About Us: Fellows Biography
Tom
Schmiedeler is
an Assistant Professor of Geography who grew up in the Smokey Hills
of north-central Kansas in the small town of Tipton, where his
father and mother operated a general store. He earned a B.A. degree
in English from St. Mary of the Plains College, Dodge City, in
1971, and a teaching certificate from the Cooperative Urban Teaching
Education program then operating from Wichita in 1972. For the
next decade he worked for the Kansas State Grain Inspection, Salina,
and traveled extensively to Europe and Asia, including an overland
trip from London to Delhi, India and other parts of South Asia.
In 1981 he began the master's program in geography at the University
of Kansas and eventually earned a doctorate in geography from K.U.
in 1990. His dissertation work on frontier forms of towns in a
six-county area of north-central Kansas has evolved into a study
of frontier forms of Midwestern county seats. He is also interested
in the evolution of small-town Kansas and the Kansas landscape.
Other research interests include the cultural significance of landscapes
depicted on road map covers, and the geographical patterns of generic
place names.
Email: tom.schmeideler@washburn.edu
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