Education
Ph.D., School of Geography
Clark University,
Specializations: Environmental Geography,
Political Ecologies of Eurasia,
Social Theory and Nature
M.S., School of Design,
University of Pennsylvania,
Specialization: Energy Management and Policy
B.A., Dept. of Geography and Urban Studies
Temple University,
Specialization: Cartography and Data Handling,
Multilingual Business and Government
Areas of Expertise
Arctic Studies
Eurasian Political Ecologies (Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia)
Biography
Prior to joining Towson as its first interdisciplinary hire in global studies Jeremy
served as chief of mission for an NGO in Azerbaijan where he led the creation of the
first multi-institution educational center and American library, funded by the U.S.
Department of State. He left Azerbaijan for the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where
he helped create the university’s first geography and environmental studies department
and first undergraduate degree program in international studies. Jeremy was a principal
investigator on a five-country, NSF-funded study on the human dimensions of climate
change in the Arctic. He has also been a Fulbright Scholar in the Kyrgyz Republic;
a Fulbright Scholar in Azerbaijan; a PI on a Fulbright-Hayes project in the Russian
Far East; and the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Sustainability, Moscow, Russia.
Jeremy has given talks and led workshops from Iceland to China and is currently pursuing
new research in Serbia.
Selected Recent Scholarships & Grants
ORL/SRL Research Fellow on Azerbaijan: U.S. Department of State Title VIII Award; University of Illinois,
2024-2025
American Councils for International Education, Title VIII State Department Funding; “Sustainability in Serbia,” 2025.
ORL Research Fellow on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia: U.S. Department of State Title VIII Award,
University of Illinois. 2022-2023.
US-Russian University Partnership Program, “US-Russian Security in the Arctic,” U.S. Department of State Title VIII Award,
2022
Writer-in-Residence, a funded project for and by the Writers' House, The Soviet Past Research Laboratory
(SOVLAB) and the US Embassy Tbilisi, Georgia, 2022.
Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Sustainable Development, Moscow, Russia, 2020.
SRL Research Fellow, U.S. Department of State Title VIII Grant for “Governance in the Caucasus” and “US-Russia
Security,” University of Illinois, 2019-2020.
Title VIII Advanced Research Fellowship, U.S. Department of State. “Russia’s Asian
Pivot,” Vladivostok, Russia, 2018.
Selected Recent Publications
Tasch, J. (2025). “Writing Place: Resisting Creativity and Creative Resistance.” Thematic Issue
of Eurasian Geography and Economics: “Spatial Modes and Contingencies of Russian (de-), (re-), (neo-), (settler-) and
(internal-) colonization,” Guest Editors Vera Smirnova, Elena Trubina, and Megan Dixon
Tasch J., de Blois C. L., Abbasov R. (2022). “Azerbaijan’s Social Inequality and Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards.”
Caucasus Survey: Journal of the International Association for the Study of the Caucasus.
Spring.
Tasch, J. (2021). "Material and Metaphorical Bridgework: Russia's Asian Pivot through Vladivostok."
Special Issue, Asian Geographer, March.
Tasch J. Guest Editor. (2018). “Author Meets Critics: Gerard Toal’s Near Abroad,” with G. Toal, J. Agnew,
K. Dodds, A. Murphy, M. Pavlovskaya. AAG’s Review of Books, October 2018.
Recent Professional Service
Regional Councilor, Middle-Atlantic Region: American Association of Geographers (AAG), present - 2026
Board of Directors, Race, Ethnicity, & Place Association (REP), present - 2027
Editorial Boards, Journal of Eurasian Geography and Economics;
Transportation Research: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Past Chair: Eurasian Specialty Group, American Association of Geographers
Frequent Reviewer for several academic journals and research funding institutions