I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of North Texas. I earned my B.E. (Engineering Physics), M.A. (Geography), and Ph.D. (Geography) at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Before joining UNT Geography, I founded and ran a market analysis consulting firm as well as teaching in the Department of Geography at the University of Saskatchewan. I have also taught at the Universities of Calgary and Northern British Columbia. I remain an avid follower of the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. Although you can take me out of Canada, you can't take Canada out of me.

Fact that might be interesting only to me: every year my wife and I have welcomed another son into our family, the Boston Red Sox have gone on to win the World Series.

Research Interests

My primary research interests fall in the general area of urban-economic geography. My specific interests involve the geography of corporate activities, including the location of headquarters, interlocking corporate directorates, and other, elite activities related to corporate decision-making. More broadly, my research involves the location analysis of economic activities of all kinds and the development of regional and urban economies. My investigations in this area address the fact that some regions are very good at generating high-level economic activity, while others are very poor. Why this is so, and what regions might be able to do about it, are fundamental questions to which I am very interested in contributing answers.

I have recently published research relating to the location of headquarters for a variety of North American business types, including

• Rapidly-growing businesses (the "next wave"),
• Large parent companies (the "establishment" or "first tier" of corporations),
• Subsidiaries (the "second tier" of the corporate hierarchy), and
• Government-owned and co-operative enterprises (alternate sector "coping mechanisms").
• The overall study of the location of headquarters and advanced corporate activities (the development of the field of "quaternary location theory").

I am currently extending on all of this work, as well as continuing my earlier (1990s) explorations of the geography of corporate boards of directors and director-related issues. A complete version of my curriculum vitae, including a record of all of my publications and professional research experience, is available here.

Linked to my research interests, I am co-editor of The Industrial Geographer, a journal that publishes research relating to a broad range of economic issues across all economic sectors. My work with the journal began with the fall, 2008 issue. As with my own research, the journal encourages submissions that focus on theoretically driven empirical research in urban-economic geography. The journal also welcomes papers that have an applied orientation to geographic topics, or that explore directions for future geographic research. My co-editor and I invite contributions to the journal from both established researchers and graduate students alike; guidelines for contributors may be found here.

I am also a member of the international editorial board of Geography Research Forum, an international journal that publishes research dealing with all fields of human geography, as well as multidisciplinary topics linked to geographic research. I also recently edited a special issue of GRF, published in late 2008, that focused on research into urban economies and development.

My business location research was recently featured in an interview on the Canadian Embassy website. Check out this link to listen to the Connect2Canada podcast of my interview relating to next wave business development in Canadian cities.

Teaching Interests

I teach/have taught/will teach the following courses in the department of geography at the University of North Texas (UNT students see the course links for related course files):

• GEOG 1170: Culture, Environment, and Society
• GEOG 3100: Geography of the United States and Canada
• GEOG 4210/5210: Urban Geography
• GEOG 4220/5220: Applied Retail Geography
• GEOG 5110: Research Design and Geographic Applications
• GEOG 5190: Advanced Quantitative Techniques

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have questions about any of the courses listed above. I'm part of a team of geographers at UNT that is working to build a set of urban-economic courses that provides a foundation for successful careers related to cities, firms and the developing global economy.

I am always interested in talking with prospective graduate students. The UNT geography department has a master's program in applied geography, in which I currently teach the foundational research design course and the advanced quantitative techniques course. If you are thinking of completing a master's degree in geography and have interests in business location or urban and regional economic development, please feel free to get in touch with me about courses, potential research topics, and career options in applied urban/economic geography (rice@unt.edu).

This page last updated: November 18, 2009