Newsletter – August 2018
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Postcards from the Mediterranean: Groundwater, Glaciers, and Geopark
By Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
One of the enduring themes for AAG Annual Meetings is Geography, Science, and Human Rights. We will continue to incorporate this nexus of human and physical geography, and GIScience, into the 2019 AAG annual meeting as a major theme. Understanding and teaching the right to benefit from science is more important now than ever. We inhabit a world of political uncertainty but growing scientific certainty, a time where the U.S. Endangered Species Act is currently under attack, and a planet where coastal villages are threatened by icebergs from Glaciers breaking up due to global warming, at the same time that communities ranging from Athens Greece to Yosemite and Redding, California are ravaged by fires stoked by record summer heat.
Read past columns from the current AAG President on our President’s Column page.
ANNUAL MEETING
New Annual Meeting Fee Structure Implemented for #aagDC
As the AAG annual meeting has continued to grow, so has the number of concurrent sessions. In order to improve the planning, implementation, and attendee experience at the meeting, the AAG has adjusted the way registration is organized. Rates will now be based on participation type: attendees who will be participating in Paper and Panel sessions must register under the “Regular” category and those involved in Poster sessions or not presenting will qualify for “Discounted” rates. Registration opens soon!
Learn more about the new fees.
“Focus on Washington, DC and the Mid Atlantic” is an ongoing series curated by the Local Arrangements Committee to provide insight on and understanding of the geographies of Washington, DC and the greater Mid Atlantic region in preparation for the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting.
The National Mall: Making Space for the Dream
One of the more familiar features of Washington, DC is the National Mall, a public greenspace of over 1,000 acres maintained by the US National Park Service. Author of the book The National Mall: No Ordinary Public Space, Lisa Benton-Short, gives an insider look at some of the new features like the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, and the National Museum of the American Indian for #aagDC attendees.
ASSOCIATION NEWS
NCRGE Funds Research Networks on Geography and Civics, Geo-Computation, and International Curriculum Research
A third cohort of grantees were recently approved by the National Center for Research in Geographic Education to conduct research as part of the Transformative Research grant program. The NCRGE program was developed to support the implementation of recommendations outlined by the Roadmap for 21st Century Geography Education project. These initiatives will seek to improve geography education and learning in the areas of geo-computation, redistricting, and international curriculum.
AAG Welcomes Zan Dodson, Director, Program Management & Research
The AAG welcomes Zan Dodson as Director, Program Management & Research. Prior to the AAG, he was a postdoctoral associate for three years in the Public Health Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh and Adjunct Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University. Zan will be working on the AAG research program and with the AAG management team to support the Association.
Meet the Editors of AAG Journals: Kent Mathewson and Robert Perham
An editorial team consisting of an editor-in-chief and an editorial assistant works on the AAG Review of Books. Published quarterly, the AAG Review of Books was launched in 2013 to centralize the publishing of scholarly book reviews formerly published in other AAG journals. Kent Mathewson has been serving as the editor-in-chief since the inception of the journal and Robert Perham recently completed a position as an assistant for the review.
Find out more about the AAG Journals editors.
MEMBER NEWS
Profiles of Professional Geographers
John Sauvageau is the professional geographer featured this month in our Profiles of Professional Geographers spotlight. As a Vice President – Senior Branch Channel Market Planner for Citizens Bank, Sauvageau uses his GIS training to assist in site selection for bank branches and ATMs. For geographers, combining a passion for an industry with geographical training opens many doors for careers!
Learn more about geography careers.
Anne U. White Grant Recipient publishes new book
Dr. Shouraseni Sen Roy, recipient of a grant from the Anne U. White Fund at the AAG, recently published a new book entitled “Linking Gender to Climate Change Impacts in the Global South.” The research for the book was largely collected using money received from the White Fund. The White Fund was established in 1989 to support geographers conducting field work alongside their partners.
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES
AAG Releases New 2017-2018 Edition of The Guide
The AAG’s Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas, or The Guide, includes detailed information on undergraduate and graduate geography programs in the United States, Canada, and Latin America, including degree requirements, curricula, faculty qualifications, program specialties, financial assistance, and degrees completed, and more. The 2017-2018 edition of The Guide is now available for free online. The AAG has also published an interactive, companion map where users can search for programs by location, degree type, field of interest, and regional focus.
