Careers

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

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

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Education

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

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

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

A New School Built on Collaboration

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

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

A Presence Across Campus and Beyond

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

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

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

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

 

Preparing Students for a Changing World and Workforce

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

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

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

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

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

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Careers

Department Profile: Geography and Geoinformation Sciences at George Mason University

The Geography and Geoinformation Sciences (GGS) Department at George Mason University is fortunate in its Fairfax, Virginia location, close to many professional opportunities in and around the nation’s capital. Anchored in the center of Northern Virginia’s geospatial intelligence hub, surrounded by federal headquarters like the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), US Geological Survey (USGS), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as leaders in the private sector like Esri, Dewberry, and BAE Systems, GGS can also connect its students and alumni to local government agencies such as Fairfax County’s GIS and Mapping Services.

The department’s breadth is revealed in its name. “We are not the Department of Geography, but we are the Department of Geography and Geoformation Science,” says Dr. Deiter Pfoser, department chair and director of the Center for Geoscience. “So, there’s a huge distinction there … it sort of alludes to the quantitative sides [of the discipline].” Dr. Nathan Burtch, associate professor, undergraduate coordinator and associate chair, agrees.

George Mason University GGS students gather data with a transit device to create contour maps of a local park in GGS as part of their Field Mapping class.
George Mason University GGS students gather data with a transit device to create contour maps of a local park in GGS as part of their field mapping class.

This emphasis on the quantitative is a major incentive of the program, as the majority of the department’s students are pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree and thinking about careers. Students pursuing a BS in geography can choose from concentrations in Geoinformatics, Geospatial Intelligence, and Urban Science, which are marketable and easily conceptualized by employers.

The department’s research initiatives, which have an annual expenditure of approximately six million dollars, largely trend around topics like artificial intelligence, computational analysis, and informatics. Students researching remote sensing have access to a collection of advanced drone remote-sensing equipment, including DJI drones and interchangeable sensors for environmental and infrastructural studies. Dr. Pfoser points out that the program emphasizes “not only geographical proximity to [many geospatial] agencies, but also work proximity.”

The university and the department’s faculty and leaders involve students in research as early into their academic journeys as possible. The College of Science’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP) has been active in providing high schoolers and undergraduate students the chance to engage in faculty-mentored research opportunities since 2019. The GGS department has eight prospective mentors for the 2026 session, tackling research interests like spatiotemporal computing, space weather, and food systems transformation. Dr. Pfoser expresses that “the idea is really to bring students closer to research as soon as we can,” to develop students into exemplary undergraduate, graduate, and PhD researchers.

Graduate degree offerings reinforce the department’s quantitative focus, with a master’s degree in Geoinformatics and Geospatial Intelligence. Undergraduate students interested in this degree, or the master’s in Geographic and Cartographic Sciences, can enroll in the Bachelor’s to Accelerated Master’s (BAM) Program and collect graduate credits in their final undergraduate semesters. In addition to offering accelerated, master’s, and doctorate pathways, the department also promotes a culture of lifelong learning by offering graduate certificates in GIS, Geospatial Intelligence, Environmental GIS and Biodiversity, and Remote Sensing and Image Processing. Executive education partnerships with local companies allow working professionals to advance their skills through the guidance of university course content.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Quantitative Geography

“We’re a little bit more quantitative than the average,” says Dr. Burtch, “But we don’t ignore the cultural and the physical as well.” The GGS department’s Bachelor of Art’s geography program offers concentrations in environmental geography, health geography, geoanthropology, and urban planning. The professors teaching courses in this degree are consistently enthusiastic about their subjects, welcoming students to think critically and exercise real-world problem solving.

The department also values cross-disciplinary exploration. Undergraduate students can choose from a variety of elective courses that traverse neighboring disciplines. Associate professor and BAM advisor Dr. Christine Rosenfeld teaches Spatial Justice, for example, a geographic interrogation of unevenly distributed resources that results in social inequality. Dr. Maction Komwa teaches Geography of Resource Conservation, an analysis of the distribution and preservation of global resources. Dr. Burtch teaches Geography of Sport, purposefully integrating the discipline to reveal surprising explanations about the geography of the sports industry.

The strong sense of student community, accessible advising, and welcoming faculty make the GGS department at GMU an optimal learning environment for students of diverse education and career backgrounds. Standards for teaching excellence are maintained by routine faculty peer review, end-of-semester evaluations, and course modality surveys. The department uses this feedback to support their mindset of “perpetual change” and implement improvements to keep up with the ever-evolving scene of higher education.

Diversity is a big part of George Mason’s identity as an institution, as it is one of the most ethnically and economically diverse schools in Virginia. Dr. Pfoser highlighted the disciplinary diversity of the department by noting that only about half of its faculty are geographers by training. In addition to the interdisciplinary course offerings, the department offers diverse teaching perspectives from career computer scientists, hydrological engineers, environmental geographers, and data scientists. This combination of curriculum, teaching, and student diversity creates classroom environments suited for positive learning experiences.

