See All Awards

AAG Publication Award

Deadline: September 30, 2026 (by midnight EST)

The AAG Publication Award is conferred in recognition of exceptional and outstanding contributions to the discipline by publishers. Whereas nominations may be made by anyone, note that eligible recipients will be publishers, not individual authors.

One AAG Publication Award may be recommended each year by the AAG Honors Committee, but the award is not necessarily given every year. Note that eligible recipients are publishers, not individual authors. The AAG Media Achievement Award and the AAG Publications Award are selected by the AAG Honors Committee.

Make a nomination

Nominations are invited from individual AAG members, specialty groups, affinity groups, departments, and other interested parties. A letter of nomination that outlines the rationale for the recognition is required. Although letters of support are not required for a nomination, nomination dossiers may include co-signatures or up to 5 letters documenting the nominee publisher’s contributions to and impact on geography as they relate to the purpose of the award.

Nominations should be submitted by the deadline by completing the online application form.

As with all other AAG awards, eligibility also rests on the candidate being in compliance with the AAG Professional Conduct Policy. Nominations may be rescinded, and the award may also be revoked for any candidate or awardee who is found in violation of the AAG’s Professional Conduct Policy.

AAG Publication Award Recipients

2019

The Conference of Latin American Geography

2018

John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

2016

Temple University Press

2015

The University of California Press

2014

Esri, Environmental Systems Research Institute

2012

Routledge

2011

Pion, Ltd

2010

Victor H. Winston and Bellwether Publishing

2000

George F. Thompson

1998

The University of Chicago Press

1997

Rand McNally and Company

Newsletters

Newsletter – July 2021

July 8, 2021

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Moving Forward on Climate Change and Professional Ethics

By Emily Yeh

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A few weeks ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that atmospheric CO2 concentrations, at 419 ppm, have now reached 150% of their pre-industrial levels – the highest in more than four million years, when sea levels were about 24 meters higher, the global average surface temperature almost 4ºC warmer than today, and the first modern humans had more than three million years yet to appear on earth. The world-historical COVID-19 pandemic, still wreaking havoc across the mostly unvaccinated globe, temporarily decreased emissions, but not enough to be detectable in rising atmospheric CO2 levels. NOAA has recently defined new “normal” temperatures that are significantly higher than those in the past.

Continue Reading.

ANNUAL MEETING

New York City to host 2022 AAG Annual Meeting

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Mark your calendar for the AAG Annual Meeting in the Big Apple, February 25 – March 1, 2022. The hybrid meeting will take place both online and at the NY Hilton Midtown and the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. Registration and the call for papers for #AAG2022 will be announced this summer and we invite you to organize and participate in sessions, workshops, field trips, special events, and activities. We look forward to seeing you in New York City!

Stay up to date on the annual meeting

PUBLICATIONS

NEW Annals Alert: Articles with topics ranging from foreign domestic workers to subprime auto loans to the Belt and Road initiative

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The most recent issue of the Annals of the AAG has been published online (Volume 111, Issue 5) with a special 7 article section on Reproducibility and 13 new articles on contemporary geographic research. The Reproducibility and Replicability Forum includes an introduction plus articles focusing on the Hartshorne–Schaefer debate; critical human geography; data streams; challenges to reproducibility; GIS and algorithms; and data ethics. Remaining article topics in this issue include imperialism and the Vietnam War; supercell climatology; familiar strangers and crime prevention; farming training programs; tourist mobilities; postcolonial air pollution; cuerpo-territorio; and natural hazard modeling. Locational areas of interest include Hong Kong; Los Angeles; Singapore; western China; and Beijing.

All AAG members have full online access to all issues of the Annals through the Members Only page.

Each issue, the Editors choose one article to make freely available. In this issue you can read Reproducibility and Replicability in the Context of the Contested Identities of Geography by Daniel Sui and Peter Kedron for free for the next two months.

Questions about the Annals? Contact annals [at] aag [dot] org.

Journals-newsletter-100-6 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 issue of African Geographical Review

African-Geographical-Review-cvr-212x300-2 The latest issue of the journal of the Africa Specialty Group of the AAG, the African Geographical Review, has recently been published. Volume 40, Issue 2 is available online for subscribers and members of the Africa Specialty Group. The issue includes six new articles covering research in all fields of geography, including human, nature – society, physical and the techniques, to promote better representation of African scholarship, and to facilitate lively academic conversations regarding the African continent.

See the latest issue of the journal.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

AAG Welcomes New Editor of Annals of the American Association of Geographers

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The AAG is pleased to announce Brian King has joined the Annals of the American Association of Geographers editorial team as an editor. A professor and Head of the Department of Geography at the Pennsylvania State, King served on the Editorial Board of the Annals from 2016-2019. His research, teaching, and outreach focuses on livelihoods, conservation and development, environmental change, and human health, centering on Southern Africa. King will serve in the capacity of co-editor through December 31, 2023.

Learn more about Dr. King.

Nominate Colleagues for AAG Honors and AAG Fellows

Please consider nominating outstanding colleagues for the AAG Honors, the highest awards offered by the American Association of Geographers, and the AAG Fellows, a program recognizing both later-career and early/mid-career geographers who have made significant contributions to advancing geography. Individual AAG members, specialty groups, affinity groups, departments, and other interested parties are encouraged to nominate outstanding colleagues following the newly revised submission guidelines. Deadlines for nominations will be September 15th.

More information about AAG Honors

More information about AAG Fellows

Nominate Inspiring Geographers: September Awards Deadlines

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AAG Grants and Awards make a huge impact on our community of Geographers and help maintain the legacy of geographers of the past while paying tribute to geographers thriving right now. Deadlines are already approaching starting in September. Don’t miss your opportunity to apply or nominate someone deserving! Learn more about the following grants and awards before their due dates:
Sept. 15: AAG Enhancing Diversity Award and AAG Susan Hardwick Excellence in Mentoring Award
Sept. 22: AAG Nystrom Award for Recent Dissertations

Sept. 30: AAG Program Excellence Award – masters-granting programs

AAG Welcomes 2021 Summer Interns

2021-AAG-Summer-Interns-300x169 The AAG is excited to welcome two new interns coming aboard our staff for the Summer of 2021! Joining us this summer are Eliana Peretz, a senior at Mount Holyoke College pursuing a B.A. in Geography and Gender Studies, and Jacob Tafrate, a senior at the George Washington University pursuing degrees in Geography and International affairs, with a minor in Geographic Information Systems.

Meet the summer interns.

AAG Membership Database Improvement Begins Soon

The AAG is upgrading its membership database to provide new and improved services for you. This will require some planned downtimes, during which AAG members will be unable to log into accounts, access communities or process transactions. For now, everything continues to work as usual, and we’ve created the following page to provide status updates and information on how to address your needs as we make the transition. We appreciate your patience as we complete this upgrade. In the meantime, to join, renew, donate, or ask questions, please email membership [at] aag [dot] org or call us at 202-234-1450.

Note: Once the new database is online, all members will need to create a new login and password. We’ll provide prompts and instructions for this simple change.

POLICY CORNER

Senate Passes Sweeping U.S. Competitiveness Legislation, Includes Endless Frontier Act

The following update comes from our colleagues at the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)

On June 8, the Senate passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) (S. 1260). The 2,300 page bill was originally introduced in the spring as the Endless Frontier Act, which sought to shore up U.S. leadership in key technology areas—specifically with respect to China—and to enhance “tech transfer” for scientific research funded by the federal government. Since then, hundreds of amendments have been offered, resulting in a substantially altered package that now incorporates several additional, far-reaching bills.