Nominate Inspiring Geographers: September Awards Deadlines
AAG Grants and Awards make a huge impact on our community of Geographers and help maintain the legacy of geographers of the past while paying tribute to geographers thriving right now. September deadlines are approaching fast. Don’t miss your opportunity to apply or nominate someone deserving! Learn more about the following grants and awards before their due dates:
Sept. 15: AAG Enhancing Diversity Award and AAG Susan Hardwick Excellence in Mentoring Award
Sept. 22: AAG Nystrom Award for Recent Dissertations
IN MEMORIAM
Peter Meusburger
The AAG is saddened to hear of the passing of Peter Meusburger, a professor of human geography at the University of Heidelberg. Meusburger passed away on December 18, 2017 at 75 years of age. Serving as the president of the German Geography Society from 2001-2003, Meusburger was also awarded the AAG Presidential Achievement Award in 2010, one of many accolades.
PUBLICATIONS
Summer 2018 Issue of ‘The AAG Review of Books’ Now Available
Volume 6, Issue 3 of The AAG Review of Books has now been published online. In addition to featuring individual book reviews and discussions, the quarterly publication also includes longer essays on several books dealing with a particular theme. This quarter, the essay by Joseph S. Wood looks at the white, rural poor in the US.
New Books in Geography — June 2018 Available
Each month the AAG publishes a list of new books in geography and related disciplines to help members keep up with the latest in published research. The June 2018 list of new books is now available online and includes works on topics related to climate change, ice, immigration, geopolitics and more!
Read the July 2018 Issue of the ‘Annals of the AAG’
The Annals of the American Association of Geographers is published six times a year. Issue 4 of Volume 108 is now available to read online as part of the AAG membership benefits. This issue features an editors’ choice article on the racial nature of gerrymandering in the US.
Full article listing available.
Volume 4, Issue 1 of ‘GeoHumanities’ Online Now
GeoHumanities features articles that span conceptual and methodological debates in geography and the humanities; critical reflections on analog and digital artistic productions; and new scholarly interactions occurring at the intersections of geography and multiple humanities disciplines. There are full length scholarly articles in the Articles section and shorter creative pieces that cross over between the academy and creative practice in the Practices and Curations section.
May 2018 Issue of the ‘Professional Geographer’ Published
The Professional Geographer, Volume 70, Issue 2, has been published. Of note to geographers interested in the Public Engagement theme for #AAG2018, the focus section in this issue is Out in the World: Geography’s Complex Relationship with Civic Engagement. The issue also includes short articles in academic or applied geography, emphasizing empirical studies and methodologies.
GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS
- Geographers at Sam Houston State University lead award winning field course in Hawaii
- Cartographer and PhD Student Annita Lucchesi seeks Indigenous gone missing in US and Canada
- Glen MacDonald responds to claims about California wildfires
EVENTS CALENDAR
- August 6-10, 2018 – International Geographical Union Conference
- August 12, 2018 – Deadline to apply to NSF Coastlines and People Scoping Sessions
Submit News to the AAG Newsletter. To share your news, email us!
This column begins with special thanks and recognition of our outgoing President Dr. Derek Alderman, and outgoing Past President Dr. Glen MacDonald. Please join me in recognizing their leadership in moving the association forward on so many important fronts, ranging from civil rights to environmental security. We must carry this momentum forward from the strong foundations they established, and I am honored to take up the baton as your new AAG president… In my first presidential column, I address a matter of human rights and global understanding, to which geographers have much to contribute.
The 2019 AAG Annual Meeting takes place from April 3-7, 2019. Participants and attendees can start to register for the meeting at the end of July. Please check your email in the coming days for an important announcement regarding the 2019 Annual Meeting fee structure. And remember, register early for the best rates!
The official #aagDC conference hotels are now open for reservations. As you prepare to travel to Washington, DC, explore the Marriott Wardman Park and the Omni Shoreham – the co-headquarters for the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting. The Marriott and Omni are conveniently located directly across the street from each other in DC’s Woodley Park neighborhood. #aagDC will overlap with DC’s renowned Cherry Blossom Festival, which attracts more than a million tourists each year. Because of this, AAG has reserved a block of discounted rooms for Annual Meeting attendees.
The AAG is pleased to have three interns join the AAG staff this summer. Alex Lafler, a junior at Michigan State University, is pursuing a BS in Geographic Information Science and a BA in Human Geography (along with a Minor in Environment and Health), Christian Meoli, a senior at the University of Mary Washington, is double majoring in Geography and Environmental Science with a certificate in GIS, and Jenny Roepe, a senior at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, is pursuing a B.A. in geography with a minor in geographical information systems and urban and public issues.
