Newsletters

Newsletter – August 2018

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Postcards from the Mediterranean: Groundwater, Glaciers, and Geopark

By Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach

Mer_de_Glac_FrAlps2018-300x200

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.

Continue Reading.

Read past columns from the current AAG President on our President’s Column page.

ANNUAL MEETING

New Annual Meeting Fee Structure Implemented for #aagDC

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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

 

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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.

Read more.

 

ASSOCIATION NEWS

NCRGE Funds Research Networks on Geography and Civics, Geo-Computation, and International Curriculum Research

NCRGE_logo_horiz-300x169A 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.

Learn about the grantees.

AAG Welcomes Zan Dodson, Director, Program Management & Research

DodsonThe 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.

Learn more about Zan.

Meet the Editors of AAG Journals: Kent Mathewson and Robert Perham

Mathewson and PerhamAn 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 GeographersJohn_Sauvageau-254x300

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.

See the book abstract.

 

RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES

AAG Releases New 2017-2018 Edition of The Guide

Guidecover1718babyThe 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.

Browse the Guide.

Nominate Inspiring Geographers: September Awards Deadlines

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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

Peter MeusburgerThe 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.

 

Read more.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Summer 2018 Issue of ‘The AAG Review of Books’ Now Available

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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.

Read the reviews.

New Books in Geography — June 2018 Available

New Books in Geography illustration of stack of books

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!

Browse the list of new books.

Read the July 2018 Issue of the ‘Annals of the AAG’

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 Cover FlatGeoHumanities 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.

View the manuscripts.

May 2018 Issue of the ‘Professional Geographer’ Published

The Professional Geographer Cover Flat

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.

See the newest issue.

 

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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. He has taught numerous courses in geography ranging from cultural and regional geography, to qualitative methods, to GIS and remote sensing, and has served as both an undergraduate and graduate advisor.

Zan completed his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park, receiving a B.S. in Agricultural & Resource Economics, with minors in GIS and Mandarin, and a Ph.D. in Geographical Sciences. For his dissertation research, Zan used mixed methods to better understand the complex relationship between chronically-ill subsistence farmers in Mozambique, food insecurity, and how access to health care could be improved. More recently, he has focused his efforts on using open data to examine spatiotemporal patterns in opioid use disorder and optimizing health care accessibility, as well as developing new approaches for measuring social determinants of health. Zan also has significant work experience outside of academia, working thirteen years for Merriweather Post Pavilion where he served as an Operations Manager.

Zan will be working on the AAG research program and with the AAG management team to support the Association. He is currently working with the AAG team and researchers around the world to expand the International Geospatial Health Research Network (IGHRN), which explores new research frontiers in geospatial health and to generate research synergies through international networks to share data and information. He will also help support the AAG research team on a newly-funded NSF award that will develop a geospatial virtual data enclave where researchers can work securely with confidential geospatial data.

When not working, Zan enjoys hiking, cooking—especially, working on his sourdough—and spending time with his kids. He also dabbles in photography, painting, and playing guitar.

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President's Column

Postcards from the Mediterranean: Groundwater, Glaciers, and Geoparks

Article 15 and the Human Right to Benefit from Science

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.

Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights requires states to: “recognize the right of everyone to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications; conserve, develop, and diffuse science; respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research, and recognize the benefits of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific field.”

These principles embed scientific benefits and freedom within economic, social, and cultural rights. Only 4 of 163 nations have not ratified Article 15 thus far, and the U.S. is one of the 4. The more we can educate our students and future leaders about this fundamental right, the stronger our communities and healthier our environment, and the future, can become. In addition to arming ourselves with knowledge, taking geographical action can shape our future. Contributions by geographers include mapping and documenting social and environmental changes through space and time; explaining their origins, processes and human interactions; and proposing potential solutions to stem the damage to our planet and its future. Several overlapping fields of environmental history, historical ecology, and biogeography presents us with the long view of human interactions with a changing planet, and insight into societal response and responsibility in global environmental change. We can promote Article 15 by coupling a linked understanding of the enduring benefits of Cultural and Natural Heritage Resources, a natural partnership for human geographers, physical geographers, and GIScientists.

Cultural and Natural Heritage: Aqueducts and Antiquities in Italy

This water supply anchored in antiquity still leads to Rome, July 2018. Photo by Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach

 

Geoparks and World Heritage sites offer insights into natural wonders and past human environmental interactions and innovations. Ancient Rome drew its waters from the surrounding countryside, including groundwater springs emanating around nearby caldera lakes. Groundwater is the second largest storehouse of fresh water on earth after glacial ice. What links groundwater, glaciers, and geoparks is that all contain ecofacts of the past. The water in a groundwater aquifer or in a glacier may take millennia to cycle through. Field research this July took our team to the headwaters of those ancient Roman springs, and to a little-known link to the modern world: Roman aqueducts still deliver spring water to the modern city of Rome. Under storm drain lids and behind locked gates, springs provide fresh water for millions of people. One of the water managers of those springs told us, however, that the groundwater production is lower this year, as observed in one of the several nearly empty cisterns our team visited in July. Like California, this is a symptom of drier, hotter summers and increasing water demands on the aquifers, overtaking their recharge. Imagine a water delivery system in place since Imperial Rome that now is becoming inadequate. Ancient aqueducts are outdoor museums as well as lifelines for the modern community, and an enduring lesson in hydroengineering. We will continue researching this site as part of the Water Stories section of UT Austin’s Planet Texas 2050 Research project, providing relevance to modern cities and agriculture in increasingly thirsty regions.

