Expertise

African American Historical Geography, Race and Urban Geography, Geographical Education

Biography

A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Dr. David Organ is currently an Assistant Professor of Geography & Urban Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. He is an alumnus of the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a bachelor degree in History and his masters and doctoral degrees in Geography. Dr. Organ has conducted research, made numerous presentations and published in the specific area of African American Geography including: studies of black migration, settlement and community life formation with a special interest in all-Black towns and historic sites. His general training and research interests are in historical, cultural and urban geography & planning with minor emphases on geographical education, and the study of African American heritage landscapes. He has consulted with various historical preservation groups, museums and historical societies and facilitates teacher training workshops on African American genealogical and geographical pedagogy. He has been affiliated over the last decade with the Information Technology Study and Research Group (ITSRG), working specifically with the National Science Foundation’s Building Information Technology Skills Summer Program for North Philadelphia high school students (bITS). Dr. Organ has formerly taught at: Creighton University in Omaha, NE, Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Santa Barbara, CA, Auburn University in Alabama, Clark Atlanta University in Georgia and Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana where he assumed various administrative duties as Dean of the Honors Program, as well as, Founder & Director of the African World Studies Institute.

Curriculum Vitae

Selected Publications

• Organ, David J. with Michele Masucci & Alan Wiig. 2016. "Libraries at the Crossroads of the Digital Content Divide: Pathways for Information Continuity in a Youth-Led Geospatial Technology Program" published in the Journal of Map & Geography Libraries, November, 2016.  
• Organ, David J. 1995. “Book Review of Black San Francisco by Albert Broussard”, The Oral History Review, Journal of the Oral History Association, Summer, 1995, Volume 22, Number 1.
• Organ, David J. 1993. “The Historical Geography of All-Black Settlements in North America,” in Let Go of My Mouth:  Proceedings of the St. Claire Drake Cultural Studies Forum, edited by Vévé Clark, Berkeley: University of California at Berkeley, African-American Studies Department.
• Organ, David J. 1992.  “Carlton B. Goodlett: African-American Renaissance Man & S.F. Bay Area Publishing Messiah,” From the Archives, Journal of the Northern California Center for the Study of Afro-American History and Life, Vol. III, No. 1, Winter, 2 part article.
• Organ, David J. 1991.  “A Bibliographical Essay Pertaining to the Study of African-American Architects, Artists and Urban Designers in the New World, Looking Beneath The Surface: Discovering Third World Architects and Artists and Their Works, edited by Kenneth Simmons and Regina Davis, Berkeley: University of California at Berkeley College of Environmental Design, pp. 177-192.
• Organ, David J. 1991.  “Allensworth, California, 1908-1920: An All-Black Town on the Pacific Coast Frontier,” From the Archives, journal of the Northern California Center for the Study of Afro-American History and Life, Vol. II, No. 1, Winter.
• Organ, David J. 1990. “Bibliographic References on the Study of African-American in Oakland, California,” Berkeley: University of California Doe Library Africana Collections.
• Organ, David J. and Earl Lewis. “Housing, Race and Class; The Government’s Creation of Truxton, Virginia, A Model Black Model War Worker’s Community,” chapter 3 in Lembcke, Jerry, ed. Race, Class And Urban Change. Greenwich, CN: JAI Press, Research In Urban Sociology Series, Volume I, series editor, Ray Hutchinson, 1989.

Courses Taught

• Digital Mapping
• Urban Ethnicity
• Environment and Society
• Globalization and Development
• Blacks in Philadelphia