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AAG Announces 2019 Class of AAG Fellows

The AAG Fellows is a program, started in 2018, to recognize geographers who have made significant contributions to advancing geography.

In addition to honoring geographers, AAG Fellows will serve the AAG as an august body to address key AAG initiatives including creating and contributing to AAG initiatives; advising on AAG strategic directions and grand challenges; and mentoring early and mid-career faculty. Similarly to other scientific organizations, the honorary title of AAG Fellow is conferred for life. Once designated, AAG Fellows remain part of this ever-growing advisory body. The AAG Honors Committee has recommended these Fellows to serve as the 2019 class.

John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles

John Agnew is a Professor of Geography at the University of California Los Angeles. His sustained contributions over several decades have rightfully made him one of the most respected names in human geography worldwide. He has always been strongly committed to the discipline of Geography and to the importance of communicating the significance of geographic research and education to a broad audience.

Agnew’s contributions include monographs on geopolitics that have challenged the interdisciplinary scholarly community to rethink conceptions of hegemony and sovereignty. His multiple books, scholarly articles, and book chapters prove his intellectual stature and global reputation.

In addition to serving as the President of the AAG, Professor Agnew has been recognized with an impressive array of honors including the AAG’s Distinguished Scholarship Award and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.  He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Geographic Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

We are therefore pleased to bestow upon John Agnew the title of AAG Fellow.

Anthony J. Brazel, Arizona State University

Anthony (Tony) J. Brazel is Professor Emeritus in the School of Geographic Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University.  His contributions to geography include his impressive scholarly record in urban climatology and his service to both research scientists and the public as the State Climatologist of Arizona and Director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy.  Furthermore, Dr. Brazel has shared his passion for research and infectious curiosity with students in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate climatology courses as well as with the 20 doctoral students he has mentored.

For these accomplishments, he has received the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science’s Outstanding Service Award, the Helmut E. Landsberg Award from the American Meteorological Society, the Association of American Geographers Climate Specialty Group’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been named a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science.

Among Brazel’s more than 150 research articles and reports, he has published twice in Nature and three times in Science.  These and other influential works represent major advances in understanding urban climate in desert environments.  Additionally, he has served colleagues in geography and climate science through his work with the American Geographical Society, the Royal Meteorological Society, the International Association for Urban Climate, and the American Association of Geographers, where he also served on the AAG’s Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Committee.

We are, therefore, pleased to bestow upon Anthony J. Brazel the title of AAG Fellow.

Stanley Brunn, University of Kentucky

Stanley Brunn is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky. He is perhaps best known as a political geographer but has also made very significant contributions to urban and social geography. In 25 books, 80 chapters, and 100 research articles, Brunn has exemplified a non-doctrinaire and creative approach to the production of diverse geographical knowledges. In addition to contributing to existing fields, Stan has pioneered whole new areas of research, including the geographies of electronic communications, of mega-engineering projects, and a reinvigorated geography of religions.

As Editor of The Professional Geographer from 1982-1987, and as Editor of the Annals of the AAG from 1988 to 1993, Stan gave unselfishly of his time and energy to guide and develop our Association’s journals. Most recently, Brunn endowed the creation of the AAG Stanley Brunn Award for Creativity in Geography, which has recognized ground-breaking geographers such as Yi-Fu Tuan, the late Robert Kates, Susan Hanson and David Harvey, to name a few.

Brunn has taught and mentored hundreds of students at all levels and has taken a particular interest in passing along his enthusiasm for geography to beginning social studies teachers. Stan is an exceptionally generous and conscientious departmental colleague who was always willing to take on leadership roles and administrative chores without complaint. His academic leadership, his scholarship, and his generous collegiality are all exemplary and have advanced our discipline inestimably.

We are therefore pleased to bestow upon Stanley Brunn the title of AAG Fellow.

David R. Butler, Texas State University

David R. Butler has made significant contributions to the discipline of geography through his outstanding record of undergraduate teaching at Texas State University, and his trailblazing efforts to establish and promote the sub-discipline of zoogeomorphology. The latter involves the study of interactions between ecological and geomorphological processes in mountain regions. The field was codified in Butler’s seminal book, Zoo-geomorphology: Animals as Geomorphic Agents, first published in 1995 by Cambridge University Press.

Also significant is Butler’s role in mentoring the next generation of geographers, which he has achieved by supervising 17 Ph.D. and 40 Masters students. Butler’s disciplinary leadership includes serving in important editorial positions, including as Editor of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and as Section Editor of Progress in Physical Geography. These positions sustain the discipline and define the future direction of the field.  Butler is best known as someone who sees both the landscape and the literature of our discipline and communicates this connection to new scholars and other users of geographic knowledge.

David Butler is awarded the title of AAG Fellow for his contributions to physical geography, his commitment to training new geographers, his influential editorial work, and for establishing the sub-discipline of zoogeomorphology.

William Clark, University of California, Los Angeles

William A. V. Clark is Distinguished Research Professor in UCLA’s Department of Geography. Bill is the most prominent and influential geographer in housing, segregation and neighborhood change research over the last three decades, and is also one the leading scholars in these subjects across all the social sciences. His classic 1991 paper in Demography lit a fire under residential segregation studies by showing how applying empirically collected residential preference data to the Schelling model could explain persistence in residential spatial separation between racial and ethnic groups. His more than 500 publications have been cited nearly 15,000 times.

Clark is one of a select few geographers who has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He is also an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and a Guggenheim Fellow. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Association of Geographers in 2018.

Bill taught legions of undergraduate and graduate students in his courses on population geography, Los Angeles, and California, and is treasured as a mentor to, and collaborator with, junior colleagues. In two terms as Department Chair, he played a crucial role in establishing successful undergraduate majors and graduate programs.

In light of his major contributions to the field as a whole, to geography at a major research university, and to his own research area, we are pleased to bestow upon William Clark the title of AAG Fellow.

Susan Cutter, University of South Carolina

Susan Cutter is a Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina. Her contributions as a Geographer include an extensive body of research on hazard risk, mitigation and recovery. Professor Cutter is well-known not only to academics but to practitioners in the field. She has provided expert testimony to the U.S. Congress on hazards and vulnerability; and has partnered with the US Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate the social impacts of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System. Professor Cutter has served on numerous national advisory boards and committees including those of the National Research Council, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and she chaired the US National Academies committee that authored the 2012 seminal report, Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative. She is a member of the Research Advisory Group for the Department for International Development in the United Kingdom, and she has served as vice-chair of a disaster-risk advisory board sponsored by the International Council for Science and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Cutter has made other substantive contributions to geographic research such as the creation of a database (SHELDUS) that spatially catalogs historical hazard damage to property and crops. SHELDUS is now a primary data source for municipal disaster planning and hazards modeling research.

Cutter is a prolific writer, publishing more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, as well as fourteen books. Her extensive list of co-authors and co-editors speaks to her connections. She has served as co-executive editor of Environment, associate editor of Weather, Climate, and Society and as a board member for several other journals, and she is currently Editor-in-Chief for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia.

Additionally, Dr. Cutter has served the AAG in numerous positions including President; Chair, AAG Military and Geography Committee; Publications Committee; AAG Representative to COSSA; Long Range Planning Committee; Executive Director Search Committee; Honors Committee Chair; Nominating Committee; Chair of the AAG Hazards Specialty Group; and AAG Regional Councilor for the Middle States Division.  The value of her work has been recognized by the AAG with the AAG Presidential Achievement Award as well as by the University of South Carolina, where Dr. Cutter is a Carolina Distinguished Professor—the highest honor bestowed upon academic faculty by the University of South Carolina.

We are therefore pleased to bestow upon Susan Cutter the title of AAG Fellow.

Daniel Griffith, University of Texas at Dallas

Dr. Daniel A. Griffith is Ashbel Smith Professor in the Department of Geospatial Information Science at the University of Texas at Dallas. Griffith is one of the pioneers of contemporary geography whose influence extends across spatial analysis and geostatistics, quantitative urban and economic geography, GIScience, and computational geography. He is noted for fundamental advances in spatial autoregressive modeling, and for influencing the theory and practice of spatial statistical analysis. His development of spatial filtering of regression models using eigenvectors was a major contribution that has pushed this field forward on many fronts.

Few geographers have maintained such strong, productive relationships between geography, mathematics and statistics – and fewer still have published and been cited in all three disciplines. Griffith’s many books, chapters, research papers, and other publications have attracted a host of distinctions, including elected Fellowships in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Regional Science Association, the American Statistical Association, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He was the winner of the inaugural AAG Nystrom Dissertation Award in 1980, and the AAG’s Distinguished Research Honors in 2010.

