Connecting with Our Community to Bridge Divides and Raise Our Voices

Marilyn Raphael and her panelists Tianna Bruno, Guillermo Douglass-Jaimes and Kelly Kay posed for a photo after the 2023 AAG Presidential Plenary, Toward More Just Geographies. Credit: Becky Pendergast, AAG
Marilyn Raphael and her panelists Tianna Bruno, Guillermo Douglass-Jaimes and Kelly Kay posed for a photo after the 2023 AAG Presidential Plenary, Toward More Just Geographies. Credit: Becky Pendergast, AAG

Photo of Marilyn Raphael by Ashley Kruythoff, UCLA

It is now almost a month since our Annual Meeting in Denver concluded and I can still feel the glow. More than 6,000 AAG members converged on Denver ready to re-engage with their geography family. We were at first tentative about being with people in person, yet eager to restart the social-intellectual experiment that these meetings embody. I met many more members than I would normally — not simply old friends and colleagues, as delightful as that was, but also new members, in particular, early career geographers (students, postdocs). Everyone, from seasoned AAG members to brand-new ones to AAG staff, expressed to me how happy they were to be meeting and to be in conversation with each other.

I’ll mention three (of many) special moments:

There was one conversation that I overheard while having a quiet coffee, in which the members were saying how much they were enjoying the meeting, expressing the excitement of realizing that the author whose work you were citing in your presentation was actually sitting in the audience and that the meeting was totally worth the effort that it took to get there. I couldn’t help myself I had to go over and introduce myself as their President and confess that I had overheard them. They were delighted.

Another experience that I will cherish came at our opening reception on Thursday. I was greeted by a quartet of young African geographers who came together to meet me and be photographed with me. They were so excited that their president was a Black woman, they wanted it on record. Their excitement drove home to me how important diversity and inclusion are to inspiring and encouraging young people, not just in our discipline but in their decisions and ability to persist in their work and lives.

A third was attending [part of] the Bridging the Digital Divide networking session, which brought a number of students to the Denver meeting. I mention this because it is an initiative that AAG created in 2020 in “to quickly address the technology needs of geography students at minority-serving institutions, as COVID-19 disrupted their learning environments.” Actions like these move us towards a Just Geography, and the presence of these students at the meeting drove that point home.

The highlight of my meeting experience was the Presidential Plenary I led: Its theme, you will remember, was “Towards a Just Geography.” The plenary brought together ideas that AAG, and you as its members, have been working on for some time. The three panelists, geographers at different stages of their careers, suggested directions arising from their own study, experiences, and hopes. They reflected on the spatial and temporal dimensions of justice, the potential of critical physical geography, and the importance of mentoring our early-career geographers. These are only three facets of what is a multifaceted concept. However, the ideas passionately expressed by the panelists demonstrated a renewed understanding of how transformative the work of addressing justice must be, challenging our mindsets, frameworks, and assumptions.

This call for a renewed understanding stayed with me as I sat in on a number of themed sessions over the ensuing days. As I listened to the presentations, I was struck by the urgency of the voices of geographers as they discussed their work. I saw not only the value of their interdisciplinary and cross-cutting perspectives on the grand challenges of the world, but also the real need for the taking those perspectives into the public realm.

To meet that need, AAG has launched a major initiative, Elevate the Discipline, aimed at amplifying geographers’ voices with training and resources for media relations, public scholarship, and advocacy. In addition, AAG recently completed its Strategic Plan for 2023-2026, which features eight areas of innovation and effort. Woven directly into the new plan are the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiative goals, which will receive a significant infusion of members’ input and guidance this year with the launch of seven new working groups. I’d like to tell you more about these areas of AAG’s work and encourage you to get involved.

Apply: Elevate the Discipline program. May 5 is the last day to apply for AAG’s first-ever Elevate the Discipline training cohort. Elevate the Discipline is designed to provide training, learning resources, and a platform for geographers to be heard in the media, as voices for public policies, and in advocating for change.  In addition to the week-long training program this summer, AAG is developing webinars to be provided in 2024, and has curated a free suite of resources available year-round. This year’s theme for the week-long training is “Climate Change and Society,” which is particularly relevant to the focus on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Join: Working Group for AAG’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) initiative. If you attended the Annual Meeting, you may already have had a chance to find out about the seven JEDI working groups that AAG is forming to enable members to advise and collaborate on the AAG JEDI plan. The groups will address governance, communications, focused listening, membership, reports, advocacy, and training. There are still spaces open on some of the committees, and you can use this link to apply.

