News

The AAG Annual Meeting Revenue Flow

April 20, 2026

By Antoinette WinklerPrins, AAG Council Treasurer

This is the last message by outgoing 2024-2026 Council Treasurer Antoinette WinklerPrins. In her earlier series, she helped illuminate several financial dimensions of a professional organization such as the AAG. In this column, she shares a visualization of the income and expenses flow of the AAG’s Annual Meeting. Read previous columns.

We recently gathered for our annual meeting in San Francisco—a celebration of the broad and diverse community that geographers are. The annual meeting is a key activity for the organization and its members. We had over 5,000 registrants and 1,200 sessions, with the majority being held in person, with a hybrid option for session organizers who opted in. Running a meeting is an expensive affair, and arrangements are usually made many years ahead of time, with some costs locked in while others are set at the time of the meeting. This means that there can be inflationary pressures on costs, as there was this year.

The figure below illustrates the flow of the 2026 AAG Annual Meeting Revenue and Expenses—demonstrating the fixed and variable costs that must be accounted for.

Sankey diagram titled “AAG Annual Meeting Revenue and Expense Analysis.” Revenue flows from registration (79%), exhibit booths (4%), sponsorships (7%), and other sources into total meeting revenue. Expenses flow into categories such as hotel, facility, and catering (22%); audiovisual services (23%); contracted meeting services (17%); staff capacity (25%); and smaller technology and administrative costs. Expenses ultimately divide into 62% variable costs and 38% fixed costs. Credit: Betsy Orgodol — Credit: Betsy Orgodol

The AAG operates on a break-even model for its annual meeting and sets its registration fee accordingly, but has to do so ahead of time without knowing precisely how many people will register, nor how some costs will change.

Annual Meeting variable expenses consist primarily of usage-based costs such as catering, certain hotel and facility fees, and audiovisual services—these are not fixed when the contract is signed, and depend on factors such as the number of registrants and number of sessions. The AAG contracts several meeting services, such as meeting and exhibit managers, decorators, childcare services, conference assistants, security, and service providers for conference participants who need accommodation. Staff capacity, insurance, and software technology fees are largely fixed costs that do not change based on the size of the meeting or the number of attendees.

The cost structure the AAG uses provides more flexibility and scalability—when attendance is strong, total expenses rise proportionally but are matched by increased registration and sponsorship revenue, enabling the organization to serve more participants without compromising the quality of the meeting experience. When attendance is smaller, costs decrease in areas like catering and certain service charges, though only to a limited extent since some baseline expenses remain fixed; even so, the meeting can be delivered efficiently while maintaining a consistent standard of value for attendees.

The AAG consistently works to control more costs to ensure that resources are used efficiently and that the meeting remains both financially sustainable and rewarding for attendees. While the AAG strives to conserve meeting expenses in the most efficient manner possible, inflationary pressures, such as those driven by tariffs impacting meeting-related costs and California sales and use taxes, presented a challenge this year. The combination of planning and contracting ahead helped AAG absorb some of these costs.

We realize that it may feel that registration fees are high; the break-even model for pricing is meant to provide you with the services the membership has asked for and expects (refreshments and meals, hybrid options, childcare, and accommodations for disabilities, among others) and to assure that the meeting is a quality event and a positive experience for all.

Please feel free to reach out to me or Gary Langham, AAG’s Executive Director with questions, comments, or concerns. Send your comments and questions with the subject line “Treasurer’s Corner” to helloworld@aag.org.

President's Column

Geographic Ignorance, the Iran War, and the End of US Hegemony

April 16, 2026

Great powers die when they needlessly fritter away their advantages. While I was never a fan of US hegemony, it did confer benefits to the country’s economy and its citizens. The War in Iran is the crowning blow to a year-long string of reckless moves that effectively destroy American hegemony by undermining the country’s moral positions, weakening its economy, and entangling the nation in an unwinnable war. A deeper understanding of geography could have mitigated such miscalculations, something future political leaders and the US public need to better understand if further missteps are to be avoided.

