Perspectives

Finding the Way: A Tribute to Geography

By James Chan

James Chan posed in front of a wall shelf full of booksOne June 1, my lifelong companion and I bought a condo at The Philadelphian, right next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. When I opened the mailbox of our unit guess what I found? A copy of the latest Annals of the AAG (American Association of Geographers) with the previous owner’s name on the label. The presence of that journal struck me like a message from Providence. It reminded me of my geography training and—now at age 76 and after nearly 55 years of work both within and outside of the field—made me wonder: could a discipline which I once thought had led me astray have actually been my lucky star? Here is my geography story.

No sooner had puberty awakened me to the need for an education in this chaotic world than I realized I excelled at geography in high school. I became a geography major at the University of Hong Kong and graduated in 1970. In 1971, the University of Chicago accepted me as a foreign student in their geography department. I studied under Marvin Mikesell (cultural geography) and Paul Wheatley (historical geography of East and Southeast Asia), graduating in 1973. I then went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to work with Rhoads Murphey (China, India, and regional geography), earning my Ph.D. in 1977. Peter Gosling (Southeast Asia) and George Kish (Soviet Union) were my other geography advisors. Professor Chang Chun-shu (History of China) was the only non-geography member of my doctoral committee.

In the late 1970s, as now, tenure-track jobs in geography were scarce. I had a one-year stint at Boston University and a brief stay at SUNY Cortland, teaching cultural and world regional geography, along with a course I created on China. Personal issues at the time compounded the shortage of good jobs in geography, so I left academic teaching and worked at Academic Press, Inc., a scientific publisher in New York, where I served as China Area Manager and then International Promotion Manager for two years. Corporate politics made me want to leave an otherwise good position. In May 1983, I set up my own consulting practice, helping American manufacturers, database companies, and professional associations do business in China and Asia. I’m still an independent consultant, doing what I love—something I literally cooked up on my own.

For several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was lucky to befriend Woody (Forrest) Pitts, whose work at the University of Hawai‘i specialized in Japan, Korea, and quantitative methods. I used to complain to him about the lack of career opportunities in geography and how I felt “let down” for having chosen it as my specialty. Woody, kind and supportive, told me I was wrong to feel that way. Intellectually, I agreed with him. But emotionally, I couldn’t stop blaming geography for a career I thought I would never find.

In truth, I was disingenuous with myself. It is true that I never became an academic or research geographer, and business consulting has never been seen as a natural path for geography majors. Yet my knowledge of geography contributed to the epiphany I had about working in international consulting.

One day in church, I made a vow: I wanted to help pull China and America closer through trade. A deep calm and sense of peace came over me the moment that idea struck. Now, as an independent business consultant with a Ph.D. in China geography and cultural geography, I’m reminded by the serendipitous Annals of the AAG in my mailbox that what I’ve been doing is still deeply, intimately geographical.

Imagine me at the nadir of a troubled life when I was in my late 20s and early 30s, seeing myself as Hercules standing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, pulling China and America closer—moving the tectonic plates themselves. Isn’t that a quintessentially geographical idea?

In April 1979, while I was a young geography professor at SUNY Cortland, Clifton Pannell (University of Georgia, urban, economic and cultural geography of China and East Asia) invited me to give a paper on China. I traveled to Philadelphia from Cortland, New York to attend the 75th Anniversary of the AAG annual meeting, which was held at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel. In the evening of April 22, 1979, I met my lifelong companion by chance in the city. Our meeting has turned Philadelphia into my home and the United States of America into my adopted country.

Now you know why that latest issue of The Annals turned out to be such a revelation. Geography as a subject works mysteriously for me.

Perspectives is a column intended to give AAG members an opportunity to share ideas relevant to the practice of geography. If you have an idea for a Perspective, see our guidelines for more information.

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News

Jennifer Whytlaw Joins GISCI Board as AAG Representative

Jennifer WhytlawThe GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) Board of Directors has welcomed Jennifer L. Whytlaw, Ph.D., GISP, associate professor of Applied GIS at Old Dominion University, as the newest representative of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). She joins Darcy Boellstorff, who recently renewed her term as AAG’s second representative on the board.

Founded in 2002 by member organizations including AAG, GITA, NSGIC, UCGIS, and the Geospatial Professional Network (GPN, formerly URISA), GISCI is a nonprofit organization that administers the internationally recognized GISP® (Certified GIS Professional) credential. The GISCI Board meets monthly to guide certification policies, strategic priorities, and initiatives that support excellence and professionalism across the geospatial community.

As a GISP since 2012, Whytlaw brings both professional expertise and a strong commitment to advancing the GIS profession. Throughout her career, she has promoted ethical and professional standards in GIS while inspiring the next generation of geospatial professionals through teaching, mentoring, research, and outreach.

At Old Dominion University, Whytlaw teaches undergraduate and graduate students, advises student research, and mentors emerging professionals as they pursue careers and advanced degrees. Her commitment to workforce development extends beyond higher education. She has been an active advocate for introducing GIS in K-12 classrooms, applying for educational grants, supporting GIS-integrated science curricula, and participating in STEM outreach programs that expose younger students to career opportunities in geospatial technology.

Looking ahead, Whytlaw is enthusiastic about helping GISCI strengthen its engagement with students and early-career professionals. Reflecting on her goals as a board member, she noted: “I would like to enhance GISCI’s outreach and engagement with student-focused programs such as mentorship programs and online resources targeted toward all types of colleges and universities, ensuring the future sustainability of the GIS profession.”

She also sees an opportunity for GISCI to continue evolving alongside rapidly advancing technologies: “A second focus area would be continuing the integration of new and emerging geospatial technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and XR [extended reality] technologies, into the GISCI’s certification process to ensure relevance and preparedness for the future of GIS.”

As a founding GISCI member organization, AAG plays an important role in helping ensure that GIS certification reflects the needs and perspectives of the geography and GIScience communities. Whytlaw’s experience in education, outreach, and emerging technologies will provide valuable insight as GISCI continues to advance the GISP credential and support the future of the profession.

Learn more about GISCI and the GISP credential
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New Books for Geographers

New Books for Geographers: Summer 2026

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The AAG compiles a quarterly list of newly published geography books and books of interest to geographers. The list includes a diversity of books that represents the breadth of the discipline (including key sub-disciplines), but also recognizes the work which takes place at the margins of geography and overlap with other disciplines. While academic texts make up most of the books, we also include popular books, novels, books of poetry, and books published in languages other than English, for example.

Some of these books are selected for review in the AAG Review of Books. Publishers are welcome to contact the AAG Review of Books Editor-in-Chief Joshua L. Conver, as well as anyone interested in reviewing these or other titles.

A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865, by Antwain K. Hunter (University of North Carolina Press 2025)

Beating Heart of the World: The Taos Art Colony, the Pueblo Resistance, and the Battle for Indigenous America, by Steven L. Davis (University of New Mexico Press 2026)

Days of Dissent: Revolts, Strikes, and Rebel Histories, by Gabriel San Roman (PM Press 2026)

Disorienting Phenomenology: Queer Space and Trans Life, by Eden Kinkaid (University of Minnesota Press 2026)

Does Marxism Support Decolonization? An Indigenous Analysis of a Eurocentric Theory, edited by Tolomeo Miller (Landline 2026)

Dream Road to Pan America: A Century in Pursuit of the World’s Longest Highway, by Shawn William Miller (University of California Press 2026)

Escaping Babylon: An Intimate History of Black British Music, by Jesse Bernard (Profile Books 2026)

Ethnic Studies at the Crossroads, by George Lipsitz (University of California Press 2026)

Geohistory of Galicia: 1772-1918 Studies and Materials, edited by Tomaz Kargol (Jagiellonian University Press 2025)

Growing Papaya Trees: Nurturing Indigenous Roots During Climate Displacement, by Jessica Hernandez (North Atlantic Books 2025)

Here Beside the Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening, by Jim Newton (Random House 2025)

Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World, by Sara C. Bronin (W.W. Norton 2026)

Landkeeping: Restoring Indigenous Fire Stewardship and Ecological Partnerships, by Jared D. Aldern and Theresa Lynn Gregor (Oregon State University Press 2026)

Loving Black Boys: A Black Feminist Bible on Racism and Revolutionary Mothering, by Tamura Lomax (Duke University Press 2026)

Migrant Midwest: The Case for Immigration and Economic Growth in the American Heartland, by Jonathan Mann Burkham (Bloomsbury 2026)

Mobilizing Data for Justice: A Guide to Activism in the Digital Age, by Chris Hurl, Elena Rowan, Marius Senneville, and Kevin Walby (Between the Lines Books 2026)

Non-Aligned: Art, Decolonization, and the Third World Project in India, by Atreyee Gupta (Yale University Press 2025)

Relegated: One American’s Pints-and-Pies Journey from the Top to the Bottom of English Football, by Todd Smith (Simon and Schuster 2026)

Science of Science: Understanding the Foundations and Limits of Science from an Interdisciplinary Perspective, by Alexander Krauss (Oxford University Press 2024)

Segregating Cities: An Arnold R. Hirsch Reader, edited by Thomas J. Sugrue (Chicago University Press 2026)

The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy: Why the Right Blames the Frankfurt School for the Decline of the West, by A.J.A. Woods (Verso 2026)

The Islands and the Stars: A History of Japan’s Space Programs, by Subodhana Wijeyeratne (Stanford University Press 2026)

The Living Green Myth: The Promise and Limits of Lifestyle Environmentalism, by Michael Maniates (Polity Books 2025)

The Routledge Handbook of the History and Philosophy of Science after Kant, edited by Flavia Padovani and Adam Tamas Tuboly (Routledge 2025)

The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds across Landscapes and Imagination, by Michaela Vieser and Isaac Yuen (Reaktion Books 2025)

The Urban Questions: Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Approaches to Investigating the Ancient Mesoamerican City, edited by Lisa Johnson and Arianna Campiani (University of Utah Press 2025)

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Perspectives

Building Healthier Cities: A Call for Geographers and Building Professionals to Collaborate through Geospatial Data

By Oluwaseun Ipede

As our cities grow more complex and environmental crises mount, urban sustainability is no longer a theoretical discussion; it’s an existential necessity. Among the greatest challenges facing 21st-century cities is balancing rapid urbanization with public health and environmental sustainability. At the heart of this challenge lies an indispensable asset: Geospatial data.