In an article for ArcNews last year, I called for renewed efforts to suit our methodologies and research to the very real human needs and inequities that the climate crisis reveals: “There is so much more that physical and climate scientists, including geographers, need to learn about how we practice and use our science. We have made great strides in our understanding of the physical nature of climate and climate change. However, our understanding is limited by the fact that we do not incorporate the human element well enough.” Something similar can be said for our efforts to communicate what’s at stake: Do geographers have the tools they need to not only translate their research to public information, but also to connect the science with social impacts and possibilities? Both the JEDI working groups and Elevate the Discipline are powerful, member-driven opportunities to help AAG illuminate and amplify the social and physical dimensions of this current moment on our planet.

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0130


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 raphael [at] geog [dot] ucla [dot] edu to enable a constructive discussion.

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In Denver and Beyond, Moving Toward More Just Geographies

Aerial view of downtown Denver with mountains in the background. Credit: CANUSA Touristik via denver.org
Aerial view of downtown Denver with mountains in the background. Credit: CANUSA Touristik via denver.org

Photo of Marilyn Raphael by Ashley Kruythoff, UCLAOur annual meeting is just around the corner, and I am excited. This is our first opportunity to meet in person since 2019, and AAG members are showing up! In March, more than four thousand geographers are going to descend on Denver, CO, the Mile High City, bringing with them the “spirit of Geography” More than fifteen hundred geographers will join remotely. Together, this means that well over 50% of our membership will be gathering to share research, ideas, and catch up, with one another for our largest gathering since 2020.

The theme of the meeting, Toward More Just Geographies, sprang from the ideas espoused in my nomination statement, back in 2020 when I talked about what we needed to do to create a stronger, more just AAG and discipline, and in the process, make Geography a force for positive social change. The heart of the theme is that the reality of a just geography is on the horizon, something that we must work towards, continually, but perhaps something that we never fully achieve. This is not setting us up for failure but a recognition that justice is not a finite, unchangeable thing, rather it is something that is constantly evolving towards an ideal. Hence, it’s towards a just geography. Member response to this theme has been heartwarmingly high — 471 of our 1,283 sessions are Just Geography themed.

Set against a backdrop of the numerous responses submitted to the appeal for member ideas on what a just geography means to them, the Presidential Plenary, scheduled for Friday, March 24 at 6:30 PM Mountain Time, is structured as a panel, featuring Tianna Bruno of UT-Austin, Guillermo Douglass-Jaimes of Pomona College, and Kelly Kay of UCLA. Our speakers will reflect on how we can approach a Just Geography in the tools that we use (GIS), in the framing of our research questions, and in our mentoring of students and early-career geographers. These reflections are not intended to represent the only ways in which we can approach a Just Geography, indeed, the member responses are rich with ideas on that subject.

Our intention is for these discussions to continue beyond the time allotted to the plenary and across all the days of the meeting. To facilitate this, AAG staff are creating at the meeting site, space where a curated set of the ideas discussed at the plenary as well as those contained within the member responses to the appeal are projected so that people could come in, sit or walk around and see the statements and spark conversations.

And there’s more! Beyond the immediate Presidential Plenary plans, in this meeting there are clear examples of the ways in which the AAG is moving towards a Just Geography. We are changing the way in which AAG’s conferences interact with the community, becoming less extractive while moving towards long- and short-term community engagement. This goes beyond the customary, popular offerings among our members to encourage mentoring, career development, and professional celebration and recognition. This year AAG also moves to connect with our host community, for example by once again offering a land acknowledgment on our website and during the meeting, and for the first time providing free registration to any member of the 48 tribes and nations with ancestral ties to the land defined by the state boundaries of Colorado. Several participants have taken up this offer. AAG works with and will make a monetary contribution to the work of the Denver Indian Family Resource Center (DIFRC), which works to protect the rights and serve the needs of Native American and Alaskan Native families in the Denver area. The DIFRC will also be on a panel of other Indigenous-led Denver advocacy groups on Friday, March 24 at 11:45 AM MT to discuss Denver as an Indigenous place. This session is co-sponsored by the Indigenous People’s Specialty Group.

The move towards justness is everywhere in AAG 2023’s programming. As noted above, one in three sessions is devoted to our theme of Toward a More Just Geography. A focus on just geographies is also a factor in our choice of honorees such as this year’s Honorary Geographer, Rebecca Solnit, who has worked conscientiously from an intersectional view of activism for climate action. AAG has given one of its highest recognitions to a person whose work arguably centers on justness. You can see Ms. Solnit alongside AAG members Farhana Sultana and Edward Carr on Saturday, March 25, at 10:20 AM MT, discussing the new book to which Sultana and Carr are contributors, Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Narrative from Despair to Hope. Ms. Solnit will deliver the Honorary Geographer lecture on Sunday, March 26, at 11:45 AM MT. Local independent bookseller Boulder Book Store will sell copies of Ms. Solnit’s books onsite for signings.

