Tim Baird
295 West Campus Drive
Blacksburg, VA
24061
I study how humans interact with different types of environments. My primary research project focuses on these interactions within conservation landscapes in the developing world, especially East Africa. Since 2005, I have worked with Maasai agro-pastoralist communities to examine several issues, including: the causes and consequences of livelihood diversification; the social dynamics of biodiversity conservation; the transformation of cooperation, the drivers of economic development and diversity; shifts in household demography, and responses to disturbance. Currently, I have two projects in Tanzania that focus on growing mobile phone use and gendered social networks in rural areas.
My other research focuses on human-environment interactions in smart environments. Here, I work with colleagues in education, mechanical engineering, and computer science to examine how embedded technologies in built-environments can support engagement, collaboration and creativity in formal and informal educational settings.
I teach courses on global sustainability, environmental conservation, and topics in modern Africa. In the classroom, I strive to: promote systems thinking, highlight values and diversity; translate interdisciplinarity; encourage self-regulated learning and academic motivation; foster empathy; and leverage SCALE-UP learning environments.
Areas of Expertise:
- Human/environment Interactions
- Human Ecology of East Africa
- Information and Communication Technologies
- Sustainability
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
- Indoor Geography / Building Ecology
Education:
- Ph.D. University of North Carolina, 2012
- M.A. University of North Carolina, 2007
- B.A. Bowdoin College, 1999
General Course, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1998
- Seeking Sustainability 1 (GEOG/NR 1115)
- Seeking Sustainability 2 (GEOG/NR 1116)
- Africa Together (GEOG 4984)
- Human-Environment Interactions (GEOG 5984)
- Addison Flack. 2024. M.S. Using Lidar to examine human occupancy and collisions within a shared indoor environment.
Professor(s): Tim Baird - Shashank Karki. 2024. M.S. Tracking human movement indoors using terrestrial Lidar.
Professor(s): Tim Baird - Mark Villareal. 2022. M.S. Distribution of Resource Use in an Informal Learning Environment: Using Sensor Technologies to Bring Geography Indoors.
Professor(s): Tim Baird - Kelly Summers. 2019. M.S. Mobile Phones, Social Relations, and the Gatekeepers to Women's Empowerment in Maasai Households.
Professor(s): Tim Baird - David Fox. 2017. M.S. Settlement Patterns and their Potential Implications for Livelihoods among Maasai Pastoralists in Northern Tanzania.
Professor(s): Tim Baird - Ashley Lewis. 2015. M.S. Human-Wildlife Conflict and Mobile Phone Use among Maasai Pastoralists near Tarangire National Park, Northern Tanzania
Professor(s): Tim Baird
Building Ecology: Examining Space-Place Dynamics in a Shared Indoor Environment.
Sponsor: National Science Foundation: Human Environment and Geographical Sciences Program (HEGS).
Investigator(s): T. Baird (PI), N. Abaid, D. Franusich, D. Kniola, T. Pingel, E. Tural, T. Upthegrove, (BCS-2149229)
Amount: $349,703
2022-2026
Integrating Social Science and Sensing Technologies to Examine Active Learning Environments.
Sponsor: Stealcase, Inc., Active Learning Center Grant
Investigator(s): T. Baird (PI), D. Kniola, P. Tarazaga, B. Knapp, V. Thomas, R. Wynne, L. Fuller
Amount: Approx. $67,000
2018-2020
The effects of mobile phones on gendered social networks, decision making and vulnerability.
Sponsor(s): National Science Foundation: Geography and Spatial Sciences Program (GSS). SBE-RCUK
Invesitigator(s): T. Baird (PI), E. Woodhouse, J.T. McCabe, BCS-1660428.
Amount: $330,034 (+ £40,051 from RCUK)
2017-2020
Development interdisciplinary undergraduate minor in sustainability.
Sponsor: Pathways Minor Development and Delivery Grant for General Education. Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, VT.
Invesitigator(s): T. Baird (PI) and L.W. Carstensen.
Amount: $70,000+
2016-2018
Boosting University Infrastructure for Learning + Discovery (BUILD).
Sponsor: Human-Centered Smart Environments SEAD Grant
Institute for Society, Culture and Environment & Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, VT.
