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Emily Fekete joins AAG as Communications, Education, and Media Specialist

The AAG welcomes Emily Fekete in the new position of Communications, Education, and Media specialist. Prior to the AAG, she was employed as a clinical assistant professor and undergraduate coordinator for the geography department at Oklahoma State University. While at the university, she taught courses in cultural geography, economic geography, and geographies of new media as well as served as the undergraduate advisor and coordinator of the undergraduate geography, geospatial information science, and global studies programs.

In her new position at the AAG office in D.C. Emily will lend her expertise in communications and media geographies to the communications team through new content curation, social media and program development.

Emily holds bachelor’s degrees in history and geography as well as a minor in deaf studies from the University of New Hampshire, a Master’s degree in geography from Kent State University, and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Kansas. Her research projects have been varied within communications geographies including a major focus on offline consumption patterns driven by social media sites as well as activism and social media, cyberwar and cyberterrorism, and deaf/American sign language geographies.

In her free time, Emily and her husband, Kevin, enjoy exploring new breweries and restaurants. She also makes time for ballet dancing, downhill skiing, and hanging out with her black cat, Mulligan.

Communications Education and Media Specialist, Emily Fekete
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Annual Meeting

Some Hispanic and Latino Landscapes of New Orleans

If you have a penchant for landscape, be warned: you will be tempted to spend more time outside of the hotels than in the paper sessions of the upcoming AAG conference in New Orleans. Many aspects of the New Orleans landscape might seem generically American, especially within the compact Central Business District (CBD) upriver from Canal Street, where the conference hotels are located.[1] The CBD and adjoining, gentrified Warehouse District do retain some fine examples of nineteenth- and twentieth-century architecture. But venture downriver, across Canal Street into the French Quarter, and you will enter an urban landscape that remains more attuned to the Mediterranean and Caribbean than the North Atlantic, as A. J. Liebling pointed out half a century ago in The Earl of Louisiana. Those interested in the Hispanic and Latino aspects of this compelling landscape might consider the following sampling of spots to visit, mainly oriented toward the city’s historic status as a Spanish colonial capital and U.S. neo-colonial entrepôt for Latin America. For more contemporary Latino and Hispanic landscapes, you will mainly have to venture into neighboring Jefferson and Saint Bernard Parishes.[2]

Figure 1. United Fruit Company building with a White Fleet taxicab in front. Credit: Andrew Sluyter

For a first, convenient stop among the sampling of spots to appreciate this particular dimension of the urban landscape, simply begin two blocks upriver from the Sheraton, at the corner of Saint Charles Avenue and Union Street in the CBD.[3] There the headquarters of the infamous United Fruit Company has become a bank, the company long since defunct. But during the early twentieth century, from behind the unforgettable façade of fruit laden cornucopia spilling down from the cornice of the ornate entrance, Sam “The Banana Man” Zemurray controlled the main flow of bananas into the U.S. from plantations in half a dozen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Figure 1). La Frutera or El Pulpo, as Latinos variously referred to the company, controlled everything in its supply chain from the banana trees to the White Fleet freighters that carried them, as well as the politics of the Central American countries that thereby became known as banana republics. The White Fleet has also persisted in a way, although no longer steaming up the Mississippi River with loads of bananas and Honduran immigrants; instead, you will see its name and pennant emblazoned on the doors of one of the city’s fleets of taxis.

Two blocks further upriver along Saint Charles Avenue, crossing Poydras Street toward the Warehouse District, now being rebranded as the Arts and Museum District, Lafayette Square invites relaxation in the largest greenspace near the conference hotels. In the nineteenth century filibusters rioted in Lafayette Square to burn the flag of the Spanish consulate after hearing of the defeat of an expedition to wrest Cuba from colonial rule. Filibusters, in fact, launched many of their campaigns against Caribbean and Latin American targets from New Orleans, and in 1847 U.S. troops mustered in the port before sailing for Veracruz during the Mexican-American War. A few blocks from Lafayette Square, where Poydras Street intersects Loyola Avenue, stands the monument to those soldiers who half a century later went to fight on Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War and did not return, but did help turn New Orleans into a major, neo-colonial refiner of Cuban sugar. You could also head in the other direction, toward the river, if interested in the Banana Wharf at the foot of Thalia Street or the Coffee Wharf at the foot of Poydras Street, but you would be disappointed because twentieth-century redevelopment for the Riverwalk Mall, Morial Convention Center, Crescent City Connection bridge, and Cruise Ship Terminal has obliterated the wharves that used to funnel commodities from the tropical Americas into the Crescent City and, from there, up the Mississippi River to the Midwest and beyond. Many Latinos who settled in the city because of the neo-colonial networks associated with bananas, coffee, and sugar initially lived just a few blocks upriver, in the Irish Channel neighborhood, before increasingly joining the “white flight” to suburban neighborhoods that began in the 1960s.

Figure 2. Spanish Plaza with a riverboat and a cruise liner behind. Credit: Andrew Sluyter

But head back downriver to where Canal Street meets the Mississippi River and you will encounter two prominent memorials of when New Orleans was a city in the Spanish colonial empire during the second half of the eighteenth century. Spanish Plaza, a large fountain built for the city by the Spanish government in 1976 is surrounded by a circular bench backed by the tiled crests of Spain’s provinces, a great spot atop the levee from which to enjoy the vista of the busy shipping of one of the world’s largest ports (Figure 2). On the other side of the World Trade Center, which so prominently marks the foot of Canal Street, another gift to the city from Spain also commemorates the 1776-1976 Bicentennial: an immense equestrian statue of Bernardo de Gálvez, the governor of Spanish “Luisiana” during the Revolutionary War, that celebrates how his troops defeated the British at the battles of Baton Rouge, Natchez, Pensacola, and Mobile.

Figure 3. A street sign in the French Quarter. Credit: Andrew Sluyter

To get a better sense of what the city was like when a colonial capital, before the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, all you need to do is head downriver and cross Canal Street into the Quarter, which comprised the entire city during French and Spanish rule and, in some ways, remains unchanged. At every corner you will see the tiled signs that give the street names during Spanish times (Figure 3). The Plaza de Armas, now Jackson Square, provides the focal point, the river on one side and Saint Louis Cathedral on the other. The two buildings that flank the cathedral remain the most prominent vestiges of Spanish colonial architecture in the city: the arcaded Cabildo, or city hall, retains its Spanish name; the matching Casa Curial, or priests’ residence, has become the French Presbytère. The Mansard roofs added in the nineteenth century might deceive you, but if you imagine the two buildings without them, you might be looking at the colonial cabildo in Buenos Aires or some other city of the former Spanish colonial empire, fronted by an open plaza where troops could be mustered, overlooked by the cathedral and residences of prominent citizens.

The opposite, lakeside margin of the Quarter comprised the outskirts of the city during colonial times but also echoes the city’s lengthy connection to the Hispanic Atlantic. Along Basin Street, a block north of the Quarter in the Iberville neighborhood, Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 was built in the eighteenth century during Spanish rule, its above-ground tombs similar to many throughout Spain and Latin America. The nearby Congo Square, now a part of Louis Armstrong Park, in the Tremé neighborhood provided a Sunday gathering place for the city’s enslaved residents, among the thousands brought from Africa to Louisiana aboard French and Spanish ships. There, on their day off, they could socialize, plot resistance, sing, and lay the foundations for what would become blues, jazz, and rock-and-roll.