Reducing our carbon footprint: Working with AAG’s Climate Action Task Force, we are applying the lessons we’ve learned to a less carbon-intensive meeting this year. The past three years have forced us to become more adept at organizing the virtual experience and now we are learning how to manage a more travel-intensive experience while continuing to reduce our carbon footprint. This is in line with a key commitment made by the AAG in 2020 to estimate and report the carbon footprint of the annual meetings, using the baselines that were established then. Our goal is to reduce the carbon footprint of our meeting by 45% by 2030, relative to 2010 values. Our meeting in Denver is likely to be on track for meeting that goal, something that unfortunately, is not as likely with our planned meeting in Honolulu. As laid out by AAG executive director Gary Langham recently, this is another aspect of the work we have been doing, which includes divesting from fossil fuels as well as making sustainable choices for our management and office space.

This year, AAG is investing significant resources in making the Denver meeting hybrid, increasing accessibility to members. At a time that many other organizations are pivoting back to in-person-only meetings, AAG has made a commitment to continue to offer virtual and hybrid experiences so that presenters and participants could take part without traveling to Denver, thereby increasing accessibility to the meeting. AAG has worked with other institutions to test “nodes,” the most active of which will be at Montreal, but there are others forming in other locations, such as UC-Fullerton in California. The organizers of these nodes are trailblazing for future meetings; as technology improves and costs drop over the years, we can look forward to these approaches becoming the norm for AAG meetings. Find out more about this year’s nodes.

Personal choices also matter. AAG is encouraging our meeting participants to make low-carbon travel choices to attend the meeting, and low-carbon transportation choices on the ground. We encourage you to signal us about your travel decisions using the #AAG4Earth hashtag, or to reach out to us at helloworld@aag.org.

All of these steps towards making a meaningful and memorable meeting, while small individually, move us along the path towards a Just Geography.

Visit the AAG 2023 website to learn more, register, or plan your participation.

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0127


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 raphael [at] geog [dot] ucla [dot] edu to enable a constructive discussion.

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Reflections on the State of Geography 

Photo of a female graduate wearing cap and gown holding out a rolled up diploma
Credit: Felipe Gregate for Unsplash

Photo of Marilyn Raphael by Ashley Kruythoff, UCLA

Over the last few weeks I have been reading the AAG’s recently released report on the State of Geography. The report observes trends in post-secondary geography education in the United States over the period 1986-2021. These include trends across degree categories, and growth trends among students from populations historically excluded from the discipline. By historically excluded populations, I mean people who have been racialized/minoritized and excluded due to systems of white supremacy. The report confirms some of the concerns about our field’s lack of diversity, offers signs of change, and leaves us with important questions about the nature and constraints of the data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Here I highlight what I think are some of the important takeaways from this report.   

What it reveals

A quick overview of the trends shows that the number of geography degrees grew quickly from the 1990s through 2012, but since then, that number has steadily decreased due largely to a decline in bachelor’s degrees. By comparison, masters’ and doctorate degrees have continued to grow. This negative trend in undergraduate geography degree conferral since 2012 reflects a broader downward trend across social sciences, unlike in physical sciences where fields like atmospheric science and conservation are both growing strongly. This is noteworthy because these fields are often found within or combined with geography departments. 

 

Comparative bar chart showing the growth in women graduates across physical sciences, relative to geography; from the AAG State of Geography report, 2022
Growth in women graduates across physical sciences, relative to geography

 

While the number of degrees conferred has fluctuated over the years, the field itself remains predominantly male and white, although women are making inroads at the graduate level. The strength of this finding is undermined by the binary representation of gender in NCES’s and other scientific institutions’ data collection. When I use the term “women” on its own here, I’m referring to a data category and not to individual or collective gender identities that the data do not reflect. With that said, the data show that people reported as women remain underrepresented in geography studies. They do have higher representation in graduate studies (particularly PhDs) than in bachelor’s programs, and a higher rate of growth in PhDs than in master’s or bachelor’s degrees. They also show more consistent positive growth in degree conferral than people identified as men. Overall, besides anthropology and sociology, geography is similar to other social sciences in gender makeup, remaining mostly identified as male. 