The AAG is excited to announce that the first 30 of 308 films in the Geographers on Film series have been digitized and are now available online from the Library of Congress. Geographers on Film is a collection of recorded video interviews conducted with hundreds of geographers between August 1970 and the mid-1980s, including scholars who have shaped the discipline such as Carl Sauer, Richard Hartshorne, Wilbur Zelinsky, Richard Chorley, Mildred Berman, Harold Rose, Jan Monk, Yi-Fu Tuan and Rickie Sanders. The late Maynard Weston Dow (1929 – 2011), Professor Emeritus at Plymouth State College, and Nancy Dow largely produced the series over 40 years.
Volume 6, Issue 2 of the quarterly The AAG Review of Books has now been published online. In addition to scholarly reviews of recent books related to geography, public policy and international affairs, this issue features longer book review fora of Refugees in Extended Exile: Living on the Edge, The Rise of the Hybrid Domain: Collaborative Governance for Social Innovation, and The Great Baseball Revolt: The Rise and Fall of the 1890 Players League.
This marks my last presidential column. Serving as President of the Association over the past year has been a true pleasure and honor. I have appreciated the opportunity to represent you and the discipline of geography. As someone who first began attending AAG meetings as a young graduate student, I never dreamed that one day that I would be allowed to serve in this capacity. I am a direct product of the type of significant investments that my academic programs, employers, mentors, and my Association have made in me over the years. Thank you.
If you missed or want to review the high-profile sessions from AAG 2018 New Orleans, you can now watch recordings of these events on the AAG YouTube channel. Available videos include the Opening Session with welcoming remarks from Executive Director Doug Richardson and Mayor-Elect LaToya Cantrell followed by Derek Alderman’s Presidential Plenary, Glen MacDonald’s Past President’s Address, and Honorary Geographer Robert Bullard’s talk.
AAG continues to monitor and update you on key issues that have a clear impact on geography or in which our discipline can serve as a valued stakeholder in shaping viewpoints and policy outcomes. Recent activities by the AAG include support for funding for the National Agriculture Imagery Program through a sign-on letter. In addition, AAG reports on a House Appropriations Bill, which provides significant increases for the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Census Bureau. AAG also lists information on its policy page to help you take action within your communities.
When it comes to landing a career in geography, Bishop and Shabram agree, the most important thing is to have experience either in the classroom to be an educator or in the field to work in international studies and research. Read more about the two working geographers interviewed this month, Kate Bishop an Evaluation Consultant at Winrock International and Visiting Assistant Lecturer at University of New England in the Department of Environmental Studies and Patrick Shabram a Professor of Geography at Front Range Community College on the Larimer Campus, in AAG’s Profiles of Professional Geographers.
While the deadline for submitting materials for the 2018 Guide has passed, the AAG will continue to accept late submissions through Tuesday, June 12, 2018. Updated each academic year, the Guide is an invaluable reference for students and faculty throughout the world and includes detailed information on hundreds of geography programs in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America, including: program specialties, degrees offered, application requirements, curricula, faculty listings and qualifications, financial assistance, degrees completed, and more! Your program will also appear alongside hundreds of other top geography programs in our 
Curious to know more about the more than 43 annual awards the AAG administers on an annual basis? Is there a colleague that is deserving of an AAG honor? The AAG Grants and Awards program offers a variety of ways to recognize deserving geographers for their commitment to the discipline, their students, and their communities as well as application programs for students to obtain assistance for travel or research. This AAG Snapshot provides insight into getting involved in the AAG Grants and Awards program from multiple avenues.
AGI Wildfire Management Webinar Video Available
Please consider nominating outstanding colleagues for the 
Former Director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center and Distinguished Professor at University of Colorado, Roger Barry, passed away on March 19, 2018. Barry was 82 years old. Known for his work in polar and mountain climates, Barry received numerous academic accolades throughout his lifetime and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments in 1990, 1995, and 2001 as well as served as a review editor for IPCC Working Groups 1 and 2 in 2007, an effort that earned the IPCC the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ohio State Department of Geography Emeratis Professor, Emilio Casetti, passed away on January 11, 2018. Casetti was a professor at Ohio State from 1963 until his retirement in 1993. Holding a doctorate from Northwestern University in Mathematical Modeling, Casetti contributed to the growth of geographical analysis techniques.