First, the current US administration has taken a sledgehammer to the existing world order built on multilateralism and a commitment to basic human rights. This system was erected in the mid-20^th century by the US and its allies in the wake of two devastating world wars. While the US and other powers violated the rules of engagement in a number of instances, there was enough of a commitment to multilateral institutions and fundamental principles that the system ensured a modicum of stability and shared economic benefits. The current administration’s zero-sum view of the world cannot comprehend the advantages that come with cooperation and soft power—and it has done everything possible to undermine multilateralism and destroy US bilateral foreign assistance.

In unilaterally blundering into the war in Iran, the US administration made no attempt to bring along other allies and then was shocked when European countries were unwilling to assist in the endeavor. The crowning blow came on April 7 when President Trump threatened to destroy Iranian civilization if the regime did not comply with his demands: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” Let us be clear that such wanton mass destruction is defined by international law as a war crime. This was a major breach of international moral strictures, shattering whatever remained of principled American leadership, and these statements were swiftly denounced by the Pope and other religious leaders.

Second, the debt-sponsored spending of the current administration has reached historic heights. The US national debt has now hit $39 trillion, and over the past year we have seen the fastest accumulation of a trillion dollars in debt outside of the pandemic. As of early April, the US had spent $28 billion on the war in Iran, a figure that keeps climbing. Such massive debt accumulation, coupled with cuts in research spending, will undoubtedly weaken the US economy for years to come, effectively diminishing economic might as a major component of US power on the world stage.

Geographical Perspective Is Badly Needed

Third, since February 28, the US has actively been engaged in military attacks on Iran (although we are in the midst of a shaky ceasefire as I write). This war of choice is an enormous strategic blunder as the US administration has plunged the country in an unwinnable conflict by failing to comprehend: 1) the cultural geography of Iran, 2) the daunting physical geography of the Strait of Hormuz (a major pinch point through which 20% of global oil and liquified natural gas pass), and 3) the ongoing vulnerability of the US economy to global oil shocks.

The US administration has grossly misread the cultural, social and political geography of Iran. Iran, formerly Persia, is one of the oldest nation states in the world, with organized settlements dating back to 3200-4000 BC and the first Persian Empire emerging in 550 BC (Achaemenid Empire). The result is not just an ancient cultural complex, but a relatively large country (with 90-some million people) with a strong national identity. This is also a region where the US has behaved badly in the past, supporting a covert coup to oust a democratically elected prime minister in 1953, and then installing Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who ruled until the Iranian Revolution in 1979. While there had been social unrest and internal discontent with the Islamic Regime in recent months and years, the lack of a more robust, organized resistance movement, and a formidably repressive regime, meant that a popular uprising in the wake of US and Israeli air attacks was unlikely. Even with an Iranian public that feels deep antipathy towards its rulers, such an uprising became even more unlikely when the US president made genocidal calls for the destruction of Iran’s civilization, effectively alienating a population with a deep sense of pride in its country.

The Strait of Hormuz is a physical pinch point in the global trade of oil and liquified natural gas. Exports originating in the Persian Gulf must pass through this strait controlled by Iran and Oman (although more so by Iran) (see map below). Iran’s extensive coastline is better suited for controlling the Persian Gulf and the Strait compared to its smaller, southern neighbors. More specifically, Iran’s long, continuous and mountainous coastline, coupled with multiple islands, and a relatively narrow deep-water channel through which large ships can pass, allows them to effectively monitor and mount guerrilla attacks on passing ships. As has been noted elsewhere, Iran does not need to halt all shipping, but only sporadically hit a few targets in order to bring a halt to all commercial shipping. It is increasingly clear that the US Administration and its war planners underestimated the import and difficulty of controlling this area.

Map of Straight of Hormuz and surrounding countries — The Strait of Hormuz, within the context of Iran and region. Cartography by Sophia Spisak, Macalester College, adapted from Encyclopedia Brittanica. Data sources: ESRI, Food and Ag. Org. GAUL, GADM, UN OCHA, USGS, Who’s on First.

