Strategies for Applying to Ph.D. Programs

Rhythmanalysis

President's Column

War, Peace, and the Possibilities of a Shared Future

Photo of dove in flight with building structure walls in background by Sunguk Kim for Unsplash
Credit: Sunguk Kim, Unsplash

I was in middle school when The Day After aired on ABC. A depiction of the aftermath of nuclear conflict between NATO and the Soviet Union, the bleak film left me haunted by the question of whether there would be a future at all. The film horrified me not only with its representation of radiation poisoning as it painfully dismantled bodies, but also with how completely blasé everyone is leading up to the earth-rending explosions. Six years later, the Berlin Wall fell, and two years after that, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama famously declared in 1989 that we had arrived at “the end of history.” Noting “the fact that ‘peace’ seems to be breaking out in many regions of the world,” he argued that the world was witnessing not just the end of the Cold War but also “the end of history as such…the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” How poorly this arrogant claim has aged.  

As I write, Russian forces have illegally invaded Ukraine and bombed civilian targets, including a children’s hospital and a maternity ward. The unprovoked assault has caused more than 2.5 million Ukrainians to flee the country. Putin has also put nuclear forces on high alert, and appeared to threaten the use of nuclear weapons. Analysts worry about what will happen if Putin is backed into a corner, and still more, about the ease with which an accident could produce a nuclear crisis. Even without the deployment of such weapons, nuclear contamination risks are high, between the seizure of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant and its radioactive waste facilities, where workers have not been allowed to rotate off shift, and outside electric power has been lost; and the unprecedented attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant, the largest in Europe. Though the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has not moved the Doomsday Clock since January, it stands at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to apocalypse. Beyond the current atrocities, one of the most destabilizing effects of the invasion could be “a renewed global thirst for nuclear weapons as a means of protecting national sovereignty.” Cold War historian Mary Elise Sarotte writes, “Mr. Putin’s recklessness may cause the years between the Cold War and the Covid-19 pandemic to seem a halcyon period to future historians, compared with what came after. I fear we may find ourselves missing the old Cold War.” 

* * * * * 

Geographers have weighed in about the war, expressing solidarity with Ukraine. Some are also debating how to understand its causes. David Harvey’s intervention starts with the context of the militarization of the US economy during the Cold War and the devastating effects of neoliberal “shock therapy” on Russian political, cultural, and economic life after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Like many other analysts, Harvey focuses on NATO’s eastward expansion, against the verbal promises made to Gorbachev early on, a move that diplomat-historian George Kennan called back in 1997, “the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era.” Harvey also mentions the US-led NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999, an event that Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen has observed is a pivotal reference for Putin (his invasion of Ukraine is, she suggests, like a “cosplay of Kosovo” for him). All of this, Harvey argues, added up to a disastrous humiliation of Russia, which is clearly at play in the official Russian state narrative.  

Though much of this is uncontroversial, other aspects of Harvey’s essay have been taken to task. Derek Hall argues that Harvey’s exclusive focus on the West appears to absolve Putin and his authoritarian regime. Moreover, the essay fails to call the invasion what it is, and omits Russia’s other wars in Georgia (2008) and earlier in Ukraine (2014-15). Geographer Elizabeth Dunn calls out Harvey’s statement that “the Soviet Union was dismembered into independent republics without much popular consultation.” In fact, she says, there was “plenty of consultation with the people who mattered – the citizens of the countries formerly colonized by Russia who demanded the right to decide their own futures.” The populations of republics that declared independence saw this as a restoration of their previous national sovereignty. Thus, Dunn argues that Harvey’s anti- (Western) imperialist stance inadvertently morphs into a pro-imperialist support of Putin’s desire to restore the Russian empire. How to take an anti-Western imperialist stance that does not simply elide non-Western forms of imperialism wielded through the discursive tool of “national humiliation,” is a crucial and difficult question that must be carefully navigated in and beyond the post-Soviet world (i.e. China).  

As part of the global condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s invasion and its increasingly indiscriminate attacks on civilians, the Executive Committee of the International Geographical Union (IGU) took the unprecedented step of suspending membership of the IGU National Committee of Russia, given its close association with the Russian Geographical Society, the Board of Trustees of which is chaired by Putin, and the president of which is the Minister of Defense. This was accompanied, however, by a recognition that many Russian geographers and other members of the academic community strongly object to the invasion. In fact, more than 1800 Russian geographers have signed on to an Open Letter to Vladimir Putin condemning the military aggression. One translation by Russian geographers can be found here. It reads, in part: 

We, the citizens of the Russian Federation…are aware of our responsibility for the fate of our country, and thus, oppose the military operation on the territory of the sovereign state of Ukraine….We consider it immoral to remain silent now… War renders pointless all the long-term efforts of geographers and other experts to contribute to the well-being of society, preserve the natural environment, combat climate change, plan and pursue peaceful spatial development of the Russian and Ukrainian economies….War must be stopped immediately!

This is a brave declaration, especially considering the doublespeak Russian law enacted on March 5, according to which anyone calling what is happening a “war,” “invasion,” “aggression” or anything other than a “special military operation,” could be jailed for up to 15 years on the grounds of so-called “false information” or “fake news.” The Russian state’s complete stranglehold on news means that the vast majority of Russians are living in a through-the-looking-glass world in which Russia is merely performing ‘peacekeeping’ operations to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, and that any attempts to say otherwise simply confirm that the West’s goal is to humiliate Russia. Russian geographers want the world to know that they emphatically condemn the “war that must not be called a war.” 

Illustration with yellow background and black type: war is not healthy for children and other living things. Copyright Another Mother for Peace. Image created by Lorraine SchneiderThe Open Letter observes that war renders pointless efforts to stop climate change and pursue well-being. The links between the war and the climate emergency are many: the war is being fueled by Russian oil and gas; expanding renewables and accelerating an energy transition is the only way to create true energy security. Wars obviously devastate the environment along with human lives, and militaries have contributed inordinately to climate change. But the emergency of war causes everything else to come to a standstill. As one Russian climate activist stated poignantly, “I cannot talk about climate in Russia anymore, because people are dying in Ukraine…we don’t have a future anymore in Russia, so I stopped my fight for future, and now we’re fighting for our present.” Masha Gessen, too, has observed that many Russians she knows, who are opposed to the war, have experienced “a kind of sudden and drastic descent into a sense of having no country, no place, and no sense of a future.”  

