Bio

Catherine Studemeyer is a Senior Instructor in the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of South Carolina. She received a B.S. in Multinational Business Operations and Management from Florida State University, an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Miami (FL), and a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of South Carolina. She served on the faculty of the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University (UK) and the Global Affairs Program at George Mason University before joining the University of South Carolina. 

Research

Catherine is a political geographer whose interests include the intersection of critical geopolitics and critical security studies, particularly in the context of NATO’s eastern flank and the Russian Federation. She has also published on youth geographies and geographies of national identity and citizenship in the European Union. Her research has appeared in journals such as Geopolitics, Geography Compass, and Social and Cultural Geography as well as in Geographies of Children and Young People (Springer, 2016). Her next publication, “The Kremlin’s Walled Garden: Examining Orthodox Christianity, Ontological Security, and Weaponized Ecology in Ukraine,” is expected in late 2025. 

Teaching

• GLST 101: Context, Connection, and Change
• EURO 300: Introduction to European Studies
• GEOG 121: Globalization and World Regions (from 2024: Geographies of Global Change)
• GEOG 225: Geography of Europe