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On the Map

Harlem of the West: Jazz, People, and Place in the Fillmore

By Mirembe Ddumba

Stand on Fillmore and Geary streets on a Saturday evening, and you can almost hear it. Neon humming against the dusk, a saxophone warming up behind a church door, the ghost of Billie Holiday’s voice floating between the streetlights. In these few streets, jazz wrote itself onto San Francisco’s grid.

The sound arrived by train.

The Sound of Migration

During World War II, African Americans from Louisiana, Texas, and across the South boarded trains bound for San Francisco’s shipyards. Between 1940 and 1950, the city’s Black population grew tenfold, from 4,800 to 43,000, filling apartments left empty when Japanese American families were forced into internment camps.

Musicians arrived with guitars slung over shoulders, horns wrapped in cloth. They transformed twenty blocks into the “Harlem of the West.” By the late 1940s, you could walk Fillmore Street on any night and hear Dizzy Gillespie bleeding through one door, smell barbecue from the next, watch Cadillacs pull up to drop off couples dressed for Jimbo’s Bop City.

Bop City at 1690 Post Street ran after-hours sessions until sunrise. Charlie Parker traded choruses with Dexter Gordon while Billie Holiday sat in a corner booth. Down the street, Ella Fitzgerald sang at the Champagne Supper Club and tried on hats between sets. The Blue Mirror. Club Flamingo. Jack’s Tavern. Two dozen venues within one square mile, each separated by a five-minute walk.

John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, and Thelonious Monk rented rooms above the clubs, ate at soul food diners, bought records at local shops, and shaped the neighborhood’s sonic identity night after night. This wasn’t accidental. The grid itself made it possible.

Black-and-white photo showing Fillmore Street, south of Post Street, late 1940s. The neighborhood’s dense grid and constant traffic fueled the energy of the "Harlem of the West." Credit: David Johnson
Fillmore Street, south of Post Street, late 1940s. The neighborhood’s dense grid and constant traffic fueled the energy of the “Harlem of the West.” Credit: David Johnson

 

Geography as Destiny

The Fillmore’s layout made this density possible. Narrow Victorian storefronts, twenty feet wide, meant multiple clubs per block. Short blocks with corner entries created constant foot traffic. The 22-Fillmore streetcar brought audiences from downtown, turning the neighborhood into one continuous jazz experience.

In 1948, city planners declared the Fillmore “blighted.” Under Redevelopment Agency director M. Justin Herman, bulldozers arrived. The Western Addition A-1 and A-2 projects demolished Victorian homes and shuttered clubs across 104 blocks. Geary Street, once lined with music venues, became Geary Boulevard, a four-lane expressway cutting the neighborhood in half.

By 1964, authorities had displaced 4,000 residents from A-1 alone. Jazz musicians scattered to Oakland, the East Bay, and Los Angeles. Residents gave urban renewal a different name: “Negro Removal”.

 

You could go out on Friday night and not come home until Sunday night because there is so much to do.”

—Elizabeth Pepin Silva, filmmaker and author of Harlem of the West

 

The clubs closed. The musicians left. But the music never completely died.

 

Map showing Western Addition redevelopment zones A-1 and A-2, which demolished 104 blocks and displaced thousands of residents. Credit: San Francisco Redevelopment Agency archives
Western Addition redevelopment zones A-1 and A-2, which demolished 104 blocks and displaced thousands of residents. Credit: San Francisco Redevelopment Agency archives

 

Still Playing

Walk Fillmore Street now, and commemorative plaques mark where Bop City stood, where the barbershop was, where musicians bought their reeds. Listen closely, though. The Fillmore Auditorium still books acts, its walls papered with decades of concert posters. Calvary Presbyterian Church hosts Sunday jazz services. Jones Memorial United Methodist Church opens its doors for Friday night sessions.

Every July since 1986, the Fillmore Jazz Festival closes twelve blocks to cars. Over 50,000 people flooded the streets for two days. Five stages. Artisan booths. The smell of Ethiopian food mixing with New Orleans-style barbecue. For one weekend, the neighborhood becomes what it was, pedestrians moving from stage to stage, music echoing off Victorian facades.

On other nights, the music lives in smaller rooms. 1300 on Fillmore books jazz acts in an intimate room with velvet couches. The Boom Boom Room sits on the corner where John Lee Hooker used to own a club. Rasselas Ethiopian Restaurant serves injera and hosts live music Thursday through Sunday. The building that housed Jimbo’s Bop City was literally picked up and moved two blocks west. It’s Marcus Books now, an Afrocentric bookstore that archives what redevelopment tried to erase.

Stand at Fillmore and Geary on Saturday evening. Close your eyes. Past the bus engines and car horns, you can still hear it. A saxophone warming up. The ghost of a neighborhood that jazz built, that policy tried to destroy, and that memory refuses to let die.