* * * * * 

The world’s attention is understandably riveted upon Ukraine. But as geographers, we think about the interconnectedness of places, and we have a responsibility to remind our communities, our publics, of this fundamental relationality. Ukraine has been called “Putin’s Afghanistan,” a potentially useful analogy, but not if it obscures the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan itself. After its withdrawal, the US froze Afghan Central Bank assets held in the US – much of it consisting of the savings of ordinary Afghans – causing workers to go without paychecks, and a rapid economic collapse. In February, the Biden Administration announced it would split the 7 billion USD in frozen assets, half for humanitarian relief and half for families of 9/11 victims; some have pushed back against this effective theft of Afghan assets, as well as the misunderstanding that it is Taliban money. Currently, over half the population, including 5 million children, are at risk of starvation. The Ukraine war has caused soaring wheat prices, which could further multiply the impact of famine. The people are squeezed between the Taliban on the one hand, which has prohibited Afghans from leaving, and hunted and disappeared those known to have worked with foreigners; and utter economic devastation and food insecurity on the other. More civilians may die from ongoing sanctions than from 20 years of war.  

Fridays for Future summed it up well in a recent tweet: “While Ukrainians deserve immediate peace and all of our support, so do the people from Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and all war-torn regions. Empathy, justice, and compassion should be for everyone. Refugees should not have to be white to be heard and seen.” Contra Fukuyama, peace cannot just be left to “break out.” Peace is not just the absence of war. Rather, it is a process, one that will require a great deal of hard and yet necessary work of grappling with responsibility and with the wounds of the past and present. Without it, none of us will have a future.   

Please note: The ideas expressed in the AAG President’s column are not necessarily the views of the AAG as a whole. This column is traditionally a space in which the president may talk about their views or focus during their tenure as president of AAG, or spotlight their areas of professional work. Please feel free to email the president directly at emily [dot] yeh [at] colorado [dot] edu to enable a constructive discussion. 

DOI: doi.org/10.14433/2017.0108

President's Column

Pathways for Change: The 2022 Annual Meeting, AAG Council, and the Climate Action Survey

Photo of dove in flight with building structure walls in background by Sunguk Kim for Unsplash
Credit: Sunguk Kim, Unsplash

I was in middle school when The Day After aired on ABC. A depiction of the aftermath of nuclear conflict between NATO and the Soviet Union, the bleak film left me haunted by the question of whether there would be a future at all. The film horrified me not only with its representation of radiation poisoning as it painfully dismantled bodies, but also with how completely blasé everyone is leading up to the earth-rending explosions. Six years later, the Berlin Wall fell, and two years after that, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama famously declared in 1989 that we had arrived at “the end of history.” Noting “the fact that ‘peace’ seems to be breaking out in many regions of the world,” he argued that the world was witnessing not just the end of the Cold War but also “the end of history as such…the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” How poorly this arrogant claim has aged.  

As I write, Russian forces have illegally invaded Ukraine and bombed civilian targets, including a children’s hospital and a maternity ward. The unprovoked assault has caused more than 2.5 million Ukrainians to flee the country. Putin has also put nuclear forces on high alert, and appeared to threaten the use of nuclear weapons. Analysts worry about what will happen if Putin is backed into a corner, and still more, about the ease with which an accident could produce a nuclear crisis. Even without the deployment of such weapons, nuclear contamination risks are high, between the seizure of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant and its radioactive waste facilities, where workers have not been allowed to rotate off shift, and outside electric power has been lost; and the unprecedented attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant, the largest in Europe. Though the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has not moved the Doomsday Clock since January, it stands at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to apocalypse. Beyond the current atrocities, one of the most destabilizing effects of the invasion could be “a renewed global thirst for nuclear weapons as a means of protecting national sovereignty.” Cold War historian Mary Elise Sarotte writes, “Mr. Putin’s recklessness may cause the years between the Cold War and the Covid-19 pandemic to seem a halcyon period to future historians, compared with what came after. I fear we may find ourselves missing the old Cold War.” 

* * * * * 

Geographers have weighed in about the war, expressing solidarity with Ukraine. Some are also debating how to understand its causes. David Harvey’s intervention starts with the context of the militarization of the US economy during the Cold War and the devastating effects of neoliberal “shock therapy” on Russian political, cultural, and economic life after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Like many other analysts, Harvey focuses on NATO’s eastward expansion, against the verbal promises made to Gorbachev early on, a move that diplomat-historian George Kennan called back in 1997, “the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era.” Harvey also mentions the US-led NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999, an event that Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen has observed is a pivotal reference for Putin (his invasion of Ukraine is, she suggests, like a “cosplay of Kosovo” for him). All of this, Harvey argues, added up to a disastrous humiliation of Russia, which is clearly at play in the official Russian state narrative.  

Though much of this is uncontroversial, other aspects of Harvey’s essay have been taken to task. Derek Hall argues that Harvey’s exclusive focus on the West appears to absolve Putin and his authoritarian regime. Moreover, the essay fails to call the invasion what it is, and omits Russia’s other wars in Georgia (2008) and earlier in Ukraine (2014-15). Geographer Elizabeth Dunn calls out Harvey’s statement that “the Soviet Union was dismembered into independent republics without much popular consultation.” In fact, she says, there was “plenty of consultation with the people who mattered – the citizens of the countries formerly colonized by Russia who demanded the right to decide their own futures.” The populations of republics that declared independence saw this as a restoration of their previous national sovereignty. Thus, Dunn argues that Harvey’s anti- (Western) imperialist stance inadvertently morphs into a pro-imperialist support of Putin’s desire to restore the Russian empire. How to take an anti-Western imperialist stance that does not simply elide non-Western forms of imperialism wielded through the discursive tool of “national humiliation,” is a crucial and difficult question that must be carefully navigated in and beyond the post-Soviet world (i.e. China).  

As part of the global condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s invasion and its increasingly indiscriminate attacks on civilians, the Executive Committee of the International Geographical Union (IGU) took the unprecedented step of suspending membership of the IGU National Committee of Russia, given its close association with the Russian Geographical Society, the Board of Trustees of which is chaired by Putin, and the president of which is the Minister of Defense. This was accompanied, however, by a recognition that many Russian geographers and other members of the academic community strongly object to the invasion. In fact, more than 1800 Russian geographers have signed on to an Open Letter to Vladimir Putin condemning the military aggression. One translation by Russian geographers can be found here. It reads, in part: 

We, the citizens of the Russian Federation…are aware of our responsibility for the fate of our country, and thus, oppose the military operation on the territory of the sovereign state of Ukraine….We consider it immoral to remain silent now… War renders pointless all the long-term efforts of geographers and other experts to contribute to the well-being of society, preserve the natural environment, combat climate change, plan and pursue peaceful spatial development of the Russian and Ukrainian economies….War must be stopped immediately!

This is a brave declaration, especially considering the doublespeak Russian law enacted on March 5, according to which anyone calling what is happening a “war,” “invasion,” “aggression” or anything other than a “special military operation,” could be jailed for up to 15 years on the grounds of so-called “false information” or “fake news.” The Russian state’s complete stranglehold on news means that the vast majority of Russians are living in a through-the-looking-glass world in which Russia is merely performing ‘peacekeeping’ operations to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, and that any attempts to say otherwise simply confirm that the West’s goal is to humiliate Russia. Russian geographers want the world to know that they emphatically condemn the “war that must not be called a war.” 