It is encouraging to see that students in historically excluded populations appear to count for most of the new growth in the discipline, especially at the graduate level. Since 1994, growth in the number of geography degree conferrals has more than doubled among this population, and people identifying as Hispanic or Latinx make up the most rapidly growing proportion at the bachelor’s degree level. Geography degrees are not conferred equitably at any level of the discipline. However, this population’s numbers have grown relative to the total number of combined geography degrees conferred. In fact, it appears that people from historically excluded populations are contributing to any growth that geography is experiencing.  Despite this trend, representation in geography PhD degrees is similar to that of other higher education fields, lagging in bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Growth overall has not increased among African American, Native American, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander students in recent years.  

What it does not reveal

The report gives a picture of the state of geography in the US but also raises questions about the data. The way in which the data were collected/organized limits what can be known. For example, the way the data are organized tends to sidestep intersectional understanding of the discipline and students’ paths through it. Separating out race and ethnicity from gender is a superficial exercise that does not reflect lived reality.  

Interpretation of the data should consider that the emphasis on STEM education in the United States has coincided with a decline in social science and humanities majors. Did this affect students’ choice of a geography degree? Perhaps. Geography is not consistently considered a STEM field in US degree-giving institutions. Thus, the emphasis on STEM may mean that students seeking a science career might not major in geography at institutions where it is not considered STEM. Nonetheless, overall trends for master’s and PhD programs show us that geographers seem to be finding their way to the discipline after they earn other bachelor’s degrees.  

We also know that the NCES data categories themselves have limitations, especially as geography is such an interdisciplinary field and so rapidly advancing in GIS and other technologies. Many geography programs, in fact, need to or decide to apply non-geography categories to courses and degree paths. In particular, it’s possible that many geography-related programs, (social sciences, environmental sciences, etc.) are reporting GIS degrees or those with heavy loads of GIS coursework under the Computer Science and IT code. The large number of GIS-centric programs in the new AAG Guide database, paired with relatively low numbers of cartography and GIScience degrees conferred, could be evidence of this.   

Where to go from here

Studying degree conferrals alone gives us statistical insights that can create the foundation for understanding the discipline’s trends, but it also inspires more qualitative questions about how a geography program’s design, curriculum, approach to recruitment, and faculty/student support can contribute to attracting and retaining a wider variety of students. The AAG is aware of the need for data that have more comprehensive categories and go beyond the quantitative into factors that are more holistic. For example, the AAG is interested in pursuing data that will provide a more detailed picture of gender identities, racialized and ethnic identities, and the disciplinary experiences and conditions that students are encountering. Later this year we will be asking for the geography community’s input into these data. Please respond when you see the call.   

I encourage you to read the Report.  

I’d like to thank the AAG staff members who prepared the State of Geography report, notably Mikelle Benfield and Mark Revell, for their data analysis, visualizations, and insights. 

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0125


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 raphael [at] geog [dot] ucla [dot] edu to enable a constructive discussion.

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Stanley W. Toops

With heavy hearts we mourn our dear friend and colleague Stanley Toops, who passed away yesterday of a failing heart. We’re proud Stan called Miami home for 32 years, but he was a man of the world — a quintessential geographer — whose curiosity knew no bounds. He visited so many places and touched so many people through his teaching, research, mentorship, and friendship. We highlight some accomplishments and memories below.

Stan was a Midwesterner, born and bred, from Milton, Iowa. He attended Drake University, earning a B.A. in Geography and Political Science in 1979, and later an Advanced Chinese Certificate from Middlebury College in 1982. Stan went west for his graduate work in Geography at the University of Washington, earning an M.A. in 1983 and Ph.D. in 1990 (with a dissertation “The Tourism and Handicraft Industries of Xinjiang: Development and Ethnicity in a Minority Periphery”). Through his education and research, he became fluent in Chinese and knowledgeable of Uyghur, but could greet you in a variety of other languages.

Stan joined Miami that same year with a joint appointment in the Department of Geography and International Studies. For 32 years he shared his insights and experiences with thousands of students in classes on world regional geography, geography of East Asia, introductory and capstone international studies courses, and more. He enlivened the classroom with anecdotes from his travels, and sometimes with song (a capella renditions of national anthems). He supervised many graduate students, encouraging bold topics and field research across the globe. Former students attest to his depth of knowledge, infectious passion for learning, and encouraging them to critically engage with the world. Colleagues likewise appreciated his dedication to and impact on curricula in Geography and International Studies. Education at Miami will never be the same without him, but so many have been touched by his gifts as a teacher.