Figure 4. The Simón Bolívar statue in the Garden of the Americas. Credit: Andrew Sluyter

The Garden of the Americas occupies the Basin Street neutral ground, a term that originated when the median of Canal Street formed a neutral strip along the acrimonious frontier between the colonial Creoles who lived in the Quarter and the new, American residents who swarmed into the city after the Purchase and settled mainly upriver from the colonial core. After the Second World War, as part of a campaign to reassert itself as the North American “Gateway to Latin America” in the face of increasing competition from Houston, the city collaborated with local Latino organizations to establish the Garden of the Americas and its three enormous monuments to republican heroes of the Americas: Simón Bolívar for South America, Francisco Morazán for Central America, and Benito Júarez for Mexico (Figure 4).

Heading back toward the river, wander the narrow streets of the Quarter where Júarez and many other Latin American revolutionaries lived while in exile during the nineteenth century, plotting their various coups. In 1853, a young Élisée Reclus, who would become one of the foremost geographers and anarchists of the nineteenth century, also passed through the Quarter. He was headed upcountry to become a tutor to the children of his cousins at their Félicité plantation, about halfway to Baton Rouge along the Mississippi River, but he stopped long enough to observe that New Orleans at that time already had a lot of bars that were always full—some 2500 of them, apparently.[4] After more than two years in Louisiana, the experience of which helped shape his opposition to slavery and capitalism, Reclus left for Central and South America before returning to Paris in 1857 to write his La Terre: Description des Phénomènes de la Vie du Globe.

Figure 5. Spanish colonial residential architecture in the French Quarter. Credit: Andrew Sluyter

Not many houses remain from the colonial period due to the conflagrations that periodically swept across the Quarter. Compared to the residences built during French rule in the first half of the eighteenth century, those constructed during the succeeding Spanish period proved more fire resistant due to their stuccoed brick walls and flat roofs, but only a few examples have survived the construction boom of the nineteenth century that replaced almost all the colonial houses with ones built in neo-classical and Victorian styles. One of the few good examples of a typical Spanish house remains at 707 Dumaine Street (Figure 5). Otherwise, various balconies retain some fine examples of Spanish iron work, such as one at the corner of Royal and Conti Streets. Despite the disappearance of residential Spanish architecture over the nineteenth century, though, at least one Mexican sojourner of the time—Justo Sierra, in his 1895 book En Tierra Yankee—felt that New Orleans could still be counted among “those Gulf cities that all seem like sisters, but very large, very developed; Tampico, Veracruz, and Campeche would all fit within it, and it has something of all of them within it, of Veracruz above all.”

Other places of note for connoisseurs of Hispanic and Latino landscapes include the Bourbon Orleans Hotel, on Orleans Street immediately behind Saint Louis Cathedral, which served as the site of the 2017 Conference of Latin American Geographers. The Instrument Men fountain, located near the Dumaine Streetcar Station, depicts a classic jazz band and serves as a reminder that the city’s distinctive musical styles came into being partially through the influences of musicians who visited from Latin American and the Caribbean as well as local musicians who performed there and returned with innovations. As one dramatic example, albeit little known, the Mexican Military Band introduced the saxophone as well as the technique of plucking the bass violin when they played at the 1848 New Orleans World’s Fair.

Although more common in suburban neighborhoods like North Kenner, the Quarter has some Latino restaurants in which to gather to discuss how the city’s diverse roots have resulted in a “cultural gumbo,” to use the local metaphor. El Libre Cuban Café, for example, located near the foot of Dumaine Street, will serve you anything from a Cubano pressed sandwich or a guayaba pastry to a mojito cocktail or a cortadito coffee.

— Andrew Sluyter, executive director, Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0011

 

[1] Once you arrive you will understand why upriver, downriver, riverside, and lakeside have long replaced cardinal directions in the Crescent City, although that sobriquet should already provide something of a clue.

[2] Andrew Sluyter, Case Watkins, James Chaney, and Annie M. Gibson. 2015. Hispanic and Latino New Orleans: Immigration and Identity since the Eighteenth Century. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (https://lsupress.org/books/detail/hispanic-and-latino-new-orleans).

[3] See this online map of the walking tour associated with this essay (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XdSWYAujBlYR_SNP5daRkflatGo&usp=sharing).

[4] Fragment d’un voyage à la Nouvelle-Orléans, Le Tour du Monde 1 (1860): 177-92 (https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb311854746).

AAG 2018 New Orleans, Hispanic, landscapes, Latino
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New Books for Geographers

New Books: July 2017

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.

July 2017

Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene by Anna Tsing, Heather Swanson, Elaine Gan, and Nils Bubandt (Eds) (University of Minnesota Press 2017)

The Cemeteries of New Orleans: A Cultural History by Peter B. Dedek (LSU Press 2017)

Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene by Clive Hamilton (Polity Press 2017)

The End of Development: A Global History of Poverty and Prosperity by Andrew Brooks (ZED Books 2017)

Footprints in Paradise: Ecotourism, Local Knowledge, and Nature Therapies in Okinawa by Andrea E. Murray  (Berghahn Books 2017)

Genealogies of Environmentalism: The Lost Works of Clarence Glacken by S. Ravi Rajan (Ed.) (University of Virginia Press 2017)

Geographies of Growth: Innovations, Networks and Collaborations by Charlie Karlsson, Martin Andersson, and Lina Bjerke (Eds) (Edward Elgar Publishing 2017)

Horacio Capel: Pensar la ciudad en tiempos de crisis by Núria Benach and Ana Fani A. Carlos (Eds.) (Icaria Editorial 2016)

Institutional Investors in Global Markets by Gordon L. Clark and Ashby HB Monk (Oxford University Press 2017)

Latin America and the Caribbean: Lands and Peoples (Sixth Edition) by David L. Clawson and Benjamin F. Tillman (Oxford University Press 2017)

Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red by Alex Prichard, Ruth Kinna, Saku Pinta, and David Berry (Eds) (PM Press 2017)

The Man in the High Castle and Philosophy: Subversive Reports from Another Reality by Bruce Krajewski and Joshua Heter (Eds) (Open Court Publishing Company 2017)

Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine: How Occupied Landscapes Shape Scientific Knowledge by Jess Bier (MIT Press 2017)

Resigned Activism: Living with Pollution in Rural China by Anna Lora-Wainwright (MIT Press 2017)

A Short Environmental History of Italy: Variety and Vulnerability by Gabriella Corona (The White Horse Press 2017)

Smell Detectives: An Olfactory History of Nineteenth-Century Urban America by Melanie A. Kiechle (University of Washington Press 2017)

Space Invaders: Radical Geographies of Protest by Paul Routledge (Pluto Press 2017)

Water Scarcity, Climate Change and Conflict in the Middle East: Securing Livelihoods, Building Peace by Christopher Ward and Sandra Ruckstuhl (I.B. Tauris 2017)

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Geography and Human Rights

AAAS textual graphic containing many human rights terms

Geography intersects with human rights in various ways. As a a truly interdisciplinary field, geographers seek meaningful ways to act on these concerns and values in their personal and professional lives. For example, geospatial technology has been a useful tool in mapping evidence of human rights abuses, while geographic perspectives can influence media coverage of human rights issues around the world. The AAG supports members on human rights topics in the following ways:

Human Rights at the AAG Annual Meeting

Human rights is often featured as a theme at the AAG annual meetings.

