John Strait

Dr. John Strait

Co-Principal Investigator, Professor of Geography, Assistant Chair in the Department of Environmental and Geosciences, Geography Program Coordinator, and Geography Advisor

Lee Drain, 300 | 936.294.4077 | jstrait@shsu.edu

John Strait is a broadly trained human geographer specializing in sociocultural, urban, and ethnic geographies. His main research and teaching interests lie at the intersections of racial and ethnic identities, urban residential dynamics, diaspora studies and the geographic dimensions of social movements and the ways they manifest via music, visual arts, urban street art, and religion. He possesses expertise in both the geography and culture of music, particularly blues culture and music, and in the geographical dimensions of the Great Migration and the civil rights movement. Dr. Strait regularly directs field courses and workshops that incorporate these various subject matters, particularly as they pertain to the U.S. South, the Mississippi Delta, Hawaii, Spain and Brazil. He serves as board member for the European Science Institute and is an Editor-in-Chief of the European Scientific Journal – Humanities. He is also an editorial board member for The Southeastern Geographer. Dr. Strait also serves as the in-house geographer for Red’s Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He regularly teaches the following courses: GEOG 1300 (People, Place & Environment); GEOG 1401 (Weather & Climate); GEOG 3350 (Cultural Geography); GEOG 4356 (Urban Geography); GEOG 4360 (Cultural Field Study: Music, Civil Rights, & Place in the Birthplace of the Blues)

Education

B.A., Geography and Urban Studies, Wittenberg University
M.A., Geography, Georgia State University
Ph.D., Geography; University of Georgia