Stan was an innovative and productive researcher. He was a classic area studies geographer, focused on East and Central Asia, and particularly China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. His research in geography and international studies exploring the interplay of culture and development earned him diverse publications (and a travel ban by the Chinese government, a badge of honor if there ever was one). He remained an active researcher across his career, with scores of articles, chapters, and books to his credit. Notably, he was a key contributor to the Routledge Atlas of Central Eurasian Affairs (2012) and lead editor of the International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues (now in its fifth edition, 2022). His geographical perspective lent important value to diverse conversations spanning borders and disciplinary boundaries. Stan left an important and lasting mark as a scholar.

All of these contributions earned him tenure and promotion in 1996 and the esteem of colleagues across campus, and a much celebrated and well-earned retirement in 2022. Stan moved back west to enjoy retirement at a new home in Federal Way, Washington (with Mt. Rainier on the horizon), but kept in touch with Oxford friends.

But we’ll remember Stan especially as a wonderful colleague and friend. He was incredibly smart, but also profoundly modest and personally warm. He was a regular presence around Shideler Hall, often found in his office surrounded by a towering mess of books and mementos. He spoke gently, but his tenor singing voice carried across the halls. Each day he sported a different, place-themed T-shirt or necktie, many of which he shared with us upon retirement. And in an increasingly busy and distracted campus, Stan took the time for careful and thoughtful conversation with undergraduates, graduate students, and his colleagues. They don’t make colleagues like Stan every day, and his loss leaves a big hole in Shideler Hall and our hearts.

We offer our sincerest condolences to his wife Simone Andrus, their much-loved dog Egg, and Stan’s extensive family and network of friends and collaborators in Iowa, Ohio, Washington, and across the globe. We feel his loss acutely but are thankful for his many years of collegiality and friendship, and proud of his deep contributions to Miami University, Geography (in Oxford and beyond), and everyone who knew him.

Stan’s life was cut far too short, but he lived it very fully. As a quintessential geographer would.


Provided by Marcia England and the Miami University geography department.

 

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Laurence Allan James

Laurence Allan James passed from this world in the loving arms of his sister and niece on the night of December 3, 2022.

Allan (AKA, A.J.) was born in Hollywood, California, on March 18, 1949, into a family of many geologists. His family moved to Sacramento in northern California in 1956. He was active in Little League baseball and later attended Mira Loma High School, where he was on the Honor Roll, elected Senior Class President, played basketball and ran on the cross-country track team. He also began to write songs and play guitar with his friends. The garage band at 4425 Glen Oak Court was infamous.

Photo of a young Laurence Allan James, Mira Loma High School yearbook, 1967

After high school, he interrupted his studies at University of California, Berkeley a number of times to pursue his singer-songwriter aspirations. Allan helped run a café on Bleeker Street in New York City and busked in Europe. He hitchhiked across the United States to greet his newborn niece.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1978 and moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he pursued two Masters of Science degrees, in Water Resources Management and in Geography, with Jim Knox as his advisor. His Ph.D., also from the University of Wisconsin, was held jointly in Geography and Geology, with James C. Knox and David M. Mickelson as his dissertation advisors. While in Madison, he researched several family pioneers, including a Civil War hero who has a statue there.

Allan taught at the University of Wisconsin and in Atlanta, Georgia before moving to the University of South Carolina in 1988, where he was a professor in the Geography Department for three decades. He also served as Director of the BioGeomorphology Laboratory and Senior Associate in the Environment and Sustainability Program.

His teaching and research primarily focused on fluvial geomorphology with emphases on river sedimentation, floodplain and channel morphogenesis following human activities, interactions between alluvium and flooding, and the use of spatial analysis in geomorphology. Specific themes included investigations of hydraulic mining sediment in California, historical erosion by rills and gullies and floodplain sedimentation in the U.S. southeastern Piedmont, concepts of legacy (anthropogenic) sediment, Quaternary glaciations of the northwestern Sierra Nevada in California, geomorphometry and geomorphic change detection.

He was a member of national and international societies encompassing the field of geomorphology, including the Geological Society of America (GSA) and the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and received a number of Distinguished Career awards. The Southeastern Division and Water Resources Specialty Group of AAG honored him with Distinguished Career awards in 2018. The Geomorphology Specialty Group (GSG) of the AAG presented him with the Grove Karl Gilbert Award for Excellence in Research in 2015 and the Melvin G. Marcus Distinguished Career Award in 2023. (He was notified of the latter award by his friends prior to his death.)

