Katie Gill

About Katie:

Raised in Alfred, NY, I am definitely attached to my rural roots – but somehow I have become fascinated by cities, especially those where you can safely ride a bicycle.   Realizing that urban bicycle space has largely been forgotten I have become interested in community movements to bring utilitarian bicycle use back to fashion. I am interested in how bicycle space is created, destroyed, acknowledged, ignored, fought over, manipulated and used in the city.  This year I hope to research urban bicycle space in Syracuse, NY at a case study for my senior Honors thesis.

Recently my studies have taken me to Strasbourg, France through the SU Abroad program. Opting to take courses in the Geography Department at Universite Louis Pasteur, I was allowed to begin exploring French geographic thought through concentrating on the urban environment and planning.  In addition to studying, Strasbourg was a wonderful city to explore, especially when adventures were conducted on bicycles.  The concept of bicycle networks of paths and lanes no longer seemed foreign and unachievable. I am also interested in the concepts of psychogeography and how perceptions of space vary according to how you explore it. 

For the future, I am looking into continuing my education in a graduate research program in the field of sustainable development, urban planning and geography.  At the moment, I am planning on taking a year off to teach elementary school children English in France, partially because of the wonderful experiences I have had with International Young Scholars, a refugee-tutoring program offered through Hendricks Chapel, as well as a truly marvelous internship last year in a public elementary school in Strasbourg, France.