Bio
I joined the School of Global Integrative Studies as a lecturer of Geography in Fall 2020. I am a proud three-time graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Geography program and studied under Dr. David Wishart. I am also a Center for Great Plains Studies fellow, Chair of the American Association of Geographers Rural Geography Specialty Group, Alpha Phi Chapter Sponsor of the Gamma Theta Upsilon International Geographical Honor Society, and member of the UNL First Generation Nebraska Advisory Board. My interests include small town and rural identity, and attachment to rural landscape, especially on the Great Plains. This love of the landscape has followed me since I was young, growing up on a farm outside of Liberty, Nebraska, a village of 37 people.
Current Research and Projects
My current research is on rural place attachment and population sustainability efforts. Specifically, I am interested in the varied reasons why people make the active, intended, and deliberate choice to stay in rural areas. I conducted the Nebraska (2019) and Missouri (2021) Roots Migration Surveys to better understand why people choose to stay in, leave, or return to where they grew up. Moving forward, I plan to continue my rural residential decision-making research in other states. My research has also expanded into other areas of rural sustainability, including food deserts, healthcare access, public transportation, and school consolidation.
Courses
My list of courses taught includes Elements of Physical Geography, Exploring North America and its Cultural Diversity, Geography of Nebraska, Geography of World Regions, Historical Geography of the Great Plains, Introduction to Global Studies, Introductory Human Geography, Political Geography, Special Topics in Geography, and Urban Geography.
Selected Publications
Husa, A. 2023. Home in the Hills: Rural Stayers in the Missouri Ozarks and Nebraska Sandhills. Rural Society 32 (1): 30-44.
Husa, A. 2023. The Changing Rural Landscape. In C. Post, A. Greiner, & G. L. Buckley (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to the American Landscape (pp. 304-314). Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Husa, A. 2022. Population Sustainability in Rural Great Plains Towns. Great Plains Quarterly 42 (4): 339-356.
Husa, A. 2022. Gender and Residential Decision Making in the Rural Great Plains. Great Plains Research 32 (1): 21-28.
Husa, A., & C. E. Morse. 2022. Rurality as a Key Factor for Place Attachment in the Great Plains. Geographical Review 112 (1): 27-45. Advanced online publication 2020.