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A MACE for Geographers, or How to Write a Paper

Geography, as a disciplinary field, admits graduate students from different backgrounds with the goal of making them part of a profession that is uniquely situated for grappling with major challenges of the globalized world. Whether studying the pillars of Physical Geography themes, Human Geography concerns, or Geographical Technique abilities, graduate students are here to write their way to graduation. To succeed in the profession, most geographers who follow the Sauerian admonition of “Know Thy Word” point to usage of the written text. I argue that it is not enough to know the word, but to use it correctly! Not everyone is Jared Diamond (ecologist) or Charles Mann (journalist), but everyone can be a facile and persuasive writer of Geography. And, by the power of their keyboard, even becoming honorary geographers.

Most students often write without a road map. In geography, manuscripts shall be treated as a product of intellectual exploration, inquiry and effective communication that follows a meticulous, thoughtful plan for achievement, with a compass at hand. Science writing is no different, particularly with professional journals and scholarly books, because the peer review process ensures that poor papers will not get printed. The “publish or perish” paradigm of American academia, hence, secures that audiences, experts and others, will determine the fate of the geographer. Professionalism, thus, is partially gauged by the impact factor of the outlet, so the author should start focusing on the target journal to get acquitted with its guidelines, recent published collections, format and overall thematic emphasis. Parish (1981) warned that “the style required for research papers is not the same as the style you learned in your writing classes.” You must acquire the ability to express both unambiguously and succinctly, as well as to avoid expressive evocation, complexity, imagery and symbolism. Exhibit your expository style rather than your literary or colloquial one. At any rate, consider the WWW model—What, Where and Why— to sketch ideas to make your geography writing a doddle, not a nightmare (SEAI 2013).

As subject-dependent, geographical research methods are not universal. Analytical tools, methodological protocols, and subject matter are linked vertically amongst the three pillars of geography, but not horizontally. Conversely, writing skills are universal and assignment-independent. Peter Hoffer (2013) advises: to write well, just use your MACE! The acronym for Muse, Artist, Craftsman, and Editor describe four ethereals that shall rest on your shoulders while writing. Let’s get to know them better, following Hoffer:

The MUSE inspires us. She is our creative imagination reified. She brings us ideas, concepts, metaphors, and connections. She runs wild, swirling about us as our ideas flit about when we are gathering our materials and about to write. We need the Muse to guide us as we get down our first impressions, lines of attack, and conclusions. The Muse does not worry about the precise order of these, much less how we express them. Nor should we —not at first. Instead, as we progress in our research, we must let her guide us. The Muse tells us: Do not wait until all the inputs are in —keep on jotting down your insights.

The ARTIST exhibits better control of words than the Muse. The Artist in us demands order, shape, placement, and process. She loves to outline, arranging and rearranging our arguments and our evidence until the pattern satisfies us. The Artist knows that written geography cannot be more than two-dimensional (words going left to right on a line or top to down on a page) while Geography itself is four- dimensional (time, space, and the scalar of historicity, added to the linear narrative). But the Artist also knows how to fabricate a virtual third or fourth dimension. She tells us how and when to interweave analysis and digression.

The Muse and the Artist respect each other well, for the Artist is willing to accommodate a new insight or inspiration somewhere in the organization of the paper; in turn, the Muse recognizes the artist’s need to find some kind of aesthetics, and keeps that evolving pattern in mind as she inspires new ideas.

The CRAFTSMAN is more disciplined than both of them, for the he worries about the finished product. Every Craftsman is known by the professional caliber of his work, just as every graduate student is graded on prose quality. The Craftsman is patient; he drafts a paper according to the artist’s design, then, revises. The best Craftsman is willing to lay aside a paper and return to it, adding new material, cutting away waste. He polishes, trims, and rounds. He routinely produces more than four drafts of a single paper. Moreover, unlike the Muse and the Artist, the Craftsman is happy to have criticism of drafts. His temperament allows him to incorporate constructive comments and rewrite sections that do not work for others. After all, he knows (as the Muse and the Artist sometimes forget) that he is writing for an audience, and ultimately it is that audience’s response that measures the quality of the work transpired. He will perfect the map, the photo, or the line graph that the Artist selected to illustrate the Muse’s hints.

The EDITOR is the last ethereal to check in. Of course, she is always there: chiding the Muse for flights of irrelevant fancy; telling the Artist to tighten the outline to fit the topic; watching every step the Craftsman takes to insure that the reader will understand his meaning. The Editor is the spell checker, grammarian, and style manual. She will brook no shortcuts or technical errors. Every footnote and bibliographical entry must be in correct form as she is detail-oriented. Every quotation must be perfect. The Editor is the superego of the paper, allowing no plagiarism and demanding that every source be cited. Editors, as busybodies, must be repeatedly cautioned to wait their turn with a paper. But, we must listen to the Editor’s admonition: to keep very careful notes; to put page numbers on the index cards, or Xeroxes, or laptop entries, or sticky notes; and to turn every close paraphrase into an exact quotation, lest we slip. Even when the Muse is talking to us and we are writing down an idea at white hot speed, we need to be sure that if such idea originated in one of our secondary sources, we jot down its origin precisely. She will even take the Craftsman’s illustration and check for caption accuracy, date, legend, scale, and halftones. Sometimes the Editor cuts the infograph and includes a table instead.