Griffith has served as President of the North American Regional Science Council, as Steering Committee Chair of the International Spatial Accuracy Research Association, as Chair of the Department of Geography at Syracuse University, and as editor of the journal Geographical Analysis. He has stellar record of advising students at SUNY Buffalo, Syracuse University, the University of Miami and now at the University of Texas Dallas.

For his many contributions to the advancement of Geography, we are pleased to bestow upon Daniel Griffith the title of AAG Fellow.

Jonathan Harbor, University of Montana

Jonathan Harbor is Executive Vice President and Provost of the University of  Montana. Prior to this position, he taught in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, where he also served as Executive Director of Digital Education, and Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning.

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Harbor has founded several research institutes, including the Purdue Global Sustainability Institute and Discovery Learning Research Center. He has been granted numerous awards, including American Council of Education Fellow, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and Fulbright Senior Scholar, among others. These honors have been global, spanning several institutions in the United States, Sweden, China, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Dr. Harbor’s awards are testament to his outstanding contributions to Geomorphology, Environmental Geography, and Education Research.

Dr. Harbor has published widely in his specialties with over 200 publications dealing with a broad range of geographic interests, including environmental science, glacial research, teaching and learning, and university administration.  He has authored or edited three books, including the most recent Glaciers and Glacial Landscapes in China (2014), for which he won the Scientific Excellence Prize in Gansu Province, China. He has served as editor and been on the editorial board of Anthropocene, Earth Sciences Reviews, and Physical Geography, and other top-tier journals.   He is a member of AAG’s Healthy Departments Committee, has been Chair of the AAG’s Geomorphology Specialty Group, and is on the Executive Committee of the American Geophysical Union Heads and Chairs Board.

We are therefore pleased to bestow upon Jon Harbor the title of AAG Fellow.

Thomas Mote, University of Georgia

Thomas Mote is an internationally known scholar, award-winning instructor and mentor, respected university administrator, and engaged leader of the AAG.

Mote currently serves as Associate Dean at the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, as well as being a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Geography.  His research involves climate change, one of the earth’s most pressing and timely problems, which Mote approaches by participating in interdisciplinary research teams that study the effects of Greenland ice sheet melting on oceans—a major contributor to sea level rise. His research is recognized and funded, among others, by NASA, NOAA, and the USDA’s Forest Service.

Mote has been honored by the University of Georgia for outstanding teaching and advising, has been elected as a Fellow to the American Meteorological Society, and obtained a Creative Research Medal at the University of Georgia. He has advised 12 doctoral and 18 Masters students. His current position as Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences also draws attention to the discipline of geography and underscores its pivotal role in the Arts and Sciences.

Thomas Mote has been selected to become an AAG Fellow for the scientific and societal significance of his research program, his mentoring of graduate students, and for raising geography’s profile through his outstanding service in influential administrative and professional positions.

Martin "Mike" PasqualettiMartin J. Pasqualetti, Arizona State University

Martin J. (Mike) Pasqualetti is professor in the School of Geographic Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University.  His contributions to geography include his path-breaking research in energy geography, especially the geographies of nuclear power and renewable energy landscapes including those of geothermal, wind, and solar power. Additionally, Pasqualetti has served the scientific community and the public as Chair of Arizona’s Solar Energy Advisory Council, co-authored the Energy Emergency Response Plan and Master Energy Plan for the Arizona Governor’s Office of Energy Policy, and serves on both the Advisory Board of the European Conference of the Landscape Research Group and the Coalition for Action of the International Renewable Energy Agency. His efforts in the field of energy geography have earned him numerous awards including the Alexander and Ilse Melamid Gold Award from the American Geographical Society as well as the Award of Excellence from the Vermont Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Great Places Award from the Environmental Design Research Association for his book The Renewable Energy Landscapes: Preserving Scenic Value in our Sustainable Future.

In addition, Pasqualetti is co-editor and contributor to several books including The Ashgate Companion to Energy Geography, Wind Power in View, and The Evolving Landscape: Homer Aschmann’s Geography.  These and his more than 100 research articles and reports have led to invitations to address international conference and to advise public agencies including the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the US Department of Energy, and the United Kingdom’s Central Electricity Generating Board.

His service to the AAG includes founding and chairing the Energy and Environment Specialty Group, serving as a member of the AAG Meridian book awards committee, and obtaining funding for the Energy and Environment Specialty Group’s annual best paper awards.

We are, therefore, please to bestow upon Martin J. Pasqualetti the title of AAG Fellow.

Mark D. Schwartz, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Mark D. Schwartz is Distinguished Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is a climatologist who specializes in the sub-discipline of phenology, involving the spring green up and fall senescence of natural vegetation. His work contributes to the broader field of climate change research, and his contributions have led to improved modeling of vegetation in climate models and deeper understanding of the vegetative response to climate change.  He has, among many other achievements, helped create a tool to predict the onset of spring, contributed to the Global Warming Report released by the Union of Concerned Scientists, and generally contributed a sound and valuable geographic perspective to climate change research.

Schwartz is also known as “the man of the hour” for the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He had barely received tenure, when the University threatened to close the Geography Department. Taking the reins as Department Chair, Schwartz led the unit in a reorganization that resulted in saving Geography at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, developed strategic alliances with other schools and departments at the University, and allowed the department to grow.

Mark Schwartz is named an AAG Fellow for his strategically important research and for his successful effort to defend and promote geographic research and education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Eric Sheppard, University of California Los Angeles

Eric Sheppard is a Professor of Geography the University of California Los Angeles. Throughout his career, he has been committed to promoting interactions across several subfields in the discipline of geography. Besides his stellar reputation in the field of economic geography, Dr. Sheppard has made important contributions to the literature on the social dimensions of GIS. During his tenure as President of the AAG, he was an advocate and spokesperson for all geographers, across the entire discipline.

Professor Sheppard’s significant impacts include his multiple publications on the social dimensions of GIS, nature of spatiality and relationality and the ontological and epistemological issues surrounding both GIS, and the qualitative/quantitative debates in the discipline.  He has served a key role on the Relational Poverty Network, an NSF-funded research coordination network that connects a global group of poverty scholars.

His work with the Advisory Board of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, the National Research Council that resulted in the publication of Rediscovering Geography are major contributions to the discipline.  He has served the AAG as its President, Vice President and on numerous AAG committees.

Among the many honors he has received, Dr. Sheppard has been recognized by the AAG with its Distinguished Scholarship Honor, and by the University Of Toronto Association Of Geography Alumni with its Distinguished Alumni Award.

We are therefore pleased to bestow upon Eric Sheppard the title of AAG Fellow.

Renee Sieber, McGill University

Renee Sieber is an Associate Professor at McGill University in the Department of Geography and School of the Environment, where she researches the use and value of information and communications for social change. Over the past two decades, she has made a major contribution to the field of Geography through her sustained interest in participatory and collaborative applications of Geographical Information Systems and Science. Sieber examines applications in geographic information systems for and by poor communities, social movements (particularly the environmental movement), and indigenous groups. Renee has been active in introducing Participatory GIS to an international audience. She was a founding committee member of the AAG Digital Geographies Specialty Group and recently served as co-chair of the international GIScience 2016 conference.

Renee’s publications span a range of GIS applications including tourism, the humanities, rural economic development, semantics, and crowdsourcing data. She has received grants from NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies, numerous grants Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and Canadian Foundation for Innovation, among others.

For her excellence in the discipline, she received the Canadian Association of Geographers (Geographic Information Systems and Science Special Interest Group): Lifetime Achievement and GIScience Excellence Award.

We are therefore pleased to bestow upon Renee Sieber the title of AAG Fellow.

The AAG Fellows are chosen by the AAG Honors Committee. The 2018-2019 Honors Committee Members are Wei Li, chair (Arizona State University), Laura Pulido (University of Oregon), Nathan Sayre (University of California Berkeley), Lisa DeChano-Cook (Western Michigan University), Wendy Jepson (Texas A&M University), and Rebecca Lave (Indiana University). Observer members this year, who will rotate in as members next year, are Julie Winkler (Michigan State University), Richard Kujawa (St. Michael’s College), and Julie A. Silva (University of Maryland – College Park).

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Newsletters

Newsletter – January 2019

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Share Your Science, and Make a Difference with Geography at the AAG Annual Meeting in April 2019

By Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach

Happy New Year, Geographers and Friends of Geography! There is still much for us, as fellow AAG Members, to do and to accomplish, and what better month than January to re-commit ourselves to serving people and the planet, when we celebrate Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday. It is hard to believe we are already halfway through the fiscal year, whether you are still enjoying the academic winter break, or are just returning from the holidays with family and friends. I do ask that we stop to recognize our fellow Geographers in the federal workforce who, at the time of this writing, are experiencing one of the two longest Government shutdowns in U.S. history, and we hope it is resolved soon for their sake and for the greater good of our country.

