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Coline Dony Joins AAG as Senior Geography Researcher

Coline Dony, Senior Geography Researcher, for the American Association of Geographers

The AAG welcomes Coline Dony as a Senior Geography Researcher. Before joining the AAG staff in Washington, D.C., Coline served as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County where she taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in GIS, geovisualization and programming for spatial data analysis. Coline also taught an undergraduate course in medical geography, her area of expertise.

Coline holds four degrees in geography: a bachelor’s degree and a master of science degree from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, and a master of arts degree and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Coline moved from Brussels to Charlotte, N.C., in 2011 to join an interdisciplinary team doing research on spatial access to healthcare. For her dissertation research, Coline looked at ways to improve people’s health by using better urban planning instead of primarily relying on medical services through a study of access to parks in Charlotte and associated environmental injustices. Other than health geography, Coline cares about bringing programming skills to geographers, especially to female geographers and to social geography programs. In the summer of 2015 she taught for Girls Who Code, a non-profit that aims to see more women pursue their education in a STEM field.

In her role at AAG she is working on a new AAG initiative, “Coding for Girls in GIS and Geography,” helping to develop GIS coding curricular materials, such as python programming for spatio-temporal analysis and many other topics, and is helping to plan a series of workshops on coding for girls and women beginning at the AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans in 2018. In addition, she is working with the AAG team on a series of webinars and podcasts for the Secondary Cities project.

When not working, Coline likes to watch TV, especially her favorite show: Rectify (on Sundance). Coline also likes to swim and is learning Japanese.

Coline Dony, Senior Geography Researcher
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AAG Statement on Charlottesville Tragedy and White Supremacy

The American Association of Geographers is deeply saddened and disturbed by the recent deadly and violent events in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Rallies supported by white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members led to the killing of one counter-protester, the wounding of at least 19 other protesters, and the deaths of two law enforcement officers doing surveillance of the rallies by air. On behalf of its almost 12,000 members, the AAG expresses heartfelt sympathy to the victims of the Charlottesville tragedy and their loved ones.

The AAG also wishes to use this statement to offer the strongest possible condemnation of white supremacy and the perpetrators of this recent violence. The AAG calls upon US federal, state, and local government officials to be unequivocally anti-racist in their denouncement and investigation of white supremacy—not only in Charlottesville but also in the many US communities long harmed by racism in both highly publicized and everyday ways.

Enhancing diversity, promoting inclusion, and advocating for historically marginalized social groups are central to the AAG and its mission. Recent events in Virginia strike at the heart of these values. Moreover, geographers are making important contributions to studying the social and spatial foundations and consequences of racism, violence, and inequality. Yet more can and should be done in the discipline of geography and by academicians and professionals in other fields to address these critical issues.

Members of the AAG are encouraged to use their research, teaching, professional practice, community outreach, and channels of public communication to oppose racism and violence and advocate for a constructive national dialogue about white supremacy and race relations in general. This advocacy can come in many forms based on the abilities and sensitivities of AAG members, but it is vital that the discipline’s informed and committed voices are heard, whether that is through the media, at government and policy meetings, in classrooms, teach-ins and educational forums, or among grass roots community organizing.

See AAG’s Policy page

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Emily Fekete joins AAG as Communications, Education, and Media Specialist

The AAG welcomes Emily Fekete in the new position of Communications, Education, and Media specialist. Prior to the AAG, she was employed as a clinical assistant professor and undergraduate coordinator for the geography department at Oklahoma State University. While at the university, she taught courses in cultural geography, economic geography, and geographies of new media as well as served as the undergraduate advisor and coordinator of the undergraduate geography, geospatial information science, and global studies programs.

In her new position at the AAG office in D.C. Emily will lend her expertise in communications and media geographies to the communications team through new content curation, social media and program development.

Emily holds bachelor’s degrees in history and geography as well as a minor in deaf studies from the University of New Hampshire, a Master’s degree in geography from Kent State University, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Kansas. Her research projects have been varied within communications geographies including a major focus on offline consumption patterns driven by social media sites as well as activism and social media, cyberwar and cyberterrorism, and deaf/American sign language geographies.

In her free time, Emily and her husband, Kevin, enjoy exploring new breweries and restaurants. She also makes time for ballet dancing, downhill skiing, and hanging out with her black cat, Mulligan.

Communications Education and Media Specialist, Emily Fekete
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Washington Policy Updates

The August Congressional recess is in full swing in the nation’s capital, and while we’re hard at work at the AAG, President Trump and lawmakers have left Washington for most of this month.  Here are a few updates on key policy issues:

OSTP Appointments

As AAG members may recall, we led scientific community efforts in developing a sign-on letter to the Trump Administration urging appointment of a presidential science advisor and other top officials in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).  The letter was endorsed by 58 organizations and universities, including AAAS and AAU.  As of this writing, the president still has not filled the top jobs in OSTP and there are no signs of pending appointments.  There has been speculation in Washington that the lack of nominations to key positions across the government is part of an effort by the Administration to downsize the government.