Allan was predeceased by his parents, Laurence B. and Elizabeth M. James, and his brother Benjamin. He is survived by his sister Catherine (JJ) DeMauro, his brother Stephen, his niece Stacey Swatek Huie and her spouse Jeremy, their daughters Madeleine and Miriya, his ex-wife Myrna N. Skoda James, her sons Joseph Skoda, Jr. and Jesse Skoda, granddaughters Chloe and Kylie, and his beloved companion Dr. Marcia Ehinger.

According to his wishes, he will be cremated and interred in his parents’ plot at East Lawn Cemetery on Greenback Lane in Sacramento, California. Celebration of life events are planned at his sister’s home and at the AAG annual meeting in 2023.


Written by Dr. Marcia Ehinger

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The International Encyclopedia of Geography

The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology

Image showing complete set of The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and TechnologyRepresenting the definitive reference work for this broad and dynamic field, The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology arises from an unprecedented collaboration between Wiley and the American Association of Geographers (AAG) to review and define the concepts, research, and techniques in geography and interrelated fields. Available as an online resource and as a 15-volume full-color print set, the Encyclopedia assembles a truly global group of scholars for a comprehensive, authoritative overview of geography around the world.

  • Contains more than 1,000 entries ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 words offering accessible introductions to basic concepts, sophisticated explanations of complex topics, and information on geographical societies around the world
  • Assembles a truly global group of more than 900 scholars hailing from over 40 countries, for a comprehensive, authoritative overview of geography around the world
  • Provides definitive coverage of the field, encompassing human geography, physical geography, geographic information science and systems, earth studies, and environmental science
  • Brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on geographical topics and techniques of interest across the social sciences, humanities, science, and medicine
  • Features full color throughout the print version and more than 1,000 illustrations and photographs
  • Annual updates to the online edition

Online advantages

Online access provides many benefits for scholars, researchers, professors, students and librarians:

  • publishes annually for the most comprehensive reference available in the field
  • 24/7 use
  • enhanced search and discoverability
  • search by keyword or phrase across the full text
  • browse by table of contents and topic to explore the breadth of coverage
  • export citations
  • click through reference links
  • bookmark content to share with social networks
  • unlimited concurrent user access
  • perpetual access rights with one-time purchase
  • COUNTER-compliant usage data
  • no DRM restrictions
  • enhanced MARC records at no extra charge
Learn more about topics and recent articles

 

For more information, contact Jennifer Cassidento.

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2022 White Paper on Locational Information and the Public Interest

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Quick Start Guide to Integrate the Ethics of Locational Information into Your College and University Courses and Programs

3D futuristic circuit background showing network

Authors (in alphabetical order) 

Jeremy Crampton (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.), Coline C. Dony (American Association of Geographers), Victoria Fast (University of Calgary), Peter Kedron (Arizona State University), Joseph Kerski (Environmental Systems Research Institute, University of Denver), Julaiti Nilupaer (American Association of Geographers), Clancy Wilmott (University of California, Berkeley) 


Sharing where you are and where you have been, can be as deeply personal and as revealing as sharing your health or financial information. Yet, we enable location tracking on our devices (phone, wearables, cars) either out of convenience or without realizing it, and do so without scrutinizing whether our information will be used for commercial, public, or other purposes, nor whether it will be further shared or sold. This lack of awareness and complacency raises questions around the social and ethical implications of location information and geotechnologies (which we will refer to as “geoethics,” for short), and how people are differently affected by, subject to, or able to use these technologies for positive change. 

Educators at colleges and universities, particularly those teaching at least one subject that involves the use or applications of locational information or geotechnologies, have a vital role to play in developing that awareness around geoethics. At a recent Summit on Locational Information and the Public Interest, participants were brought together by a common concern for the uneven ethical, legal, and social implications of locational information. As a subset of the Summit participants, we (the authors of this article and educators ourselves) largely discussed educational materials and training goals that are deemed newly essential for students. We recognized that teaching geoethics cannot be reduced to a checklist or a code, and that it should not be relegated to a single class period at the end of a course or reserved for an upper-level course at the end of a specialized program.  

We recommend embedding geoethics throughout a course (and at all levels of a program) to help students develop a habit of considering the ongoing, situated, and critical appreciation of the context in which locational information is collected, analyzed, visualized, and acted upon. We recognize, however, that geotechnologies evolve so rapidly, that it can be challenging to decide what to teach and which examples to cover, or to know what ethical responsibilities we each have (whether in daily life or at work) and demonstrate to students how to apply or practice these responsibilities. 