  • The 2017 annual meeting in Boston featured a theme on Mainstreaming Human Rights in Geography and the AAG with more than 50 sessions and 250 presentations at the intersection of human rights and geography. Speakers from leading human rights groups, academia, government, and international organizations addressed human rights challenges around the world. These included: Noam Chomsky; James Hansen, climate change policy advocate; Rush Holt, CEO of AAAS; Terry Rockefeller, Amnesty International USA and Audrey Kobayashi.
  • At the 2012 meeting in New York, Social Justice, Media, and Human Rights was a featured theme with more than 20 sessions. One special panel session included prominent speakers Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist; Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International; and Ivan Simonovic, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights at the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Watch the video
  • The 2009 Meeting in Las Vegas featured a special track of sessions on Human Rights and Geographic Research. See a video of one of the sessions

Resources

A compilation of over 700 publications that apply geographic perspectives, tools and technologies to analyze human rights issues. Author abstracts and links to the full text have been included where available

Browse the PDF

Provides a guide to the literature on the relationships between science, engineering and human rights. The following citations are grouped under a variety of headings that encompass disciplinary fields of science and engineering and topics where science, technology and human rights intersect.

View the Bibliography

Links to human rights reference resources, organizations and advocacy groups, research centers and academic programs:

Human rights reference resources

Human rights organizations and advocacy groups

Human rights research centers and academic programs

Past Human Rights Initiatives

Over recent years, the AAG has been involved in various initiatives to engage geography and science with human rights.

The AAG was a founding member of this network, hosted by the AAAS, which encourages the application of scientific methods, tools, and technologies in human rights work. Since its launch in 2009, the Coalition has served as a catalyst for the increased involvement of scientific and engineering associations and their members in human rights-related activities.

Learn More

On January 14, 2009, over 50 scientific associations came together to launch the Science and Human Rights Coalition in a three-day series of workshops, presentations, and strategic meetings in Washington, DC. The Coalition draws upon its broad network to seeks to protect and advance the welfare of scientists whose human rights are threatened, science ethics and human rights, service to the scientific community, service to the human rights community, and education and information resources. As one of the founding members of the Coalition, the AAG contributed greatly to the formation of the Coalition during the months preceding its formal launch, and AAG representatives participated throughout the event.

The AAG supported this AAAS project to develop applications and information resources for the non-governmental human rights community. Since 2006, the project has brought high-resolution satellite imagery, GPS units, and geographic analysis and methods into wider use by human rights organizations and sought a more integrated approach to monitoring, documenting, and preventing human rights abuses. For example, geographic tools were used to monitor attacks on civilians in Darfur.

View the Eyes on Darfur Website

With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the AAG developed an inventory of geographic research and scholarship relating to human rights including bibliographic, informational, and research resources. Many of these resources can be found on this page. One particular goal was to identify research substantive enough to be used as evidence or in support of expert testimony in international tribunals investigating human rights abuses.

NGOs, Research Centers, and Other Institutions

Geography & Human Rights Organizations

The following organizations use geographic methods of analyis or apply a geographic perspective to address human rights issues.

Geography & Human Rights Research Centers

The following academic centers focus on human rights issues from a scholarly perspective. Their research–often drawing upon geographic methods or technologies–plays an important role in human rights discourse.

Geography & Human Rights Scientific Associations

The following scientific associations are members of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition.

News

  • AAAS SHRC Meeting featured in news article — The January 23, 2012 Science and Human Rights Coalition Meeting was the topic of an article in “Chemical & Engineering News” (February 14, 2012) Read More
  • Social Justice, Media, and Human Rights Track at 2012 AAG Annual Meeting— Two days of sessions, along with appearances by Mary Robinson, Nicholas Kristof, Salil Shetty, and Ivan Simonovic took place at the AAG’s annual meeting in New York. (February 10, 2012) Read More
  • AAAS Science and Human Rights Report — The January 2012 issue of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Report (February 1, 2012) Read More
  • Supreme Court Rules on GPS Tracking Case— GPS technology and privacy rights are considered in a recent Supreme Court case. (January 31, 2012) Read More
  • AAAS Documents Villagization in Ethiopia — Satellite imagery is used to confirm reports on the ground. (January 31, 2012) Read More
  • Geographers Address Ethics of GIS&T — Dawn Wright wrote about ethical scenarios discussed at a workshop, which was part of the two-year project “Graduate Ethics Seminars for Future Geospatial Technology Professionals,” funded by the NSF Ethics Education in Science and Engineering program. Read More

Useful links

  • AAG Ethics, Justice, and Human Rights Specialty Group — This group encourages inclusive and informed discussion throughout the discipline on normative concerns including applied, theoretical, and professional. In equal measure and in combination, to sustain an interest in, and teaching/research on, human rights issues at all scales of analysis, in all parts of the world.
  • YouTube Human Rights Channel  — A partnership between Witness, a human rights advocacy group, and Storyful, a web video producer, brings verified human rights videos from citizens and activists around the world.
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Annual Meeting

New Orleans: The Uncertain City

Skyscrapers in the New Orleans business district in the foreground contrast with the French Quarter in the background. Photo credit: Craig Colten

New Orleans battles with its identity. Locals see their home as a river city. Its European colonial founders etched a street grid across the narrow natural levee and perched the incipient city on the banks of the Mississippi River. Since then it has benefitted from waterborne commerce while battling high water that threatens its riparian site. The river loomed large in colonial life and looms large today.

Peirce Lewis, however, identified an uneasy relationship between the riverside site and maritime/inland hinterland situation when he labeled New Orleans as “the impossible but inevitable city.” The site on the banks of the river, had long been used by Native Americans as a strategic portage between the river and Lake Pontchartrain — in effect a bay of the Gulf of Mexico. The city’s French founder, Bienville, foresaw the importance of a city that could connect the vast North American hinterland with the Gulf and the French empire beyond. Indeed, colonial leaders abandoned two prior attempts to establish colonial capitals on the Gulf Coast before selecting the site about 100 miles upstream from the river’s mouth. Thus, the city is an heir of more direct coastal-oriented settlements, but reflects the significance of the river in its development. As the city celebrates it tricentennial in 2018, New Orleans may continue to see itself as a river city, but it functions very much as a Gulf Coast city on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Its relationship to the two water bodies remains thoroughly intertwined. In the years since 1718, the city’s economy has depended on the commerce coursing down the Mississippi – furs and cypress during the colonial era; corn, whiskey, hogmeat, sugar, and cotton during the antebellum period; grain and petrochemical products during much of the last century. New Orleans served as the entrepôt for this waterborne trade that relied on both the river and the Gulf. Another commercial tie has been tourism. Residents from across the Gulf South turned to New Orleans for a variety of pleasures since the 19th century, while New Orleans’s citizens have been prominent in the development of the Mississippi shore and visit the beaches of Alabama and Florida – furthering the city’s connections to the larger Gulf.

Elevated house after Hurricane Katrina. Credit: Craig Colten

Coping with hazards also reflects the city’s position at the intersection of fluvial and marine environments. Flood control efforts have focused on protecting the city while diverting risk via engineered floodways onto coastal fishermen in Mississippi Sound and near the mouth of the Atchafalaya River. Tropical weather presents a powerful threat from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and with the loss of it coastal wetlands, New Orleans is ever closer to the Gulf and to storm surges driven by cyclones. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, some homeowners reluctantly raised their houses on stilts, like beach houses – a concession to their coastal location. When the BP oil platform erupted in a tragic fire in April 2010 and released millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf, neighboring coastal states faced economic catastrophe as the slick washed onto their sandy beaches and drove tourists away. Florida’s governor criticized Louisiana for carelessly developing its offshore oil resources which he saw as a threat to his state’s economy. Residents of New Orleans complained that they could smell the oil from off shore – emphasizing their proximity to the Gulf.

