From Myth Maps to the Metaverse:
Geography Professor Merrill Johnson Retires

December 2024

By Josh Zaffos

After an exceptional forty-year-plus career of service and leadership in higher education, Colorado State University Professor of Geography Merrill Johnson is retiring. Johnson, a professor and administrator at CSU since 2015, has been among the leading advocates to develop and grow a Geography major on campus. He is also an innovator in exploring the educational potential of virtual worlds and the metaverse, including publishing the 2022 text, Social Virtual Worlds and Their Places: A Geographer’s Guide. 

“Throughout my career, I’ve been known as the quirky guy who uses strange technology,” Johnson said.  

“Merrill is the consummate geographer, recognizing space and the relationships found throughout all disciplines,” said Geography Professor Stephen Leisz. “Merrill is proof that Geography is intrinsically interdisciplinary.” 

Advocating for Geography Technologies 

Born in Kansas, Johnson moved around the U.S. and Canada while growing up, the son of a music professor and a music teacher. In junior high school, he started creating myth and fantasy maps on paper and foam, building his own worlds and imagining regional climates and populations’ social and economic habits.  

“My parents weren’t quite sure what was wrong with me,” Johnson said, with his characteristic Southern wit. 

He attended West Texas State University, studying international relations and political science – with a continuing interest in maps. “I didn’t initially realize geography was something I could pursue as a career,” said Johnson, who also gained a teaching certificate and first stepped into the classroom as a high school student teacher in economics and government in Texas.  

After one year in law school, he gave in to his passions and switched programs to complete a M.A. in geography from Arizona State University and then a Ph.D. at University of Georgia. At Georgia, Johnson met his wife, Lynn; the couple have been married for 42 years and have two daughters and two grandsons.  

Johnson’s dissertation examined industrial geography and economic development in the South, furthering his interests and expertise in political geography. Through a fellowship in Ecuador, he also began specializing in Latin American urban geography and related topics, including a study of the distribution of Ecuadorian convenience stores, known as abarroterías. 

After graduation, Johnson was hired as an assistant professor of geography at the University of New Orleans. He served as a department chair for more than a decade beginning in 1989, launched a graduate program in geography, and became a full professor in 1994. 

Throughout that time, Johnson was an active student mentor and a voice for embracing technologies within geography, advocating for personal computers and internet connectivity years ahead of colleagues. He was also an advocate for using then-novel geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, which enable geographers to massively expand their data collection and analysis efforts over time. That included a 3-year fellowship with NASA at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi studying the relationships between GIS and remote sensing and economic development. 

“My main interests have been in the impacts of these technologies,” Johnson said, “not only because I really enjoyed maps and especially computerized maps, but I wanted something that would stand out for our students who were majoring in geography. So I got a couple of grants to build labs and establish a remote sensing and GIS curriculum at UNO.” 

“Some people in the faculty just really weren’t interested in seeing that happen. I was too technological and this would took away from the craftsmanship that a fine cartographer offered. I certainly understood that but I also knew that it would be a great skill for our majors to leave with and it would help their employability immensely, and I was right about that.” 

Finding Virtual Frontiers in Geography 

Johnson’s successes and engagement led him into UNO’s administration, including positions as Associate Dean for the College of Liberal Arts, Associate Provost, and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. He also led a Latin American student-recruitment initiative through the 2000s, traveling and meeting with students, university officials, and politicians in Honduras to increase international student enrollments and achievements and other partnerships. 

In the mid 2000s, the Louisiana Board of Regents tabbed Johnson to coordinate a statewide program to study the opportunities for using virtual worlds – such as Second Life – as teaching and research tools in higher education. The geography professor who once crafted his own maps and worlds saw the huge potential for research and engagement as he learned about the applications. 

“This was like what I was doing in junior high school on steroids because now it’s interactive,” recalled Johnson who first started diving into Second Life in 2006. “It was like I had been struck – like Saul on the road to Damascus, the scales fell from my eyes! – this was an extension of what I was trying to do all these years.” Johnson said. “I remember I downloaded Second Life and made an avatar and I went in and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing – all of it computer generated, of course – but very much a parallel universe and culture and three-dimensional map experience and I just couldn’t get enough of it. And, you know, I still feel that way.” 

Johnson retired – for the first time – from UNO in 2015. Within months, Colorado State had lured him back to work, hiring Johnson to be Academic Director of INTO CSU, an international-student support center that later merged with other campus services.  

“When I talk to students about professional decisions and what they what they want to do, I can tell them with all honesty, I have never regretted being a geographer.

Merrill Johnson, CSU Professor of Geography 

Growing Geography at CSU

While hired as an administrator at CSU, Johnson soon found himself back in the classroom teaching geography classes within the Department of Anthropology. At the time, Geography was only a minor program with interest toward developing a major. 

“We were super fortunate to have Merrill come along when he did,” said Professor of Geography Jason Sibold, a leading force behind the Geography major proposal. “Merrill obviously contributed in traditional and expected ways, filling gaps in our curriculum, teaching great classes, taking on service, and conducting research, but he also played a key role in helping launch the Geography program.”  

Johnson’s expertise in political geography complemented the research and teaching of others, and Sibold credits his presence and knowledge with gaining program approval. 

“His knowledge of geography and academic institutions from nearly every angle imaginable was central in making the argument that we were a complement to other programs on campus in contrast to a competing discipline,” Sibold said. “This helped us win over skeptics and get approval for the major. His World Regional Geography and Political Geography courses are great examples of the complementary role of geography on campus today.” 

Leisz also complimented Johnson’s knowledge and support for colleagues. “As I developed the first cartography course at CSU, Johnson helped me through discussions about how cartography has changed and also passed on his notes – all in hard-copy form – from his time working with cartography,” he said. “He continually promoted all things Geography here at CSU and he also introduced me to the next chapters of geography that will be found in virtual spaces and virtual worlds.”  

Retiring (Virtually)

Johnson may be retiring – again – but he remains engaged with his scholarship of virtual worlds. His 2022 book, Social Virtual Worlds and Their Places: A Geographer’s Guide, offers geographical perspectives on experiences in the metaverse and examines individuals’ sense of identity and community in virtual spaces. He also remains active on Second Life through two avatars, one of whom is the editor of a new publication of academics from the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium. 

“When I was in administration [at UNO and CSU], I did not have much time to do the sort of research and the fun things that really fascinated me about virtual worlds. Being at CSU helped me find I had more time to do that, which is what led to the book. This is very much an acquired taste right now but in 15 years, I think, most people will be walking around with some sort of 3D web presence.” 

Johnson also knows he will stay engaged with colleagues and students, possibly teaching online classes and continuing as a mentor and an advocate for research and careers in geography. 

“When I talk to students about professional decisions and what they what they want to do, I can tell them with all honesty,” Johnson said, “I have never regretted being a geographer.”