If you are teaching a subject that involves the use or applications of locational information or geotechnologies (at any level), this guide is to empower you to start (or continue) embedding geoethics throughout your course(s). We provide 2 simple examples of what “experiential learning” of geoethics can look like, which does not require extensive background in GIS or programming. Experiential learning (Kolb, 2014) is a teaching strategy where students “learn by doing” and then reflect on the experience. It typically follows a four-stage cycle (1. Concrete Example, 2. Reflective Observation, 3. Abstract Conceptualization, and 4. Active Experimentation), which helps students better understand and remember the concepts taught. We also invite anyone to share additional learning activity ideas or examples you have already embedded in your course (more information on how to share your examples further down). 

Experiential Learning Activity 1 – Location Privacy Checkup

This activity would be fitting for any introductory-level geography or any course dealing with data. The learning outcomes of this activity are for students to do a deeper dive into the “location enabled” settings in their phone, to evaluate their own location sharing practices, and to understand and discuss how and why location is being used. This can be done in a lecture or as a take home/online mini or participation assignment. 

Concrete Experience: Ask your students to count how many apps they have on their phone or tablet, and how many of these apps have access to one or more of the following 3 hardware components on their phone: (1) GPS or location, (2) camera, and/or (3) microphone. Make sure you show how they can find this information on their phone. Let them pick 1 or 2 apps that have access to at least one of the 3 hardware (GPS, camera, and/or microphone), and ask them to read the terms of use and privacy policy for each app. Then, have them share what they found either in a written summary or discussion with classmates. 

Reflective Experience: Engage your class in a larger reflection and class discussion on what they found and their level of comfort with the data they are sharing through their phone (e.g., comfort about the amount, about the type, about how it will or could be used, etc.). Spoiler alert: students are shocked to learn how much information they are sharing. 

Active Experimentation: Ask your students to login to their Google account if they have one, and have them go to Google Maps. Have them check their privacy and location sharing settings. To spark discussion, have them zoom into an area and have them compare with a peer which points of interest (POIs, such as stores, parks, etc.) show up on their basemap. They may be different since they are based on past searches and visits. You can also have them explore the location data that is stored in their Google “Timeline”. 

Abstract Conceptualization: Assign one or more of the following readings to have a more advanced discussion during the next class. To help them prepare for the discussion and begin to conceptualize these implications in a more abstract way, ask them to formulate how they might change their behavior with this new awareness, how they might facilitate conversations with others, or – if you covered any ethical framework(s) in class, have them place their experience within the ethical framework(s). 

Experiential Learning Activity 2 – The Truth behind Satellite Imagery

This activity would be fitting in an upper-level geography, GIS, or related course. The learning outcomes of this activity are to understand that imagery from aircraft, UAVs, or satellites are cast onto the Earth, which comes with loss of accuracy, distortions, and other limitations, and to understand that these images through additional manipulations (extensive at times) that can have important ethical implications. While these images are increasingly viewed critically, and rightly so, they are still too often viewed as “truth” and assumed not to have been subjected to manipulation or edit. This activity helps students develop a practice to view these images, like any geo-information, with a critical eye in terms of their content and intent, their resolution, the manipulations they went through, the band(s) of the electromagnetic spectrum that is(are) being examined, and much more. 

Concrete Examples: In the 3 blog posts linked below, you will find a handful of satellite image comparisons. Use all examples (or select a few) to present to your students: 

Reflective Observation: When you present each example, give your students some time to examine each one so they can start identifying differences. Then, ask them to share with each other what differences they see and why they suspect these differences are there. After their discussions, provide more context about some of the reasons behind those differences or have them read through the blog post(s). Then, depending on which examples you covered, have them reflect on the importance of the imagery or basemap we choose, about how satellite images are represented, and/or about the use of algorithms to manipulate satellite imagery. 

Active Experimentation: If you want to keep experimenting with “imagery offset,” have your students get coordinates of a place they know and have them map those coordinates on different mapping services they use. If you want to keep experimenting with representation of satellite imagery, you can ask your students to take a satellite image (or have them take a screenshot of one) and apply filters to the image. Filters are widely available on many apps now or on free web-based photo editors. Have them test different filters to over- or under-emphasize certain aspects in the image. 

Abstract Conceptualization: Assign one or more of the following readings to have a more advanced discussion during the next class. Engage your class in a larger reflection and discussion about the ethical implications of the manipulation (algorithmic or other) of satellite images. 

Share Your Learning Activity with Us

By design, this ‘quick start guide’ presents what we feel are some of the key ideas yet practical steps to integrating discussions of the ethics of location information into geography education. The field of Geoethics is far richer than what we intended to present here and cannot be captured in a small number of example exercises. You can read a more complete set of our thoughts on and recommendations for education and the ethics of location information in our White Paper on Locational Information and the Public Interest. We also invite anyone to share additional learning activity ideas or examples you have already embedded in your course(s). 

