Advocacy

The Battle for SBE and Science Funding: What You Can Do

April 23, 2026

In early April, the White House published its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027. In its current form, the proposal threatens the core of U.S. scientific leadership; and if passed by Congress, would impose devastating cuts to programs supporting geography, climate, and spatial sciences.

These proposed reductions included a 55% cut to funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the elimination of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) directorate. The impact of this proposed elimination is already being felt, with Nature reporting that NSF leadership is moving to comply in advance by dissolving the directorate entirely, strictly on the basis of the White House request.

Historically, the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate has been a cornerstone of funding for geographers, and social and psychological scientists, supporting nearly 63% of all academic research across those disciplines, but it suffers from an administrative hurdle that other directorates do not have: it was not statutorily established. SBE was established in the early 1990s because of years-long advocacy by social scientists who believed it should exist outside of the biology directorate. In 2017, NSF reaffirmed the value of SBE research to the nation’s priorities in a report that asserted “The diverse SBE sciences that are supported at NSF—anthropology, archaeology, demography, economics, geography, linguistics, neuroscience, political science, psychology, sociology, and statistics—produce fundamental knowledge, methods, and tools for a greater understanding of people and how they live,” knowledge that forms a foundation for acting on national priorities in keeping with the NSF mission.

Nonetheless, SBE’s lack of statutory status reduces its legal and budgetary protections.

The Administration took similar measures in 2025, when it proposed the elimination of the directorate in the 2026 Budget. Due to push-back from many in the science community, including geographers, Congress took measures to limit these cuts, ensuring that the SBE would be able to operate at least through FY 2026.

This iteration of the administration’s budget proposal is likely to face a steep uphill climb in both halls of Congress, as it did in 2025, with members from both sides of the aisle articulating their support for sciences. We must continue to show our legislators that funding for spatial science matters.

What’s next?

In the past two weeks, the House and Senate Budget Committees held their first hearings with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vought. These were the first opportunities for the administration to defend the proposed cuts. During these marathon sessions, members from both sides of the aisle grilled the OMB Director on cuts to NSF, and other domestic agencies, voicing their displeasure with the impact that this would have on research across the board. Each chamber will work to draft and complete their concurrent budget resolutions by months-end.

In the month or so ahead, the budget will move through both Chambers’ appropriations committees, where it will be marked up for hopeful completion by the end of June. The subcommittees most important in determining how NSF, and SBE funds are appropriated include the House and Senate Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS). The House Subcommittee will hold its markup on April 30, 2026, followed by a full House Appropriations Committee markup on May 13, 2026. Both will be public unless voted on as otherwise by committee members. Between these two Committee markups, the National Science Board (NSB) was scheduled to hold its next meeting on May 5^th. This meeting has since been cancelled. As the governing body of NSF, the NSB’s perspectives on the budget are vital to helping Congress and the president understand which budgetary decision best align with the NSF’s mission. The NSB’s dismissal will have more consequential impacts as the budget process continues to unfold.

Congress must approve a budget, to be sent to the President’s desk by the 30^th of September, or face a government shutdown.

What can you do?

Document how SBE funding has made an impact on your work, your institution, and especially your community and the nation. Send examples to advocacy@aag.org and use them in your communications with your Congressional representatives.
Reach out to your member of Congress, using tools like those provided by the Consortium of Social Science Associations, and AAG’s Action Kit to urge your member of Congress to recognize the importance of disciplines like geography to the nation’s long arc of innovation, and to express any concerns you may have related to the elimination of this crucial directorate of the NSF.
UPDATE: As of April 25^th, 2026, the Administration has fired the entirety of the National Science Board, the governing body of the NSF. May’s meeting of the NSB has been cancelled. Please use tools like those provided by the Consortium of Social Science Associations, and AAG’s Action Kit to urge your member of Congress to recognizethe important role of this storied institution.
Encourage members of your network, such as department leaders, provosts, executives in the private sector, to be in touch and amplify your message.
Add your voice to the public dialogue on science funding. Many people in your community may not even know the stakes of this battle. Write an op ed, schedule a talk at your library, or share on social media. AAG’s Action Kit has ideas and how-to’s.

