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Social Science Division

Meet the Faculty

Photo of Alexander C. Diener

Alexander C. Diener
Associate Professor

Division: Social Science Division
Office: Appleby Center (APC) 252
Phone: (310) 506-7740
E-mail: alexander.diener@pepperdine.edu

  • Ph.D., Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2003
  • M.A., Political Geography, University of South Carolina, 1995
  • M.A., International Relations, University of Chicago, 1994
  • B.A., International Studies, Pepperdine University, 1991
Courses:
  • World Regional Geography
  • The Political and Cultural Geography of Central Asia
  • Ethnicity and Nationalism: Politics of Identity
  • Islamic Asia
  • Place and Space: An Exploration in Human Geography
  • Population Geography
Key Awards/Affiliations:
  • Social Science Research Council - Eurasia Program Teaching Fellowship 2005-2006
  • Kennan Institute Title VIII Research Scholar October 2003 - June 2004 Woodrow Wilson Internation Center for Scholars
  • Social Science Research Council - American Council for Learned Societies (Doctoral Dissertation Write-Up Fellowship - Eurasia) 2002-2003
  • National Science Foundation (Geography and Regional Science Program Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant # 0117087) 2001-2002
  • Social Science Research Council - American Council for Learned Societies (International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship) 2001-2002
  • IREX - Mongolia Individual Research Fellowship
  • IREX - Individual Advanced Research Opportunities Fellowship 2001-2002(IARO)
  • MacArthur - Global Studies Fellowship University of Wisconsin, Madison 2000
  • Social Science Research Council - American Council of Learned Societies, (International Pre-dissertation Fellowship) 1999-2000
  • Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS Fellowship) 1998, 1999, 2000
  • Foreign Language Enhancement Program (FLEP Scholarship)
  • University of Chicago Fund Fellowship University of Chicago 1992-1993
  • Association of American Geographers
  • Central Eurasian Studies Society
  • Mongolia Society
  • Scholars for Action
Academic Interests:
  • Demographic Patterns in Multi-Ethnic - Multi-Homeland States; Homeland Psychology, Diaspora Issues, and Nation-Making in Central Asia, Southwest Asia, and Mongolia; Political and Cultural Geography of Islam
  • Geography of Nationalization and Nationalism; Transnationalism; Ethno-territorial Conflict and the Role of Place in Conflict Management; Population Geography; Migration; Geographic and Social Theory; Power, Place, and Identity, Security Studies.
Selected Works:
  • Book: Borders: A Very Short Introduction with Joshua Hagen - Marshall University (contracted with Oxford University Press)
  • Book: Borderlines and Borderlands: Political Oddities at the Edge of the Nation State co-eds. With Joshua Hagen, Marshall University (in press with Rowman and Littlefield Publishers 2010)
  • Book: One Homeland or Two: Nationalization and Transnationalization of Mongolia's Kazakhs (Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press 2009) pp. 405
  • Book: Homeland Conceptions and Ethnic Integration Among Kazakhstan's Germans and Koreans (Edwin Mellen Press, 2004) pp.180
  • Journal Article: "Diasporic Stances: Comparing the Historical Geographic Antecedents of German and Korean Migration Decisions in Kazakhstan" (Geopolitics, v.14 no. 3 2009)
  • Journal Article: "Theorizing Borders in a Borderless World: Globalization, Mobility and Scale" co-authored with Joshua Hagen (Marshall University)(Geography Compass, v.3 no.3 2009) pp. 1196-1216
  • Journal Article: "Diasporic and Transnational Social Practices in Central Asia" (Geography Compass, v. 2 no. 2 2008) pp. 956-978
  • Journal Article: "Negotiating Territorial Belonging: A Transnational Field Approach to the Mongolia's Kazakhs"(Geopolitics, v.12 no.3 2007) pp.459-487
