Mark Monmonier

Mark Stephen Monmonier (born 2 February 1943^[1]) is a Distinguished Professor of Geography and the Environment at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University. He specializes in toponymy, geography, and geographic information systems.^[2]

Career[]

Monmonier began his academic career as an assistant professor of geography at the University of Rhode Island in 1969 and moved to State University of New York at Albany in 1970.^[1][3] He joined the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 1973, where he contined his career until his retirement in May 2021.^[4]

Monmonier's research focused on twentieth century cartography history, in particular, the map-related inventions and patents. He also wrote extensively on the use of maps for surveillance and as analytical and persuasive tools in politics, journalism, environmental science, and public administration.^[5]

The "Monmonier Algorithm", an important research tool for geographic studies in linguistics and genetics, is based on an article he published in 1973.^[4][6]

In 2016, he was inducted into Urban and Regional Information Systems Association's GIS Hall of fame.^[7]

Publications[]

Monmonier has authored over 20 books and his popular written works show a combination of serious study and a sense of humor. Most of his work is published by University of Chicago Press.^[8] He has appeared on National Public Radio interview programs.

For example, in his work, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: how maps name, claim, and inflame, Monmonier discusses topics such as:

• the propensity of conquerors to rename places after those friendly to the new regime.
• the tension between place names assigned by the federal Board on Geographic Names and state and local government agencies.
• the effects of political correctness and racism on place names.

In How to Lie with Maps, Monmonier gives us a different view of maps: different projections give vastly different impressions of the same "facts" or terrain.

Partial list of titles[]

• Adventures in academic cartography: A memoir (Syracuse, NY: Bar Scale Press, 2016). ISBN 9781523254316
• Air apparent: how meteorologists learned to map, predict, and dramatize weather, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c1999.) ISBN 0-226-53422-7
• Bushmanders & bullwinkles: how politicians manipulate electronic maps and census data to win elections, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001). ISBN 0-226-53424-3
• Cartographies of danger: mapping hazards in America, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.) ISBN 0-226-53419-7 (pbk.)
• Cartography in the Twentieth Century [Volume Six of the History of Cartography]. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015). ISBN 978-0-226-534695
• Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.) ISBN 0-226-53403-0
• Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography (Redlands, CA: Esri Press, 2019). ISBN 978-1-58948-559-4
• Computer-assisted cartography: principles and prospects, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, c1982.) ISBN 0-13-165308-3
• Drawing the line: tales of maps and cartocontroversy, 1st ed., (New York: H. Holt, 1995.) ISBN 0-8050-2581-2
• From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: how maps name, claim, and inflame, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.) ISBN 0-226-53465-0
• GIPSY: a geographic incremental plotting system by Mark Stephen Monmonier, (University Park, Pennsylvania: Dept. of Geography, Pennsylvania State University, 1969.)
• How to lie with maps, 3rd ed., (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018.) ISBN 978-0-226-43592-3
• Lake Effect: Tales of Large Lakes, Arctic Winds, and Recurrent Snows (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2012). ISBN 978-0-8156-1004-5
• Mark Monmonier and George A. Schnell, Map appreciation, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1988.) ISBN 0-13-556052-7
• Mapping it out: expository cartography for the humanities and social sciences, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.) ISBN 0-226-53417-0 (paper)
• Maps, distortion, and meaning, (Washington: Association of American Geographers, c1977.) ISBN 0-89291-120-4
• Maps with the news: the development of American journalistic cartography, (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1989.) ISBN 0-226-53413-8 (1999 pbk.)
• No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control, (Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2010.) ISBN 978-0-226-53467-1
• Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History (New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). ISBN 978-3-319-51039-2
• Rhumb lines and map wars: a social history of the Mercator projection, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c2004.) ISBN 0-226-53431-6
• Spying with Maps: Surveillance Technologies and the Future of Privacy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002). ISBN 0-226-53427-8
• Technological transition in cartography, (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.) ISBN 0-299-10070-7

References[]

External links[]

• Author's web site.
• Syracuse Maxwell Page