Continue Reading.

 

ANNUAL MEETING

Online Program Now Available!

The #aagDC online program is ready to view online. Search the schedule by author name, session type, key words, author affiliation, specialty group sponsorship, and more. For those presenting posters, the poster presentations will take place April 4, 5, and 6, 2019.

Browse the program.

Past President’s Address Announced

At the 2019 Annual Meeting, AAG Past President Derek Alderman will deliver his Past President’s Address entitled “Keeping it REAL in a Post-Truth World: Geography as Reparative Storytelling.” In his presentation, he will speak on enhancing the place of storytelling within geography as part of his initiative, Geography is REAL (Responsive, Engaged, Advocating, and Life-Improving). Asking attendees to view storytelling as more than entertainment, Alderman encourages storytelling to be considered for its value as a tool of education, disciplinary promotion, public outreach, community-building, and scholar-activism. The Past President’s Address will be held on Saturday, April 6 from 11:50 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Learn more about the Address.

“Focus on Washington, DC and the Mid Atlantic” is an ongoing series curated by the Local Arrangements Committee to provide insight on and understanding of the geographies of Washington, DC and the greater Mid Atlantic region in preparation for the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting.

 

Throwback to the 2010 AAG Annual Meeting!

Though the new year is here, start it out with a trip to 2010, the last year that the AAG Annual Meeting was held in Washington, DC. Focus on DC articles from 2009 and 2010 are available to read online with topics spanning the historical development of the district to the waterways of the Anacostia River and Chesapeake Bay. Take a walk down memory lane and see how much has changed in the previous nine years.

Read the past articles.

Poster abstracts for #aagDC due January 31! All abstracts editable until February 23

Present a poster at the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting. As soon as your poster is ready, upload the electronic file to our Poster Portal so it can be viewed online well before and beyond your presentation session. In addition, the AAG has set up printing partnerships for discounts on both paper and fabric poster printing to help you save.


PUBLICATIONS

NEW Issue of GeoHumanities:
Articles featuring Southeast Asia to the UK; qualitative methods to poetry

GeoHumanities-cover

The latest issue of GeoHumanities is now available (Volume 4, Issue 2, December 2018) with 15 new research articles and creative pieces on subjects within geography. Topics include plantation museums, the Mexican diaspora, Bollywood films, language commodification, critical visual methods, rewilding, medical health humanities, and children’s geographies. Regional areas include Cambodia, New England, and Indochina. With authors from a variety of institutions including Curtin University, Penn State University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Wisconsin – Madison, and the University of British Columbia and the University of Manitoba.

All AAG members have full online access to all issues of GeoHumanities through the Members Only page. In every issue, the editors choose one article to make freely available for two months. In this issue you can read Geographies of Medical and Health Humanities: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation, by Sarah de Leeuw, Courtney Donovan, Nicole Schafenacker, Robin Kearns, Pat Neuwelt, Susan Merill Squier, Cheryl McGeachan, Hester Parr, Arthur W. Frank, Lindsay-Ann Coyle, Sarah Atkinson, Nehal El-Hadi, Karen Shklanka, Caroline Shooner, Diana Beljaars & Jon Anderson for free.

Questions about GeoHumanities? Contact geohumanities [at] aag [dot] org.

In addition to the most recently published journal, read the latest issue of the other AAG journals online:

• Annals of the American Association of Geographers
• The Professional Geographer
• GeoHumanities
• The AAG Review of Books

New Books in Geography – December Available! 

ATTACHMENT DETAILS New-books1-1-1New Year, New Books! Celebrate the new year by browsing the latest books in geography and related disciplines. Learn about geographers such as Doreen Massey and Alfred Wegener. Travel to locations ranging from Denver to the Caribbean. Gain insight on topics from coffee to corruption.

Browse the whole list of new books.


ASSOCIATION NEWS

Get ready for the 2019 AAG Election

Election-buttonThe AAG election will be conducted online again, and will take place starting the end of January. Each member who has an email address on record with the AAG will receive a special email with a code that will allow them to sign in to our AAG SimplyVoting website and vote. It’s important to update your email address in your AAG account to ensure you receive the email ballot. The 2019 election slate will be published soon.

Be prepared for the election.

AAG is Proud to Announce the First Round of 2019 AAG Awards

honors and awards

The American Association of Geographers congratulates the individuals and entities named to receive an AAG Award. The awardees represent outstanding contributions to and accomplishments in the geographic field. Formal recognition of the awardees will occur at the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting in Washington, DC during the AAG Awards Luncheon on Sunday, April 7, 2019.

See the Awardees.

Congratulations to Outstanding Graduate Student Papers from Regional Meetings

The AAG is proud to announce the Fall 2018 student winners of the AAG Council Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper at a Regional Meeting. The annual award, designed to both encourage regional meeting participation and support AAG Annual Meeting travel, is granted to one student from each division as decided by regional division board members. The winners from each region will present their work in two dedicated sessions at the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting. Congratulations to all of the students who participated!

POLICY UPDATE

Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier Confirmed as New Director of OSTP

In one of their final acts before the new Congress convened last week, the Senate on Wednesday confirmed Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier as the new Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Before his nomination, Dr. Droegemeier’s career included research in meteorology and severe storms at the University of Oklahoma. He also served on the National Science Board under the administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. He later went on to become vice chair of the board, which governs the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Droegemeier’s confirmation enjoyed bipartisan support and was included in a round of other non-controversial nominations that passed before the start of the new Congress. Until last week, the post had been vacant since the start of the Trump administration.

 

MEMBER NEWS

January Member Updates

The latest news about AAG Members.

Nathan Gill, a postdoctoral researcher at University of Wisconsin – Madison, recently had his work on forest regrowth following wildfire in Yellowstone National Park featured in Discover magazine. Gill was a recipient of an AAG Research Grant for his project, “Mechanisms of forest resilience in the Northern Rockies: Novel fire regimes and the role of postfire seed dispersal.”

A study conducted by Emil Malizia, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Yasuyuki Motoyama, of the University of Kansas, and published in The Professional Geographer is the subject of a recent article by Richard Florida in City Lab. The study assesses the conditions found where firms tend to cluster in both urban and suburban areas, concluding that diversity, density, public transit, and walkability are key factors influencing business location.

 

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Call For Papers – Special Annals Issue on the Anthropocene

In 2017 the Working Group on the Anthropocene recommended formalization of the Anthropocene with an Epoch rank based on a mid-twentieth century boundary associated with radionuclide fallout as a stratigraphic Golden Spike, but this recommendation has yet to be acted upon and is far from universally accepted. This Special Issue of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers calls for papers examining all geographic aspects of the concept of the Anthropocene. Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted by email to Jennifer Cassidento (jcassidento [at] aag [dot] org) by March 31, 2019. The Editor will consider all abstracts and then invite a selection to submit full papers for peer review by May 15, 2019.

Learn how to contribute to the special issue.

Visiting Geographical Scientist Program Accepting Applications from Departments

Gamma Theta Upsilon logoThe Visiting Geographical Scientist Program (VGSP) sponsors visits by prominent geographers to small departments or institutions that do not have the resources to bring in well-known speakers. The purpose of this program is to stimulate interest in geography, targeted for students, faculty members, and administrative officers. Participating institutions select and make arrangements with the visiting geographer. A list of pre-approved speakers is available on the website. VGSP is funded by Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), the international honors society for geographers.

Learn more about the program and how to apply.

Grant for Research Using World’s Largest Geography and Map Collection

The John W. Kluge Center and the Philip Lee Phillips Map Society at the Library of Congress invite qualified scholars to apply for a grant to conduct research for two months at the Kluge Center using the Geography and Map Division’s collections and resources. The Philip Lee Phillips Society Fellowship will award $11,500 to selected scholars with the possibility of an additional $2,000 as an honorarium for a later lecture and publication.

Applications due February 15, 2019.

Fellowship Opportunities with the National Academies’ Gulf Research Program

The Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is now accepting applications for two fellowship opportunities:
·         The Early-Career Research Fellowship supports emerging scientific leaders as they take risks on untested research and pursue unique, interdisciplinary collaborations. Fellows receive two years of relatively unrestricted funding that helps them navigate this period with independence, flexibility, and a built-in support network. Applications are due by February 20, 2019.
·         The Science Policy Fellows gain first-hand experience at the interface of science and policy as they spend one year alongside decision-makers at agencies across Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Florida. Under the guidance of a mentor, fellows learn what it takes to make scientific information not just useful, but usable. Applications are due by March 6, 2019.