Census Bureau Director

Meanwhile, there also continues to be a vacancy in the leadership of the U.S. Census Bureau.  Former Director John Thompson left the Agency in June to take a job as Executive Director of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics.  Ron Jarmin, a career staffer serving as Associate Director for Economic Programs, has been appointed as the Bureau’s acting head, but the Administration has yet to nominate a permanent director as we head into the critical ramp up for the 2020 Census.

Science Agency Appropriations

The fall will be a critical time for government funding issues.  Administration officials have signaled that the government is approaching the statutory debt ceiling and that an increase will be needed to prevent a catastrophic default.  Congressional leaders will seek to pass a “clean bill” without any policy riders or related budget cuts, but it is likely that House and Senate conservatives will oppose these efforts.  Accordingly, the final bill will probably have to be bipartisan, as happened towards the end of the Obama Administration.

Congressional appropriators have also been hard at work on the bills that will fund federal agencies for Fiscal Year 2018, which begins October 1.  The House Appropriations Committee has approved legislation funding the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and both agencies fared significantly better than they did in the Trump Administration’s budget request.

The Foundation would receive $7.3 billion under the House bill, which is a decrease of 1.8 percent from last year’s enacted level, but 10.3 percent above the President’s request.  Meanwhile, NIH would be funded at $35.2 billion as part of the House proposal, an increase of 3 percent over last year and a whopping 32 percent above the Administration’s budget.  We will continue to keep you up to date on key developments related to federal science funding.

Census Bureau Director, OSTP Appointments, Policy updates, Science Appropriations
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Preparing NSF Data Management Plans

Since 2011 the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has required that all submitted proposals include a Data Management Plan (DMP). A DMP is a plan for the management and sharing of any data and other kinds of products resulting from the activities in a proposal. Why did NSF start to require DMPs? NSF is a U.S. federal agency supported by taxpayer dollars. As such, data and other products generated by NSF-supported research need to be made available in a format for others to use. Investigators need to be sure that their project meets the expectation that data gathered using public funding will be preserved in ways to facilitate long-term public accessibility and use. Making data publicly available in this way will also permit future meta-analysis, which adds value to the original data collection.

Learn more.

Data Management Plans, National Science Foundation
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AAG Members Publish New Book on Florida Weather and Climate

AAG members Jennifer M. Collins, associate professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida; Robert V. Rohli, professor of geography at Louisiana State University; and colleague Charles H. Paxton, an American Meteorological Society certified consulting meteorologist, just published, Florida Weather and Climate: More Than Just Sunshine. The book explores the conditions, forces, and processes behind Florida’s varied and remarkable weather. The authors explain the influence of atmospheric circulation patterns such as the Hadley cell, the Coriolis force, and the Bermuda-Azores high. It also covers major weather incidents from Florida’s history and looks ahead to what climate change will mean for the state’s future. The book is aimed for the general public to read, but also as a scholarly resource. To learn more, visit here.

climate change, Florida
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Camelia Kantor Named USGIF Director of Academic Programs

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) has appointed Camelia Kantor as its new Director of Academic Program. In this position, she will manage USGIF’s Collegiate GEOINT Accreditation Program, which awards students GEOINT Certificates accompanying their college degrees. Kantor was formerly an associate professor of geography at Claflin University in South Carolina. Most recently, she has served as a GeoMentor. Kantor is the recipient of AAG’s 2017 Dr. Helen Ruth Aspaas SAGE Innovator Award. The award is named for one of the founding members of the SAGE (Stand-Alone Geographers) Specialty Group, Dr. Helen Ruth Aspaas, a retired professor from Virginia Commonwealth University, and recognizes an outstanding and innovative Stand Alone Geographic Educator. To learn more, visit https://sensorsandsystems.com/usgif-appoints-new-director-of-academic-programs.

AAG SAGE Specialty Group, GeoMentors, USGIF
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Geographers Kristine DeLong and Grant Harley featured in New Documentary, “The Underwater Forest”

Kristine L. DeLong, associate professor of geography at Louisiana State University and Grant Harley, assistant professor of Geography at the University of Southern Mississippi, were both part of a team of scientists featured in the new documentary, “The Underwater Forest.” The documentary is about an ancient cypress forest discovered in 60 feet of water and about 10 miles off the coast of Alabama in the Gulf of Mexico. The Underwater Forest, which dates to an ice age approximately 60,000 years ago, could provide information about ancient plant populations, rainfall in the region and other topics. To learn more about this documentary, visit AL.com.