Geospatial data is the connective tissue that binds physical infrastructure, human behavior, and environmental systems. But data alone is not enough. Its responsible use requires geographers, academic and professional, human and physical, cartographic and computational, to engage collaboratively with built environment professionals such as architects, engineers, and construction (AEC) specialists. In doing so, we can transform urban spaces into sustainable, healthy cities that serve both people and the planet.

This perspective calls for a more intentional convergence between academic geography and the built environment professions. We must create stronger alliances between geographers and AEC practitioners to unlock the full potential of geospatial technologies, not only for smarter infrastructure but for a higher Public Health Index (PHI), a metric that integrates the determinants of health within the spatial context of urban development.

Why Geospatial Thinking Matters in the AEC World

The AEC sector is in the midst of a digital revolution driven by tools such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), GIS, IoT, and AI. Yet, what’s often missing from this techno-centric evolution is geographical thinking, the ability to analyze the spatial dimensions of urban life, social equity, and environmental justice.

AEC professionals typically design and construct the built environment based on functional needs, client specifications, and engineering requirements. But without geographers’ input, they may overlook socio-spatial disparities, ecological sensitivity, or historical injustices embedded in urban landscapes.

By leveraging geospatial data, geographers can help architects and engineers ask better questions:

  • Are green spaces equitably distributed?
  • What neighborhoods face the highest air pollution burden?
  • Where are vulnerabilities to urban heat islands concentrated?
  • How does access to healthcare, clean water, and public transport vary across districts?

These are not only public health questions, but also inherently geographic questions. The answers lie in maps, models, and location-based data.

Public Health and Urban Sustainability: A Spatial Convergence

There is growing recognition that the health of urban populations is shaped more by where people live than by individual behavior. The WHO’s urban health framework emphasizes that air quality, noise pollution, walkability, access to nature, and housing conditions are all place-based determinants of health.

In a 2021 article in Nature Sustainability, Nieuwenhuijsen et al. demonstrated how integrated urban and transport planning using spatial models could significantly reduce premature deaths in cities by designing healthier environments. Similarly, the Lancet Global Health commission on urban design highlighted the health dividends of data-informed land use, mobility, and environmental planning (Giles-Corti et al., 2016).

The missing piece? Systematic and sustained collaboration between academic geographers and built environment professionals, rooted in shared access to data and mutually informed practices.

Large number of houses built on a hill with greenspace saved within.
Junnar, Maharashti, India. Building and planning professionals should work more closely with geographers to capture the full range of geoinformation about places, such as the distribution of green space, health outcomes for residents, history and context, and more. Credit: Zoshua Colah, Unsplash

 

Bridging Academic Research and Real-World Impact

Academic geography often generates invaluable insights into urban systems, population health, environmental exposure, and spatial justice. Yet, these insights are frequently siloed, buried in journals, datasets, or local case studies without pipelines into professional practice.

By contrast, AEC professionals often possess the authority and tools to shape real environments but may lack the time or training to engage with cutting-edge geographic research. The result is a fragmentation that wastes both insight and opportunity.

A more effective model would:

  • Create applied research partnerships where academic institutions support municipal projects with geospatial modeling, health risk mapping, or sustainability planning.
  • Co-develop open data platforms that bring together public health data, environmental monitoring, land use, and infrastructure systems.
  • Embed geographers in interdisciplinary planning teams within urban design firms, public agencies, and NGOs.
  • Incentivize knowledge translation, encouraging academics to publish not only in peer-reviewed outlets but also in formats digestible by policymakers, planners, and engineers.

Through these approaches, we transform geographic knowledge into actionable intelligence for healthier cities.

The Role of Data Collaboration: Optimism over Obstacles

It’s true that data limitations exist, especially in the Global South, where political sensitivities or institutional gaps can impede access. But rather than accepting these barriers, we should see them as challenges to overcome through professional solidarity and innovative collaboration. Emerging models such as data cooperatives, public-private academic partnerships, and community mapping projects (e.g., Humanitarian OpenStreetMap) demonstrate how diverse stakeholders can pool geospatial data to fill critical gaps.

Data availability and collaboration challenges are not exclusive to the Global South, they also exist in the Global North, though in different forms. In wealthier contexts, issues often revolve around data fragmentation, siloed institutional access, and proprietary restrictions by private firms. Despite robust infrastructure, academic research, and AEC professionals in the Global North still face hurdles in sharing and integrating geospatial data for public benefit. Collaborative initiatives, but the need for stronger academic-practitioner synergy remains. The opportunity to blend research with practice to improve public health through spatial insights is global. AEC professionals can enhance this effort by sharing non-sensitive spatial data collected during design or construction phases, site assessments, building footprints, and environmental impact data back into public or academic domains. Meanwhile, universities and research institutes can act as neutral custodians of data, improving transparency and trust.

Everyone Has a Geographic Role

No matter their specialization–transport geographers, medical geographers, climate modelers, or remote sensing analysts–every geographer works with “place” as a foundational concept. And every AEC professional works in a place, whether designing a water pipeline, planning a hospital, or modeling a transportation network.

This shared concern with space and place is the starting point for collaboration.

We must redefine geography not only as a field of academic inquiry but as an action-oriented discipline embedded in urban development processes. Geography, through its emphasis on scale, systems, and connections, offers a language to unify the fragmented efforts of planners, builders, public health experts, and citizens.

By foregrounding geospatial data and geographical expertise, we can help cities evolve not just in form, but in function, as ecosystems of wellbeing.

Conclusion: Toward a Healthy Urban Future

As a multidisciplinary expert, I stand at the intersection where physical space meets digital insight. I’ve witnessed firsthand how each role contributes a vital piece to the urban puzzle, from capturing accurate terrain models with GPS/drones to analyzing social disparities with spatial data. What’s clear is that no single discipline holds the key to building sustainable, healthy cities. It is only through intentional collaboration between academic researchers and built environment professionals that we can truly unlock the power of location-based data.

Geospatial data is not just about maps, it’s about meaning. When survey data informs urban models, when drone imagery validates land cover changes, and when GIS connects these insights to public health indicators, we move beyond design toward decision-making for human well-being. Geography isn’t just a field; it’s a framework. It equips us to see connections, understand patterns, and act across scales.

The future of our cities depends on breaking down silos, sharing data openly, and applying geographic thinking across professions. It’s time we all, academics and practitioners alike, step up as co-creators of healthier, more equitable urban spaces. After all, everything happens somewhere. And where it happens matters. “Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.”

This article is based on the author’s presentation on urban oases during AAG 2025 in Detroit.  

Perspectives is a column intended to give AAG members an opportunity to share ideas relevant to the practice of geography. If you have an idea for a Perspective, see our guidelines for more information.

 

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Awardees

2026 AAG Communities Awards

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Each year, our Communities—Regional Divisions, Specialty Groups, Affinity Groups, and Communities of Practice, lead the nomination and selection of awards that recognize outstanding members. This communities‑driven approach reflects the values, priorities, and expertise of those closest to the work. These awards support the mission of each community and honor scholars for their meaningful contributions within their specialty, affinity, or region. In doing so, they celebrate excellence, elevate peer‑recognized leadership, and advance the collective work of our community members. Below are this year’s award recipients for each community.