The original proposal authorized $100 billion over five years specifically for a new Technology and Innovation Directorate at the National Science Foundation. The Senate-passed version now includes a total of $29 billion over five years for the directorate and also includes authorized funding increases for NSF’s budget overall (the original bill only included funding for the new directorate, which concerned many in the research community). The substantial decrease in funding to the proposed directorate is the result of several successful amendments seeking to more widely distribute funding to other federal agencies with missions related to key technological advancement, particularly the Department of Energy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Department of Defense. The massive USICA bill now includes provisions pertaining to NSF, DOE, DOD, Department of Education, Department of Commerce, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, and others.

The NSF provisions of the USICA attempt to bridge some of the divide between the Senate proposal and the NSF for the Future Act that is currently working its way through the House (see related article). For example, the amended Senate bill includes similar language related to research capacity building for “developing universities,” including minority-serving institutions, promoting STEM education in rural areas, and supporting early-career researchers, among other provisions. However, the two bills remain far apart in their general handling of NSF funding and policy directions. It remains to be seen whether a conference between the House and Senate will be attempted or if another path forward will emerge.

In the News:

The AAG is planning a series of state-level panels to encourage geographers to get involved in the 2021 redistricting process, and we need your help. An honorarium will be offered to geographers who organize a panel in their state this fall. To get involved or simply learn more, please reach out to Michelle Kinzer, mkinzer [at] aag [dot] org or visit http://www.aag.org/Redistricting.

MEMBER NEWS

July Member Updates

The latest news about AAG Members.

Dr. Alexandra Ponette-González has been selected to serve as a charter member to the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), a part of the Environmental Protection Agency. Ponette-González is an associate professor and ecosystem geographer in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of North Texas. The CASAC members will advise on the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Learn more about the committee and about Dr. Ponette-González.

Dr. Allen Scott, economic geographer at UCLA, was awarded an honorary degree at the University of Toronto for his work in understanding globalization and the creative economy. Scott gave an address at the 2021 University of Toronto commencement ceremony. View the recording.

Dr. Dee Jordan was recently interviewed by WKAR, the public media affiliate from Michigan State University, for their Curious about Careers children’s segment. Jordan spoke about health geographies in sub-saharan Africa. Watch the video on Twitter or Facebook.

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

YouthMappers and AGS “Everywhere She Maps” Internship Program

YouthMappers, in partnership with the American Geographical Society, has launched a new initiative to advance global gender equity in the geospatial and tech industries, inviting the partnership of other institutions and organizations through the Everywhere She Maps Internship Match Program.

The program aims to match qualified YouthMappers students who identify as women and/or non-binary with internship opportunities where they can develop professionally and strengthen their skills as they help their host organization achieve its goals. Learn more about how to hire an intern for your organization here, and contact the program director, Courtney Clark, at cclark [at] americangeo [dot] org with questions or to register.

IN MEMORIAM

Saul B, Cohen, passed away on June 9, 2021. The former Executive Director of the American Association of Geographers, is remembered for his influential work in political geography and for his time as President of Queens College. As a geographer Cohen published 16 books and was a leading expert in human geography. During his time as Queens he is remembered for improving academic standards and minority enrollment in the CUNY system. Read more.

GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS

We should talk about ‘deepfake geography’: fake AI-generated satellite images, ZME Science, June 9, 2021. Continued coverage of University of Washington geography professor Bo Zhao’s work in testing the capabilities of AI-generated satellite imagery. Zhao and his team are investigating this issue with the intention of learning how to detect faked imagery for the purposes of fact checking maps in the future.
Mapping two and a half million guitars – Conversations, ABC Radio, June 29, 2021. Chris Gibson, a Senior Professor of Human Geography at the University of Wollongong in Australia discusses his book The Guitar: Tracing the Grain Back to the Tree, which he wrote with fellow geographer Andrew Warren. The book delves into the cultural and geographic significance of guitar production by tracing the creation of guitars both in origin and supply. He goes in depth on the rare timbers and efforts for sustainability that make the guitar industry unique.
The mysterious case of an island that ‘vanished’ in the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico News Daily, June 28, 2021. Geographer and island specialist Israel Baxin Martínez discusses the economic significance of the apparent disappearance of Isla Bermeja, recorded by cartographers in 1539 and seemingly dematerialized by 2008 when the United States and Mexico negotiated drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico.

EVENTS CALENDAR

News

AAG Welcomes Summer 2021 Interns

June 22, 2021

Two new interns have joined the AAG staff this summer! The AAG would like to welcome Eliana and Jacob to the organization.

Eliana Peretz is a senior at Mount Holyoke College pursuing a B.A. in Geography and Gender Studies. After graduation, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in her main field of interest, climate migration, specifically studying the relationship between climate-induced displacement and social and cultural categories such as class, gender, and race. In her spare time, Eliana likes to make post-it art, read murder mystery novels, and watch stand up comedy.

Jacob Tafrate is a senior at the George Washington University pursuing degrees in Geography and International affairs, with a minor in Geographic Information Systems. He is most interested in Arctic geography and the application of GIS techniques to further understand the unequal impacts of climate change. After graduation Jacob hopes to continue his Geography education in graduate school. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with friends and family. While Jacob is originally from West Hartford, Connecticut his favorite place in the world is New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

If you or someone you know is interested in applying for an internship at the AAG, the AAG seeks interns on a year-round basis for the spring, summer, and fall semesters. Currently, due to COVID-19 safety regulations in Washington, DC AAG interns are home-based employees. More information on internships at the AAG is also available on the Jobs & Careers section of the AAG website at: https://www.aag.org/internships.

President's Column

On Teaching, Mentoring, Balance, and Service

June 1, 2021

With summer almost here, I’m about to head into my last year as an academic. I’m “retiring” June 2022, although in truth I’ll work full time running my family’s winery and nonprofit, both built around the mission of providing training, jobs, and community for those with disabilities. As I transition from academics, Andrew and I are encountering many things we didn’t know were part of running a small business. This transition has prompted me to reflect on my transition from student to faculty member and, in turn, on how we prepare our graduate students for major life and career transitions.

In my case, I was fortunate. Judy Olson, my PhD advisor at Michigan State from 1996 to 1999, was and is amazing. Those three years were life-changing; Judy gave me one of the greatest gifts of my life—the courage to think. Her advising style was respectful and quietly demanding. She didn’t give answers, but provided guidance on how to discover them. Judy also instilled in her advisees the importance of service, something she epitomizes herself. I would not be AAG president if she hadn’t steered me in that direction. Judy and my department also gave me the opportunity to teach my own class, a large multi-section beast of a GIS class that was a major learning experience for students—and for me.

I was lucky to receive so much guidance, support, and preparation. Even so, I was thoroughly unprepared for life as a faculty member. Almost overnight, I went from being a student, focusing only on my own research, writing, and limited teaching to mentoring many students, teaching multiple classes, having much higher research expectations, juggling work-life balance in a whole new way, and… the service. So much service.

As I reflected on my major career transitions, I became curious about the student-faculty transition of others and whether those of us in PhD-granting programs are adequately preparing our students to launch into successful careers. So, I contacted multiple individuals in different positions and institutions (thank you all!) and asked them two questions: “What experience in your PhD program best prepared you for your career?” and “What didn’t you learn that you wish you had?”