Geographer and sustainability scientist, Robert W. Kates, died the day before Earth Day, on April 21, 2018, at the age of 89. Though Kates had a varied career, most recently as Presidential Professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Maine, his work was grounded in big picture questions of sustainability and the question of “What is, and ought to be, the human use of the earth?” Kates has been honored with a variety of awards throughout his life including being the recipient in the first annual MacArthur Fellowship in 1981.
GeoHumanities features articles that span conceptual and methodological debates in geography and the humanities; critical reflections on analog and digital artistic productions; and new scholarly interactions occurring at the intersections of geography and multiple humanities disciplines. There are full length scholarly articles in the Articles section and shorter creative pieces that cross over between the academy and creative practice in the Practices and Curations section.
The Mid Atlantic Team won first place in the 2018 World Geography Bowl, an annual geography knowledge competition for teams of college-level geography students representing the AAG’s regional divisions. The MAD Team defeated Team SEDAAG during the final round of the event where AAG President Derek Alderman served as a guest judge. In its 29th year of hosting, the 2018 AAG World Geography Bowl provides a fun nighttime conference activity while also assisting students in attending the AAG Annual Meeting.
A fund established by former AAG President J. Warren Nystrom supports an annual prize for a paper based upon a recent dissertation in geography. There were 4 finalists in this year’s competition. They presented their papers in a special session on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 where the Nystrom Committee selected two Nystrom Awardees. The Nystrom Committee and the AAG are pleased to announce Bisola Falola of the University of Texas Austin and Qunshan Zhao of Arizona State University as the recipients of the 2018 J. Warren Nystrom Award. Bisola Falola’s dissertation is entitled “Terrains of Trauma – Urban Youth and Policies of Disinvestment.” Qunshan Zhao’s dissertation is entitled “Impact of tree locations and arrangements on outdoor microclimates and human thermal comfort in an urban residential environment.”
Over the next several months, the AAG will be adding a new section to our newsletter and social media accounts to help members get to know the many editors of the AAG suite of journals. This month, meet one of the AAG Journals’ newest editors, Dr. Stephen Hanna. Hanna serves as the Cartography Editor for three of the AAG journals: the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, the Professional Geographer, and GeoHumanities.
Geography education often emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach as a way to understand the breadth of knowledge the discipline has to offer. The two professional geographers interviewed this month in the AAG Profiles of Professional Geographers, Joe Scarpaci, Executive Director of Center for Study of Cuban Culture & Economy and Matthew Connolly, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Central Arkansas, both agree that this big picture approach to understanding the world is a key asset for those looking to undertake a career path in geography. Combine this diverse knowledge base with time management skills to make a winning combination!
The American Association of Geographers is accepting entries from geography programs for the 2018 edition of the Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas. The deadline for submitting a listing has been extended to Friday, June 1, 2018. The 2018 edition of the Guide will be available exclusively online. The Guide lists undergraduate and graduate programs in all areas of geography and includes an 
The American Geosciences Institute’s Policy & Critical Issues program, in partnership with the American Association of Geographers, is hosting a free webinar, Adapting Wildfire Management to 21st Century Conditions, that will take place May 16th from 1:00-2:00 PM EDT. This webinar will explore recent trends in wildfires and changes in contributing factors/drivers of these hazards; examine different wildfire policy and management strategies and how they apply to different ecosystems; and feature case studies of wildfire policy and management strategies in the western and southern states. Speakers will be Tania Schoennagel from the University of Colorado-Boulder, David Godwin from the Southern Fire Exchange, and Vaughan Miller from the Ventura County Fire Department.
We are just days away from the start of the AAG annual meeting. I look forward to seeing many of you in New Orleans. For most of us, participating in the conference is work. It may be a labor of love, but it represents, nonetheless, a significant investment in terms of money, energy, and time. Please know that your investment and work on behalf of the discipline and the Association at the meeting is appreciated…No doubt, conferences should be about the work of building disciplinary bonds and expertise; however, I would suggest our meetings potentially offer an even wider array of professional interactions and benefits that open us to new places, people, and skills. In this column, I discuss the value, but also the challenges, of making our AAG meetings more public-oriented.