Regional Divisions

Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG)

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Graduate, Caitlyn Linehan, UC Santa Barbara, Who Gains, Who Loses? Equity Impacts of Park Closures and Open Streets

East Lakes Regional Division (ELDAAG)

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Undergraduate, Margarete Brady, Grand Rapids Community College

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Graduate, Theodora Mary Fletcher, University of Toledo

Student Poster/Presentation Award

  • Anthony Randall Poynter
  • Benjamin Britton
  • Cyenna Ulrich-Cech
  • Elizabeth Blakley-White
  • Harrison Frenken
  • Jennie Golaszewski
  • Margarete Brady
  • Tuhin Chowdhury
  • Michelle Medved
  • Oluwadamilola Salau
  • Peter Berdo
  • Ruija Hu
  • Sage Lail
  • Sara Conner
  • Theodora Mary Fletcher

Great Plains Rocky Mountains Regional Division (GPRM)

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Graduate, Stephen Adebisi, South Dakota State University, Do Self-Restored Peatlands Stabilize Soil Organic Carbon? An Enzyme Assay Approach to Evaluating Carbon Stability at the Marcell Experimental Forest, Minnesota, USA

Middle Atlantic Regional Division (MAD)

MAD-AAG Advancing Geography Meritorious Award (MAGMA), Maya Clark, Towson University, Urban Canopy Equity: Assessing Socioeconomic Disparities in Tree Cover and Quantifying Urban Forest Changes in Baltimore

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Graduate

  • Max Gundling, Salisbury University, The Fractured Metropolis: Gentrification, Exclusion, and Spatial Inequality in the Washington-Baltimore Corridor
  • Haijun Li, University of Maryland – College Park, Agricultural expansion and intensification in Brazil: A literature synthesis of dynamics, drivers, and implications

Middle States Regional Division (MSAAG)

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Undergraduate, Valerie Davidheiser, Kutztown University, The Influence of climate change on dew point temperatures in Pennsylvania

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Graduate, Naznin Nahar Sultana, University of Delaware, Post-Displacement Adaptation Practices of Internally Displaced People: Reproduction of Vulnerability in Urban Informal Space

Undergraduate Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – Valerie Davidheiser
  • 2nd place – Padmini (Raven) Vijayakumar

Graduate Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – Naznin Nahar Sultana
  • 2nd place – Caitlyn Linehan

Graduate Student Poster Competition

  • Winner – Kripa Shrestha
  • 2nd place (tie) – Arafat Hassan & Hilda Afelu-Amenyo

New England / St. Lawrence Valley Regional Division (NESTVAL)

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Undergraduate, Delaney Gardner, Mount Holyoke College, Coastal Resilience Planning and Policy in Florida

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Graduate, Gianna Dejoy, University of Maine, Reconceiving rural distance: Mothers’ narratives of health resource loss and access to maternity care in Maine

Southeast Regional Division (SEDAAG)

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Graduate, Nicko Tovar, University of North Carolina – Greensboro, Variation in Bus Transit Infrastructure Provision, Ridership, and Equity: Evidence from North Carolina

Southwest Regional Division (SWAAG)

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Undergraduate, Carolina Cambron & Katie Dusek, Texas State University, For Peat’s Sake? An Environmental Geography Analysis of Peatland Carbon Markets in Scotland

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Graduate, Adriana Montoya, Texas State University, Rectifying a River: A Critical Case Study of Engineering Control on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas

Undergraduate Student Paper Competition, Katie Dusek and Caroline Cambron (co-authors)

Graduate Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – Katelyn Cooke
  • 2nd place – Brock Burford
  • 3rd place – Elizabeth Kubacki

Undergraduate Student Poster Competition

  • Winner – Jaydon Allison
  • 2nd place – Helen Wagner

Graduate Student Poster Competition

  • Ashok Gahatraj
  • Sahar Rezaei

World Geography Bowl Scoring Leaders

  • Winner – Jaydon Allison
  • 2nd place – Hardt Bergmann
  • 3rd place (tie) – Brock Burford, Raynee Bacorn

West Lakes Regional Division (WLDAAG)

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Undergraduate, Jake Plasky, Depaul University

AAG Council Outstanding Student Paper Award, Graduate, Kei Kato, University of Illinois

Undergraduate Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – Joshua Elliot
  • 2nd place – Grant Kerpsack
  • 3rd place – Evan Frawley & Marko Nikolovski

Master’s Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – Thea Brenner
  • 2nd place – Isaac Eshun & Brianna Sas-Perez
  • 3rd place – Derek Asiamah

PhD Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – Christine Dennis & Hilary Hunt
  • 2nd place – Gyudae Kim

Undergraduate Student Poster Competition

  • Winner – Jared Saef
  • 2nd place – Ellie Strand
  • 3rd place – Rachel Loftus

Graduate Student Poster Competition

  • Winner – Md Saqib Shahriar
  • 2nd place – Harriet Quarshie
  • 3rd place – Yiming Zhang

Groups

Africa Specialty Group

Distinguished Emerging Scholar Award in African Geography, Elmond Bandauko, University of Alberta.

Graduate Research Award, Stephanie Efua Yamoah, University of Denver

Kwadwo Konadu-Agyemang Distinguished Scholar Award in African Geography, Timothy D. Baird, Virginia Tech.

Animal Geographies Specialty Group

Graduate Student Research Competition

  • Winner – Xiaoyun Neo, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
  • 2nd place – Sara Toroi
  • Honorable Mention – Aberdeen Leary, University of Michigan
  • Honorable Mention – David Kalman, University of California, Berkeley

Applied Geography Specialty Group

James R. Anderson Medal of Honor in Applied Geography, Frank Southworth

Student Annual Meeting Award

  • Audrey Smith, University of Florida, Landsat to Livelihoods: Social–Ecological Costs of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions in Ethiopia
  • Jason Yoo, Geospatial Mismatch between Social Vulnerability and BMP Co-benefits from Chesapeake Bay Watershed Management
  • Kristina Fillman, Compounding Injustices: A Political Ecology of Wildfire Smoke, Extreme Heat, and Child Health
  • Wenjing Gong, Texas A&M University, Essential Infrastructure or Unavoidable Risk? Modeling Urban Park Visitation under Dual Climate and Crime Stressors with Large-Scale Mobility Data
  • Zongrong Li, Texas A&M University, Seeing Green from Indoor in 3D: How Urban Form and Vegetation Shape Window-Level Views of Nature

Asian Geography Specialty Group

Graduate Student Research Fellowship, Sufeng (Sophia) Xiao, Harvard University

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Miles Kenney-Lazar, University of Melbourne, Sustainability Capitalism in the Age of Extractivism: Southeast Asian Trajectories

Graduate Student Paper Competition

  • Dri Tattersfield, University of Minnesota
  • Sufeng (Sophia) Xiao, Harvard University

Bible Geography Specialty Group

Amy Mather BGSG Student Scholar Award, Priyadharshini Sakthivel, The importance of topography and urban-rural definition in identifying Surface Urban Heat Islands in semi-arid environments: Case study of Amman, Jordan

Jonathan Lu BGSG Student Travel Enhancement Award, Brody Manquen, The University of Texas at Austin, Reclaiming the Locus Amoenus: historical narrative of post-Roman inundation in early modern Italian wetland drainages

Biogeography Specialty Group

Research Grant, Ph.D. level, Elizabeth Barnes, University of Tennessee, Environmental History and the Megafauna Extinction in Costa Rica

Student Paper Award, Doctoral Category, Wenxin Yang, UCSB, Measuring and monitoring the three-dimensional structure of terrestrial habitats to support biodiversity conservation

Travel grant for AAG meeting attendance, Cole Bristow, Virginia Tech

Black Geographies Specialty Group

Student Travel Award, Sabina Bhandari, University of Connecticut

Clyde Woods Graduate Student Paper Award, Alexis Wiley, Rutgers University – New Brunswick, Plotting Black Agrarian Geographies during the American Agrarian Transition, 1865-1970

Plenary Speaker, Danielle Purifoy, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Elena Serrano

Caribbean Geography Specialty Group

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Kevon Rhiney

Cartography and Mapping Specialty Group

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Meghan Kelly, Syracuse University, Boundaries, Placing Feminist Mapping

Master’s Thesis Research Grant

  • Abby Whelan, Syracuse University, Data Visualization as a Site of Oppression: What are Maternal Health Dashboards
  • Ashwin Adhip Acharya, University of Mumbai, GeoAI-Driven Physics-Guided Ensemble Modelling of Urban Flood Susceptibility under CMIP6 Climate Scenarios in the Mula–Mutha Basin, Maharashtra, India
  • Sarah Haedrich, University of Oregon, Cartographies of the Renewable Energy Development: A Critical Analysis of Stakeholder Maps in British Columbia

Student-Organized Session Funding

  • Fangsheng Zhou
  • Gareth Baldrica-Franklin
  • Lily Houtman, The Pennsylvania State University
  • Yanbing Chen, Mapping Your Career Path: Mentoring Across Cartographic Trajectories
  • Zhaoxu Sui
  • Zongrong Li, Texas A&M University

China Geography Specialty Group

Best Student Paper Award, Shize Zhang, The everyday political economy of local governance in China: Bridging relational and territorial thinking

Student Travel Award, Vinci Ying Jia Cheung, The University of Hong Kong, Digital divide or digital dividend? The growth of a digital economy and changes in urban-rural inequality in China

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Xueguang Zhou, Stanford University, Scale and the Logic of Governance in China

Climate Specialty Group

Paper of the Year Award, Shaina Sadai, Antarctic meltwater alters future projections of climate and sea level

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Zeke Hausfather, Berkeley Earth, The role of aerosol declines in recent warming acceleration

Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – Nishat Tasnim Sumaya, Assessing Climate Trends in Bangladesh Using the Spatial Synoptic Classification
  • 2nd place – Afra Sayara Rahman, Whispers in the Wind: Oklahoma Women’s Narratives of Climate Migration Choices and Survival During the Dust Bowl
  • 3rd place – Yayun Lin, Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Intensity and Aerosols: A Multiscale Analysis

Coastal and Marine Specialty Group

R.J. Russell Award, Ian Walker, University of California Santa Barbara, Coastal dune restoration as a nature-based solution to improve resilience of California’s beaches to sea level rise