 

IN MEMORIAM

Lawrence Estaville

On December 20, 2018, Lawrence Estaville, who helped to found the Ethnic Geography and Business Geography specialty groups as well as the Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education at Texas State University, passed away. Dr. Estaville was a university professor, scholar, and administrator for over 40 years. A passionate educator, he was the recipient of several awards including the AAG Enhancing Diversity Award in 2016.

Read more.

 

Dorothy Drummond

It is with sadness that we note the passing of geography professor, author, and advocate Dorothy Drummond on November 30, 2018. An avid traveler, Drummond authored multiple world cultures textbooks and founded the Geography Educators’ Network of Indiana. She taught courses at both Indiana State University and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. She passed away while conducting research in China at the age of 89.

Read more.

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Awardees

AAG Announces 2019 AAG Award Recipients

The American Association of Geographers congratulates the individuals and entities named to receive an AAG Award. The awardees represent outstanding contributions to and accomplishments in the geographic field. Formal recognition of the awardees will occur at the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting in Washington, DC during the AAG Awards Luncheon on Sunday, April 7, 2019.

2019 Susan Hardwick Excellence in Mentoring Award

The AAG bestows an annual award recognizing an individual geographer, group, or department, who demonstrates extraordinary leadership in building supportive academic and professional environments and in guiding the academic or professional growth of their students and junior colleagues. The late Susan Hardwick was the inaugural Excellence in Mentoring awardee. The Award was renamed in her honor and memory, soon after her passing.

Lorraine Dowler, Penn State

Dr. Lorraine Dowler not only mentors at all levels (early career faculty, her own students, and students that were/are not her own-outside her university), but is a strong advocate for her advisees, the greater student body (undergraduate and graduate), and the AAG community. As mentioned in one of her letters of support, she is committed to the holistic development of her advisees, while another notes that she pays particular attention to the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of those with whom she interacts, especially new faculty learning to balance the demands of academia. Outside of her tireless advocacy for students and colleagues, she continues to advise, research, publish, and contribute to the field of geography. She continues to go over and beyond what is expected.

Dr. Dowler’s advocacy of students and colleagues beyond “just getting through the Ph.D. and tenure track” (e.g. working with the letter writer experiencing the travel ban, threatening students in the classroom, etc.) went above and beyond the criteria listed by the AAG. As noted by the committee, “…mentorship, and viewing students and colleagues as whole people, not just academics, is integral to our discipline as not just successfully producing the next cohorts of academics but actively supporting and sustaining us by transforming the discipline in the way they model and mentor.” As a committee, we agree that the qualities and characteristics that Dr. Dowler puts forth, and her genuine concern for all those that work with her (colleagues, students, etc.) make her an excellent choice for this award.

2019 Enhancing Diversity Award

The AAG Enhancing Diversity Award honors those geographers who have pioneered efforts toward, or activelyparticipate in efforts towards encouraging a more diverse discipline.

Latoya Eaves, Middle Tennessee State University

Dr. Latoya Eaves has worked with unflagging determination to bring emancipatory geography to the forefront of the discipline through institutional advocacy, mentorship, community engagement, and, of course, intellectual production. Her cutting-edge scholarship engages and informs racial, gendered, and sexual dimensions of identity and politics.

Dr. Eaves works actively on many fronts to create a more inclusive academy. Her commitment to establish the Black Geographies Specialty Group and her generous support of other specialty groups serving under-represented groups of geographers are widely applauded. One of her colleagues noted: “The time and energy [she] has dedicated to the discipline and the AAG is a key reason why many graduate students and faculty are engaging in Black Geographies thought and why a number of Geography departments are advertising for scholars whose research is grounded in Black Geographies.”

Minelle Mahtani, University of British Columbia

For over two decades Dr. Minelle Mahtani’s theoretical and applied work has made great inroads into the problem of racism in our discipline as well as in racist policy practices in Canada. In her current position as Senior Advisor to the Provost on Racialized Faculty at the University of British Columbia, she will be instrumental in advancing the University’s institutional commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in the scholarly and leadership environment for faculty at UBC.

Mahtani’s work on mixed race identities; the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender; and the production of identity and knowledge have laid the foundations for other geographers’ work and teaching. Additionally, Dr. Mahtani is applauded for her generous mentoring of students of color.

As a journalist, Dr. Mahtani has used her skills to engage the public in issues of identity, diversity and the lack of diversity and place. This is exemplified notably, though not exclusively, through her radio program “Sense of Place.”

2019 The AAG Stanley Brunn Award for Creativity in Geography

The AAG Stanley Brunn Award for Creativity in Geography is given annually to an individual geographer or team of geographers that has demonstrated originality, creativity and significant intellectual breakthroughs in geography. The award includes a prize of $1,000.

Janice Monk, Research Professor, School of Geography and Development, and Research Social Scientist Emerita at Southwest Institute for Research on Women, at the University of Arizona

Janice Monk, Research Professor, School of Geography and Development, and Research Social Scientist Emerita at Southwest Institute for Research on Women, at the University of Arizona Professor Monk is one of the most influential figures in the disciplines of geography and women’s studies. Her interdisciplinary research in geography education and feminist/gender studies has played a pivotal role in within the discipline. Her two decades as Director of the Southwest Institute for Women’s Studies, focusing on women’s employment, education, health, as well as encouraging science and math education for girls, have introduced feminism to multiple generations of geographers. In addition, the AAG recognizes Dr. Monk’s work on university-level teaching and graduate level geography education; her early and significant involvement in the Geography Faculty Development Alliance (GFDA); and her work on AAG projects (EDGE and others) researching career opportunities and professional development for geographers. The AAG also applauds Dr. Monk for her large body of publications, and your co-editorships of two series: International Studies of Women and Place and of Society, Environment and Place.

Professor Monk forcefully demonstrates the highly creative and consequential place that geographers can have in engaging in and shaping broader transdisciplinary discussions and debates. For these reasons, the AAG is proud to confer the 2019 AAG Stan Brunn Award for Creativity in Geography on Janice Monk.

2019 AAG Presidential Achievement Award

The AAG Presidential Award is given with the purpose of recognizing individuals for their long-term, major contributions to geography. The Past President has the honor of bestowing this distinction on behalf of the discipline and the association.

Rickie Sanders, Temple University

The AAG recognizes Dr. Sanders’ path-breaking role in enhancing diversity and inclusion in geography and championing the study of race, gender, and social justice within the discipline and beyond. Her long-standing contributions include award-winning teaching and mentorship and leading important initiatives to broaden the participation and belonging of historically under-represented groups. She powerfully uses her scholarship and her own biography to address the need for women of color in geography, to confront white privilege and gender inequality in education, and to create dialogue between racial and feminist theorists and classroom teachers. Also noteworthy is her critical use of photography in urban landscape studies and addressing marginalized communities in cities. Dr. Sanders is a beloved role model, having transformed and enriched the lives, careers and perspectives of many geographers

David Padgett, Tennessee State University

The AAG recognizes Dr. Padgett’s significant contributions in advancing geography, GIS, and STEM education within the Historically Black College and University—an important but traditionally neglected community within our discipline. He has become an important authority on the opportunities, challenges, and needs facing geographers at predominantly minority-serving institutions as well as those working in small academic programs and blended departments. Dr. Padgett has amassed an exemplary career in community engaged scholarship and teaching, having developed working relationships with a variety of grassroots groups, non-profits, and government agencies. His innovations in service-learning and participatory research are felt locally and through the many national workshops and funded projects he has helped lead. He forcefully demonstrates our discipline’s capacity to leverage geographic knowledge and geospatial technology to empower citizen science and social and environmental justice.

2019 AAG Honorary Geographer

The AAG annually selects an individual as the year’s Honorary Geographer. The award recognizes excellence in research, teaching, or writing on geographic topics by non-geographers. Past recipients include Stephen Jay Gould, Jeffrey Sachs, Paul Krugman, Barry Lopez, Saskia Sassen and Maya Lin.

Rita Colwell, University of Maryland College Park

The committee chose Dr. Colwell for her distinguished career as the 11th Director of the National Science Foundation, her many important leadership roles in academia, and her many significant advisory positions in the U.S. Government, nonprofit science policy organizations, and private foundations, and in the international scientific research community.

The 2019 Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award in Geographic Science
The Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award recognizes excellence in academic performance by undergraduate students from the U.S. and Canada who are putting forth a strong effort to bridge geographic science and computer science as well as to encourage other students to embark upon similar programs. The award is an activity of the Marble Fund for Geographic Science of the AAG.