Make the most of your AAG annual meeting experience by downloading the AAG mobile app, the digital version of the AAG Annual Meeting Program. With the AAG mobile app, attendees can browse sessions and abstracts, create and save a personalized schedule of events, and find up to the minute information about room changes or upcoming activities. A detailed user manual is available for download on the AAG Annual Meeting website. Don’t wait until you’re standing in the registration line, download the AAG mobile app before you get to New Orleans!
The annual round robin tournament features teams of students from each of the AAG Regional Divisions competing for both a team championship title and individually for an MVP Award. The 2018 World Geography Bowl will be held on Wednesday, April 11 starting at 7:30 PM in the Bayside A-C, Oak Alley, and Nottoway rooms on the 4th Floor of the Sheraton hotel, one floor down from the International Reception. Stop by on your way to the reception or join in to watch the championship round after the reception concludes! Prizes donated from generous sponsors are awarded to winning teams and individuals.
The Jobs and Careers Center will be open daily from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM daily during #AAG2018. Stop by for over 65 sessions, workshops, and field trips related to careers and professional development. Sessions will cover a broad range of topics, from working as a geographer in the public, private, nonprofit, or academic sector, to networking strategies, to becoming a certified GIS Professional (GISP), to women in leadership roles in geography. Students, be sure to attend the Student Networking Happy Hour on Thursday, April 12 from 3:00 – 5:00 pm.
Flooding still represents the costliest natural disasters in the United States on an annual basis, explains 
While many outsiders may be familiar with the larger Mardis Gras parades and festivals in Louisiana, fewer people know about the trail riding events of the state’s Creole riding clubs. 
The Big Easy has always been cool, but the geography of cultural strongholds in the city has changed over time. Bourbon Street in the 1930s was a hotbed of nightlife with its 63 nightclub establishments, some of the first in the United States. But is Bourbon Street, with its critics’ claims of inauthenticity, still considered “cool” today? 
The AAG is pleased to announce the recipients of the three 2018 AAG Book Awards: the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize, the AAG Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography, and the AAG Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography. The AAG Book Awards mark distinguished and outstanding works published by geography authors during the previous year, 2017. Formal recognition of the awardees will occur during the 
Wendy Jepson, professor of Geography at Texas A&M University, was named a AAAS Alan I. Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellow for the class of 2018-2019. Jepson, who was recently elected an AAG National Councilor, is one of the 15 food and water security researchers chosen to represent this year’s class of fellows. The goals of the Leshner Leadership Institute are not only to address scientific issues surrounding resource availability, but also to better engage the public through science/society dialog.
Geographers Cristi Delgado, GISP, Enterprise GIS & Open Data Coordinator for the City of Berkeley, California and Paul McDaniel, Assistant Professor of Geography at Kennesaw State University love the ways that a career in geography connects them with current events and their communities. In this month’s Profiles of Professional Geographers, read about their varied career paths and the diverse skills needed to pursue employment in the geographic field.
Alfred W. Crosby died peacefully at Nantucket Cottage Hospital among friends and family on March 14, 2018. He was 87 and had lived with Parkinson’s Disease for two decades. During his career, Crosby taught at Albion College, the Ohio State University, Washington State University, and the University of Texas at Austin, retiring in 1999 as Professor Emeritus of Geography, History, and American Studies. In addition to his many accolades, Crosby was also involved in the Civil Rights movement, taught Black Studies and the history of American jazz, helped to build a medical center for the United Farm Workers’ Union, and took a leadership role in anti-war demonstrations.
The National Center for Research in Geography Education (NCRGE) invites proposals to develop new collaborative and interdisciplinary research networks in geography education. Through this program, NCRGE aspires to strengthen geography education research processes and promote the growth of sustainable, and potentially transformative, lines of research. Along this vein, NCRGE is also hosting a 
In recognition of the location of AAG’s 2018 Annual Meeting in New Orleans and Black Geographies as one of the three meeting themes, Southeastern Geographer offers free access to digital issues on 
Volume 6, Issue 1 of The AAG Review of Books has now been published online. In this first issue of 2018 be sure to check out the discussions of Concrete Revolution: Large Dams, Cold War Geopolitics, and the US Bureau of Reclamation, Degraded Work: The Struggle at the Bottom of the Labor Market, and Cities in Global Capitalism.