Stay alert to the appropriations process as it progresses, and stay in touch with AAG through advocacy@aag.org with your questions and ideas.

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.

From the Meridian

Upgrading AAG’s Investment Portfolio and Benchmarks

December 15, 2025

White curved arrow painted on green background (decorative); Credit: Donald Giannatti zHPTMNZz-NM, Unsplash

Credit: Donald Giannatti, Unsplash

In June 2022, AAG made a significant change to its investment approach by adding ESG screens to its portfolio. ESG stands for environment, social, and governance, and it offers investors a way to align their values with decisions about their stock holdings.

While it has always been possible to screen holdings actively, there are several reasons this approach is challenging for professional academic organizations like AAG. Active management of funds costs 2-3% more, and unless it allows one to chase the highest-performing stocks, it does not make financial sense. All other things being equal, over 30 years a difference like this results in a 74% reduction in returns. Active management also requires some way to avoid risk in investments and to make informed selections of stock holdings.

So, why don’t we just invest in bonds or something safe? In fact, there is a law that requires organizations like AAG to seek a reasonable return on endowed funds called UPMIFA. When AAG agrees to manage endowments for awards and other member benefits, it agrees to seek returns sufficient to fund them in perpetuity. In addition, we must remind ourselves that these funds are used to pay for things closely aligned with our mission. In 2025, for example, AAG funds helped 471 students attend the annual meeting. Investments pay for mission-related support like this.

To generate sufficient returns over time, investment earnings must exceed the costs of the investment platform and inflation in addition to the awards themselves. A typical approach is to maintain a broad portfolio that buffers against market downturns (as in 2023) and benefits from market upturns (as in 2024-5). AAG has done this for many years with a 50/50 split of bonds and diversified stock holdings. To avoid paying active management fees, it works with an investment advisor and automatically rebalances its stock holdings to seek returns and diversification.

ESG screens are a relatively new option that has the lower costs of passive investing while still allowing for values-based approaches. When AAG switched over to an ESG approach in 2022, we had to choose up to three screens from a list of 20. We selected fossil fuels, environment, and social justice. The returns over the next two years tracked the broader market closely, allowing us to meet our UPMIFA obligations and secure good returns for our mission awards and programming.

This fall, AAG added a fourth investment screen to guide its portfolio of endowed and board-restricted funds. As part of the due diligence in response to the recent member petition, our analyses revealed eight military weapons investments in our portfolio. One of the 20 screens offered by our investment company is military weapons. I enquired about whether adding that screen would cover the eight companies in question. In addition to affirming that the new screen would cover the companies in question, we also analyzed whether adding this as a fourth screen, rather than swapping one of the original three, was possible. This analysis yields a “tracking error” estimate that the industry uses to assess whether the options in the remaining funds after screening are likely to produce sufficient returns. Thankfully, the tracking error was low enough to add it as a fourth screen, which we did immediately. Once the screens were reflected in AAG holdings, I compared them with two human rights divestment benchmarks (the UN human rights and the American Friends Service Committee). Happily, we were now completely aligned with both funds.

This exercise brought up a new question. How do we know whether the ESG screens are performing as intended? Indeed, the ESG ratings are based on detailed compilations of Morningstar, a large, national investment firm. However, even a well-established company like this is susceptible to political pressure. Recently, it reported that it altered its human rights assessments and ratings in response to a coalition of states raising objections to its methods. Even without this example, we know all methods like this are fallible in one way or another. So, how can we continue with ESG screens but assess their performance?

To accomplish this, I recently proposed to the Finance Committee that we adopt external benchmarks to provide a thorough evaluation. The AAG Finance Committee assists AAG in overseeing its budget and investments. For each screen, we will work with stakeholder groups at AAG to identify the best possible benchmarks and then compare our holdings. In addition to the two mentioned above, we are considering Gogel for oil, coal, and gas, and Norges Bank for environment, social justice, and fossil fuels. Collectively, these four benchmarks offer us a way to monitor our ESG screens. Performance would be calculated at least once a year and reported to the Finance Committee and Council. From time to time, AAG would also conduct a more in-depth review of options for value-based screening options.