Photo showing an overhead view of musicians playing to a packed crowd at the Fillmore Jazz Festival. Credit: Fillmore Jazz Festival
Musicians play to a packed crowd at the Fillmore Jazz Festival, which brings over 50,000 people annually to celebrate the neighborhood’s musical legacy. Credit: Fillmore Jazz Festival

 

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Saul Cohen

On June 9, 2021, Saul Bernard Cohen passed away at the age of 95, surrounded by his loving family. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, he spent much of his life on the East Coast, as he attended the Boston Latin School and later went on to earn his bachelor’s and Ph.D. at Harvard University—graduating right before Harvard terminated the geography program.

He headed the School of Geography at Clark University and became a professor, director, and then later Dean of the Graduate School. During this time, he was lauded for revitalizing the Graduate School of Geography’s (GSOG) academic standards and increasing minority enrollment in the late 1960s/early 1970s. He also established teacher preparation programs for new and experienced teachers with funding obtained from the U.S. Office of Education for the Training of Teachers program, and a National Science Foundation departmental development grant designed to produce “centers of excellence.”

His plans included developing new strengths in the areas of environmental cognition, international development (particularly in Africa), and environmental hazards management. The expansion of the school’s graduate program allowed the faculty to double, and the number of graduate students substantially increased. Traditional environment-focused courses were rejuvenated by new concepts and techniques. As the environmental movement grew, the number of geography undergraduate majors rose to more than 100. The school also doubled its annual output of doctorates in the 1970s. Clark was a linchpin of one of Cohen’s other programmatic ideas: a consortium of doctorate-granting geography departments recruiting faculty or prospective faculty of historically Black colleges and universities to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees.

Following his career at Clark, Cohen served as president of Queens College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) from 1978 – 1985. Through his persistent advocacy, he was responsible for securing funding for key capital projects, many of which are still standing, including the Benjamin Rosenthal Library, the Copeland School of Music Building, science facilities, and Townsend Harris High School.

After leaving Queens College, Cohen was a professor of geography at Hunter College for 10 years. He served as AAG president from 1989 to 1990, and in 1993, he was elected to the New York State Board of Regents. He served for 17 years, chairing the Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Committee when it established new academic standards for the school.

He is remembered for his research specializing in economic and political geography of the Middle East and editing and authoring 16 books, including his work as an editor of The Oxford World Atlas. Saul was a beloved husband to his wife of 71 years, Miriam Friederman Cohen, and a dedicated father and father-in-law, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend.

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Bryon Middlekauff

Professor Emeritus of Geography, Dr. Bryon Middlekauff, passed away on September 3, 2025. He was a faculty member at Plymouth State University (previously Plymouth State College), NH from 1988 to 2016. Bryon’s life was marked by a deep passion for teaching geography and mentoring both students and faculty.

Bryon’s bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees—all in in geography—were from the University of Maryland, Appalachian State University, and Michigan State University, respectively, and his dissertation focused on Appalachian paleoclimatology. He returned to this topic in a subsequent published article, and his scholarship also examined fieldwork practice.

Bryon joined the social science department at Plymouth State University after positions at Western Carolina University and Youngstown State University. In 2001 he taught at the University of Wolverhampton in the U.K. while on sabbatical and in 2004 expanded his teaching to encompass the environmental sciences, receiving a new appointment in 2008 as professor of geography and environmental planning.

“One of Bryon’s many strengths was engaging students both in the classroom and beyond,” says former colleague Dr. Patrick May, a longtime colleague. “His lectures were very dynamic, and he got a lot of students really excited about geomorphology, ‘the geography of geology’—understanding the processes that shaped the environment around them.”

Bryon felt strongly about the importance of field studies and led college trips around New England, eastern Canada, and to the American Southwest, as well as travel courses to Paris, the United Kingdom, and Tanzania. He also ran workshops for the New Hampshire Geographic Alliance, leading rigorous day trips throughout the state to help educate educators about the natural environment.

Bryon was instrumental in advancing Plymouth State’s geography program both nationally and regionally. He was heavily involved in the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and attended annual meetings where he presented papers and poster sessions. He was also a member of the New England St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society (NESTVAL) and served as their Regional Councilor to the AAG for two terms. Bryon received NESTVAL’s Distinguished Service Award in 2013 which included a citation for a Lifetime Contribution to NESTVAL and Geography, one of only three people to receive this distinction. In 1993, Bryon was instrumental in establishing a NESTVAL competition to create a team to send to the first AAG World Geography Bowl, held at the AAG’s annual meeting in Atlanta. Bryon mentored the PSU team members, preparing them for the competition. Under his guidance, Plymouth State’s Geo Bowl team won the New England-St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society competition several times and students participated in the national competition at the annual AAG conference. “The bowl was a way to excite students,” says May, “and Bryon assured that they took advantage of the full conference experience, including sessions and field trips.”

“He was instrumental in building the PSU Geography Club and remained in touch with many former students,” continues May. “Students will remember him to be very demanding and that they were lucky to have him because he shared so much enthusiasm for his field.”  For his students, Bryon opened a door into the world of becoming a professional geographer. He encouraged many of his students to attend graduate school and accompanied some on visits to the schools.