The Norbert Psuty Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – Holland Haverkamp, University of Maine, Tidal Infrastructures and Hydrosocial Frictions: Offshore Wind Port Development and Water Justice in Coastal Maine
  • 2nd place – Yu-Chia Lin, State University of New York at Buffalo, The blame geography: ocean governance, governmentality, and fishery management on the High Seas

Community College Affinity Group

Darrel Hess Community College Geography Scholarship, Erin Dickey

Critical Islands, Archipelagos, and Oceans Specialty Group

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Sofia Zaragocin, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, There Are People Too in the Galápagos! A Latin American Decolonial Feminist Perspective on Conservation in the Galápagos Islands

Critical Geographies of Education Specialty Group

Critical Geographies of Education MA Dissertation Award, Jessica Flach, Between Florida and the World: Young People and the Politics of Citizenship

Critical Geographies of Education PhD Dissertation Award, Caroline Loomis, CUNY Graduate Center, Proximity and Partition: Geographies of Childhood, Choice, and Co-Location in New York City

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Susan Thomas, Syracuse University

Cryosphere Specialty Group

R.S. Tarr Student Travel Award

  • Sepideh Jalayer, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Zhengrui Huang

Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group

Field Study Award, Thao Nguyen, The University of British Columbia, Sustainability Initiatives to De-Risk the Natural Rubber Supply Chain in the Mekong region

Outstanding Book Award, Youjin Chung, University of California, Berkeley,

Outstanding Journal Article, Nathan Green, National University of Singapore, Maximizing Finance for Sustainable Development

Student Paper Award, Ana Lucía Araujo Raurau, The Political Economy of Belonging: Transgender Insights in Ethnographic Fieldwork in Rural Societies

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Susanna Hecht, University of California – Los Angeles, Not all anthropocenes are the same: Political ecologies and what they can tell us about the myth of 1.5, and the adaptation  complexities of a heating planet

Elsevier Geoforum Community Support Travel Award, Thuy Ho, Indiana University

Scholar-Activist Award

  • Jesús Alejandro García, UC Berkeley, Escuela de Agua: Building Popular Water Knowledge, Territorialities, and Governance in the Colombian Massif
  • Juan Carlos Jimenez, University of Toronto, Communal Care, Young Adult Rural Livelihoods, and Historic Trauma of War and Agrarian Exits: Towards a Political Ecology of Healing in Chalatenango, El Salvador

Cultural Geography Specialty Group

Denis E. Cosgrove (Ph.D.) Research Grant, Zachary Cudney, University of Washington

Master’s Level Research Award, Samuel Scarborough

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Rebecca Solnit

Elsevier’s Geoforum Community Support Travel Award, Brian Boyce, University of Tennessee

Cyberinfrastructure Specialty Group

Robert Raskin Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – M. Naser Lessani
  • 2nd place – Pengyu Chen, University of South Carolina
  • 3rd place – Haofeng Tan

Development Geographies Specialty Group

Gary Gaile Travel Award, Audrey Culver Smith, University of Florida, From Landsat to Livelihoods: Socio-Ecological Costs of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions in Ethiopia

Outstanding Paper Award, W. Nathan Green, National University of Singapore, Maximizing Finance for Sustainable Development? Microfinance, Debt-Driven Deforestation, and the Self-Regulation of Environmental Harm

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Annie Shattuck, Indiana University Bloomington

Elsevier’s Geoforum Community Support Travel Award, Keegan A. Kessler, University of Hawai’i

Student Paper Award

  • Irma Losada Olmos, Unimagined Communities Along the Maya Train: Exposing Violence Through Photography
  • Jimena Natalia Perez, University of California – Berkeley, Remaking the Los Angeles River

Digital Geographies Specialty Group

(Digital) Racial Justice Award, Elspeth Iralu, The Land, the Earth, the Sky: Mapping Global Indigenous Relations

Software Tool, Platform, or Interactive Map/Visualization Award, Arunima Dasgupta, University of Connecticut, Families, Friends, and Neighborhoods (FFAN) Story Map

Outstanding Dissertation Award

  • Winner – Teddy Davenport, Center for Applied Transgender Studies, Theorizing the Political Potential of Care through Digital Spaces of Trans Belonging
  • Megan Wiessner, University of Virginia, Digital Timber: Remediating Resource Economies and Automating Sustainable Futures

Student Paper Award

  • Dylan O’Donoghue, Rutgers University – Camden, Navigating Employment Issues and Police Encounters: Frictions across the Tech Sector’s Migrant Subcontractor Workforce
  • Jillian Crandall, Plotting cryptoeconomic imaginaries and counterplotting the network state
  • Zach Cudney, University of Washington, Google Gazes and Digital Seams: Visual Epistemologies between Satellite View and Street View

Disability Specialty Group

Todd Reynolds Student Paper Competition, Suzanne Nimoh, University of Texas at Austin, Unearthing the Zombie: Black, Crip, Animal

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Kafui Attoh, City University of New York

Economic Geography Specialty Group

Research / Fieldwork Award, Induja Kumar

Travel Award, Clara Lemme Ribeiro, University of Washington

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Kendra Kintzi, New York University

Elsevier’s Geoforum Community Support Travel Award, Dylan O’Donoghue, Rutgers University-Camden

Energy and Environment Specialty Group

Advancing Diversity and Inclusion Award, Lyric Patterson, University of Michigan

Dissertation Data & Fieldwork Award, Sebastián Solarte-Caicedo, UCLA, The Long Life of Off-Grid Energy Commons: Insights from Thirty-Five Years of Electropalmor

Powershift Award, Sarah Kelly

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Jennifer Baka, The Pennsylvania State University, Political-Industrial Ecology for Just Energy Futures

Energy Luminary Award

  • Winner – Tom Ptak, Texas State University, Repositioning energy geographies in a time of crisis: Arguments from a subdiscipline on the margins of geography (Dialogues in Human Geography)
  • Honorable Mention – Chinedu C. Nsude, University of Oklahoma, Renewables but unjust? Critical restoration geography as a framework for addressing global renewable energy injustice (Energy Research & Social Science)

Best Student Paper Award

  • Winner – Deniz Mine Öztürk, Clark University, Beneath the surface, injustice boils: Environmental justice struggles against geothermal energy in Turkey
  • Honorable Mention – Bruce Baigrie , Syracuse University, Stacking versus Displacement in the Mexican Energy Transition

Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group

Elsevier’s Geoforum Community Support Travel Award, Jiayin Zhang, University of California – Santa Barbara

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Daniel Montello, University of California – Santa Barbara

Ethnic Geography Specialty Group

Early Career Award for Scholarship, Teaching, and Service, Weronika Kusek, Northern Michigan University, Distinguished early career contributions to ethnic geography across scholarship, teaching, and service

Distinguished Scholar Award

  • Ira Sheskin, University of Miami
  • Emily Skop, University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Eurasian Specialty Group

Photo Contest, Sara Maaria Toroi, Impeerii da kirikkö karjalazile keskel Piälinnua [Empire and a church for Karelians in the centre of Helsinki

European Specialty Group

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Bernhard Kräußlich, German Geographical Society, Geography in Germany and the German Geographical Society

Feminist Geographies Specialty Group

Glenda Laws Student Paper Award, Kayla Roulhac

Rickie Sanders Junior Faculty Award, Elspeth Iralu, University of New Mexico

Susan Hanson Dissertation Proposal Award, Shubhangi

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Beverly Mullings, University of Toronto, The Curious Resurgence of the Maternal in a World in Need of Care

Jan Monk Service Award

  • Marianne Blidon, Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University
  • Sarah Elwood

Geographic Information Science and Systems Specialty Group

The Waldo Tobler and Transactions in GIS Distinguished Lecture in GIScience Keynote Speaker, Peter Kedron, UC Santa Barbara, New Directions in Geographic Research on Replication

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Shawn Newsam, University of California – Merced, Over 25 years of GeoAI: From the Alexandria Digital Library Project to Now

Student Honors Paper Competition

  • Winner – Qianheng Zhang, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Spatial Epistemic Collapse: Quantifying Spatial Bias in Generative GeoAI Using Street View Imagery
  • 2nd place – Yifan Yang, DamageArbiter: A CLIP-Enhanced Multimodal Arbitration Framework for Hurricane Damage Assessment from Street-View Imagery
  • 3rd place – Yuhao Jia, Rethinking Spatial Dependency Modeling with Urban Representations
  • Finalist – Andy Qin, Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Maternity Care Resource Reallocation
  • Finalist – Junbo Wang, University of Tennessee – Knoxville, SounDiT: Geo-Contextual Soundscape-to-Landscape Generation
  • Finalist – Mahbub Ul Hasan, Texas A&M University, Global Assessment of Grasslands: Three Decades of Shifting Connectivity and Increasing Fragmentation Across Regions and Scales
  • Finalist – Meicheng Xiong, A graph-based deep population downscaling model on irregular spatial units
  • Finalist – Qian Cao, University of Georgia, Generative AI for Planning Scenario Visualization: A Framework and Benchmark for Controllable Street-Level Image Synthesis
  • Finalist – Tao Peng, Contextual Autoencoder: A Self-Supervised Learning Framework for Spatiotemporal Interpolation under Diverse Missing Data Patterns
  • Finalist – Xin Jin, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Task Utility Gap in Human Mobility Modeling: Evidence from Environmental Exposure Assessment