The United State is still heavily dependent on fossil fuel consumption, with the current administration having abandoned all attempts to build up alternative energy sources. While other countries have worked hard to develop fossil fuel independence, the US administration has refused to understand that a fossil fuel-based economy is not only problematic in environmental terms, but it also leaves the country vulnerable to shocks in the global energy system. Although the US is the largest fossil fuel energy producer in the world, and largely creates what it needs, energy prices are deeply intertwined, meaning that disruptions in one part of the system reverberate throughout the world. As such, the US President’s claim that a closed Strait of Hormuz is not his problem represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how global energy market’s function. It also means that the US is still deeply vulnerable to the energy price shocks created by the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, including less obvious consequences such as higher fertilizer prices for farmers (which will impact food prices) and more profits for oil exporting adversaries such as Russia.

The War in Iran will be a Pyrrhic victory for the US at best. While the US president may eventually claim some sort of win, in the process he will have destroyed the country’s moral credibility and soft power, permanently set back the American economy, and created an unstable quagmire in Iran. The end result will be a hastened end to US hegemony brought about by hubris, cultural arrogance, and ignorance of geography.

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 moseley@macalester.edu to enable a constructive discussion.

Jean-Bernard Racine

Professor Emeritus at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, Jean-Bernard Racine passed away on March 23, 2026. He was renowned for bridging European and Anglo-American geographical traditions, playing a key role in introducing New Geography to the French-speaking academic world. He received the Vautrin Lud Prize in Geography in 1997.

Born into a Protestant family in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Racine earned his undergraduate degree in Geography from the University of Aix-en-Provence in France in 1962. He obtained his doctorate in Geography from the same university in 1965 under the supervision of Hildebert Isnard. Inspired by regional geography, Racine coined the term “peri-urban” to describe land changes in Southern France in the late 1960s.

Following a trip to Quebec in 1965, Racine was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Sherbrooke, which he headed from 1966 to 1969. In 1969, he was appointed associate professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada. His office was next to that of Stanley Gregory, a pioneer in the application of statistical methods to geography.

After his postdoctoral proposal was criticized for its lack of formal rigor, Racine embarked on a tour of American and Canadian universities, meeting Allen J. Scott at UCLA, Larry Bourne (one of his many “great friends”) and Bryn Greer-Wooten in Toronto, David Lowenthal and Alan Pred at Berkeley, and, most importantly, Brian Berry in Chicago, whose work on city networks he would admire for the rest of his life.

While in North America, Racine developed a long-lasting relationship with William (Bill) Bunge, with whom he shared a common interest first for theoretical geography, and later on for social justice and critical analysis of spatial structures. They stayed in touch regularly (and always by phone “for fear of being spied on by the CIA”) until the early 2000s.

Deeply committed to understanding how cities emerge and evolve, Racine shaped the field of urban geography by employing the statistical tools brought to the fore by the New Geography. The guidelines of this “revolution” were formalized in a small but influential book entitled “Quantitative Analysis in Geography” (L’Analyse Quantitative en Géographie) published in 1973 with Henri Reymond. Using Brian Berry’s statistical software, Racine applied quantitative analysis in his monumental second doctoral dissertation, devoted to the peri-urban growth of Greater Montreal in 1975.

At the age of just 33, Racine returned to Switzerland, where he served as director of the Institute of Geography at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) from 1973 to 1982. He was appointed associate professor and later full professor in the Faculty of Arts and at the School of Business and Economics (HEC), where he taught numerous courses in economic geography and epistemology. Racine was a brilliant speaker with a powerful voice that captivated his audience. At UNIL, he served as vice-dean (1980–1982) and dean (1982–1984) of the Faculty of Arts, before resuming the directorship of the Institute from 1986 to 1992 and from 2000 to 2004. He retired as professor emeritus in 2007.

Racine was one of the most influential figures in Francophone geography over the past fifty years. While he is mainly known for having imported quantitative geography from North American to Europe in the 1970s, his most enduring contribution to science is in theoretical geography. Less interested in techniques than in the questions that geography can help to formulate, Racine contributed to the renewal of geographical epistemology, often with other key Francophone geographers.

