New Books for Geographers

New Books: May 2018

May 15, 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.

May 2018

Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West by Peter H. Hassrick (ed.) (University of Oklahoma Press 2018)

Anarchy as Order: The History and Future of Civic Humanity by Mohammed A. Bamyeh (Rowman and Littlefield 2010)

Bears Ears: Views from a Sacred Land by Stephen E. Strom (University of Arizona Press 2018)

A Biography of the State by Christopher Wilkes (Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2018)

Coloniality, Ontology, and the Question of the Posthuman by Mark Jackson (ed.) (Routledge 2018)

Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie: Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee by Courtney Elizabeth Knapp (University of North Carolina Press 2018)

Crafting a Republic for the World: Scientific, Geographic, and Historiographic Inventions of Colombia by Lina del Castillo (University of Nebraska Press 2018)

Delicious Geography: From Place to Plate by Gary Fuller and T. M. Reddekopp (Rowman and Littlefield 2017)

The Discourse of Neoliberalism: An Anatomy of a Powerful Idea by Simon Springer (Rowman and Littlefield 2019)

Environmental Geopolitics by Shannon O’Lear (Rowman and Littlefield 2018)

Fashioning the Canadian Landscape: Essays on Travel Writing, Tourism, and National Identity in the Pre-Automobile Era by J. I. Little (University of Toronto Press 2018)

Geographies of Disorientation by Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg (Routledge 2018)

Geographies of Plague Pandemics: The Spatial-Temporal Behavior of Plague to the Modern Day by Mark Welford)

The Geopolitics of Real Estate: Reconfiguring Property, Capital and Rights by Dallas Rogers (Rowman and Littlefield 2016)

Global Jewish Foodways: A History by Hasia R. Diner and Simone Cinotto (eds.) (University of Nebraska Press 2018)

Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict by Phil A. Neel (Reaktion Books 2018)

Historicizing Humans: Deep Time, Evolution, and Race in Nineteenth-Century British Sciences by Efram Sera-Shriar (ed.) (University of Pittsburgh Press 2018)

Honduras in Dangerous Times: Resistance and Resilience by James J. Phillips (Lexington Books 2017)

How to Lie with Maps, Third Edition by Mark Monmonier (University of Chicago Press 2018)

The International Handbook of Political Ecology by Raymond L. Bryant (ed.) (Edward Elgar Publishing 2018)

Into the Extreme: U.S. Environmental Systems and Politics Beyond Earth by Valerie Olson (University of Minnesota Press 2018)

Kropotkin: The Politics of Community by Brian Morris (PM Press 2018)

Love, Order, and Progress: The Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Auguste Comte by Michel Bourdeau, Mary Pickering, and Warren Schmaus (eds.) (University of Pittsburgh Press 2018)

Mark Twain in Paradise: His Voyages to Bermuda by Donald Hoffmann (University of Missouri Press 2018)

New World Postcolonial: The Political Thought of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega by James W. Fuerst (University of Pittsburgh Press 2018)

Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China’s Modern Icon by E. Elena Songster (Oxford University Press 2018)

Power and Progress on the Prairie: Governing People on Rosebud Reservation by Thomas Biolsi (University of Minnesota Press 2018)

Proving Ground: Expertise and Appalachian Landscapes by Edward Slavishak (Johns Hopkins University Press 2018)

Reassembling Rubbish: Worlding Electronic Waste by Josh Lepawsky (The MIT Press 2018)

A Rich and Fertile Land: A History of Food in America by Bruce Kraig (Reaktion Books 2017)

Territory Beyond Terra by Kimberley Peters, Philip Steinberg, and Elaine Stratford (eds.) (Rowman and Littlefield 2018)

Turkey: An Economic Geography by Aksel Ersoy (I.B. Tauris 2018)

US Public Memory, Rhetoric, and the National Mall by Roger C. Aden (ed.) (Rowman and Littlefield 2018)

Violence in Capitalism: Devaluing Life in an Age of Responsibility by James A. Tyner (University of Nebraska Press 2018)

Workers’ Movements and Strikes in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Perspective by Jörg Nowak, Madhumita Dutta, and Peter Birke (eds.) (Rowman and Littlefield 2018)

Joe Scarpaci

Education: Ph.D. in Geography (University of Florida), M.Sc. in Geography (Penn State University), B.A. in Geography (Rutgers University). Post-doctoral Bridge Certificate in Marketing, AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business)

Describe your job. What are some of the most important tasks or duties for which you are responsible?
I offer investment information for U.S. companies interested in staking a claim in Cuba’s future economy. This entails appraising them of, and simplifying, the current implications for businesses registered in the U.S. that must abide by the Trading with the Enemy Act.

I also design and lead interpretive educational/cultural tours in compliance with the current trade embargo. Since the early 1990’s, I have held licenses through my organization or from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and have since introduced over 900 American students and civic organization members to the island through these itineraries.

What attracted you to this industry?
My early research in heritage tourism and the Centro Histórico of Latin American cities led me to nine UNESCO heritage sites, including Havana and the more recent addition of Cuenca. My field work addressed city, provincial, and national governments aiming to attract new clientele to their aging historic districts – an alternative traveler than those coming to Latin America and the Caribbean for traditional tropical amenities. Place promotion and branding, I realized, become front and center in understanding how these places aimed to position themselves in the international tourism market. This inspired me to accept an offer from Virginia Tech to a post-doctoral bridge program in marketing, which required 320 hours of intensive summer study. After completing the program and receiving my certificate, I began teaching full-time and online in international business, hospitality, and marketing programs. Additionally, I’m able to consult with businesses in Hollywood and on Wall Street about working in Cuba under U.S. Treasury guidelines.

How has your education/background in geography prepared you for this position?
Geography’s interdisciplinary approach provided an excellent foundation for international marketing, which itself draws on several concepts relating to economic, cultural, and methodical foundations found in geography; however, it’s worth noting that business administration faculty often view interdisciplinary affiliations as “weak”. My “jack-of-all trades” geography training, however, was encouraged. When it comes to publications, books are not as valued as in geography, and the peer-review process is much more rigorous. All in all, my geographical fieldwork methods, foreign language training, ability to synthesize material, etc. have been assets to my work in international marketing.