Invesitigator(s): T. Baird (PI), D. Kniola, P. Tarazaga.
Amount: $30,000
2016-2017
Texting the Last Great Herds: Maasai Social Networks and Land Use in the Age of the Cell Phone.
Sponsor: National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration.
Invesitigator(s): T. Baird (PI) and J. Hartter, CRE #9293-13.
Amount: $17,720
2013-2014
Wildlife Conservation and the Role of Inter-household Exchange in Social-Ecological
Sponsor: Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education Resilience.
Amount: $38,106
2009-2010
- Karki, S., Pingel, T. J., Baird, T. D., Flack, A., & Ogle, T. (2024). Enhancing Digital Twins with Human Movement Data: A Comparative Study of Lidar-Based Tracking Methods. Remote Sensing, 16(18), 3453.
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16183453 - Villarreal, M, TD Baird, PA Tarazaga, DJ Kniola, T Pingel, R Sarlo (2024) Shared Space and Resource Use within a Building Environment: An Indoor Geography. The Geographical Journal 00: e12604.
https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12604 - Baird, TD (2024) Pastoralist Livelihood Diversification and Social Network Transition: A Conceptual Framework. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 14: 12892.
https://doi.org/10.3389/past.2024.12892 - Baird, TD, E Woodhouse, JT McCabe, P Barnes, F Terta, N Runda (2024) New pathways for women’s empowerment in pastoralist Maasai households, Tanzania. Journal of Rural Studies 109: 103333.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103333 - Chaplin-Kramer, R, R Neugarten, D Gonzales-Jimenez, G Ahmadia, TD Baird, N Crane, E Delgoulet, H Eyster, N Kurashima, JC Llopis, A Millington, A Pawlowska-Mainville, J Rulmal, F Saunders, S Shrestha, M Vaughan, K Winter, S Wongbusarakum, U Pascual (2023) Transformation for inclusive conservation: evidence on values, decisions, and impacts in protected areas. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 64: 101347.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101347 - Baird, TD (2023) Saying Yes. Vignette in The Faculty Factor: A Vision for Developing Faculty Engagement with Living Learning Communities. Edited by J Eidum and L Lomicka. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
- Baird, TD, JT McCabe, E Woodhouse (2022) Case study 4 Tarangire National Park, Tanzania. In Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, & Rachel Neugarten. (2022) IPBES VA Chapter 4 - Literature & case study review on outcomes in protected areas and indigenous and community conserved areas (ICCAs).
https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/34b16e54-435e-4fd6-81c2-b8f64d1b0279/content - Barton, DN, R Chaplin-Kramer, E Lazos, M Van Noordwijk, S Engel, A Girvan, T Hahn, B Leimona, S Lele, A Niamir, B Özkaynak, A Pawlowska-Mainville, R Muradian, P Ungar, C Aydin, P Iranah, S Nelson, M Cantú-Fernández, D González-Jiménez, and Contributing Authors (2022) Chapter 4: Value expression in decision-making. In: Methodological Assessment Report on the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Balvanera, P., Pascual, U., Christie, M., Baptiste, B., and González-Jiménez, D. (eds). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany.
- Lee, E and TD Baird (2021) Roles of Autonomous Motivation, Individualism, and Instructor Support in Student-Centered Learning in South Korea and the United States. Educational Technology International 22 (2) 285-309.
https://doi.org/10.23095/ETI.2021.22.2.285 - Quandt, A, JD Salerno, TD Baird, JT McCabe, E Xu, JE Herrick, J Hartter (2021) Mobile phone use and agricultural impacts among female smallholder farmers in Tanzania. Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security 6 (1): 43-54.