Intriguingly, almost no one mentioned research training or field expertise in response to either question. Perhaps that’s because most people feel that their PhD program prepared them for future research and expected that to be the primary focus. Instead, answers focused on the preparedness (or non-preparedness) in two main areas: Teaching and Balance. I’ll provide some very brief highlights below. For a thoughtful and much deeper discussion of mentoring, see Kavita Pandit’s 2020 article Mentoring graduate students in an era of faculty career restructuring.

Teaching: While teaching loads vary by type of institution (e.g., teaching vs. research intensive, community college vs. 4-year college, etc.), all faculty I know teach. Moreover, even at a research-intensive institution, I spend more time talking with colleagues about teaching than I do about research. Likewise, I spend much more time working with graduate students than I do conducting literature reviews or launching new research. And, yet, most PhD students receive little to no formal teaching training, and many PhDs do not even experience teaching our own class until we become faculty members. This almost inevitably leads to us dusting off our old syllabi and notes taken as students, frantically updating content-related notes right up until class starts and—only occasionally—emulating what we believed were the best practices to help students learn. As one of my friends said: “I had no teaching experience. I mean none. The first time I taught was when I walked into a classroom of 80 students.”

There was one exception in the answers: a friend said he received an intense amount of formal pedagogic training. In summarizing his experience and its impact, he stated, “The professors were professional educators and the students were in-service teachers. Wow. I learned about pedagogy, good reflective teaching practice, and the language of assessment (student learning objectives, rubrics, normalizing grading expectations, etc.).”

What a show-off.

But… that really should be the standard we set for training the graduate students who will be the future educators in higher education.

Recent years—and particularly the Covid-year-of-teaching-remotely—have added a major issue that makes preparing graduate students for teaching far more complex. It’s true that I spend more time talking about teaching with my colleagues than I do about research. But, lately, I’ve spent even more time talking about issues of mental health and how to help guide students who experience issues across the spectrum of mild anxiety to catastrophic breakdowns. Thus, in addition to preparing our graduate students to use best learning practices, organize stimulating class materials, and prompt discussions, they now need to understand that their roles as teacher/mentors extend well beyond the basics of pedagogy. For many faculty, engaging with students as fellow humans brings challenges that can seem to blend roles of teacher and counselor. One of my friends summed up this challenge brilliantly: “Mental health training–this is, quite simply, the biggest challenge of my career. Teaching is care work, and yet we are rarely (if ever!) equipped with the adequate skills or support networks to deal with a range of mental health challenges in our students and colleagues.”

Let me be clear; I am NOT advocating that we be mental health professionals. But we must prepare our graduate students to know how to direct students with mental health issues to the appropriate people and centers and, equally important, how to avoid being personally ensnared in trying to solve those problems for the students.

Balance: Nearly everyone I know, including most of my friends and colleagues who responded to my email request for input, struggle with work-life balance and time management.

Achieving work-life balance has been a priority for me for about 10 years. I’m pretty much failing. But, here are the four things that I regularly try to accomplish:

Set boundaries and work hours. I’ve actually been pretty good at this one because it involves cocktails. When Andrew first started as Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, I implemented evening cocktail hour. This is the moment when work stops.
Make time for yourself, family, and friends. I’m super bad at the first, pretty good at the second, and marginal at the third.
Work a job you love. This is absolutely one of the most important things. Because, even if you have achieved work-life balance, if you don’t like your job, you’re not in equilibrium. And, if you do find yourself out of balance, at least the time demands are something that you enjoy.

Finally, 4. accept that there is no constant nor perfect work-life balance.

The last one is especially important for me to focus on as I sit here at 5am working on my column because there’s not enough time in the day.

Solutions: Ideally, the teaching and work-life issues are ones we should be addressing within our programs. But in truth, most of us learn about these professional expectations and options by observing rather than through any formal training. Even observing is not effective in many cases. Many PhD programs are within R1 universities, but most PhD students get hired in other types of institutions; graduate students thus have little if any opportunity to learn about the kind of careers into which they will arrive. As a friend said, “Getting hired at a R1 and reproducing your advisor’s career is not possible or desirable for everyone.”

But we don’t have to do it all—there are external resources available. In fact, the AAG has taken a lead in providing something that is missing from most graduate programs: professional development.

Here’s where I will shamelessly plug an AAG program which a friend described as “miraculous and life-affirming.” The AAG’s Geography Faculty Development Alliance Early Career Workshop begins this week. If you miss it this year, be sure to put it on your calendar for next year. You will receive 5 days of formal training in pedagogy, professional development, and work-life balance.

The AAG also has taken a strong role in providing opportunities and training elsewhere. Both career workshops at annual and regional meetings and seminar series, such as the recent remote series organized by Ken Foote, provide excellent resources. In addition, more and more universities are providing workshops and resources on these topics for graduate students or new faculty; for example, the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon funds many of its new faculty to attend a year-long program run by the National Center for Faculty Diversity and Development. We thus don’t always have to develop these programs in our departments, but we should at a minimum make sure we are directing our graduate students or new faculty to these areas of training and learning.

On a different note: This is my last column as the virtual AAG President. Occasionally, people have asked me what it’s like being AAG President. Here are the top 3 Pros and Cons.

Pros:

I have had a chance to get to know some amazing people, especially AAG staff.
I have surprised myself in how much I enjoyed writing these columns (and working on them with Andrew, who is a phenomenal editor). They have been a turn from my usual guarded privacy.
I have learned so much more about geography, geographers, and programs around the world. I’m very grateful for all of the experiences that people have shared with me (even when the experiences weren’t positive).

Cons:

It didn’t help my time management or work-life balance. But, I loved the work.
Email.
As I’ve shared with some people, my biggest regret during my term as President is that I never met another AAG member face-to-face (excluding my husband and UO colleagues). What a strange year to be in this role. I VERY much look forward to seeing a lot of you at future meetings

With my last column words, I’d like to thank everyone for trusting me with this position. I especially want to thank Dave Kaplan for sharing so much knowledge, patience, and time with me. You are a good mentor, Dave.

It’s been an honor to serve as AAG President.

—Amy Lobben
AAG President and Professor at University of Oregon
lobben [at] uoregon [dot] edu

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0093

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 lobben [at] uoregon [dot] edu to enable a constructive discussion.

News

Why should geographers care about data science?

April 30, 2021

By Canserina Kurnia, Esri Senior Solution Engineer for Education, and Joseph Kerski, Ph.D., GISP, Esri Education Manager

Data science is the study of data. Data science involves developing methods of recording, storing, and analyzing data to effectively extract useful information. The discipline of geography has always been focused on data science, because geographers have always been keen to gather, analyze, and make sense of large volumes of data across a wide variety of scales and covering a wide variety of themes, from ecoregions to individual census blocks. Those using GIS are spatial data scientists: They combine their data with theoretical foundations such as Tobler’s First Law to explain and predict. As they visualize and analyze data, they detect patterns and relationships, testing real-world phenomena against hypotheses.

Why is geographic thinking and spatial analysis important to data science? Incorporating spatial analytics into data science allows analysts to extract deeper insight from data using a comprehensive set of analytical methods and spatial algorithms. These methods and algorithms include machine learning and deep learning techniques. Machine Learning (ML) refers to a set of data-driven algorithms and techniques that automate the prediction, classification, and clustering of data. Machine learning can play a critical role in spatial problem solving in a wide range of application areas, from image classification to spatial pattern detection to multivariate prediction. Deep learning is a type of machine learning that relies on multiple layers of nonlinear processing for feature identification and pattern recognition described in a model.