Hoffer (2013) is quick to point out that MACE is not really as linear as suggested. Although papers usually go through the stages of idea, outline, draft, manuscript and galley proof, in that order, a good writer will always be willing to loop back to earlier stages of the process for emend if needed. Geographers shall insist in having their hard work of proposal development, fund raising, and field performance, rewarded with a publication as recognition of their superb effort with the study. However, either not preparing a paper for publication in the target language of fieldwork regions, or not writing towards an audience that will barely read an output in a scientific journal, often neglects international outreach. There is nothing wrong with publishing in magazines, newspapers, film scripts, television screenplays, or coffee-table books. That your message is getting across diverse constituencies matters, including your peers in the scientific circle you self-adhere when you write a paper. Be literary when you need to be outside the halls of academia, but be scientific with your peers.

One should always be proud of one’s writing; but successful writers do not have overblown egos. They must be willing to go back to the beginning if a paper does not work. In the end, the quality of the manuscript will percolate the sieves of the process; whether a chapter of the Thesis or a section of the Dissertation, most geography graduate students aspire to have a paper published in a journal. The paper will shine when published, knowing that the Muse keeps flirting, the Artist keeps creating, the Craftsman keeps polishing and the Editor keeps emending what will become new writing opportunities, for yet another paper… The more you write, the merrier!

Fausto O. Sarmiento
Professor of Geography
University of Georgia

DOI: 10.14433/2013.0022

References

Hoffer, P. 2013. A mace for graduate students (0r how to write a paper). Printed handout for History Students, University of Georgia. Athens.

Parish, S. 1981. The Student’s Practical Guide: Writing Term Papers for Anthropology (and Related Subjects). Electronic version. https://weber.ucsd.edu/~jmoore/courses/Parish.html

SEAI. 2013. How to write a geography essay. URL: https://www.seai.ie/Schools/Post_Primary/Subjects/Geography_LC/Essay_and_Exam_Tips/Geography_essay_writing/

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President's Column

Supporting the Regional Divisions

Julie WinklerOver the years, the AAG Newsletter has been peppered with presidential columns about the AAG regional divisions. The nine regional divisions host their annual meetings during autumn, and, barring scheduling conflicts, the AAG president represents the national-level Association at these meetings. Hence, it is only natural that former presidents have wanted to share with the AAG membership their thoughts on this intense, motivating, and rather exhausting experience. Foci of past columns have included approaches for enhancing attendance at the regional meetings, ways that the regional meetings can advance geography, opportunities for students, the relative participation of faculty and students from undergraduate-only and Ph.D.-granting geography departments, and the regional division structure itself.

I would like to add my thoughts to this ongoing discussion. However, my travels to the regional meetings coincide with ongoing deliberations by the AAG Council of the challenges and opportunities for the regional divisions. At the AAG Council meeting earlier this month, an entire morning session was reserved for the discussion of two questions posed to the regional and national councillors: How have changes in the “external” environment during the past two decades impacted your regional division, considering both the opportunities they create and the challenges they pose? How can the regional divisions strengthen geography at the national level and the AAG specifically? Thus, I also draw on that discussion for this column.

My overall impression is that the regional divisions have enormous potential for supporting geography and geographers. Some of this potential is very much realized, but much also remains untapped. Geographers require opportunities and venues for professional development throughout their careers. Some geographers will seek development opportunities primarily through AAG national-level activities, such as the AAG annual meeting, and/or through professional offerings from other organizations. But for others, the regional division meetings can provide an important additional, or even alternative, professional development venue. Some geographers may find that the smaller, more intimate regional meetings facilitate networking and the establishment of new research and teaching collaborations. The regional meetings can also be an ideal venue for sharing findings and for interacting with peers for those geographers conducting regionally focused research. For others, the regional meetings can provide an initial foray into disciplinary professional activities. Many geographers, myself included, presented their first paper or poster at a regional meeting. Also, the regional meetings can, and should be, a means for non-geographers interested in working more closely with geographers to introduce themselves to the discipline in a less formal setting. The regional meetings can also fill a professional development role for those geographers whose professional and personal constraints make participation in national-level activities challenging. Some geographers, including many community college faculty, are limited by their employers to only a few off-site days per year, hindering their ability to participate in the nearly week-long AAG annual meeting. Entrepreneurial geographers lose revenue every day away from their businesses. Other geographers are caring for small children or elderly relatives, making extended periods away from home difficult. In these situations, the shorter regional meetings, which often overlap with the weekend, are a more accessible professional development venue.