Geographies of Food and Agriculture Specialty Group

Plenary Panelist Honorarium, Tisina Parker

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Irene Vasquez,

Book Award

  • Winner – Emily Reisman, The Almond Paradox: Cracking Open the Politics of What Plants Need
  • 3rd place – Joshua Steckley, Carleton University, The Nightcrawlers: A story of worms, cows, and cash in the underground bait industry

Graduate Student Research Award

  • Ibrahim Bahati, University of Texas at Austin, Youth Adaptive Resilience Strategies to Climate Change Shocks in Uganda’s Rural Farming Systems
  • Jennie Jiang, Rutgers University, Scaling Ultra-Processed Foods: Chemicalized Capitalism and the Metabolic Pathways of U.S. Empire

Geography Education Specialty Group

Gail Hobbs Student Paper Competition

  • Winner – Hunter Hansen, Exploring the Impact and Interdisciplinarity of Geographic Backgrounds among Graduate Students: A Comparative Study
  • Participant – Charlotte Milner
  • Participant – Chenyu Wang, Western Michigan University
  • Participant – Yifan Wang, University at Buffalo – SUNY

Geomorphology Specialty Group

Allan James Msc Award, Itai Bojdak-Yates, Colorado State University

Allan James PhD Award, August Aalto, The University of Texas at Austin

Grove Karl Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphological Research, Gentile Francesco Ficetola, The development of terrestrial ecosystems emerging after glacier retreat

  1. Gordon “Reds” Wolman Graduate Student Research Award (MSc), Itai Bojdak-Yates, Colorado State University
  2. Gordon “Reds” Wolman Graduate Student Research Award (PhD), Ashley Ford, Colorado State University

Melvin G. Marcus Distinguished Career Award, Sarah Praskievicz

William L. Graf Early Career Award, Zach Hilgendorf, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Adriana Martinez, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Laws, landscapes, and life on the border: Shaping the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass

Graduate Student Affinity Group

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Sandra Johnson, Western Michigan University, AAG Student-Leadership Listening Session

Travel Award

  • Ali Sorrels, George Washington University
  • Jiahua Chen
  • Kamrun Nahar Keya
  • Mst Sanjida Alam, Clark University
  • Wenyu Zhang, Texas A&M University

Hazards, Risks, and Disasters Specialty Group

Gilbert F. White Dissertation Award, Garima Jain, Stanford University, Tangled up in Blue – Patterns, drivers and feedback of aquaculture land and livelihood transitions in coastal India

Gilbert White Thesis Award, Carter Beale, Collaborative relationships and nature-based solutions: Two flood management cases in Hawaiʻi

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Adelle Thomas

Jeanne X. Kasperson Student Paper Award

  • Liyue Zhang, University at Buffalo, Voluntary support and community networks during the 2022 Buffalo blizzard: An online survey of disaster Facebook group members
  • Madusha Maha Gamage, The University of Alabama, Wildfire evacuation simulation toolkit (WEST): A web-based platform for modeling wildfire evacuation in the wildland-urban interface communities with transient populations
  • Naznin Nahar Sultana, From risk to resilience: Community-engaged disaster management in Chittagong, Bangladesh
  • Simran Koul, UC Santa Barbara, Unequal Risks: Coal Mining Hazards and Social Vulnerability in India
  • Wenyu Zhang, Texas A&M University, Shops, Shelters, and Survival: A GeoAI-based Assessment of Heat Adaptation Behavior in San Antonio, Texas

Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group

Melinda S. Meade Distinguished Scholarship Award, Valorie Crooks, Simon Fraser University

Mid-Career Scholar Award, Paul Delamater

Emerging Scholar Award, Michael Desjardins, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

Health Data Visualization Award – Dynamic/Interactive, Debs Ghosh, Sabina Bhandari, Cheryl Knott, Zev Ross

Health Data Visualization Award – Static, Stephen Liwur, Florida State University

Jacques May Thesis Prize

  • Chrishma Perera, Virginia Polytechnic and State University
  • Hanlin Zhou, University of Connecticut

Health & Place Travel Award

  • Amit Banerjee, The University of Burdwan
  • Arunima Dasgupta, University of Connecticut
  • Naoki Matsumoto

Peter Gould Student Paper Award

  • Bryttani Wooten, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Congcong Miao, University of Connecticut
  • Meixian Li, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
  • William Jones, Virginia Tech

International Medical Geography Symposium (IMGS) Student Travel Award

  • Drumond Dzakuma, University at Buffalo, Access Without Arrival: Rethinking Health Equity Through the Geography of Deferred Car
  • Konok Akter, PhD Student, Medical College of Wisconsin, Structural Disinvestment, Neighborhood Heat Exposure and the Mediating Effect of Tree Canopy: A National Study across U.S. Census Tracts
  • Lauren Babinetz, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Impact of Tropical Cyclones on Violent Injury Emergency Department Visits by Women in North Carolina
  • Samiha Nuzhat, University of South Carolina, Spatiotemporal Determinants and Unintended Consequences of Inequitable Safe Drinking-Water Access in Rural Bangladesh

Human Dimensions of Global Change Specialty Group

JEDI Award, Adriana Zuniga-Teran, University of Arizona

Research Excellence Award, Diana Liverman, University of Arizona

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Billie Lee Turner II, Arizona State University, Still Contested? Geography’s Place in the Sciences and the Academy

Student Paper Award

  • Irma Losada Olmos, Unimagined Communities Along the Maya Train: Exposing Violence Through Photography
  • Wenyu Wang, Uncovering Drivers of Federal Disaster Recovery Aid: A Statistical Learning Analysis of FEMA Public Assistance in Hurricane-Affected U.S. Coastal Regions

Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group

Plenary Speaker

  • Jeremy Sorgen, Northeastern University
  • Leaf Hillman, Karuk Tribe

Landscape Specialty Group

Student Membership Award, Sufeng (Sophia) Xiao, Curating Rurbanity: Platform-Mediated Landscape Transformation in Rural China

Photography Competition Judges, UCSB Photo Club

Landscape Photography Competition – People’s Choice Award, Somnath Nayak, University of Delhi, The Persistent Shore

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Kat Superfisky, Enhancing Urban Ecosystems, Balancing Biodiversity, and Human Development in Los Angeles, CA

Landscape Photography Competition

  • Winner – Aberdeen Leary, University of Michigan, A Forest Underwater
  • Winner – Yifan Liang, Doha Daily
  • Honorable Mention – Harriet Morkor Quarshie, University of Northern Iowa, Where Mangroves Become Merchandise, Volta Region, Ghana
  • Honorable Mention – Lavanya Gupta, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Confluence Border of India and Nepal
  • Honorable Mention – Mitchell Snyder, McGee Creek

Latin America Specialty Group

Student Field Study Awards (MA/MS level), Mariah Smith, What enables marine cultural heritage in MPA governance

Student Field Study Awards (PhD level), Javiera Madrid-Salazar, Rutgers University – New Brunskwick, From “Empty” to Unruly Lands: Geology, Subsoil Politics, and the(Re)Making of Large-scale Mining in Chile

Best Student Paper Award, Irma Losada Olmos, Unimagined Communities Along the Maya Train: Exposing Violence Through Photography

Solidarity Award, Thayré Gómez

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Marisol de la Cadena, University of California – Davis, Pluriversal Contact Zones

Latinx Geographies Specialty Group

Laura Pulido Research Award, Cinthya Martinez, Article: Migrant Abolition Geographies: Toxic Caging and Cuerpo-Territorio in Adelanto, California

2026 Grad Student Paper Award, Maritza Geronimo, University of California – Los Angeles, Bringing Our Land With Us: Decentralized Gardens, Indigenous Mobility, and Placemaking

2025 Paper Award, Jimena Perez, University of California – Berkeley

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Kimberly Soriano, Washington University in St. Louis, Our Agenda On Our Own Terms

Legal Geography Specialty Group

Graduate Student Presentation Award, Samantha Saona Sarabia, Columbia University

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Craig Segall, Environmental and climate law and policy in 2026: Proactive responses to the current moment

Media and Communication Geography Specialty Group

COMGEOG Student Paper Competition, Mei Jiang, Stand-Up, Speak Out: Open-Mic as Feminist Activism in the Sinophone Diaspora

Middle East Specialty Group

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Hatem Bazian, University of California – Berkeley

Mountain Geography Specialty Group

Chimborazo Student Research Grant Award (PhD), Luke R. Blentlinger, University of Tennessee, Paleohydrology and landscape change across the Little Ice Age and Spanish Conquest in the Tilarán Mountains of Costa Rica

Chimborazo Student Research Grant Award, Elizabeth Barnes, University of Tennessee – Knoxville, Environmental History and the Pleistocene Megafauna Extinction at La Chonta Bog, Cordillera de Talamanca, Costa Rica

Paleoenvironmental Change Specialty Group

Paleoenvironmental Change Student Research Award, Ian Thomas von Weisenstein, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Fire History and Past Vegetation from Soil Charcoal in Tennessee’s Ridge and Valley Province

Best Presentation (PhD Category), Luke Blentlinger, University of Tennessee, A high-resolution lake sediment record of fire history over the last millennium in the Tilarán Mountains of Costa Rica