Geographers will no doubt find resonance with terms such as algorithms, classification, clustering, and pattern detection. Indeed, data science represents an opportunity for geographers to promote the value of geographic thinking throughout the academy and in the workplace. The rise of data science in academia and the workplace provides geographers with some new opportunities to demonstrate the relevance of their discipline, one that is high-tech and data-driven. In so doing, geographers can work in innovative ways with data science students and faculty, introducing them to the value of the geographic perspective and geographic tools. This work can lead to collaboration on research projects and jointly offered courses. Geographers can also work with employers to develop new internship programs and other opportunities for their students grounded in spatial thinking and data science.

Geographic Understanding + Data Science = Spatial Data Science

At left is a data-driven valuation model for the housing market for King County, Washington, USA.

When we chart the relationship between variables, in this case price and living space (measured in square feet), the dark green and dark purple indicate a large mismatch between predicted sale price of the homes and actual sale price of the homes. Ideally, data points should be close to the line. The closer to the line the data points are, the stronger the relationship is between the two variables.

In the chart, green colors indicate an underestimation of the sale price of the home, where the actual price of the house is higher than the one predicted by the model. The purple color indicates an overestimation, where the predicted price is above the actual price of the house. How can this situation happen?

Looking at the map at the left, the darker green points cluster around bodies of water, and people are willing to pay more to have a house near the water body. The regression model is systematically underestimating the sale price of the houses close to water bodies. It looks as though small changes to the size of the living space may result in bigger changes to the price of a house close to a water body compared to a house that is inland. So, location matters, and in this example, incorporating spatial data is crucial in modeling and understanding the complete situation. In addition, visualizing the data on the map make it easy to observe the trend and distribution.

The Building Blocks of Spatial Data Science

Spatial data science is the intersection of geography and data science; it incorporates geographic understanding into existing data science methods to improve predictive models and results. This house value scenario provides a simple example of the type of questions spatial data science can address. But how do we learn spatial data science and apply it to our work?

Spatial data science starts with Data Engineering. This refers to making sure the data is ready for our use. Visualization and exploration are next: We seek to understand the data and get a sense what we can solve with the data. We visualize and explore the data throughout the process and share the results. We use Spatial Analysis, Machine Learning and AI to layer the algorithms, methods, and approaches that allow us to break down the problem and create the model. This process turns data into information and often motivates us to take action.

These methods increasingly use larger data sets, such as a collection of imagery or a large vector data set, or real time streaming data from the Internet of Things. We use modeling and scripting, and Big Data Analytics, to Model the phenomena and automate the functionality. We employ Sharing and Collaboration to convey the results. No matter how good the analysis is, if it is not shared with other, no action will be taken, and no improvements to the situation will be possible. Creating and sharing a story map, a dashboard, or one or more infographics enables others to understand the location, scope, and nature of the problem or situation, and allows for the gathering of stakeholders to arrive at a solution.

Integration

ArcGIS includes machine learning tools for performing classification, clustering, and prediction. An example case for Classification is to classify impervious surfaces based on the latest high-resolution imagery to help effectively prepare for storm and flood events. Another example is for prediction: Accurately predict impacts of climate change on local temperature using global climate model data. An example for clustering is: Grouping the traffic patterns into traffic zones that can be used to elicit feedback from current drivers in the area.

As engaging and powerful as the tools are, integrating the tools is important. How can students and those in the workplace understand how data science works and integrate spatial components in data science? Nowadays, many open source machine learning frameworks exist, such as TensorFlow and scikit-learn. These provide libraries for machine learning and deep learning. ArcGIS includes ready to use tools, methods and algorithms to support building blocks of spatial data science. ArcGIS Pro is a powerful desktop application that is used widely by the scientific community as a spatial analysis workstation, with ready-to-use tools for spatial data science modeling.

Equally importantly, integration between ArcGIS and open source data science machine learning libraries through Python and R is available. For Python, ArcGIS Notebooks allow the Jupyter notebook environment to access open source python libraries and the ArcGIS API for Python and ArcPy, which supports the backend of ArcGIS geoprocessing capabilities. For R, the ArcGIS R-Bridge connects ArcGIS to R, allowing for statistical analysis results to be easily mapped in 2D and 3D. Conversely, the bridge also allows data from the GIS to be input into R for statistical analysis.

Value-added Skills

Adding data science to teaching spatial analytics builds highly marketable skills that are sought by nonprofit organizations, private companies, government agencies, and academia. This article shows how Fruit of the Loom hired recently graduating students as the company’s data analysts.

Conclusion

Spatial analytics is a fundamental part of data science. Combining the power of the two brings deeper insights to analysis. The job market for data scientists who understand location intelligence is growing. And ready-to-use tools, open data, and integration tools are already available to enrich teaching and research.

Next steps

Explore resources for Spatial Data Science in Higher Education to learn how to bring spatial data science into your research and teaching. You’ll find lessons, web courses, webinars, sample notebooks and other resources to build your own skills and inspire your students and colleagues.

Featured Articles is a special section of the AAG Newsletter where AAG sponsors highlight recent programs and activities of significance to geographers and members of the AAG. To sponsor the AAG and submit an article, please contact Oscar Larson olarson [at] aag [dot] org.

Annual Meeting

What will be Presented at the 2021 AAG Meeting?

April 2, 2021

Jeong Chang Seong, Sanghoon JI, Ana Stanescu, Yubin Lee, and Chul Sue Hwang

Building off of an analysis completed for the cancelled in-person portion of the 2020 AAG Annual Meeting, Seong et al. have provided an update on presentation topics in anticipation of the 2021 AAG Annual Meeting.

A total of 2,952 papers and posters (2,648 papers; 304 posters) are scheduled to be presented at the AAG virtual annual meeting in April this year (numbers as of March 1, 2021). To help meeting participants and fellow geographers to find out what will be presented at the meeting, we summarized the AAG 2021 presentation submissions using the keyword network analysis method.

Figure 1. Major keywords and their network clusters.

After collecting all keywords from the presentation submissions, raw keywords were cleaned with deletion, concatenation, standardization, normalization, lemmatization, and conversion techniques. A total of 20,550 keywords were split into single-word keywords. Only distinctive words were retrieved in each paper by deleting any duplicate words. A total of 4,145 distinctive keywords were identified from the 20,550 keywords. We used 30 as the keyword frequency threshold during network visualization. As a result, a keyword network diagram was constructed with 124 keywords as shown in Figure 1. In the figure, circle sizes reflect keyword frequencies, edge widths indicate co-occurrences between two keywords, and circle colors indicate cluster memberships.
Urban (311) was identified as the most frequent keyword at the 2021 AAG annual meeting, followed by COVID-19 (199), GIS (167), climate change (163), social (139), spatial (133), infrastructure (130), water (128), food (117), analysis (114), development (112) and health (111). Each number in parentheses indicates the frequency of the keyword. When the Louvain algorithm was applied for grouping keywords, ten (10) topical clusters were identified as shown in Table 1. Even if the Urban keyword appeared most frequently, the COVID-19 cluster had the largest number (779) of keywords as members. When the influence of each cluster was measured, the COVID-19 cluster was also most influential in the keyword network with the largest eigenvector centrality amount of 18.20%.