Throughout my tenure as AAG President, I have forwarded efforts to make Geography REAL, that is, responsive, engaged, advocating, and life-improving. As we work to further enhance our discipline’s responsiveness to critical issues and its commitment to the welfare of people and their social and natural environments, geographers can and should play an important role in better understanding the place of violence—and its many forms, causes, and consequences—within contemporary society and space.
We’re getting closer to the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting! Whether you will be attending the meeting all week, for a few days, or looking to follow the action from afar, there are plenty of ways to get involved using social media. Start planning your #AAG2018 social media strategy today with these helpful guidelines!
The Annual Meeting will host 194 Sessions in #AAG2018’s three featured themes: Black Geographies; Public Engagement in Geography; and Hazards, Geography, and GIScience. Each featured theme has its own plenary and special sessions to engage with the wide variety of topics covered by these geographic areas of specialty. Plan your schedule ahead of time to include theme events.
Undergraduate membership in the AAG is the fastest growing segment of the organization. This year over 500 undergrads have already registered to attend the upcoming meeting in New Orleans! To celebrate and engage this important and growing part of the AAG community, there will be many events, activities, and resources geared for undergraduate students in attendance in New Orleans.
Contemporary foodways of New Orleans are tied up in the history of the city itself as a site where many cultures met, due to both forced and free migration. Food has come to symbolize the recovery of the city Post-Katrina, but that does not mean the cuisine is not continuing to evolve. 
Julie Dunbar, Manager of Editorial Development at ABC-CLIO, found a career that perfectly merges her interests in geography and writing! In this month’s career spotlight, she offers advice for students looking to start their careers post-graduation: practice writing skills early and often and make sure to ask meaningful questions.
Peirce F. Lewis, an American geographer and professor emeritus at the Department of Geography at Penn State, died on February 18, 2018 in State College, PA. He was 90. Lewis was an acclaimed lecturer and essayist known for his research interests in the American landscape and the cultural geography of America. In 2004, he won the AAG J. B. Jackson Award for his book, ‘New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape.’
Waldo R. Tobler, professor emeritus of Geography at the University of California Santa Barbara, died on February 20, 2018. He was 88. A famed cartographer, Tobler is best known in the discipline as the founder of the first law of geography, “Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.”
On behalf of the Geography Faculty Development Alliance, the AAG is pleased to announce the 2018 Early Career and Department Leadership Workshops! These annual workshops for early career faculty and late career graduate students or geography department leaders will be held at the George Washington University in D.C. from June 10-16, 2018 (early career) and June 13-16, 2018 (department leaders).
The evolution of geographic information system (GIS) technology to the web presents an excellent opportunity for the geography community to foster spatial thinking among colleagues, students, and administrators. The use of web maps, spatial data, and analysis tools to examine local to global issues has never been so powerful and easy to embrace. It also provides a means for the community to promote geography as an essential twenty-first-century subject to the general public. With the upcoming 2018 AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans in April, these web maps and analysis tools can be used by anyone to thoroughly explore the city in order to enhance the time spent there and in the surrounding area
I am sure many of you know of the strong allegations that Mr. Donald Trump—frustrated with a bipartisan immigration proposal—argued that America needs more immigrants from places like Norway and fewer from Haiti, El Salvador and African nations, which the President reportedly called “shithole countries.” More than mere “locker room cartography,” as one late night comic put it, the President’s harmful words project a racialized map of the world that represents Haitians, Salvadorians, and Africans not only as unwelcomed, but also as inferior. By reducing countries and an entire continent to a pejorative label, Mr. Trump denies the complexity, dignity, and richness of life in these countries and the creative resilience and resistant survivability that have always existed amid and in opposition to political oppression and poverty.
The Preliminary Program for #AAG2018 has been released! The online searchable program includes a preliminary agenda of sessions, plenary speakers, and specialty group meetings. You can browse the schedule by author, title, keyword, sponsor group, theme and day.
With the release of the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting Preliminary Program, now is the best time to book your travel to New Orleans. The AAG is pleased to partner with United Airlines, Amtrak, and Super Shuttle to help
The American Association of Geographers congratulates the individuals named to receive an AAG Award. The awardees represent outstanding contributions to and accomplishments in the geographic field. Formal recognition of the awardees will occur during the 
The AAG is excited to have two new interns join our staff for the Spring 2018 semester. Laura Akindo, graduate of Frostburg State University, and Hannah Ellingson, sophomore at The George Washington University, will both be assisting staff on a variety of internal projects in addition to the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting.
