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Postdoctoral Researcher (2023-present)
O'Donnell School of Public Health
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Connor.Donegan@UTSouthwestern.edu
I am a human geographer studying social and health inequalities and research methodology. My work is currently focused on three areas:
- Techniques and software for analyzing geographic data
- Methodology and study design techniques for connecting spatial analyses to theoretical models
- Case studies on cities, health, and inequalities.
After completing my PhD in Geospatial Information Sciences (GIS) at UT Dallas in 2023, I joined the O'Donnell School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center as a postdoctoral researcher. I studied urban geography and political economy in the geography programs at University of British Columbia (MA, 2013) and University of Minnesota (BA, 2010).
This site hosts a selection of my writings including archival research on convict leasing in Florida (1877-1919), a study of spatial-statistical theory, and the statistical software packages I have developed.
My dissertation is titled Plausible reasoning and heuristic methodology in human geography: An invesitagtion of colorectal cancer incidence and inequalities in urban Texas, 1999--2019, engages with the epistemological framework of plausible reasoning (PR) as developed by the likes of George Pólya and Sir Harold Jeffreys. I argue that their writings on PR can contribute to methodology and study design in the social sciences, including for research pertaining to social structures and health. I argue that that PR can provide an epistemological complement to realist philosophies of science and highlight how key historical proponents of PR in the physical sciences presented their original work on probability theory as part of a defense of realism and as a critique of positivism. (Before today's 'critical realism' existed, Jeffreys described his own perspective 'critical realist'.) More of my dissertation research will be added to the site as it reaches publication stage.