Central Sicily, July 2018. Photo by Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach

About 500 km south of Rome, the Ancient Greek city of Morgantina, a UNESCO World Heritage Geopark in Sicily, provides both modern ecotourism and a window on past societies. Morgantina also drew upon springs and water systems more like qanats than aqueducts for its water supply, as does the contemporary city of Aidone near the ancient city. Though ancient Morgantina’s architectural wonders have persisted, its surrounding Sicilian watersheds are choked with eroded sediment, over 2 meters in a few decades judging by the modern sneaker found embedded in a stream cutbank this summer. Erosion events regularly cover modern highways with sediment, and strip farmland of top soil, frittering away Saharan dust and Etna ash. In the face of the bimodal Mediterranean climate regime of hot and dry summers followed by winter rain and mudslides, too few of Sicily’s modern farmers have incorporated water and soil conservation to save their rationed water, using drip irrigation systems in orchards and vineyards, and contour plowing for dryland grain crops. A modern dam blocks the once free flowing Gornalunga River, forming the reservoir Lago di Ogliastro, to provide water to the region. Abandoned farmhouses dot the landscape, indicating the latest boom and bust cycle on this semi-arid island in the ancient Middle Sea. Urban Aidone, like so many Mediterranean places, experiences water rationing and dwindling cisterns.

Melting Glaciers, Mount Blanc, and Changing Ecosystems

Mer de Glac, France, July 2018. Photo by Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach

Recent research by NOAA, EPA, and the National Park Service has documented “early spring” affecting ecosystems around the country, especially in the northern continental U.S. For example, Washington, D.C.’s famous cherry blossoms have a long-term trend of peak bloom 5 days earlier over the last 90 years. The timing of leaf emergence and blooms, and cycles of wildlife and pollinators have become out of sync in places due to changing seasonality linked with global warming. Researchers in Rocky Mountains National Park have been following the early spring cycles impacts on Alpine ecosystems and wildlife adaptability, as documented recently by National Public Radio. In addition to supporting the ecosystems of alpine zones, Glacial Ice (in ice caps and mountains) is the largest storehouse of fresh water on Earth. I had the rare opportunity to do alpine zone field work this July with a first-year Geography Ph.D. student in the French Alps, hiking along the snow line and moraines near Mt. Blanc to examine emerging ecosystems and their services in the wake of glacial retreat. Since most glaciers around the world are retreating, there is no shortage of study sites.

Yosemite is Burning

John Muir wrote, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” Slope stabilization links to the integrity of mountain geomorphic systems, hydrologic and ecological systems, and to human communities and livelihoods (see: R. Marston, Annals 2008, 98:507-520). In the wake of the current California wildfires, including Muir’s beloved Yosemite, mudslides and more human tragedy will likely follow. As science is a human endeavor hitched to human rights, it is a privilege to share our work, to ensure its broader impacts, and to create an environment in which geographical research may thrive and benefit the world through new knowledge and effective policy.

Another major theme that holds these places together is refugees, and France and Italy have shared in this global phenomenon.  In Aidone, migrants are a growing portion of the population, just like the ancient Greek migrants were 2,500 years ago. Whether studying climate refugees, or migrants fleeing conflict, Geographers have so much to contribute to the intersections of environmental justice and human rights.

A Geography meeting featuring that intersection is the 2018 Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference hosted by Texas State University and the University of Texas at Austin, October 23-26, 2018 in Austin. The REP Conference organizers call for original papers, paper sessions and panel submissions that further scholarship relating to race, ethnicity, and place. The theme of the 2018 REP conference, Engaged Scholarship: Fostering Civil and Human Rights, encourages geographic scholarship related to civil and human rights issues that intersect with race, ethnicity, diversity and/or social/environmental justice. Submissions are due by August 24th.

Finally, be ready to share your Geography at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers April 3-7, 2019, in Washington, D.C. We look forward to seeing you there!

Please share your ideas with me via email: slbeach [at] austin [dot] utexas [dot] edu

— Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
President, American Association of Geographers
Professor and Chair, Geography and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0039

 

 

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New Books for Geographers

New Books: July 2018

Every month the AAG compiles a list of newly-published books in geography and related areas. Some are selected for review in the AAG Review of Books.

Publishers are welcome to send new volumes to the Editor-in-Chief (Kent Mathewson, Editor-in-Chief, AAG Review of Books, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803).

Anyone interested in reviewing these or other titles should also contact the Editor-in-Chief.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to current public health policies which have prompted the closing of most offices, we are unable to access incoming books at this time. We are working on a solution during this transition and will continue our new books processing as soon as we can. In the meantime, please feel free to peruse previous books from our archived lists.