Collectively, these approaches help AAG set a new standard in investments for professional societies. Our efforts to conduct due diligence as part of the petition process have pushed AAG to define these practices. We remain fully committed to balancing our responsibilities to achieve funding for our awards and member services, while maintaining our values-based organization.

Please note: The ideas expressed by Executive Director Gary Langham are not necessarily the views of the AAG as a whole. Please feel free to email him at glangham [at] aag [dot] org.

On the Map

Harlem of the West: Jazz, People, and Place in the Fillmore

December 3, 2025

By Mirembe Ddumba

Stand on Fillmore and Geary streets on a Saturday evening, and you can almost hear it. Neon humming against the dusk, a saxophone warming up behind a church door, the ghost of Billie Holiday’s voice floating between the streetlights. In these few streets, jazz wrote itself onto San Francisco’s grid.

The sound arrived by train.

The Sound of Migration

During World War II, African Americans from Louisiana, Texas, and across the South boarded trains bound for San Francisco’s shipyards. Between 1940 and 1950, the city’s Black population grew tenfold, from 4,800 to 43,000, filling apartments left empty when Japanese American families were forced into internment camps.

Musicians arrived with guitars slung over shoulders, horns wrapped in cloth. They transformed twenty blocks into the “Harlem of the West.” By the late 1940s, you could walk Fillmore Street on any night and hear Dizzy Gillespie bleeding through one door, smell barbecue from the next, watch Cadillacs pull up to drop off couples dressed for Jimbo’s Bop City.

Bop City at 1690 Post Street ran after-hours sessions until sunrise. Charlie Parker traded choruses with Dexter Gordon while Billie Holiday sat in a corner booth. Down the street, Ella Fitzgerald sang at the Champagne Supper Club and tried on hats between sets. The Blue Mirror. Club Flamingo. Jack’s Tavern. Two dozen venues within one square mile, each separated by a five-minute walk.

John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, and Thelonious Monk rented rooms above the clubs, ate at soul food diners, bought records at local shops, and shaped the neighborhood’s sonic identity night after night. This wasn’t accidental. The grid itself made it possible.

Black-and-white photo showing Fillmore Street, south of Post Street, late 1940s. The neighborhood’s dense grid and constant traffic fueled the energy of the "Harlem of the West." Credit: David Johnson — Fillmore Street, south of Post Street, late 1940s. The neighborhood’s dense grid and constant traffic fueled the energy of the “Harlem of the West.” Credit: David Johnson

Geography as Destiny

The Fillmore’s layout made this density possible. Narrow Victorian storefronts, twenty feet wide, meant multiple clubs per block. Short blocks with corner entries created constant foot traffic. The 22-Fillmore streetcar brought audiences from downtown, turning the neighborhood into one continuous jazz experience.

In 1948, city planners declared the Fillmore “blighted.” Under Redevelopment Agency director M. Justin Herman, bulldozers arrived. The Western Addition A-1 and A-2 projects demolished Victorian homes and shuttered clubs across 104 blocks. Geary Street, once lined with music venues, became Geary Boulevard, a four-lane expressway cutting the neighborhood in half.

By 1964, authorities had displaced 4,000 residents from A-1 alone. Jazz musicians scattered to Oakland, the East Bay, and Los Angeles. Residents gave urban renewal a different name: “Negro Removal”.

You could go out on Friday night and not come home until Sunday night because there is so much to do.”

—Elizabeth Pepin Silva, filmmaker and author of Harlem of the West

The clubs closed. The musicians left. But the music never completely died.