Cluster Name	Count of Members	Percent (%) Influence	Top Five (5) Keywords
COVID-19	779	18.20	covid19, GIS, spatial, analysis, health
Urban	560	16.39	urban, development, governance, city, planning
Land Cover	615	12.36	remote sensing, forest, change, land, machine learning
Climate Change	459	11.51	climate change, climate, resilience, risk, vulnerability
Political Ecology	403	10.78	infrastructure, water, environmental, justice, political ecology
Sustainability	319	10.64	food, agriculture, community, system, management
Critical Geography	335	7.64	social, education, place, feminist, race
Border	272	5.60	digital, migration, labor, usa, river
Mapping	158	2.59	tourism, map, cultural, national, history
Culture	144	2.24	human, post, more, than, animal
Others	101	2.05	method, population, qualitative, violence, culture

^{Table 1. Major clusters identified from the AAG 2021 presentation keywords.}

About 7.5% of papers (i.e., 222 papers among 2952) included COVID-19 or pandemic in their keywords. A further detailed network analysis with the 222 papers identified seven (7) sub-clusters of COVID-19 research as shown in Table 2. Overall, five topics appear to stand out that are (1) spatial analysis of mobility, (2) health and sanitization accessibility, (3) community resilience and policies, (4) lockdown and activity spaces, and (5) online education.

Sub-cluster Name	Count of Members	Percent (%) Influence	Top Five (5) Keywords
Spatial Analysis	87	20.09	mobility, social, analysis, human, spatial
Community Resilience	66	15.30	food, local, system, resilience, agriculture
Public Health	61	11.24	health, public, neighborhood, adult, older
Activity Space	59	10.28	space, risk, livelihood, management, activity
Lockdown Impacts	61	9.01	GIS, lockdown, infrastructure, transportation, behavior
Sanitization Accessibility	41	8.80	access, vulnerability, water, sanitation, adaptation
Urban Policy	39	8.00	urban, policy, density, housing, rural
Online Education and Others	101	17.29	learning, online, education, teaching, city

^{Table 2. Sub-clusters of COVID-19 research.}

The urban keyword was used in 311 papers (10.5% of total papers). Table 3 shows major sub-clusters of urban research. Like the 2020 case, no topic dominates in the urban research when examining the percent influence values that were measured with the eigenvector centrality. It, rather, shows that multiple sub-clusters are competitive each other.

Sub-cluster Name	Count of Members	Percent (%) Influence	Top Five (5) Keywords
Urban Development	99	11.74	development, agriculture, food, social, rural
Vulnerability	70	11.69	governance, resilience, system, climate change, COVID-19
Housing	89	11.40	housing, land, estate, financialization, political
Sustainability	103	11.21	change, sustainability, landscape, machine learning, management
Urban Planning	86	11.12	planning, GIS, human, community, critical
Green Space	69	10.45	infrastructure, green, space, environmental justice, gentrification
Public Access	77	9.44	city, water, public, right, access
Others	250	22.95	china, heat, spatial, urbanization, political ecology

^{Table 3. Sub-clusters of urban research.}

The keyword network analysis suggests a couple of watching points in the 2021 AAG conference presentations. One is the emergence of COVID-19 research as a very influential topic. It may be of great interest to many geographers to see how fellow researchers tackle the global pandemic phenomenon. The other is the integration of GIS and spatial analysis into the COVID-19 cluster.

The 2021 AAG Conference is held virtually this year. Even if it is heartbreaking that we cannot meet fellow geographers face-to-face, the virtual conference will be an opportunity for us to overcome geographic mobility restrictions. We hope to see you all during the conference.

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0088

Acknowledgment: This research was supported by the MSIT (Ministry of Science, ICT), Republic of Korea, under the High-Potential Individuals Global Training Program (IITP-2020-0-01593) supervised by the IITP (Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation).

About the Authors

Jeong Chang Seong, Ph. D., is a professor of geography at University of West Georgia (UWG), Carrollton, GA

Sanghoon JI is a graduate student at Kyung Hee University (KHU) who is currently performing a visiting research at UWG

Ana Stanescu, Ph. D., is an assistant professor of computer science at University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA

Yubin Lee is a graduate student at KHU, Seoul, South Korea

Chul Sue Hwang, Ph. D., is a professor of geography at KHU, Seoul, South Korea

Awardees

AAG Announces Undergraduate Program Excellence Awards

March 23, 2021

The American Association of Geographers (AAG) has named two recipients of the 2021 Award for Bachelors’ Program Excellence in Geography: The Geographic Science Program at James Madison University (JMU) in Virginia, and the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.

The annual award and cash prize for Bachelors’ Program Excellence is one of three subcategories in AAG’s Program Excellence Awards, honoring Geography departments and Geography programs within blended departments that have significantly enhanced the prominence and reputation of Geography as a discipline and demonstrated the characteristics of a strong and engaged academic unit. The Bachelors’ Program award honors non-PhD-granting Geography programs at the baccalaureate level. Such programs play an important role in educating future geographers and promoting the discipline to a wider world, but tend not to be included in national rankings within the Academy.

JMU’s Geographic Science Program has shown remarkable growth over the last nine years, increasing from 156 to 240 majors, and employing 9.5 full-time tenure-track faculty. The program has invested in high-impact teaching practices that engage undergraduate students in field experiences in water resources, advanced cultural geography, and biogeography, often in the context of community engagement and service learning, both locally and abroad, and project-based instruction with partners such as Shenandoah National Park. The program is also known for its collegiality and maintenance of connections with its alumni.

Kennesaw State University’s Department of Geography and Anthropology has shown extraordinary energy and success in its promotion of geography on and off campus, since its founding in 1997. Offering six degree tracks — a Geospatial Sciences B.S., a Geography B.A., a Geography Minor, an Environmental Studies Minor, a Certificate in Geographic Information Sciences, and a Certificate in Land Surveying–the program serves about 7,000 students per year with 15 full-time faculty, 4 limited term full-time faculty, and 9 part-time faculty. Emphasizing experiential learning, professional experiences, high-impact practices, community engagement, internships and co-ops, teaching assistantships, and study abroad opportunities, the department tailors its coursework for students based on their educational interests and career goals.

“Undergraduate programs in Geography are the lifeblood of the discipline,” said Gary Langham, Executive Director of AAG. “These programs open so many doors to students, preparing them for careers in every sector and virtually every imaginable field, from environmental science to public health to business logistics, and so much more. We commend James Madison University and Kennesaw State University for their innovation in attracting and engaging students and their communities.”

Newsletters

Newsletter – March/April 2021

March 19, 2021

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

You Baby

By Amy Lobben

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During our PhD programs, most of us are taught to be researchers. Some of us are formally taught to be teachers. But, few of us are taught Universal Design of Instruction. This approach represents a monumental shift from the traditional pedagogy: the lecture-driven course design. Yet, if we are going to achieve educational inclusion, our practices and institutions must shift out of comfortable models designed for the “typical” student and make way for a new approach – instructional design for a broad range of students.

Continue Reading.

ANNUAL MEETING

Countdown to the 2021 AAG Annual Meeting

AM2021V-1000X1000sq-290x290-1 We are about 3 weeks away from the Annual Meeting! The completely virtual 2021 Annual Meeting, April 7-11, will feature 800+ paper sessions and panels on a wide range of topics as well as 27 poster sessions. Browse the Session Gallery to plan your attendance. For those who have not yet registered, you can do so here until the end of the event.