July 2018

All the Agents and Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands by Stephanie Elizondo Griest (University of North Carolina Press 2017)

Atmospheric Things: On the Allure of Elemental Envelopmentby Derek P. McCormack (Duke University Press 2018)

The Bohemian South: Creating Countercultures, from Poe to Punkby Shawn Chandler Bingham and Lindsey A. Freeman (eds.) (University of North Carolina Press 2017)

The Bolivia Reader: History, Culture, Politics by Sinclair Thomson, Rossana Barragán, Xavier Albó, Seemin Qayum, and Mark Goodale (eds.) (Duke University Press 2018)

China and Russia: The New Rapprochement by Alexander Lukin (Polity Books 2018)

Climate Change and Human Mobility: Global Challenges to the Social Sciences by Kirsten Hastrup and Karen Fog Olwig (eds.) (Cambridge University Press 2017)

Earth Repair: A Transatlantic History of Environmental Restoration by Marcus Hall (University of Virginia Press 2018)

Evergreen: The Garrett Family, Collectors and Connoisseurs by Evergreen Museum & Library (Johns Hopkins University Press 2017)

GIS Tutorial for Crime Analysis, second edition by Wilpen L. Gorr, Kristen S. Kurland, and Zan M. Dodson (ESRI Press 2018)

The Geopolitics of Spectacle: Space, Synecdoche, and the New Capitals of Asia by Natalie Koch (Cornell University Press 2018)

Global Cities: Urban Environments in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and China by Robert Gottlieb and Simon Ng (The MIT Press 2017)

The Golden Age of Piracy: The Rise, Fall, and Enduring Popularity of Pirates by David Head (ed.) (University of Georgia Press 2018)

Grounded Authority: The Algonquins of Barriere Lake against the State by Shiri Pasternak (University of Minnesota Press 2017)

Hairy Hippies and Bloody Butchers: The Greenpeace Anti-Whaling Campaign in Norway by Juliane Riese (Berghahn Books 2017)

Imagining the Arctic: Heroism, Spectacle and Polar Explorationby Huw Lewis-Jones (I. B. Tauris 2017)

Island, River, and Field: Landscape Archaeology in the Llanos de Mojos by John H. Walker (University of New Mexico Press 2018)

Migrant Returns: Manila, Development, and Transnational Connectivity by Eric J. Pido (Duke University Press 2017)

Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, Third Edition by John Opie, Char Miller, and Kenna Lang Archer (University of Nebraska Press 2018)

The Promise of Infrastructureby Nikhil Anand, Akhil Gupta, and Hannah Appel (eds.) (Duke University Press 2018)

Pushing Our Limits: Insights from Biosphere 2 by Mark Nelson (University of Arizona Press 2018)

Science and Environment in Chile: The Politics of Expert Advice in a Neoliberal Democracy by Javiera Barandiarán (The MIT Press 2018)

Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy by Anindya Ghose (The MIT Press 2017)

Transboundary Environmental Governance Across the World’s Longest Border by Stephen Brooks and Andrea Olive (eds.) (University of Manitoba Press 2018)

Understanding Conflicts about Wildlife: A Biosocial Approachby Catherine M. Hill, Amanda D. Webber and Nancy E. C. Priston (eds.) (Berghahn Books 2017)

Wildlife Crime: From Theory to Practice by William D. Moreto (ed.) (Temple University Press 2018)

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Newsletters

Newsletter – July 2018

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Toddlers and Tears on the Texas Border

By Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach

Sheryl-col1-illo-sq-290x290This 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.

Continue Reading.

 

ANNUAL MEETING

Registration Opening Soon for #aagDC

washington dc Take-a-stroll-along-the-Tidal-Basin-in-the-spring-to-catch-a-glimpse-of-the-Jefferson-Memorial-and-the-iconic-Cherry-Blossom-trees-courtesy-of-washington.org_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!

Learn more about the 2019 Annual Meeting.

Annual Meeting Hotel Discount Rates Now Available

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.

Lock in your rate.

“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.

American Indians of Washington, D.C., and the Chesapeake

Become familiar with the Washington, DC and Mid Atlantic region of the US before you visit for the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting with monthly articles in “Focus on Washington, DC and the Mid Atlantic.” This month, hear from Doug Herman, senior geographer at the National Museum of the American Indian. Herman reflects on the cultures indigenous to the geographic area surrounding the Chesapeake and explains the political policies that have shaped their historical and contemporary geographies.

Read more.

 

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Meet the Editors of AAG Journals: David Butler and Nik Heynen

Published six times a year since 1911, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers is one of the world’s foremost geography journals. The articles in the journal are divided into four theme sections that reflect the various scholarship throughout the geographic discipline: Geographic Methods; Human Geography; Nature and Society; and Physical Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. There are editors responsible for each of the four themes. This month, meet two of the Annals editors – David Butler and Nik Heynen.

Find out more about the AAG Journals editors.

AAG Welcomes Three Summer Interns

2018-Summer-InternsThe 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.

Meet the 2018 summer interns.

 

RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES

Geographers on Film Series Available through Library of Congress

GOF-artThe 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.

View the archive.

Ask a Geographer Program Update: Volunteers Needed

The AAG is currently updating the Ask a Geographer program, an AAG outreach project that offers the media, government agencies, teachers, and students links to experts in various fields of geography. Are you looking for a fun service opportunity to support geography by helping others learn more about it? No matter your career status, consider volunteering for the AAG Ask a Geographer program!

