Newsletter – December 2016
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Geography in a Post-Truth World
By Glen M. MacDonald
This past month the Oxford Dictionary named “post-truth” as its 2016 Word-of-the-Year. The word was chosen because it has seen a “spike in frequency this year in the context of the European Union referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States” and “has gone from being a peripheral term to being a mainstay in political commentary.” For scholars and educators the idea that being truthful is now optional should be deeply troubling, as it undermines the ethical and operational foundations upon which we function. In this column I want to explore the turn towards a post-truth world.
Two other similar descriptors have become more widespread in recent years — post-factual and post-rational. I believe that these terms are all part of the same sociological and political trend, but have important differences.
Recent columns from the President
- Geography, Institutions and the Fate of People and Planet in the 21st Century
- The Long, Hot Summer
- The World of the City
- Geographies of Bread and Water in the 21st Century
- The End(s) of Geography?
- More from the President
FEATURE 2017 AAG Honors Announced
All AAG awards will be presented at the upcoming AAG Annual Meeting in Boston, during a special awards luncheon on Sunday, April 9, 2017. |
The AAG has announced the selection of seven Honorees who will receive the 2017 AAG Honors in one of four categories. Recipients to be honored at an annual awards luncheon during the AAG Annual Meeting are:ANNUAL MEETING
Celebrate the International Encyclopedia of Geography in Boston
Attend the editor’s panel and reception
Join us in celebrating the official launch of the International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technologies in Boston! There will be a brief overview of the Encyclopedia from its general editors, followed by a Q&A session with the general and section editors of this great work. Mark your calendars for 5:20-7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 7, 2017.
Following this session will be the AAG International Reception: A Celebration of the International Encyclopedia of Geography, an event with food, drinks, music, and interaction with the editors. All attendees are invited to attend.
Abstracts for Poster Sessions are due by Feb. 23
Posters are exhibited for informal browsing with opportunities for individual discussion with poster authors. The AAG will host all themed poster sessions in the Exhibit Hall. Please note that the AAG will add your poster to the session which most closely aligns to your poster’s theme, however if you have a strong preference you may indicate in which poster session you would like to participate in in the “Special Requests” field of the abstract submission console. All abstracts must be submitted by Feb. 23, 2017.
The New England Town: Not a Village
The New England town and its town meeting form of government invoke images of roadside town line signs and real democracy playing out on the floor of a wood stove heated frame town house in a small town somewhere in Boston’s hinterlands. The New England town is a municipality that encompasses an expanse of land and usually includes compact settlements (villages/hamlets) and rural areas. These political units evolved from the seventeenth century needs of people transplanting themselves from England to the shores of Massachusetts Bay. Demands of church and civic governance resulted in a blending of religious and town government affairs in early Massachusetts.
John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay settlements that would develop in and around the Boston locale was a principal player in both Congregationalism and establishing the underpinnings of New England town formation and administration (Rudman 1965). Towns were charged with providing local services: laying out roads and maintaining them, education, police and fire protection, overseeing the poor, passage of ordinances to protect public health and promote the general welfare of the population.
AAG Specialty and Affinity Group Awards
Each year many AAG Specialty and Affinity Groups confer travel grants, hold paper competitions, and bestow honors and awards to their faculty and student members at the AAG Annual Meeting. Notices for these competitions may appear on the relevant specialty group’s website or listserve, or on the AAG News site.
Additional Annual Meeting Updates
- Call for Participation: Geography Career Events
- AAG To Offer On-site Childcare During 2017 Annual Meeting
ASSOCIATION NEWS
Important Election Information: Update Your Email Address with AAG
The AAG election will be conducted online again, and will take place Jan. 11-Feb. 2, 2017. Each member who has an email address on record with the AAG will receive a special email with a code that will allow them to sign in to our AAG SimplyVoting website and vote. It’s important to update your email address to make sure you will be able to vote. If you know your email address is up to date with us, there’s no need to do anything further.
Join the Effort to Make a New AP Course in GIS&T
The AAG’s proposal for a new Advanced Placement course in Geographic Information Science and Technology (AP GIS&T) continues to receive strong interest from high schools, colleges, and universities across the U.S. However, in order to complete the proposal package for the College Board, the AAG needs to collect attestations of interest from at least 250 high schools.
So far 114 high schools have registered their interest in the AP GIS&T course. The AAG invites all members to share the AP GIS&T proposal with high schools in their local community.
AAG Launches New Twitter Chat Series
Join the #AAGChat on Careers in Geography, Jan. 12, 2017
Mark your calendars and be sure to join us for an #AAGChat on careers in geography. The chat will address the many diverse career opportunities for geographers in a variety of industries and employment sectors and how geography students, graduates and early-career professionals can identify appropriate job openings. We will also discuss the many career resources available through the AAG, including our Jobs in Geography Center, Student Opportunities website, and more!