Each month, learn more about the field of geography from people who are working in it! This month, AAG talked to Leslie McLees, Undergraduate Coordinator & Instructor at the University of Oregon Department of Geography, and Pete Chirico, Research Geographer & Associate Director of the Eastern Geology and Paleoclimate Science Center at U.S. Geological Survey. Both discussed the need for effective communication skills on the job market and their passions for geography.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has named geographer and long time AAG Member, Qihao Weng to its list of fellows. Weng has been a professor at Indiana State University since 2001 where his research focuses on urban remote sensing. The author of 210 articles and 10 books, Weng is the 2015 AAG Willard and Ruby S. Miller Award recipient.
Looking to learn more about the four scholarly journals published by the AAG throughout the year? In this month’s AAG Snapshot, delve into the academic publishing sphere as AAG Publications Director Jennifer Cassidento shares tidbits about the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, The Professional Geographer, GeoHumanities, and The AAG Review of Books!
“I was a thief. A mild thief, but a thief nonetheless. In 1996, the Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium held a series of talks on the topic of “The Scientific Nature of Geomorphology”. As a young a 23-year old graduate student, I registered and then covertly audio-recorded the talks from a cassette recorder hidden in my jacket pocket. Even though it wasn’t stated explicitly, I guessed that doing this would probably constitute theft of intellectual property. But I did it anyway…”
Hollywood, The Hill, and the nation’s newsrooms have been exposed as spaces of sexual harassment, misconduct, and even assault. Yet, sexual harassment and discrimination are neither unique nor new to these highly public industries and this misconduct is unfortunately common to most workplaces…The academy can and should be an important tool in studying this issue, collecting the stories of victims, and analyzing the frequency, scale, and impacts of sexual harassment. At the same time, however, higher education is also part of the problem.
The official hotels of the 2018 Annual Meeting are the 
For reasons ranging from debauchery to better health, the tourist has imbibed in New Orleans’ local culture and geography throughout the centuries. 
Dr. Jennifer Collins and Dr. Kathy Sherman-Morris organized an all female panel of Climate Specialty Group (CSG) members at SEDAAG to discuss the 2017 hurricane season. The panel opened with an overview of the record-breaking season and continued the conversation with the ways in which the 2017 hurricanes are being incorporated into research and teaching efforts.
The 
Have you read a very good, recently published paper that helped you reflect on your own approaches to teaching? Did the paper give you new ideas to help improve your students learning? Did it provide an innovative way of addressing a concern or issue that is relevant to geography in higher education? Or perhaps the paper tackled broader analysis of the institutional contexts which frame pedagogic approaches? If you have been inspired, please consider nominating a paper for this prize.
The Professional Geographer, Volume 70, Issue 1, has been published. The focus of this journal is on short articles in academic or applied geography, emphasizing empirical studies and methodologies. Volume 70, Issue 1 includes a focus section entitled: Critical Data, Critical Technology.
The AAG welcomes two new editors to take the positions of Cartography Editor for the AAG Journals (Annals, The Professional Geographer, and GeoHumanities) and the Methods, Models, and GIS Editor for the Annals of the AAG. Stephen Hanna will be taking over for Cartography Editor Thomas Hodler while Ling Bian will assume the role of the Methods, Models and GIS Editor as Mei-Po Kwan steps down. The AAG would like to send a very special thank you to Thomas Hodler and Mei-Po Kwan for their years of extraordinary service in these positions.
The AAG was invited to participate in the Workshop on Leveraging Geographic Information to Combat Wildlife Trafficking led by Michigan State University Professor 
All AAG Members now have access to the book reviews in volume 5, issue 4 of The AAG Review of Books. Featured reviews from this issue are of The Lost City of the Monkey God, A True Story; Jungleland; and The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipation. Book reviews older than one year are free to the public and can be found in our 
The AAG invites members to celebrate 
“It would be inappropriate to say that I owe my career to the AAG; many actors support me in that endeavor. That said, there is no doubt that the institution has been supportive throughout my career and it is a pleasure to give back when I can.”
Carol L. Hanchette, Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Louisville, died on a hiking adventure in the mountains of Wyoming on October 9, 2017. A medical geographer, Hanchette was particularly active in the development of the applied master’s program at U. of L. and with her research funded through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the NIH. Her collegiality, professionalism and dedication to geography will be missed by all of the lives she impacted.