Illustration with yellow background and black type: war is not healthy for children and other living things. Copyright Another Mother for Peace. Image created by Lorraine SchneiderThe Open Letter observes that war renders pointless efforts to stop climate change and pursue well-being. The links between the war and the climate emergency are many: the war is being fueled by Russian oil and gas; expanding renewables and accelerating an energy transition is the only way to create true energy security. Wars obviously devastate the environment along with human lives, and militaries have contributed inordinately to climate change. But the emergency of war causes everything else to come to a standstill. As one Russian climate activist stated poignantly, “I cannot talk about climate in Russia anymore, because people are dying in Ukraine…we don’t have a future anymore in Russia, so I stopped my fight for future, and now we’re fighting for our present.” Masha Gessen, too, has observed that many Russians she knows, who are opposed to the war, have experienced “a kind of sudden and drastic descent into a sense of having no country, no place, and no sense of a future.”  

* * * * * 

The world’s attention is understandably riveted upon Ukraine. But as geographers, we think about the interconnectedness of places, and we have a responsibility to remind our communities, our publics, of this fundamental relationality. Ukraine has been called “Putin’s Afghanistan,” a potentially useful analogy, but not if it obscures the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan itself. After its withdrawal, the US froze Afghan Central Bank assets held in the US – much of it consisting of the savings of ordinary Afghans – causing workers to go without paychecks, and a rapid economic collapse. In February, the Biden Administration announced it would split the 7 billion USD in frozen assets, half for humanitarian relief and half for families of 9/11 victims; some have pushed back against this effective theft of Afghan assets, as well as the misunderstanding that it is Taliban money. Currently, over half the population, including 5 million children, are at risk of starvation. The Ukraine war has caused soaring wheat prices, which could further multiply the impact of famine. The people are squeezed between the Taliban on the one hand, which has prohibited Afghans from leaving, and hunted and disappeared those known to have worked with foreigners; and utter economic devastation and food insecurity on the other. More civilians may die from ongoing sanctions than from 20 years of war.  

Fridays for Future summed it up well in a recent tweet: “While Ukrainians deserve immediate peace and all of our support, so do the people from Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and all war-torn regions. Empathy, justice, and compassion should be for everyone. Refugees should not have to be white to be heard and seen.” Contra Fukuyama, peace cannot just be left to “break out.” Peace is not just the absence of war. Rather, it is a process, one that will require a great deal of hard and yet necessary work of grappling with responsibility and with the wounds of the past and present. Without it, none of us will have a future.   

Please note: The ideas expressed in the AAG President’s column are not necessarily the views of the AAG as a whole. This column is traditionally a space in which the president may talk about their views or focus during their tenure as president of AAG, or spotlight their areas of professional work. Please feel free to email the president directly at emily [dot] yeh [at] colorado [dot] edu to enable a constructive discussion. 

DOI: doi.org/10.14433/2017.0108

Post

2015 Annual Reports of the AAG Regional Divisions

East Lakes Division (Tom Maraffa)

The 2015 Annual Meeting of the East Lakes Division will be held Friday and Saturday October 9th and 10th at the Kent State University Conference Center.  The opening reception will be on Friday evening, with papers and panels all day Saturday.  The meeting will conclude with annual banquet on the evening of the 10th.

The Division is the in process of electing new officers which will be concluded by May 2015.

Reports received from the departments in the region indicate healthy activity in program development including:

  • An online graduate certificate and and masters degree in GISc at Kent State University
  • The first graduates in the Ph.D program in Spatially Integrated Social Studies at the University of Toledo, Fall 2014.
  • Wright State University reporting the development of GEO degrees and certificates at two community colleges in its service region.
  • Ohio Wesleyan University creating a new major in Globalization and Development.

The departments in the region are continuing to face challenges related to university budget pressures. In addition the growing prominence of STEM is requiring departments to both advocate for their role as either part of or complimentary to STEM as well as for the importance of liberal arts.

Great Plains/Rocky Mountains Division (J.M. Shawn Hutchinson)

Departments in the region report continued successes in teaching, research, and geographic outreach.  At the graduate level, geography departments are actively meeting current, and preparing for future, demand for STEM-trained students.  One example of this is the new Master’s degree in Applied Geography and Geospatial Science that begins in Fall 2015 at the University of Colorado Denver.  The University of Kansas, whose geography department will soon be led by Nate Brunsell, will also be adding a doctoral program in Atmospheric Science.  Our region also benefits tremendously from a robust Geographic Alliance Network and dedicated state coordinators who actively support and promote geography education at the K-12 level.

Ongoing state and university budget woes remain persistent challenges.  This is especially true for our land grant universities and units housed within colleges of arts and sciences.  Arts and science academic units are being disproportionally impacted by mandated decreases in degree credit hour requirements, incoming freshman arriving at school having already earned a significant number of college credits, and the focus in many states on promoting “job” degrees over the benefits of a well-rounded liberal arts education.  It remains as important as ever to continue advocating for geography with university administration and legislators.

After a successful joint regional meeting with the Southwest Division in 2014, which drew over 300 geographers to sunny Albuquerque, our 2015 regional conference will be hosted by the University of Nebraska-Kearney (in Kearney, Nebraska) on October 2-3.  In 2016 and 2017, we will convene in Colorado Springs (hosted by the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs) and Grand Forks (hosted by the Department of Geography at the University of North Dakota), respectively.

As many already know, geography lost two prominent scholars this calendar year who called the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain region home.  We continue to mourn the passing earlier this year of James W. Merchant (University of Nebraska) and Stephen E. White (Kansas State University).

Middle Atlantic Division (Jeremy Tasch)

The Fall 2014 Annual Division meeting—hosted by Frostburg State University— marked the 50th Anniversary of Geography at Frostburg State.  To help mark this occasion, the 2014 meeting inaugurated the Division’s 1st Annual Best Student Paper Award.  First place went to Zan Dodson, a doctoral candidate from the University of Maryland-College Park. Second Place, however, went to Martin Ndegwa, an undergraduate student from Towson University.

In a break with current practice, MAD’s leadership resolved to charge annual membership dues (set differentially for students, part-time employed, and full-time employed) to help maintain and better serve its membership. In keeping with its resolve to better serve the Division’s diverse membership, the MAD-Board is examining a concern raised by colleagues working for the federal government and with non-academic organizations. Some of these members feel that the AAG’s membership fees are too high for the level of support these non-academically employed geographers receive from the organization. The MAD Board is continuing to discuss how it can help better support its professional members. Further, the Board is working to better meet the needs of its K-12 geography instructors and its contingent faculty members. As part of the Division’s revitalization, the Board is in the process of creating a contingent faculty committee;  a professional geographers Committee; a newsletter committee; and resurrecting the positions of Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Webmaster.

MAD has switched to online nomination and voting, and the Board also now reviews and votes for its minutes online.

The Richard C. Jaffeson Middle Atlantic Division (MAD) Fund

More than three decades ago Richard C. Jaffeson, AICP, MAD-AAG President for 1975-1976 and then again MAD-AAG President from 2002-2003, established a fund for the benefit of MAD-AAG. With his closing of the fund in 2014, MAD received just in access of $8,300 in residual funds. The MAD Board formed a subcommittee to help determine the manner by which MAD’s membership can best benefit from Richard’s foresight and generosity.

MAD comes to Towson

If the annual MAD-AAG conference was ever hosted by Towson University, the division’s longest serving members do not recall and the university’s Department of Geography and Environmental Planning has no records.  Thus, until shown otherwise, fall 2015 will mark the first time that Towson University will host the annual MAD-AAG Conference. Among the planned highlights, the conference will feature the international research and instruction being conducted by the Division’s members; an interdisciplinary celebration of “place” as imagined through geography and poetry; and an evening performance by the only American Master of Mugham (planned, but not confirmed).

Middle States Division (Grant Saff)

General Regional Developments:

  1. The Annual Meeting was held at York, PA, October 24-5, 2014: At the Board meeting on 23 October, David Fyfe (President 2014), noted that 110 people had contacted him about attending, 102 were already paid up. It was projected that there would be 54 papers, 14 posters, 2 panel discussions. According to the Financial Report submitted to the Board by the Executive Director on 9 April 2015, after deducting all costs the meeting lost $646.02.
  2. At this meeting, the membership unanimously voted to amend the Constitution and admit Puerto Rico as part of the Division.
  3. The 2015 Annual Meeting will be held in Binghamton, NY on October 2-3.
  4. In accordance with offers of assistance made by the AAG to provide web hosting of the Division’s web sites, the Board turned over the future hosting of the Dvision’s Website to the AAG.
  5. Robert Mason, Temple University, has been elected as the new Regional Councilor, with his term beginning in July.
  6. Saff noted via email on 3/12/15, that a check Hofstra had received from MSDAAG for reimbursement for paying for our web-hosting expenses (to Bluehost for $53.74) had two signatures on it – the Executive Director and someone unknown to him who was not a member of the Board (and had not been appointed in the three years he had served on the Board). He requested an explanation from the Board of “why/how this arrangement came about and which elected representatives approved of making a non-Board person a co-signer of our checks?” At time of writing no response has been received.
  7. On 30 March 2015, I sent out a call to the members (including the new members from Puerto Rico) for responses to the President’s Challenge Question and for any issues that should be communicated to Council. At time of writing, 4 responses from members were received. A fairly large number of emails are still bounced back indicating that the AAG should perhaps create a better system for tracking membership.

Responses to the Challenge Question: Regarding how to increase diversity in Geogrpahy

From a Professor at Rutgers, “… I was recently thinking about the lack of African Americans in Geography…I wish I knew how the AAG could improve its racial balance….”

From a Professor at West Point, “I know this isn’t exactly what the AAG is looking for, but at its core, our profession is one of exchanging thoughts and ideas with students.  However, academics tend to be incredibly like-minded… I think diversity of thought is more important than diversity of skin pigmentation…and is a topic the AAG should consider.”

From a contingent faculty member at various Universities in New York, “…my experience this semester was that when I talked about subjects that students could identify with or about which students had very strong personal opinions, it seemed to attract them more to the subject and get them more involved in my teaching. The case in point was migration. With first generation students, they were interested because they could reflect on their own experience. With others, they often had very strong opinions on the topic. I realize that may also limit the areas in which one could involve minorities. But I thought the anecdote might be useful.”

A Professor from the Geography Department at Binghamton, comments that the Department has been slated as a growth department over the next 5 years,  “As a result, we hired three new faculty- all growth positions, not replacements.” Of these 3 new hires, 2 are Asians, one white and one of the 3 is a female. Of the 10 FT faculty, 5 are white, 3 Asian and 2 Black (8 males, 2 females). Of the current MA graduate enrollment, “23 are whites, 11 Asian, 6 Black and 4 Hispanic-Latino (34 males and 10 females).” He notes, “It should be clear from these numbers that we are one of the most diversified departments in the nation. While I cannot provide exact data on majors, we have made very good strides in diversifying that population too.”

My own anecdotal experience of teaching at a Private School in NY (Hofstra) is that the number of African-American students in my classes has fallen, while the number of Asian and Latino students has risen slightly. In terms of hiring, since becoming a Department in 2008, we have hired 9 contingent faculty members, with the following racial/ethnic breakdown: 1 African, 2 Asian (India, China), 4 white American, 1 African-American, 1 white from Europe (all are female). We recently conducted a GIS job search that attracted over 60 applicants, with a sizable number from Asia (mostly China and India). Only 1 of the applicants was clearly identifiable as African-American. The final choice was between two applicants, a white male and white female – with the white male being chosen (all of the FT female faculty members voted for this candidate). We have been unsuccessful in numerous attempts to have our African-American contingent faculty member hired to a tenure track position. At one stage, this faculty member accepted a non-tenure track visiting position in a Geography Department at a large research University in the region, but resigned after one year, citing the large classes and lack of contact with faculty in the Department. She subsequently left teaching for a year, before accepting more classes in our Department. This example highlights that even when you have very well qualified African-American geographers, you need sufficient institutional support to keep them within the profession.

 

New England/St. Lawrence Valley Division (Richard Kujawa) 

The New England and Saint Lawrence Valley Society remains a viable and visible region of the AAG.  In October 2014 the University of New Hampshire (UNH) hosted a successful regional meeting which featured another strong and well-attended public plenary.  The theme for this year was Water in a Changing World.  Jeffery Bolster, Professor of History from UNH presented the plenary lecture titled “Human Impacts on the Piscataqua Estuary and Gulf of Maine: The Long View.”

The region’s refereed publication The Northeastern Geographer distributed its latest volume.  It continues to provide a refereed venue for papers, reviews and commentaries in the region.

A record eleven teams entered the World Geography Bowl.  The University of Massachusetts-Amherst was victorious. Almost eighty people participated in the pizza social which followed.

NESTVAL awarded paper and poster prizes for both undergraduate and graduate students as well as a Distinguished Service Award to John Hayes of Salem State University, Massachusetts and a Lifetime Award to Mark Motte, Rhode Island College.  Next year, NESTVAL will experiment with a faculty professional development grant program.

Future regional meetings are planned for Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts (2015), Bishop’s University in Quebec (2016) and Central Connecticut State University (2017).

Geography departments and programs in the region report a broadly positive picture on program status with some bright spots but also some continued tightening of budgets and resources.  Based on responses from a sample of colleges and universities, there were a few new hires and a small number of confirmed or prospective post-doctoral positions.  For example, Clark University reported a new hire in Political Ecology (Rinku Roy Chowdury); the University of Vermont reported the possibility of a geographer being named to a postdoctoral position.  The University of Vermont has had success in the past with this postdoctoral recruitment program leading to permanent faculty positions in Geography.

In addition to core roles in several Environmental, Global Studies and Sustainability Programs, Geographers are integral to other developments.  Examples include:  New collaborative courses “Mapping American Childhoods” (with a sociologist at the University of Vermont); a service-learning collaboration with the Nature Conservancy focused on Dendrochronology (also at the University of Vermont); and a new multi-faculty member #blacklivesmatter course at Dartmouth, hosted in Geography.  Other initiatives include new tracks inside of Geography majors; continued engagement with the niche of GIS in higher education and the community; and new graduate concentrations or graduate initiatives. For example, a new interdisciplinary Minor in GIS at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts; a new undergraduate certificate pending approval at Rhode Island College; and continued development of the Community GIS lab at Keene State in New Hampshire.  The University of Maine at Farmington continues its practice of engaged scholarship with its undergraduate majors contributing 100 papers and posters in the last 5 years.  Several institutions have expanded inter-college or university collaborations.  For example, Southern Connecticut State University is in the process of building a collaborate relationship for seamless Study Abroad experiences at Liverpool’s John Moore’s University in the UK in Geography and Marine Studies; and in Quebec, where Bishops University (classes taught in English) will collaborate with the University of Sherbrooke (classes taught in French) on a new graduate program in Environmental Studies.

Geographers in the region continue their work with K-12 education. Geographic Alliances, operating individually and in concert, maintain and increase the visibility of Geography and work to consolidate and enhance K-12 curriculum and professional development.

 

Pacific Coast Division (Scott Mensing )

Highlights:

The Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, under the leadership of John Wilson, has shown impressive growth in the area of GIS education. In particular, the Institute has added, or had approved six new programs over the next two years. These include new interdisciplinary Bachelors, Masters and PhD programs created in collaboration with other departments, including Public Policy, Architecture, Medicine, and Computer Science.

Fall 2014, the University of Arizona School of Geography and Development (SGD) launched a new online Masters of Science in Geographic Information Systems. This is a one year Masters’ degree that has over 30 students enrolled. In the fall of 2015, the SGD will begin a new Bachelor of Science in Geographic Information Systems Technology program.

At the University of California, Davis, the Geography Graduate Group is thriving and published their first newsletter, available online. The incoming class in fall 2014 had 21 students.

Full report from the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, Scott Mensing, Regional Councilor

Update from the field:

Several campuses have shown healthy growth through initiation of new programs, particularly in the field of GIS.

The University of Southern California Spatial Sciences Institute continues to innovate and strengthen its role and impact. During the past 12-18 months the Institute has launched or received permission to launch six collaborative programs: 1) a new B.S. in GeoDesign (with the Price School of Public Policy and USC School of Architecture) and Spatial Studies Minor in Fall, 2015; 2) online Graduate Certificates in Geospatial Intelligence (now accredited by the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation) and Geospatial Leadership to complement the existing M.S. and Graduate Certificate Programs in Geographic Information Science & Technology; 3) a new GeoHealth track in the Keck School of Medicine’s online Master of Public Health degree program; 4) garnered approval to launch a new M.S. in Spatial Informatics with the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science in Fall, 2015; 5) garnered approval to launch a new Graduate Certificate in Spatial Analytics for doctoral students in Fall, 2016; 6) garnered approval to launch a new Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Population, Health and Place (with the Departments of Preventive Medicine and Sociology) in Fall, 2016. The numbers of faculty, staff, and related activities are growing as well to support these new collaborations.

Fall 2014, the University of Arizona School of Geography and Development (SGD) launched a new online Masters of Science in Geographic Information Systems. This is a one year Masters’ degree that has over 30 students enrolled. In the fall of 2015, the SGD will begin a new Bachelor of Science in Geographic Information Systems Technology program.

The Geography Graduate Group (GGG) is alive and well at the University of California, Davis with the publication of their first newsletter, the Davis Geographer (Vol. 1 2014/2015). Students had a large part in bringing this newsletter to fruition. As noted in the message from the chair, Chris Benner, “Since we are an inter-departmental graduate group, with faculty dispersed across the entire campus, it is the continued cohesion, energy, and contributions of our students that is absolutely critical for our program to thrive.” The UC Davis GGG will have a booth at the 2015 AAG conference in Chicago. You can see all of the news at https://geography.ucdavis.edu/files/ggg/Davis%20Geographer%20Final_Volume%201%202014.pdf

In 2014 UCLA Department of Geography welcomed two new faculty members, Dr. Dennis Lettenmeier and Dr. Kyle Cavanaugh. Both are physical geographers.

In Fall 2014, the University of Nevada, Reno Department of Geography welcomed Dr. Jessie Clark, a political and feminist geographer studying the impacts of socio-economic and gendered development in conflict regions. In Fall of 2015, Dr. Kerri Jean Ormerod will join the department in a position shared between Geography and Cooperative Extension. This newly created position will focus on drought hazards and issues of water use in Nevada.

In October, 2014, the dedication was held for the Robert and Maureen Gohstand Leisure Reading Room in the Oviatt Library on the campus of California State University Northridge. The reading room has long been the vision of Robert (Bob) Gohstand, a Professor Emeritus from the Department of Geography in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Bob and Maureen created an endowment to help support the room and its collection of books well into the future

APCG news:

The APCG is in healthy financial conditions, with receipts greater than disbursements in FY 2014. Membership stood at 506 as of the Fall 2014 APCG annual meeting and looked to possibly top out at 560 by the end of the year. There were 110 new members in 2014. The division plans to re-establish the Membership Committee staffed with former Presidents to focus on approaches for recruiting new members. It was noted at the meeting that while there is a cadre of stalwarts, recruiting younger faculty has been a challenge. The incoming President is Steve Cunha of Humboldt State University.

The APCG 2014 annual meeting was hosted by the University of Arizona and held in Tucson AZ Sept. 25-27. There were 195 registrants and over 100 papers and poster presentations. Eight awards were given for outstanding student presentations and another eight scholarships and 23 travel grants were awarded, for a total of $10,650 awarded to student participants. The full business meeting minutes, conference report and treasurer’ reports are available online through the APCG division’s newsletter Pacifica at https://apcgweb.org/sites/default/files/editor_uploads/files/pacificaf14.pdf.

The 2015 APCG conference will be October 21-24 in Palm Springs, CA.

The division’s journal, the APCG Yearbook is available online through Project Muse and JSTOR, with issues through Volume 76 available (all but three most current years).

 

Southeast Regional Division (Thomas Mote)

SEDAAG annual meetings

SEDAAG will hold its 70th meeting November 22-24, 2015, in Pensacola, Florida, hosted by the University of West Florida. The 69th meeting in Athens, Georgia, in November 2014 was a success, with 410 people registered and a record number of organized sessions. SEDAAG is in negotiation with sites in South Carolina to host the 71st meeting in 2016. New editors for Southeastern Geographer were selected at the Athens meeting. Hilda Kurtz and Deepak Mishra from the University of Georgia will serve as co-editors beginning July 2015, replacing David Cochran and Carl Reese from the University of Southern Mississippi.

SEDAAG opportunities and challenges

The SEDAAG annual meeting continues to grow in its diversity of opportunities and as such is finding it difficult to complete the meeting in just 1.5 days. Few people remained for the business meeting in Athens.  These problems will be before the Executive Committee at the Pensacola meeting.  Student participation continues to be a major ingredient for attendance, and the division continues to seek participation from a variety of types of institutions. At the 2013 SEDAAG meeting in Roanoke, Virginia, the division supported, financially, the participation of several students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The supported students were actively involved in attending papers, posters, social events, and networking with students and faculty. SEDAAG again provided this opportunity for the Athens meeting and plans to do so again in Pensacola. The AAG might consider the benefit of a similar program at the national level. 

Geography in the Southeastern Division

The state representatives of Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia all responded to requests for information on the status of Geography in the Southeastern Division. The state of Florida has new rules about general education credits, and the new menus of required physical and social science courses do not include Geography, reducing exposure to the discipline in the most populous state in the division. Several departments reported pressure from declining state budgets, including threats to the future of Geography as an independent program some institutions. Most departments reported steady or increasing undergraduate enrollment in Geography, including some with record high enrollments. Kennesaw State University in Georgia began a 123-hour online B.A. in Geography in Spring 2015, and North Carolina Central University is seeking permission to grant a consolidated degree in Earth Science, Environmental Science, and Geography at the undergraduate level.

 

Southwestern Division (Ron Hagelman)

With the exception of continuing budget cuts to the higher education in Louisiana, SWAAG programs are showing signs of growth and expansion. Membership and participation the regional meetings remains robust and the division journal, Southwestern Geographer, is publishing a new online version of the journal as of this year. The Fall 2016 meeting will be held November 4-7th in San Antonio, Texas. The meeting will be held jointly with the Applied Geography Conference and is being organized locally by Texas State University and The University of Texas-San Antonio.

The Southwest Division of the AAG hosts a variety of departments and programs distributed across all states within the region. Our division includes faculty/department representatives from the following colleges/universities:

Arkansas

Arkansas State University

University of Arkansas

University of Central Arkansas

New Mexico

New Mexico State University

University of New Mexico

Louisiana

Grambling State University

Louisiana State University

Louisiana Technological University

Northwestern State University

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

University of Louisiana at Monroe

University of New Orleans

Oklahoma

East Central University

Northeastern State University

Oklahoma State University

University of Oklahoma

University of Central Oklahoma

Texas

Baylor University

Stephen F. Austin State University

Sam Houston State University

Texas State University- San Marcos

Texas A&M University- Kingsville

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University- Commerce

Texas Christian University

Texas Tech University

University of North Texas

University of Texas

University of Texas- Dallas

University of Texas- San Antonio

University of Texas- Tyler

Fall Regional Division Conference

The SWAAG Conference and Business Meeting was held October 23-25, 2014 Albuquerque, NM. The meeting was held jointly with the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division of the AAG. Over 300 students and faculty attended the meeting from both regions. Local arrangements were lead by Maria Lane, University of New Mexico, and Shawn Hutchinson, Kansas State. The meeting was successful by all measures and included numerous paper session, panels, poster sessions, student awards, and a keynote presentation by AAG President, Mona Domosh.   

Reports from the Field

New Self-Standing Department

Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas) will be a self-standing Dept. of Geography is the fall 2016 semester.  They will be dividing from the current Dept. of History and Geography structure and have about 25 majors with two degree options: a BA and a BS. One reason for the  growth is their World Regional Geography course.  It is an option in the TCU core.  This spring 2015 semester TCU is teaching 13 sections of World Regional Geography with a total current enrollment of 485 students (5.7% of the total estimated undergraduate enrollment of 8500).  Another reason is the support of our dean and growth in their GIS program, under Kyle Walker’s leadership.

New Geography Minor

The University of Arkansas Fort Smith now has a geography minor. As of fall 2010, their campus only had one geography course in the academic catalog: World Regional Geography. This course was taught to meet a social studies general education requirement and it was taught by an historian. Since that time, geographer Linda Fair has designed and had approved a geography minor. Their first geography minor graduated in December 2014 and five more will graduate in May.

Louisiana higher education continues to be challenges by budget cuts/shrinking enrolments

University of New Orleans (UNO) and Southern University New Orleans (SUNO) will be particularly hard hit due to their enrollment declines over the past few years. Some faculty remain hopeful that the legislators will be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat before the end of the session in June, but the legislators and Governor Jindal show no signs of changing current and proposed cuts.

New BS degree in Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST)

Texas A&M has created a new undergraduate BS degree in Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST). Students have to choose one of three tracks to specialize in: (1) Computation, Design and Analysis – programming [the best one, obviously]; (2) Earth Systems Analysis – remote sensing, terrain analysis, and geomorph; or (3) Human Systems and Society – GIS for everything human – https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__geography.tamu.edu_class_aklein_gist-5Fprototype_elements.html&d=AwIFaQ&c=OrYO-caJHQE1g_AJU3az1awi55It-bjDIQrtRiZ6WBk&r=lXg1ADNswCaHIdCtWvIeKQGQkuqDTj2VlO6c3yyuD98&m=WWovRJ2HN5khpvL8-LWsOsEZlcHvEAeiTMwQ2zvXk6g&s=ODI-2mZSk_7J21VuUdQzGwgMgp0ExwL301JK8v7W6gk&e= .

As of this semester (the second since we started it), they already have 63 majors!

New Geography Minor

Tarleton State University (Stephensville, TX) will be offering its first minor in Geography in its history, starting this fall. If enrollments are robust, they have plans to develop a major in coming years.

“New” PhD in Geography

As of fall 2015, The Department of Geography at Texas State University will drop the “Environmental” qualifier from their PhD in Environmental Geography degree and begin awarding PhDs in Geography.

Overall, all is well in SWAAG and we remain a stalwart, robust, and highly collegial division!  

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2017 Annual Reports of the AAG Regional Divisions

2017 Annual Reports of the AAG Regional Divisions

Reports from Regional Councilors

Regional Councilor Chair Shawn Hutchinson shared the highlights to the regional reports, and he shared the full report electronically with members of the Council. The full reports will be published on the AAG website.

East Lakes

Patrick Lawrence reported that there is uncertain state support and concern for emerging potential policies impacting higher education in Ohio and Michigan. He said there is a need for more engagement with K-12 geography education including the Ohio Geographic Alliance, Advanced Placement (AP), and other high school college credit programs.

Great Plains-Rocky Mountains

Hutchinson reported that the GPRM meeting will be hosted by the University of North Dakota on October 13–14, 2017. Hutchinson noted the expansion of geotechnology (including GIS and UAV) and online programs buoying enrollment for many regional programs, many of whom continue to operate under increasingly challenging budgetary conditions.