Mississippi River levee during high river in 2011 at Baton Rouge. Photo credit: Craig Colten

Based on its role as entrepôt to the Mississippi River valley, New Orleans was among the country’s five largest cities on the eve of the Civil War. Levees obstructed the view of the river although they did not impede commerce, and these structures became one of the dominating features of the lower river landscape. The Civil War diverted Midwestern commerce to the eastern seaboard by rail, and New Orleans declined in the rank order of the country’s cities. The conflict also left the levees in a poor state of repair and a flood in 1874 provided a political tipping point in a long-running campaign to pass the costs of levee construction and maintenance to the federal government. At the urging of Southern planters and politicians Congress passed legislation in 1879 to fund and maintain the levees, not for flood protection of the recently rebellious region, but to maintain a navigable waterway for interstate commerce. By the early 20th century, engineers abandoned the mistaken belief that the river confined by levees would maintain a deep channel. Following several floods culminating in the most tragic U.S. flood on record in 1927, the Mississippi River Commission declared the main purpose of levees was to fend off inundation and not enable commerce. Despite the fact that the flood of record did not inundate New Orleans, it prompted massive re-engineering of the river that was oriented toward protecting New Orleans and its shipping interests. Its role as the entrepôt connecting the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico remained a dominating concern.

Creole cottage in the French Quarter. Photo credit: Craig Colten

With its distinctive French and Spanish colonial heritage, a sizable number of African Americans, along with later Anglo, German, and Italian immigrants, New Orleans may have fallen in its ranking among the country’s largest cities, but it emerged in the 1800s as the largest Gulf Coast city of what Terry Jordan called the Creole Coast. With a legal system based on French civil code, a persistent French-speaking population well into the 19th century, culinary traditions from France, Spain, Africa, and indigenous populations, it became a most peculiar place. African and European cooks and chefs combined local seafood, rice, and spices from multiple hearths to fashion a creole cuisine that is a hallmark of the city’s culture today. Building traditions from Africa and Europe created a landscape unlike other American cities. Celebrations, most notably Mardi Gras, have incorporated elements of the Catholic sacred calendar with Caribbean and African influences to produce arguably the city’s best known spectacle each spring.   In addition, Afro-Caribbean rhythms blended with European brass instruments to give rise to jazz.

One could argue that New Orleans thrives on these important elements of its past. Visitors flock to stroll through the narrow streets of the French Quarter, to sample the spicy creole fare, to enjoy the seductive rhythms and melodies in the jazz clubs, and to forget their cares along the parade routes during Mardi Gras. And beyond the well-worn tourist paths, there are countless lesser-known architectural, culinary, and musical treasures. Of course, the city is highly cognizant of its rich history and aggressively seeks to parley that into heritage tourism income. Indeed, in 2015 tourists spend over $7 billion dollars in the city. Tourism has largely recovered from the downturn after 9/11, the devastating decline caused by the hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the Great Recession a decade ago.

French Quarter Festival. Zack Smith Photography, courtesy of French Quarter Festivals, Inc.

Always looking for a way to expand its tourism calendar, the city supports numerous special events to attract visitors beyond the Mardi Gras season. The Jazz and Heritage Fest held each spring is one of the world’s premier music festivals. Operating since 1970, it began as a celebration of regional music — jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, and Acadian sounds. It still features local talent and traditions, but has exploded into an international event drawing major popular music performers. There are countless other festivals — such as the Essence Music Fest, the Voodoo Music Fest, the Cajun and Zydeco Fest, the Satchmo Fest, along with Southern Decadence, the Creole Tomato Fest, the Oyster Fest, and the Oak Street Po-boy fest. Plus there are sports events such as the Sugar Bowl, the Crescent City Classic Marathon, and periodic NCAA championships. The annual calendar ensures that most visitors who stay even a few days will be able to participate in one of these celebrations. Indeed one the most noteworthy events will overlap with the AAG meeting in New Orleans — The French Quarter Fest.

The French Quarter Fest was created to showcase local musical performers on multiple outdoor stages in and near the French Quarter. Initially, a “locals” event it offered free performances in the midst of the city’s historic district where local cuisine was available around every corner. It has grown but still offers a more intimate setting than that sprawling Jazz Fest, and admission is FREE. The festival’s web site [https://fqfi.org/] boasts that it will host 300 hours of entertainment by 400 performers during its run from April 12 to 15, 2018. It is truly one of the jewels of the city’s festival calendar, and it falls at a time when weather is generally quite pleasant and conducive to a street festival.

New Orleans has persisted in a perilous place for three centuries now and in that time it has given rise to a rich array of visual, auditory, and gustatory experiences. After the 2005 hurricane season, some questioned whether it made economic sense to rebuild the devastated city. Some 20 percent of the city’s population were not certain about the safety of returning and stayed away. Yet, rebuilding and denying risk, along with celebrating at the drop of a hat, are things that the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast excel at. Long-time residents are deeply attached to this quirky place, and new arrivals since 2005 came to get a taste of the traditions that endure, even if altered by the newcomers and their influences.

In the face of a disappearing coast, there is grave concern about the long-term future of the city and the outlying wetlands. Louisiana is investing huge sums of money to offset the encroachment of the Gulf across its coastal marshes. But with the highest rate of relative sea-level rise in the U.S., this deltaic coast will certainly change in the coming decades. How that will impact the city has yet to be seen and uncertainty hangs over the city like another layer of humidity. But we encourage you to come pay us a visit while you can.

— Craig Colten, Louisiana State University

 

Recommended reading, by geographers for geographers:

S. Hemmerling, Louisiana Coastal Atlas (2017)

A. Sluyter, C. Watkins, J. Chaney, A. Gibson, Hispanic and Latino New Orleans (2015)

R. Campanella, Bourbon Street (2014), Geographies of New Orleans (2006)

R. Orgera and W. Parent, eds., Louisiana Field Guide (2014)

C. Colten, Unnatural Metropolis (2005), Perilous Place, Powerful Storms (2009) USGS, Environmental Atlas of Lake Pontchartrain Basin

P. Lewis, New Orleans: Making of an Urban Landscape (2003)

Also visit the web page of the unofficial “Geographer in Residence” of New Orleans, Richard Campanella and his Geographer’s Space in the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Cultural Vistas

Also visit the web page of the unofficial “Geographer in Residence” of New Orleans, Richard Campanella and his Geographer’s Space in the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Cultural Vistas

 

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0009

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New Books for Geographers

New Books: June 2017

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.

