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AAG Honors its First Archivist, the Library of Congress’ Ralph Ehrenberg

AAG Executive Director Doug Richardson and Chief of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Ralph Ehrenberg

The AAG honored Ralph Ehrenberg, Chief of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, during his retirement from the Library of Congress on October 13, 2016. The AAG’s Executive Director Doug Richardson presented him with a certificate of appreciation for his many years of service to the Association as the first AAG Archivist and in his distinguished role at the Library of Congress.

The special citation recognized his outstanding contributions to Geography through his scholarship and research, his service as the first Archivist of the AAG, his leadership as
Chief of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, and for his role in curating and making the AAG Archives accessible to scholars and students around the world.

Archivist, Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Ralph Ehrenberg
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David Lowenthal Receives the British Academy Medal

David Lowenthal was awarded the 2016 British Academy medal for The Past Is a Foreign Country—Revisited (Cambridge University Press, 2015). The medal honors “a landmark academic achievement which has transformed understanding in the humanities and social sciences” in a book that explores “the manifold ways in which history engages, illuminates and deceives us in the here and now.”

David Lowenthal engages a panel during “Author Meets Critic: The Past is a Foreign Country—Revisited,” a special session at the 2016 AAG annual meeting in San Francisco.

Lowenthal, emeritus professor of geography and honorary research fellow at University College London, was invited to the 2016 AAG Annual Meeting in San Francisco for a special “Author Meets Critics” session. There he talked about The Past is a Foreign Country—Revisited before panelists Diana K. Davis (UC Davis), Marie D. Price (George Washington University), and Dydia Delyser (CSU Fullerton), gave their understandings and opinions on the book.

The British Academy medal is greatly deserved for his work. Thirty years ago he wrote The Past Is a Foreign Country, which became a classic text. The Revisited text explores anew how we celebrate, expunge, contest and manipulate the past. He reveals the past as an almost entirely new realm, so transformed over three decades as to demand an equally new book.

British Academy medal, David Lowenthal, humanities, The Past Is a Foreign Country-Revisited
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Annual Meeting

‘Locating Geography Education’ — Sarah Bednarz’s Past President’s Address

AAG Past President Sarah Witham Bednarz will explore the evolving role, nature, and relevance of geography education as viewed by former presidents of the AAG from 1910 to the present. AAG presidential addresses have, at times, commented directly on education issues; at other times the topic has been avoided, if not ignored. What changes have occurred over time in how geography education is perceived and valued? What persistent educational concerns has the discipline wrestled with? How has the discipline, represented by its leaders, addressed broader social, cultural, and political factors that affect the production of new geographic knowledge and the reproduction of geographers?

At the close of the plenary, Bednarz will present Roger M. Downs, professor of geography at Pennsylvania State University, with the 2017 AAG Presidential Achievement Award, for his long-term, major contributions to the discipline.

The session will take place 11:50 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. on Friday, April 7, 2017. More details will follow as they become available.

AAG 2017, AAG presidents, education, Locating Geography Education, Past President’s Address, Sarah Witham Bednarz
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Awardees

Noam Chomsky To Receive AAG Atlas Award in Boston

Chomsky

The American Association of Geographers has selected Noam Chomsky as the recipient of its 2017 AAG Atlas Award, the association’s highest honor.

The AAG Atlas Award is designed to recognize and celebrate outstanding, internationally-recognized leaders who advance world understanding in exceptional ways. The image of Atlas bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders is a powerful metaphor for this award program, as our nominees are those who have taken the weight of the world on their shoulders and moved it forward, whether in science, politics, scholarship, or the arts. Primatologist Jane Goodall, international human rights and political leader Mary Robinson, and civil rights icon Julian Bond have been the recipients of the first three AAG Atlas Awards.

One of the world’s leading public intellectuals, Noam Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, science, history, contemporary issues, international affairs, and US foreign policy. His work on the nature of human language and communication has profoundly transformed the field of linguistics, and greatly influenced science and philosophy more broadly. “In terms of the power, range, novelty and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive today, “ wrote Paul Robinson in the New York Times Book Review.

Chomsky’s wide-ranging intellect and impassioned work have long inspired geographers. And his highly-regarded contributions on contemporary topics concerning globalization and the intersections between geography, economics and politics are of great interest to AAG members. Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A Continuing Conversation with Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky will engage in a conversational interview with AAG Executive Director Doug Richardson, as he has several times previously, at this year’s AAG Annual Meeting in Boston. The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions following the interview.

This special interview with Chomsky will also serve as the keynote session to kick off Mainstreaming Human Rights in Geography and the AAG, one of three main Themes of the 2017 AAG Annual Meeting. Learn more.

2017, AAG Annual Meeting, AAG Atlas Award, Boston, Noam Chomsky
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AAG Launches New Undergraduate Student Affinity Group

The American Association of Geographers will launch a new affinity group specifically for undergraduate students. The Undergraduate Student Affinity Group (USAG) will be an international community of students studying geography, offering opportunities to network and socialize, get advice on graduate study and careers, and take part in academic events.

USAG will work closely with the Graduate Student Affinity Group (GSAG) to plan and develop joint events and workshops that are run by students for students. These may include mentoring and advice on applying to grad school.

USAG membership is open to undergraduate students at a college or university anywhere in the world who are studying geography or a closely related subject (e.g., environmental studies, urban and regional planning, GIScience, geoscience, global studies, or social science education), and are members of the AAG—joining AAG and USAG can happen simultaneously.