In order to tap into their full potential, regional divisions need to closely monitor the effectiveness of their annual meeting. Viewing the regional meetings through the lens of professional development can help with this assessment. An initial question is simply whether the meeting attendance is diverse and, if not, whether there are sectors within the geography community who feel that the regional meetings are not providing the professional development opportunities they are seeking. For example: Is attendance from graduate, four-year, and two-year academic programs proportional to the number and size of these programs within the region? Are non-academic geographers in attendance? Do undergraduate and graduate students participate? The quality of the professional development that is offered to attendees is also important: Is informal networking facilitated? Has care been taken to minimize conflicting sessions so that attendees can easily participate in all sessions of interest to them, maximizing exposure to, and feedback on, each other’s presentations? Are workshops or other skill-enhancing opportunities provided? These and similar assessment questions can help identify gaps in what the regional meetings are offering, and also can point to potential enhancements.

Discussion and assessment also needs to occur at the national level, and, in advance of the fall council meeting, the AAG Regional Councillors collectively identified a suite of challenges and opportunities for the regional divisions. A number of the challenges (continued reductions in travel funding, increased conference costs, undervaluation by employers and administration of participation in the regional organizations) are not surprising, but one potential challenge that garnered considerable discussion is that new faculty within a region may be unaware of what the regional meetings have to offer, especially if they are graduates of programs that historically have not participated in their regional division. Potential opportunities include greater advertisement of the regional divisions to AAG members, more joint regional conferences, sponsored plenary speakers who have broad public appeal, and the sharing of best practices among regions. The latter, sharing of best practices, was viewed as having particular potential, as many AAG members are familiar with only a small number of the regional divisions (often the division in which they currently work and the one where they completed their education).

The AAG Council and Central Office are undertaking several initiatives in support of the regional divisions. Regional division chairs have been invited to a luncheon meeting at the AAG annual meeting in Tampa to discuss with Council members their perceptions on the future of the regional divisions and the linkages between the regional and national components of the AAG. Following the luncheon, a two-hour workshop intended for all regional division officers will focus on sharing best practices, including practices and initiatives for membership recruitment and retention, meeting organization, hosting joint meetings, communication with members, and financial management. AAG Central Office staff will also be present to share insights based on their national-level experiences. In further support of the regional meetings, the Council approved at their fall meeting an extension of the childcare subsidy offered to attendees at the AAG annual meeting to attendees of the regional meetings, although at a reduced rate reflective of the shorter duration of the regional meetings. The provision of this subsidy recognizes that for some AAG members the regional division is their professional association, and that these members should have the same benefits as those who mainly participate in national-level activities.

I was fortunate to be able to attend the annual meetings of eight of the nine regional divisions, five this Fall and three last year. Frankly, this experience was one of my more rewarding professional opportunities in quite awhile. Each meeting had its own “flavor,” but some of the lingering highlights and memories, beyond the excellent scientific presentations and posters, include: the APCG member who subsidized the banquet tickets for student first-authors of papers and posters; the moving and relevant keynote address on memorialization of university tragedies at the joint West Lakes/East Lakes meeting hosted by Northern Illinois University, a university that experienced such a tragedy first hand; the pleasure of an esteemed geographer, someone I personally admire, in receiving SEDAAG’s Lifetime Achievement Award; the motion at the SWAAG business meeting to work to make their meetings more family friendly; meeting Maryland’s Chief Innovation Officer at the MAD meeting and discovering that he is a geographer; the vanloads of undergraduate students who attended the Middle States meeting and their incredible presentations; the open house at the University of Nebraska-Omaha Geography Department, host of the GPRM meeting, and viewing their enviable facilities; talking with an assistant professor from a major Ph.D. program, a first time attendee of the SWAGG meeting, who was thrilled with the attendance and feedback for his paper presentation; the gift basket of local products delivered to my hotel by the Geography Club at Stephen F. Austin University; and the Mark Twain impersonator at the APCG banquet who relived Twain’s adventures as a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada (absolutely sublime). I also found out that, not only have I forgotten much of my introductory geography, I cannot even follow the Geography Bowl rules (apologies fellow SEDAAG “Dream Team” members!)

You may not receive a gift basket, and the impersonator was perhaps a one-off experience, but nonetheless, give the regional meetings a try. My experiences of the past year certainly have reinvigorated my commitment to my regional division.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the regional divisions and their annual meetings.