Ellen Mosley Thompson Award for Best Publication in Paleoenvironmental Change, Qiang Yao, Geographically metachronous pattern of tropical cyclone activity regimes  across the North Atlantic Basin

Karl and Elisabeth Butzer Award for Lifetime Achievement in Paleoenvironmental Change, John W. (Jack) Williams, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Paleoenvironmental Change and Biogeography Specialty Groups

PEC/BSG Best Poster Presentation Award, Bronwen Hardee, Central Washington University, 7000-year anthropogenic fire history reconstruction near Progresso Lagoon in northern Belize

PEC/BSG Best Presentation Award (MS/Undergrad.), Ian von Weisenstein, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Fire History and Past Vegetation from Soil Charcoal in Tennessee’s Ridge and Valley Province

Polar Geography Specialty Group

Research Award, H Rainak Khan Real, The Ohio State University, In-situ before in-silico: Ground-truth data collection for GeoAI-driven mapping of microbial iron cycling

Polar Geography and Cryosphere Specialty Groups

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Jarkko Saarinen, University of Oulu – Finland, Arctic Tourism Geographies

Political Geography Specialty Group

Alexander Murphy Dissertation Enhancement Award, Kai-Yang Huang, National Taiwan University

PhD Student Paper Award, Troy Brundidge, University of Oregon

Geoforum Community Support Travel Award, Irma Losada Olmos

Student Travel Award

  • Aila Bandagi Kandlakunta, University of Nevada, Reno
  • Benjamin Asher Kaplan Weinger
  • Bryan Samir Castro-Velez, University of Maryland – Baltimore County
  • Faisal Bin Islam
  • Fernando Lopez Oggier, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
  • Handique, Jublee, Ohio State University
  • Keegan Kessler

Protected Areas Specialty Group

Graduate Paper Award, Nancy Donald, UC – San Diego, Rewilding and the Remaking of Aysén, Chilean Patagonia: The National Huemul Corridor and the Contradictory Pursuit of Tranquilidad

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Jeffrey Jenkins, University of California – Merced, Changing Geographies of Visitor Use of Protected Areas in California

Qualitative Research Specialty Group Award

  • Ambra Bergamasco, University College Dublin – Ireland
  • Hayes Hart-Thompson, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Pancho Lewis, University of Durham

Recreation, Tourism, and Sport Specialty Group

Discussant grant, Kathleen Adams, Univ of London

Early Career Researcher Award, Joshua Merced, Northern Arizona University – Merced, Joshua Z. and Scarborough, S. (2025). De‐Pale the Ale: Preserving Black Brewing Culture Through Beer Festivals, Geography Compass, https:/doi.org/10.1111/gec3.70036

John Rooney Award, Jillian Rickly, University of Nottingham

Roy Wolfe Award, Kathleen Adams, Univ. of London and Loyola University Chicago

Student Paper Award

  • Xiaoyun Neo, Elephant Economics: Conditions for benefiting from Elephant Tourism Market in an upland Karen (Paganyaw) village
  • Ali Mert Ipek, The University of Manchester, A ‘Green Road’ to Rural Development: State, Infrastructure, and Tourism in Turkey’s Eastern Black Sea Region

Recreation, Tourism, and Sport, and Political Geography Specialty Groups

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, University of California, Detours as Decolonial Method and Counterarchive

Regional Development and Planning Specialty Group

Ashok K. Dutt Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award, Yuchen Wang, Texas A&M University, Toward Equitable Access to Campus Digital Twins

Emerging Scholar Award, XIAO HUANG, Emory University

Remote Sensing Specialty Group

Early Career Scholar in Remote Sensing Award, Yuchi Ma, Stanford University

John Jensen Distinguished Lecture & AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Philip Dennison, University of Utah, Exploring drought, wildfire, greenhouse gas emissions, and economically valuable minerals through shortwave infrared remote sensing

Outstanding Contributions in Remote Sensing Award, Le Wang, The State University of New York at Buffalo

Student Honors Paper Competition Award

  • Winner – Fangyi Wang, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, TillSight: Large-Scale Ground Reference Generation for Tillage Intensity of the U.S. Midwest Using Multi-Source Imagery and Vision-Language Foundation Models
  • 2nd place – Hao Tian, Texas A&M University, Leveraging Deep Learning and Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Real-Time Traffic Monitoring
  • 3rd place – Zhang Chen, University of Connecticut, Coupling Streetscape Atmosphere with Social Vulnerability and Community Resilience

Student Illustrated Paper Competition Award

  • Winner – Babak Heidari, Texas State University
  • 2nd place – Md Jakirul Islam Jony Prothan, Comparing Rule-Based and AI-Driven Methods for Active Fire Detection: A Case Study of the 2022 Calf Canyon–Hermits Peak Wildfires
  • 3rd place – Srijana Shrestha, Analyzing Crop Phenology Responses to Climate Variability Using Multi-Source Satellite Data in the U.S. Corn Belt

Rural Geography Specialty Group

Just Rural Futures Blog Award, Global South Category, Shreya Ojha, Kansas State University, Role of Social Networks in Adapting to Climate Change: Insights from the Rural Desert Community of India.

Just Rural Futures Blog Awards, Georgia Lavigne, Early Career Category and Global North Category

Student Paper Presentation, Anika M. Rice, University of Wisconsin Madison, Landscapes of Debt: Land titling and migration loans in the Guatemalan highlands

Socialist and Critical Geography Specialty Group

AAG Annual Meeting Travel Award

  • Clara Lemme Ribeiro, University of Washington
  • Nirvana Heidarian
  • Stefanos Milkidis
  • Vishavjeet Dhanda, University of Delhi
  • Will Baker, University of Arkansas
  • Yimeng Yang, Northeastern University

Spatial Analysis and Modeling Specialty Group

Travel Award, Shiv Yucel, University of Oxford

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Mei-Po Kwan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Neighborhood Effect Averaging Revisited: Why It Matters in Geographic, Social Science and Environmental Health Research

John Odland Award

  • Winner – Victor Irekponor, University of Maryland
  • 2nd place – Xinyang Zhang
  • 3rd place – Chintan B. Maniyar, University of Georgia

Student Travel Award

  • Chaehyeon Lee
  • Min Jeong, The University of Texas at Dallas
  • Qian Cao, University of Georgia

Stand Alone Geographers Affinity Group

SAGE Innovation Award, Lakeshia Wright

Transportation Geography Specialty Group

Edward L. Ullman Award, Ronald Buliung, University of Toronto Mississauga

The Fleming Lecture, Joe Weber, University of Alabama, The Streetcar Revolt and Politics of Resentment in America: Implications for Transportation Equity

Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award, Anastasia Soukhov, Reuniting Accessibility Measures with Spatial Interaction Principles

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Joe Weber, The University of Alabama, The Streetcar Revolt and Politics of Resentment in America: Implications for Transportation Equity

Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award

  • Winner – Lily Heidger
  • Honorable Mention – Fabiha Rahman

Student Travel Award

  • Mandela Gadri, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
  • Seung Jae Lieu

Undergraduate Student Affinity Group

Travel Grant for USAG Board

  • Alex Bucher
  • Sara Conner

Urban Geography Specialty Group

Alternative Modes of Scholarship Award, Jiaying Li, Tufts University, The Coastal Multiple Hazard Risk (CMHR) platform

Graduate Student Fellowship

  • Winner – Kang Li, University of Utah, Seas into Cities: Global China and the socio-ecological dynamics of urbanization in Malaysia
  • Honorable Mention – Yimeng Yang, Northeastern University

Graduate Student Paper Award

  • Winner – Yihan Yan, The University of Manchester, Borrowing Space, Buying Certainty: Dog Caregivers’ Tactics and the Redistribution of Publicness in Urban China
  • Honorable Mention – Queenie Collins, Central Connecticut State University, Immersion and Inequality: An Ethnography of Language, Privilege, and Belonging at Middlebury

PhD Dissertation Award

  • Winner – Sharif Wahab, Indiana University Bloomington, Refugee Habitats: Producing And Maintaining Displaceable Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh
  • Honorable Mention – Aila Bandagi Kandlakunta, University of Nevada, Reno
  • Honorable Mention – Billy Southern, University of Oregon

Student Access Award

  • Jaxon Slaney
  • Kelly Haggerty, Temple University
  • Soo Yeon Lim, Rutgers University
  • Tshui Mum Ha, The Ohio State University
  • Vishavjeet Dhanda, Department of Geography, University of Delhi

Water Resources Specialty Group

Distinguished Career Award​, Heejun Chang​

Matthew-Dwyer Fund, Miriam Yupanqui, Nuestra Casa de East Palo Alto, Nuestra Casa Assistance with Coastal Resilience

Posthumous: Distinguished Career Award​, Sarah Praskievicz

Paper Award, Kate Cullen​, UC Berkeley, Navigating Power, Sustaining Access: Chile’s Community-Managed Drinking Water Systems Under Extreme Drought​

AAG Group Keynote Speaker, Sasha Harris-Lovett, San Francisco Estuary Partnership, Navigating a One Water Approach to Water in the San Francisco Bay Area

Olen Paul Matthews and Kathleen A. Dwyer Fund for Water Resources Award

  • Lucy Everett, King’s College London, Water Shutoffs, Extreme Heat, and the Human Right to Water in New York City​
  • Monique Assuncao​, Queens University, Governing Water Access Through Credit: Racialized Household Impacts in São Paulo, Brazil​

Presentation Award

  • Harman Singh, Penn State University, Extending Protection Motivation Theory: Ownership Appraisal, Spatial Exposure, and Household Flood Preparedness in Bengaluru
  • Skyy Corral, Engaging the Waters: Stormwater Infrastructure, Environmental Justice, and Community Engagement in the Southeastern United States​

Research Proposal Award

  • Andrea Cass, Investigating whether voluntary buyouts constitute transformative adaptation: a comparative case study of managed retreat in rural West Virginia​
  • Laine Sullivan​, University of Colorado Boulder, Embodied Toxicity: Community Experiences of Lead Exposure in Chicago​

Wine, Beer, and Spirits Specialty Group

Graduate Student Paper Award

  • Winner – Brock Burford, Texas State University, Turning water to wine: An analysis of Texas wine industry water efficiency
  • Honorable Mention – Kennedy Gould, San Diego State University, Influences of climate change on wine varietal choice in Southern California

 

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AAG Staff
AAG Staff
On the Map

Tracking the Geography of Diseases: How Epidemiologists Map Infection

Geography In The News logoGeography in the News is an educational series offered by the American Association of Geographers for teachers and students in all subjects. We include vocabulary, discussion, and assignment ideas at the end of each article. 