Volunteer to promote geography today.

AAG Seeks Editor for ‘The Professional Geographer’

The American Association of Geographers seeks applications for the position of Editor of The Professional Geographer. The new editor, whose responsibilities include overseeing the solicitation, review, and publication of scholarly articles for the journal, will be appointed for a four-year editorial term beginning July 1, 2019.

Learn more about the editor position.

 

PUBLICATIONS

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 Cover FlatGeoHumanities 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.

View the manuscripts.

New Books in Geography — May 2018 Available

New-books1-1

Keep up with the latest publications in geography and related disciplines with the New Books in Geography List, published monthly. The May 2018 list, which features books on topics such as health, geopolitics, environmentalism, and postcolonial analysis, is now available to view.

Browse the list of new books.

May 2018 Issue of the ‘Professional Geographer’ Published

The Professional Geographer Cover Flat

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.

See the newest issue.

Spring 2018 Issue of ‘The AAG Review of Books’ Now Available

AAG Review of Books Spring cover Volume 6 Issue 2Volume 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.

Read the reviews.

 

OF NOTE

Africa Specialty Group congratulates Dr. Padraig Carmody, recipient of the 2018 Kwadwo Konadu-Agyemang Distinguished African Scholar Award

Carmody Padraig

Dr. Carmody teaches Geography at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, where he did his undergraduate and masters work and is a visiting associate professor at the University of Johannesburg. His Ph.D. is from the University of Minnesota in the United States. He also taught briefly at the University of Vermont after his graduation from Minnesota. At TCD, he currently directs the Masters in Development Practice. His research centres on the political economy of globalisation in Africa and he has published in journals such as European Journal of Development Research, Review of African Political Economy, Economic Geography and World Development. He has also published seven books, including The New Scramble for Africa (Polity, 2011), the Rise of the BRICS in Africa (Zed, 2013) and as part of the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers’ book series with Professor James T. Murphy, Africa’s Information Revolution: Technical Regimes and Production Networks in South Africa and Tanzania (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015). He has won research grants from the United States National Science Foundation, European Commission and Irish Research Council. His current research examines the impacts of large scale land acquisitions in Africa. He sits on the board of Political Geography and African Geographical Review and is a former editor-in-chief of Geoforum (Elsevier) and is a Fellow of Trinity College. He was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2018.

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American Indians of Washington, D.C., and the Chesapeake

When Captain John Smith sailed up the Potomac River in 1608, he found 13 American Indian villages along its banks. Spanish incursions beginning in 1521 brought diseases, land grabs, resource destruction, military assaults, and slave raids. Nonetheless, there were several large villages and fortified towns by the time of John Smith’s 1608 visit. At that time, three major political groups vied for power in the region: the Susquehannock in Pennsylvania; the Piscataway Chiefdom in southern Maryland; and the Powhatan Chiefdom in Virginia and farther south.

Every place in the Western Hemisphere has an ongoing American Indian story, and the Washington, D.C., area is no exception. People had settled on the shores of Washington’s Anacostia and Potomac rivers as early as 9,500 BCE. Their descendants still reside here. The Nacotchtank Indians of what is now D.C. were part of the Piscataway Chiefdom, with settlements stretching along the Potomac River. Anacostia, a rendering of the word “Nacotchtank” by the English Jesuits who came with Leonard Calvert in 1634, was the home of their most important leader.

Captain John Smith’s map (1612) showing Nacotchtank details (Library of Congress)

Indians of the Chesapeake Bay would form early and lasting impressions on the newly-arriving European settlers. This is where Pocahontas met Captain John Smith, after all, setting up one of the great legends of early American settlement. But the presence of Indians also played a role in racial segregation laws that were only recently changed.

Chesapeake Indians were riverine communities, drawing sustenance from the waterways for as much as 10 months of the year. The Powhatan confederacy of Indians that greeted the Jamestown settlers included tribes from the Carolinas to Maryland. The Piscataway often sided with the Powhatan Chiefdom against the English, and when the Powhatan were defeated in 1646, English settlements quickly expanded. King Charles deeded Piscataway territories to Lord Baltimore in 1632, and European settlements reached what is now Washington, D.C., by 1675.

British settlement during the 17th century followed the usual pattern of expansion. Indians were pushed off their lands. Treaties and alliances were made, then promises broken. Frontiersman pushed into Indian land at the expense of the communities. Epidemics of introduced diseases decimated the Indigenous population, down to perhaps a tenth of its former number.

“There is petition after petition, speech after speech, on record by the chiefs to Maryland Council, asking them to respect treaty rights,” says Gabrielle Tayac, niece of Piscataway Chief Billy Tayac. “Treaty rights were being ignored, and the Indians were getting physically harassed. The first moved over to Virginia, then signed an agreement to move up to join the Haudenosaunee [Iroquoise Confederacy]. They had moved there by 1710. But a conglomeration stayed in the traditional area, around St. Ignacious Church. They’ve been centered there since 1710. Families mostly still live within the old reservation boundaries.”

