Elliott School Professors Martha Finnemore and Michael Barnett were listed as the No. 1 and No. 11 scholars, respectively, who produced the most interesting scholarship in the past five years in the 2011 Teaching, Research and International Policy (TRIP) survey 
, which included responses from 1,582 international relations faculty members.
Elizabeth Chacko
Associate Professor of Geography and International Affairs
Chair, Department of Geography
Office: Old Main 213, 1922 F Street, N.W.
Phone: (202) 994-5328
Fax: (202) 994-2484
E-mail: echacko@gwu.edu
Education:
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Expertise:
Medical geography, development, immigration, urban ethnic communities and South Asia
Background:
Professor Chacko received Bachelor's and Master's degrees in geography from the University of Calcutta in India. She also obtained a graduate degree in Public Health and a Ph.D. in geography from UCLA. Dr. Chacko has taught geography at various institutions including Loreto College in Calcutta, UCLA in Los Angeles, and the George Washington University. She is especially interested in the health and gender dimensions of development and has conducted research in these areas in India and the United States. Her current research focuses on the use of cultural and social capital in community development and on ethnic imaging and the creation of ethnic space in U.S. cities.
Selected Publications:
- Essentials in World Regional Geography. Michael Bradshaw, George White, Joseph Dymond and Elizabeth Chacko. (McGraw-Hill Publishers, 2008);
- Contemporary World Regional Geography, with M. Bradshaw, G. White and J. Dymond, 2nd Ed. (Dubuque: McGraw-Hill, 2007);
- "Understanding the Geography of Pellagra in the United States: the Role of Social and Place-based Identities," in Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography (Vol 12, No. 2, 2005);
- "Positionality and Praxis: Fieldwork Experiences in Rural India," in the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography (Vol. 25, No. 1, 2004);
- "Identity and Assimilation Among Young Ethiopian Immigrants in Metropolitan Washington," in The Geographical Review (Vol. 93, No. 4, 2003);
- "Ethiopian Ethos and the Creation of Ethnic Places in the Washington Metropolitan Area," in the Journal of Cultural Geography (Vol. 20, No. 2, 2003); and
- "Culture and Therapy: Complementary Strategies for the Treatment of Type-2 Diabetes in an Urban setting in Kerala, India," in Social Science and Medicine (Vol. 56, No. 5, 2003).