When it came time to look for a doctoral program in geography, Naomi Pope knew exactly where she wanted to go: UCLA not only had one of the most distinguished departments in the field, it also had Professor Allen Scott, whose work on the cultural economy of cities—and in particular Hollywood—dovetailed with her research goals.

She took it as a positive sign when the Association of American Geographers decided to hold its 2002 annual meeting in Los Angeles, making it convenient for her to pay a visit to Professor Scott. And then there was a final bit of serendipity. On the flight into Los Angeles, she told her seatmate about her plans for graduate studies. The woman helpfully pointed out UCLA's campus from the air. "I've got this nice little guesthouse in back of my place," the woman said, "and you could rent it if you come here. I live right across the street from campus."

UCLA's decision to admit Naomi was just about as clear-cut, for she had a rather impressive resume, including a Chancellor's Fellowship and awards from the Fulbright Foundation and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This financial support is due in great part to the excellence of Naomi's master's thesis work at the University of British Columbia, which was presented at 2003's annual conference of the Association of American Geographers.

Naomi did a comparative study of Seattle's Belltown and Vancouver's Yaletown, former industrial areas that have been transformed into thriving new media and high tech service centers and residential neighborhoods. "These areas had remained derelict for so long," she says, "and then all of a sudden waves of new people were taking them on—young, artistic, with a culture of their own."

Naomi's work looked at the cultural economies developed by mostly independent contractors and small firms working in graphic design, web design, and gaming science. Geography at the graduate level embraces a range and physical and social sciences, so mapping, interviews, demographic analysis, and economic studies all had a place in her work.

After listing all of the media firms in each area, Naomi selected a random sample for closer examination, describing aspects such as firm size and employee demographics, goods and services they used or produced, sociocultural and other aspects of their location, and interconnections with other organizations both locally and globally. Her goal was to show how all these factors contributed to building centers of art, creative design, and innovation.

Belltown and Yaletown had similar demographics and similar social ambience, Naomi found, but Belltown's economic ties were local, thanks to the giant Microsoft, while Yaletown's economic network reached into Asia and the Pacific. In Vancouver's Yaletown, one element of the neighborhood economy was the movie industry. Intrigued, Naomi decided that her doctoral studies would compare the film industries in Canada (Vancouver / Toronto) and Hollywood.

And this brought her to Professor Scott, whose work in urban and regional economic development has focused lately on the movie industry. "She's interested in what makes these economic clusters tick. That's very much the focus of my work as well, so there's a very good match."

Professor Scott finds his new protégé "highly motivated and extremely focused on where she wants to go and what she wants to do." Although it is not common for a student to approach the department with a mentor already selected, the department "makes it a rule that entering graduate students have to have arranged for a preliminary adviser," Professor Scott says, "so they don't float around—they immediately link up with someone and have some direction."

The program also provides direction through its curricular structure. First-year doctoral students like Naomi take three courses each quarter: a core geography course, a graduate elective in geography, and a related course outside the department. In her first quarter at UCLA, Naomi took a sector analysis class in the School of Planning, where she participated in a group project on Hollywood. She's also taken a Film School class on independent film financing and an anthropology offering on ethnography of media. This spring, she's taking her first class with Professor Scott, on the creative industries and their role in new economies.

Her second year will be devoted to work as a teaching assistant and preparation for 16 hours of written comprehensive examinations, the subjects still to be negotiated with a committee she has yet to choose—the classes she's taking outside her department are intended to help her select its members. In the third year, she'll finally get to a dissertation proposal and the research and writing to follow.

Meantime, as a geographer, she's finding Los Angeles different from what she expected. Although it's a huge and sprawling place, "I'm finding these smaller communities like Westwood that have such an eclectic yet established identity." And, although she owns a car, "I use it much less than I expected," she says. "I try to walk as much as possible."

Published in Spring 2003, Graduate Quarterly