Map showing Western Addition redevelopment zones A-1 and A-2, which demolished 104 blocks and displaced thousands of residents. Credit: San Francisco Redevelopment Agency archives — Western Addition redevelopment zones A-1 and A-2, which demolished 104 blocks and displaced thousands of residents. Credit: San Francisco Redevelopment Agency archives

Still Playing

Walk Fillmore Street now, and commemorative plaques mark where Bop City stood, where the barbershop was, where musicians bought their reeds. Listen closely, though. The Fillmore Auditorium still books acts, its walls papered with decades of concert posters. Calvary Presbyterian Church hosts Sunday jazz services. Jones Memorial United Methodist Church opens its doors for Friday night sessions.

Every July since 1986, the Fillmore Jazz Festival closes twelve blocks to cars. Over 50,000 people flooded the streets for two days. Five stages. Artisan booths. The smell of Ethiopian food mixing with New Orleans-style barbecue. For one weekend, the neighborhood becomes what it was, pedestrians moving from stage to stage, music echoing off Victorian facades.

On other nights, the music lives in smaller rooms. 1300 on Fillmore books jazz acts in an intimate room with velvet couches. The Boom Boom Room sits on the corner where John Lee Hooker used to own a club. Rasselas Ethiopian Restaurant serves injera and hosts live music Thursday through Sunday. The building that housed Jimbo’s Bop City was literally picked up and moved two blocks west. It’s Marcus Books now, an Afrocentric bookstore that archives what redevelopment tried to erase.

Stand at Fillmore and Geary on Saturday evening. Close your eyes. Past the bus engines and car horns, you can still hear it. A saxophone warming up. The ghost of a neighborhood that jazz built, that policy tried to destroy, and that memory refuses to let die.

Photo showing an overhead view of musicians playing to a packed crowd at the Fillmore Jazz Festival. Credit: Fillmore Jazz Festival — Musicians play to a packed crowd at the Fillmore Jazz Festival, which brings over 50,000 people annually to celebrate the neighborhood’s musical legacy. Credit: Fillmore Jazz Festival

Learn More

Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era by Elizabeth Pepin Silva and Lewis Watts
Interactive Map: Historic Fillmore Jazz Venues (FoundSF)
San Francisco African American Historical & Cultural Society
KQED’s Fillmore History Timeline

Saul Cohen

On June 9, 2021, Saul Bernard Cohen passed away at the age of 95, surrounded by his loving family. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, he spent much of his life on the East Coast, as he attended the Boston Latin School and later went on to earn his bachelor’s and Ph.D. at Harvard University—graduating right before Harvard terminated the geography program.

He headed the School of Geography at Clark University and became a professor, director, and then later Dean of the Graduate School. During this time, he was lauded for revitalizing the Graduate School of Geography’s (GSOG) academic standards and increasing minority enrollment in the late 1960s/early 1970s. He also established teacher preparation programs for new and experienced teachers with funding obtained from the U.S. Office of Education for the Training of Teachers program, and a National Science Foundation departmental development grant designed to produce “centers of excellence.”

His plans included developing new strengths in the areas of environmental cognition, international development (particularly in Africa), and environmental hazards management. The expansion of the school’s graduate program allowed the faculty to double, and the number of graduate students substantially increased. Traditional environment-focused courses were rejuvenated by new concepts and techniques. As the environmental movement grew, the number of geography undergraduate majors rose to more than 100. The school also doubled its annual output of doctorates in the 1970s. Clark was a linchpin of one of Cohen’s other programmatic ideas: a consortium of doctorate-granting geography departments recruiting faculty or prospective faculty of historically Black colleges and universities to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees.

Following his career at Clark, Cohen served as president of Queens College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) from 1978 – 1985. Through his persistent advocacy, he was responsible for securing funding for key capital projects, many of which are still standing, including the Benjamin Rosenthal Library, the Copeland School of Music Building, science facilities, and Townsend Harris High School.

After leaving Queens College, Cohen was a professor of geography at Hunter College for 10 years. He served as AAG president from 1989 to 1990, and in 1993, he was elected to the New York State Board of Regents. He served for 17 years, chairing the Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Committee when it established new academic standards for the school.