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?
As I mentioned, the ability to synthesize both qualitative and quantitative information, as well as the ability to effectively display my work in visual and written formats and my Spanish language skills are the tools I most rely upon. Working in Cuba, I was amazed by how many “experts” on Latin America or Cuba had so little knowledge about flora, fauna, political and social history and theory, and climate patterns. I’d sat in on so many lectures where these basic factors — which would be immediately picked up by geography students — were totally absent.

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?
I mentioned previously my post-doctoral certificate in marketing; otherwise, I’m not sure if field work counts as training, but my Spanish language skills have definitely been most helpful. The notion of “going native” is a false approach; however, I’ve found over the course of doing ethnographic work throughout the region that locals appreciate a foreigner’s ability to speak Spanish. I stress the importance of language to my students; with Spanish in particular, the use of present and imperfect subjunctives tend to be most difficult for English speakers, and I encourage my students to master that.

Having run 32 study abroad programs in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Chile and working with international organizations has forced me to summarize my research clearly and effectively. My center has worked with several alumni organization, museums, civic organizations, and high schools and university programs as a result. Taking account of these varying audiences, I try to “hit the right altitude” in giving lectures, assuming very little and presenting interesting and “big picture” topics on globalization, urbanization, consumer behavior, etc. rather than convey trivial information about the region.

Do you participate in hiring, screening, or training of new employees? If so, what qualities and/or skills do you look for?
In the past, I have hired part-time U.S. and Latin American-based scholars. I look for good people skills, strong bilingualism, and effective team players. Travelers in Latin America don’t want a boring and introverted docent accompanying them. Using locals, I also keep an eye out for good English skills, and the ability to keep politics in check.

What advice would you give to someone interested in a job like yours?
I appreciate the luxury of being able to be flexible with my time and with my choice of projects; however, this requires a sense of seasonality and advance planning. Another challenge tends to be good budget development skills and learning how to monetize your skills. Understanding how to conduct a marketing plan, even with geographers who don’t speak your language, is essential.

I stress the balance of having your work validated in North America while earning the respect of locals; with that, I cannot over-stress the importance of language skills. Language skills should not be treated as secondary skills, especially with the decline of Spanish and Portuguese with Fortran and COBOL (in the 1970s) and C++ (recently) being treated as “substitutes” to modern languages in contemporary higher education curricula. You should never assume that any key informants will “speak English anyhow”—personally, this is a terribly misguided assumption.

What is the occupational outlook for career opportunities in your field, esp. for geographers?
Any geographer can find their own niche, but this requires understanding the big picture. In my case, it means understanding supply chains, which in economic geography we might call the production chain or the value-added chain or the commodity chain. At each point, there is an opportunity to connect a market with a client, whether it is a B2B setting (business-to-business) or B2C (business to consumer/client) one. One of my mentors at Penn State, Pierce Lewis, who was a talented and broad-thinking scholar, wrote a Presidential Address in the 1970s following his tenure as AAG President. In that talk, he urges students to pursue their interests without putting on ‘blinders,’ and then try some more, but to also avoid those with narrow focus who might attempt to put blinders on your vision. He encouraged geographers to work on projects not confined to one place, and that pay attention to context.

While deciding between graduate programs in the mid-1970’s, I was given advice to develop systematic skills at the master’s level, and to then focus on regional specialization at the doctoral level. I opted for a M.Sc. program at Penn State; though they had little in the way of Latin American studies, I did indeed pick this up later at the doctoral level at the University of Florida.

I remember being at Penn State while Peter Gould, the professor of my seminar on the history/philosophy of geography, opened a recent issue of the AAG’s Annals and read the caption of a photo that read something like “Campesino in field in white pants”. He didn’t have to say anything else; it was clear that this was overly descriptive. Hence, the debate on idiographic versus nomothetic approaches to geography, and the quantitate vs. qualitative debates. All geographers will have to choose those paths as their careers evolve.

Two other faculty members at Penn State — Ron Abler and Wilbur Zelinsky — told their graduate students that a good dissertation could be defended in at least two or three other departments; at the time, I found this to be hyperbole on their part, but now I see they were right. My undergraduate advisor at Rutgers (Bria Holcombe) encouraged travel and journaling, even as an undergrad. I echo the advice of these sage geographers.

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Newsletters

Newsletter – May 2018

May 2, 2018

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

The Difference That an Award Can Make (For All of Us)

By Derek Alderman

The 2018 Award for Bachelors Program Excellence goes to the Department of Geography at SUNY-Geneseo

One of the greatest pleasures of serving as President of the AAG is attending and participating in the Association’s awards ceremonies, both at Regional Division conferences and at the Honors Luncheon held every year at our national meetings. Words cannot adequately describe the feelings of pride and fulfillment that award recipients appear to experience upon having their scholarship, teaching, or outreach/service recognized publicly… I encourage members to take full advantage of the award nomination process to recognize deserving colleagues. Members might also consider nominating a person previously overlooked or unsung at awards ceremonies but who has given significantly to geography. I suggest that awards make a difference to us, both in terms of the welfare of individual nominee and the wider discipline.

Continue Reading.

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

ANNUAL MEETING

2018 AAG Annual Meeting Highlights

The American Association of Geographers annual meeting was held April 10–14, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. This conference hosted 8,550 geographers, GIS specialists, environmental scientists, and other registrants from around the world, with 32% of registrants coming from countries outside of the United States. Whether you want to reminisce or just see what you missed, check out our retrospective of the special events and sessions from New Orleans.

Visit the photo gallery.

MAD wins 2018 World Geography Bowl

AAG2018-WGB_0230-300x200 The Mid Atlantic Team won first place in the 2018 World Geography Bowl, an annual geography knowledge competition for teams of college-level geography students representing the AAG’s regional divisions. The MAD Team defeated Team SEDAAG during the final round of the event where AAG President Derek Alderman served as a guest judge. In its 29th year of hosting, the 2018 AAG World Geography Bowl provides a fun nighttime conference activity while also assisting students in attending the AAG Annual Meeting.