Dr. Jennifer Collins, now at University South Florida, started her career at Plymouth State College, in the year 2000, where she notes that Bryon had such an impact on both her personally and her career, recognizing that she was a Geographer and suggested she become a member and come to the AAG annual meeting.  Prior to that Jennifer was only an American Meteorological Society member. Jennifer notes that being a member of the AAG has been instrumental to her career and she owes that to Bryon who also helped her network at the AAG conference. “He was a friend, colleague, and mentor, all wrapped up in one.”, she said.

Bryon enjoyed many activities from fly-fishing to skiing. Most of all he enjoyed spending time with his wife, children, and grandchildren. Bryon is survived by his wife and former Plymouth State Director of Advancement Julie DeGalan ’91MBA. Together they co-wrote the book, Great Jobs for Environmental Studies Majors, and were members of Holmes Heritage Society, which honors those who have included Plymouth State in their financial and estate plans. He is also survived by his daughters, Lari (Pat) Hayhoe and Amy (Dan) Jones; grandchildren, Nick (Chelsea), Beau and Olivia Hayhoe, Billy (Olivia) and Tyler Townes, Hayden Jones, and Chelsea Roberts; and great-grandchildren, Charlie, George, Margaret and Penny Hayhoe, Phoebe Townes, and Fiona and Josie Roberts. He is survived by his sister, Kirklyn Kline; nephews, Kevin (Cindy) and Kirk Eikelberger; and grand-nephew, Riley Eikelberger.

Additional information is available in an online obituary.

Written by Pat May, Jennifer Collins, and Julie DeGalan

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Wayfinding

Maps as ‘Materials that Carry Memory’

Joanathan Bessaci poses showing his profile facing his artistic rendering of a profile. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci
Joanathan Bessaci with his art. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci

 

When artist Joanathan Besacci was growing up in Lyon, France, he was surrounded by the vast variety of the world, past and present. His maternal grandmother emigrated to France from Vietnam, and his paternal grandfather was from Kabylia (Northern Algeria). As a child, Bessaci spent hours watching his artist father work and exploring the flea market in Lyon, France, where his grandparents had a stall.

The flea market was a magical place, he says, “a doorway to other worlds.” His memories of it go back to 1986, when it was still called La Fecine, in Villeurbanne, set up on a street closed on Sunday mornings. In the 1990s, it moved to Vaise, and by the end of the decade, it found its current home: Les Puces du Canal.

Aerial view of a flea market in Lyon. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci
Flea market in Lyon. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci

 

“I went there as a child, still half-asleep but filled with excitement,” Bessaci recalls. “My grandfather arrived as early as 4 a.m.; I followed my father around after 5 a.m. You had to get up early to hope for a good spot. Sometimes sales began right in the trucks, under the flickering light of flashlights, before the sun had even risen.”

It was here that he first discovered the maps, books, and old photographs that now form the essential materials of his art. “They carried stories, past lives, fragments of humanity which, though I didn’t realize it yet, would become the very substance of my work.”

The flea market also influenced Bessaci’s fascination with the riddles presented by old objects and artifacts, “guessing what an object had been used for, what life it had lived, who had touched it before me. In some maps, I find traces of passage—a handwriting, a stain, a tear. These marks of time move me deeply. They make each piece unique, irreplaceable, like an imprint left by history. It is in this intimate relationship with objects, memory, and enigma that my artistic practice took root.”

Bessaci started as a graffiti artist, in his teens. His work evolved over time into the elaborate paper cut-out sculptures, using maps and photographs, that he makes today. At art school, he says, “I discovered the relationship to time. Coming from graffiti, where everything must be done in urgency, I was stunned to learn that a single project could take 80 to 100 hours of work. At first, it was a trial, almost a violence against my rhythm. But little by little, this temporality became an obviousness, a new kind of breathing.”

Now based in the United States, Bessaci continues to develop his practice and present his work in exhibitions and art fairs. He draws inspiration from antique Michelin road maps, primarily from the 1920s to the 1970s. He combines them with photographs and vintage textiles to create works that blend the markers of human individuality with topographies and routes. “My process is instinctive, almost archaeological,” he told Bold Journey magazine in 2025. “I collect, cut, layer, stitch. Each gesture is an attempt to surface memory, to retell what we think we already know.”

Artist's rendition of a portrait of Arthur Ashe. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci
Portrait of Arthur Ashe. Courtesy: Joanathan Bessaci

 

The maps Bessaci includes in his art create what he calls “layered stories.” The roads and rivers become metaphors for “chosen or imposed paths, uprooted or rediscovered roots.” The cuts, overlaps, and fragmentation he imposes are ways to question his subjects, and to challenge the idea of the subject as fixed. He seeks to portray “something in motion, composed of ruptures and recompositions.”

Bessaci had been primarily a painter for more than 15 years when he shifted his practice these sculptural works on paper. The change coincided with the birth of his daughter, and an extended period of time in a secluded studio in a very small town in France. On a visit to his grandfather at around this time, Bessaci received a box of old items, including old road maps. “It was as if the flea market had returned to my hands, charged with memory and secrets to be revealed.”