By Neal Lineback

Have you ever wondered where you caught a cold? If so, you’ve asked the first question epidemologists ask about infectious diseases. Epidemiology is the study of how diseases spread. It relies on geography to find its answers.

You could say that epidemiologists study the “where” of diseases. Specifically, they study the paths of communicable diseases.

What are communicable diseases? They’re the ones you can catch. These illnesses spread through viruses, fungi, or bacteria, typically from person to person, and sometimes from animals to people. Some diseases come from contaminated food, water, or insects. All of these transmissions relate to geography. 

Viruses and bacteria are all around us, particularly in dense human populations. Some are harmless. But dangerous viruses range across a whole host of diseases, from pneumonia and whooping cough to measles, chicken pox, and polio, among others.

Among the least dangerous to healthy individuals is the common cold, or Rhinovirus. Its symptoms are normally mild. The cold is so common that it’s almost impossible to know where you caught it—unless you are an epidemologist. Through contact tracing, distribution maps, and other tools, epidemiologists can find the initial source of an infection. It takes only one or two people for a disease to spread as contacts multiply.

Epidemiology is a science of time as well as space. Once a few people show symptoms, they could infect 50 percent or more of the people they come in contact with, within three to ten days. This makes swift analysis crucial.

A fast-moving virus can cause an epidemic or pandemic. The difference between the two is in distribution. The disease is distributed unevenly in an epidemic, with some communities having few or no cases. In a pandemic, many more people are sick across more areas. Deaths and hospitalizations are elevated too.

This is why the flu virus—which is actually a number of virus types that can mutate over time–and the COVID viruses are carefully tracked by their strain. Flu is also identified by type. If you have ever heard a strain of influenza referred to as A,B,C, or D, you have heard its type, based on its severity. “A” causes pandemics and is the most dangerous. “B” can cause epidemics. “C” causes mild cold-like symptoms. “D” is an animal variety.

The recent COVID outbreak in 2020-2023 was a pandemic in the United States. Ensheng Dong, a Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins University, was one of the first people in the world to create a map-based dashboard to show the disease’s spread. Using a Geographic Information System (GIS), Dong worked with physicists, geographers, and others at the university to build a map to track outbreaks. Its red-on-black appearance became iconic.

Outbreaks of many viral infections can be mapped. The CDC (Centers of Disease Control) and other international medical institutions maintain huge geographical databases to follow outbreaks around the world. This research is critical in slowing, treating, and containing viral diffusions and concentrations, allowing the medical professionals to predict where intervention (ie. tests, warnings, and vaccinations) can be helpful in reducing deaths and hospitalizations.

Epidemiology is still a young science. Less than 175 years ago, a doctor named John Snow identified the source of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London: a neighborhood water pump. He did this by mapping all of the cholera cases in the area and interviewing the families. Once he identified the common location they’d used to draw water, he removed the handle from the pump. New cases fell.

This map shows the 2013 spread of polio worldwide:

This map by Rachael Carpenter indicates that the spread of polio began with a concentration in Afghanistan, then jumped to Somalia, Kenya, and Nigeria. The disease spread to Nigeria’s African neighbors Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Central African Republic, Uganda, and Liberia.
In 2013, Geography in the News reported on a severe polio outbreak, showing the path of infection. Map by Rachael Carpenter

 

Polio cases began with a concentration in Afghanistan, then jumped to Somalia, Kenya, and Nigeria. The disease spread to Nigeria’s neighbors in Africa, before it was finally halted through the efforts of multiple relief organizations’ vaccine programs, including The World Health Organization (WHO),The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Rotary International, and the Centers for Disease Control.

So how can a microscopic virus jump thousands of miles from Afghanistan to Nigeria? Clearly, modern technology played a role in moving such great distances over the earth’s surface. What made the countries adjacent to Nigeria so susceptible to the spread of polio? These are geographic questions on the minds of health officials as they battle communicable diseases worldwide everyday.The mobilities of viruses around the world require constant attention.

Note: You can reduce your odds of infection by frequent hand washing, using tissues and avoiding touching your face when you sneeze. Cleaning your work spaces and using a mask, or covering your mouth when you cough, are also good practices.

And that is Geography in the News.

Material in this article comes from “Polio Returns with a Vengeance” (2013), an original article for Geography in the News by Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner.

AAG’s Geography in the News is inspired by the series of the same name founded by Neal Lineback, professor and the chair of Appalachian State University’s Department of Geography and Planning. For nearly 30 years from 1986 to 2013, GITN delivered timely explainer articles to educators and students, relevant to topics in the news. Many of these were published on Maps.com’s educational platforms and in National Geographic’s blogs. AAG is pleased to carry on the series.

Vocabulary
  • Communicable disease
  • Epidemic
  • Fungus/Fungi
  • Iconic
  • Mutate
  • Pandemic
  • Strain
  • Virus
Discussion
  1. What are some of the tools epidemiologists use to track how diseases spread?
  2. Why do we say that epidemiology is a science of time as well as space?
  3. What is the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic?
  4. What are some of the reasons that a virus can “jump” long distances?
Further Reading

“John Snow, Historical Giant in Epidemiology.” UCLA https://epi-snow.ph.ucla.edu/

“Medical Geography and Why We Need It.” University of British Columbia. https://geog.ubc.ca/news/medical-geography-and-why-we-need-it/

Milner, Greg. “Creating the Dashboard for the Pandemic.” Esri ArcUser, Summer 2020. https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/arcuser/johns-hopkins-covid-19-dashboard

“Notes from the Field: Outbreak of Poliomyelitis — Somalia and Kenya, May 2013,” Centers for Disease Control, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. At https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6223a7.htm

“What Is Epidemiology?” Epidemiology for the Uninitiated. BMJ Group. https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-readers/publications/epidemiology-uninitiated

 

 

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Resources

The Status of Women and Underrepresented Groups in Geography – A Multidimensional Analysis

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News

AAG Partners with Content With Purpose on new digital series: ‘Unearthing Geography’ video series will reveal the power of geographic thinking

Content with Purpose logo using colored letters CWPWashington, D.C., March 4 — The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is partnering with Content With Purpose (CWP) to produce Unearthing Geography, a new digital series that brings the discipline of geography to life, revealing its relevance, impact and essential role in understanding and addressing today’s most complex challenges.

Too frequently, geography is reduced to maps, place names or the physical features of the Earth alone. In reality, it is an inherently interdisciplinary field, one that connects physical and human systems, science and society, and local realities with global dynamics. Through education grounded in the sciences, social sciences and humanities, geographers are trained to think across boundaries, integrate multiple perspectives, and understand how people, places and environments interact.

At a time of accelerating climate change, social inequity, geopolitical tension, and technological transformation, this connective way of thinking has never been more important.

With cinematic storytelling, expert insight and real-world case studies, Unearthing Geography will showcase the work of geographers across academia, government, industry and communities—applying geographic perspectives to issues such as climate resilience, urban development, environmental justice, public health, migration and technological change.

At its heart, Unearthing Geography positions geographers as connectors—of data and lived experience, of disciplines and sectors, and of science and society—highlighting how geographic thinking helps navigate complexity and support systems-based approaches to the world’s most pressing problems.

The series will also look to the future of the discipline: inspiring students and early-career professionals to explore educational opportunities in geography, re-engaging those who have taken diverse career paths, and helping educators, employers, partners and funders better understand the long-term value of geographic education and training.

“Geography is essential to understanding how the world works—and how we can make it better,” said Gary Langham, Executive Director of the AAG. “Our work with CWP is a timely international collaboration to show how geographers work to shape more just, healthy, and sustainable futures.”

Max Smith, Founder and Managing Director of CWP, commented: “Geography offers one of the most powerful lenses for understanding the interconnected challenges facing society today. Through Unearthing Geography, we’re using our storytelling expertise to elevate the discipline and the people behind it, connecting research with lived experience.”

Unearthing Geography will launch at the AAG Annual Meeting in New York in February 2027, followed by a coordinated digital launch and campaign. The campaign will extend across the AAG’s global network and beyond, reaching geographers, students, educators, policymakers, employers, partners and the wider public.