He is remembered for his research specializing in economic and political geography of the Middle East and editing and authoring 16 books, including his work as an editor of The Oxford World Atlas. Saul was a beloved husband to his wife of 71 years, Miriam Friederman Cohen, and a dedicated father and father-in-law, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend.

See All Memorials

From the Meridian

What is the role of a professional society like AAG?

May 30, 2025

Photo credit: Alter&Go/AbsolutVision, Unsplash

Recent attacks on higher education threaten our foundational rights, such as academic freedom and advances in diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia. In a multi-part series, I relate these things to AAG’s history, core values, and work in the future.

Part I: Academic Freedom

Founding AAG and Higher Education

When the AAG was founded in 1904 as a new professional society, higher education, as we now know it, was still relatively new. Only after the Civil War did modern colleges and universities take shape in the United States, aiming to give broad education to the general public. Before this shift, universities served more as training grounds for the clergy and the elite.^1,2

As America sought to rebuild itself after the war, the value of an educated workforce and one with new skills was deemed essential: skilled labor replaced manual labor as the country increasingly moved from agrarian to industrial. Public institutions of higher learning joined private ones across the country. Education became available to more and more people, and crossed economic, social, racial, and gender boundaries, while leaving significant barriers for many.^1,3

During this time, the discipline of geography emerged as a distinct branch of study and research. More institutions required more trained experts. Geography shifted from surveys, cataloging, and mapping to deeper analysis and understanding of people and places. The career of the first AAG President, William Morris Davis, showcases all these changes. Trained at Harvard’s Lawrence Scientific School in 1869, he got a master’s in mining engineering in 1870. He then joined a geographic expedition in Colorado before working as a meteorologist in Argentina. This broad background helped Morris when he then moved on to geomorphology. By 1890, Morris was a full Harvard professor, merging meteorology, geology, and geography. His teaching and publishing helped establish numerous theories and subfields.^1,3

An Association to Strengthen and Support Geography

At the time of AAG’s founding, societies that focused on geography tended towards exploration and wealthy elites. When the National Geographic Society (NGS) was founded in 1888, it provided a much-needed home for academics like Morris, but it also faced financial challenges. When its second president, Alexander Graham Bell (yes, that Bell), proposed that the NGS start a non-technical publication to bring content to the masses and thus increase membership and revenue, Morris was concerned. There really wasn’t a place for serious academics to publish technical research and discuss the still-evolving field of geography. Thus, in 1904, he and colleagues founded the AAG: a professional society with the primary goal of hosting intellectual exchange and defining the best practices within the profession.¹

AAG’s Core Mission

The AAG’s core mission is to support the profession and foster intellectual exchange. Protecting academic freedom—the right of professional academics to pursue research and teaching free from political interference—is a core value of the AAG. Academic freedom in higher education benefits society through the production and dissemination of knowledge. This benefit is as true in research as it is in the classroom. Modern higher education cannot succeed without academic freedom; without it, all the benefits society gains from free inquiry are threatened, diminished, or lost.

While we may know this is true, it is easy to take it for granted. Today, we see renewed efforts to curtail academic freedom at a scale and fervor not seen since the “Red Scares” after WWI and WWII. Culminating in the late1960s, political attacks on ideas in higher education were rampant, threatening the independence that great research and teaching depend upon.² Importantly, these political tensions resulted in two Supreme Court rulings, Sweezy v. New Hampshire in 1957 and Keyishian v. Board of Regents in 1967, clearly established academic freedom as a special case of the First Amendment, covering professors, institutions and, to a lesser extent, students.⁴

Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom.”