Katherine Jolly, Macalester College

Pearl Leff, Hunter College – CUNY

Rachel Pierstorff, University of Denver

2019 Community College Travel Grants
Provides financial support for students from community colleges, junior colleges, city colleges, or two-year educational institutions to attend the Annual Meeting.

Kevin Cody, Santa Barbara City College

Do Khym, Cerritos College

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Governance and Policy Networks and Connections Sharing Knowledge
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Regional Divisions Announce Outstanding Graduate Student Papers During their Fall Meetings

The AAG is proud to announce the Fall 2018 student winners of the AAG Council Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper at a Regional Meeting. The AAG Council Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper at a Regional Meeting is designed to encourage graduate student participation at AAG Regional Division conferences and support their attendance at AAG Annual Meetings. One graduate student in each AAG Regional Division receives this yearly award based on a paper submitted to their respective regional conference. The awardees receive $1,000 in funding for use towards their registration and travel costs to attend the AAG Annual Meeting. The board members from each region determine student award winners.

The winners from each region will be presenting their papers in two dedicated paper sessions at the upcoming 2019 AAG Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The paper sessions are tentatively scheduled for the afternoon of Friday, April 5, 2019.

Betsy Breyer

WLDAAG: Betsy Breyer, Ph.D. candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Paper title – Sociohydrological Impacts of Water Conservation Under Anthropogenic Drought in Austin, TX

Hayley Pedrick

SWAAG: Hayley Pedrick, Masters candidate, University of New Mexico; Paper title – Textures of Transition: Understanding Memorial Spaces in Medellin, Colombia

NESTVAL: Christina Woehrle, Masters candidate, Oklahoma State University;

MAD: Molly Pickel, Masters candidate, Graduate Program in Geography and Environmental Planning at Towson University; Paper title – Navigating Māori Fishing Rights Under the Quota Management System

Katharine Georges and Katie Wade


APCG: Katherine Georges, Masters candidate, California State University – Long Beach, Paper title – Just a Little Rain: the Effects of Lifting Water Restrictions on Local Water Purveyors Conservation Policies
Katie Wade, Masters candidate, California State University – Long Beach, Paper title – Indigenous Women’s Ways of Knowing and Ecological Sustainability in Yosemite Valley

Doug Allen

SEDAAG: Doug Allen, Ph.D. candidate, Florida State University; Paper title – Asserting a Black Sense of Place: Florida A&M University’s Homecoming as a Temporary Claim of Place

MSDAAG: Emily Holloway, Masters candidate, Liberal Studies program at the CUNY Graduate Center; Paper title – “Business as usual” or “just business”? A critical comparison of industrial rezoning

GPRM: Sylvia Arriaga Brady, Ph.D. candidate, University of Denver; Paper title – Public-private partnerships with public transit, local government agencies, and ridesourcing in Denver, CO

Kathryn Hannum

ELDAAG: Kathryn Hannum, Ph.D. student, Kent State University; Paper title – Socio-linguistic consequences of regional convergence in Galicia, Spain

 

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Changing Human Populations Networks and Connections Planning and Development
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Staff

Lawrence Estaville

It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform each of you that Dr. Lawrence Estaville, founding member of the Ethnic Geography Specialty Group, had died.

Lawrence served in the academy as a professor, scholar, and administrator for more than 40 years with positions in Wisconsin, California, South Carolina, and Texas. During his career, Lawrence was a prolific scholar, steadfast mentor and educator, and an effective administrator. While in no way inclusive, I would like to highlight some of Lawrence’s many accomplishments during his unparalleled career and life. Lawrence led the establishment of three PhD programs at Texas State University and aided in the founding of the James and Marilyn Lovell Center for Environmental Geography and Hazards Research and the Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education. He published 10 books (with an additional co-authored monograph forthcoming), 36 peer-reviewed articles, 19 peer-reviewed book chapters, and presented 92 conference papers. An effective fundraiser, Lawrence raised over $6-million in grants and raised funds to support graduate students and conferences. He worked closely with the Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conferences and with the conference creator and his dear friend Dr. John Frazier.

Above all, Lawrence would tell you that his passion was teaching. He taught nearly 40 courses during his career and was a steadfast advocate for students. Diversity of students and ideas was a cornerstone of his teaching. Lawrence’s love of cinema led him to include assignments involving important films in several of his undergraduate courses. He was often recognized as a favorite professor by both undergraduate and graduate students. He advised three doctoral students and several masters students to the successful completion of their degrees. As one of those doctoral students, I will share that Lawrence’s mentorship did not end at the culmination of my graduate degree but rather turned into a life-long duty for him.

Lawrence was an award-winning professor with recognition at the highest level. I highlight a few here. Lawrence was a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1985 and the Distinguished Mentor Award in 2012 from the National Council for Geographic Education. He was honored in 2011 with the Outstanding Scholarship and Service Award from the Business Geography Specialty Group – a group that he led in establishing. From our Ethnic Geography Specialty Group, Lawrence was the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2015 and the Distinguished Ethnic Geographer Career Award in 2010. He received the Enhancing Diversity Award from the American Association of Geographers in 2016. Most recently, on November 16, 2018, Lawrence was the recipient of the highest faculty honor and title bestowed by the Texas State University System – Regents’ Professor.

I will add that one of the things that Lawrence was most proud of, especially toward the end of his career, was his service to the National Marrow Donor Program and his establishment (with Yvonne Ybarra and Angelika Wahl) of the Texas State Cancer Advocacy Movement for Colleges and Outreach (CAMCO). The efforts of this state-wide alliance resulted in tens of thousands of student marrow donors and, most importantly, the saving of over 50 lives through marrow matches – including several children. He shared privately with me years ago, after his successful fight with leukemia, that he felt that he just had to do something if he “beat this thing,” especially after seeing what he saw at M.D. Anderson. He did.

These few paragraphs only scratch the surface of Lawrence Estaville’s vast career accomplishments. Lawrence was very private about his valiant fights with cancer.

On Wednesday, December 5, 2018, Lawrence was honored with a Texas State University presidential reception for his Regents’ Professor distinction in San Marcos, Texas. Although he was a little thinner and in a wheel chair, Lawrence was vibrant and excited to speak to all who came to congratulate him. His contagious, deep laughter could be heard throughout the room as he reminisced and joked with friends and colleagues. I remember that he displayed his Regents’ Professor medallion proudly over his suit jacket adjusting it for pictures. He would later tell me that he was so very thankful for the experience and for all his friends near and far. He said that the award was “the cherry on top” of what he said was a great life and career.

I visited him again a few days later in his home. Lawrence, in characteristic fashion, wanted to talk more about me, my family, and our friends than himself. Always the hosts, the Estaville’s had refreshments out for me. When I commented on not needing to have refreshments out he said, “Oh Edris, that is my beautiful wife Sandra who put those out.” I said, “You are one lucky man.” He replied, “You’re telling me.”  Lawrence’s deepest love and admiration for his wife, Sandra, remains an example to us all.

A professor and educator until the end, Lawrence was afraid that he would not be able to complete his Ethnic Geography course this semester and see his students’ presentations. Angelika Wahl, his dear friend and colleague from the department at Texas State suggested that he could Skype-in to see and grade the final presentations which excited Lawrence greatly. With the assistance of Yongmei Lu, TX State Geography Department Chair and cherished friend, Lawrence was able to finish his course this semester – a duty he would tell me that he felt he owed his students… to finish what he started. He was very thankful for that.

In one of our conversations, Lawrence did lament that there would be many that he would not be able to say goodbye to personally and he hoped that everyone understood. I, of course, reassured him that all would. He shared with me that he felt that he had lived a wonderful life and was thankful for every moment of it.

Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.), professor, scholar, mentor, colleague, and friend Dr. Lawrence Estaville passed away on the morning of December 20, 2018 with his loving wife Sandra by his side. He was 74 years old. Lawrence is survived by his wife Sandra and his daughter Deborah. He is survived by dozens of colleagues and friends who he collaborated with over his long career. Finally, Dr. Lawrence Estaville is survived by thousands of students who are better for their time spent with him – in the classroom and beyond.

Per Lawrence’s wishes, there will not be a funeral. The family has asked in lieu of flowers, to consider contributing to the many scholarships he supported/funded at Texas State (geography specific scholarship information: https://donate.txstate.edu/givingsearch) or to the Be the Match Foundation (https://bethematch.org/support-the-cause/donate-financially/). Those who wish may also consider donating to the EGSG’s newly established student travel fund in Lawrence’s memory (If you wish to donate to the EGSG student travel fund please contact me at [email protected]).

