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Fields of Interest:
Cartography, Agricultural Geography, Economic Geography, Geography of South and Central America, Geospatial Systems and Analysis (GIS), Urban Geography, Food Systems
Biography
Dr. Amanda J. Weaver is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver. An economic geographer by training, she specializes in the intersection of urban systems and agriculture. She holds a PhD from the University of Denver, where her dissertation, "Fresh Squeezed," examined the challenges of local food production along Colorado's Front Range. She also earned an MA from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Weaver’s classroom extends far beyond the campus; she is the owner and operator of 5 Fridges Farm, a 13-acre sustainable urban farm in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. This working landscape serves as a living laboratory for her students, where she integrates hands-on fieldwork with coursework in food systems, sustainability, and environmental science. She was instrumental in creating the department's certificate in Sustainable Urban Agriculture, designed to teach students not just how to grow food, but how to navigate the complex policies and logistics of farming in a city.
In addition to her focus on food geography, Dr. Weaver teaches a wide range of courses including Geography of South America, Cartography, and GIS Applications for the Urban Environment. Her teaching philosophy is rooted in "getting dirty"—often literally—challenging students to understand the physical and economic realities of the environments they study. When she isn't grading papers or teaching GIS, she is managing her herd of dairy goats, tending to her chickens or working to preserve one of the last remaining pockets of agricultural land in the Denver metro area.
Education
PhD, Geography | University of Denver | 2013
MA | University of Texas at Austin | 1998
BA | University of Minnesota | 1994