—Justice Earl Warren, Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589 (1967)⁴

Although the boundaries and extent of academic freedom have continued to be tested, the breadth of these rulings help explain why it has felt so settled in my lifetime. But is it really settled? As of December 2023, even before current federal actions, more than 30 states had enacted some version of Florida’s “Stop Woke Act”.⁵ Now, the current administration seems determined to bring these actions to the federal level by curtailing DEI efforts and hiring practices, policing speech and teaching, and wielding funding cuts and accreditation threats.⁶

AAG is committed to protect academic freedom in higher education. Although AAG’s commitment to academic freedom is infused throughout our working principles, it is most clearly expressed through policy and advocacy.⁷ We support these in two ways. First, AAG seeks to connect professional geographers to policymakers and decision-makers. Geographers’ insights and methods can help society make better decisions, laws, and governance. Second, it seeks to protect the essential requirements of professional geographers: funding and academic freedom. Laws that do not support these essential ingredients diminish the discipline and its practitioners to the detriment of geography and society.

The Power of Science Relies on Academic Freedom

Science is powerful because it questions itself and both encourages and rewards practitioners who challenge established principles. Academic freedom is critical to empowering science and similar approaches to the world. Ideas must be free to flourish, to be critiqued, discussed, and sometimes discarded. As with every human endeavor, the process of science can suffer from any human foible, but in the long term, even seemingly insuperable challenges become solutions in the next edition of textbooks. How those texts and lessons are taught to the next generation of researchers is critical, too. The ability for politically unpopular ideas to be discussed and debated is a cornerstone of academic freedom.³

In the literature, academic freedom is achieved through peer review. The key controls are other highly trained specialists who judge the scholarly value of submissions. In principle, only well-researched and carefully documented ideas are published as quality control. But mistakes can be retracted, ideas overthrown, and new ideas dominate.

Science is therefore not final any more than it is infallible.”

—William Morris Davis

Davis’s work showcases how science is ultimately self-correcting, but not always in the short term. Infamous for his now-discredited ideas about environmental determinism, his misapplication of Darwinian thinking to explain patterns of human civilization, was an unfortunate contribution to the literature.⁸ Future publications show how his thinking was incorrect, but the damage done to geography as a discipline is not self-correcting.³

The value of a professional society is to aid the production of knowledge and hasten the self-correcting cycle. It creates spaces where ideas can be shared, discussed, and debated at conferences. It also creates spaces where peer review leads to publications in journals. Its neutrality allows peer review to function, all while championing academic freedom in its venues and the institutions of its members. Additionally, it creates spaces where practitioners can get career advice and assistance from peers or mentors. All these spaces are aided by a set of professional codes of conduct and ethics that the professional society helps establish and enforce.

Conclusion

The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a professional academic society representing the professional interests of its members. What should you expect from your professional society, especially during fractious political times? I would argue that it’s the same as any other time: To help you succeed in your profession, grow the profession, support robust intellectual exchange in journals and conferences, set professional standards and ethics, and help connect professionals and their expertise to society for the benefit of all. To support the needs and interests of professional and aspiring geographers. To support and aid the career paths of geographers. To make geography available to all.

When AAG’s founders created it, they did so because the emerging discipline of geography needed these things to thrive. The world has changed a lot since 1904, but that need remains, and the AAG’s core values and mission also remain constant.

Footnotes

¹Preston E. James and Geoffrey J. Martin, The Association of American Geographers, the First Seventy-Five Years, 1904-1979 (Association of American Geographers, 1978).

²Keith E. Whittington, You Can’t Teach That! The Battle over University Classrooms (Polity Press, 2024).

³In telling our history, we must acknowledge that, even as higher education was available to more people, many were still left out. Part 2 of this article will address this truth and its consequences still impacting us today.

⁴David M. Rabban, Academic Freedom: From Professional Norm to First Amendment Right (Harvard University Press, 2024).

⁵Report of a Special Committee: Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida’s Public Higher Education System (AAUP 2023). https://www.aaup.org/file/AAUP_Florida_final.pdf

⁶John R. Vile, First Amendment Rights of Colleges and Universities (Free Speech Center 2025).

⁷Read more about AAG’s Advocacy and Policy work: https://www.aag.org/advocacy/.

⁸David N. Livingstone, The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992).

Please note: The ideas expressed by Executive Director Gary Langham are not necessarily the views of the AAG as a whole. Please feel free to email him at glangham [at] aag [dot] org.