As we take the time to remember Lawrence in the next few months and at the AAG meeting in Washington D.C., I know that our friend and colleague wouldn’t want us to spend too long mourning him. Instead, I believe that Lawrence would want us to continue to educate and serve students and each other to the best of our ability. He did.

— Edris J. Montalvo Jr., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Geography

Department of Social Sciences

Cameron University

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Annual Meeting

Little Known Tampa: Culturally Diverse and Exciting!

When you come to Tampa, you’ll find examples of good planning, fabulous natural areas, and appealing urban spaces. Here are some things to keep in mind:

Florida and the Tampa Bay area are—or at least were—national leaders in growth management

Beginning in the late 1970s and culminating in the Growth Management Act of 1985, the state of Florida had one of the nation’s most fully articulated statewide planning regimes. Perhaps because Floridians had experienced firsthand the problems of rapid growth without much planning, the state legislature created measures to ensure that each county and municipality engaged in long term planning, that large regional projects were reviewed by regional planning agencies, and that state officials would be charged with upholding plans. Transportation, water resources, and coastal concerns were all taken into account when new developments were proposed. Growth management hardly stopped development – Florida’s population grew from 9.7 million in 1980 to just over 19 million in 2012, with new single family housing accommodating much of that growth. But under the state’s growth management laws, some of the sins of the 1960s and 1970s – houses constructed without attendant municipal services in place, unrestrained draining of wetlands, and inattention to water resource limits – were contained. Unfortunately, important parts of these Growth Management laws were overturned in 2011. The full impact of this retreat has not yet been felt; thanks to the recession, demand for new construction has been limited. But once demand picks up, the flight from comprehensive planning is likely to be felt, especially in the less urban parts of the state.

Tampa Demographics
White or Caucasian (including White Hispanic) 62.9%
(Non-Hispanic White or Caucasian) 46.3%
Black or African-American 26.2%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 23.1%
Asian 3.4%
Native American or Native Alaskan 0.4%
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian 0.1%
Two or more races (Multiracial) 3.2%
Source: US Census Bureau

Tampa has an industrial history

Incorporated in 1849, Tampa, unlike many Sunbelt cities, emerged as an industrial center. Between 1865 and World War II, Tampa was a key center of the cigar industry. The cities (and now neighborhoods within Tampa) of Ybor City and West Tampa both developed around cigar manufacturing, drawing streams of immigrants to work in the factories. Tampa has a tradition of union activism having experienced several general strikes in the early decades of the last century. Its racially and ethnically diverse population has a tradition of immigrant social clubs and mutual benefit societies that provided cultural and material resources to working class residents. The built legacy of these traditions can be found throughout these communities. The Cuban Club, the German-American Club and the Italian Club are a few of the early 20th century establishments whose buildings have been preserved. And the former cigar factories remain distinctive features of the central Tampa built environment. While some of these sit vacant, others have been repurposed for other industrial uses or converted to condos and offices. Those interested in exploring Tampa history can do so in Ybor City, either by taking advantage of the programs of the Ybor City Museum (www.ybormuseum.org ), or by strolling through the neighborhood.

Photo courtesy of Barbara Lamphere

 Tampa has rediscovered its downtown waterfront

Among the most striking characteristics of our area are its water features. Parts of Tampa and all of Pinellas County (location of St. Petersburg) are defined by their rivers, bays and oceans. But until recently, Tampa was largely cut off from its waterfront. In an earlier era, river and bayfront areas were dominated by industrial, port and transportation infrastructure, but as those uses have receded (the Port of Tampa remains quite active, but other waterfront industries are gone), Tampa was slow to recognize the value of its waterfront for recreation and the development of other amenities. One of the major commercial developments in the downtown area, the Channelside shopping/entertainment center, is located directly on the water, next to the Tampa port facilities, and it has been ingeniously designed so that those visiting the development have no contact with the water at all – no access, no vistas. Perhaps that helps explain why the development has gone bankrupt.

But more recent downtown planning has embraced the waterfront location. A “Riverwalk” has been under development now across two mayoral administrations; a recent federal grant will accelerate its completion (www.thetampariverwalk.com ). Those of you visiting downtown Tampa will have the opportunity to enjoy the water at some new locations. The Tampa Bay History Center opens onto a waterfront plaza (https://www.tampabayhistorycenter.org/ ). The newly renovated Curtis Hixon Park, at the other end of the downtown peninsula, is a well-designed, inviting urban space flanked by the newly built Tampa Museum of Art (https://tampamuseum.org/ ). With food kiosks, fountains and children’s play areas, it’s the sort of urban gathering point that this city has lacked for too long. These new spaces signal the success of fledgling coalitions of elected officials, civic activists and business leaders who share an appreciation for appealing design and pedestrian-friendly urban environments.

Photo courtesy of Barbara Lamphere
Photo courtesy of Barbara Lamphere

Ride the TECO trolley

Like too many Sunbelt cities, Tampa once had a dense network of light rail lines, most of which were bought up by bus companies and dismantled by the late 1940s. But a trolley line was resurrected recently; it runs a loop connecting the downtown/Channelside area with Ybor City (https://www.tecolinestreetcar.org/). The embattled trolley line has struggled to maintain ridership; critics claim its empty cars are proof that this region will never embrace mass transit while defenders note that its limited route makes it useful mostly to visitors or the rare resident whose home and work happen to be near one if its stops. But those of you staying at one of the conference hotels are well positioned to use the trolley for your explorations.

Photo courtesy of Barbara Lamphere

There’s much in this area that transcends the generic – the newly opened bike and pedestrian bridge that traverses Tampa Bay along the Courtney Campbell Causeway; one of baseball’s best teams (the Tampa Bay Rays) playing in one of baseball’s worst stadiums (Tropicana Field); the annual invasion of the city by sea led by business and civic leaders dressed as pirates (the Gasparilla Festival) and the annual crowning of a “Strawberry Queen” in nearby Plant City. If you want to learn more about what the region offers, you can read all about it the highly regarded Tampa Bay Times (www.tampabay.com), one of the last independently owned metro area newspapers. We urge you to explore the area and learn that it has a diverse array of historic places, quirky areas, and scenic spots. ♦

Elizabeth Strom
University of South Florida

DOI: 10.14433/2013.0024

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Changing Human Populations Networks and Connections Planning and Development
Elizabeth Strom
Elizabeth Strom

Dorothy Drummond

It is with sadness that we note the passing of geography professor and advocate Dorothy Drummond on November 30, 2018. At the age of 89, she was traveling on her seventh trip to China to conduct research when she fell at the museum for the Three Gorges Project. After surgery in Hong Kong, she sustained severe head trauma and passed away peacefully with her friend and daughter by her side.

Drummond began her career as an editorial assistant for the Geographical Review, the flagship journal of the American Geographical Society. She then went on to live in Terre Haute, Indiana where she was an affiliate faculty member of Indiana State University and an adjunct at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. In 1983 she founded the geography non-profit, Geography Educators’ Network of Indiana, following her husband’s death in 1982, and remained a long standing board member of the organization.

Born in San Diego in 1928, she held an undergraduate degree from Valparaiso University (1949) and a masters degree in geography from Northwestern University (1951). A world traveler, she lived in Burma during 1957 while both her and her husband were Fulbright Scholars. She also traveled widely in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East, and had visited large parts of Central and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and China. She used this experience and her geographical expertise to author and co-author four World Cultures textbooks. She was included as a GeoInspiration in Directions Magazine in 2016.

In addition to her work with the Geography Educators’ Network of Indiana, Dorothy was active in service to several non-profit organizations including United Campus Ministries and Citizens for Better Government and a respected member of the Terre Haute community. She was scheduled to present a paper at the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting on the historical settlement of ancient Israel as well as appear on a panel sponsored by the Bible Geography Specialty Group on curbing violence in the Middle East.

The information above is courtesy of the Terre Haute Tribune Star

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President's Column

Paradise Lost, Global Warming Report, and Geographers Speak Up

The 2019 Annual Meeting of the AAG is shaping up, and I thank those who responded to participate in the three featured themes, Health and GIScience, Human Rights, and Physical Geography in Environmental Science, in addition to the many independent abstracts and sessions submitted. Program committees and AAG staff, to whom I offer my deepest appreciation, are now sorting abstracts and assembling sessions from the more than 5,000 paper abstracts submitted. Thus far, we have 306 paper abstracts and 71 sessions submitted in Health and GIScience; in the Human Rights Theme we have 201 paper abstracts and 82 sessions; and in Physical Geography in Environmental Science there are 233 paper abstracts and 42 proposed sessions. Although the call for paper sessions and abstracts is now closed, participants may still edit their entries until 23 February 2019. Additionally, the Call for Posters is open until 31 January 2019, and poster session organizing is open until 14 February 2019. I look forward to seeing you in Washington, D.C., April 3-7, 2019!