June 2017

Advancing the Civil Rights Movement: Race and Geography of Life Magazine’s Visual Representation, 1954-1965 by Michael DiBari Jr. (Lexington Books 2017)

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

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

Climate Change in Practice: Topics for Discussion with Group Exercises by Robert L. Wilby (Cambridge University Press 2017)

Clouds: Nature and Culture by Richard Hamblyn (CSIRO 2017)

Crossing the Line by Bibi Belford (Sky Pony Press 2017)

Deterritorializing/Reterittorializing: Critical Geography of Educational Reform by Nancy Ares, Edward Buendia, and Robert Helfenbein (eds.) (Sense Publishers 2017)

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

From California’s Gold Fields to the Mendocino Coast: A Settlement History across Time and Place by Samuel M. Otterstrom (University of Nevada Press 2017)

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

Global Urban Agriculture by Antionette WinklerPrins (ed.) (CABI 2017)

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)

Heading Out: A History of American Camping by Terence Young (Cornell University Press 2017)

The Human Atlas of Europe: A Continent United in Diversity by Dimitris Ballas, Daniel Dorling, and Benjamin Hennig (Policy Press 2017)

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

Infrastructural Ecologies: Alternative Development Models for Emerging Economies by Hilary Brown and Byron Stigge (MIT Press 2017)

Life in the Himalaya: An Ecosystem at Risk by Maharaj K. Pandit (Harvard University Press 2017)

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

The Next Social Contract: Animals, the Anthropocene, and Biopolotics by Wayne Gabardi (Temple University Press 2017)

Places in Need: The Changing Geography of Poverty by Scott W. Allard (Russell Sage Foundation 2017)

Principles of Radiometric Dating by Kunchithapadam Gopalan (Cambridge University Press 2017)

Rethinking International Skilled Migration by Micheline van Riemsdijk and Qingfang Wang (eds.) (Routledge 2017)

Rising Tides: Climate Refugees in the Twenty-First Century by John R. Wennersten and Denise Robbins (Indiana University Press 2017)

Spatial Analysis of Coastal Environments by Sarah M. Hamylton (Cambridge University Press 2017)

Suspect Red by L.M. Elliott (Disney Hyperion 2017)

Swords in the Hands of Children: Reflections of an American Revolutionary by Johnathan Lerner (OR Books 2017)

The Takeover: Chicken Farming and the Roots of American Agribusiness by Monica R. Gisolfi (University of Georgia Press 2017)

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

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

Wild by Nature: North American Animals Confront Colonization by Andrea L. Smalley (John Hopkins University Press 2017)

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Newsletters

Newsletter – June 2017

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Upon Reflection 

By Glen M. MacDonald
Glen M. MacDonald
MacDonald

How fast time flies. It is hard to believe that the end of the academic year is upon us, June has come and I am writing my last president’s column. I want to use the opportunity provided by this final column to reflect upon the past year. I also want to look ahead and consider the role of our discipline and the American Association of Geographers as we face the changing and challenging world ahead of us. Finally, I hope with one last act as president to give back a little for all I have received.

Continue Reading. 

Recent columns from the President

FEATURES

Civil Rights Featured Theme of 2017 Geography Awareness Week: A Call for Participation

Established by a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1987, Geography Awareness Week (GAW) is observed the third week in November every year. GAW promotes what geography is, why it is important, and the relevance of a geographic education in preparing citizens to understand and debate pressing social and environmental issues and problems. This year’s celebration is November 12-18, marking the 30th birthday of what has become an important tradition in our discipline. National Geographic’s Network of Alliances for Geographic Education recently met in Washington DC and designated “The Geography of Civil Rights Movements” as a featured theme for the 2017 Awareness Week.

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ANNUAL MEETING

Save the Date: AAG 2018 New Orleans

Mark your calendar for the AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans on April 10 to April 14, 2018. We invite you to organize and participate in sessions, panels, field trips, events, and activities. The Call for Papers will open in July 2017.

Learn more.

Videos from AAG 2017: Boston 

Videotaped sessions of select plenary sessions and featured speakers from the 2017 Annual Meeting in Boston are now available for viewing. The select videos available for viewing are as follows:

  • Noam Chomsky – A Continuing Conversation with Geographers and Atlas Award
  • Glen MacDonald’s Presidential Plenary on Geographies of Bread and Water in the 21st Century
  • David Harvey’s Featured Lecture: Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason
  • James Hansen’s Lecture: Global Climate Change: Can the Next Generation Avert a Catastrophe?
  • AAAS’ Rush Holt on Advancing Science in the Public Arena

Learn more.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Twitter Chat: AAG Grants and Awards Program

The AAG has a long history of supporting and recognizing geographers’ accomplishments and contributions through its many prestigious grants and awards. The AAG Grants and Awards Program recognizes and supports AAG members, non-members, students, early career and senior faculty. On June 15, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., the AAG will host a Twitter Chat, entitled, “AAG Awards Program.” Guest speaker Candida Mannozzi, AAG Deputy Director of Operations, will answer questions about the variety of awards available, the submission process, key deadlines, and more. Follow @theAAG and participate by using the hashtag #AAGChat.

Learn more.

AAG Seeks Nominations for 2018 Vice President, National Councilors, Student Councilor

The AAG Nominating Committee seeks nominations for Vice President (one to be elected), for National Councilor (two vacancies) and Student Councilor (one to be elected) for the 2018 election. Those elected will take office on July 1, 2018. Members should submit the names and addresses of each nominee and their reasons for supporting nomination to any member of the committee no later than July 30, 2017. As part of your nomination statement, please confirm that the person is willing to be considered for the position for which you are recommending her or him. Nominations by email are strongly preferred.

Learn more.

Meredith Stone Joins AAG Staff as Public Policy and Outreach Specialist

Meredith StoneMeredith Stone has joined the AAG staff as Public Policy and Outreach Specialist at the Washington, D.C. headquarters. She recently completed her Master of Arts in Geography at Ohio University. There, she served as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Mapping Sciences and also as a research assistant for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a National Science Foundation granted project investigating urban green space in the city.

Learn more.

Christine MacKrell Interns at AAG for Summer Semester

Christine MacKrellChristine MacKrell recently completed her bachelor of arts in geography from the University of Mary Washington where she also majored in political science and completed a certificate in geographic information systems. She will be attending George Washington University in the fall working toward a Master of Science.

Learn more.

AAG Seeks Interns for Fall Semester

The AAG is currently seeking interns for the spring semester, although the organization offers opportunities on a year-round basis for the spring, summer and fall semesters. Interns participate in most AAG programs and projects such as education, outreach, research, website, publications, or the Annual Meeting. The AAG also arranges for interns to accompany different AAG staff on visits to related organizations or events of interest during the course of their internship.

Learn more.

Undergrads: Nominations Sought for Inaugural Board of the AAG USAG

usagWith students making up over 40% of AAG membership, the new Undergraduate Student Affinity Group (USAG) is an important community to speak on behalf of the unique and important perspectives of undergraduate geographers. It’s now time to elect the first USAG Board. Nominations are sought from undergraduates interested in this exciting leadership opportunity. By serving on the inaugural board, student leaders will determine where to focus the energy and initiative of the AAG undergraduate community to serve their needs and represent their voice.

Learn more.

MEMBER NEWS

Presidential Geographers: Drs. Mazey and Nellis Lead Buckeye Universities

As of July 1, 2017, the state of Ohio will have two university presidents who are geographers. Dr. Duane Nellis, president-elect at Ohio University (OU), will join Dr. Mary Ellen Mazey of Bowling Green State University (BGSU) as a leader of a public academic institution in Ohio. Mazey began her Presidency at BGSU in July of 2011 and holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Cincinnati, while Nellis holds his PhD in Geography from Oregon State University.

Learn more.