In 1981, he published “Geographical Questions” (Problématiques de la géographie) with Hildebert Isnard and Henri Reymond, a book that examined the questions that geographers face and how to approach them systematically. Racine published extensively with Claude Raffestin from the University of Geneva, who died in 2025, and with Antoine Bailly, another geographer who returned to Switzerland after living in Canada.

Racine played a decisive role in the culturalist turn that swept through the social sciences beginning in the 1980s. Like many other geographers, his shift toward cultural geography was inspired by the writings of David Ley, Anne Buttimer, Yi-Fu Tuan and, of course, David Harvey, whose book The Condition of Postmodernity was prominently displayed in his Lausanne office.

The son of a pastor, Racine’s approach was deeply rooted in a humanist tradition, which is reflected in a wealth of publications co-authored with his doctoral students, such as Antonio Cunha, Ola Söderström, Etienne Piguet, and Lorenza Mondada. Published in 1993, The City Between God and Man (La Ville entre Dieu et les Hommes) is undoubtedly the book that best combines his deep interest for urban transformation and religious faith.

In the ten years leading up to his retirement in 2007, Racine turned his attention to urban issues, particularly that of Lausanne, a city for which he had a deep passion. Far from resting on its laurels, and always surrounded by many young researchers, he threw himself with seemingly inexhaustible energy into the study of the city’s “fragile” or marginalized users. His humanistic approach to geography, attentive to the voices of young people, people with disabilities, and migrants, anticipates the most recent work in our discipline.

Internationally, Racine served as vice-chair of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on Urban Development and Urban Life from 1992 to 2000. He worked closely with or in parallel to influential French geographers such as Paul Claval, Sylvie Rimbert, René Dumont, Jean Labasse, Pierre Georges, Roger Brunet, and Denise Pumain. He played a leading role in the Dupont Group, founded in 1971 to introduce theoretical and quantitative geography in France, and in the organization of the Géopoint conferences beginning in 1976.

The author of four major books and 250 articles, Racine served as co-editor of Geographica Helvetica for many years and was a member of the editorial board of L’Espace géographique, Géographie et Cultures, and Articulo-Journal of Urban Research, founded by his doctoral students in 2005.

Racine’s influence on modern geography is evident in his ability to bring together geographers from remarkably diverse backgrounds. Based in Quebec and Switzerland, he managed to occupy a central position in our discipline without being located at its geographical center.

One of his most enduring contributions is having mentored two generations of geographers, all of whom, with rare exceptions, hold academic positions in Switzerland, Europe, and the United States. Racine tirelessly devoted his extraordinary intellect to the ideas that underpin modern geography. With his passing, we have lost one of the greatest brokers of Francophone geography.

Written by Olivier Walther

See All Memorials

On the Map

Tracking the Geography of Diseases: How Epidemiologists Map Infection

April 6, 2026

Geography in the News is an educational series offered by the American Association of Geographers for teachers and students in all subjects. We include vocabulary, discussion, and assignment ideas at the end of each article.

By Neal Lineback

Have you ever wondered where you caught a cold? If so, you’ve asked the first question epidemologists ask about infectious diseases. Epidemiology is the study of how diseases spread. It relies on geography to find its answers.

You could say that epidemiologists study the “where” of diseases. Specifically, they study the paths of communicable diseases.

What are communicable diseases? They’re the ones you can catch. These illnesses spread through viruses, fungi, or bacteria, typically from person to person, and sometimes from animals to people. Some diseases come from contaminated food, water, or insects. All of these transmissions relate to geography.

Viruses and bacteria are all around us, particularly in dense human populations. Some are harmless. But dangerous viruses range across a whole host of diseases, from pneumonia and whooping cough to measles, chicken pox, and polio, among others.

Among the least dangerous to healthy individuals is the common cold, or Rhinovirus. Its symptoms are normally mild. The cold is so common that it’s almost impossible to know where you caught it—unless you are an epidemologist. Through contact tracing, distribution maps, and other tools, epidemiologists can find the initial source of an infection. It takes only one or two people for a disease to spread as contacts multiply.