Smoke plume from the fast-moving Woolsey Fire encroaching on Malibu on Nov. 9, 2018, as residents evacuate along the Pacific Coast Highway (CC by-SA 4.0 by Cyclonebiskit)

This week marked two landmark accomplishments. The first accomplishment is that fire-fighting crews have brought the Camp Fire in my beloved northern California to 100 percent containment. The city of Paradise, (population around 26,000), is devastated along with the smaller communities of Magalia and Concow in the largest and deadliest wildfire in California history, and the largest fire in the U.S. in 100 years. 88 people are now known to have lost their lives, with nearly 200 still missing. Paradise is on the doorstep of Chico where I went to school, and families are hurting, with hundreds homeless, 18,000 buildings destroyed, and more than 62,000 hectares scorched (an area bigger than the city of Chicago). Schools across northern California, all the way to San Francisco, were closed due to the smoke from the fires, and only recently are re-opening. A part of southern California also burned in tandem to the Camp Fire, with the Woolsey Fire in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties consuming over 39,000 hectares, an area roughly the size of Denver. The fire destroyed 1,500 buildings, and killed three people. It was brought under containment shortly before the Camp Fire. Three firefighters were injured in each fire, respectively. We thank Cal Fire and all of the responders from other jurisdictions who assisted. Cal Fire provides web based GIS fire mapping and incident tracking, an important geographic information science benefit offered to the public. And the first response from the White House was unbridled ignorance about California forests and blame wrongly cast upon California State forest management, before and after a Presidential site visit. Our dear leader in the White House suggested forest floor raking as the answer. This is lunacy. In reality, 45.8 percent of all land in CA is federally owned, and KTVU TV reported that 57 percent of California forests are federally managed, with 2 percent managed by the state, and the remaining 39 percent are under private management, where most of the fire losses have occurred. Most of the land that burned does not look like Trump’s imagined Jellystone (apologies to Hanna-Barbera Productions) to be tended by Finnish raking teams, it is Mediterranean scrubland and chaparral, mixed with suburban neighborhoods. As the Camp Fire hit close to home for my family and community, the Woolsey Fire hit even closer to home for Past AAG President Glen MacDonald, who with his family had to evacuate from their home. Dr. MacDonald made a bold public statement calling out the U.S. President’s misinformation about California forest management, and noted the powerful connection between increasingly frequent and large wildfires, changing seasonality, and climate change. Now, flooding is beginning to take over the Camp Fire site. Although Giving Tuesday is past, and I do not often break the “fourth wall” to make personal appeals, please do consider contributing to the charities of your choice to assist wildfire victims.

Leslie-Ann Dupigny-Giroux (Photo courtesy U. of Vermont)

The second landmark accomplishment this week was in climate change communication: Federal scientists at 13 Federal agencies partnering with independent, university, and research scientists were able to complete and publish a clear and sobering report on Climate Change, the Fourth National Assessment, reporting mandated by Congress since 1990. The report covers 12 areas of impact and actions. When reporters asked Trump about the report, Trump said he “saw” it, read “parts” of it, and it is “fine.” A follow-up question about the findings of negative economic impacts elicited his response that he does not believe it. This is completely off the rails to deny, without any counter evidence, his own administration’s scientists’ dire findings on global warming that will affect our economy, our environment, our food, our water, and our health. He claims that our water and air are at their “cleanest” by ignoring the very legislation that he has attempted to disassemble, that allowed air and water quality to improve over the last decades. If our commander in chief will not wake up, we cannot wait for that day, we must wake up and act ourselves. Geography Professor Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, Northeast Chapter lead author on the Fourth Climate Assessment, spoke out in an interview on the report. She notes that changes in seasonality and in coastal environments are vulnerabilities in the Northeast, the regional report she led. She also notes a key takeaway that mitigation and adaptation measures being put in place offer hope and are critical. Dr. Dupigny-Giroux also notes that even if greenhouse gas inputs stop today, global warming will not level off anytime soon due to greenhouse gases already accumulated in the atmosphere. Climate change matters. The free press matters. Peer-reviewed science matters. The freedom to practice, communicate, and benefit from science matters.

An ancient Roman aqueduct leading to ancient Carthage (Tunis) is presented by CAJG meeting local organizing chair Dr. Mabrouk Boughdiri, professor at the University of Carthage, earth science department to field group. (Photo courtesy Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach)

I end this column with hope. We must work hard to get there, however. In the same month that a CNN White House correspondent had his press credentials stripped by the White House, but later restored by a federal judge, as noted in last month’s column, a Washington Post reporter was brutally murdered in the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul. The White House has repeatedly called members of the press the enemy of the people and has chosen to believe Saudi government denials of involvement in the murder, over our own national intelligence community findings otherwise. I travelled to Tunisia this month to give a keynote in the 10th Anniversary of a Springer/Nature Journal, the Arabian Journal of Geosciences, the flagship journal of the Saudi Society for Geosciences. (Full disclosure, I am an AJGS associate editor for Geography, Geoarchaeology, and Geotourism.) What I witnessed at this international meeting of nearly 500 participants was enthusiastic freedom of expression, camaraderie, academic diplomacy, thoughtful discussion and debate, student encouragement and empowerment, and science communication. In my keynote comments, I thanked the founding editor for giving voice to scientists across the region for the past 10 years with the journal, and reminded all of the right for scientists to practice, to share their science, and to gather and collaborate internationally. And at this meeting, all were treated as welcome, and women were featured speakers in addition to men. I am grateful for the new friends I have met, the outstanding papers I heard, the excellent field trips to enhance our teaching, and the new research opportunities and ideas we all shared. (Tunisia hosted the International Geographical Union meeting in 2008). This week, Tunisian citizens freely rose up to speak against the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince, in protest of the murder of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi. So, our Geoscience conference was not a singular or staged event in free speech. I am encouraged by Tunisians lighting a candle in the darkness, and thank our Tunisian hosts for their warm welcome, sincere hospitality, and many kindnesses during the meetings, and look forward to returning, Inshallah.

Finally, there are two upcoming events related to Science and Human Rights to observe in December: The 30th Anniversary of World AIDS Day will be observed on 1 December 2018; and Human Rights Day will mark the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 2018. Cherish and protect our First Amendment and our human rights. Take part, speak up, and make a difference with Geography!

Wishing you a peaceful and rejuvenating holiday season,

— Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
President, American Association of Geographers
Professor of Geography and Fellow of the C.B. Smith Sr. Centennial Chair in U.S. Mexico Relations, University of Texas at Austin

Please share your ideas with me at: slbeach(at)austin(dot)utexas(dot)edu

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0048

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Newsletters

Newsletter – November 2018

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Watershed Moments

By Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach

vote sticker i voted 3002776434_643d076694_z-150x150“It is encouraging to be receiving AAG Members’ thoughtful geography abstracts for the AAG Annual Meeting major themes: Geospatial Health Research; Geography and Human Rights; and Physical Geography in Environmental Science. Thank you. There is still time to participate… While you are in Washington, visit your legislators, share your science, speak up and be a part of the change: make a difference with Geography. And on Tuesday 6 November, make a difference with your citizenship: VOTE.”

Continue Reading.

ANNUAL MEETING

Additional Theme Announced for #aagDC

Deepwater_horizon_beach_cleanup500-300x200The AAG Council and Executive Director have announced a third theme for the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting: Physical Geography in Environmental Science. This theme joins two others, Geography, GIScience, and Health: Building an International Geospatial Health Research Network (IGHRN) and Geographies of Human Rights: The Right to Benefit from Scientific Progress, as a way to focus the meeting.

Learn more about the meeting themes.

FocusOnNewOrleansLogo

 

“Focus on Washington, DC and the Mid Atlantic” is an ongoing series curated by the Local Arrangements Committee to provide insight on and understanding of the geographies of Washington, DC and the greater Mid Atlantic region in preparation for the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting.

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center

Amidst the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County, Maryland lies the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center. The Center celebrates the legacy of Harriet Tubman, who spent her childhood enslaved in the area before assisting over 100 African American slaves to freedom in the mid 1800s. Catherine W. Cooper provides an overview of Tubman’s life and the landscape she impacted.

Read more.

Registration rates increase for #aagDC November 8!

Abstracts for paper presentations are due November 8, while abstracts for poster presentations are due January 31. All abstracts can be edited until February 23.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Geography Awareness Week is Almost here!