PUBLIC POLICY

AAG Statement on the U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

Image-118 capitol buildingThe American Association of Geographers (AAG) opposes the Trump Administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Climate change constitutes a major threat to the Earth’s environment and to the well-being of people in all nations and there is a substantial body of evidence that global climate change is driven by human-induced causes.

Learn more.

AAG Opposes Cuts to Federal Science Agencies in FY 2018 Budget

The Administration released its full budget on May 23, including cuts to Federal science agencies. In response to appropriators, the AAG stressed further insights into the detrimental effects of those reductions.

Learn more.

Administration Releases FY 2018 Budget

The Trump Administration’s budget proposal, which was released on May 23, includes sharp cuts for Federal science agencies. The document is the first step in the Fiscal Year 2018 appropriations process, and many bipartisan Senators and Representatives have taken issue with multiple aspects of the proposal.

Learn more.

AAAS, AAU, and Many Others Endorse AAG Letter Urging President Trump to Appoint OSTP Leaders

58 scientific organizations, universities, and others endorsed a sign-on letter organized by the AAG that asks President Trump to “quickly” appoint “highly-qualified individuals” to serve as Director and in other senior leadership positions in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). These key roles have been vacant since January 20.

Learn more.

RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES

Recommend Candidates for AAG Honors and Nominating Committees

The AAG Council seeks nominations for candidates to serve on the AAG Honors Committee and the AAG Nominating Committee. The Council will prepare the final slate of candidates for both committees from the nominations received, and committee members will be elected by a vote of the AAG membership. The deadline for nominations is June 30.

Call for Nominations – AAG Honors

Please consider nominating outstanding colleagues for the AAG Honors, the highest awards offered by the AAG! AAG Honors are offered annually to recognize outstanding accomplishments by members in research and scholarship, teaching, education, service to the discipline, public service outside academe, 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. Currently, honors are awarded in several categories, including: Distinguished Teaching Honors; Gilbert F. White Distinguished Public Service Honors; Ronald F. Abler Distinguished Service Honors; Gilbert Grosvenor Honors for Geographic Education; Distinguished Scholarship Honors; and Lifetime Achievement Honors. AAG Honors are selected annually by the AAG Honors Committee from a collection of nomination submissions.

Learn more.

The AAG Fellows Program

The AAG is honored to announce it has launched AAG Fellows, a new program to recognize geographers who have made significant contributions to advancing geography. In addition to honoring geographers, AAG Fellows will serve the AAG as an august body to address key AAG initiatives including creating and contributing to AAG initiatives; advising on AAG strategic directions and grand challenges; and mentoring early and mid-career faculty. The deadline for nominations is June 30.

Learn more.

PUBLICATIONS

The International Encyclopedia of Geography – Order by June 30!

he International EncyclopediaTime is running out to order the 15 volume print edition of the landmark reference work, The International Encyclopedia of Geography. The IEG is an essential resource for institutional libraries, research centers, professional organizations, and any major organization engaged with geography and interrelated fields within social sciences, humanities, science, and medicine. Order by June 30 to receive over 15% off the 15-volume print set.

Learn more.

Methods, Models, and GIS Section Editor Sought for ‘Annals of the AAG’

The American Association of Geographers seeks applications and nominations for the Methods, Models, and Geographic Information Sciences editor for the Annals of the American Association of Geographers. This new editor will be appointed for a four-year editorial term that will commence on January 1, 2018. The appointment will be made in the Fall of 2017. Nominations and applications should be submitted by Friday, September 29, 2017.

Learn more.

AAG Cartography Editor Sought for ‘Annals of the AAG,’ ‘Professional Geographer,’ and ‘GeoHumanities’

The American Association of Geographers seeks applications and nominations for a Cartography Editor for the AAG journals Annals of the American Association of Geographers, The Professional Geographer, and GeoHumanities. The new editor will be appointed for a four-year editorial term that will commence on January 1, 2018. The appointment will be made in the Fall of 2017.

Learn more.

June 2017 Issue of ‘GeoHumanities’ Now Available

The AAG is pleased to announce that Volume 3, Issue 1 (June 2017) of GeoHumanities is now available. GeoHumanities is the newest journal of the American Association of Geographers. It 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. Each issue, the Editors choose one article to make freely available. In this issue you can read Rethinking the Final Frontier: Cosmo-Logics and an Ethic of Interstellar Flourishing by Matthew Kearnes and Thom van Dooren for free.

Learn more.

ADDENDA
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President's Column

Upon Reflection

How fast time flies. It is hard to believe that the end of the academic year is upon us, June has come and I am writing my last president’s column. I want to use the opportunity provided by this final column to reflect upon the past year. I also want to look ahead and consider the role of our discipline and the American Association of Geographers as we face the changing and challenging world ahead of us. Finally, I hope with one last act as president to give back a little for all I have received.

I will start by saying what an honor and pleasure it has been to serve as your president. I have met so many wonderful geographers and learned so much. I am in awe of how smart and dedicated our members are. The heartfelt concerns about geography, society at large and the environment that so many of you have communicated to me have helped me focus on what is really important. Personally, the friendship and kindness shown to me at our regional meetings, annual meeting and council meetings leaves me with warm and indelible memories. I am not too proud to admit I have had my share of uncertainties, and a few faltering steps, over the past year. The patience and good humor shown by the membership, council and staff have been much appreciated and kept things on a good course. Thank you all.

Now, here are some candid reflections and ruminations that I want to share.

On Governance, Policy and Communication Between the AAG and the Membership

I was happy to see that in many cases when geographers had concerns about the AAG they felt free to email me, our Executive Director Doug Richardson, or other members of the council and expressed those concerns with clarity and friendliness. That is how it should be. The AAG is not governed by some aloof cabal of “others” or a disassociated elite. The members of council are you — geographers from both large and small educational institutions. Geographers from the private sector and government agencies. Geographers from every part of the country and other nations. Geographers who really care and are willing to spend their time — unpaid and often unheralded — working for our discipline and our association. The members of council with whom I have worked as president are some of the finest and most genuinely caring people I know.

I have seen how the council takes the concerns of our members very seriously and is willing to act upon those concerns when possible. This is not the Titanic — the association can change course when needed. Over the past year we received letters and petitions concerning things such as refund policies in light of U.S. immigration rules or the engagement of the military with geographical education and research. In these cases, the council revised our refund policy and is now developing a committee to examine engagement between the military and geography.

Because public policy issues have increasingly come to the fore for the AAG and require fair consideration and action when appropriate, I asked Past President Sarah Bednarz to strike a small committee and look into how the AAG should handle issues of public policy, particularly when petitioned by our members. Please remember that the AAG has a constitution and articles of constitution that prescribe the policy areas and actions we as an association can embrace. Based upon Sarah’s excellent report, the AAG has put into place a formal mechanism to make sure that such policy-related requests are handled fairly and thoughtfully. The formation of a special committee to examine issues pertaining to the discipline of geography and the military is an example of that process at work.

Alas, I have also encountered a few cases where public statements and invectives were made without actually contacting council members, staff or even reading the information posted on our website and provided in our electronic communications to members. Although I regret such instances, I mean no disrespect here. I realize that there are issues that move people passionately. Some members may not know any of the elected officials or feel comfortable sending a “stranger” an email about a question or concern, and the time to exhaustively search for information online may be in short supply for many of us. In the end, my feeling is it is better to be heard than be silent.