Middle Atlantic

The division had no report, but Hutchinson reported that Rebecca Kelly of Johns Hopkins was recently elected regional councilor.

Middle States

Robert Mason highlighted a response to a distressed department: Long Island University, Post Campus, which suspended admissions for the Geography major. Mason said division members are asking how, if at all, do departments respond to the administration travel bans at local and regional levels.

New England/St. Lawrence Valley

John Hayes reported that NESTVAL had a successful meeting on the campus of Bishop’s University during October 14-15, 2016, in Sherbrooke, QC, Canada. The conference theme was “Multi-Scale Climate and Environmental Change.” The upcoming meeting will be hosted by Central Connecticut State University during October 20–21, 2017, in New Britain, CT. The conference theme will be “Geography in the Community.” The annual, peer-reviewed journal of NESTVAL, The Northeastern Geographer, will publish the next two volumes as special issues on Climate Change in the Northeast and Food Geographies of the NESTVAL Region.

Pacific Coast

Sriram Khé reported that the upcoming APCG meeting will be in Chico, CA, during October 25–28, 2017. Hosted by the Department of Geography and Planning at California State University, Chico, the conference theme is “Sustainable Communities.” He reported that several new programs have been established within the region including four new undergraduate specializations and three new minors at the University of Nevada Reno and three new programs at the University of Southern California, including an interdisciplinary PhD and MS degrees, and an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor.

Southeastern

Thomas Mote reported that the next SEDAAG meeting will be November 19–21, 2017, in Starkville, MS, with local arrangements handled by Mississippi State University. He reported that departments are being creative and innovative about ways in which they attract students and seek support, with much emphasis placed in online programs, geospatial technologies and environmental-related studies. New undergraduate programs are now being offered, or are being proposed, at the University of Florida, Florida State University, Marshall University, and the University of Georgia. At the graduate level, East Carolina State University now offers a Professional Science Masters in GIS&T, and UNC Charlotte is considering a name change for their Ph.D. degree from “Geography and Urban Regional Analysis” to “Geography.”

Southwest

Darren Purcell reported that the University of North Texas Department of Geography and the Environment was selected as the inaugural winner of the Master’s Program Excellence Award. Additionally, the department will strengthen their international offerings with a China Field School in Summer 2017. He also said the Department of Geography at Oklahoma State University received state approval for a Global Studies BA. A new minor in Global Studies is pending approval. This is the fourth undergraduate program managed by the department, adding to their existing BA and BS in Geography and BS in Geospatial Information Science degree programs.

West Lakes

Julie Cidell reported that the regional meeting was successful despite being in a geographic extreme of the region: Marquette, MI. She reported that departments are trying many different approaches to increase enrollment and/or majors and asked if it would it be useful to do a survey of departments to see what changes have been made in the past 5-10 years and what effect they have had. She said members mentioned that they want the Association to do more in this regard.

Hutchinson reviewed the regional reports in response to the call of the Executive Committee to identify the impact of changes in federal policies. A few regions mentioned the effects of federal policies on their programs, with the federal travel policies raising concerns about international student recruitment. He also mentioned the expressions of appreciation for the Association responses to those policies.

Hutchinson said the common theme among most regions was the effect of state budgets on higher education. Many of the regions’ reports mentioned issues regarding declining undergraduate enrollment, which may be related to online programs, AP credit, and transfer credit from other institutions. Purcell asked whether anyone had provided data about the effect of AP Human Geography, as the effect of the AP exam has been a common concern without supporting data. McAnneny suggested that other AP courses may also play a role. Hutchinson discussed the role of geography as a “discovery major” and the importance of contact in the college level. Cidell said that at the University of Illinois 6% of students took AP Human Geography, and of those students, only 6% enrolled in a geography course at the university. Purcell suggested reaching out to the 200,000 students taking AP Human Geography, as well as the people teaching the course. Bednarz emphasized the importance of creating a pipeline with teachers of AP Human Geography. Alderman talked about reaching out to high school guidance counselors, college and university advisers, and community colleges. Chris Hair mentioned the importance of media and video that explain what students can do with a geography degree.  MacDonald said that UCLA uses an open house with community colleges to attract students. Lawrence mentioned the use of the Penn State Geospatial Revolution materials for recruitment plus alumni videos, which have received positive feedback. Richardson commented that he is seeking support from National Geographic to produce promotional videos, but he said it is also worthwhile to determine what is available online that could be used pending permission. He said the media landscape has changed and this may need to be in the form of a social media campaign. Sue Roberts suggested that the Association have a repository of promotional materials that departments produced. Hutchinson mentioned that Kansas State University worked with media professionals in the university to produce brief videos that were targeted to prospective students and their parents.

MacDonald asked that the departmental recruitment effort become an Association priority and suggested that Meridian Place hire someone to help develop media targeted for use by departments seeking to grow enrollment. He said there should be some video presence but the effort should use multiple media platforms. MacDonald said a report to Council regarding progress in this effort should be presented at the Fall 2017 Council meeting. At the annual meeting in New Orleans, he said there should be a session on best practices followed by a document on best practices.

Khé asked about the regional councilor election concerns expressed by Bednarz, particularly in light of the delayed election in one region. Lawrence asked what mechanism is available for expressing concern and offering assistance when regional divisions struggle. The individual regional councilors shared the process for elections in their regions, focusing on nomination processes, eligible voters, timeline, and the form of the election. Richardson shared the rules for electing regional councilors. Bednarz recommended a sub-committee of regional councilors that would examine election processes in each region.

MacDonald stated that Regional Councilors should be elected by AAG members in each regional division, regardless of their regional division membership status.

Resources

About the Newsletter

Newsletter Editor
Emily Frisan

Director of Communications
Lisa Schamess

Director of Design and Digital Platforms
Becky Pendergast

The AAG Newsletter is an online-only publication. It is sent to members’ inboxes 10 times a year and published on the website to highlight the news and other online content published by the AAG.
View the editorial guidelines

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Don’t miss a single issue of the AAG Newsletter. If you don’t already have an account, create one or log in to your current account and select the AAG Newsletter in the communications preferences of your member dashboard. You can also visit the AAG Resource Hub regularly for the most recent news, stories, and announcements.

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Archived copies of the AAG Newsletter from 2003 to 2012 are available as PDFs and following years are compiled on web posts.
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World Geography Bowl

world geography bowl

The World Geography Bowl is a quiz bowl tournament held annually since 1993 at the Annual Meeting of the AAG, featuring teams of graduate and undergraduate geography students representing each of the AAG’s regional divisions. Contestants are selected by regional divisions via a competitive process, which in many divisions includes participation in a regional geography bowl held at the division’s annual meeting. If you are interested in participating, contact your regional division leadership for more information.