At first, Bessaci was reluctant to make any changes to the maps: “The day I dared to cut directly into a map, I felt an inner shift,” he says. “The maps immediately spoke to me: they were at once adventure, travel, and a profound resonance with my family, my memories of the flea market, and this need to explore the traces left by time.”

As Bessaci experimented and refined his technique, he began layering the maps, up to five layers at a time, to explore depth. The more he worked with old maps, the more he saw correspondences with people, and with memory and life itself: “The roads and rivers reminded me of veins, a living cartography of the body and of memory.”

Bessaci describes much of his raised work as bas-relief. He frames his cutouts between layers of glass and road maps, comparing them to mille-feuilles, a many-layered dessert. The layers create depth, “almost a vibration.”

Today, Bessaci owns nearly 5,000 maps, mainly Michelin, dating from 1890 to 1990.

“Their texture, their faded colors, their smell of ink and aged paper fascinate me,” Bessaci says. “A map is a displacement, an adventure, but also an anchor. It helps us know where we are, and I like to believe it also helps us know who we are.”

Bessaci is now working on a new series he calls Roots and Paths, using the kinds of photographs that turn up at flea markets, secondhand stores, and estate sales, devoid of their original context and family connections. Bessaci cuts the people from these images, leaving only their silhouettes, emphasizing their gestures. His goal is to neutralize “any visible markers of race, gender, and age, allowing the viewer to project their own memories, their own emotional history.” In place of the removed material, he fills in map fragments—roads, rivers, mountain ridges—as “layers of inner geography.”

He can foresee many years—perhaps a lifetime—of working with maps as an artist. “Maps, more than any other medium, have something magical: I don’t feel like I chose them—they found me,” he says. “They reflect my identity, but also the memory of my family, of places, of stories that shaped me. What I love is that they never fully reveal themselves. They hold secrets, hidden stories. I like to slip clues into my works, and sometimes, years later, a collector tells me: ‘I’ve just discovered this detail.’ At that moment, I feel that the map keeps speaking, long after me, as if it carried its own narrative.”

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On the Map

Where in the World: Renewed Care for Old Agricultural Land

Tractor in monocrop plots Credit: Marcio Silva, Getty Images
A tractor sits in monocrop plots. Credit: Marcio Silva, Getty Images

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

By Emily Frisan

The world will have to feed 10 billion people by 2050. For the past 60 years, agricultural production has been driven by management of labor, technological advancements, and the expansion of irrigated areas. In the United States, the rise of single-crop farming became more intense in the early 20th century. It powered a larger scale of production so we could feed a rapidly increasing global population. Despite this, over 735 million people worldwide still go to bed hungry each night.

The world’s agricultural land can be divided into two basic categories: cropland and land for livestock (pastureland). As of 2020, both of these cover 32 of the world’s total land area. That’s nearly 8% growth since 1961. Farms and pastures cover 40 of all habitable land in the world, about 4.2 billion hectares.

The immense agricultural space and over 14,000 edible plant species should mean more diversified food choices. Yet 75% of the world’s food comes from just twelve plant species and five animal species. Wheat, corn, and rice together provide nearly half of the world’s plant-derived calories. These major crops are often grown at large scales as “monocultures:” a single crop grown alone in large fields.

Where the World’s Food Grows

Before European colonization, thousands of ecosystems, species of plants, and animals thrived in regions worldwide. Agriculture was more local. Communities were rooted in local traditions for caring for land and growing food. Today, these major food-producing regions include Africa, Asia, and parts of North and South America.

Aerial photo of green fields and trees under blue sky with white clouds. Credit: Tom Fisk, Pexels
Credit: Tom Fisk, Pexels

 

The Global North and Global South are terms used to group countries based on their wealth and development. These categories are sorted to understand differences in how countries are similar economically and politically. Typically, the Global South countries’ economies depend on shipping out agricultural products and raw materials. While crops are grown worldwide, in 2020, the Global South accounted for 73% of agricultural production across the world. This has increased 33% since 1961.

Crops and livestock vary in different geographic regions. This might be due to climate, native species, or economic and cultural significance. For instance, the United States is a major producer of corn and soybeans. Countries like India and China are producers of rice and wheat. Explore this interactive map to learn about where your food comes from — past and present.

Old Techniques for New Growth

Feeding the world’s people is not as easy as expanding farmland. That would come at the cost of forests and other ecosystems. This further contributes to biodiversity loss and climate change. Agriculture is a leading cause of habitat loss, using 70% of global water use and releasing over 25% of the earth’s greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing agricultural productivity without using more land is essential. It is being lost to urban sprawl, erosion, sea level rise, change in climate, and chemical pollution.

An answer to these growing problems includes looking to Indigenous agriculture management systems. These practices include a wide range of techniques. For example, intercropping is used with multiple species of plants, such as the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash). Crop rotation is used to preserve soil health. Also, farmers can burn certain sections of the forest to clear the land for agriculture and encourage “interspecies synergies” where animals benefit from working together.