I will make two humble suggestions to you. The first is — please do communicate with the association. Take a look at the AAG website for information, and if you don’t find it, feel free to send an email to your regional representative or other members on council for help or to express concerns. This association is governed by members just like you for the benefit of all members. By communicating with us you can affect change. The second suggestion — join in our governance yourself. Serve on regional and national committees. Run for elected office. Yes, you! Not only can you help steer this great association and influence our discipline, but you will meet some of the most wonderful people in the world. I cannot over-emphasize how rewarding this can be, or how much we need our members to pitch-in.

On Communication with the Wider World

Geographers have so much to share with the wider world. I have been pleased to see how the AAG develops statements and communication initiatives on issues that concern the discipline and membership. I have also been pleased by the times I have seen geographers in the media commenting on exciting new research or current events. However, I think we can do more. I look at the great success that the American Geophysical Union has in getting press coverage for research presented at their annual meeting. I commissioned Vice President Derek Alderman to strike a committee and look into how the association can up its game in terms of public communication. Derek came up with some very exciting proposals and I look forward to him as president working with AAG staff and membership to take the association to the next level. I urge our membership and specialty group leadership to work with Derek in identifying and helping broadcast our most compelling research and insights.

As I have written before, better communication about geography and geographers also requires each of us to do our part. Please do get to know your campus communication officers. Don’t be afraid to share your work with the public. When an issue moves you, take to the keyboard and write an op-ed for the newspaper. We all have a lot to tell the world. 

The Growth and Internationalization of Our Association

It is gratifying to see our membership climb to a record level of almost 12,000. Fantastic. This growth bodes well for the future of the association and our discipline. However, it does come with some challenges. First, about a third of our membership and meeting attendees are from outside the U.S. The AAG has become a vibrant world marketplace for the discipline of geography. Are we serving both our domestic and international membership well? I was concerned about our international members and our professional non-academic members getting good value from the AAG. I asked council members Stuart Aitkin and David DiBiase to strike small committees to examine how we could improve service to our international and professional members respectively.

Stuart and his team tabled a report that amongst other things pointed out that the exclusionary border and immigration policies propounded by the Trump Administration in the U.S., were posing serious challenges for our international membership. In some cases members were officially excluded from attending the annual meeting and others felt personally uncomfortable traveling to the U.S. In other cases, some international members felt compelled to boycott meetings in the U.S. in solidarity with those excluded by border and immigration policies. The AAG continues to oppose such exclusionary and discriminatory policies and to work for solutions. How do we monitor this situation and accommodate members? How can we influence changes in such policies? We need all your help here.

In addition, some international members felt out of the loop in terms of AAG governance. Although any member can run for office, the term “national councilor” does imply a domestic focused position. After discussion, council would like to remedy this by perhaps focusing one of the present councilor positions on international representation. Perhaps slightly changing the name national councilor to national and international councilor would also better reflect the international scope of the AAG? We would like consensus on how to move forward here. Please do help your with your thoughts and suggestions. Council will continue to work on this at the fall meeting.

David found that for many professional members there was a desire to remain engaged with academic geography, but the annual meeting and our publications were not as industry and applications focused to be of practical value in many cases. Council would like to work on this and needs your thoughts and ideas. One suggestion was twin some of our annual meetings with more applied and professional-oriented meetings.

The Growth of Our Annual Meetings and the Increasing Importance of the Regions

Our annual meeting in Boston was a record breaker with more than 9,400 attendees. Although the growth of the meeting is satisfying in many regards, it is not without costs. With a plethora of concurrent sessions and other events it may seem that one misses more sessions of interest than one actually attends. In addition, I noted that many sessions at the Boston meeting had only a small handful of members there to hear the hard work of the presenters. This is a shame. We have not moved to a model of decreasing oral presentations through vetting abstracts. Should we do so? Can we institute more concise time limits — say 10-minute maximums for most presentations? Is it possible to promote poster sessions more, such as the AGU has done successfully? Can we shift the proportion of poster to oral presentations in a voluntary manner?

A meeting that involves more than 9,000 people also limits the cities that can host us. Many places in which we would enjoy congregating simply do not have the hotel rooms, conference facilities or travel infrastructure to host the meeting. Many of the cities that do offer these services are also expensive in terms of hotel rooms. I have seen firsthand how hard our executive director and the AAG staff work to find suitable venues and keep costs low. I have also learned that arrangements for a meeting this size must be made several years in advance. The logistics are incredible. Of course, aside from the limitation on potential host cities and the costs of attending the meetings, the size of our annual gathering also means something is lost in terms of the intimacy and sense of community that is engendered. Alas, I am not sure there is much to be done about these issues short of shrinking the size of the annual meeting.

In light of this all I want to emphasize the importance of our regional meetings in providing venues at which a wide range of talks can be given and heard effectively. A sense of intimacy and community pervades the regional meetings and interesting new towns and cities can be experienced at often reasonable costs. One of the greatest pleasures of being president was the chance to attend regional meetings around the country. I cannot adequately express how much I enjoyed this and how much geography I learned. My faculty and student hosts were so gracious and the enthusiasm of the attendees about geography was energizing. The AAG should do all it can to promote our regions and their meetings. Alas, in some regions the larger research departments seem very uninvolved with the regional meetings. I think this is a shame for faculty and particularly for undergraduate and graduate students. I will confess that I and my department are as guilty of this as many. I am going to work hard to address this — and plan to rent a van to take some of our UCLA students up to the APCG meeting in Chico this fall. Join us there!

Healthy Departments and a Healthy Discipline

Given the growth of the AAG itself, it came as an awakening to me how many departments are finding it difficult to grow or even sustain numbers of majors. With geographical awareness, perspectives and techniques exploding across the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities we as a discipline should be at an exciting growth point. What is going on? In some states the population size of university-aged people is declining and many departments are having trouble maintaining student numbers. However, this is not universal. It is a fact that geography departments do face competition for student interest from expanding environmental studies, earth systems sciences, sustainability, global studies and development studies departments. We should not castigate these programs, as they seek to produce graduates well-trained to tackle the challenges of the 21st century. However, we should also not shirk from proudly promoting our own discipline. Part of this must involve thinking about how we market the discipline. What does a course title such as “Introductory Physical Geography 1” denote to a brand new freshman? Not much I would guess. How about considering something like “Our Dynamic Planet — Processes of Physical Change on the Earth’s Surface”? You get the idea. Aside from naming courses — are our courses exciting and compelling in terms of content and student experience? Do we offer courses that speak to the challenges of the 21st century and the importance of geographical perspectives and methods in tackling those challenges? How often do we as faculty and geography students speak to undergraduate groups and clubs about the discipline? Do we speak and provide resources to high schools and community colleges to get geography on student’s radars? Do we work to get articles about geography in student newspapers? Do we generously provide service courses for other majors? No small number of undergraduate geography majors come to the discipline through elective courses they took while pursuing an earlier major.

Here also the AAG has a role to play. The association has long had initiatives on healthy departments and goes to bat for departments in trouble. I think we can do more — but we need help. Given the importance of YouTube as an information source, the council has been considering developing very short online videos about geography. What else can and should the AAG be doing as a central resource to grow geography as a major? How can we better use social media? How do we market geography to the changing demographics of the U.S.? The health of the discipline in our schools must be an important continuing focus going forward.