The chat will occur on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017, from 3-4 p.m. EST. To participate in the chat, please use the hashtag, #AAGChat. Make sure to follow us on Twitter by searching for our handle, @TheAAG!
Also, be sure to visit our updated social media page to view our previous Twitter Chat held during Geography Awareness Week and learn more about our social media channels and events.
Invest in Geography’s Future with a Tax-Deductible Gift
Tax-deductible donations to AAG Advancing Geography Funds will help the association to generate new geographic knowledge, strengthen geographic education, increase the involvement and raise the visibility of geography in science and policy making settings, and increase geographic knowledge around the world.
Gifts to AAG Advancing Geography Funds may be designated to support specific projects and initiatives or to support the areas of greatest need. A list of AAG Advancing Geography Funds is available at www.aag.org/donate.
To fulfill your pledge by cash, check or other method, please download and complete a pledge form.
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES
Annual Meeting Support
AAG has a variety of opportunities for students, un-/underemployed geographers, and scholars outside the discipline to attend and participate in the Annual Meeting.
Some funding opportunities:
- Enrichmet Funds
- Community College Travel Grants
- Conference Volunteers
- AAG Council Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper at a Regional Meeting
Nancy Weiss Malkiel Scholars Award Program
The Nancy Weiss Malkiel Scholars Award Program is now accepting applications
through December 15, 2016. This opportunity is for tenure-track faculty who are committed not only to research and teaching but also to building a more inclusive scholarly community. Applicants may not be going up for tenure during the award year (2017–18).
IN MEMORIAM
David Slater
David Slater, Emeritus Professor of Political Geography at Loughborough University, UK, who was a leading critical development geographer and known for his work on Latin America, passed away on October 20, 2016.
Slater studied for a bachelor’s degree in geography at Durham University in the mid-1960s which was when he first became interested in geopolitics, seeking to understand international relations in a spatial context. He went on to the London School of Economics, where he completed a doctorate in geography in 1972.
OF NOTE
Geographer Michelle Behr Named Chancellor of University of Minnesota at Morris
Michelle Behr, Ph.D., has been named chancellor of the University of Minnesota, Morris. Dr. Behr’s appointment is effective February 6, 2017, pending approval by the Board of Regents.
Dr. Behr is currently the Provost, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Dean of the College at Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) in Birmingham, AL. Prior to her arrival at BSC, she served variously as a faculty member, department chair, university assessment coordinator, and college dean at several public institutions of higher education.
Dr. Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux Featured in Direction’s Magazine
AAG member Dr. Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, professor at the University of Vermont, is featured in Direction’s Magazine’s GeoInspirations series. Guest columnist Dr. Joseph Kerski interviewed her and asked her about how she was introduced to geography and her efforts to promote climate literacy and the use of geotechnologies with K-12 teachers and students, and more.
AAG Member Bailey Anderson Wins 2017 British Marshall Scholarship
Bailey Anderson, a Liberal Arts Honors/Geography, and International Relations and Global Studi
es major, at the University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded a 2017 British Marshall Scholarship. As a Marshall Scholar, Bailey will pursue a Master of Philosophy Degree at Oxford University in Geography and The Environment: Water Science, Policy and Management.
PUBLICATIONS
Pre-order ‘The International Encyclopedia of Geography’
The AAG and an international team of distinguished editors and authors are in the final stages of preparing a new major reference work for Geography: The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology.
This 15-volume work, published by Wiley both in hard copy and online, will be an invaluable resource for libraries, geographers, GIScientists, students and academic departments around the globe. Updated annually, this Encyclopedia will be the authoritative reference work in the field of geography for decades to come.
January 2017 Issue of the ‘Annals of the AAG’ Now Available
The AAG is pleased to announce that Volume 107, Issue 1 (January 2017) of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers is now available.
The Annals contains original, timely, and innovative articles that advance knowledge in all facets of the discipline. Articles are divided into four major areas: Environmental Sciences; Methods, Models, and Geographic Information Science; Nature and Society; and People, Place, and Region.
This issue also contains a special forum on Radical Intradisciplinarity edited by AAG past President, Mona Domosh, featuring 6 articles. It is available for free for the next two months.
February 2017 Issue of ‘The Professional Geographer’ Now Available
The AAG is pleased to announce that Volume 69, Issue 1 (February 2017) of The Professional Geographer is now available.
The focus of The Professional Geographer is on short articles in academic or applied geography, emphasizing empirical studies and methodologies. These features may range in content and approach from rigorously analytic to broadly philosophical or prescriptive. The journal provides a forum for new ideas and alternative viewpoints.
Each issue, the Editor chooses one article to make freely available. In this issue you can read Re
naming and Rebranding within U.S. and Canadian Geography Departments, 1990–2014 by Amy E. Frazier and Thomas A. Wikle for free for the next 3 months.
