Mark Stephen Monmonier (born February 2, 1943[1]) is a Distinguished Professor of Geography and the Environment at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University. He specializes in toponymy, geography, and geographic information systems.[2]

Career

Monmonier began his academic career as Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Rhode Island in 1969. He would soonafter take a position at the State University of New York at Albany in 1970.[1][3] He joined the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 1973, where he continued his career until his retirement in May 2021.[4] He is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.[4]

Monmonier's research focused on the twentieth-century history of cartography, in particular, map-related inventions and patents. He also wrote extensively on the use of maps for surveillance and as analytical and persuasive tools in politics, journalism, environmental science, and public administration.[5]

The "Monmonier Algorithm", an important research tool for geographic studies in linguistics and genetics, is based on an article he published in 1973.[6]

In 2016, he was inducted into the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association's GIS Hall of fame.[7]

Publications

Monmonier has authored over 20 books, and his popular written works show a combination of serious study and a sense of humor. Most of his work is published by University of Chicago Press.[8] He has appeared on National Public Radio interview programs.

For example, in From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: how maps name, claim, and inflame, Monmonier discusses topics such as:

• the propensity of conquerors to rename places after those friendly to the new regime.
• the tension between place names assigned by the federal Board on Geographic Names and state and local government agencies.
• the effects of political correctness and racism on place names.

In How to Lie with Maps, Monmonier gives us a different view of maps: Different projections give vastly disparate impressions of the same "facts" or terrain.

Single-authored Books

• Adventures in Academic Cartography: A Memoir (Syracuse, NY: Bar Scale Press, 2014, 2016) ISBN 9781523254316
• Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999) ISBN 0-226-53422-7
• Bushmanders & Bullwinkles: How Politicians Manipulate Electronic Maps and Census Data to Win Elections (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001) ISBN 0-226-53424-3
• Cartographies of Danger: Mapping Hazards in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997) ISBN 0-226-53419-7
• Cartography in the Twentieth Century [Volume Six of the History of Cartography]. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015) ISBN 978-0-226-534695
• Clock and Compass: How John Byron Plato Gave Farmers a Real Address (Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, forthcoming 20224
• Coast Lines: How Mapmakers Frame the World and Chart Environmental Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008) ISBN 0-226-53403-0
• Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography (Redlands, CA: Esri Press, 2019) ISBN 978-1-58948-559-4
• Computer-assisted Cartography: Principles and Prospects (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982) ISBN 0-13-165308-3
• Drawing the Line: Tales of Maps and Cartocontroversy (New York: Henry Holt, 1995) ISBN 0-8050-2581-2
• From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006) ISBN 0-226-53465-0
• How to Lie with Maps, 3rd ed., (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018) [First edition 1991; French translation, 1993; Japanese translation, 1995; German translation, 1996; Korean translation, 1998 | second edition, expanded, 1996; Korean translation, 1998; Czech translation, 2000; Chinese translation, 2012 | third edition, 2018; French translation, 2019; Russian translation, 2021] ISBN 978-0-226-43592-3
• Lake Effect: Tales of Large Lakes, Arctic Winds, and Recurrent Snows (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2012) ISBN 978-0-8156-1004-5
• Mapping It Out: Expository Cartography for the Humanities and Social Sciences (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993) [In the series of Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing and Publishing] ISBN 0-226-53417-0
• Maps, Distortion, and Meaning (Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers, 1977) ISBN 0-89291-120-4
• Maps with the News: the Development of American Journalistic Cartography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989) ISBN 0-226-53413-8
• No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010) ISBN 978-0-226-53467-1
• Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History (New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) ISBN 978-3-319-51039-2
• Rhumb Lines and Map Wars: a Social History of the Mercator Projection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004) [Korean translation, 2006} ISBN 0-226-53431-6
• Spying with Maps: Surveillance Technologies and the Future of Privacy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002) ISBN 0-226-53427-8
• Technological Transition in Cartography (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985) ISBN 0-299-10070-7

Co-authored Books

• Mark Monmonier and George A. Schnell, Map Appreciation (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1988) ISBN 0-13-556052-7
• George A. Schnell and Mark Monmonier, The Study of Population: Elements, Patterns, Processes (Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill, 1983) ISBN 0-675-20046-6

Edited Encyclopedia

• Cartography in the Twentieth Century [Volume Six of the History of Cartography]. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015) ISBN 978-0-226-534695

References

External links

• Author's web site.
• Syracuse Maxwell Page