—Julie Winkler

DOI: 10.14433/2013.0020

 

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Melinda Sue Meade

Melinda Meade was born in 1945 in New York City and grew up and went to school and college on Long Island. She was valedictorian of her Hicksville High School (1963) and Hofstra University (1966) classes. Melinda planned to teach history, but then changed her life by volunteering for the Peace Corps instead of going to graduate school in history. She taught English for two years in a small town in northeastern Thailand, six hours by elephant from the railhead in the provincial capital. As Melinda put it, the village did not want a male volunteer, and there was concern about sending a young woman into the jungle of Thailand in the 1960s, but the Peace Corps knew Melinda could do the job. In Thailand she discovered the complexities of development and learned to view the world through the lived experiences of another culture. She also made lifelong friends, one of her dearest friends, Phoungphet Meesawat, was her assistant in the village. Melinda and Phoungphet visited one another several times in Thailand and the States, remaining in close contact over the decades first via letters and then via email.

Following the Peace Corps, Melinda went to graduate school, first at Michigan State University (MA 1970) and then at the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii (PhD 1974). She chose geography, a field to which she would dedicate her life; geography allowed her to combine her interests in Asia, population change, and health promotion and disease ecology. Her dissertation research involved two years of fieldwork on land development/population resettlement schemes in Malaysia, which explored the dimensions of population movement and how such movement affected disease ecologies. This was Dr. Meade’s constant interest, how people move through environments and thus move through disease ecologies. Returning from field work in Malaysia, she took a tramp steamer up through Japan. Her academic career spanned departments of geography at the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Georgia, and finally the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) from 1976 until her retirement in 2010. She studied topics as diverse as the eradication of malaria in the United States, the enigma of cardiovascular disease and stroke in the coastal plain of the southeast as expressed in the city of Savannah, Georgia, and the implications of the growth of megacities and the globalization of population movement for the diffusion of diseases and the emergence of a different state of disease and health ecology in the urban population of the future. Melinda was a trailblazer for women academics. She traveled widely and conducted international research in a time when most young women simply didn’t. Melinda was an active member of the generation that shattered ill-conceived beliefs and expectations about a woman’s place in academia. Her hard work and sacrifice made it possible for generations of young women to have fulfilling and successful academic careers.

Professor Meade taught courses from first year undergraduate to doctoral levels on issues of changing population dynamics and structure, agricultural modernization, urbanization, and globalization in the developing world; on population geography, medical geography, disease ecology, the world’s food supply; and on Tropical Asia. She excited students with discussions of mobility and exposure and why both people and places are important for human health. She spoke of the day in 1974 when the world’s population reached 4 billion, and how there was fear about rampant famine due to overpopulation, but how Esther Boserup’s predictions of necessity producing innovation and Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution averted those dire forecasts. Dr. Meade won the Spencer and Tanner Award for excellence in inspirational undergraduate teaching from UNC, and was inducted into the UNC Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars in 2000. Melinda is best known, particularly to undergraduates, as the author of the definitive textbook in the field of medical geography. Working with a succession of co-authors, she has opened the world of population and health to students far beyond the walls of UNC.

Over her many years as the departmental population and medical geographer, Melinda oversaw the training of 4 MA and 7 PhD students. She also informally mentored many other students, particularly women scholars. Melinda was a well-respected and well-loved mentor. Her intellect and compassion were always on hand when working through research or contemplating life as a graduate student. She gave unselfishly of her time to her graduate students and approached student research with an enthusiasm and excitement that was contagious. She encouraged people to think deeply and to strive not just to “do research” on a population, but to truly understand and appreciate the different ways in which diverse populations live their lives. Melinda engaged her students in scholarly dialogue which demanded a maturity of thinking which naturally led to intellectual development. She read voraciously and widely. She was also stubborn and brutally honest. Her academic legacy is a far reaching network of scholars who focus on people and places and health outcomes.

She loved gardening, growing fabulously beautiful roses, and her dogs, including Jenny, who misses Melinda very much. A beautiful video tribute to Melinda’s life entitled “ATLAS HANDS” can be watched at swraex.wistia.com/medias/plaluvak07.

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New Books for Geographers

New Books: November 2013

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.

 November, 2013

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Steven Kale

Steven R. Kale, 65, died November 7, 2013, in his hometown of Salem, Oregon, following a brief illness. Kale achieved much in his life in academics, his profession, and in relationships with others in his life.

Kale, the middle of three children, was born in Manhattan, Kansas, in 1948 to Alton and Ruby Kale. His early years were spent in central Kansas where he and his older brother James became Eagle Scouts. After graduating from Mankato High School in 1966, Kale matriculated at Kansas State University. He earned degrees in Geography and Business Administration. Later, he obtained a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

In 1975, Steve started his career as an economist at the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. From 1982 to 1989, Kale taught courses and conducted research in economic development, area and community development, renewable energy, and other topics at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

Kale left the University in 1989 to take on transportation work at the Oregon Department of Transportation. He remained at ODOT for 16 years and retired as the agency’s primary freight planning person. However, Steve continued to work, setting up his own consulting firm and taking on jobs for several Oregon ports and intermodal freight businesses to help them plan seed funding for projects. He also subcontracted with other consulting firms on a variety of transportation related projects.