View photos and news about the 2018 Bowl.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

2018 AAG Nystrom Award Recipients Announced

A fund established by former AAG President J. Warren Nystrom supports an annual prize for a paper based upon a recent dissertation in geography. There were 4 finalists in this year’s competition. They presented their papers in a special session on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 where the Nystrom Committee selected two Nystrom Awardees. The Nystrom Committee and the AAG are pleased to announce Bisola Falola of the University of Texas Austin and Qunshan Zhao of Arizona State University as the recipients of the 2018 J. Warren Nystrom Award. Bisola Falola’s dissertation is entitled “Terrains of Trauma – Urban Youth and Policies of Disinvestment.” Qunshan Zhao’s dissertation is entitled “Impact of tree locations and arrangements on outdoor microclimates and human thermal comfort in an urban residential environment.”

Learn more about the Nystrom Award and previous awardees.

Meet the Editors of AAG Journals: Stephen Hanna

Over the next several months, the AAG will be adding a new section to our newsletter and social media accounts to help members get to know the many editors of the AAG suite of journals. This month, meet one of the AAG Journals’ newest editors, Dr. Stephen Hanna. Hanna serves as the Cartography Editor for three of the AAG journals: the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, the Professional Geographer, and GeoHumanities.

Find out more about the AAG Journals editors.

MEMBER NEWS

Profiles of Professional Geographers

Geography education often emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach as a way to understand the breadth of knowledge the discipline has to offer. The two professional geographers interviewed this month in the AAG Profiles of Professional Geographers, Joe Scarpaci, Executive Director of Center for Study of Cuban Culture & Economy and Matthew Connolly, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Central Arkansas, both agree that this big picture approach to understanding the world is a key asset for those looking to undertake a career path in geography. Combine this diverse knowledge base with time management skills to make a winning combination!

Learn more about Geography careers.

The Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University Makes History

The MSU Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences has admitted and will fund three African American women graduate students for the 2018 academic year. This will be the first time in the history of the Department that three African American graduate students will be admitted and funded in the same year. The students admitted and funded are Cordelia Martin-Ikpe who will be pursuing a PhD in Geography with a focus on public health, Raven Mitchell who will begin her master’s in geography with an emphasis on physical and environmental geography, and Kyeesha Wilcox who will start her master’s degree in geography by researching urban social geography and food deserts.

RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES

2018 Guide to Geography Programs Deadline Extended

AAG Guide to Geography Programs The American Association of Geographers is accepting entries from geography programs for the 2018 edition of the Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas. The deadline for submitting a listing has been extended to Friday, June 1, 2018. The 2018 edition of the Guide will be available exclusively online. The Guide lists undergraduate and graduate programs in all areas of geography and includes an interactive map that students can use to explore and discover geography programs, with easy-to-use search tools to find programs by degree type, region, and program specialization. It has long been an invaluable reference for faculty, prospective students, government agencies, and private firms in the United States, Canada, and throughout the world.

More information on the Guide and how to list your program.

Early Career Faculty and Department Leadership Workshops

On behalf of the Geography Faculty Development Alliance, the AAG is pleased to announce the 2018 Early Career and Department Leadership Workshops! These annual workshops for early career faculty and late career graduate students or geography department leaders will be held at the George Washington University in D.C. from June 10-16, 2018 (early career) and June 13-16, 2018 (department leaders).

More information and registration available.

AGI Webinar – Adapting Wildfire Management to 21st Century Conditions

AGI-webina The American Geosciences Institute’s Policy & Critical Issues program, in partnership with the American Association of Geographers, is hosting a free webinar, Adapting Wildfire Management to 21st Century Conditions, that will take place May 16th from 1:00-2:00 PM EDT. This webinar will explore recent trends in wildfires and changes in contributing factors/drivers of these hazards; examine different wildfire policy and management strategies and how they apply to different ecosystems; and feature case studies of wildfire policy and management strategies in the western and southern states. Speakers will be Tania Schoennagel from the University of Colorado-Boulder, David Godwin from the Southern Fire Exchange, and Vaughan Miller from the Ventura County Fire Department.

More information and register for the free webinar.

Call for Nominations for AAG Honors

Please consider nominating outstanding colleagues for the AAG Honors, the highest awards offered by the American Association of Geographers! AAG Honors are offered annually to recognize outstanding accomplishments by AAG members in research and scholarship, teaching, education, service, and for lifetime achievement. Individual AAG members, specialty groups, affinity groups, departments, and other interested parties are encouraged to nominate outstanding colleagues by June 30.

Guidelines for Honors nominations and a full listing of previous AAG Honorees.

AAG Fellows Program – Call for Nominations

The AAG is soliciting nominations for the AAG Fellows Program by Saturday, June 30, 2018. Please consider nominating outstanding colleagues to be recognized as AAG Fellows, a program to recognize geographers who have made significant contributions to advancing geography! Nominations for AAG Fellows are reviewed annually by the AAG Honors Committee, who will submit a slate of final nominations to the AAG Council for selection.

Additional information and guidelines for Fellows nominations.

PUBLICATIONS

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

Annals-cvr-2017

The AAG is pleased to announce that Volume 108, Issue 3 (May 2018) of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers is now available. While the Annals features original, timely, and innovative articles that advance knowledge in all facets of the discipline, each issue highlights one article chosen by the editors. This month’s editors’ choice is Governing Dispossession: Relational Land Grabbing in Laos by Miles Kenney-Lazar.

Full article listing available.

May 2018 Issue of the ‘Professional Geographer’ Now Available

PG cover

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.

New Books in Geography — March 2018 Available

New Books in Geography illustration of stack of books

Books published during the month of March 2018 have been compiled in the monthly list of newly-published books in geography and related fields. Books in the March list include the 2018 AAG Meridian Book Award winner, Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes, as well as books whose topics encompass regional geographies, environmentalism, and big data.

Browse the whole list of new books.

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

Volume 6, Issue 2 of the quarterly The AAG Review of Books has now been published online. In addition to scholarly reviews of recent books related to geography, public policy and international affairs, this issue features longer book review fora of Refugees in Extended Exile: Living on the Edge, The Rise of the Hybrid Domain: Collaborative Governance for Social Innovation, and The Great Baseball Revolt: The Rise and Fall of the 1890 Players League.

Read the reviews.

GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS

IN THE NEWS

Popular stories from the AAG SmartBrief

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Submit News to the AAG Newsletter. To share your news, email us

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Free Webinar on Wildfire Management Strategies, May 16 (CEUs available)

April 25, 2018

The American Geosciences Institute’s Critical Issues Program is pleased to offer a free webinar in partnership with the American Association of Geographers, “Adapting Wildfire Management to 21st Century Conditions,” on May 16th at 1:00 PM EDT.

Critical Issues Webinar: “Adapting Wildfire Management to 21st Century Conditions”

The combination of frequent droughts, changing climate conditions, and longer fire seasons along with urban development expansion into wildland areas has resulted in more difficult conditions for managing wildfires. Over the last several decades, the size of wildfire burn areas has increased substantially and nine of the 10 years with the largest wildfire burn areas have occurred since 2000. Wildfires are causing more frequent and wider-ranging societal impacts, especially as residential communities continue to expand into wildland areas. Since 2000, there have been twelve wildfires in the United States that have each caused damages exceeding a billion dollars; cumulatively these twelve wildfires have caused a total of $44 billion dollars in damages. As of 2010, 44 million homes in the conterminous United States were located within the wildland-urban-interface, an area where urban development either intermingles with or is in the vicinity of large areas of dense wildland vegetation. These challenging conditions present a unique opportunity to adapt existing wildfire policy and management strategies to present and future wildfire scenarios.

This Critical Issues webinar explores recent trends in wildfires and changes in contributing factors / drivers of these hazards, and features case studies of wildfire policy and management strategies in the western and southern United States.

The webinar speakers are:

Tania Schoennagel, Ph.D., Research Scientist, University of Colorado-Boulder, INSTAAR
David Godwin, Ph.D., Southern Fire Exchange / University of Florida
Vaughan Miller, Deputy Chief, Ventura County Fire Department

AGI would like to recognize the webinar co-sponsors: American Association of Geographers, American Institute of Professional Geologists, Geological Society of America, Southern Fire Exchange, and the Ventura Land Trust.

To register for this webinar, please visit: https://crm.americangeosciences.org/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=112

After registering, a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar will be sent to you. AGI will post a recording of the webinar on the Critical Issues program’s website after the event. If you cannot make the webinar but would like to be informed about the recording, please register and AGI will notify you as soon as the recording is available.

CEUs:
All registrants who have paid for CEUs from the American Institute of Professional Geologists and attend the entire duration of the live webinar will receive 0.1 CEUs from AIPG.

If you have any questions about this webinar, please contact Leila Gonzales at lmg [at] americangeosciences [dot] org.

Additional upcoming AGI webinars:

May 11th, 1:00 PM EDT: The Current and Mid-21st Century Geoscience Workforce

Robert W. Kates

Robert W. Kates, geographer, sustainability scientist, beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, died in Trenton, ME, April 21, 2018. He was 89 years old.

He was a professor of Geography at Clark University, Director of the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Program at Brown University, Senior Research Associate at Harvard University, and most recently Presidential Professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Maine.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 31, 1929. Following high school, he studied at NYU. He married Eleanor (Hackman) Kates when he was 19, a marriage that would last 68 years. They moved to Gary, Indiana, where Bob worked in a steel mill for twelve years, and where their three children, Katherine, Jon, and Barbara were born.

Thinking it would be nice to have a job with summers off so he could take his family camping, Bob enrolled in night courses with an eye to becoming a schoolteacher. An instructor who noted his apparent academic aptitude introduced him to University of Chicago geography department chairman Gilbert White, who would become Bob’s life-long friend and academic mentor. Dr. White facilitated Bob’s admission to the University’s post-graduate geography program, despite his lacking an undergraduate degree.

It would be an understatement to say that Bob thrived in this academic environment. Thirteen years following receipt of his PhD in 1962, Kates was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his groundbreaking work in a variety of geography-related fields. He was a recipient in the first annual MacArthur Fellowship in 1981.

Over his multi-faceted career, Bob Kates received multiple awards and honors including the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1991, Honorary Doctorates from Clark University and the University of Maine, the American Geographical Society’s Charles P. Daley medal, the Stanley Brun Award for Creativity from the American Association of Geographers (AAG), and most recently a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Human Dimensions of Global Change section of the AAG.

He served as the president of the AAG, and was proud to be a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Bob’s academic career was prolific and spanned several interrelated areas. His earliest work was in natural hazards and human perception of environmental risk. His research took him worldwide, from studying reconstruction efforts following the Alaska earthquake in 1964 to helping create what is now the Institute of Resource Assessment in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Later his work broadened to how, in his words, “hazards, nature, technology and society interact to generate both vulnerability and resilience.” This led to work in population studies, hunger reduction, natural resource management, climate change, and foundational contributions to the emerging field of sustainability science.

A geographer by training, Bob’s curiosity and creativity were not constrained by traditional academic disciplines. He loved to ask big questions: “Why does hunger persist amid a world of plenty, and what can be done to end it?”; “How has humankind transformed the earth; indeed, can life be sustained?”; “Can there be a transition to sustainability that over the next two generations would meet human needs, while maintaining the essential life support systems of the planet?”

To help answer such questions, Bob enlisted hundreds of people from the world of academics, policy-makers, and international organizations to work on answers and solutions. His ability to combine ideas that at first glance do not seem to belong together was matched by his ability to engage and recruit wide circles of people from diverse fields to work together. His work style was collaborative: He helped author several books and hundreds of papers, many of which were in conjunction with others.

Confronted with the daunting scope of the problems he studied, Bob’s mode was to fuse academic rigor with a commitment to find achievable goals that could, in his words, “in some small way help change the world.” The question he often shared with his family, underlying all the rest, was “How does one do good in the world?” His lifelong concern with social justice and human rights made him unwilling to divorce practice from theory, to dismiss incremental improvements in people’s lives, or to lose hope.

For example, during his time directing the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Program, Kates helped develop a program not only to define the scope of global hunger, but also to develop an international multi-component plan to address it. The typical “Kates question” that shaped the program was not how to end world hunger. Instead, it was “What could be done to cut world hunger in half, in the following decade?” What concrete measures were possible, what resources were required, what it would cost, who could pay for it, then how to advocate for action? Bob’s prodigious energy, organizing talent, and inveterate optimism made such undertakings possible.

