JOURNAL

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

 

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Since 1911, AAG’s flagship journal has published original, timely, impactful, and innovative articles that advance geographic knowledge in all facets of the discipline. Annals Articles adhere to a high standard of scholarship and make an important contribution to geographic knowledge. They are grounded in the relevant literature of their area of specialization and, where appropriate, address themes that speak to the entire breadth of the wider discipline. The Annals publishes research in any sub-field of geography, including Geographic Methods; Human Geography; Nature and Society; and Physical Geography, Earth, and Environmental Sciences. Papers that seek to make discipline-level contributions, theoretically, methodologically, or empirically, can be submitted under Cross-Disciplinary/General Geography. Published 10 times a year, one special issue is dedicated to a single theme drawing on a diversity of perspectives from across the discipline.

Impact Factor: 2.9, ranking 30th out of 173 geography journals worldwide

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Manuscripts

Submission:
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically through ScholarOne Manuscripts. For detailed instructions about article submission see:

Types:
The Annals publishes papers in four categories: Regular Manuscripts, Special Issues, Forums, and Commentaries. The journal also publishes the AAG Presidential Address and memorials for former AAG Presidents and distinguished geographers.
  • Regular Manuscripts—Articles submitted for publication should be original, timely, innovative, and advance knowledge in all facets of the discipline. They should address significant research problems and issues, and be attuned to the sensibilities of a diverse scholarly audience. Articles should be a maximum of 11,000 words, including abstract, references, notes, tables, and figure captions.
  • Special Issues—Special Issues are curated by Editors and include a collection of shorter manuscripts (around 5000 words) about a specific theme or issue. Topics rotate across the areas covered by the Annals; each year there is one Special Issue that highlights the work of geographers on a significant global theme. Abstracts of potential articles will be solicited via an open call. The articles are by invitation only, led by an Annals Editor, and based on the evaluation of the abstracts.
  • Forums—Forums are a collection of short papers on a focused topic that are published together in the journal. Forums are an opportunity to showcase and advance significant intellectual insights in the discipline in a coherent and collective way. Forums consist of an introduction (2,500 words) and short individual papers (5,000 words each), with a maximum total word limit of 25,000. A forum is proposed by a forum organizer, and if accepted, the forum organizer works in tandem with an Editor to guide the papers through the peer review process. Forum proposals should provide a background and context, table of contents, timeline, and justification of the forum’s significance and relevance to the Annals audience.
  • Commentaries—Commentaries are responses to specific published Annals articles and appear in online form only. They should be submitted within one year of the publication of the original article and written in a style and tone that is professional, scholarly and concise (less than 2,000 words including references). Commentaries will be peer reviewed. Authors of the original article will be invited to respond to the commentary in a short endorsement and/or rebuttal. To submit a commentary, please see the commentary submission guidelines linked above.

Annals 2028 Special Issue

The Annals of the American Association of Geographers is seeking contributions for a special issue on the topic of “21st Century Geographic Theory.”

21st Century Geographic Theory

Theory forms the bedrock of geographic research and knowledge production. How we define, develop, and apply theory varies considerably across the discipline, however. Moreover, a superficial assessment of geographic theory might conclude that one aspect that unites the discipline is a reliance on 20th century theorists, thinkers, and ideas.

This special issue aims to take stock of where we are today in terms of geographic theory: what it is; how, by whom, and for whom it’s produced and used; and how its form varies (or doesn’t) over time, space, and disciplinary sub-field. It asks what, if anything, is radically different and paradigm changing about 21st century geography research, academia, etc. that would engender the need for new theories, how they’re developed, how they’re tested, and how they’re applied. A goal of this special issue is to start conversations—not simply re-till well-trodden ground; contributions from those earlier in their careers are very definitely welcomed!