Steve was an active member of many professional organization and national bodies, including the American Institute of Certified Planners and the Intermodal Freight Transport Committee of the Transportation Research Board where he served as the chair. Kale was also active in the Association of American Geographers and the International Geographic Union. His enthusiasm for geography and interest in his alma mater kept him involved on the KSU Geography Alumni Board.

Kale’s lifelong interest in far-away places took him to Oulu, Finland; Mendoza, Argentina; Sidney, Australia; Dubrovnik, Croatia; and much of Europe. He also managed to visit all 50 U.S. states. Steve’s travels also took him to the Arctic Circle twice: once in Alaska and another time in Finland.

A lover of the outdoors, Kale was also interested in hiking, camping, skiing, canoeing, whitewater rafting, and bird watching. He was an ardent supporter of environmental protection and cultivated lifelong friendships with many people. Steve’s personal and professional qualities were very much respected. He will be dearly missed.

Steve was preceded in death by his mother Ruby (Streit), father Alton Dale Kale, his sister Elaine and brother James. He is survived by three nephews: Jonathan Cote, David Kale, and Dan Kale.

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President's Column

Physical Geography In the AAG Journals: Is It Time for a New Approach and a New Journal?

WinklerWinkler
Winkler

A great deal of excellent research is conducted by physical geographers. Unfortunately, only a small portion of this research is published in the two AAG journals, the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and The Professional Geographer. As you peruse your November issue of the Annals, you may notice that, for the first time in a number of years, this issue does not include an Environmental Sciences (ES) section. The small number of submissions to this section, in conjunction with the recent increase in the number of Annals issues per year, has made it more difficult to regularly populate an ES section in spite of extensive efforts by the current ES editor to recruit manuscripts. The submission rate of physical geography manuscripts is in sharp contrast to the overall substantial increase in manuscripts submitted to the Annals and The Professional Geographer, but is consistent with trends observed for journals published by other geographical scholarly societies. Few articles by physical geographers appear in the Transactions of the British Geographical Society, for example.

Why do physical geographers publish less in the AAG journals compared to other subfields of geography? Like any author, physical geographers want their research to reach the largest possible audience. They also want their work to reach the audience that can best make use of, and build upon, their research. The perception of many physical geographers is that these goals may not be achieved by publishing in the AAG journals. My own experience is in line with this perception. Over my career, I have published a modest number of physical geography-related articles in the Annals and The Professional Geographer. For the most part, these articles have been cited by fellow “geographer climatologists.” This, of course, is a community whom I respect, and I am honored that they read my work. But at the same time, I would have liked a broader readership for these articles. Other physical geographers apparently feel similarly, as recent surveys, such as that of Steven Quiring* from Texas A&M University, suggest a decline in the proportion of physical geography articles published in geography journals. Quiring found that in 1989-1997 geographer climatologists published 21% of their articles in geography journals, but by 1998-2005 the proportion had dropped to only 11%.

Another confounding factor is that physical geographers are frequently involved in multi-disciplinary research, and the selection of a journal for publication is often a group decision. Journals with names like Annals of the Association of American Geographers or The Professional Geographer can be seen as overly discipline-specific to non-geographers on a research team. More often, interdisciplinary research is submitted to journals serving a broad range of disciplines or to disciplinary journals with exceptionally large readerships. Greater use of quantitative indices to evaluate research success may also be contributing to the relatively small number of submissions by physical geographers to AAG journals. A decade or more ago, quantification of individual productivity was mostly limited to the number of articles published per year, but now H-factors, total number of citations, and related measures are also used to evaluate research productivity and impact. Since physical geographers often compete for resources and recognition with other physical scientists, they are compelled to publish in journals with similar impact factors as the publication outlets of their non-geography colleagues.

What impact does the limited publication by physical geographers in the Annals and The Professional Geography have on the AAG and, more generally, the discipline of geography? In my opinion, the potential consequences are large. We argue that a major strength of our discipline is its integrative nature and the ability of geographers to think and work across the human/physical divide. Yet how strongly can we make this argument if our major journals include little physical geography? What impression do these journals give others of the breadth of geography and its synergies? Also, how is a geography community built, if a major component of the discipline is not publishing in geography journals, and, consequently, other geographers are largely unaware of their work? And if physical geographers no longer turn to the AAG as a publication outlet, will they continue to participate in and support other aspects of the AAG, such as its professional meetings?

The concerns raised above are not new. Nor do they apply only to physical geography. But the lack of an ES section in next month’s Annals reinforces the need for new efforts to ensure the visibility of physical geography within the geography community and beyond.