  • Journal Article: "Transnationalism and Minority Territorialization in Kazakhstan" (International Journal of Central Asian Studies, Vol. 11, 2007) pp. 86-102
  • Journal Article: "Homeland as Social Construct: Territorialization Among Germans and Koreans in Kazakhstan" (Nationalities Papers, v.34 no.2 2006) pp. 201-236
  • Journal Article: "Kazakhstan's Kin-State Diaspora: Settlement Planning and the Oralman Dilemma" (Europe Asia Studies, v. 57 no.2 March 2005) pp. 327-348
  • Journal Article: "Problematic Integration of Mongolian-Kazakh "Return" Migrants" (Eurasian Geography and Economics, v.46 no.6 2005) pp. 465-478
  • Journal Article: "Research Among Mongolia's Kazakhs: Brief Reflections on Data Collection and Community Access" (Mongol Survey, no.15 Winter/Spring 2005) pp. 14-18
  • Journal Article: "Mongols, Kazakhs, and Mongolian Territorial Identity: Trajectories of Nationalization" (Central Eurasian Studies Review, v.3-4 no.1 Winter 2005) pp.18-25
  • Journal Article: "National Territory and the Reconstruction of History in Kazakhstan" (Eurasian Geography and Economics, No.8, 2002) pp. 632-647
  • Edited Volume Chapter: "Kaliningrad" with Joshua Hagen (Marshall University) in Joel Quam (ed.), The Geography of Russia, Glen Ellyn Il. College of DuPage Press (2009)
  • Edited Volume Chapter: "Settlement of the Returning Kazakh Diaspora: Practicality, Choice, and the Nationalization of Social Space" in C. Buckley and B. Ruble (eds.), "Migration, Homeland, and Belonging in Eurasia", Woodrow Wilson Press (2008) pp. 265-304
  • Edited Volume Chapter: "Democracy, Civil Society and the Damage Limitation Component of Strategy" with Timothy Crawford (Boston College) in Paul R. Viotti, Michael Opheim, Nicholas Bowen (eds.), Terrorism and Homeland Security: Thinking Strategically about Policy, CRC Press (2008) pp.191-206
  • Edited Volume Chapter: "Kazakh- stan or Kazakhstani- stan: Identity, Territory, Legitimacy" in B. Suzhikova (ed.), Issues of Interethnic Relations and Globalization in the Central Asian Republics, Almaty: Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan - Institute of Philosophy and Politics (2003) pp. 212-227
  • Sponsored Report: Homeland Security in a Multinational Context: A New Strategic Vision: A Report of the Fred A. Sondermann Summer Seminar (University of Denver). Co-authored with Russell A. Burgos, Timothy W. Crawford, Anne-Marie Gardner, Lewis K. Griffith, William Josiger, Veronica M. Kitchen, Ritu S. Lauer, and Greg Moore (2004) pp.1-62
  • Sponsored Report: Territorialization of Identity and the Repatriation Decision of the Mongolian Kazakh Diaspora - International Research and Exchange Board - IARO Final Report www.irex.org/programs/iaro/research/01Diener.pdf
Performances:
  • The Association of American Geographers (AAG) 104th Annual Meeting Las Vegas, NV 2009An Historical Geography of the Xinjiang Borderland and Panel Participant for Views from the Margins: Geopolitics in Eurasia
  • Engineering Earth: Impacts of Mega Projects Lexington, KY 2008 Trans-State Road Construction as a Catalyst of Social and Ecological Change: The Case of Mongolia
  • Malibu Rotary Club, Pepperdine University (27 May 2008) Kaliningrad: Borderland of an Evolving Europe
  • The Association of American Geographers (AAG) 104rd Annual Meeting Boston, MA 2008 Historical and Contemporary Geopolitics of the East Prussian and Kaliningrad Enclaves
  • University of Halle and University of Leipzig Stiftung Leucorea, Lufterstadt Wittenberg, Germany(30 Nov-2 Dec 2007) "Paradigms of Nomadic Mode of Living: Tenets and Perils of Coexistence"
  • Central Asian Studies Society (CESS) National Conference Seattle, WA 2007 Antecedents of Migration Decisions: Minority History and Civic Nation Building in Kazakhstan
  • Malibu Rotary Club, Pepperdine University (30 May 2007) Geopolitics of Central Asia
  • The Association of American Geographers (AAG) 103rd Annual Meeting San Francisco, CA 2007"Projected Social and ecological Impacts of Mongolia's Trans-State Highway"
