Wil Gesler

I am a retired geography professor who spent twenty-five years teaching and conducting research in Health Geography and Cultural Geography at Rutgers University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I received my Ph.D. in Geography from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1978. I also have an M.A. in Mathematics from The Pennsylvania State University (1965) and an M.A. in English Literature from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (1976). I am well-known internationally for my work in Health Geography and Cultural Geography. Especially notable is my development of the concept of therapeutic landscapes which has triggered dozens of studies by geographers and other social scientists. During my career I carried out both quantitative and qualitative research. My own work took me to Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Greece, and France, as well as various locations in the north and south of both the U.S. and England. Working with graduate students carried me vicariously to Bosnia Herzegovina, Thailand, India, and Bolivia. I have also engaged with imaginary places as depicted in novels. After retirement, I lived for fourteen years at the edge of the Lake District and spent much of my free time rambling among its universally acclaimed lakes and fells. The material for walking stories in the book is based on hiking around 3000 miles and climbing over 900,000 feet in the fells within the Lake District and the nearby Yorkshire Dales. I have written or co-written, edited or co-edited a dozen books. They include the following: Gesler, W.M. 2003. Healing Places. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Gesler, W.M. and Kearns, Robin A. 2002. Culture/Place/Health. London: Routledge. Kearns, R.A. and Gesler, W.M. (eds.). 1998. Putting Health Into Place. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. Gesler, W.M. 1991. The Cultural Geography of Health Care. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Gesler, Wil. 2017. Missionaries and Indians. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse. I also have my name on 20 book chapters and 70 refereed journal articles in two dozen different social science and health-related journals.