Mission Garden (Tucson) demonstrates the acequia system that used to bring Santa Cruz River water to area crops. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Mission Garden (Tucson) demonstrates the acequia system that used to bring Santa Cruz River water to area crops. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Once set aside by Western water managers, traditional irrigation practices like the “acequia system” can improve water quality using physical geography. Gravity carries water downhill. This slowly distributes minerals and rich soil throughout the landscape. Acequia developed from Native people’s experiences farming in the Southwest United States. The Acequia Institute in San Luis, Colorado, is one organization that is working to bring back traditional farming practices. They hope to revive Indigenous methods that work with natural water systems to introduce a closer connection of food and nutrition to the community.

And that is Geography in the News, updated October 10, 2025

Material in this article comes from “World Agricultural Land” (1997), an original article for Geography in the News by Neal Lineback, Appalachian State University.

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

 

Sources Consulted for this Article

Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) 2016. Where Our Food Crops Come From.

Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan. 2024. U.S. Food System Factsheet. Pub. No. CSS01-06..

Gilbert, S. 2025. An Ancient Irrigation System May Help Farmers Face Climate Change. Civil Eats.

Michigan State University. 2017. MSU Food Literacy and Engagement Poll: Wave I.

Our World in Data. 2019. “Land Use.” https://ourworldindata.org/land-use

PBS Learning Media. 2024. Less Harm on the Farm: Regenerative Agriculture.

Population Matters. 2024. Feeding Billions, Failing Nature.

Sylvester, K and Cunfer, G. 2009. An Unremembered Diversity: Mixed Husbandry and the American Grasslands. Agricultural History.

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. 2024. Global Changes in Agricultural Production, Productivity, and Resource Use Over Six Decades.

World Resources Report. 2018. Creating a Sustainable Food Future: Synthesis Report.

 

Vocabulary and Terms
  • Agrobiodiversity: Variety of animals, plants, and microorganisms used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture.
  • Agroecology: An approach that applies ecological and social concepts and principles to food and agricultural systems.
  • Food Gap: Refers to the disparity between those who have access to healthy food and those who don’t.
  • Food Insecurity: The condition of not having access to sufficient food, or food of an adequate quality, to meet one’s basic needs.
  • Food Desert: An area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.
  • Food Swamp: Refers specifically to places where unhealthy foods like fast food are more readily available than nutritious options and grocery stores.
  • Global North: Refers to a group of countries that are generally more economically developed and wealthier, primarily located in Europe, North America, and developed parts of Asia.
  • Global South: Refers to a group of countries that are often characterized as developing or underdeveloped in regions such as Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia.
  • Habitable land: Land that is suitable for human settlement.
  • Irrigation: The supply of water to land or crops to help growth.
  • Monoculture: The agricultural practice of cultivation of a single crop in a given area.
  • Plant-Derived Calories: The calories eaten from foods mainly derived from plants (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, oils, grains, and beans).

 

Questions for Discussion and Further Study
  1. What has characterized agriculture for the past 60 years, and what are some alternative agricultural methods to feed the world’s growing population?
  2. Consider what you ate for one meal yesterday. How many types of plants or animals were part of your meal?
  3. Look up one of the 12 plant species and 5 animal species our agriculture relies on: can you find out why that species became such a staple of our diets? What is its history? Can you find information about a once-common food crop that is no longer popular?
  4. Does anyone in your family garden, and do they have tips or family secrets for managing water or plants?
  5. If we can’t simply expand our farmland to feed more people, what are some other solutions that the article did not mention?
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Emily Frisan
Emily Frisan
On the Map

North American Beavers in South American Forests?

Beaver's head above water as it swims in a body of water. Credit: Camerauthor Photos, Unsplash
Beaver in its natural habitat in Northern Ontario. Credit: Camerauthor Photos, Unsplash

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

By Cadence Bowen

Patagonia, a remote region at the tip of South America, has some long-distance intruders. In 1946 the North American beaver (Castor canadensis), was brought here. Its population has thrived—to the dismay of local humans.

The story of beavers in Patagonia shows how humans can introduce invasive species. These are non-native species which can overrun native species. This often causes an imbalance in the ecosystems in these environments. The problem of invasive species is driven by human interests, such as commercial or agricultural use of animals or plants.

North American beavers were almost wiped out in their native habitats by 1900. They were saved through intense conservation. Ironically, in Patagonia the focus is how to get rid of them. The Wildlife Society’s Pablo Jusim says, “Technically, it’s viable to eradicate beavers from South America—one of the biggest eradications in the world if we achieve it.” He estimates a cost of about $31 million and 20 to 30 years to eliminate Patagonian beavers and restore ecological balance.

Well, How Did They Get Here?

Imagine the southernmost part of South America: that’s Patagonia. Part of both Chile and Argentina, Patagonia is known for its diverse geography. Snowy mountains and lush forests in the west are answered by steppes and deserts in the east. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is at the tip of this area. It has its own diverse and rugged terrain, from lowlands and glaciated coasts in its north to high mountains in the east.