  • Middle East Central Asia Conference (MECA) Salt Lake City, University of Utah 2006 Negotiating Territorial Belonging: A Transnational Field Approach to Mongolia's Kazakhs
  • The Association of American Geographers (AAG) 102nd Annual Meeting Chicago, IL 2006 Transnationalization and Homeland Construction Among Kazakhstan's Minorities
  • Central Asian Studies Society (CESS) National Conference Boston, MA 2005 Homeland Construction, Diaspora Identity, and Hegemony in Kazakhstan
  • The Association of American Geographers (AAG) 101st Annual Meeting Denver, CO 2005 Competing Trajectories of Nationalization in a 'Nomadic Society': A Case Study of Kyrgyzstan
  • Central Asian Studies Society (CESS) National Conference Bloomington, IN 2004 Mongols, Kazakhs, and Mongolian Territorial Identity
  • University of California at Los Angeles, Dept. of Geography, Tod Spieker Lecture Series (29 October 2004) One Homeland or Two?: Migration of Mongolia's Kazakhs and the Implications for State Building in 21st Century Mongolia and Kazakhstan
  • Fred A. Sondermann Summer Seminar Denver and Vail, CO 2004 Damage Limitation and Civil Resiliencies in Homeland Security (co-authored and presented with Timothy W. Crawford)
  • NSF Sponsored Conference: Remapping the Southern Tier of Post-Socialist States: Politics/Economics/Environment/Identity, Portoroz, Slovenia June 2004 One Homeland or Two: Migration Decisions of the Mongolian Kazakh Diaspora
  • Kennan Institute Conference: Immigration, Forced Migrants and Refugees in Central Eurasia, Washington D.C., March 2004 and 2005 Nationalizing Diaspora or Ethicizing Minority: De- and Re-Territorialization of Kazakhs in Mongolia
  • The Association of American Geographers (AAG) 100th Annual Meeting Philadelphia, PA 2004 Patriation or Repatriation ?: Conflicting Dynamics of Homeland Psychology Among Mongolian-Kazakh "Return" Migrants
  • Indiana University Bloomington IN (July 8, 2004) Patriation or Repatriation: Conflicting Dynamics of Homeland Psychology Among Mongolian-Kazakh "Return" Migrants
  • U.S. Department of State, Policy Forum Washington D.C. (June 18, 2004) Eurasian Migration Trends: Implications of State-Building and Transnationalism in Kazakhstan and Mongolia
  • Woodrow Wilson Center, Guest Speakers Series, Washington D.C. (December 2003) "Diaspora" Amidst Nationalization: Diasporic-Kazakhs' Negotiation of Territorial Belonging and Identity
  • The Association of American Geographers (AAG) 99th Annual Meeting New Orleans, LA 2003 Settlement of the Returning Kazakh Diaspora: History, Climate, Social Networks, and the Nationalization of Social Space
  • Central Asian Studies Society (CESS) National Conference Madison, WI 2002 Settlement of the Returning Kazakh Diaspora: History, Climate, Social Networks, and the Nationalization of Social Space (Presented and served as Session Chair)
  • The Association of American Geographers (AAG) 97th Annual Meeting New York, NY 2001 Areas of Concentrated Settlement and the Production of Kazakhstani- ness: Conflicting Dynamics of Territorialization Among Kazakhstan's Minority Populations
  • Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) National Conference Madison WI 2000 History, Territory, and the Search for Legitimacy in Central Asia.
  • The Association of American Geographers (AAG) 95th Annual Meeting Honolulu, HI 1999 A Theoretical Framework for Place Attachment in Political Geography: Case Studies in Kazakhstan and Central Asia
  • West Lakes Regional Conference of the AAG Madison, WI 1998 A Relational Framework for Place Attachment: Rootedness, Emotional Anchoring, and Sense of Place
  • Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) National Conference Madison WI 1998 Place Attachment in Political Geography: Assessing Central Asia as Case
  • South Carolina Academy of Sciences Columbia, SC 1997 Irredentism and Its Significance in the Contemporary International System
Selected Links: