Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

In response to the call for more open access to vital scholarship on anti-Blackness and racism, issued by the Black Geographies Specialty Group and supported by many other specialty and affinity groups, AAG compiled a list of articles. A new list is currently being compiled and will be updated in June.

As the COVID-19 pandemic grew in severity, the AAG Council recognized that the work of geographers is more crucial than ever, yet the teaching and practice of geography is at risk. While the impacts to public health affect every geographer around the world, the economic impacts also threaten the institutions and businesses that support our discipline as a whole. In response, the COVID-19 Rapid Response Task Force was formed to evaluate proposals that answer this question: What can the AAG do to address the systemic crisis facing geographers and geography?

An AAG initiative to increase diversity and computational literacy among all geographers to strengthen our discipline for the future by working with school districts and instructors across disciplines to broaden the diversity of geographers and to equip them with computational skills.

This program offers teaching and learning tools to connect geography to the most relevant topics for students of many backgrounds.

AAG celebrates geographers who have a demonstrated record of advancing the discipline through their research and who have also had on impact on anti-racist practice, in honor of Harold M. Rose, who devoted his career to expanding the discipline of geography into anti-racist scholarship.

AAG honors those geographers who have pioneered efforts toward or actively participated in efforts toward encouraging a more diverse discipline over the course of several years.

The AAG Task Force on Mental Health's mission is to promote awareness of mental health and wellness among academic and professional geographers, to institute mental health as a topic with which the AAG actively engages, and to advocate on behalf of the AAG for the creation of mentally healthy departments, institutions, and professional geography settings.

AAG recognizes early to mid-career scholars' outstanding contributions to geographic research on social issues in memory of Glenda Laws, who brought energy and enthusiasm to her work on issues of social justice and social policy.

In April 2018, the Harassment-Free Taskforce was by the AAG's Executive Committee to develop a survey focused on harassment at our national meeting. The AAG Council approved the survey in April 2019.

A valuable background document is the 2006 report from the AAG Diversity Task Force, chaired by Joe T. Darden of Michigan State University. The report summarizes findings, including a history of the specific actions and actors who have worked toward greater diversity in the discipline and at AAG, going back to the 1960s.

At a time of heightened misinformation and hate, AAG renewed its strongest condemnation of racially motivated harassment and violence directed specifically at Asian and Asian American people.

AAG responds to the murder of George Floyd and its role in addressing anti-Black racism in a letter to its membership.