Overview
Dr. Christian Pettersen is Assistant Professor of Geography and Geography Program Coordinator at Wichita State University. Dr. Pettersen is a political and legal geographer. His work has appeared in The Professional Geographer and Oxford Bibliographies in Human Geography. In his current research he examines how the Guatemalan state welcomed and then expelled the United Nations-sponsored International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). He analyzes how the CICIG’s expulsion can provide new insight into global forms of power, and how human rights law can expand and constrain social transformation across space and time.
At WSU, Dr. Pettersen teaches courses in human and world regional geography, and directs the geography minor. His classes are based on his research expertise and lived experience in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Before joining WSU, Dr. Pettersen was a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Studies and History at Kenyon College, a Fulbright-Hays fellow in Guatemala, and a Visiting Scholar at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Ph.D., The University of Georgia, 2023
M.A., The University of Georgia, 2015
B.A., The University of Arizona, 2013