Map of the American Indian Tribes of the Chesapeake region (courtesy Doug Herman)

“By 1700, the English had settled and established plantation economies along the waterways, because they are shipping to England,” says anthropologist Danielle Moretti-Langholtz at the College of William and Mary. “Claiming those pathways pushed the Indians back, and the back-country Indians become more prominent. Some Natives were removed and sold into slavery in the Caribbean. This whole area was kind of cleaned out. But there are some Indians that remain, and they are right in the face of the English colonies. We can celebrate the fact that they’ve held on.”

But it was racial laws and policies that pushed for the near “disappearance” of Indians from the region. In Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676, white indentured servants united with black slaves in an uprising against the Virginia governor in an attempt to drive Indians out of Virginia. They attacked the friendly Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes, driving them and their queen Cockacoeske into a swamp. Bacon’s Rebellion is said to have led to the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705, which effectively embedded white supremacy into law, driving a wedge between whites and blacks that came to dominate American social dynamics.

Perhaps most damaging of all was the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, pushed forward by the white supremacist and eugenicist Walter Ashby Plecker, the first registrar of Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Statistics. This Act made it unsafe—and, in fact, illegal—to be Indian. Plecker decreed that Virginia Indians had so intermarried—mostly with blacks—that they no longer existed. He instructed registrars around the state to go through birth certificates and to cross out “Indian” and write in “Colored.” Further, the law also expanded Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage.

While many Indians simply left, the Mattaponi and Pamukey stayed isolated, which protected them. They kept mostly to themselves, not even connecting with the other Virginia tribes. But they continue today to honor their 340-year-old treaty with the Governor of Virginia by bringing tribute every year.

On the Eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay, the Nanticoke mostly fled into Delaware, while a small band called the Nause-Waiwash moved into the waters of the Blackwater Marsh. “We settled on every lump,” said the late chief Sewell Fitzhugh. “Well, a lump is just a piece of land that is higher, that doesn’t flood most of the time.”

The remnant Maryland tribes consolidated under the name of Piscataways, and around 1700 removed to southern Pennsylvania. There they came under the protection of the Iroquois, where they became known as the Conoy. By the end of the 18th century their official numbers had been reduced to 320 persons. Their lands and political autonomy were completely destabilized, and reservation boundaries were not respected past 1700.

Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage would not be overturned until 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia. Mildred Loving is often identified as black. She was also Rappahannock Indian. But consequent to Plecker’s actions, Virginia Indians faced considerable challenges proving their unbroken lineage—a requirement necessary for achieving status as a Federally Recognized Tribe. The Pamunkey received Federal recognition in 2015, and six other Virginia tribes in January 2018—500 years after Pocahontas.

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian located on the National Mall, welcomes you to visit and learn more about the Piscataway and other Indigenous peoples of the Americas during your visit to Washington, D.C., for the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting.

Recommended readings:

The Aborigines of the District of Columbia and the Lower Potomac – A Symposium, under the Direction of the Vice President of Section D. Otis T. Mason; W J McGee; Thomas Wilson; S. V. Proudfit; W. H. Holmes; Elmer R. Reynolds; James Mooney. American Anthropologist, Vol. 2, No. 3. (Jul., 1889), pp. 225-268. https://www.jstor.org/stable/658373?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Joe Heim, 2015. “How a long-dead white supremacist still threatens the future of Virginia’s Indian tribes.” Washington Post, July 1, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/how-a-long-dead-white-supremacist-still-threatens-the-future-of-virginias-indian-tribes/2015/06/30/81be95f8-0fa4-11e5-adec-e82f8395c032_story.html?utm_term=.dc92b208fd4f

WE HAVE A STORY TO TELL: The Native Peoples of the Chesapeake Region. Teacher Resource, National Museum of the American Indian, 2006. https://nmai.si.edu/sites/1/files/pdf/education/chesapeake.pdf.

John Smith’s Chesapeake Voyages, 1607-1609. Helen C. Rountree, University of Virginia Press, 2008.

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0038

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Changing Human Populations Geography Essentials Spatial Narratives
Doug Herman
Doug Herman
Journals

Meet the AAG Journals Editors – David Butler and Nik Heynen

Published six times a year since 1911, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers is one of the world’s foremost geography journals. The articles in the journal are divided into four theme sections that reflect the various scholarship throughout the geographic discipline: Geographic Methods; Human Geography; Nature and Society; and Physical Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. There are editors responsible for each of the four themes, two of which are David Butler and Nik Heynen.

The Physical Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences section editor of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers is David Butler. Butler is a Texas State University System Regents’ Professor in the Department of Geography at Texas State University where he teaches courses on geomorphology, landscape biogeography, biogeomorphology, and Nature and Philosophy of Geography.  With research interests that include geomorphology, biogeography, natural hazards, mountain environments and environmental change, Butler has considerable experience working with physical geography topics. He has also been the recipient of several awards during his career including the Distinguished Career Award from the Biogeography Specialty Group, the Geomorphology Specialty Group, and the Mountain Geography Specialty Group of the AAG as well as a variety of teaching and mentoring awards.

