With Third World Colleagues, Nepal, 1987

In the course of my personal history, my family, parents through children, have resided on three continents: eastern Europe (Poland), the central American isthmus (Costa Rica), North America (the US) and west Asia (Israel). Geography has been a major force on my life. 

While working on a masters degree in liberal arts, I studied Israel's historical and contemporary relations with the political Left and the developing world. Later, while researching my first book, Self-Determination in the Middle East, I began to understand a bit more about the important of landscape, terrain, natural resources and capital in shaping the contemporary Middle East. 

Working with development professionals from throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean at the Development Study Center in Rehovot, Israel during the 1980s, led me to even greater recognition of geographical  impacts on every aspect of life and society. Accepting a doctoral fellowship at Clark University's Graduate School of Geography was not only a return to my alma mater but an opportunity to become expert in applying the tools and concepts of a discipline that I held in high regard but had still to learn in a systematic way.

I have, ever since, adored geography, the study of place and space and of the processes that define and, in turn, are shaped by them.