New Books: May 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.
May 2017
After Piketty: The Agenda for Economics and Inequality by Heather Bushy, J. Bradford DeLong and Marshall Steinbaum (eds.) (Harvard University Press 2017)
Beyond Control: The Mississippi River’s New Channel to the Gulf of Mexico by James F. Barnett Jr. (University Press of Mississippi 2017)
Critical Norths: Space, Nature, Theory by Sarah J. Ray and Kevin Maier (eds.) (University of Alaska Press 2017)
Documents That Changed the Way We Live by Joseph Janes (Rowman and Littlefield 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)
Geographical Models with Mathematica by Andre Dauphine (ISTE Press 2017)
Icefall: Adventures at the Wild Edges of Our Dangerous, Changing Planet by John All and John Balzar (Public Affairs 2017)
Newspaper City: Toronto’s Street Surfaces and the Liberal Press, 1860-1935 by Phillip Gordon Mackintosh (University of Toronto Press 2017)
Science and Sensibility: Negotiating an Ecology of Place by Michael Vincent McGinnis (University of California Press 2016)
Understanding Spatial Media by Rob Kitchin, Tracey P. Lauriault and Matthew W. Wilson (SAGE Publishing 2017)
Weathering Katrina: Culture and Recovery among Vietnamese Americans by Mark J. VanLandingham (Russell Sage Foundation 2017)
Geographers from around the country traveled to Washington, D.C. on Saturday, April 22, 2017, to demonstrate and show their support for the March for Science. Despite the rain, Geographers and scientists from many other disciplines and their supporters rallied to march for science!
The AAG will host a Twitter Chat on May 17 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time entitled “Geography and the New Administration.” To join the chat, follow @theAAG on Twitter using the #AAGChat hashtag. In order to set the scene for what we hope will be an engaging and interactive discussion, we wanted to share some perspectives on the active role our organization has played in responding to several noteworthy recent policies.
The National Center for Research in Geography Education (NCRGE) invites proposals to develop new collaborative and interdisciplinary research networks addressing major questions and challenges 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.
The Geosciences Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (GeoCUR) is now accepting nominations for its annual award that highlights the importance of mentoring undergraduate research activities. The award annually recognizes an individual who serves as a role model for productive and transformative student-faculty mentoring relationships and for maintaining a sustained and innovative approach to the enterprise of undergraduate research.
Late last week, President Trump signed into law a budget deal that will fund the federal government through September 30. The bipartisan deal has generally been viewed favorably by science advocates, as it maintains or increases funding levels for most agencies that provide research support.
John Miller Morris, Jr., 64, passed away on February 16, 2017, in a San Antonio hospital after surgery, attended by friends who traveled thousands of miles to come to his bedside. He is survived by a daughter Erin Claire Noakes of Washington D.C. He will be missed by his longtime companion, many friends, colleagues, and neighbors.
Ray Henkel was born Jan. 28, 1931 on a farm along the Cimarron River about 30 miles west of Tulsa. He died March 11, 2017, at age 86. Ray attended a one-room elementary school, and in 1948 graduated from Kellyville H. S. in a class of 15, earning an A in every class. Ray had a photographic memory, so school work was always easy for him.
John Davey, a prodigious figure in academic, trade and reference publishing for almost 50 years, died at home with family at his side on April 21, 2017. He had just celebrated his 72 birthday days earlier. After making his mark in publishing in the 1970s, John joined Blackwell as their first full-time academic editor. During the 1980s he took the company from obscurity to being a major force in the industry. He rapidly became an editorial director, appointed several specialist editors, initiated Blackwell’s reference publishing, acquired and started several new journals, and had responsibility for rights and contracts.
Marvin W. Mikesell, Professor of Geography in the Committee on Geographical Studies, died unexpectedly Wednesday morning, April 26, 2017, at the University of Chicago Hospital in Hyde Park, aged 88, in the midst of teaching his seminar on problems in the human geography of the Middle East this Spring Quarter.
The 
Every month the AAG compiles a list of newly-published books in geography and related fields. Some are selected for review in the AAG Review of Books. Anyone interested in reviewing these or other titles should contact the Editor-in-Chief, Kent Mathewson.
The AAG is pleased to announce that Volume 107, Issue 3 (May 2017) of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers is now available.
Tim Beach, Centennial Professor of Geography and Environment at UT Austin, presented an invited lecture on “Societal Collapses from the Maya to Mesopotamia and Beyond” at the Vatican in a workshop on 
We invite and encourage AAG members to attend the March for Science in Washington, D.C. or in satellite events around the globe this Saturday, April 22. We have updated the schedule below to include the just-released list of speakers.
The AAG has designed special “Geographers March for Science” hats that will be available at our office for only $7.00. We have also created large banners for groups of geographers participating in the March, which many AAG members signed during the annual meeting in Boston. You may also download and print a 
This special theme will feature 50 sessions with more than 250 presentations at the intersection of human rights and geography and will build on the AAG’s decade-long initiatives in this area. Speakers from leading international human rights organizations, academia, government, and NGOs will address human rights challenges around the world.
This series of sessions will focus on analysis and research on the 2016 U.S. election, and what the results may mean for geography, the nation, and our planet. 
Burgeoning global population along with increasing appetite for high-protein or resource demanding food choices may double demands on world agriculture by 2050. At the same time groundwater depletion and climate change are negatively impacting the availability of sufficient water to meet agricultural and domestic freshwater demands in many regions. Compounding these challenges are socioeconomic forces, including armed conflicts and state collapse that negatively affect agricultural productivity, food transference and water resources. The challenges to food and water security over the 21st century represent an increasing and potentially existential threat to global society. These issues are fundamentally geographical in nature and form a central research and educational focus of geography and the AAG special theme.