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Deborah E. Popper
Associate Professor
Political Science, Economics and Philosophy

Deborah E. Popper teaches geography at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island, where she also participates in the environmental science, international studies, and American studies programs.  She also teaches as a visiting professor at Princeton University’s Environmental Institute.

With her husband Frank Popper of Rutgers University, she has analyzed the American Great Plains and invented the concept of the Buffalo Commons, a way to inhabit the region’s rural areas in a sustainable manner.  Their ideas about the future of the Great Plains region have stimulated a national debate.  The Poppers’ Great Plains work was the subject of Anne Matthews’ book Where the Buffalo Roam (1992), one of four finalists for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction; a second edition of the book was published in 2002. Symposia on the Buffalo Commons have appeared in the American Geographical Society’s Focus (Winter 1993), the Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy (Winter 1994), and North Dakota Quarterly (Fall 1996).  In 1997 the Poppers received the American Geographical Society’s Paul P. Vouras Medal for regional geography for their work on the Great Plains.

In addition to her work on the Great Plains, Professor Popper has written on transformations of the American frontier, both in its current incarnation as the American West and its earlier, more Eastern embodiment.  She is now exploring how different American regions have historically responded to long-term population loss.  Professor Popper’s writing has appeared in journals such as the Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, Geographical Review, Western Historical Quarterly, Journal of Rural Studies, Journal of American Culture, Geographic Research Forum, Planning, Historical Geography, and Journal of the West.  She is an associate fellow of the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska and on the editorial board of the Geographical Review.  She has spoken frequently around the country on her work.

Professor Popper serves on the governing boards of the American Geographical Society, the country’s oldest national geographic organization, and on the National Center for Frontier Communities.  She was an Associate Fellow at Rutgers University’s Center for Historical Analysis for 2001-2002.  She has a bachelors degree in history from Bryn Mawr College, a masters degree in library science from Rosary College, and a masters and doctorate in geography from Rutgers University.