Bio 

Dr. Jerry T. Mitchell is a Professor of Geography. He has been the Director of the Center of Excellence for Geographic Education since joining the department in 2004 and served as Department Chair from 2020-2026. He has authored more than eighty-five articles, books, and book chapters, with work appearing in the journals Natural Hazards Review, Cartography and GIS, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, and the Annals of the American Association of Geographers. This work was made possible by more than $5 million in external funding from the National Science Foundation, Verizon Foundation, National Geographic Society, the South Carolina Department of Education, and others. He was the coordinator of the South Carolina Geographic Alliance for 17 years, providing geography learning opportunities for more than 40,000 teachers and students. Additionally, he served as the Editor of the Journal of Geography from 2010–2019, and was President of the National Council for Geographic Education in 2020. His commendations include Fellow, American Association of Geographers (2026), George J Miller Award for Distinguished Service to Geographic Education from the National Council for Geographic Education (2024), and Gilbert H. Grosvenor Honors in Geographic Education from the American Association of Geographers (2022).

Research 

• Environmental hazards
• Geography education
• Latin America
  
  

Teaching 

GEOG 221: Geography of South Carolina
GEOG 223: Geography of Latin America
GEOG 223M: Geography of Latin America (Chile – Study Abroad)
GEOG 561: Contemporary Issues in Geography Education
GEOG 710: Seminar in Geography Education

Recent Publications 

Mitchell, J. T. (Ed.). 2026. International Perspectives on Geography Education. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Mitchell, J. T. (Consultant Editor). 2026. The Geography Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained. London: Dorling Kindersley. 

Mitchell, J. T. 2025. “Teaching about Human Rights with the Music of Midnight Oil.” The Geography Teacher. 22(4): 156-162. 

Mitchell, J. T. 2025. “Ensinando o meio ambiente na geografia escolar: Uma visão dos Estados Unidos [Teaching the Environment in School Geography: A view from the United States.]” Revista Geousp: Espaço e tempo. 29(1): 1-11.

Bendl, T., Storrøsæter, H., Madsen, L., Trokšiar, D., de la Martinière, R., Liu, S., Serame, S., Mitchell, J., Bagoly-Simó, P., Duan, Y., and G. Kidman. 2025. “An International Perspective on Geography Curriculums: Paving a Way forward for Geographical Thinking.” International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education. 34(3): 294-317.

Mitchell, J. T. 2025. “Latitude Makes A Difference: North to South Across Chile’s Middle Regions.” FOCUS on Geography. Vol. 68. https://www.focusongeography.org/publications/photoessays/chile/index.html 

Mitchell, J. T. 2025. “Representing Place in the Music Lyrics of Australia’s Midnight Oil.” Journal of Cultural Geography. 42(2): 202-223. 

Bednarz, S. and J. T. Mitchell (Eds.). 2024. Handbook of Geography Education. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG.