournal - Issue 4 | Volume 64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-005-5808-y.
O'Lear, S. (2005). Book Review: Resources, conflict, and approaches to peace. GeoJournal - Issue 4 | Volume 64. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10708-005-5813-1.
O'Lear, S. (2005). Resources and Conflict in the Caspian Sea. The Geopolitics of Resource Wars. (pp. 161-186). Routledge. [9780714656045].
O'Lear, S., Warf, B. (2004). Energy, Territory and Conflict: Research in the Caucasus. B. Warf (Eds.). WorldMinds: 100 Geographic Solutions to Saving Planet Earth. (pp. 31-35). Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Selected Presentations —

Critical Geopolitics of Wildlife Conservation - Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers. Location: Washington, DC.
Family, Life, and Work: Strike a Balance - Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers. Location: Virtual event. (4-10-2021).
Building Inclusive Communities and Diverse Departments, Supporting Women in Geography 8th Annual Panel - Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers. Location: Virtual event. (4-08-2021).
JEDI is Listening: Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Geography, A Listening Session - Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers. Location: Virtual event. (4-08-2021).
Environmental Geopolitics at the Centre for Climate Justice. Location: Glasgow Caldonian University. (10-07-2019).
Environmental Geopolitics at BIOSEC Research Group - Politics Department at the University of Sheffield, UK. Location: Sheffield, UK. (10-02-2019).
2019 AAG Leadership Symposium I and II Promoting Diversity in Geography: Strategies to Improve Inclusion, Broaden Participation, and Assess Progress - Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers. Location: Washington, DC. (4-02-2019).
Critical Approaches to Wildlife Conservation - Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers. Location: Washington, DC. (4-02-2019).
Environmental Geopolitics: An inquiry into geographical knowledge in conservation - WildCRU Conservation Geopolitics Forum. Location: Worcester College, University of Oxford, Oxford UK. (3-19-2019).
Environmental Geopolitics in the Anthropocene: Emerging Research Directions - The American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting. Location: New Orleans, LA. (4-10-2018).
Climate Change and American National Security: Assessing the Risks and Weighing the Options - International Studies Association Annual Meeting. Location: San Francisco, CA. (4-04-2018).
US Wild Card, Carbon Emissions, and COP 21: Disrupting Policy and Practice on Climate Security - International Studies Association Annual Meeting. Location: San Francisco, CA. (4-05-2018).
30th Annual James E. Seaver Lecture: Environmental Geopolitics. Location: Hall Center for the Humanities, University of Kansas. (3-29-2018).
Climate Science and Slow Violence: Technoscientific narratives - American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting. Location: Boston, MA. (4-05-2017).
Geography, Power, Knowledge, and the Possibility of ‘Otherwise’ - Environmental Geopolitics in the Anthropocene. Location: University of North Carolina and Greensboro, Greensboro, NC. (3-24-2017).
A Competition for Resources - Human Geography Futures Seminar. Location: Johns Hopkins University/Applies Physics Laboratory. (9-13-2016).

Awards & Honors —

Research-Intensive Course Mini-Grant. Center for Undergradate Research at the University of Kansas. Received: 12-31-2020.
Nominated by students for the University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Byron A. Alexander/John C. Wright Graduate Mentor Award. Received: 4-30-2020.
Keeler Intra-University Professorship for one semester of research leave. Received: 12-31-2016.
Nominated by students for the University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Byron A. Alexander/John C. Wright Graduate Mentor Award. Received: 4-30-2016.