Keith M. Bell

Associate Professor of Geography

Professional

Keith Bell has been a member of the Volunteer State Community College faculty since August 1998 and was recently promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.  (Click here for Department photograph.)  He graduated from the University of Memphis in 1995 with a Master of Science degree in geography.  He also has a baccalaureate in history and geography.  He was a teaching assistant at the University of Memphis and an adjunct instructor at Northwest Mississippi Community College, as well as an environmental scientist for two consulting firms, prior to coming to Volunteer State.

With Former Heavyweight Boxing Champion "Smokin'" Joe Frazier

Accepting Outstanding Faculty Award from Dean Charles L. Lea

  

Bell was graced with the Who's Who of America's Teachers for 2001-02, 2003-04, and 2005-06 for his excellence in teaching.   He received Volunteer State's 2004 Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence, Professional Development, College Service, and Community Service.  He was an Exemplary Distance Learning Course Award Nominee (2005-06) and one of only forty individuals to be named Columbia State Community College's "40 for the 40th" celebration.

In June 2002, he took part in The Geography Faculty Development Alliance at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  (Click here for group photo.)  He continues his progress toward becoming the best professor possible by applying for academic study and travel abroad.  To this end, Bell was selected to accompany the middle Tennessee regional Rotary Club's Group Study Exchange to Norway in the summer of 2004.  He prepared the two PowerPoint presentations for the group (i.e. GSE Bios and GSE Tennessee).

Memberships

Professor Bell is the Regional Coordinator for the Northern Middle Tennessee Unit of the Tennessee Geographic Alliance (TGA).  The TGA assists in educating educators in geographic techniques, dissemination of geographic knowledge, and an overall improvement in geographic literacy for the children of Tennessee, as well as the community at large.  He has published several articles (listed below) in the newsletter of the Alliance.  Check the TGA web site for past newsletters at http://web.utk.edu~tga .

Bell also enjoys geocaching, which is searching for hidden "treasure" using a global positioning system receiver (GPSr).  He joined the Middle Tennessee Geocacher's Club in 2006 and enjoys searching for caches with his family.  He recently found many EarthCaches on a reconnoiter of the Southwest, earning him a Bronze EarthCache Master Pin.  He is now supported by the USGS as an Earthcache Teacher Facilitatior.

As part of his devotion to education Bell has served as a judge and moderator for the Tennessee Geographic Bee (a competition of geographic knowledge for fourth through eighth graders from across the state) in recent years.  

Courses

Courses currently taught by Professor Bell are:

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is of interest to the instructor.  He hopes to offer a course in the future, but is currently using GIS in his lecture-based courses to help students understand complex geographic concepts.  Bell's academic interests include world history from a geographic perspective, agriculture and biotechnology, East Indian culture and religion, and politico-economic globalization.  His favorite thing about education is the interaction with hungry, driven students.  His least favorite thing is unmotivated students that expect high grades without putting forth the effort to earn them.

Publications & Professional Consultation

 

* Curriculum Vitae

Personal

Bell was married on August 14 and again on August 21, 1999 - to the same woman.  He married the former Reshma Patel.  The two ceremonies were Christian and Hindu, respectively.  They reside in Gallatin, Tennessee with their daughters, Devi and Elli. They also have a dog named Biscuit who does great tricks to amuse the kids. 

The Bell's interests include travel, camping, and anything outdoors.  Their travels have taken them to China (2000), India (2001), South Africa (2003) and Guatemala (2005).  They have traveled extensively across the United States, including a trip to New York just prior to September 11, 2001.  Another trip (2002) took them to Las Vegas to see "Sin City," Hoover Dam, and Death Valley.  They returned deeply enriched from a five-week trip that included Amsterdam, Netherlands, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and the whole of South Africa.

This summer he took a total of six trips in America: Grand Canyon (and the Four Corner States), Tampa, Boulder, San Antonio, Philadelphia, and Gulf Shores.  He's happy to be back in school to rest and relax.

Professor Bell's favorite books and writers are Longitude  (non-fiction by Dava Sobel), Guns, Germs, and Steel (non-fiction by Jared Diamond), The Botany of Desire (non-fiction by Michael Pollan), The Map that Changed the World (non-fiction by Simon Winchester), The Da Vinci Code (fiction by Dan Brown), Shōgun  (fiction by James Clavell), and Fareed Zakaria (Newsweek opinion columnist and commentator).  His favorite television shows are "The Simpsons", "Frontline World".  His favorite radio programs are "The World", "All Things Considered", "Morning Edition", (all on National Public Radio) and "Bob and Tom".  Finally, music.  Professor Bell isn't always so intellectual.  Although he enjoys all types of music (except Hip-Hop), his favorite genre of music is Heavy Metal.  His favorite band is the Swedish group In Flames.  He got to see them in May 2006 at the Omni New Daisy Theater in Memphis, Tennessee.  What a show!!!

(Below are photographs of me and my family. You will understand me a little better if you come to know them better.  Devi, Elli, and Reshma are everything to me.  Our two weddings, Devi's birth, Elli's birth, and Christmas 2005 are here.)

Click to enlarge photos.

Hindu Wedding

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Devi's First Day

 Christian Wedding

Elli leaves the hospital with Reshma

The Girls and their Ghost Crabs

in Gulf Shores, Alabama

  

The Girls, Mother, and cousin-brother Akash

in San Antonio, Texas