gerard toal irish gearid tuathail born 1962 in the republic of ireland is professor of government and international affairs and director of the government and international affairs program virginia polytechnic institute and state university national capital region campus toal grew up in the border region of ireland in the village of smithborough county monaghan he received a ba in history and geography from national university of ireland maynooth with first class honours in 1982 he obtained a ma in geography from the university of illinois at urbanachampaign in 1984 and a phd in political geography from syracuse university in 1989 john oloughlin in illinois and john a agnew in syracuse were his academic advisors following his ph d toal was hired in 1989 as assistant professor of geography at virginia tech in blacksburg where he worked for ten years before moving to the washington dc region to establish what became the government and international affairs program in the school of public and international affairstoals research specializations include critical geopolitics nationalism political geography postcommunism and globalization he conducts research in washington dc bosniaherzegovina and on the caucasus region tuathail has been a key figure in establishing critical geopolitics as a domain of research within political geography and international relations he is one of the contemporary geographers featured in the book key thinkers in space and place he had authored coauthored andor edited seven books his current book is bosnia remade ethnic cleansing and its reversal coauthored with dr carl dahlman professor of geography at miami university in ohio it examines how wartime ethnic cleaning and a postwar displaced person returns process transformed the character of three towns in bosnia professor toal is an associate editor for the academic journals geopolitics and eurasian geography and economics and serves on the editorial board of political geography and nationalities papers toal has held fellowships at the copenhagen peace research institute and the center for international studies at the university of southern california in 2005 he testified before the united states congress on political developments in bosniaherzegovina he lives in washington dc with his wife and two daughters