This special issue is expansive in its definition of “theory,” including more traditional understandings of theory as well as (but not limited to):

  • Theories of learning and knowing geography
  • Theories of common geographic understanding
  • Generative theories of geographic space
  • Theories of representing and/or mapping geographic space
  • Theory and geographic foundation models for prediction
  • Unified geographic theory
  • Bottom-up and top-down theories of geography

Submissions are especially solicited that are in conversation with the entire breadth of the discipline. The following are suggestions for potential prompts:

  • Does current geographic theory “meet the moment” of ongoing and emerging 21st century challenges? If not, what’s needed?
  • Data, theory, and methods as mutually constitutive
  • The evolution (or misadventures) of geographic theory: how has, or which, 20th century theories have been purposefully or inadvertently warped, misconstrued, or reframed into something altogether different?
  • Theory for whom and by whom? Whose voices do we hear when theory is developed, and what types of knowledge are being prioritized or overlooked as a consequence?
  • What kind of lifting does geographic theory need to do? What purpose should it serve?
  • Is there a “canon” of contemporary geographic theory?
  • Comparative theory across geographic sub-disciplines
  • Is there such a thing as pan-disciplinary, fundamental geographic concepts/theories and what is their contribution to science and how do they benefit society?
  • Geographic laws. Discuss.
  • In an increasingly “trans-disciplinary” academic landscape, how can (or should) geographic theory speak to the social, environmental, and data sciences?
  • The influence of digital technologies and AI on geographic theory production and application
  • Intersections between geographic theory and decolonial, feminist, and Indigenous perspectives—especially in areas of the discipline not traditionally associated with these perspectives
  • The role of theory in addressing planetary-scale challenges such as climate change, urbanization, and environmental justice
  • Southern Theory and its fit within the discipline
  • Geographic theory and the rise of ‘Post-Truth’
  • Unity and diversity in theory: Is there such a thing as unified, global geographic theory? Is there such a thing as inclusive geographic theory?
  • What is the role of non-geographic theory for understanding spatial processes, experiences, and disparities?
  • What explains our continued preoccupation with 20th century theory?

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted by March 31, 2026 via this form. The Editor will consider all abstracts by June 1, 2026, and invite a selection to submit full papers for peer review.

Papers will have a target maximum length of 5,000 words (including main text, abstract, references, tables, figure captions, etc.). First drafts of papers will be due (via Manuscript Central) by December 1, 2026, and revised manuscripts will be due May 1, 2027, for publication in 2028. For any questions about this Special Issue contact the Editor, Rachel Franklin (rachel_franklin [at] cga.harvard [dot] edu). For questions about the abstract submission process contact the AAG Publications Director, Jennifer Cassidento (jcassidento [at] aag [dot] org).

Editors, Editorial Board and Production Team

 

Anthony Howell
Anthony Howell
Geographic Methods

Arizona State University

Anthony Howell

Anthony Howell

Arizona State University

[email protected]

Anthony Howell is an associate professor, director of the Center on Technology, Data, and Society (CTDS), and senior sustainability scientist at Arizona State University. He brings to the editorship at Annals a background in computational, geospatial and quantitative social science methods. He currently serves as an associate editor for two journals (Progress in Economic Geography and Urban Governance) as well as having served as a guest co-editor for Economic Modeling. He works across several subspecialties in geography, including economic geography, industrial geography, development geography, and population geography, as well as the broader social sciences.

Howell’s work engages with interdisciplinary scholarship, extensive international research, and quantitative, geospatial and computational social science methods. His goals for his editorship include “helping to attract, guide and strengthen the quality of cutting-edge and cross-disciplinary research, hoping to raise the profile of the journal both within and beyond the AAG community.” His approach to attracting and working with authors will draw on lessons he has learned in his own scholarly experiences–such as helping to pioneer ethnic disparities research within China relying on mixed-methods survey data collection, advanced quantitative methods, and computational social science approaches—and co-publishing with a wide variety of colleagues in geography, planning, politics, economics, and strategy. His networks have grown to be international ones, particularly focused on China and the broader Asia-Pacific region.

