Louise Cheetham Bordelon is an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Colorado Denver in the Geography, Planning, and Design Landscape Architecture Department in the College of Architecture and Planning.  

Bordelon will present a lecture at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the U of A campus as part of the fall 2025 lecture series in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. A reception will follow in the Vol Walker Hall lobby. 

Bordelon’s lecture is also the keynote talk for Trail Mix, an interdisciplinary symposium and workshop dedicated to sustainable mountain bike trail design hosted by the Fay Jones School on Oct. 3-5. 

This lecture is presented in partnership with NorthWest Arkansas Community College.  

In Bordelon’s lecture, “The Landscape of Mountain Biking,” she will explain how her research as a cultural geographer and landscape architect led to the use of images and social media as a tool for understanding tourist landscapes and expands on her published work relating to mountain biking as a driver for tourism development.  

Using a case study of the Cape Epic Mountain Bike Race, Bordelon will illustrate gender disparity in mountain biking participation and explains an ethnographic study that investigates barriers to women’s participation in mountain biking. In closing, Bordelon will touch on how her work on mountain biking and trail experiences intersects in the landscape architecture studio. 

Bordelon was educated in landscape architecture, architecture, geography and anthropology in both South Africa and the United States, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. Prior to joining CU Denver in 2019, Bordelon taught landscape architecture at Louisiana State University and worked in practice in South Africa and the United States. She also held a post-doctoral fellowship in geography at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. 

Her research, teaching and practice explore ideas around cultural landscapes, landscape interpretation, tourist photographs and their impact on tourist behavior, and the narratives and identities that are constructed to create a tourist landscape. Bordelon is drawn to places of cultural and landscape change and is focused on exploring the “neglected narratives” of landscape interpretation, including erased ecologies, cultures, races and individuals. 

Her varied and diverse education, and background as a woman from Africa, allow her to work through a truly interdisciplinary and inter-cultural approach to research and different research methodologies. Bordelon also publishes on topics around mountain biking, specifically barriers to women’s participation in mountain biking and other sports associated with risk and fear.  

Bordelon practices Disturbia through rewilding the suburban landscape and displays a keen interest in urban ecology, biodiversity, pollinator pathways and the invention of nature. Bordelon is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Council of Landscape Architecture Educators. 

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects. 

This lecture is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.