Larry Gorenflo

  • Stuckeman Chair in Design
  • Professor of Landscape Architecture, Geography, African Studies, and Anthropology
  • Biological Diversity

  • Linguistic and Cultural Diversity

  • Human Ecology

  • Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

  • Conservation

  • GIS

  • African Studies

  • Latin American Studies

432 Stuckeman

Larry Gorenflo

Biography

Larry Gorenflo is a professor of landscape architecture, geography, African studies, and anthropology. He serves as the faculty-in-charge of the Environmental Inquiry Minor and is Director of Latin American Studies at Penn State. He holds the Eleanor R. Stuckman Chair in Design in the Stuckeman School.

Gorenflo is internationally recognized for research that identifies co-occurrence between linguistic (cultural) and biological diversity at geographic scales ranging from global to individual localities. His inquiries reveal opportunities for integrative conservation efforts that target both types of diversity. Expanding on this research is a focus on protected area design that seeks to integrate the speakers of Indigenous languages in reserves created primarily to conserve nature. Both biological and cultural diversity currently are disappearing rapidly in the early 21st century. As a second research focus, Dr. Gorenflo examines prehistoric landscapes in the Basin of Mexico, the location of both the pristine state centered at Teotihuacan and the core of the Aztec Empire. His research on prehistoric landscapes emphasizes regional settlement and the human ecology of resident sociocultural systems. In all of his work, Gorenflo employs geographic information system technology and a variety of analytical methods to illuminate the place of humans in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Collected Works