Aside from working with the AAG Journals, Butler has editorial experience that includes serving as Section Editor for Geomorphology for the AAG International Encyclopedia of Geography, as a section editor for the international journal Progress in Physical Geography, and as long-time book review editor for the journal Geomorphology. He has also guest edited/co-edited nine special issues of the journals Physical Geography and Geomorphology.

As an editor for AAG Journals, Butler feels a sense of satisfaction that he is helping to advance physical geography within the discipline. In his mind, the most pressing issue within physical geography right now is “figuring out how to address the concept of the Anthropocene in classical physical geography research and teaching.”  For those who are looking to publish research in physical geography, David says to be sure potential authors completely understand and respect the journal to which they wish to submit research. He adds, “Beyond that, don’t give up! If you feel like you have something important enough to say to be published somewhere, you’re probably right. If your first journal of choice ultimately rejects you, take to heart their critiques and try another journal!”

Nik Heynen is the Human Geography editor for the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia, and an adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology. At the University of Georgia, Heynen teaches mostly large introductory classes, in addition to graduate seminars.

Heynen’s research, for which he has won several awards including the AAG’s Glenda Laws Award for geographic contributions to social justice research, focuses on urban geography, especially urban social movements and urban political ecology. He is also interested in environmental justice; food/hunger studies; race, class, and gender, and science and technology studies.

While also serving as an AAG Journals editor, over the last seven years Heynen has invested time helping to establish UGA’s Center for Integrative conservation (CICR) and for over three years served as the Director of the Integrative Conservation (ICON) PhD Program that was established by a group who came together through CICR. He recently became the Director of the Geography of the Georgia Coast Domestic Field Study Program based on Sapelo Island.

In addition to the teaching and administrative activities he does at UGA, and he is also currently an editor at a variety of outlets in addition to the Annals. He serves as an editor for Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space and was also the founding editor of UGA’s Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation book series. Since 2006 he has been involved with the journal Antipode, first as the Book Reviews and Interventions editor, than as a general member of the editorial collective and he continues to serve as a trustee of the Antipode Foundation, a U.K. based charity. Part of the work he still does at Antipode is Chair Antipode’s Institute for the Geographies of Justice (IGJ).

Heynen enjoys seeing the work of his colleagues and, as an editor, helping their work develop and be published. He believes that both Black geographies and Feminist geographies are the two most exciting areas of geographic thought at this time, but continues to find great value in Marxist Geography.

Learn more about Nik’s research by visiting his website: nikheynen.com.

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Staff
Staff
President's Column

Toddlers and Tears on the Texas Border

his 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. I offer many thanks to the AAG staff, and to current and outgoing council members, as well for their hard work on difficult issues, and welcome new AAG officers, councilors and committee members. It takes dedicated volunteers to make our association a community that makes a difference, and I thank all of you for serving, especially our first cohort of AAG Fellows. Finally, I ask us to thank and recognize the dedicated work and many accomplishments of AAG Executive Director Dr. Douglas Richardson, who announced his countdown to retirement at the New Orleans AAG meetings. There is much work to do to ensure a smooth transition and AAG’s continued positive trajectory, contributions, and influence. In my first presidential column, I address a matter of human rights and global understanding, to which geographers have much to contribute.

I began writing this column in the back country of the Petén, Guatemala, having journeyed by bus and 4WD pickup truck through lively Guatemalan towns and villages, on muddy track roads to the field camp of El Zotz. In Belize the week before, and also at El Zotz, our team was field validating some of the latest findings in airborne LiDAR mapping: fabulous stone structures, temples, settlements, waterworks, and agricultural features of the ancient Maya Civilization, more numerous than ever imagined. Our research questions are about resilience and collapse, long-term environmental change, and about population, landesque capital, technology, agriculture, and sustainability, all in a changing and challenging environment. Meanwhile, on our way from the modern world to this ancient world emerging from the Petén jungle, we passed a busy market square where, since my last visit, motorized tuk tuks spewing exhaust have replaced three wheeled bicycles for local transport on narrow streets. As the day turned to dusk and then into night on our journey towards field camp, glimpses of modern Central American life continued to pass by, people gathered for discussions and cold drinks in LED-lit tiendas, in church halls softly illuminated by candlelight and song, and families cooking dinner at home, some over smoky cookfires in outdoor kitchens, together with their children. Which family will have enough to eat? Enough clean water? Mosquito nets? Pencils and notebooks for school? And, which child could be the next Sally Ride? The next Albert Einstein? So much potential, and so much poverty. How do we extend the opportunities we Americans have to the next generation, and across borders, to understand and move our global society and environment forward, together?