The winning team, runners-up, and high scoring individuals are awarded with prizes, provided by the generous donations of corporate benefactors. In addition, each participant in the World Geography Bowl receives a travel stipend, co-sponsored by the AAG and that student’s regional division, greatly offsetting expenses for attendance at the national meeting. Typically, approximately 50 students benefit each year from World Geography Bowl stipends.

The World Geography Bowl is fully staffed by volunteers, who write and edit questions and help run the proceedings as judges, scorekeepers and moderators. For more information on organizing a team, joining the World Geography Bowl Executive Committee, or volunteering at the national event, contact the World Geography Bowl executive director, Dr. Jamison Conley, at West Virginia University or the AAG Geography Bowl coordinator, Emily Fekete.

WGB2014_East-Lakes-champs2 geography bowl
AAG Pacific Coast Regional Division 2014 World Geography Bowl Champions
2017 Winning World Geography Bowl Team: Great Plains Rocky Mountain Region
2017 Winning World Geography Bowl Team: Great Plains Rocky Mountain Region

AAG World Geography Bowl Conduct Policy

The American Association of Geographers (AAG) World Geography Bowl is a friendly, team-oriented competition between students in the AAG Regional Divisions. General bullying, intimidation, or hostility directed toward volunteers, audience members, or student competitors (both between and within teams) at the AAG World Geography Bowl is not tolerated. Additionally, as an AAG-sponsored event, the World Geography Bowl falls under the AAG Annual Meeting conduct policy which states:

The American Association of Geographers (AAG) advocates a positive culture of inclusion and respect for the dignity of each individual. AAG opposes all forms of discrimination against and harassment on the basis of an individual’s race, age, religion, creed, color, ancestry, citizenship, national or ethnic origin, language preference, immigration status, disability, medical condition, military or veteran status, social or socioeconomic status or condition, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state or federal law. This policy applies to attendees, AAG staff, speakers, exhibitors, or event venue staff at any AAG-sponsored event, as well as AAG-sponsored meeting social events (such as the international reception, exhibit hall networking events, field trips and receptions).

Therefore, all student competitors, volunteers, and audience members at the AAG World Geography Bowl agree to comply with this policy and alert staff or security when they have knowledge of dangerous situations, violations of this policy, or individuals in distress. Those who are found to be in violation of this policy may be asked to leave, will forfeit their standing towards the MVP Award, and may forfeit their right to participate in future AAG World Geography Bowl events.

For more information about the AAG Conduct Policy visit here.

World Geography Bowl Previous Awardees

2023 Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division

2022 Southwest Division

2021 Mid-Atlantic Division

2020 Canceled

2019 Mid-Atlantic Division

2018 Mid-Atlantic Division

2017 Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division

2016 Southeast Division

2015 Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

2014 East Lakes Division

2013 Middle States Division

2012 Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division

2011 Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division

2010 Southeast Division

2009 Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

2008 Middle States Division

2007 Middle States Division

2006 Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Division

2005 Mid-Atlantic Division

2004 Southeast Division of the AAG

2003 Southwest AAG

2002 Middle States Division

2001 Southeast Division of the AAG

2000 Southeast Division of the AAG

1999 East Lakes Division

1998 East Lakes Division

1997 Middle States Division

1996 Southeast Division

1995 Southeast Division

1994

1993 Southeast Division

Stories

Member Profile: Trang VoPham — Understanding the Spatial Context of Cancer

Photo of Trang VoPham
Trang VoPham

Medical geographer Trang VoPham appreciates “the seamlessness between the disciplines” of geography and epidemiology, particularly in the application of geospatial methods, including GIS, to charting and confronting public health risks.

VoPham, who simultaneously pursued a Ph.D. in epidemiology and a masters degree in geospatial methods, now conducts research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. Her focus is understanding the influence of environmental factors associated with place or location on the incidence of disease in humans. On any given day, VoPham might find herself mapping measures of air pollution, analyzing demographic data across census tracts, or reading the latest publications on cancer. 

Much of her recent research has been aimed at uncovering environmental factors associated with liver cancer. In the United States, VoPham notes that a high proportion of liver cancers are unexplained. Aflatoxins produced by different fungi are known to be important environmental causes of liver cancer in some parts of the world but there is an emerging awareness that chronic exposure to air pollution may also result in elevated risk. 

Because cancers result from complex interactions of genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors, VoPham’s work is highly interdisciplinary. For example, in a study funded by the Prevent Cancer Foundation, she is working with investigators with expertise in geospatial science, environmental epidemiology, and health psychology to provide participants with their own air pollution sensors and an associated smartphone app that visualizes air quality in their vicinity. 

During the study, the research group will provide participants with information about harmful health effects of air pollution and offer them general strategies and specific cues for reducing their exposures. In doing so, the research group aims to empower people with information to take control of their own health and then assess whether they act on that information.

When asked about the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic for her own research, VoPham didn’t hesitate: “The COVID crisis has been a clear reminder to me of health disparities and the importance of addressing them in my work,” regardless of whether they are associated with geography, race/ethnicity, or some other factor.

Screenshot of Plume Labs tool used by Trang VoPham
Plume Labs tool used by Trang VoPham
Stories

Down from the Shelf: Accommodating Color Palettes for All

Photo of Trang VoPham
Trang VoPham

Medical geographer Trang VoPham appreciates “the seamlessness between the disciplines” of geography and epidemiology, particularly in the application of geospatial methods, including GIS, to charting and confronting public health risks.

VoPham, who simultaneously pursued a Ph.D. in epidemiology and a masters degree in geospatial methods, now conducts research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. Her focus is understanding the influence of environmental factors associated with place or location on the incidence of disease in humans. On any given day, VoPham might find herself mapping measures of air pollution, analyzing demographic data across census tracts, or reading the latest publications on cancer. 

Much of her recent research has been aimed at uncovering environmental factors associated with liver cancer. In the United States, VoPham notes that a high proportion of liver cancers are unexplained. Aflatoxins produced by different fungi are known to be important environmental causes of liver cancer in some parts of the world but there is an emerging awareness that chronic exposure to air pollution may also result in elevated risk. 

Because cancers result from complex interactions of genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors, VoPham’s work is highly interdisciplinary. For example, in a study funded by the Prevent Cancer Foundation, she is working with investigators with expertise in geospatial science, environmental epidemiology, and health psychology to provide participants with their own air pollution sensors and an associated smartphone app that visualizes air quality in their vicinity. 

During the study, the research group will provide participants with information about harmful health effects of air pollution and offer them general strategies and specific cues for reducing their exposures. In doing so, the research group aims to empower people with information to take control of their own health and then assess whether they act on that information.

When asked about the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic for her own research, VoPham didn’t hesitate: “The COVID crisis has been a clear reminder to me of health disparities and the importance of addressing them in my work,” regardless of whether they are associated with geography, race/ethnicity, or some other factor.

Screenshot of Plume Labs tool used by Trang VoPham
Plume Labs tool used by Trang VoPham