The 2021 AAG Meeting will feature several exciting sessions and plenaries, a highlight of which will be a presentation from 2020 Honorary Geographer Kathryn Sullivan. A new feature of the meeting this year are curated tracks, guided programs of Specialty and Affinity Group “must-see” sessions as highlighted by the groups. Browse the 15 curated tracks in the Session Gallery by selecting them from the “theme” drop-down menu.

To learn more about the meeting and plan for your participation, please visit the AAG Annual Meeting Website. We look forward to seeing you online soon.

Careers & Professional Development Sessions at the 2021 AAG Annual Meeting

The AAG Jobs & Careers Center provides a central location for job seekers, students, and professionals to interact and to learn more about careers and professional development for geographers. Over 40 sessions will cover a range of topics from working as a geographer in the public, private, nonprofit, or academic sector to internships and work-based learning opportunities for geography students to computational skills in the geospatial services industry to diversity in academia and the workforce and more. Career Mentoring sessions will also be held twice daily April 7-April 10.

Learn about the Center’s offerings.

Helpful links for the 2021 AAG Annual Meeting

#AAG2021 is only a few weeks away and will be held online from April 7-11 in Pacific Time. Here are a few links for quick reference.

PUBLICATIONS

**NEW Annals Alert: Articles with topics ranging from the racial politics of pesticides to natural gas production to urban parks**

Annals-generic-225x300-2 The most recent issue of the Annals of the AAG has been published online (Volume 111, Issue 2, March 2021) with 17 new articles on contemporary geographic research. Topics in this issue include geography department names; urban resilience; University of Michigan; the Jamaican coffee industry; geographically weighted regression; big data and mobility; Ellsworth Huntington; and Peirce F. Lewis. Locational areas of interest include the Great Lakes Region; California’s hardwood rangelands; Chad and Cameroon; Peru and Bolivia; and Eastern Montana. Authors are from a variety of research institutions including Mississippi State University; University of British Columbia; University of Oxford; and University of Exeter.

All AAG members have full online access to all issues of The Annals through the Members Only page. Each issue, the Editors choose one article to make freely available. In this issue you can read Changes in the Frequency of Cool Season Lake Effects within the North American Great Lakes Region by Andrew W. Ellis, Michael L. Marston, and Joseph B. Bahret for free for the next two months.

Questions about the Annals? Contact annals [at] aag [dot] org.

Journals-newsletter-100-3 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 issue of African Geographical Review

African-Geographical-Review-cvr-212x300-1

The latest issue of the journal of the Africa Specialty Group of the AAG, the African Geographical Review, has recently been published. Volume 40, Issue 1 is available online for subscribers and members of the Africa Specialty Group. The latest issue contains seven articles covering all sub-fields of geography, to enhance the standing of African regional geography, and to promote a better representation of African scholarship.

See more about the journal.

Call for Abstracts: Special Issue of ‘Annals’ on “Race, Nature, and the Environment”

AAG Annals The 2023 Special Issue of the Annals invites new and emerging geographic scholarship situated at the crossroads of Race, Nature, and the Environment. In seeking contributions from across the discipline, we welcome submissions that advance critical geographic thinking about race and the environment from diverse perspectives and locations; that utilize a broad array of geographic data, theories, and methods; and that cultivate geographic insights that cut across time, place, and space. Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted by e-mail to Jennifer Cassidento by March 31, 2021. The Editor (Katie Meehan) will consider all abstracts and then invite a selection to submit full papers for peer review by June 1, 2021.

More information about the special issue.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

2021 AAG Election Results

The AAG members have spoken and the candidates running for various AAG governance positions have been selected. Congratulations to all who will be assuming their new roles on July 1st. We thank the hardworking officers whose terms will be concluding later this year.

See the results.

AAG Announces 2021 AAG Award Recipients

awards_hi-res-300x160-1

Congratulations to the recipients of 2021 AAG Awards including the Glenda Laws Award, the AAG Harold M. Rose Award for Anti-Racism Research and Practice, the AAG Harm de Blij Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Wilbanks Prize for Transformational Research in Geography, and the AAG-Kauffman Awards for Best Paper and Best Student Paper in Geography & Entrepreneurship. The AAG will confer these awards at a future event to be determined, once the travel and in-person meeting restrictions have been lifted.

Learn more about the awardees.

AAG Announces 2021 Grant Recipients

The American Association of Geographers congratulates the individuals and entities named to receive an AAG Grant including the Anne U. White Fund, the Dissertation Research Grants, the Research Grants, and the AAG Darrel Hess Community College Geography Scholarships. The AAG will confer these awards at a future event to be determined, once the travel and in-person meeting restrictions have been lifted.

Read about the grantees.

AAG Announces 2020 Book Awards

AAG circular Awards Pin rests on an award certificate and against a brown frame The AAG is pleased to announce the recipients of the three 2020 AAG Book Awards: the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize, the AAG Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography, and the AAG Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography. The AAG Book Awards mark distinguished and outstanding works published by geography authors during the previous year, 2020. The AAG will confer these awards at a future event to be determined, once the travel and in-person meeting restrictions have been lifted.

See the Book Awards.

A new AAG.ORG is coming!

Prepare for a whole new web experience at AAG.org soon. The new site will elevate the vibrant and compelling communities of the geography discipline through stories, activities, and a host of new features. Members will have the chance to rediscover what they love about AAG, finding new ways to connect with geography and to make the world a better place. Launching in late spring, the site will be completely accessible, innovative, and mobile friendly. Be on the lookout for more information, and how you can provide feedback. We will share more as we move through stages of the process.

Careers in Geography: A Discussion with Geographers in Government/Public Sector Careers

Wednesday, March 24, 2:30 – 3:45 EST

Join AAG and geographers from the public sector in the next webinar in our Department Leadership and Early Career series. This free event brings together panelists Jennifer Zanoni (U.S. Census Bureau), Stacy Drury (U.S. Forest Service), Suparna Das (DC Department of Health), Milena Janiec (U.S. Geological Survey), and Rich Quodomine (City of Philadelphia) to discuss key issues affecting career opportunities for geographers and improving their preparation for employment in public sector careers. REGISTER NOW!

The Department Leadership and Early Career series combines two themes in one: building and growing strong academic programs, and helping students and young geographers navigate their early careers. AAG is pleased to continue this series throughout the spring, free and open to the public. Recordings of webinars held thus far are also available to watch at any time.

See upcoming webinars and view recordings

POLICY CORNER

The American Rescue Plan is Passed and Signed into Law

The following update is adapted from our colleagues at the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)

On Thurs, March 11th, President Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319, committee report). The legislation, recently passed by Congress, aims to bring financial support to those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic through direct payments to individuals and expansion of unemployment assistance, among many other provisions. It also includes several notable provisions of interest to the science community, including $39.9 billion in funding for colleges and universities, with half to be used for student aid, as laid out in the CARES Act (see COSSA’s previous coverage). The bill also includes $100 million for the Institute of Education Sciences for research related to addressing learning loss caused by the coronavirus among K-12 students.

In addition, the National Science Foundation will receive $600 million “to fund or extend new and existing research grants, cooperative agreements, scholarships, fellowships, and apprenticeships, and related administrative expenses to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” While not included in the original bill text, this funding was added as part of the manager’s amendment that was passed on the House floor. This funding can only be used for research about the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill does not provide any relief for scientists whose research on other topics has been disrupted. The bipartisan RISE Act (see previous coverage), should it become law, would provide NSF with $3 billion to support non-COVID-related research impacted by the pandemic.

