I sometimes get the blankest stares when others consider the diverse areas in which I have received formal degrees or in which I have undertaken serious study. My formal education may appear to be scattered to the casual observer, but actually it all hangs very together well in my own mind – there is actually a lot of coherence among the various fields. Here is a description of the formal disciplines in the way I think about them presented in an attempt to make the linkages among them more apparent; these descriptions are selective, partial and distorted in many ways (as is most knowledge). I hope these personal definitions will render the associations that I make among these areas more transparent and I hope these definitions will help the reader to understand the internal coherence of these broad areas of study and how they operate in concert in my work.

• (Pure) Mathematics - understanding both (mathematical) space and metric and their role in the creation of systems of mathematical reasoning and description (e.g. non-Euclidean space and non-Euclidean geometry, topology, etc.); the symbolic language of mathematics and reasoning within a mathematical framework; the use of mathematics and mathematical systems to describe (or upon which to map) events in the physical (or natural) world; understanding how to visualize the shapes and forms that mathematical functions take in graphical representations
• (Cultural/Social) Geography - understanding geographical space/landscape as a container for events and for social relations; how human culture and expression is embedded in geographical form and presented through descriptions of the (natural) world (through mapping/maps)
• English studies/(literary studies) - understanding the role and use of language/language narrative in the production of textual expression and orature/utterances; the use of language to describe both the physical (natural) world/reality and imaginative terrains - the role of language in the creation and communication of reality; the form that reality takes when expressed linguistically
• Information Studies (library science) - institutionalized forms and practices in the collection, organization, production, location, communication and dissemination of information