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NCRGE Announces New Grants for Transformative Research

The National Center for Research in Geography Education (NCRGE), a research consortium headquartered at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and Texas State University, has approved awards for three new projects under its Transformative Research grant program. This investment by NCRGE continues a long-term and broad-based effort to develop a research coordination network supporting implementation of the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education project’s landmark report on geography education research.

NCRGE funds networking activities to strengthen geography education research processes and promote the growth of sustainable, and potentially transformative, lines of research. Through this program, NCRGE is building capacity for research in areas that the Road Map Project determined to be highly significant for achieving broad-scale improvements in geography teaching and learning.

Last year, NCRGE funded three research groups in the areas of geography learning progressions, geospatially-enabled project-based learning, and spatial thinking assessment. These groups recently completed their networking activities and are currently preparing research proposals to build upon their foundational work.

The second cohort of Transformative Research grantees will begin their research planning and networking activities in July 2017. One research group, under the direction of Jung Eun Hong (University of West Georgia) and Injeong Jo (Texas State University), will work to develop a conceptual model of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for geography teachers. PCK refers to the ability of teachers to represent specialized types of knowledge so that it is understandable by students. An early prototype of the PCK model will be tested empirically through case studies with five expert geography teachers. Classroom observations, lesson recordings, teacher interviews, teachers’ lesson plans and reflections, and student work samples will be compiled and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings will inform the revision of the conceptual PCK model, which the group then plans to share with other researchers through the NCRGE research clearinghouse. This process will expand empirical testing of the model and provide new opportunities for expanding research into the characteristics of effective geography teaching and ways of enhancing the preparation of effective geography teachers.

A second group, to be led by Katsuhiko Oda (University of Southern California), will focus on a closely-related concept known as Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), which deals specifically with teachers’ self-efficacy for incorporating technology into their instruction. The group will explore the value of TPACK for organizing coherent professional development experiences for teachers seeking to use geospatial technology in different subject areas. Through a series of sessions with middle school teachers, the group will collect and analyze reflective journals, lesson plans, and classroom demonstrations to identify the components of a TPACK model for geospatial technology. Once their provisional TPACK model becomes available in the NCRGE research clearinghouse, the group will invite others to join the network for further empirical studies in a larger number of sites.

Jamie Winders and Anne Mosher (Syracuse University) will initiate a group to explore where, when, and how student services professionals recommend pathways to college and careers for students who express an interest in geography. The group will organize focus groups and interviews with high school guidance counselors, college admissions representatives, and college general advising staff in three different states to identify difficulties that students, particularly young women and other underrepresented groups, face in continuing their studies of geography in college. By opening a line of research focused on non-instructional personnel, this group hopes to develop a new collaborative methodology for investigating the information provided to students on choices of college to attend, careers to target, specific courses to take, and majors to declare. Having such information is critical to implementing strategies aimed at escorting a more diverse and inclusive flow of students from high school to college.

The second cohort of NCRGE Transformative Research grantees will present the results of their projects in a special symposium being planned for the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans. This symposium will be an all-day event featuring keynote speakers, paper and panel sessions, and grant-writing workshops for geography education research.

The NCRGE research coordination network is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Geography and Spatial Science program (NSF Award BCS-1560862). For more information, please visit www.ncrge.org.

NCRGE, The National Center for Research in Geography Education
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Updates from the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program at NSF

The Geography and Spatial Sciences (GSS) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces the release of a new GSS strategic plan as well as new program solicitations for both its regular and its doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) competitions.  These documents are available via links on the GSS websites.  The new strategic plan and the new solicitations replace the previous versions of these documents.  The solicitations include some changes and provide clarification regarding proposal preparation for submission of proposals to the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program.

The GSS DDRI solicitation (NSF 17-567) contains important changes regarding deadlines, budgetary limitations, and project description page limits.  The other GSS solicitation (NSF 17-566) contains information about all other proposal submission types.  This solicitation does not contain any significant substantive changes from the previous solicitation, but it has added text to clarify guidance for the preparation of compliant proposals.  Applicants should be sure to use the new solicitations as guidance for preparing a proposal.  Please prepare and submit in accordance with the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 17-1).  Where there are differences, GSS program guidance takes precedent over the guidance in the PAPPG.

Individuals who have questions about or who wish more information about the new solicitations and the new GSS strategic plan should contact the GSS program directors.  Email is the preferred mode for initial communication.  All GSS program directors can be contacted at once through the use of the gss-info [at] nsf [dot] gov alias.  The GSS program directors can also be contacted individually:  Antoinette WinklerPrins (anwinkle [at] nsf [dot] gov; 703-292-7266); Thomas Baerwald (tbaerwal [at] nsf [dot] gov; 703-292-7301); Holly Hapke (hhapke [at] nsf [dot] gov; 703-292-8457), and Sunil Narumalani (snarumal [at] nsf [dot] gov).

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