Undergraduate students can join the AAG for just $38 and receive full membership benefits including access to scholarly journals and publications, exclusive access to the Jobs in Geography listings, participation in the knowledge communities, and reduced rates for Annual Meeting and other event registration. They can join USAG for an additional $1.

We are also looking for a few students to form the inaugural board of USAG and shape the future of this group. Nominations are welcome throughout the fall and winter, and officers will be selected during the first Business Meeting of USAG held during the AAG Annual Meeting in Boston, April 5-9, 2017. Please let us know if you know particularly enthusiastic students in their sophomore or junior years who might be keen to serve as an officer of this group for two years.

For further information please visit www.aag.org/usag or contact Jenny Lunn (jlunn [at] aag [dot] org).

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AAG Welcomes Julio Arguello Jr. as Social Media and Website Content Manager

The AAG is pleased to announce that Julio Arguello, Jr. has joined the association as the Social Media and Website Content Manager at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Julio has more than 15 years of digital communications, IT, membership and publications management experience in the nonprofit sector. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson State University.

Julio previously worked for the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) where he was the Digital Communications Manager in charge of online communications and social media strategies, including AMCHP’s website. Prior to that position, Julio served as the organization’s Publications & Member Services Manager.

Julio will collaborate with AAG’s communications group to oversee AAG’s engagement across its social media communities, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. He will monitor media channels, post information, interact with users, and curate and write web content. He will also contribute to organizing project-related campaigns.

In his free time, Julio enjoys playing tennis, taking long walks and exploring Washington, D.C., watching films, and the theater and opera.

Julio Arguello Jr., Social Media and Website Content Manager
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Awardees

Geoffrey Martin Receives the Humboldt Book Award for Enduring Scholarship in Geography

The AAG Review of Books (AAGRB) is proud to announce the selection of Prof. Geoffrey Martin’s monumental book, American Geography and Geographers, as the inaugural recipient of the Humboldt Book Award for Enduring Scholarship in Geography.

The award was selected from all of the books reviewed during the first four years of the AAG Review of Books. The selection committee chaired by the Editor-in-Chief of the AAGRB unanimously agreed on selection of American Geography and Geographers as the inaugural awardee for the Humboldt Book Award for Enduring Scholarship in Geography.

The Humboldt Book Award for Enduring Scholarship was established to recognize the single book reviewed in the AAG Review of Books judged to be a work that not only represents geographic scholarship at its best, but a book that also promises enduring scholarly value and importance. The author receives an honorarium of $1,000 as well.

Published by Oxford University Press in 2015, American Geography and Geographers has been characterized by Ron Abler as “unparalleled in the scope and depth of its research” and by Harm De Blij as “a monumental and magisterial work, exhaustively researched and documented.” William Koelsch added, “This landmark study will be a resource for teachers and students of the discipline for years to come, and an important first reference for scholars seeking to expand the breadth and depth of the field.”

The selection of the AAGRB Humboldt Book Award for Enduring Scholarship in Geography will be made every four years, from the books reviewed in the AAGRB during the prior four years.

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Canadian Academy to Name Medal for AAG Past President Ross Mackay

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) has agreed to honor the memory of J. Ross Mackay, the world’s pre-eminent permafrost scientist of his generation, by striking a medal in his name that will recognize major, career-length achievements in Arctic research. Mackay served as President of the American Association of Geographers in 1969-70.

J. Ross Mackay, Canada’s pre-eminent Arctic scientist and a world authority on permafrost, passed away peacefully on October 28, 2014, at the age of 98. As a Past President of the AAG, he will be honored with a full memorial in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, scheduled for publication in 2017.

The RSC medal will be awarded in any field of Arctic research, whether natural science or social science.

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Annual Meeting

AAG To Offer On-site Childcare During 2017 Annual Meeting

During AAG 2015 Chicago, President Mona Domosh visited CAMP AAG.

CAMP AAG was a success in San Francisco and the AAG is again making an investment to provide full-time, professionally-managed and staffed on-site childcare services for the 2017 annual meeting in Boston. CAMP AAG will offer age-appropriate activities for children ranging from 6 months to 13 years of age (separated into age-appropriate groups) including curriculum-enriched, hands-on, creative activities, arts & crafts projects, active games, and more.

Interested parents will be able to register their children either online in advance or during on-site registration in Boston. Although the AAG strongly recommends advance registration online to ensure access to your desired time slots, registration will remain open throughout the annual meeting week directly at the on-site childcare facility.

AAG’s childcare center, CAMP AAG managed by ACCENT, was a big hit with parents and kids.

The on-site childcare services will be provided by Accent on Children’s Arrangements, Inc. (ACCENT), which will design and run a children’s program called CAMP AAG. ACCENT will staff CAMP AAG with teacher professional child care providers who have completed ACCENT’s specialized training program. In addition, ACCENT’s on-site supervisors are CPR and Pediatric First Aid certified.

Here’s what a few parents said about their experiences: “Thank you for providing daycare and supporting working moms.” “Great initiative, AAG!” “Thanks for making it possible for me to attend the convention.”

Learn More and Register Now.

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Elin Thorlund Joins AAG Staff as Research Assistant

The AAG is pleased to announce that Elin Thorlund has joined the association staff as a Research Assistant at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Elin served as an intern at the association during the spring 2015 semester, as well as during the AAG annual meetings in Chicago and San Francisco.

She will contribute to numerous areas of the AAG, including membership, accounting, journals, operations and annual meeting.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in geography with minors in Spanish and global studies in the arts and humanities from Michigan State University. As an undergraduate, she co-authored a paper in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers Volume 106, Number 3.

In her free time, Elin enjoys spending as much time in the outdoors as possible.

Elin Thorlund
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