Authors

Maxim Samson is a lecturer and author of over a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles, on topics ranging from security concerns at places of worship in the United States to tsunami response in Indonesia. Originally from St Albans in the United Kingdom, Maxim has more recently been based in Chicago, where he enjoys teaching as part of the city’s largest geography department, at DePaul University. An award-winning educator and researcher, Maxim constantly seeks to refine his ability to convey complex issues in an easily digestible manner, even if he still sometimes needs to remind himself of certain differences between British and American English.

Guided by the cultural geography concept of reading the landscape like a book, Maxim particularly aims to impress on his students the often subtle ways in which our world – as well as our perceptions of it – have been shaped by manifold activities and processes both intentional and inadvertent. Beyond his teaching and writing, Maxim serves as Vice-Chair and Secretary of the Geography of Religion and Belief Systems (GORABS) research specialty group, and has recently been made an associate editor of the Journal of Jewish Education. In his spare time, Maxim enjoys long-distance running, plant-based cooking, home-brewing, reading maps, maintaining his 2,700+ day Duolingo streak and gradually adding to his kaleidoscopic flag collection.