Map showing Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Map showing Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

 

In 1946, the Argentine government introduced just 20 North American beavers to Tierra del Fuego. The intention was to kickstart a fur trade for pelts. Officials believed the climate would be similar enough to the beavers’ native climate to suit them. Little thought was given to native trees, plants, and ecosystems. The trees and forests of North America co-evolved with beavers and can take their energetic tree felling and dam building. The native forests of Tierra del Fuego had never experienced anything like this. Plus, beavers have no natural predators in Tierra del Fuego. Eighty years later, the species’ population is more than 150,000, almost outnumbering human inhabitants.

Impacts of these “Ecosystem Engineers”

Beavers are ingenious animals with the ability to alter the landscapes they inhabit. These furry creatures are admired for their important roles in North America, both their contributions to river ecologies, and their earlier pivotal role in the fur trade of early America. They shape the environment more than any other species besides humans. Kodi Jo Jaspers, manager of the Wenatchee Beaver Project in Washington State, calls them “ecosystem engineers.”

When beavers build dams in North America, they create habitat for a lot of different species. This can help address the impacts of climate change by retaining groundwater, absorbing rain, and stopping or slowing the spread of wildfires.

Beavers’ impacts in North American ecosystems don’t translate well to the South American islands of Tierra del Fuego. They have become destructive toward its pristine forests and rivers. They lack the natural predators that North American beavers face, such as bears, wolves, and coyotes. Their natural behavior—gnawing trees and building dams—causes the roots of the remaining trees to rot in the saturated soil. Eventually, these trees to die. The river systems and watersheds that support life on the islands are filled with dead flora and sediment.

“I admire the animal actually. … How it works with the rivers, how it is adapted, how they molded nature for their own benefit, builds his house, his dams. ”

—Pablo Kunzle, Interviewee in Beavers: Patagonia Invaders

Is there a future Patagonia without beavers?

The 2015 documentary, Patagonia Invaders, highlights the community response to Tierra del Fuego’s beavers. From trendy fur coats to beaver tenderloins, locals have taken unusual steps to reduce the numbers of these invasive critters and their continuing impacts.

A study in the 1990s showed they had colonized about 94% of the rivers in the archipelago. Peacefull population control measures had limited results. In 2015, the Argentine government began a three-year eradication project. They applied the toughest means: full-body traps and hunting. The approach was successful enough for The Wildlife Society to recommend a larger-scale approach.

Researcher Mara Dicenta coined the term “Beavercene” to describe the changed landscape of Tierra del Fuego since 1946. She views the introduction and attempted eradication of beavers there as two ends of the same spectrum, caused by “a history of colonial interventions that ignore local environments.”

The latest approach to managing beavers in Tierra del Fuego’s forests might result in harmony or further destruction. In a fragile place that is out of balance, that question still hangs in the balance.

And that is Geography in the News, updated October 10, 2025

Material in this article comes from “North American Beavers Destroy South American Habitat” (2008), an original article for Geography in the News by Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner. 

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

 

Sources Consulted for this Article
Vocabulary and Terms
  • Archipelago: A group of islands scattered across a body of water
  • Co-evolve: When two or more species have evolved together over millions of years, and have influenced or supported each other’s evolution
  • Ecosystem: A place that is defined and shaped by the relationships and interactions of many species within it.
  • Flora: Broad definition for plant life
  • Habitat: The place where life forms live; the habitat is made up of the conditions and features of the land, as well as the habits and relationships of species living there.
  • Nonnative Species: Living beings that are removed from their original natural environments and introduced to another by humans
  • Invasive Species: Nonnative species that have traits which enable them to outcompete and threaten native species, or cause damage to habitats..
  • Steppes: A large area of flat, unforested grassland
  • Terraform: To transform an area of land, often with removal of material, new structures, or addition of non-native species of plants and animals that can change the habitat.
  • Watershed: A geographical area that channels precipitation to rivers, streams, or creeks to eventually reach a larger body of water, such as bays or the ocean
Questions for Discussion and Further Study
  1. What are invasive species? What is the most common way for invasive species to be introduced?
  2. When we talk about species that have co-evolved, are we only talking about native species?
  3. Why were North American beavers introduced to Tierra del Fuego? What was the result of this introduction?
  4. Why do North American beavers thrive in Patagonia?
  5. Can you think of any invasive species in your local environment? What efforts are being made to control or eradicate the species?
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AAG Staff
AAG Staff
On the Map

The Geography of Bison: Returned from the Brink

Close up image of a couple of bison from a herd at Yellowstone National Park. Credit: Taylor Wright
Close up image of a couple of bison from a herd at Yellowstone National Park. Credit: Taylor Wright

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

By Neal Lineback
Edited by Jane Nicholson, with mapping by Rachael H. Carpenter

The American bison, commonly known as the buffalo, is an icon of the U.S. “Wild Wild West.” The wild American bison was a major food source for native Americans for thousands of years. Yet, by the 1900s, it had been hunted to near extinction by settlers, trappers, and hunters,

The bison is the largest animal native to North America. Males weigh up to a ton (2,000 lb or 1,000 kg). At the turn of the century, there were only reportedly 23 wild bison left inside the territory of Yellowstone National Park and perhaps only a few hundred or so more scattered elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada.