An essential initial step is for individual physical geographers — including me — to acknowledge the importance of a physical geography presence in AAG journals to the discipline as a whole. A modest commitment, of perhaps one manuscript submission every three to four years over the course of one’s publishing career, would go a long way to increasing physical geography’s presence in the Annals and The Professional Geographer. Physical geographers also need to reconsider what constitutes an “Annals article.” Many of us wait to submit to the Annals until we have that special manuscript we think appeals broadly across much of geography or can be written in a manner that is easily understandable across multiple subfields. We need to keep in mind that scientifically-sound manuscripts that move a subfield of geography forward also merit review and potential publication in the Annals. Greater publicity of AAG journals to other disciplines is also needed. Strategically-distributed press releases of particularly significant papers, whatever the subfield, can attract readership. Additional options include the wide distribution of the table of contents of the Annals and The Professional Geographer via relevant listservs and other media to reach a broader audience.

But “out of the box” approaches also need to be considered. One such option is for the AAG to add new journals to its publications suite — journals that have the AAG imprimatur, yet appeal to a wide range of disciplines and have broad visibility. Such a journal, tentatively titled Geohumanities, is already under consideration by the AAG Council and Central Office, and, at its last meeting, the AAG Council initiated discussion of a second journal geared toward environmental science, referred to, for discussion only at this point, as Geographical Perspectives on Global Change. Both journals would have as their goal the publication of quality research by geographers and non-geographers that advances geographic understanding and/or employs geographic methods and techniques.

How might a new AAG-sponsored global change/environmental science journal enhance the visibility of physical geography research? A thematic, rather than disciplinary, journal title would hopefully attract a broad readership across multiple disciplines. A broad readership, in turn, would make this journal an attractive outlet for physical geographers and other environmental scientists to publish their research. Also, a more thematic journal would be appealing as a publication outlet for the outcomes of interdisciplinary research efforts. If well supported by physical geographers, all geographers could easily turn to this journal to keep abreast of new developments in physical geography. In addition, the AAG could more aggressively market a journal devoted to global change/environmental science to other disciplines, especially those in the natural sciences, than what is currently possible when only a small number of articles related to environmental science are published in the Annals and The Physical Geographer. Wider marketing would bring more attention to the entire AAG journal suite, benefiting our current journals, as well as the proposed new journal. Furthermore, the AAG imprimatur on a successful global change/environmental science journal that is highly regarded across multiple disciplines would bring more visibility to geography’s contribution to these areas, a benefit for the entire discipline.

Obviously, further effort is needed to assure such a journal’s success. We need to explore and identify a niche(s) that an AAG-sponsored global change/environmental science journal could best fill, and selection of a journal title requires careful attention. A visionary, well respected, and dedicated editor, along with a world-class editorial board drawn from multiple disciplines, are essential to the journal’s success. An intense and extensive publicity campaign is also essential. Admittedly, initiating a new journal, especially at a time when the publication industry is undergoing substantial change, has some risk. But so, too, does having a major portion of our discipline not publishing in AAG journals.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on a new journal, specifically, and on physical geography, more broadly. Also, we will have a moderated discussion on how the AAG can better support physical geography at our annual meeting in Tampa. I invite you to participate. This session is tentatively scheduled for 11:45 a.m. – 12:40 p.m., Thursday, April 10, 2014. More information will be posted on the AAG website and distributed electronically via the AAG Geogram.

–Julie Winkler

DOI: 10.14433/2013.0018

* For more information on the survey conducted by Steven Quiring see “Trends in Publication Outlets of Geographer-Climatologists,” The Professional Geographer, Volume 59, Issue 3, pages 357–364, August 2007. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9272.2007.00618.x Members can log in to see this article.

 

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Julie Winkler
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New Books for Geographers

New Books: October 2013

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.

 November, 2013

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Annual Meeting

Julian Bond to Speak at AAG Meeting in Tampa

The Association of American Geographers (AAG) is pleased to announce that Julian Bond, a renowned civil rights pioneer and political leader, has been named the third recipient of the AAG Atlas Award. Professor Bond will receive the award at the AAG’s next Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida on Friday evening, April 11, 2014, where he will deliver a presentation on “Race Around the World,” focusing on how civil rights figures and organizations have shaped and changed American foreign policy. More than 8,000 geographers and others from around the world, including the media, are expected to attend the AAG meeting.

Julian Bond

Julian Bond
Bond


Bond is the son of former college and university president Horace Mann Bond, and he has built his own record as a celebrated educator, having held appointments at several leading institutions, including American, Harvard, and the University of Virginia. He has been awarded more than 20 honorary degrees throughout his career.Julian Bond has played a central role throughout the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, as a leading figure in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and as co-founder and first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Bond was repeatedly elected to the Georgia General Assembly for 20 years, including six terms as a state senator. More recently, he has served as Chairman of the NAACP for 12 years, from 1998 to 2010.

