Professor, author and renowned public speaker, John Rennie Short is an expert on urban issues, environmental concerns, globalization, political geography and the history of cartography. He has studied cities around the world, and lectured around the world to a variety of audiences.
John Rennie Short is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland (UMBC).
Before coming to UMBC in 2002 he was a Professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. From 1978 to 1990 he was Lecturer in the University to Reading UK. He has held visiting appointments as Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University, as the Erasmus Professor at Groningen University and as the Leverhulme Professor at Loughborough University. Among his research fellowships are the Vietor Fellowship at Yale University, the Dibner Fellowship at the Smithsonian, the Kono Fellowship at the Huntington Library and the Andrew Mellon Fellowship at the American Philosophical Library.
He has received research awards from the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Geographic Society and the Social Science Research Council. Dr. Short's main research interests are in urban issues, environmental concerns and cartographic representation. He is the author of over 30 books, 19 invited chapters to edited books and over 40 papers in such journals as Area, City, Environment and Planning, Geoforum, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Journal of American Planning Association and Urban Studies.
Recent books include Stress Testing The USA (2012), Cities and Nature (2013, 2nd ed), Korea: A Cartographic History (2012), Globalization, Modernity and The City (2011), Cities and Suburbs (2010), Cartographic Encounters (2009),Sage Companion To The City (2008), Cities and Economies (2008), Liquid City (2007), Alabaster Cities (2006), Urban Theory (2006), Imagined Country (2005), Global Metropolitan (2004), Making Space (2004), Globalization and The Margins (2003), Global Dimensions (2001), Representing The Republic (2001) and Globalization and The City (1999).
His The World Through Maps was recognized by Discover Magazine as one of the outstanding science books of 2003.
His work has been translated in to Czech, Korean and Chinese and cited over 3,600 times in articles in over 450 different research journals. He has delivered lectures to universities around the world and given presentations to a range of audiences outside of the academy.
He is a founding co-editor of the journal Society and Space, founding editor of the book series Space, Place and Society published by Syracuse University Press, founding co-editor of the Critical Introduction to Urbanism book series published by Routledge and consultant to the 12 volume World and Its Peoples.
He received his M.A. from the University of Aberdeen, UK in 1973 and his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, UK in 1976. He was born in Stirling, Scotland.
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STRESS TESTING THE U.S.A.
Stress testing is a long established procedure that is used to show how a system responds to pressure and, if carried far enough, a system's weak spots. Stress Testing the USA applies this original approach to four major disasters that befell the United States in the first decade of the twenty first century: the invasion of Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the financial meltdown, and the BP oil spill. John Rennie Short, professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), provides a compelling narrative of each event that summarizes the main findings but also reveals the connections between them, and ultimately, the deep stresses that fracture the nation today. Illuminating and relevant, Stress Testing the USA is a guide to what ails the United States and what needs to be done to fix it that proves essential to any scholar of public policy, current affairs, or disaster management.
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John Rennie Short discusses his book "Korea: A Cartographic History" (2012), a beautifully illustrated introduction to Korea through six hundred years of maps. In this video, he briefly touches on two contemporary cartographic controversies explored in the book: usage of the names Donghae/Sea of Japan and Dokdo/Takeshima, and how those disputes illustrate the complex relationship between Korea and Japan.
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To see the presentation lecture, "The Still Restless Urban Landscape", click this link or the following image:
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To learn more, watch this 12-minute discussion of Professor Short's two most recent books, "Cartographic Encounters" and "Cities and Nature" with host Stephen Braude on UMBC In the Loop.
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 Founded in 1974, the mission of L.A. Theatre Works (LATW) is to enrich the cultural life of our national community through the use of innovative technologies to produce and preserve significant works of dramatic literature on audio, and to assure the widest public access to these great works. |
 John discusses the role of maps and mapmaking in US military campaigns, satellite imagery and the changing technology of mapmaking. Also notes the importance of a more culturally sensitive and democratic cartography using this introductory discussion to a play set in
the Vietnam War. |