http://dx.doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.338773 - Baird, TD, JT McCabe, E Woodhouse, I Rumas, S Sankeni, GO Saitoti (2021) Mobile phones and wrong numbers: how Maasai agro-pastoralists form and use accidental social ties in East Africa. Ecology and Society 26 (2) 41.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12528-260241 - Baird, TD (2021) Applying the Own it, Learn it, Share it framework to the flexible Pink Time assignment to scaffold student autonomy online and in person. Educational Technology Research and Development 69: 105-108.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09837-7 - Quandt, A, JD Salerno, JC Neff, TD Baird, JE Herrick, JT McCabe, E Xu, J Hartter (2020) Mobile phone use is associated with higher agricultural productivity in Tanzania, East Africa. PLOS ONE (15) 8 e0237337.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237337 - *Summers, K, TD Baird, E Woodhouse, ME Christie, JT McCabe, F Terta, N Peters (2020) Mobile phones and women’s empowerment in Maasai communities: How men shape women’s social relations and access to phones. Journal of Rural Studies 77: 126-137.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.04.013 - Baird, TD, DJ Kniola, J Hartter, KA Carlson, D Russell, S Rogers and JC Tice (2020) Adapting Pink Time to promote self-regulated learning across course types. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 32 (1).
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1259484 - *Fox, D, TD Baird, MJ Stern, SP Prisley (2019) Where mobile groups settle: spatial patterns and correlates of Maasai pastoralist sedentarization in northern Tanzania. Applied Geography 112, 102086.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2019.102086 - *Jensen, D, TD Baird, GB Blank (2018) New Landscapes of Conflict: Land Use Conflict at the Urban-Rural Fringe. Landscape Research 44 (4): 418-429.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2017.1413173 - Santo, A., K. Guillozet, M.G. Sorice, T.D. Baird, S.A. Gray, C.J. Donlan and C.B. Anderson (2017) Examining private landowners' knowledge systems of invasive species. Human Ecology 45 (4): 449-462.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-017-9920-7 - Baird, T.D. and J. Hartter (2017) Livelihood diversification, mobile phones and information diversity in northern Tanzania. Land Use Policy 67: 460-471.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.05.031 - Baird, T.D., B.C. Chaffin and D.J. Wrathall (2017) A Disturbance Innovation Hypothesis: Perspectives from Human and Physical Geography. The Geographical Journal 183 (2): 201-208.
https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12206 - Lewis, A.L., T.D. Baird and M.G. Sorice (2016) Mobile phone use and human-wildlife conflict in northern Tanzania. Environmental Management 58 (1): 117-129.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0694-2 - Stern, M.J. and T.D. Baird (2015) Trust ecology and the resilience of natural resources institutions. Ecology and Society 29 (2): 14.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26270214 - Baird, T.D. (2015) Conservation implications of the diffusion of Christian religious ideals in rural Africa. Population and Environment 36 (4): 373-399.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-014-0222-3 - Baird, T.D., D.J. Kniola, A.L. Lewis* and S.B. Fowler (2015) Pink Time: Evidence of self regulated learning and academic motivation among undergraduate students. Journal of Geography 114 (4): 146-157.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00221341.2014.977334 - MacKenzie, C.A., T.D. Baird, J. Hartter (2014) Use of Single Large or Several Small Policies as Strategies to Manage People-Park Interactions. Conservation Biology 28 (6): 1645-1656.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12334 - Baird, T.D. and C.L. Gray (2014) Livelihood Diversification and Shifting Social Networks of Exchange: A Social Network Transition? World Development 60: 14-30.
- Baird, T.D. (2014) Conservation and Unscripted Development: Proximity to park associated with development and financial diversity. Ecology and Society 19 (1): 4.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.02.002 - Baird, T.D. and P.W. Leslie (2013) Conservation as Disturbance: Upheaval and Livelihood Diversification near Tarangire National Park. Global Environmental Change 23 (5): 1131-1141.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.05.002 - Baird, T.D. (2013) Parks and Place Fragments: The Implications of Biodiversity Protection in Tanzania and Indiana. African Geographical Review 32 (1): 100-104.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2012.757976 - Baird, T.D., P.W. Leslie, and J.T. McCabe (2009) Effect of Conservation on Local Perceptions of Risk and Behavioral Response. Human Ecology 37 (4): 463-474.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-009-9264-z - Miller, T.R., T.D. Baird, C. Littlefield, G.P. Kofinas, F.S. Chapin III, and C.L. Redman (2008) Epistemological Pluralism: Reorganizing Interdisciplinary Research. Ecology and Society 13 (2).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26268006