CWP is a B Corp certified strategic content creator that works in partnership with leading member bodies and associations, engaging professionals in their industries’ role in building a better tomorrow.

Organizations interested in contributing to the series are encouraged to contact Sophie Newboult, Series Development Manager at CWP to learn more: sophie@contentwithpurpose.co.uk.

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New Books for Geographers

New Books for Geographers: Spring 2026

Rows of multicolor tulips line the foreground of Carter Mountain in Charlottesville, VA, with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background. Credit: Becky Pendergast

The AAG compiles a quarterly list of newly published geography books and books of interest to geographers. The list includes a diversity of books that represents the breadth of the discipline (including key sub-disciplines), but also recognizes the work which takes place at the margins of geography and overlap with other disciplines. While academic texts make up most of the books, we also include popular books, novels, books of poetry, and books published in languages other than English, for example.

Some of these books are selected for review in the AAG Review of Books. Publishers are welcome to contact the AAG Review of Books Editor-in-Chief Joshua L. Conver, as well as anyone interested in reviewing these or other titles.

3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool, by James Kaplan (Penguin 2025)

After Savagery: Gaza, Genocide, and the Illusion of Western Civilization, by Hamid Dabashi (Haymarket 2025)

The AI Paradox: How to Make Sense of a Complex Future, by Virginia Dignum (Princeton Press 2026)

The Archaeology of Seafaring in Small-Scale Societies: Negotiating Watery Worlds, edited by Alberto Garcia-Piquer, Mikael Fauvelle, and Colin Grier (University Press of Florida 2025)

Beyond Sanctuary: The Humanism of a World in Motion, edited by Ananya Roy and Veronika Zablotsky (Duke University Press 2025)

The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States, by David J. Silverman (Bloomsbury 2026)

Cities in Action: Organizations, Institutions, and Urban Climate Strategies, by Christof Brandtner (Columbia University Press 2026)

Climate Change and Disadvantaged Communities: Challenges and Opportunities, by Sk Ajim Ali, Quoc Bao Pham, and Yunqing Xuan (Routledge 2025)

Commons and Public Partnership: Legitimizing a Commons Political Sphere, by Torange Khonsari (Bloomsbury 2026)

Deficit: How Feminist Economics Can Change Our World, by Emma Holten (WH Allen 2026)

Dissident Peace: Autonomous Struggles and the State in Colombia, by Anthony Dest (Stanford University Press 2025)

Ecological Explosions: The History of Biological Invasions and Invasion Science, by Daniel Simberloff (University of Chicago Press 2025)

Environments of Power: Vibrant Terrain and Landscapes of Resistance, by Holly Randell-Moon (Manchester University Press 2026)

Feed the People! Why Industrial Food is Good and How to Make It Even Better, by Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel N. Rosenberg (Basic Books 2026)

The Fire of Defiance, by Purnima Tammireddy (transl.), S. Katyayini, Vimala Morthala, and Uma Chakravarti (Zubaan 2025)

Global Land-Ocean Geospatial Applications, by Charla M. Burnett and Biswajeet Pradhan (Routledge 2025)

Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right, by Quinn Slobodian (Princeton University Press 2025)

How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World’s Last Developmental Frontier, by Joe Studwell (Profile Books 2026)

Islands in Infinity: Galaxies 3-D, by Derek Ward-Thompson, edited by Brian May, illustrated by J-P Metsavainio (University of Arizona Press 2026)

Modeling Cities and Regions as Complex Systems, by Roger White, Guy M. Robinson, and Inge Uljee (MIT Press 2024)

On Loop: Black Sonic Politics in Oakland, by Alex Werth (University of California Press 2025)

Postcapitalist Cities: Towards a Common Urban Future, by Oli Mould (Manchester University Press 2026)

Prince’s Minneapolis: A Biography of Sound and Place, by Rashad Shabazz (University of North Carolina Press, 2026)

The Race Variable: How Statistical Practices Reinforce Inequality, by Jay S. Kaufman (Columbia University Press 2025)

Spatial Futures: Difference and the Post-Anthropocene, edited by LaToya Eaves, Heidi J. Nast, and Alex G. Papadopoulous (Palgrave 2024)

Toward a Global History of Soil: Sciences, Practices, and Materialities, 1300-1750, edited by Justin-Niermeir-Dohoney and Aleksandar Shopov (Brill 2026)

Tricontinental, Havana 1966: Speeches and Documents of the First Solidarity Conference of the Peoples for Africa, Asia, and Latin America, edited by Manolo De Los Santos (1804 Books 2026)

Violent Saviors: The West’s Conquest of the Rest, by William Easterly (Basic 2025)

What Now Is Now Is Now, by Nóra Ružičková (Seagull Books 2025)

Wildfires in America, by Jacqueline Vaughn (Bloomsbury 2026)

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Careers

Department Profile: School of the Environment at San Francisco State University

Located off the shores of Lake Merced in San Francisco’s southwestern corner, the School of the Environment at San Francisco State University (SFSU) brings together students and faculty committed to scientific exploration, environmental stewardship, and social justice. This unique setting, where urban life meets coastal and mountainous ecosystems, provides an ideal backdrop for studying the connections between people, landscapes, and the planet.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Education

San Francisco State University students gather samples for a field methods class in the San Francisco Bay.
San Francisco State University students gather samples for a field methods class in the San Francisco Bay.

The School of the Environment offers a broad and integrated curriculum that reflects the shared mission of its faculty and programs. Students pursuing undergraduate majors gain a strong foundation in physical and human geography, in addition to field methods and geographic information science (GIS) and systems. These core skills equip students to understand environmental processes, helping them map change and analyze human–environment interactions. Graduate students have the option of specializing in geography, geographic information science, geosciences, or resource management and environmental planning.

These offerings are supported by the vast expertise of faculty across disciplines. Wide-ranging scholarly strengths range from physical geography and the use of technical programs to human-environment interactions. This includes food justice and urban agriculture, researching sustainable communities, green consumerism, and the politics of mobility.

A New School Built on Collaboration

In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dean brought together three units — the former Department of Geography and Environment, the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, and the Environmental Studies program — to explore merging into a larger, more cohesive academic home. Andrew Oliphant, professor and School of the Environment co-director, shares the former schools’ shared curriculum, cross-listed classes, and overlapping student communities naturally evolved into what is now the School of the Environment, strengthening opportunities for interdisciplinary research, teaching, and collaboration.

With the formation of the new School, faculty intentionally centered equity, representation, and inclusivity in their mission. Their efforts include a range of initiatives: culturally responsive student support, reducing or eliminating course-related costs wherever possible, and expanding pathways into environmental careers for students from historically marginalized communities. As Oliphant notes: “One of our missions is to change the face of the professional world in California that’s managing and stewarding the environment.”

A Presence Across Campus and Beyond

While the School recently reorganized and renamed itself, department chair Andrew Oliphant notes that its reach extends far beyond environmental programs. Students from art, cinema, ethnic studies, biology, physics, and other departments enroll in its courses.

Through this broad academic footprint, students gain training in climate and environmental fundamentals and the necessary language and context for environmental advocacy. The skills taught in courses are applicable across scientific, creative, and civic fields.

A thriving student–alumni network speaks to the school’s deep commitment to mentorship and career support. Graduates contribute to the California workforce and beyond, including local and state governments, federal agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and private companies and nonprofits such as East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). The school’s organically built internship network helps open doors for students who may not otherwise have access to such opportunities.

San Francisco State University students gather between two CalTrains for a transportation class field trip.
San Francisco State University students gather between two CalTrains for a transportation class field trip.

 

Preparing Students for a Changing World and Workforce

The school balances professional preparation with a deep commitment to the fundamental sciences. Students can begin to prepare for future steps to careers in environmental management, GIS, or planning; working with nonprofits in scientific research; or doctoral-level academic study.

Oliphant also emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary training in an era of rapid technological change: “There will be geographers who lose work to AI … but the broad training we give — understanding biophysical processes, social structures, and the philosophies shaping our world — positions our students well in an AI-driven future.”

A prime resource for students includes participating in alternative learning spaces. For example, SFSU’s remote Sierra Nevada Field Campus offers summer field courses where teams of students and faculty spend a week immersed in research. The field campus also provides a location for locally centered research projects. Graduate students frequently use these field experiences to support their thesis work, and faculty encourage student employment on grant-funded research whenever possible.

One project, funded by the state of California, focuses on the restoration of Sierra Nevada Mountain meadows, which have long been degraded by agriculture, mining, and forestry. With numerous faculty who specialize in remote sensing and biogeography, collaboration with community partners such as the Mountain Maidu Consortium, whose Indigenous stewardship of these landscapes spans centuries, is essential. These partnerships represent the school’s holistic approach to environmental research: recognizing that complex spaces — like mountain meadows — cannot be understood through a single disciplinary lens.

When it comes to recounting student success, “it’s about the daughter of immigrant farm workers from the Salinas Valley, now working for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, advising farmers on healthy soil practices.” Oliphant goes on, “Or a recent graduate from the Pitt River Nation who’s working for the USGS, monitoring Northern California lands, part of his tribal community.” This kind of transformative student success is part of the reason SFSU was ranked 8th nationally for social mobility in 2024 by the U.S. News & World Report.

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