Hello, my name is Jason Davis and I am currently in my sixth year of graduate school in the Geography Department at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. I received my Master’s degree on June 13, 2004 with my thesis entitled Grappling with the Pirates of the Antarctic: Statist and Non-Statist Approaches to an Antarctic Governance Problem. I completed my general comprehensive exams on January 15, 2006 and am now all-but-dissertation with my research focused on ideas of property and territory as expressed through Antarctic bioprospecting regime negotiation. My advisor is Becky Mansfield. I’m also a member of the Association of American Geographers as well as the the American Polar Society. I graduated from The University of Chicago in 2000, where I received a degree in Anthropology with Honors. My BA thesis was called The Varieties of Zea Mays at LA-162 and concerned burnt corn cobs from the archaeological site of Paako, New Mexico. After I graduated, I went on an archaeological dig in Chile’s Atacama desert, worked as a Diningroom Attendant in Antarctica, and was an Administrative Assistant at a small theatre company in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. That’s where I originally hail from and where I attended Hawken School in my younger days. My journeys have taken to many places in between and beyond, and I am excited about expanding both my own and other people’s boundaries of experience through the use of geography.
I have experience instructing Geography 200: World Regional Geography at Ohio State. I served as a teaching assistant for the course in Autumn 2002 & 2003 and Winter 2003, 2004, & 2008 quarters, and have also been the full instructor for the course during the Autumn 2004, 2005, &2006 quarters, Winter 2005, 2006, & 2007 quarters, as well as Spring 2007. Similarly, I was a TA for Geography 240: Economic and Social Geography in Spring 2003 before teaching the class myself during the first term of the Summer 2005 quarter. Spring quarter of 2006 I was called upon to teach the interdisciplinary class of International Studies/ Evolution, Ecology, & Organismal Biology/ Natural Resources 597.02: Antarctic Marine Ecology & Policy. I have also been a TA for Geography 120: Weather and Climate in Spring 2004. During Spring Quarter of 2005, I was a research assistant for my advisor looking into the Alaskan Community Development Quota Program.
I’ve been attending many external lectures, both within the department and over at The Byrd Polar Research Center. In 2004, I spoke at the Philadelphia, PA AAG conference and at the Byrd Polar Center on subjects related to my Master’s thesis. In 2005, I gave another talk at the Denver, CO meeting of the AAG and also presented a poster at the 1st Workshop on the History of Antarctic Research in Munich, Germany. So far in 2006, I presented at the Chicago, IL AAG meeting. I have also been volunteering to give talks about Antarctica to elementary school kids as part of an outreach program for the BPRC.
My interest areas include:
I probably have about as many interests as I do pockets in my vest, and the wherewithal to stuff them all to the brim. While these may not be employable job traits, they are things that have made my life more interesting.
To contact me, substitute an "@" for the "at" in the following email address: davis.1937atosu.edu. I’m trying to reduce spam through this extra step.