Bob was predeceased by his wife Eleanor in 2016. He leaves his children: Katherine Kates and her husband Dennis Chinoy, Jonathan Kates, Barbara Kates and her husband Sol Goldman. He leaves six grandchildren: Sam Kates-Goldman, Miriam Kates-Goldman, Shanyu Wang Kates, Sara Kates-Chinoy and her husband, Eric Nelson, Jesse Kates-Chinoy and his wife Mariemm Pleitez, Hannah Shepard and her husband Wade Shepard. He also leaves four great grandchildren: Petra Shepard, Rivka Shepard, Jack Nelson and Ezra Nelson.

Bob loved his family dearly as his life’s bedrock, and welcomed each new member, by birth or by marriage, into the family circle. He was gratified to live long enough to see his grandchildren launched on their various life adventures.

His health declined over the last several years. When his energy and capacity waned, he reluctantly relinquished his engagement with long-time friends and colleagues, and took comfort in the love and care of his family. He continued to relish a tasty grilled steak, a good mystery novel, Patriots football games, and the view from his deck overlooking Trenton Narrows. He died suddenly and painlessly the day before Earth Day.

To foster continuing work regarding his quest, “What is, and ought to be, the human use of the earth?”, gifts in Bob’s memory may be made online to the Robert W. Kates Fund for Creative Graduate Studies at umainefoundation.org/memorial to benefit the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine. Or donations can be mailed to the University of Maine Foundation, Two Alumni Place, Orono, ME 04469 with a note that it is for the Mitchell Center Robert Kates Fund.

A memorial service will be held sometime this summer.

Source: https://obituaries.bangordailynews.com/obituary/robert-kates-1929-2018-1057279836

See All Memorials

New Books for Geographers

New Books: April 2018

April 15, 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.

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

April 2018

After Extinction by Richard Grusin (ed.) (University of Minnesota Press 2018)

Brazil and Climate Change: Beyond the Amazon by Eduardo Viola and Matías Franchini (Routledge 2018)

Buildings of New Orleans by Karen Kingsley and Lake Douglas (Univeristy of Virginia Press 2018)

China: A Geographical Perspective by David W.S Wong, Kenneth K.K Wong, Him Chung, and James J. Wang (Guilford Press 2018)

Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life by Marcus Anthony Hunter and Zandria F. Robinson (University of California Press 2018)

Dinner with Darwin: Food, Drink, and Evolution by Jonathan Silvertown (University of Chicago Press 2018)

Empire by Invitation: William Walker and Manifest Destiny in Central America by Michel Gobat (Harvard University Press 2018)

Endless Caverns: An Underground Journey into the Show Caves of Appalachia by Douglas Reichert Powell (University of North Carolina Press 2018)

The Epochs of Nature by Georges-Louis Leclerc (trans. & eds. Jan Zalasiewicz, Anne-Sophie Milon, and Mateusz Zalasiewicz) (Univeristy of Chicago Press 2018)

Geography of Small Islands: Outposts of Globalization by Beate M. W. Ratter (Springer International Publishing 2018)

George Washington’s Washington: Visions for the National Capital in the Early American Republic by Adam Costanzo (University of Georgia Press 2018)

A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet by Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore (University of California Press 2018)

Immigrant Pastoral: Midwestern Landscapes and Mexican-American Neighborhoods by Susan Dieterlen (Routledge 2015)

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

Linking Gender to Climate Change Impacts in the Global South by Shouraseni Sen Roy (Springer International Publishing 2018)

Mapping the Middle East by Zayde Antrim (Reaktion Books 2018)

The Nature State: Rethinking the History of Conservation by Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, Matthew Kelly, Claudia Leal, and Emily Wakild (eds.) (Routledge 2017)

Navigating Ethnicity: Segregation, Placemaking, and Difference by David H. Kaplan (Rowman and Littlefield 2018)

Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area by Richard A. Walker (PM Press 2018)

Plantation Crops, Plunder, and Power: Evolution and Exploitation by James F. Hancock (Routledge 2017)

Public Privates: Feminist Geographies of Mediated Spaces by Marcia R. England (University of Nebraska Press 2018)

Religion, Space, and the Atlantic World by John Corrigan (ed.) (University of South Carolina Press 2018)

Renew Orleans? Globalized Development and Worker Resistance After Katrina by Aaron Schneider (University of Minnesota Press 2018)

Report of an Inquiry into an Injustice: Begade Shutagot’ine and the Sahtu Treaty by Peter Kulchyski (University of Manitoba Press 2018)

Rivers of the Anthropocene by Jason M. Kelly, Philip Scarpino, Helen Berry, James Syvitski, and Michel Meybeck (eds.) (University of California Press 2018)

Ciudad Juárez: Saga of a Legendary Border City by Oscar J. Martínez (University of Arizona Press 2018)

Topoi/Graphein: Mapping the Middle in Spatial Thought by Christian Abrahamsson (University of Nebraska Press 2018)

Wired Into Nature: The Telegraph and the North American Frontier by James Schwoch (University of Illinois Press 2018)

Words of Passage: National Longing and the Imagined Lives of Mexican Migrants by Hilary Parsons Dick (University of Texas Press 2018)

Newsletters

Newsletter – April 2018

April 4, 2018

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Making AAG Meetings More Public

By Derek Alderman

Derek Alderman's Making AAG Meetings More Public illustration of raised hands to comment/thought balloons We are just days away from the start of the AAG annual meeting. I look forward to seeing many of you in New Orleans. For most of us, participating in the conference is work. It may be a labor of love, but it represents, nonetheless, a significant investment in terms of money, energy, and time. Please know that your investment and work on behalf of the discipline and the Association at the meeting is appreciated…No doubt, conferences should be about the work of building disciplinary bonds and expertise; however, I would suggest our meetings potentially offer an even wider array of professional interactions and benefits that open us to new places, people, and skills. In this column, I discuss the value, but also the challenges, of making our AAG meetings more public-oriented.

Continue Reading.

