John W. Simpson

A professor emeritus at The Ohio State University, I grew up in central Ohio and have lived there after stints away for graduate school and jobs around the country. My teaching, writing, and reading reflects a deep love of and fascination for the landscape and the formative interaction of people and place. While I don't know the origin of this love and fascination, I know each has been strengthened by my experiences and observations traveling throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. The books I read and the books I've written explore this relationship between people and place, whether revealed through landscape and environmental history, policies, and programs, or people. "If we want to understand ourselves," wrote the noted cultural geographer Peirce Lewis, "we would do well to take a searching look at our landscapes." I try to capture that sentiment and convey the many benefits of knowing our roots, whether our landscape roots, or our family lineage, or the history of our community and culture.