  • Email us any activity or resource you are using in your class(es) at jnilupaer@aag.org, addressing a few questions below: 
    • “Brief introduction of yourself (affiliation, department and program, position/title, etc.)” 
    • “Title of the activity/resource” 
    • “(if any) Link to the activity/resource” 
    • “Which class(es), how to apply the activity/resource in your classroom, and why it’s recommended” 

We are especially interested in examples that help students engage with location privacy, open data, sharing results, the benefits and constraints of geotechnologies, and workflows for representing geospatial data (projections, symbology, classification, generalization), but we welcome any ideas and examples that can work in on or more courses across the geography curriculum (from world geography all the way to that upper level “geoethics” course), and coming from educators teaching any level and in any institution of higher education (from post-docs and visiting lecturers to long-time professors). 

Further Readings

Read more about “experiential learning”: Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Second Edition.  FT press. Available for Download at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315793484_Experiential_Learning_Experience_as_the_source_of_Learning_and_Development_Second_Edition 

There are many more resources and relevant examples to support the integration of geoethics into the curriculum. The list of resources below can help you incorporate additional ways to address the use of locational information and ethics in your course(s). 

  • What Do We Teach When We Teach Tech Ethics? A Syllabi Analysis (SIGCSE 2020): This resource provides a qualitative analysis on 115 syllabi of ethics courses in higher education and recommendations on integrating this content across curriculum.
    Fiesler, C., Garrett, N., & Beard, N. (2020, February). What do we teach when we teach tech ethics? a syllabi analysis. In Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 289-295). https://doi.org/10.1145/3328778.3366825  
  • Teaching Geoethics (E.U. Erasmus+ Programme): This resource provides an approach to teaching geoethics with the aim of building a socially responsible and ethically committed geoscientific community. From designing the syllabus, to issues of geoscience communication, to the analysis of specific cases within the diverse domains of the geosciences. 
  • Teaching and Learning about Geo-ethics with the Geoprivacy Video Series (AGS’ EthicalGEO): This resource by the American Geographical Society provides an eight-part series of educational videos (each 5 min. or less) that come with an educational resource (PDF) providing suggested activities, articles, and discussions to learn about teaching ethical issues related to location data collection. Topics range from false identification of crime suspects using GPS data to the use of location tracking to vet job applicants. 
  • GISEthics Case Studies (UPenn): This resource by the University of Pennsylvania provides a collection of videos showcasing real-world case studies videos published by Pennsylvania State University, posing a range of ethical challenges faced by geospatial professionals and relevant resources, and supporting you to apply these case studies in your teaching. 
  • Teaching Ethics with GIS (AGS’ Ethical GEO): This blog post by the American Geographical Society provides links to different examples or resources you can use to teach ethics with GIS. 
  • GIS&T Body of Knowledge (UCGIS): The University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) outlines important areas of knowledge in GI&T including a few related to ethics. Their entries on these topics cover important definitions, background, and recommendations for professionals, or for teaching and learning. 
  • The Spatial Reserves book and blog: This collection of over 400 essays is focused on three things: (1) how to find geospatial data, (2) how to assess its quality (is it any good? Does it meet my needs?) and (3) societal issues including accuracy and precision, fee vs free (charging for data vs. opening it up to everyone), location privacy, ethics, copyright, and other issues. 
  • The International Association for Promoting GeoEthics: This international, scientific, multidisciplinary association provides a community focused on geoethics and contains a list of tools, publications and events that can already be useful. 
  • The Turing Way Handbook (The Alan Turing Institute): An open-source and community-led handbook for reproducible, ethical, and collaborative data science, supporting a diverse community of contributors to make data science accessible, comprehensible and effective for all. In particular, this handbook includes a section on ethical issues, based on responsible research and innovation, and provides related laws, policies and knowledge for you on how to conduct ethical research. 
  • The Benchmark Initiative (Ordnance Survey, UK): created by Omidyar Network and Ordnance Survey to increase awareness of the many potential risks of using location data, to identify ethical principles, and to promote good practice. Developed the “Locus Charter” to develop international principles of good location practice. 
  • The ABC of ethical use (The U.K. Geospatial Commission): a policy paper on building public confidence in location data, and how to unlock value from location data while mitigating ethical and privacy risks, ensuring compliance with legal principles and retaining the trust of citizens. 

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0114

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