In the News:

The Senate last week held confirmation votes for Marcia Fudge as HUD Secretary, Merrick Garland as Attorney General, and Michael Regan to head EPA. On Monday, Deb Haaland was confirmed as head of the Department of Interior, making her the first Native American U.S. cabinet secretary.
On February 25, the House Committee on Science, Space, & Technology (SST) held a hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on U.S. research and potential solutions to provide relief and recovery to the research enterprise.
The U.S. EPA invites nominations from a diverse range of qualified candidates to be considered for appointment to its National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC). The Agency is seeking nominations to fill approximately eight (8) new vacancies for terms through September 2022. The nomination process for NEJAC Membership is open until March 24, 2021. Click here to learn more about how to submit nominations, or email nejac [at] epa [dot] gov.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has announced the opening of the 2021 application cycle for the New Voices initiative, a two-year program giving leadership opportunities to a diverse group of mid-career experts to collaborate and develop interdisciplinary solutions to complex problems being addressed by the National Academies. The New Voices initiative is open to U.S-based scientists, engineers, health professionals, and other experts from all professional sectors including industry, academia, non-profits, and the public sector. Applications are due March 31, 2021 and are available on the NASEM website. More information about the New Voices initiative is also available on the NASEM website.

MEMBER NEWS

Profiles of Professional Geographers

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Bandana Kar, a Group Lead on the Research & Development Staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, brings knowledge of environmental hazards and events to address national security concerns. Kar encourages aspiring geographers to take advantage of internship opportunities in government labs similar to Oak Ridge on the path to a geography career. Searching for postings on https://www.orau.org/ is a good initial step to gaining first hand experience.

Learn more about Geography Careers on the recently updated AAG Jobs & Careers website.

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

AAG Early Career and Department Leadership Webinar Series

In fall 2020, the American Association of Geographers piloted the Department Leadership and Early Career webinar series as a service to AAG members and the wider geography community. The series featured two separate, but equally important themes: building and growing strong academic programs, and helping students and young geographers navigate their early careers. AAG is pleased to continue this series throughout the spring, free and open to the public. Recordings of webinars held thus far are also available to watch at any time.

See upcoming webinars and vie w recordings.

New National Geospatial Operations Center Director Announced

The USGS is pleased to announce that David Brostuen has been selected as Director of the USGS National Geospatial Technical Operations Center (NGTOC). The NGTOC is the operational branch of the National Geospatial Program and has locations in Denver, Colorado and Rolla, Missouri. As Director of NGTOC, David leads a wide array of functions in support of maintaining seamless, current, nationally consistent coverage of base geospatial data for the Nation, including development of digital topographic maps (US Topo), the 3D Elevation Program and the National Hydrography Dataset. In addition, David oversees several broad-based USGS contract mechanisms for the acquisition of geospatial products and services through the commercial sector. David has been acting in the role of Director, NGTOC since January 2020.

Learn more.

Upcoming Virtual Events Sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation

Kauffmann-300x110 Two virtual events are upcoming that may be of interest to AAG members:

Early-Stage Researcher Professional Development Series

The next virtual Early-Stage Research Professional Development session will take place 1 p.m. CT March 26 with mentors Maria Minniti (Syracuse University) and Sharon Alvarez (University of Pittsburgh). This series is open to 15 early-stage researchers to connect with research mentors to discuss research approaches, professional development and the research career trajectory. Register.

Plain Language Training for Early-Stage Researchers

Have you ever wondered about communicating research findings to policymakers, government officials, or other stakeholders outside of your discipline? Join us 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT April 16 for a Plain Language training provided by Bold Type. In this session we will discuss what plain language is and how to apply it in translating your research findings into usable information that drives impact. Register.

2021 William T. Pecora Award Nominations Now Being Accepted

Pecora-Award-1-300x178-1 The William T. Pecora Award is presented annually to individuals or teams using satellite or aerial remote sensing that make outstanding contributions toward understanding the Earth (land, oceans and air), educating the next generation of scientists, informing decision makers or supporting natural or human-induced disaster response. Sponsored jointly by the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and established in 1974, the award honors the memory of Dr. William T. Pecora, former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and Under Secretary, Department of the Interior, whose early vision and support helped establish the Landsat satellite program. Nominations for the 2021 awards must be received by the Award Committee by May 14, 2021.

Learn more.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Visualizing Racial Equity

By Citabria Stevens

RacialEquity_Microsite1-300x169

Understanding entrenched inequities and injustices is complex and figuring out what to do is a daunting endeavor. But GIS is a technology that breaks down complexities and reveals patterns over space and time, which can go a long way toward guiding action. To help scholars and policymakers leverage the full power of location intelligence to address issues that revolve around race, Esri has launched a racial equity initiative.

Continue Reading.

GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS

The Secret, Essential Geography of the Office, Wired, Feb 8
How a Young Activist Is Helping Pope Francis Battle Climate Change, The New Yorker, Feb 8
MapLab: How Car-Centric Street Networks Make Buses Less Efficient, Bloomberg, Feb 10
Medical geography research shows how viruses spread UTSA Today, Feb 11
Across the U.S., Streets Named After Martin Luther King Jr. Remain a Battleground for Equality, Dwell, Feb 12
BBC Radio 3 – Free Thinking, Pakistan Politics, Water Supplies, BBC, Feb 16
How Black cartographers put racism on the map of America, The Conversation, Feb 23
Can this new map fix our distorted views of the world? New York Times, Feb 24
How the Society of Women Geographers Changed Perceptions on Travel and Culture Travel+Leisure, March 5, 2021
Feminist Perspective Needed in Environmental Studies to Combat Climate Crisis The Wire, March 8, 2021

EVENTS CALENDAR

President's Column

You Baby

March 15, 2021

What a show-off.

But… that really should be the standard we set for training the graduate students who will be the future educators in higher education.

Balance: Nearly everyone I know, including most of my friends and colleagues who responded to my email request for input, struggle with work-life balance and time management.

Achieving work-life balance has been a priority for me for about 10 years. I’m pretty much failing. But, here are the four things that I regularly try to accomplish:

Set boundaries and work hours. I’ve actually been pretty good at this one because it involves cocktails. When Andrew first started as Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, I implemented evening cocktail hour. This is the moment when work stops.
Make time for yourself, family, and friends. I’m super bad at the first, pretty good at the second, and marginal at the third.
Work a job you love. This is absolutely one of the most important things. Because, even if you have achieved work-life balance, if you don’t like your job, you’re not in equilibrium. And, if you do find yourself out of balance, at least the time demands are something that you enjoy.

Finally, 4. accept that there is no constant nor perfect work-life balance.

The last one is especially important for me to focus on as I sit here at 5am working on my column because there’s not enough time in the day.

On a different note: This is my last column as the virtual AAG President. Occasionally, people have asked me what it’s like being AAG President. Here are the top 3 Pros and Cons.

Pros:

I have had a chance to get to know some amazing people, especially AAG staff.
I have surprised myself in how much I enjoyed writing these columns (and working on them with Andrew, who is a phenomenal editor). They have been a turn from my usual guarded privacy.
I have learned so much more about geography, geographers, and programs around the world. I’m very grateful for all of the experiences that people have shared with me (even when the experiences weren’t positive).

Cons:

It didn’t help my time management or work-life balance. But, I loved the work.
Email.
As I’ve shared with some people, my biggest regret during my term as President is that I never met another AAG member face-to-face (excluding my husband and UO colleagues). What a strange year to be in this role. I VERY much look forward to seeing a lot of you at future meetings

It’s been an honor to serve as AAG President.