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

ANNUAL MEETING

Emerging Workforce Scholars Program at the AAG Jobs and Careers Center

Launched at the 2017 Annual Meeting in Boston, the AAG’s Emerging Workforce Scholars program enables aspirational community college and undergraduate students from underserved New Orleans-area communities to attend the Annual Meeting and interact with geography and geoscience professionals to learn about the work they perform and the preparation required for careers in their field. This year, the AAG is proud to partner with Limitless Vistas, Inc., New Orleans Flood Protection Authority-East, Delgado Community College Workforce Development, University of New Orleans Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences, and others to make this another successful career exploration program. Plan to attend the program Keynote with Ron Spooner, chief engineer for the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board (S&WB) and Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, and extend a warm welcome to the Emerging Scholars as they explore careers in geography and the geosciences!

See more information about the Emerging Workforce Scholars Program and events.

Go Green by Downloading the AAG Mobile App

AAG-App-Quad-baby250-209x300 Make the most of your AAG annual meeting experience by downloading the AAG mobile app, the digital version of the AAG Annual Meeting Program. With the AAG mobile app, attendees can browse sessions and abstracts, create and save a personalized schedule of events, and find up to the minute information about room changes or upcoming activities. A detailed user manual is available for download on the AAG Annual Meeting website. Don’t wait until you’re standing in the registration line, download the AAG mobile app before you get to New Orleans!

Get started with the AAG mobile app.

Cheer on your Regional Team at the 2018 World Geography Bowl

The annual round robin tournament features teams of students from each of the AAG Regional Divisions competing for both a team championship title and individually for an MVP Award. The 2018 World Geography Bowl will be held on Wednesday, April 11 starting at 7:30 PM in the Bayside A-C, Oak Alley, and Nottoway rooms on the 4th Floor of the Sheraton hotel, one floor down from the International Reception. Stop by on your way to the reception or join in to watch the championship round after the reception concludes! Prizes donated from generous sponsors are awarded to winning teams and individuals.

Learn more about the bowl.

Family Activities, Childcare, and Dining in New Orleans

Are you bringing your whole family with you to #AAG2018? The AAG has compiled a list of activities everyone will enjoy throughout the week in the Crescent City, including this walking tour of the area: New Orleans, Unmonumentalized by Brian Marks. Don’t forget, the AAG will also be offering subsidized on site childcare for ages 6 months to 12 years between the hours of 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM on Tuesday; 7:30 AM – 7:30 PM on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; and 7:30 AM – 6:00 PM on Saturday during the conference. Want to check out the local food scene? Skeeter Dixon has gathered some dining suggestions for those looking to try out an Oyster Bar, Po Boy, or cocktail.

Find family activities and dining.

Jobs and Careers Center at the 2018 Annual Meeting

The Jobs and Careers Center will be open daily from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM daily during #AAG2018. Stop by for over 65 sessions, workshops, and field trips related to careers and professional development. Sessions will cover a broad range of topics, from working as a geographer in the public, private, nonprofit, or academic sector, to networking strategies, to becoming a certified GIS Professional (GISP), to women in leadership roles in geography. Students, be sure to attend the Student Networking Happy Hour on Thursday, April 12 from 3:00 – 5:00 pm.

Full schedule of Jobs and Careers events.

FocusOnNewOrleansLogo

Flood Control Infrastructure and ‘Political Hydrology’ along the LA-TX Gulf Coast

Flooding still represents the costliest natural disasters in the United States on an annual basis, explains Paul F. Hudson of Leiden University. New Orleans, site of the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting, has seen its fair share of flood events, with Hurricane Katrina damages totalling $153.0 billion and Hurricane Harvey disaster-related expenses expected to rise beyond Katrina’s costs. President Obama’s Executive Order 13690 was expected to help decrease the monetary costs associated with flood occurrences, however it was recently overturned. Hudson outlines the goals of EO 13690 and compares action in the United States with recent work in the Netherlands. Annual Meeting.

Continue Reading.

Southwest Louisiana’s Creole Trail Riding Clubs

While many outsiders may be familiar with the larger Mardis Gras parades and festivals in Louisiana, fewer people know about the trail riding events of the state’s Creole riding clubs. Alexandra Giancarlo elaborates on the history of Creoles in southwest Louisiana and the cultural trail riding events that continue today, many now as fundraising opportunities for charity events or to help local community members. Look for Giancarlo’s #AAG2018 field trip exploring this topic: Zydeco, Gumbo, and Black Innovators: A Day Trip to Southwestern Louisiana Creole Country.

Read the full story.

New Orleans: Place Portraits

med_bourbon-street-street-sign-at-lafitte-s-blacksmith-shop-300x200 The Big Easy has always been cool, but the geography of cultural strongholds in the city has changed over time. Bourbon Street in the 1930s was a hotbed of nightlife with its 63 nightclub establishments, some of the first in the United States. But is Bourbon Street, with its critics’ claims of inauthenticity, still considered “cool” today? Richard Campanella of the Tulane School of Architecture and New Orleans’ unofficial “geographer laureate” maps out the historical geography of coolness in the Crescent City, ending with a call to see Bourbon Street as post-cool, a “triumph of localism.”

A Night on the Town in 1930s New Orleans
Mapping the Geography of Cool
Hating Bourbon Street

“Focus on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast” is an ongoing series curated by the Local Arrangements Committee to provide insight on and understanding of the geographies of New Orleans, Louisiana, and the greater Gulf Coast region in preparation for the 2018 Annual Meeting.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

2018 AAG Book Awards Announced

honors and awards The AAG is pleased to announce the recipients of the three 2018 AAG Book Awards: the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize, the AAG Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography, and the AAG Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography. The AAG Book Awards mark distinguished and outstanding works published by geography authors during the previous year, 2017. Formal recognition of the awardees will occur during the AAG Awards Luncheon at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, April 14, 2018.

See the Awardees.

MEMBER NEWS

Jepson named a 2018-19 AAAS Alan I. Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellow

Wendy Jepson, professor of Geography at Texas A&M University, was named a AAAS Alan I. Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellow for the class of 2018-2019. Jepson, who was recently elected an AAG National Councilor, is one of the 15 food and water security researchers chosen to represent this year’s class of fellows. The goals of the Leshner Leadership Institute are not only to address scientific issues surrounding resource availability, but also to better engage the public through science/society dialog.

Read more about Jepson.

