Gustavus Adolphus College

Associate Professor Download curriculum vitæ
Geography and Environmental Studies

B.S. with High Distinction (Civil Engineering) Minnesota, 1986; M.S. (Civil Engineering) Washington, 1989; M.C.S. (Ethics) Regent-Vancouver, 1995; Ph.D. (Geography) Minnesota, 2000

Dr. Bjelland teaches a wide variety of geography courses and is an active member of the Environmental Studies program at Gustavus. His research interests center on the dynamics of cities and regions with a particular focus on urban planning and environmental quality. Current research projects include a study of eco-communities on former brownfield sites in the U.K. and watershed changes in Southern Minnesota brought about by agricultural drainage. He has two active research projects involving demographic and spatial analysis, one for the Center for Rural Policy Development and another for the Minneapolis Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He has been at Gustavus since 1998 but has also been a visiting scholar in the Geography Department at the University of British Columbia and a Fulbright Scholar in the School of City and Regional Planning at Cardiff University in Wales. 

Teaching geography is a second career for Dr. Bjelland, but one that suits him well. He grew up in South Minneapolis with a love for exploration, his two favorite haunts being the old, decrepit mills by St. Anthony Falls, and the wilds along the Mississippi River between Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling.  His first two degrees were in civil engineering with a focus on water and environment. He worked for six years as an engineer, working on water quality projects in Washington's Puget Sound, the cleanup of a polluted harbourfront in Victoria, British Columbia, and the restoration of contaminated groundwater in Minnesota. His engineering work exposed him to geographical questions such as why poor people and minorities seemed to bear the burden of environmental pollution, or why certain environmental problems received scrutiny and others did not. While working in Vancouver, Canada he did a second Master's degree in theology with a focus on the ethics of technology and environmental stewardship. In Canada, he also discovered that the academic study of geography was an ideal discipline to explore his questions since it combined knowledge of earth systems with an understanding of human societies and their use of the earth. His passion at Gustavus is to introduce students to geography so that they can better understand the world and their place in it.

Areas of Expertise

• urban environments
• urban planning
• GIS
• Sustainable Development
• Water Resources

Interests

• bicycling
• travel
• cross-country skiing
• jazz piano
• watching my kids play soccer

Mark Bjelland's Schedule

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