About the Associate Dean
Godson C. Obia is associate dean of the College of Sciences and professor of geography at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois. He has been at Eastern Illinois University since 1994. Dr. Obia has more than twenty-two years of college teaching and administrative experience.
Before coming to EIU, he taught for seven years at the University of Nebraska, Kearney, where he reached the rank of associate professor and earned tenure before moving to his current position. Dr. Obia earned tenure and was promoted to full professor before he moved into administrative duties as associate dean at Eastern. He has received achievement and contribution awards for teaching, research, and service at EIU, and a teaching excellence award from the Association of American Geographers.
Dr. Obia holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) from the University of Nigeria, a M.A. from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. He has taught courses in environmental, economic, world regional, cultural, and African geography.
Dr. Obia has conducted and presented research on topics such as farm bankruptcy, African agricultural development, rural land use and development, environmental resource management, and watershed management. He has published the results of his research in journals and books such as Small Farm Advocate, Journal of Third World Studies, Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences, Platte Valley Review, Platte River Atlas, Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century African History, Proceedings of the Small City and Regional Development, and Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa.
He is a member of several professional and civic organizations, including the Association of American Geographers, Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, and Rotary International. He and wife, Nnenna, have four children.