After our field research ended, I took another bumpy, muddy, and dusty truck ride out of El Zotz, and a bus from Flores, Guatemala to Belize to fly home to Austin, Texas, with no trouble crossing the borders and no visa required. I recall an earlier Belize-Mexico border crossing and the Mexican Green Guardians who kindly helped us with a flat tire; and recall the many kindnesses our Central American hosts have bestowed over the years. Back home in Texas, a dead-serious drama is currently playing out on the border of my adopted home state as I continue this column for the publication deadline. Central American families seeking asylum from deplorable conditions, threats, and abuses, and seeking better lives for their children, are being arrested under a U.S. government zero-tolerance policy for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Children, some too young to even write or know their parents’ formal names, are being separated from their mothers and fathers and placed into caged warehouses, with no clear reunification plan. Those families have names and dreams, and they have deep care for and hope for their children. I have seen the hope and optimism with which parents escort their children to school in small villages in Mexico. Are former big box store warehouses the best America can offer to our tired, poor, and huddled masses? America offered far more to my immigrant Czech great-grandparents. But our American tolerance and generosity seem to come in waves: despite the welcome my Czech family received in California, WWII saw internment camps arise and imprison their Japanese-American neighbors. How can 21st century America slip so easily back into an “us vs. them” mindset? Not all hope is lost, airlines and local governments are beginning to publicly resist complicity in related federal actions. As of press time, the U.S. President has signed an executive order, after repeatedly blaming others and denying the ability to do so, to suspend the family separation orders for families arrested crossing the border. This order solves few problems, because there is no clear plan in place for the thousands of children who remain separated from their parents. As Glen MacDonald’s past president’s address called us to action on the environment, and Past President Derek Alderman called us to action on civil rights, I call us to action now on human rights, which encompasses both, and takes positive steps towards solving long term environmental and social crises driving migrants from their homes.

Make a Difference with a Focus on Human Rights

This leads us to one of the major themes for my presidential year, and that is Science, Geography and Human Rights. We too, the American Association of Geographers, are 12,000 individuals who can, will, and do make a difference. Under the bold leadership of outgoing President Derek Alderman, we have strengthened our commitment to civil rights, to saying no to bullying, violence, harassment and discrimination. Under the inspiring leadership of Past President Dr. Glen MacDonald, we have recommitted ourselves to protecting and cherishing science and our environment, culminating in his tour de force 2018 past presidential address calling us to action on the grand challenges of climate change and environmental degradation. I call upon us now to broaden our scope to human rights, where on the world stage science, society and the environment can all benefit from the expertise and unique global and spatial perspectives that geographers bring to bear. It is the moment where “we, too” can change the world.

A specific area for geographers to take action is within the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition, by becoming involved as an independent scholar. AAG, under the leadership of Executive Director Doug Richardson, was a founding member organization for this coalition in 2009, and has participated ever since on multiple projects, working groups and biannual meetings on a variety of human rights themes. A quick way to become involved is through the AAAS On-call Scientists, to target assistance where it is needed the most, by sharing your respective regional and systematic expertise in geography. Many universities may also have human rights and law centers seeking volunteers or affiliates. Imagine 12,000 geographers working together to solve the most difficult global challenges.

Recognize Those Who Make a Difference, and Stay Involved

I close this column with a reminder that there are numerous committees and awards for which to nominate AAG Members. Please honor those who work hard to make a difference by nominating someone today. Also, begin plans for your active participation in sessions, papers, posters, and field trips at the AAG Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. April 3-7, 2019. The AAG meeting themes for 2019 will include Geography Science and Human Rights, among others including Geography, Sustainability, and GIScience. Let’s make this our biggest annual meeting yet: we look forward to seeing you in Washington, D.C. Come home to Meridian Place!

Please share your ideas with me via email: slbeach [at] austin [dot] utexas [dot] edu

— Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
Professor and Chair, Geography and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin
President, American Association of Geographers

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0037

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Changing Human Populations Networks and Connections Spatial Narratives
Sheryl Luzzadder
Sheryl Luzzadder
New Books for Geographers

New Books: June 2018

Every month the AAG compiles a list of newly-published books in geography and related areas. Some are selected for review in the AAG Review of Books.

Publishers are welcome to send new volumes to the Editor-in-Chief (Kent Mathewson, Editor-in-Chief, AAG Review of Books, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803).

Anyone interested in reviewing these or other titles should also contact the Editor-in-Chief.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to current public health policies which have prompted the closing of most offices, we are unable to access incoming books at this time. We are working on a solution during this transition and will continue our new books processing as soon as we can. In the meantime, please feel free to peruse previous books from our archived lists.

June 2018

Architectures of Revolt: The Cinematic City circa 1968 by Mark Shiel (ed.) (Temple University Press 2018)

The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists by Naomi Klein (Haymarket Books 2018)

Climate Change and Human Mobility: Global Challenges to the Social Sciences by Kirsten Hastrup and Karen Fog Olwig (eds.) (Cambridge University Press 2017)

Communications/Media/Geographies by Paul C. Adams, Julie Cupples, Kevin Glynn, André Jansson, and Shaun Moores (Routledge 2017)

Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime by Bruno Latour (Polity Books 2018)

An East Asian Challenge to Western Neoliberalism: Critical Perspectives on the ‘China Model’by Niv Horesh and Kean Fan Lim (Routledge 2018)

Environmental Justice in Postwar America: A Documentary Reader by Christopher W. Wells (ed.) (University of Washington Press 2018)

The Ethnobotany of Eden: Rethinking the Jungle Medicine Narrative by Robert A. Voeks (Univeristy of Chicago Press 2018)

Food and Animal Welfareby Henry Buller and Emma Roe (Bloomsbury Academic 2018)

Franco-America in the Making: The Creole Nation Withinby Jonathan K. Gosnell (University of Nebraska Press 2018)