Paul Adams
Paul Adams
Human Geography

University of Texas at Austin

Paul Adams

Paul Adams

University of Texas at Austin

[email protected]

Paul Adams is the longtime director of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Texas, first in the UT Department of Geography and the Environment now in the Department of American Studies. His service to AAG includes founding the Media Geography Specialty Group (now Media and Communication). From 2015 to 2020, he served as associate professor II at the University of Bergen, funded by the Research Council of Norway. In 2001, he was a Fulbright fellow at McGill University and University of Montreal, Quebec. His current research focuses on sociospatial and political aspects of digital media, digital humanities, and culturally specific understandings of environmental risk and climate change.

Adams is the author of three monographs: The Boundless Self: Communication in Physical and Virtual Spaces (Syracuse University Press, 2005); Atlantic Reverberations: French Representations of an American Election (Ashgate Press, 2007); and Geographies of Media and Communication: A Critical Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), which received the 2009 James W. Carey Media Research Award from the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research, and has been translated into Chinese. He has also served as co-editor of four volumes: Textures of Place with Steven Hoelscher and Karen E. Till (University of Minnesota Press, 2001); the Ashgate Research Companion to Media Geography with Jim Craine and Jason Dittmer (Routledge, 2014); Disentangling: The Geographies of Digital Disconnection with André Jansson (Oxford University Press, 2021); and the Routledge Handbook on Media Geographies with Barney Warf (2021).

Brian King
Brian King
Nature and Society

The Pennsylvania State University

Brian King

Brian King

The Pennsylvania State University

[email protected]

Brian King is a professor and Head of the Department of Geography at the Pennsylvania State. His research, teaching, and outreach focus on livelihoods, conservation and development, environmental change, and human health, centering on Southern Africa. More recently, his laboratory group (HELIX: Health and Environment Landscapes for Interdisciplinary eXchange) is examining how COVID-19 is transforming the US opioid epidemic. Beyond the university, his affiliations span numerous departments at Penn State and other institutions. At Penn State, he is a Faculty Research Associate with the Population Research Institute, Research Affiliate with the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, and Faculty Affiliate with the School of International Affairs and Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse. King is also an Honorary Research Associate with the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town and was selected as a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow in 2017.

King served on the Editorial Board of the Annals from 2016-2019, as well as on the Editorial Boards of African Geographical Review since 2019 and of Geoforum since 2014. His book States of Disease: Political Environments and Human Health (University of California Press, 2017) received the Julian Minghi Distinguished Book Award, and was reviewed in April 2019 in The AAG Review of Books. An active member of several AAG Specialty Groups, including the Cultural and Political Ecology and Development Geographies specialty groups, he has also served in leadership roles, including successive terms as Director, Vice Chair, and Chair of the Developing Areas Specialty Group (which changed its name to Development Geographies in 2008).

King joins Human Geography editor Kendra Strauss of Simon Fraser University and Nature & Society Editor Katie Meehan of King’s College London to respond to the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including an increase in manuscript submissions and a decrease in reviewer availability. He will also support the editors’ ability to devote additional attention to upcoming special issues of the Annals. He will serve in the capacity of co-editor through December 31, 2023.

Rachel Franklin
Rachel Franklin
General Geography/Cross-Discipline

Harvard University

Rachel Franklin

Rachel Franklin

Harvard University

[email protected]

Rachel Franklin is a broadly trained human geographer with research expertise in population and spatial analysis. She leads the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University, where she promotes campus-wide geographic research and training alongside her research in spatial demography and spatial inequality. She is also keenly interested in pedagogy, especially the teaching of methods. In addition to her new duties at Annals, she is the outgoing editor of the journal, Geographical Analysis. She is a visiting professor at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) at Newcastle University and at the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) in L’Aquila, Italy. She brings to her work at Annals extensive experience as a member of several journal editorial boards, including Population, Space and Place, the Annals, the Journal of Regional Science, and the Journal of Geographical Systems.

One of Franklin’s primary goals is to “work diligently to promote the Annals and maximize its visibility, both within and outside the discipline.” She is especially interested in highlighting the commonalities across sub-fields, finding common ground throughout the discipline.