Julian Bond embodies the ideals and goals of the AAG Atlas Award, which is designed to recognize and celebrate outstanding accomplishments that advance world understanding in exceptional ways. The image of Atlas bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders is a powerful metaphor for this award program, as the AAG’s awardees are those who have taken the weight of the world on their shoulders and moved it forward, whether in science, politics, scholarship, the arts, or in war and peace. In addition to a substantial cash prize, an Atlas statuette will be presented to Professor Bond as a compelling keepsake and an inspiring symbol for the award program itself. Author and scientist Jane Goodall and human rights leader Mary Robinson are the previous recipients of the AAG Atlas Award.

We invite you to join Professor Julian Bond and the AAG in Tampa to celebrate his extraordinary accomplishments and to discuss with him and others from around the world the future of civil rights and social justice. To register for the meeting, please visit www.aag.org/annualmeeting.

About the Association of American Geographers

The AAG is a scholarly and professional association representing leading researchers, educators, and practitioners in geography. Founded in 1904, its 10,000 members share interests in the theory, methods, and practice of geography, and its role in helping to create a better world. Visit www.aag.org for more information.

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Changing Human Populations Networks and Connections Spatial Narratives
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Annual Meeting

While you are in Tampa, you may notice signage for U.S. Highway 41.

For a walking tour of Calle Ocho in Little Havana visit: https://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/city-guides/miami-walking-tour-3/. Map Credit: Hilton Cordoba.

While you are in Tampa, you may notice signage for U.S. Highway 41. Built in the 1920s, it was the only overland route across the southern tip of Florida. U.S. In a larger spatial context, U.S. 41 is a north-south axis that spans the middle of North America and extends from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Miami. The southernmost section (Tampa to Miami) is known as the Tamiami Trail. The last few miles of the road are locally known as Calle Ocho (Southwest 8th Street), which forms the main artery and an important boundary within the vibrant multi-ethnic community of Little Havana. The Cuban imprint in ‘Little Havana’ is a cultural layer that simultaneously underlies the current demographic structure of the neighborhood and provides glimpses into the neighborhood’s cultural and historical change.

Before Little Havana

Little Havana has been a common destination for a number of groups that include: Miccosukees, Bahamians Jews, Greeks, Cuban refugees, and immigrants from almost every Latin American country (Shell-Weiss, 2009). Originally, Little Havana consisted of two neighborhoods: Riverside and Shenandoah. Calle Ocho was known as Orange Glades Road that marked a division within the area that is noticeable even today. Riverside, the neighborhood north of Calle Ocho, acquired its name due to its close proximity to the Miami River and was home to some of Miami’s earliest schools, churches, and businesses. Shenandoah (the neighborhood south of Calle Ocho) remained in farmland until the 1920’s when it was developed as a single-family residential area. By contrast, the Riverside the area north of Calle Ocho saw the construction of primarily multi-family housing to meet the needs of number of Jewish people who moved from the Northeast. With them came a landscape comprising a number of synagogues, Sunday schools, Jewish senior homes, as well as numbers of influential leaders who arrived in Miami from the Southeast (George, 2006).

Tower TheaterThe Tower Theater with its Art Deco style has been a landmark of the neighborhood since it first opened its doors in 1926. Located along Calle Ocho and 15th avenue, the road was a two way street at the time hence the sign of the theater was built at an angle so that it was easy for the drivers to glance quickly at the listing of shows. In the 1960’s with the growth of the Cuban population, the theater was the first one to offer titles in Spanish in Miami-Dade County. Picture Credit: Hilton Cordoba

The making of an enclave

The first wave of Cubans arrived between 1959 and 1962 and became known in the Cuban Community as the ‘golden exiles’ because of the human capital that they brought with them. Many of them were well educated and had business experience. They settled in Riverside and Shenandoah and established businesses and social organizations. In a second wave that occurred from1965 to1973, 3,000 to 4,000 Cubans per month were airlifted to the U.S. Diplomatic preference and easier paths to resettlement were given to those Cubans who had relatives already established in the U.S. During this period Riverside and Shenandoah collectively became known as Little Havana. In this new layer of settlement, many of the apartment buildings that once were occupied by Jews and Anglo Americans were now homes of the newly arrived Cubans. In this cultural an ethnic shift, many of the synagogues were converted into Catholic churches, and the elementary schools’ curricula now featured classes in Spanish (Alberts, 2005). The last major wave of Cuban migration was in 1980 when a boatlift was organized at the port of Mariel; those who embarked on this voyage are sometimes referred as ‘Marielitos’ because of their port of exit. The Cuban population of Little Havana reached its peak with the Census of 1980 when it stood at 95,522. In relative terms that number accounted for approximately 70 percent of the total population and 85 percent of the Hispanics in Little Havana (Cordoba & Carrillo, 2010).