Profiles of Professional Geographers

Geographers Cristi Delgado, GISP, Enterprise GIS & Open Data Coordinator for the City of Berkeley, California and Paul McDaniel, Assistant Professor of Geography at Kennesaw State University love the ways that a career in geography connects them with current events and their communities. In this month’s Profiles of Professional Geographers, read about their varied career paths and the diverse skills needed to pursue employment in the geographic field.

Learn more about Geography careers.

IN MEMORIAM

Alfred W. Crosby

Alfred W. Crosby died peacefully at Nantucket Cottage Hospital among friends and family on March 14, 2018. He was 87 and had lived with Parkinson’s Disease for two decades. During his career, Crosby taught at Albion College, the Ohio State University, Washington State University, and the University of Texas at Austin, retiring in 1999 as Professor Emeritus of Geography, History, and American Studies. In addition to his many accolades, Crosby was also involved in the Civil Rights movement, taught Black Studies and the history of American jazz, helped to build a medical center for the United Farm Workers’ Union, and took a leadership role in anti-war demonstrations.

Read more.

POLICY

Omnibus Appropriations Bill Includes AAG-Supported Increases for Research Agencies

Image-118 capitol building

The AAG continues to monitor federal decisions of importance to geography and our members. On March 23, President Trump signed a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that funds the federal government through the end of Fiscal Year 2018 (September 30). The legislation provides increased appropriations for many programs of importance to geographers, listed in the full AAG report of this bill. The AAG has repeatedly supported robust funding for federal science agencies, and we will continue to promote the value of research programs as Congress moves on to consideration of 2019 budgets. Unfortunately, the omnibus does not include a fix for the popular DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program.

Full report available.

RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Abstracts: Special Issue of ‘Annals’ on “Smart Spaces and Places”

Annals-cvr-2017 The Annals of the American Association of Geographers seeks contributions for a Special Issue on the topic of Smart Spaces and Places. ‘Smart’ technologies have advanced rapidly throughout society (e.g. autonomous vehicles, smart energy, smart health, smart living, smart cities, smart environment, and smart society) and across geographic spaces and places. We welcome theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to address questions such as how to make spaces and places ‘smart’, how the ‘smartness’ affects the way we perceive, analyze, and visualize spaces and places, and what role geographies play in knowledge production and decision making in such a ‘smart’ era. Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted by email to Jennifer Cassidento (jcassidento [at] aag [dot] org) by April 30, 2018.

Read the full call.

Early Career Faculty and Department Leadership Workshops

More information and registration available.

NCRGE Transformative Research in Geography Education Funding

NCRGE_logo The National Center for Research in Geography Education (NCRGE) invites proposals to develop new collaborative and interdisciplinary research networks in geography education. Through this program, NCRGE aspires to strengthen geography education research processes and promote the growth of sustainable, and potentially transformative, lines of research. Along this vein, NCRGE is also hosting a series of sessions in Transformative Research in Geography Education at the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting.

Funding proposal deadline May 15, 2018.

PUBLICATIONS

‘Southeastern Geographer’ Special Issues on Geographies of Louisiana and Black Geographies

southeast_geographer In recognition of the location of AAG’s 2018 Annual Meeting in New Orleans and Black Geographies as one of the three meeting themes, Southeastern Geographer offers free access to digital issues on Geographies of Louisiana and Black Geographies. Since its founding in 1962, Southeastern Geographer has often published research on issues before they were the “hot-topics” of today, including racial segregation evident in residential neighborhoods, electoral geographies, Confederate monuments, and long-term weather patterns with implications for climate change. Papers selected from across several decades demonstrate some of the breadth of such work. The digital issues will be available with open access until May 31, 2018. After that, they will be accessible through Project MUSE’s standard subscription.

Browse Geographies of Louisiana or Black Geographies.

May 2018 Issue of the ‘Professional Geographer’ Now Available

PG cover 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.

New Books in Geography — February 2018 Available

New Books in Geography illustration of stack of books

Each month the AAG publishes a list of newly-published books in geography and related fields. Books compiled from the month of February include titles by David Harvey and topics ranging from the 2016 election to GIS and drones to poverty and place.

Browse the whole list of new books.

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

Annals-cvr-2017

Every year since 2009 our flagship journal, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, has published a special issue that highlights geographic research around a significant global theme. The tenth special issue of the Annals, published in March 2018, brings together 27 articles on the topic of Social Justice and the City, edited by Nik Heynen.

Full article listing available.

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

Volume 6, Issue 1 of The AAG Review of Books has now been published online. In this first issue of 2018 be sure to check out the discussions of Concrete Revolution: Large Dams, Cold War Geopolitics, and the US Bureau of Reclamation, Degraded Work: The Struggle at the Bottom of the Labor Market, and Cities in Global Capitalism.

Read the reviews.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Stop Teaching GIS

By David DiBiase

Teach how to learn GIS instead. …
… Since the late 1990s, over 10,000 students have taken [Nature of Geographic Information, part of Penn State’s online GIS programs], and most have expressed satisfaction with their experiences. Penn State colleagues and students helped me update the course incrementally. But the geospatial field has changed fundamentally since the late 1990s, and the Penn State Online program, which the course was designed to introduce, has evolved and expanded along with it. Equally important, our understanding of how people learn (and, in particular, how they learn online) has advanced considerably. Nearly 20 years on, Nature of Geographic Information was overdue for a complete makeover.

Continue reading.

Featured Articles is a special section of the AAG Newsletter where AAG sponsors highlight recent programs and activities of significance to geographers and members of the AAG. To sponsor the AAG and submit an article, please contact Oscar Larson olarson [at] aag [dot] org.

GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS

IN THE NEWS

Popular stories from the AAG SmartBrief

EVENTS CALENDAR

Submit News to the AAG Newsletter. To share your news, email us!

Post

Southwest Louisiana’s Creole Trail Riding Clubs

April 1, 2018

By Alexandra Giancarlo
Photos by Jeremiah Ariaz

Jeanerette Trail Ride, Jeanerette, LA, 2015, Photo by Jeremiah Ariaz

You could say trail riding and horse culture is in Acynthia Villery’s blood. “I was going to rodeos in my mother’s womb,” she explained to me. A Texas transplant, Acynthia hails from a long line of Creoles in south Louisiana. Her heritage has such mixed origins that, when asked about her background, she jokes that she’s “a Heinz 57,” referring to the alleged fifty-seven varieties of the famed sauce.

