Every year the AAG provides funding to enable a member of the AAG to take their domestic partner on a research trip, regardless of them having any formal training in geography. One recipient was chosen this year from among eight applicants and receives $1,200.

Shouraseni Roy, Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Regional Studies at the University of Miami, is conducting a research project entitled “Linking Gender Inequalities/Inequities with Impacts of Climate Change in the Global South.” The study explores how the detrimental impacts of climate change in the Global South affect women more than men.

The first stage of Shouraseni’s research is an analysis of secondary data. Using several variables from the 2015 Human Development Report and the World Bank’s Global Gender Gap Report, she will identify the spatial clustering of low levels of female education. She will then set this alongside data from the climate vulnerability index to reveal the different relationships that exist in different points in space.

The second stage of her research is to examine how regional scale spatial patterns relate to local level processes. In the Indian cities of New Delhi and Mumbai, she will meet with various NGOs working in women’s empowerment and environment. She hopes that her findings will expand the debate on the gendering impacts of climate change and help in effective gender mainstreaming in policy formulation.

The funding will enable Shouraseni’s partner, Oliver Martin, a Marketing Technical Adviser for Federal Express, to join her during her fieldwork in India.

The joy of working alongside one’s partner was something very dear to Anne Underwood, wife of geographer, Gilbert White. After their youngest child went off to boarding school, Anne joined with Gilbert in field studies of domestic water use in East Africa. This was the first in a series of studies on water supply and health that she completed independently or in collaboration with others.

In 1989, Gilbert and Anne donated a sum of money to the American Association of Geographers to establish the Anne U. White Fund specifically to support accompanied field research. Gilbert White and other donors subsequently added substantially to the original gift.