Diversity

I have written previously regarding the mismatch between the diversity of the U.S. and of the world at large, and the diversity of our membership and the discipline of geography in the U.S. Every member of council takes this issue extremely seriously and seeks for our diversity to be vastly better. I take this as a major concern. I can tell you that this is one area in which the association comes in for continuing criticism from our members. I know that we as an association can do more. We need help and ideas from you. What communication strategies can we undertake to better understand the needs and educational aspirations of our diverse national and international populations and serve these as an association? How can we make a true diversity of populations feel comfortable and empowered within our association as members? How can we encourage and promote greater diversity amongst AAG leadership?

One area I feel strongly about in this regards is our Developing Regions Program. This program helps support participation in the AAG by people from economically disadvantaged regions, largely in the global south. Not only does this help deserving individual geographers, but it grows both the international engagement and diversity of the AAG. It is a triple bottom line. I know though there is more we must and can do — both domestically and internationally. Please give us your ideas and help here.

I also must state that the diversity challenge is one that, in the end, cannot be won solely at the level of the AAG. Substantially increasing the diversity of geography must be recognized as the personal responsibility of every member. The AAG does not create new geographers. They are created by our universities, our departments and by us as individual faculty and students interacting with students. It is through the creation of new geographers who represent the diversity of the U.S. and the world that the AAG will grow to reflect the diversity of the nation and the planet. So, this challenge extends to our members also. What are you personally doing in your university, in your department and in your day-to-day interactions with students and the public to build a more diverse discipline? Increasing the diversity within geography is a challenge that must be taken on by all, working through personal engagement and not just via theory and polemics.

Importance of Geography and the AAG Going Forward

I would not be honest if I did not admit to concern about the state of world affairs as I look forward to the next year and decade. This is a world in which I am sure geography is of vital importance and in which the AAG has a role to play. In practical and applied terms the world is becoming both smaller and seemingly more fragmented. Through electronic communication, trade and transportation, and social networks of a mobile world population, events that are distant from our homes can have immediate and significant impacts. At the same time the grand ideas of a global society and continental to global partnerships and governance for the greater good of all appear to be losing favor. Whether we talk about Brexit and fragmentation of the European Union, the Make America Great Again agenda and regional political divisions in the U.S., or the vicious regional and civil conflicts in Ukraine, Africa and the Middle East, geographical differences have not been erased, but are arguably ascendant. The withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord is one more sign that the fragmenting power of short-term self-interest at the sacrifice of longer-term common-good seems to be gaining traction. The discipline of geography provides geospatial, environmental and socioeconomic perspectives and tools relevant to all of these issues.

But beyond academic and policy-relevant perspectives and tools, I believe geography and geographers have something even more to offer. Geography is about understanding and appreciating the general truths, linkages and differences that play out across the surface of the earth. Any solutions we might hope to find for hunger, poverty, terrorism, war, denial of civil rights or environmental degradation must come from deeper understanding of the world. The understanding I am speaking of is not just something expressed in the academic sense of facts, figures and scholarly discourses, but something that includes a deeper respect, empathy and sense of shared destiny. I believe that of all the disciplines, because of our broad roots in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, geographers have the potential to develop, communicate and implement such holistic understanding. A heavy charge to our discipline? Perhaps. But if not us as geographers, then who?

A Final Act as President in Support of the AAG Developing Regions Program

As should be clear, I believe in a diverse and international AAG acting for the good of individual geographers and for the aggregate good of the planet and its people. I was very impressed to see that a number of AAG members who could not attend the Boston AAG, out of immigration concerns or in solidarity with those who could not attend, contributed their refundable registrations fees to the AAG Developing Regions Program. The program fosters the scholarly and personal exchanges that directly contribute to the type of understanding I describe above. For those members who contributed their registration refunds to the Developing Regions Program, I want to thank and honor you for your generosity and tangible commitment to your values. Therefore my last act as President will be to join you and write a check in the amount of $500 as contribution to the AAG Developing Regions Program on behalf of my wife Joanne (a University of Toronto, Geography alumna) and myself.

I close my final presidential column by inviting you to join me in providing Derek Alderman our best wishes and support as he takes up the presidency of the AAG.

Join the conversation on Twitter #PresidentAAG

—Glen M. MacDonald

 

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0007

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Post

Administration Releases FY 2018 Budget

The Trump Administration’s budget proposal, which was released on May 23, includes sharp cuts for Federal science agencies. The document is the first step in the Fiscal Year 2018 appropriations process, and many bipartisan Senators and Representatives have taken issue with multiple aspects of the proposal.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) would receive $6.7 billion – a cut of approximately $800 million (11 percent) from the FY 2017 enacted level of $7.5 billion. The NSF indicated that it would be able to fund 19 percent of grant proposals (as compared to the current 21 percent) under the proposed funding level. The Foundation’s Geography and Spatial Science Program is housed in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences Directorate, which was cut by 10 percent, and the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, which was cut by 7.5 percent. The reduction for the SBE Directorate is not as steep as some social and behavioral science advocates had feared.

For other agencies, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was budgeted at $26.9 billion, a $7.2 billion cut (21 percent) from the current-year funding level. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was cut by $163 million (15 percent) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is proposed for a $902 million reduction (16 percent). The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science and Technology program was cut by approximately 40 percent in the budget. The U.S. Census Bureau received a 3.7 percent increase, but there are concerns that this modest amount will not enable the Bureau to fully ramp up its 2020 Census preparations.

The budget also proposes the elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a long-expected move that prompted the resignation of NEH Chairman William D. Adams on the day of the budget’s release. Adams was an Obama Administration appointee whose term was slated to run until next year. Other programs eliminated in the proposal include the National Endowment for the Arts; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; the Corporation for National and Community Service; the U.S. Institute of Peace; the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. It is unclear whether Congress will support these moves.

In a significant policy initiative, the Administration’s budget proposes to reduce reimbursement of indirect costs in research grants. Indirect costs, which support salaries, facilities, and other expenses tied into carrying out funded projects, are a crucial component of Federal research grants. Most institutions would face significant difficultly in adapting to such a policy change and it would likely cause many universities and others to rethink their approach to seeking grant funding from Federal agencies.

The final FY 2018 appropriations will not be settled for months. House and Senate leaders are focused on tackling healthcare reform and tax-law changes and will only turn to a full debate on appropriations once those issues have been dealt with. While some science agencies will probably face cuts from current funding levels, it is unlikely that Congress will support reductions on the magnitude of those included in this budget proposal.

As always, we encourage AAG members to reach out to their elected officials about issues that are of importance to them. Stay tuned for updates on these and other important policies by visiting the AAG Policy Action page.

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Changing Human Populations Networks and Connections Spatial Narratives
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Meredith Stone Joins AAG Staff as Public Policy and Outreach Specialist

Meredith Stone has joined the AAG staff as Public Policy and Outreach Specialist at the Washington, D.C. headquarters. She recently completed her Master of Arts in Geography at Ohio University. There, she served as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Mapping Sciences and also as a research assistant for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a National Science Foundation granted project investigating urban green space in the city. Her master’s thesis focuses on street art and murals and their relationships with racial justice in Baltimore neighborhoods.

She holds Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of Mary Washington where she also completed a minor in Environmental Sustainability and a certificate in Geographic Information Science.

In her spare time she enjoys cooking, watching movies, and exploring the outdoors with friends and family.

Meredith Stone, Public Policy and Outreach Specialist
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Changing Human Populations Networks and Connections Planning and Development
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