Miami RiverA shot of the Miami River from Jose Marti Park with the I-95 overpass in the background. In the late 1800’s the Miccosukee people navigated the river from the Everglades to come to trade and exchange items with the white settlers. By 1980, the I-95 overpass was the temporary home where the U.S. government created makeshift camps for Cuban refugees that arrived during the Mariel boatlift. In 2008, Jose Marti Park with the Miami River in the background were the setting for a scene in the comedy-drama film Marley & Me. Picture Credit: Hilton Cordoba

From ethnic enclave to multi-ethnic community

Between 1980 and 2000, Little Havana’s Cuban population decreased by 30 percent, and by the 2000 U.S. census, they accounted for 56 percent of Hispanics in Little Havana; estimates of the 2009 American Community Survey showed a slight increase to 58 percent share among Hispanics. Central and South Americans on the other hand, have continued to increase their numbers in Little Havana where now they represent thirty and twelve percent of the Hispanic population, respectively. Nicaraguans and Hondurans account for the two biggest groups from the Central American community while Colombians and Peruvians from the South American community. The fastest growth in the last decade came from the Uruguayans and Argentineans (595 and 318 percent, respectively) as many left for the United States with the collapse of the Argentinean economy in 2001. Little Havana has changed as the different groups that have come through the area have made it their home. Nicaraguans have especially acquired an affinity for Little Havana as you can find their fritangas (cafeteria style restaurants serving Nicaraguan food and specialty drinks) at almost every major intersection, a street name after Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario, the offices of the Nicaraguan consulate, the mausoleum of former Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and St. John Bosco Catholic Church and its Nicaraguan parishioners.

FritangaFritangas are found throughout the streetscape of Little Havana. These restaurants are not just about the ethnic dishes but also a place to gather news about the homeland or the local community, buy phone cards to call relatives, a place to find souvenirs and delicacies imported from Nicaragua, and even a place of worship on the evening of every December 7th when Nicaraguans celebrate ‘la griteria’ (a chanting to the Immaculate Concepcion of the Virgin Mary, a tradition that dates back to colonial times). Picture Credit: Hilton Cordoba

The centrality of Little Havana is often most overlooked but helps explain why this area has been sought out by so many immigrants and helps us understand why it continues to be the residential area of choice of many Hispanic seniors. Businesses along Southwest 8th Street, West Flagler Street and other major roads not only prevent residents from having to go outside the neighborhood for goods and services, but also make it easy to live in the area without dependence on the automobile. This centrality also creates locational advantages in access jobs: Little Havana is in the vicinity of higher income areas, which are the workplace for many immigrants who live in the neighborhood. Areas such as Brickell, Coconut Grove, Key Biscayne, and Miami Beach, are luxury condominium communities, with extravagant homes, and hotels that provide work for many immigrants who find positions as maids, gardeners, and construction workers. These workers capitalize on a huge cultural benefit of not having to learn a new language; many can live in Little Havana without ever learning English. The combination of these unique characteristics creates a safe haven for immigrants and the perfect gateway for those in search of a new life in America.

There is more to Little Havana than the name suggests, so when you come across U.S. route 41 in Tampa, think about the lively multi-ethnic neighborhood at the southern end of the road. You can venture out along the Tamiami Trail and cross the Everglades as the famous Trail Blazers did in early 1920’s. You will have a chance to stop by the Miccosukee village, catch an airboat ride, or hop on a bike to explore the Everglades on a 15 mile loop at Shark Valley. If you prefer not to drive, you may take the 92 Silverstar and enjoy a train ride through the verdant back country of Florida; whatever you decide to do, just bring a camera along to capture the unique streetscape and a hearty appetite for the endless variety of Latin food that await you in Little Havana.

Hilton Cordoba

Geosciences Department

Florida Atlantic University

DOI: 10.14433/2013.0019

References

Alberts, Heike C. (2005). “Changes in Ethnic Solidarity in Cuban Miami”. Geographical Review 95(2). P 231-248. DOI: 10.1111/j.1931-0846.2005.tb00364.x

Cordoba, Hilton & Carrillo, Jose. (2010). “Neighborhood Change in Miami’s Little Havana; A Demographic Analysis from 1970 to 2000”. The Florida Geographer. 41. P 65-88.

George, P.S. (2006). Images of America: Little Havana. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.

Shell-Weiss, M. (2009). Coming to Miami: A Social History. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

United States Census Bureau. (2009). American FactFinder. Retrieved from https://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml

Florida, Little Havana, Miami
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Changing Human Populations Networks and Connections Planning and Development
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New Books for Geographers

New Books: September 2013

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.

 November, 2013

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Changing Human Populations Networks and Connections Planning and Development
AAG Staff
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