Trail riding—recreational horseback rides featuring anywhere from a few dozen to thousands of participants, held on a weekly basis by a rotation of dozens of trail riding clubs—occurs throughout southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, even spreading into Mississippi in recent years. Despite the practice’s present-day geographic breadth, it is most closely associated with the Creoles of rural Southwestern Louisiana who descended from some of the region’s earliest settlers, many of them landowning gens de couleur libres (free people of color) in antebellum times. Others were enslaved and played a crucial role on the farm and the ranch. All had multiracial origins, owing to the multi-generational mixing of people of European (usually French), Native American, and African ancestry.

Read the full story at KnowLouisiana.com

To learn more about Creole culture, check out this field trip:

Zydeco, Gumbo, and Black Innovators: A Day Trip to Southwestern Louisiana Creole Country

This field trip is a day trip to the southwestern part of Louisiana, home to the mixed-race French heritage Creoles. In collaboration with community members, we will be treated to a traditional Creole lunch and listen to a private music demo by renowned zydeco artist Keith Frank (and have a Q&A with the artist). The Black History Month exhibit at Opelousas Museum (“African American Business Owners and Innovators”) has been extended to accommodate our group and the exhibit’s curator, a Creole community historian, will be guiding our tour. Over the course of the day, we will learn about Creoles’ little-acknowledged history—such as Creole cowboys, predating much of the white settlement of the area—and their often-obscured contributions to the region’s cultural offerings. En route, we will watch a classic documentary film on Creole lifeways by ethnomusicologist Nicholas Spitzer (Tulane) to set the scene.

To sign up for this trip, login on the Registration page, then find field trip F2_3.

Roger Barry

Roger Barry, Distinguished Professor and longtime University of Colorado (CU) faculty member passed away March 19, 2018, at the age of 82.

Barry had lifelong research interests ranging widely from polar climates to mountain climates to climate change. He was the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) 1976-2008 and supervised 67 graduate students.

At NSIDC, Barry contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments in 1990, 1995, and 2001. He served as a review editor for IPCC Working Groups 1 and 2 in 2007, an effort that earned the IPCC the Nobel Peace Prize.

Other honors for Barry included Lifetime Career Awards from the Climate and Mountain Specialty groups of the Association of American Geographers, Fellowship from the American Geophysical Union, the Goldthwait Polar Medal from the Byrd Polar Research Center, the Founder’s Medal from London’s Royal Geographic Society, the Humboldt Prize from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, a J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and Distinguished Professor of Geography from CU.

He was the author of hundreds of articles and an avid author and co-author of textbooks, including Atmosphere Weather and Climate, Synoptic and Dynamic Climatology, Mountain Weather and Climate, The Global Cryosphere, and Essentials of the Earth’s Climate System. His final book, focusing on polar environments, will be published posthumously.

Roger earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Liverpool in 1957, a master’s degree from McGill University in 1959, and a doctorate from the University of Southampton in 1965.

A summer celebration of life will be held in Boulder.

See All Memorials

New Books for Geographers

New Books: March 2018

March 15, 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.

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

March 2018

Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C. Scott (Yale University Press 2017)

America Classifies the Immigrants: From Ellis Island to the 2020 Census by Joel Perlmann (Harvard University Press 2018)

The American Environment Revisited: Environmental Historical Geographies of the United States by Geoffrey L. Buckley and Yolonda Youngs (eds.) (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2018)

Appalachia in Regional Context: Place Matters by Dwight B. Billingsand Ann E. Kingsolver (eds.) (The University Press of Kentucky 2018)

Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, and Sustainable by Jeffrey D. Sachs (Columbia University Press 2017)

Carving Out The Commons: Tenant Organizing and Housing Cooperatives in Washington, D.C. by Amanda Huron (University of Minnesota Press 2018)

Climate Change in Human History: Prehistory to the Present by Benjamin Lieberman and Elizabeth Gordon (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2018)

Coming Home to Indigenous Place Names in Canada by Margaret Wickens Pearce (Canadian-American Center 2018)

Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds by Arturo Escobar (Duke University Press 2017)

Globalized Authoritarianism: Megaprojects, Slums, and Class Relations in Urban Morocco by Koenraad Bogaert (University of Minnesota Press 2018)

Green Wars: Conservation and Decolonization in the Maya Forest by Megan Ybarra (University of California Press 2018)

Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba by Luis Martínez-Fernández(University of Florida Press 2018)

Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition by Jim Mac Laughlin (Pluto Press 2016, https://www.plutobooks.com)

Landscapes of Freedom: Building a Postemancipation Society in the Rainforests of Western Colombia by Claudia Leal (The University of Arizona Press 2018)

Limits to Decolonization: Indigeneity, Territory, and Hydrocarbon Politics in the Bolivian Chaco by Penelope Anthias (Cornell University Press 2018)

Making New Nepal: From Student Activism to Mainstream Politics by Amanda Thérèse Snellinger (University of Washington Press 2018)

Managing Northern Europe’s Forests: Histories from the Age of Improvement to the Age of Ecology by K. Jan Oosthoek and Richard Hölzl (eds.) (Berghahn Books 2018)

A Natural History of the Mojave Desert by Lawrence R. Walker and Frederick H. Landau (The University of Arizona Press 2018)

Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes by Julie Michelle Klinger (Cornell University Press 2018)

Revolting New York: How 400 Years of Riot, Rebellion, Uprising, and Revolution Shaped a City by Neil Smith, Don Mitchell, Erin Siodmak, JenJoy Roybal, Marnie Brady, and Brendan O’Malley (eds.) (University of Georgia Press 2018)

Sinking Chicago: Climate Change and the Remaking of a Flood-Prone Environment by Harold L. Platt (Temple University Press 2018)

Storied Ground: Landscape and the Shaping of English National Identity by Paul Readman (Cambridge University Press 2018)

Thin on the Ground: Soil Science in the Tropics, Second Edition by Anthony Young (Land Resource Books 2017)

Thinking Big Data in Geography: New Regimes, New Research by Jim Thatcher, Josef Eckert, and Andrew Shears (eds.) (University of Nebraska Press 2018)