IGU Commission on the Sustainability of Rural Systems

IGU-CSRS Steering Committee 

Co-Chair: Serge Schmitz

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Professor Serge Schmitz teaches rural geography, tourism strategy, regional development and landscape planning at the University of Liège (Belgium). Since 2007, he leads the Laboratory for the Analysis of Places, Landscapes and European countryside (Laplec). His research focuses on multifunctional countryside, in Wallonia and around the world, with a special interest for heritage landscapes, rural tourism, and ways of dwelling. Bât. B11 Service de géographie rurale (LAPLEC), Quartier Village 4, clos Mercator 3, 4000 Liège 1, Belgium

Co-Chair: Valerià Paül

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Valerià Paül is Associate Professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Santiago de Compostela. His main research foci are regional planning and management, with particular interest on open spaces, protected and mountain areas and development; historical and cultural geography of landscape; agricultural and food studies; political geography and border studies; and tourism (specifically, rural, natural and cultural tourism, and in protected areas). Departamento de Xeografía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Praza da Universidade, nº 1, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Galiza, Spain

Secretary: Fiona Haslam-Mckenzie

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Fiona Haslam-McKenzie is Winthrop Research Professor at the University of Western Australia. She has expertise in regional economic development with extensive global experience. She is Director of the Centre for Regional Development, leading the Regional Economic Development Program for the Co-operative Research Centre for Transformation in Mining Economies. She serves as a board member of the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority. The University of Western Australia (M257), 35 Stirling Highway, 6009 Perth, Australia

Dr. Suk-Kyeong Kang

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Suk-Kyeong Kang is Assistant Professor at the Geography Department in Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University (Turkey). Her current research interests focus on the revitalization of rural areas, the livelihood of seasonal migrant workers and the transformation of rural areas with the influx of Syrian refugees into Turkey, highlighting the disparities between residents of western and eastern regions and between urban and rural areas in Turkey. Department of Geography, Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, Rectorate Central Campus, Bor Yolu Uzeri, 51240, Nigde, Turkey

Hualou Long

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Hualou Long is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of the Department of Agricultural Geography and Rural Development at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). His research interests include China’s rural restructuring, urban-rural development, land use transition, rural vitalization and sustainable land use. IGSNRR, CAS, 11A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China

Aleksandar Lukić

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Aleksandar Lukić is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. His primary research interests are rural geography and development (especially rural typologies and rural futures), rural tourism, regional and spatial planning and participatory approaches. He is a member of Scientific Committee for Tourism and Space of Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and Vice-President of Croatian Section of the European Council for the Village and Small Town. Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Marulićev trg 19, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Lou Angeli Ocampo

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Lou Ann Ocampo is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Geography at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Her research interests include political ecologies, indigenous knowledge and resource management, and risk perception of socio-natural hazards and disasters. She is currently serving as Coordinator for the Social Sciences for the TriCollege Philippine Studies Program at the same university.Department of Geography, University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines 1101

Cornelia Steinhäuser

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Cornelia Steinhäuser is Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the Research Group Applied Landscape Ecology and Ecological Planning at the University of Münster (Germany). Her main fields of interest are agroecology (in particular alternative initiatives in agri-food systems and the participation of young people); intangible values of (rural) cultural landscapes; and the development of interdisciplinary research methods for social-ecological interactions. Institute of Landscape Ecology (University of Münster), Heisenbergstraße 2, D- 48149 Münster, Germany

Marcin Wójcik

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Marcin Wójcik is Associate Professor of Human Geography and Planning at the University of Łódź (Poland). His main researches focus on rural geography, spatial planning, local development and settlements. He prefers social and cultural approaches, especially those relating to the concept of place and attachment to place. He is the head of national and international projects in rural and social geography and chairs the Rural Areas Committee at the Polish Geographical Society. Wydział Nauk Geograficznych (Uniwersytet Łódzki), Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź, Poland