In attempts to salvage the species, governments, organizations, and individuals made efforts to save a few bison. Those few in Yellowstone were successfully protected and became a core of the revival of a herd whose numbers rebounded rapidly. Other captured bison were protected by enterprising farmers and agencies, some on small farms and others as the beginnings of small herds. All of these actions saved the bison’s genetic profile from extinction.

The bison is a hardy creature, able to withstand extreme temperatures, heavy snow, drought and onslaughts of most predators. The bison’s size, herding instincts and aggression help ward off wolf packs and bears, the animal’s main threats. Accord to the National Bison Association, there were 1,986 bison ranches and farms in the U.S. in 2022.

Map showing where bison are raised in the U.S. Credit: Rachael Huerta
Where bison are raised in the U.S: both on ranches and public lands. Credit: Rachael H. Carpenter

 

Several issues still plague the bison from reviving to historic numbers. First of all, the territories available for wide-ranging herds of wild bison are very limited. Fences must be very strong and/or electrified to usually contain them, but even the strongest fencing cannot always contain bison, particularly large males. Private herds must be constantly managed. Although a large bison bull can literally run through fences when frightened, more “escapes” are caused by mating instincts where several males will push through their containing fences en masse to reach a female in estrus (ready to breed).

When they escape their containment as on bison farms surrounded by fences, bison are very hard to retrieve. They often require tranquilizer shots to neutralize their natural aggressiveness. Unlike cattle that can be rounded up with help of dogs, bison are almost immune to that process, sometimes only responding to food (grain) to lead them back into confinement.

Whereas bison escapes are mostly associated with bison farms and smaller ranches, the unfenced 4,900 bison in Yellowstone’s free-ranging herd are unconfined, which brings a new and different problem. When these bison leave the Park, they range onto surroundings under private ownership and National Forest Services land. Thus, they may cause jurisdictional problems, whereby they enter private grazing land and cropland, tear down farmers’ fences, damage farm equipment, destroy delicate ecosystems, and harass farm animals. Once on private land, they are unprotected and exposed to hunters and highway vehicles.

There are an estimated 400,000 bison in the United States, including 31,000 in conservation-focused facilities (parks and Tribal Lands), and the rest on bison farms and ranches. The Native Lands Advocacy Project (NALP) estimates that bison numbers overall increased at a rate of 13.36% between 2012 and 2017, while Tribal bison increased by 1031%. Clearly, Native Americans’ reverence for bison has enhanced the reproductive and survival rates among the herds under their care.

So what is the geographic distribution of bison in the United States today? Every state except the smallest East Coast states contains some small bison farms and larger

ranches. Most of the bison are raised as food, with the market prices for ground bison being three to five times more costly than beef. Consequently, commercial bison meat is mainly marketed to high-end restaurants and advertised as a healthy specialty item.

The word is out: Bison are BACK!!

And that is Geography in the News, updated October 1, 2025.

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

Sources Consulted for this Article
Vocabulary and Terms
  • Bison — Shaggy, humpbacked ox native to North America and Europe.
  • Buffalo — A term used interchangeably with “bison” in North America, but actually a different of four-footed grazing mammal native to Africa.
  • En Masse — French for “as a group.”
  • Estrus — The state of a female ready to mate.
Questions for Discussion and Further Study
  1. What happened to buffalo populations in the 1800s?
  2. Are buffalo dangerous to humans? Why or why not?
  3. What are some of the challenges ranches and public land managers face in raising and caring for buffalo?
  4. Buffalo populations are increasing swiftly, but are they anywhere close to the population that once lived in North America before European settlement? See if you can use the sources above and your own search to find that information.
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AAG Staff
AAG Staff

Sarah Praskievicz

Sarah Praskievicz, age 39, passed away peacefully from natural causes on August 11, 2025, in Guilford County, North Carolina. Born on July 28, 1986, in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Sarah’s life was marked by a deep passion for geography and a love of travel.

Sarah’s academic journey took her from her New England roots to the Pacific Northwest, where she earned her Master’s degree in Geography from Portland State University. Her pursuit of knowledge continued at the University of Oregon, where she proudly obtained her Ph.D. in Geography in 2014. After completing her studies, Sarah embarked on a distinguished career beginning at the University of Alabama before joining the Department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG).

Throughout her career as an Associate Professor, Sarah was deeply committed and inspiring to her students and colleagues, leaving a lasting and positive influence on all who knew her. Her dedication to education and the environment was evident in her vibrant and engaging teaching style, inspiring many young minds to explore the intricacies of the world.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Sarah was an avid traveler who fulfilled her dream of visiting all seven continents. Her adventurous spirit and curiosity about the world around her were evident in every journey she undertook. She nurtured a profound appreciation for different cultures and landscapes, which enriched both her personal life and her academic pursuits.

Sarah is survived by her loving mother, Larrilee Praskievicz of Salem, Oregon; her father, Pauli Praskievicz of Portland, Oregon; her devoted brother, Adam Praskievicz, and cherished nephew, Seth, both of Salem, Oregon. Her family remembers her as a beloved daughter, sister, and aunt, whose warmth and kindness touched the hearts of everyone she met.

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