Michaela Beunemann
Michaela Buenemann
Physical Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

New Mexico State University

Michaela Beunemann

Michaela Buenemann

New Mexico State University

[email protected]

Michaela Buenemann is professor and head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at New Mexico State University. Her interdisciplinary, international, and collaborative work features contributions in GIS, remote sensing, spatial modeling, landscape ecology, and biogeography. She has published in a wide range of geography, environmental sciences, and GIScience journals, and her research has been funded by numerous state and federal agencies. In the classroom and field, she teaches an array of courses in physical geography, socio-environmental systems, field methods, geographic information science and technology, and geographic theory and research design. She has contributed to the discipline of geography in various roles, including chair of the Southwest Division of the American Association of Geographers, Southwest Regional Councilor of the American Association of Geographers, and Southwest Regional Councilor of Gamma Theta Upsilon.

Buenemann brings to her editorship the experiences of seven years on the Editorial Board of the Physical Geography, Earth, and Environmental Sciences thematic area of the Annals. She is currently co-editing an Annals Special Issue on “National Parks and Protected Places” with David Butler and also serves as an Associate Editor for Regional Environmental Change. She earned her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Oklahoma in 2007.

Stephen Hanna
Stephen Hanna
Cartography Editor

University of Mary Washington

Stephen Hanna

Stephen Hanna

University of Mary Washington

[email protected]

Stephen Hanna is a full professor of geography and former chair of the Department of Geography at University of Mary Washington. His cartographic editorial experience is extensive, for example, Hanna has served as the cartography editor for two edited volumes on tourism, Mapping Tourism and Social Memory and Heritage Tourism Methodologies, as well as produced dozens of maps for personal publications in both academic and public outlets. As cartography editor, Hanna “enjoys engaging with a wide variety of graphics including some innovative ways of visualizing both qualitative and quantitative information.”

Hanna’s research is focused on critical cartography and heritage tourism, and his expertise is well documented in numerous cartographic projects. Some of his most recent NSF-funded team research involved investigating how slavery is (or is not) addressed in the landscapes, narratives, and performance that constitute southern plantation museums as heritage places.

In addition to ensuring that the maps and figures printed in the AAG suite of journals meet high quality cartographic standards, Hanna envisions his role as editor to include continued mentorship of students, a key component of his current work at an undergraduate focused institution.

Hanna offers the following advice for prospective publishers in geography: “As cartography editor, I’m focused on the maps people create to accompany their articles. Please don’t settle for the default map design options found in most GIS software packages. Take a little time to consider how best to encourage your readers to spend some time examining your maps. After all, you are including them to clearly communicate your findings or to support your argument.”

The Annals of the AAG has five editors, each of whom serve a four-year term. An Editorial board assists with editorial responsibilities, while staff from the AAG and Taylor & Francis manage various aspects of the production process.

 

Editorial Assistants

Kelsey Tyler, University of Mary Washington

 

American Association of Geographers team

Jennifer Cassidento, Publications Director and Managing Editor

 

Taylor & Francis team

Katie Gezi, Portfolio Manager
Lea Cutler, Production Manager

 

Editorial Board

Janet Adomako, Bucknell University, USA

Clio Andris, Georgia Tech, USA

Dani Arribas-Bel, University of Liverpool, UK

Jennifer Baka, Pennsylvania State University, USA

Mohana Basu, Kishore Bharati Bhagini Nivedita College, India

Jane Battersby, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Mike Batty, University College London, UK