—Amy Lobben
AAG President and Professor at University of Oregon
lobben [at] uoregon [dot] edu

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0093

News

Visualizing Racial Equity

March 9, 2021

Race and place come together in various ways that generate different outcomes for different people. Too often, this results in racial inequity and social injustice. And none of this happens solely at one moment in time. These outcomes are a consequence of decades, generations, and centuries of policies, practices, assumptions, and actions.

Esri’s racial equity initiative uses the power of location intelligence to address issues that revolve around race.

“We have users in every sector that have expressed interest in using GIS to tackle racial equity and social justice—and that’s not to mention our users who have already been doing this work,” said Clinton Johnson, a solution architect at Esri and the racial equity team lead. “Though our efforts in this space really started about two years ago, formalizing this racial equity initiative demonstrates that Esri is stepping into those conversations more intentionally, building solutions and providing resources to help users in the United States and around the world take on long-persisting racial disparities.”

Many GIS users are doing pioneering work to tackle systemic racism and the myriad problems that stem from it.

“Similar to how GIS is synonymous with environmentalism and conservation and how the technology is critical to that movement, we want GIS to be synonymous with social justice,” said Margot Bordne, an account manager who is also part of the racial equity team. “There are so many examples of this already. Many organizations, from governments to nonprofits, are doing pioneering work when it comes to addressing systemic racism and the myriad problems that stem from that. So we’re listening to their needs, learning, and working with them to make sure everything we do is grounded in best practices for racial equity.”

Much of the initiative has so far focused on looking at the range of tools already available and developing a racial equity workflow that fuses well-established best practices with GIS and location intelligence. “The four major elements of the workflow are to automate and spatially enhance community engagement, map and analyze inequities, operationalize racial equity best practices, and manage the performance of racial justice initiatives to achieve more equitable outcomes,” said Johnson. “And this cycle revolves around engaging with various stakeholders, from those who experience inequities to community organizations, partners, and leaders who are rallying together and helping to address these challenges.”

Maps are useful for visualizing racial disparities. Organizations can use their own data or curated datasets accessible through the Racial Equity GIS Hub. Analytical tools are useful for exploring practical ways to create more equitable opportunities and services for people. “If you’re trying to figure out where to place a new hospital or grocery store, you can use GIS tools to apply a racial equity lens to the site selection process,” Johnson explained. “This can help you ask questions like, Will this create benefits for communities of color or more barriers?”

Available resources include the Racial Equity GIS Hub and authoritative data sources.

For example, an organization can use GIS workflows to better understand the needs of the community it serves as well as engage with both internal and external stakeholders. Dashboards enable the organization to show clearly where inequities are and how it is actually working to enact change in those places. And map-based storytelling is a great way for the organization to formulate and share narratives that revolve around racial equity and social justice.

In addition, the Racial Equity Community Outreach solution helps government agencies communicate their progress on defined racial equity initiatives. The solution makes it easy to set up a hub to promote racial equity programs, build surveys to collect information about community sentiments, and create a dashboard that shows workforce diversity metrics.

To help build GIS skills aimed specifically at strengthening racial equity and social justice, lessons are available on the Racial Equity GIS Hub. Several lessons are rooted in health topics, such as mapping breast cancer cases by ethnicity and showing which US counties need to improve newborns’ health outcomes. Forthcoming learn lessons will likely explore activism, police reform, the digital divide, and food access.

Applying a racial equity lens is key to finding ways to create more equitable opportunities for people.

Esri’s racial equity team is also looking to develop solutions that help organizations build a pipeline of new job candidates by connecting them with institutions that serve underrepresented populations, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs); tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), and women’s colleges. And because businesses that are owned by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) face additional challenges from systemic and structural racism that can make it difficult to thrive, Esri plans to eventually release some tools to help promote and support BIPOC-owned ventures.

While in most cases, racial inequities are weaved into long-standing systems and structures, there are moments when people’s awareness of these social injustices peaks and public outcry demands swift action. “This work that we’re doing is important in a different way than anything else we’ve ever focused on at Esri,” said Johnson. “We are responding to a disaster, really, and it’s one that’s entwined with so many other issues, from climate change and public health to education and the workplace. Racial equity and social justice are central to so much of what we do, so we want to provide solutions to help Esri customers around the world who are stepping in and taking action.”

Learn more about how GIS and location intelligence can help address racial inequity and social injustice.

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AAG Publication Award Recipients

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2014 AAG Publication Award

2014 AAG Publication Award

2012 AAG Publication Award

2012 AAG Publication Award

2011 AAG Publication Award

2011 AAG Publication Award

2010 AAG Publication Award

2010 AAG Publication Award

2000 AAG Publication Award

2000 AAG Publication Award

1998 AAG Publication Award

1998 AAG Publication Award

1997 AAG Publication Award

1997 AAG Publication Award

Newsletter – July 2021

Moving Forward on Climate Change and Professional Ethics

New York City to host 2022 AAG Annual Meeting

NEW Annals Alert: Articles with topics ranging from foreign domestic workers to subprime auto loans to the Belt and Road initiative

New issue of African Geographical Review

AAG Welcomes New Editor of Annals of the American Association of Geographers

Nominate Colleagues for AAG Honors and AAG Fellows

Nominate Inspiring Geographers: September Awards Deadlines

AAG Welcomes 2021 Summer Interns

AAG Membership Database Improvement Begins Soon

Senate Passes Sweeping U.S. Competitiveness Legislation, Includes Endless Frontier Act

July Member Updates

YouthMappers and AGS “Everywhere She Maps” Internship Program

AAG Welcomes Summer 2021 Interns

On Teaching, Mentoring, Balance, and Service

Why should geographers care about data science?

Geographic Understanding + Data Science = Spatial Data Science

The Building Blocks of Spatial Data Science

Integration

Value-added Skills

Next steps

What will be Presented at the 2021 AAG Meeting?

Cluster Name

Count of Members

Percent (%) Influence

Top Five (5) Keywords

Sub-cluster Name

Count of Members

Percent (%) Influence

Top Five (5) Keywords

Sub-cluster Name

Count of Members

Percent (%) Influence

Top Five (5) Keywords

AAG Announces Undergraduate Program Excellence Awards

Newsletter – March/April 2021

You Baby

Countdown to the 2021 AAG Annual Meeting

Careers & Professional Development Sessions at the 2021 AAG Annual Meeting

Helpful links for the 2021 AAG Annual Meeting

NEW Annals Alert: Articles with topics ranging from the racial politics of pesticides to natural gas production to urban parks

New issue of African Geographical Review

Call for Abstracts: Special Issue of ‘Annals’ on “Race, Nature, and the Environment”

2021 AAG Election Results

AAG Announces 2021 AAG Award Recipients

AAG Announces 2021 Grant Recipients

AAG Announces 2020 Book Awards

A new AAG.ORG is coming!

Careers in Geography: A Discussion with Geographers in Government/Public Sector Careers

The American Rescue Plan is Passed and Signed into Law

Profiles of Professional Geographers

AAG Early Career and Department Leadership Webinar Series

New National Geospatial Operations Center Director Announced

Upcoming Virtual Events Sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation

2021 William T. Pecora Award Nominations Now Being Accepted

**NEW Annals Alert: Articles with topics ranging from the racial politics of pesticides to natural gas production to urban parks**