The Geopolitics of Spectacle: Space, Synecdoche, and the New Capitals of Asia by Natalie Koch (Cornell University Press 2018)

How the West Was Drawn: Mapping, Indians, and the Construction of the Trans-Mississippi West by David Bernstein (University of Nebraska Press 2018)

Ice: Nature and Cultureby Klaus Dodds (Chicago University Press 2018)

Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change by Janelle S. Wong (Russell Sage Foundation 2018)

On Decoloniality: Concepts, Analytics, Praxis by Walter D. Mignolo and Catherine E. Walsh (Duke University Press 2018)

Popular Geopolitics: Plotting an Evolving Interdiscipline by Robert A. Saunders and Vlad Strukov (eds.) (Routledge 2018)

The Road to Inequality: How the Federal Highway Program Polarized America and Undermined Cities by Clayton Nall (Cambridge University Press 2018)

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Changing Human Populations Governance and Policy Networks and Connections
AAG Staff
AAG Staff

Patrick Shabram

Education: M.A. in Geography (San Jose State University), B.A. in Geography (University of Colorado Boulder)

What attracted you to a career in education?
I’ve spent a number of years working in private industry, yet early on began to teach part-time as an adjunct. I had spent several years teaching on the side before realizing that it is my passion. At age 42, I made the switch to full-time.

How has your education/background in geography prepared you for your teaching career?
Typically, a Master’s degree is needed to teach at a community college, along with teaching experience. Many of my colleagues have Ph.D.’s, but education is not sufficient for a position like this; without classroom experience, getting a full-time position is nearly impossible. Starting off as an adjunct or teaching as a graduate student is necessary. Personally, I brought experience from my consulting and research work in the private industry, which I believe improved my chances of securing my full-time position.

What do you do in the wine industry?
The federal government has a system in place for recognizing unique regions for viticulture, both to serve as a benefit for consumers and to protect geographic names in the industry. If a winemaker wants to use one of these geographic names on their label, 85% of the grapes used to make the wine needs to come from within the boundaries of that region (e.g., Napa Valley or Russian River Valley). To establish an area as a unique American viticultural area (AVA), a petition to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is necessary. These petitions require details that identify why the area is geographically unique as a winegrowing region, as well as identify boundaries that best encompass these characteristics. I do studies that look at climate, soils, topography, viticulture and viticultural practices, and other aspects of the area to determine what makes the area unique (or determine if the area does not meet TTB requirements) and recommend boundaries. The findings are often used by growers, wineries, or grower associations to support petitions for new AVAs or to modify the boundaries of existing AVAs.

What geographic skills and information do you use most often in your work? What general skills and information do you use most often in your work?
I teach several different classes, but since I most commonly teach introductory physical geography, a well-rounded knowledge of earth sciences is essential. Technical skills in GIS, Google Earth, and other applications and online resources help in creating and running laboratories. When I interact with local organizations on building and promoting internship opportunities, an understanding of careers that are out there also helps.

Writing skills should never be overlooked. There tends to be administrative work with my job requiring the ability to present written ideas clearly and concisely.  The same goes for my work in the wine industry—that work is about 40% writing.

Are there any skills or information you need for your work that you did not obtain through your academic training? If so, how/where did you obtain them?
Networking. The importance of networking was engrained in some of my employment outside academia, where I was commonly expected to attend networking events. Someone might wonder why I need to network now, since students come to me, and I don’t really need to find new business or a new job. I’ve found a lot of excellent opportunities for collaboration, however, through my contacts at other institutions. These opportunities all have been about students. I’ve worked on grants, helped students find jobs, helped solve transfer issues, learned new teaching techniques, and found interesting subject matter all through my contacts at other colleges, non-profits, and private companies.  As an example, FRCC is in the third year of a student-focused collaborative grant with an NSF facility all as a result of networking with professionals outside my college.

Do you participate in hiring, screening, or training of new employees? If so, what qualities and/or skills do you look for?
Yes, I’ve served on several hiring committees, hired an assistant for an NSF grant, and currently help hire and manage our part-time faculty. I look for student-focused candidates; the common mistake candidates make for community college positions is focusing too much on research and not on education. Unless their research is in education, candidates need to be able to put emphasis on students and classroom experiences.

What do you find most interesting/challenging/inspiring about your work?
Seeing my students’ lives change. I’ll have students get in touch with me after having left FRCC to tell me how their time here made a difference in their lives. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a former student graduate from the four-year college they transferred to, and to then see the kinds of great careers they go into.

What advice would you give to someone interested in a job like yours?
Get teaching experience in any way you can. Don’t just stand in front of a room and lecture, but really think about education and your pedagogy. Strive to be a great educator.

The other advice is to be geographically flexible. If you are looking to land a job in your hometown, you may be waiting a long time.

What is the occupational outlook for career opportunities in your field, esp. for geographers?
It is competitive, but not like in other disciplines. There are usually only one or two full-time geographers at a community college, and full-time faculty tend to stay, so a position at any given college doesn’t come along very often. Someone with a degree in geography tends to have a lot of good options though, so we sometimes find we are competing for the best candidates. Chances are someone looking for a full time position won’t find a job right away, but since I’ve been here, we’ve seen a number of our adjuncts take full time positions at other institutions.

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