Geography Awareness Week, held the third week of November each year, will run from November 11-17, 2018. This year’s theme is Migration. Get involved in Geography Awareness Week with some of our suggested activities. Don’t forget to share your involvement with us on social media with the hashtags #GeoWeek or #GeographyAwarenessWeek.

Find activities and resources.

AAG Announces Launch of Geography.com

AAG and Esri have teamed up to create geography.com, a website designed for educational purposes and the promotion of the discipline. It is intended as an outreach tool for site visitors to learn more about what geography is, what geography offers, and career opportunities available in the field. The intended audience includes the general public and students (high school and undergraduates), as well as educators, parents, and federal agencies or other organizations seeking information about geography.

Dwayne Parks Joins AAG Staff as Accounting Specialist

The AAG is pleased to welcome Dwayne Parks to fill the role of Accounting Specialist. Dwayne brings more than 17 years of experience working with organizational data to the association headquarters in D.C. Previously, he has worked in a variety of fields including science, legal, and healthcare.

Read more about Dwayne.

MEMBER NEWS

Profiles of Professional Geographers

Douglas Gress

Douglas Gress, Professor of Economic Geography, Seoul National University, has spent the majority of his professional career outside of his home country of the United States. In this month’s Profile he offers some advice not just about geography careers, but also about living abroad and being prepared to move while working to obtain a dream job.

Learn more about geography careers.

November Member Updates

The latest news about AAG Members.

Mei-Po KwanThe UK Academy of Social Sciences conferred the award of Fellow on Mei-Po Kwan in their 2018 class of social scientists. Kwan, the only US geographer to receive the award this year, was chosen for her “significant contributions to theory, methods and practice in urban, GIScience, mobility and health research.” More about the award.

In early October, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton issued a certificate of commendation to the John R. Borchert Map Library at University of Minnesota for its work in preserving and providing access to historical aerial photography of the state. The library provides online access to 270 different sets of 1923-1991 historic photos covering Minnesota’s 87 counties. The Map Library is named for John R. Borchert, AAG president in 1968-69. Borchert was professor of geography at the University of Minnesota (1949-1989) and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Explore the library.

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Upcoming Awards Deadlines – Nominate Deserving Geographers!

honors and awardsDecember 31st marks the deadline for multiple awards to honor and support geographers in all stages of their careers. Members may nominate their colleagues for the Wilbanks Award for transformational research in geography or the Glenda Laws Award for social justice as well as the AAG E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Award for contributions to geography in teaching or research. Students can apply for AAG Dissertation Research Grants and the Hess Community College Geography Scholarship. Those with a geography career are invited to apply for an AAG Research Grant. Nominations are also being solicited for a variety of books in geography awards including the Globe Book Award, the Jackson Prize, and the Meridian Book Award.

Follow the AAG Awards Calendar for Deadlines.

Take Time Out This Summer for Professional Development

The AAG’s Geography Faculty Development Alliance (GFDA) will once again offer a valuable in-depth opportunity for early career professionals and department leaders in Geography to learn and engage during its annual workshops June 23-29, 2019, at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The shorter four-day workshop for department leaders (June 26-29) will overlap with the week-long conference for early career attendees providing a full career spectrum of exercises and activities. These workshops are part of AAG’s membership resources, which also include its Jobs and Careers Center and many other programs.

Learn more.

IN MEMORIAM

Marilyn Sue O’Hara

Marilyn Sue O’HaraThe AAG is saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Marilyn Sue O’Hara, also known as Marilyn Ruiz on September 30, 2018. O’Hara was a Clinical Professor of Pathobiology at the University of Illinois. She obtained a PhD in geography in 1995 from the University of Florida. Her work largely centered around the spatial diffusion of disease and epidemiology.

Read more.

PUBLICATIONS

Read the November 2018 Issue of the ‘Annals of the AAG’

Annals-cvr-2017

The AAG is pleased to announce that Volume 108, Issue 6 (November 2018) of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers is now available online. The November issue contains a special forum: Context and Uncertainty in Geography and GIScience.

Full article listing available.

New Books in Geography — September and October 2018 Available

New Books in Geography illustration of stack of books

From places like the Arctic and Africa to people like Lévi-Strauss and Doreen Massey, the topics are varied on the latest list of new books in geography! Recently released books are compiled from various publishers each month. The October list features topics such as citizenship, drugs, plants, and fire safety. Some of these titles are later reviewed in the AAG Review of Books.

Browse the list of September new books.

Browse the list of October new books.

Fall 2018 Issue of ‘The AAG Review of Books’ Now Available

Volume 6, Issue 4 of The AAG Review of Books has now been published online. This quarterly online journal publishes scholarly reviews of recent books related to geography, public policy and international affairs. A review essay this quarter by Gerry Kearns reflects on Ireland’s Brexit Problem.

Read the reviews.

GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS
EVENTS CALENDAR

Submit News to the AAG Newsletter. To share your news, email us!

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President's Column

Watershed Moments

It is time to show our democracy, our humanity, our compassion, and our resolve. It is time to say no to the murders of journalists, worshippers in synagogues, African American churchgoers, schoolchildren, theatergoers, yoga practitioners, and disco dancers. It is time to VOTE. Please take a moment of silence for all victims of ever-senseless and hate-fueled violence inspired by the rhetoric of the current U.S. Administration…

 

…Thank you.

I embrace the privilege to write this column each month, a right to free expression for which Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi died. VOTE.

I am honored for the opportunity to take part in AAG Regional Division Meetings this fall, and am grateful for the freedom of assembly, a right for which 11 worshippers died in the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue. VOTE.

Now, the U.S. President believes he can change the Constitution by executive order, to erase the birthright of American citizenship. Furthermore, the Administration is working to erase transgender identities, lift protections for endangered species, and is sending National Guard troops to an imaginary invasion at the U.S.-Mexico border. VOTE.

Remember to speak out against alternative facts, to light the candle in the dark. During Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s powerful testimony in the Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy stated “Bravery is Contagious.” VOTE.

When you exercise your right and civic duty to vote on Tuesday 6 November, remember that our great grandmothers fought for that right in suffrage. Communities today still fight voter suppression. This is a watershed moment in our history, it is now or never for freedom of expression, for civil and human rights, for the environment, for the future of the planet. Of course, your choices are your own: be heard. VOTE.

Deepwater Horizon beach cleanup. (Photo by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)

Meanwhile in the Colorado River Watershed we are not safe either, and are not being helped by a gutted and demoralized EPA…It is humbling to live in the very modern city of Austin, Texas, with the advantages of modern water treatment and sewer systems, to receive a 5 am text with a boil water order for our metropolitan area of nearly a million citizens. Our water treatment system was overwhelmed by flood waters traveling down the Colorado River Watershed. This 50 year magnitude storm event took out a 49 year old bridge in the Hill Country. Austin and its suburbs were without clean tap water for over a week and we still face restrictions of not being able to water yards, fill pools, or wash cars. Such a first world problem with regards to pools and cars, and water conservation is the increasing norm for drought-prone central Texas. Imagine never having clean water or sanitation in the first place. 844 million of the world’s citizens today have no access to safe water, and 2.3 billion people live without access to sanitation. And in the U.S., Food and Water Watch notes that half a million households had their water shut off for the inability to pay their water bills in 2016. How do we ensure water security, both from an economic and humanitarian perspective, and from a production capacity perspective? This is a grand challenge for Geographers to work on. As climate change continues to bring more extreme events, our infrastructure is being overwhelmed. If this is the case in one of the most developed nations on the planet, how will less well-off countries cope with looming environmental challenges? In the U.S., the Trump Administration rolled back protections for clean water in 2017, relaxing limits on toxic water pollution from coal-fired power plant ash, among other senseless environmental protection rollbacks. VOTE.

It is encouraging to be receiving AAG Members’ thoughtful geography abstracts for the AAG Annual Meeting major themes: Geospatial Health Research; Geography and Human Rights; and Physical Geography in Environmental Science. Thank you. There is still time to participate the paper abstract deadline has been extended to 8 November 2018; Poster abstracts are due 31 January 2018. Consider submitting your research to be presented at the AAG Annual Meeting in Washington DC in April 2019. While you are in Washington, visit your legislators, share your science, speak up and be a part of the change: make a difference with Geography. And on Tuesday 6 November, make a difference with your citizenship: VOTE.

Please share your thoughts with me at slbeach (at) austin (dot) utexas (dot) edu.

— Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
Professor and C.B. Smith Sr. Fellow in U.S.-Mexico Relations
Geography and the Environment, University of Texas at Austin

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0047

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