December 2016 Issue of the ‘African Geographical Review’ Now Available
The AAG is pleased to announce that Volume 35, Issue 3 (December 2016) of the African Geographical Review is now available.
The African Geographical Review is the journal of the Africa Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers. It provides a medium for the publication of geographical material relating to Africa, seeks to enhance the standing of African regional geography, and to promote a better representation of African scholarship. Articles cover all sub-fields of geography, and can be theoretical, empirical or applied in nature.
New Books in Geography – Novemer 2016
The AAG Review of Books office has released the list of the books received during the month of November.
ADDENDA
IN THE NEWS
Popular stories from the AAG SmartBrief
- What happened to Greenland’s Norse settlements?
- Exploring the hidden side of cities
- Does geography affect birds’ color patterns?
- Study: Recovery from Earth’s mass extinction took millions of years
EVENTS CALENDAR
Submit News to the AAG Newsletter. To share your news, submit announcements to newsletter [at] aag [dot] org.
The AAG is participating in an international effort to design and develop a geography assessment based on the successful model used by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) for the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
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.
Since 2012 the AAG has been participating in an international effort, known as GeoCapabilities, to support new approaches in geography teacher education. As previously reported earlier this year, the GeoCapabilities project launched a new website that includes four training modules. Collectively, the modules are designed to promote a “curriculum of engagement” based on an appreciation of the significance of geographical knowledge in the education of young people.
AAG To Host Twitter Chat on Nov. 17
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 AAG is currently seeking interns for the spring semester, although the organization offers opportunities on a year-round basis for the spring, summer and fall semesters. Interns participate in most AAG programs and projects such as education, outreach, research, website, publications, or the Annual Meeting. The AAG also arranges for interns to accompany different AAG staff on visits to related organizations or events of interest during the course of their internship.
The AAG is pleased to announce that Volume 68, Issue 4 (November 2016) of The Professional Geographer is now available.
Sally Eden, professor of Human Geography at the University of Hull, UK, whose research explored issues of environmental perception, and sustainable food production and consumption, passed away in September 2016 after a period of illness.
Larry Hamilton, emeritus professor of natural resources at Cornell University, who played a leading role in the worldwide conservation of mountain areas, passed away on October 6, 2016, at the age of 91.
The AAG 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 AAG has proposed a new Advanced Placement course in Geographic Information Science and Technology (AP GIS&T) designed to introduce high school students to the fundamentals of geographic information science and applications of geospatial technologies for spatial analysis and problem solving.
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.
Becoming more involved in the AAG facilitates strengthening professional networks, volunteering, taking part in scholarly activities, advancing academic studies, etc. Graduate students can register to attend their fall regional division meeting and submit their paper at that time to be eligible to win the Council Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper at a Regional Meeting.
The AAG 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.
Since launching in 2013, The AAG Review of Books has published more than 250 book reviews, marking a new milestone for the journal. To celebrate this landmark, and to enable easier exploration of the vast collection of reviews, the AAG has launched a new searchable database.
Ary J. Lamme III, a cultural and historical geographer who was Emeritus Professor at the University of Florida, passed away in September 2016 at the age of 76. Lamme was a long-time member of the American Association of Geographers and recognized for 50 years of continuous membership in 2014. He will be remembered fondly by many former colleagues. Lamme leaves behind his wife, Sandra, and two adult children, Laurel and Ary Johannes IV.
AAG Offers Suite of New Resources for Students and Job Seekers
The AAG and an international team of distinguished editors and authors are in the final stages of preparing a new major reference work for Geography: The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology.
Since launching in 2013, The AAG Review of Books has published more than 250 book reviews, marking a new milestone for the journal. To celebrate this landmark, and to enable easier exploration of the vast collection of reviews, the AAG has launched a new searchable database.
AAG Honors Nominations Deadline Extended to Friday, July 15, 2016
Brad Cullen, professor emeritus in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of New Mexico, passed away unexpectedly on June 4, 2016 at the age of 65.
AAG Enhancing Diversity Award Now Accepting Nominations
The American Association of Geographers has been granted Observer Organization status to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). With this formal designation, the AAG is permitted to submit to the UNFCCC Secretariat its nominations for representatives to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference that will take place from November 7-18, 2016 in Marrakesh, Morocco (COP-22/CMP12).
Greg Elmes, professor emeritus in the 
AAG Now Accepting Entries for the 2015-2016 edition of the Guide
Donna Peuquet named 2016 UCGIS Fellow
May 2016 Issue of the ‘Annals of the AAG’ Now Available
2016 Annual Specialty and Affinity Group Awards
Spring 2016 Issue of the ‘The AAG Review of Books’ Now Available
Adds New Features and Functionality