Epidemiology is a science of time as well as space. Once a few people show symptoms, they could infect 50 percent or more of the people they come in contact with, within three to ten days. This makes swift analysis crucial.

A fast-moving virus can cause an epidemic or pandemic. The difference between the two is in distribution. The disease is distributed unevenly in an epidemic, with some communities having few or no cases. In a pandemic, many more people are sick across more areas. Deaths and hospitalizations are elevated too.

This is why the flu virus—which is actually a number of virus types that can mutate over time–and the COVID viruses are carefully tracked by their strain. Flu is also identified by type. If you have ever heard a strain of influenza referred to as A,B,C, or D, you have heard its type, based on its severity. “A” causes pandemics and is the most dangerous. “B” can cause epidemics. “C” causes mild cold-like symptoms. “D” is an animal variety.

The recent COVID outbreak in 2020-2023 was a pandemic in the United States. Ensheng Dong, a Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins University, was one of the first people in the world to create a map-based dashboard to show the disease’s spread. Using a Geographic Information System (GIS), Dong worked with physicists, geographers, and others at the university to build a map to track outbreaks. Its red-on-black appearance became iconic.

Outbreaks of many viral infections can be mapped. The CDC (Centers of Disease Control) and other international medical institutions maintain huge geographical databases to follow outbreaks around the world. This research is critical in slowing, treating, and containing viral diffusions and concentrations, allowing the medical professionals to predict where intervention (ie. tests, warnings, and vaccinations) can be helpful in reducing deaths and hospitalizations.

Epidemiology is still a young science. Less than 175 years ago, a doctor named John Snow identified the source of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London: a neighborhood water pump. He did this by mapping all of the cholera cases in the area and interviewing the families. Once he identified the common location they’d used to draw water, he removed the handle from the pump. New cases fell.

This map shows the 2013 spread of polio worldwide:

This map by Rachael Carpenter indicates that the spread of polio began with a concentration in Afghanistan, then jumped to Somalia, Kenya, and Nigeria. The disease spread to Nigeria’s African neighbors Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Central African Republic, Uganda, and Liberia. — In 2013, Geography in the News reported on a severe polio outbreak, showing the path of infection. Map by Rachael Carpenter

Polio cases began with a concentration in Afghanistan, then jumped to Somalia, Kenya, and Nigeria. The disease spread to Nigeria’s neighbors in Africa, before it was finally halted through the efforts of multiple relief organizations’ vaccine programs, including The World Health Organization (WHO),The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Rotary International, and the Centers for Disease Control.

So how can a microscopic virus jump thousands of miles from Afghanistan to Nigeria? Clearly, modern technology played a role in moving such great distances over the earth’s surface. What made the countries adjacent to Nigeria so susceptible to the spread of polio? These are geographic questions on the minds of health officials as they battle communicable diseases worldwide everyday.The mobilities of viruses around the world require constant attention.

Note: You can reduce your odds of infection by frequent hand washing, using tissues and avoiding touching your face when you sneeze. Cleaning your work spaces and using a mask, or covering your mouth when you cough, are also good practices.

And that is Geography in the News.

Material in this article comes from “Polio Returns with a Vengeance” (2013), an original article for Geography in the News by Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner.

AAG’s Geography in the News is inspired by the series of the same name founded by Neal Lineback, professor and the chair of Appalachian State University’s Department of Geography and Planning. For nearly 30 years from 1986 to 2013, GITN delivered timely explainer articles to educators and students, relevant to topics in the news. Many of these were published on Maps.com’s educational platforms and in National Geographic’s blogs. AAG is pleased to carry on the series.

Vocabulary

Communicable disease
Epidemic
Fungus/Fungi
Iconic
Mutate
Pandemic
Strain
Virus

Discussion

What are some of the tools epidemiologists use to track how diseases spread?
Why do we say that epidemiology is a science of time as well as space?
What is the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic?
What are some of the reasons that a virus can “jump” long distances?

The Status of Women and Underrepresented Groups in Geography – A Multidimensional Analysis

March 10, 2026