Luke Bergmann, University of British Columbia, Canada

Elijah Bisung, Queen’s University, Canada

Geoff Boeing, University of Southern California, USA

Carmen Cabrera, University of Liverpool, UK

Alida Cantor, Portland State University, USA

Eric D. Carter, Macalester College, USA

Perry Carter, Texas Tech University, USA

Heejun Chang, Portland State University, USA

Elin Charles-Edwards, University of Queensland, Australia

Ipsita Chatterjee, University of North Texas, USA

Ashwini Chhatre, Indian School of Business, India

Stephen Chignell, University of Bristol, UK

Bikramaditya K. Choudhary, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

Arnab Roy Chowdhury, HSE University, Russia

Russell Congalton, University of New Hampshire, USA

Dylan Connor, Arizona State University, USA

Meghan Cope, University of Vermont, USA

Andrew Crooks, University at Buffalo, USA

Adam Csank, University of Nevada, USA

Aparajita De, University of Delhi, India

Elizabeth Delmelle, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Jason Dittmer, University College London, UK

Suzana Dragicevic, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Grant Elliott, University of Missouri, USA

Sarah Elwood, University of Washington, USA

Kelsey Emard, Oregon State University, USA

Sara Irina Fabrikant, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Flávia Feitosa, Federal University of ABC, Brazil

Naziano Pantoja Filizola, Jr., The Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil

Jessica Finlay, University of Colorado Boulder, USA

William Flatley, University of Central Arkansas, USA

Amy Frazier, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Christopher Gaffney, New York University, USA

Christopher S. Fowler, Penn State University, USA

Peng Gao, Syracuse University, USA

Cerian Gibbes, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA

Michael Goodchild, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Amy Griffin, RMIT University, Australia

Daniel Griffin, University of Minnesota, USA

Kevin Grove, Florida International University, USA

Tony Grubesic, University of California, Riverside, USA

Anja Gupta, Kurukshetra University, India

Katherine Hankins, Georgia State University, USA

Maxwell Hartt, Queen’s University, Canada

Heidi Hauserman, University of Michigan, USA

Allison Hayes-Conroy, Temple University, USA

Sylvia He, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

Marco Helbich, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Karen Paiva Henrique, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Guntram Herb, Middlebury College, USA

Hannah V. Herrero, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

Nik Heynen, University of Georgia, USA

Victoria Houlden, University of Leeds, UK

Ayodeji Iyanda, Prairie View A&M University, USA

André Jansson, Karlstad University, Sweden

Brian Jordan Jefferson, University of Illinois at Urbana, USA

Wendy Jepson, Texas A&M University, USA

Naya Jones, University of California Santa Cruz, USA

Kelly Kay, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Julie Michelle Klinger, University of Delaware, USA

Nusrat Jahan Koley, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh

Mei-Po Kwan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, AO, Australian National University, Australia

Nina Lam, Louisiana State University, USA

Rebecca Lave, Indiana University, USA

Bin Li, Central Michigan University, USA

Jessa Loomis, Newcastle University, UK

Santiago Lopez, University of Washington Bothell, USA

Yongmei Lu, Texas State University, USA

Scott Markley, National Zoning Atlas, USA

James McCarthy, Clark University, USA

Erin McElroy, University of Washington, USA

Katie Meehan, King’s College London, UK

Deepak Mishra, University of Georgia, USA

Imelda K. Moise, Nova Southeastern University, USA

Sharlene Mollett, University of Toronto, Canada

Paul Isolo Mukwaya, Makerere University, Uganda

Darla Munroe, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, USA

Daisuke Murakami, The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Japan

Shadrack K. Murimi, Kenyatta University, Kenya

Adam T. Naito, Northern Michigan University, USA

Benjamin Neimark, Queen Mary, University of London, UK

Bruce Newbold, McMaster University, Canada

Isabelle Nilsson, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USA

Youjeong Oh, University of Texas at Austin, USA

Temi Emannuel Ologunorisa, Federal University of Technology, Nigeria

David O’Sullivan, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Stefan Ouma, University of Bayreuth, Germany

Antonio Paez, McMaster University, Canada

Melissa Parsons, University of New England, Australia

Jamie Peck, University of British Columbia, Canada

Rafael H. M. Pereira, Ipea – Institute for Applied Economic Research, Brazil

Ana Petrović, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

Alexandra Ponette-González, University of Utah, USA

Ate Poorthuis, KU Leuven, Belgium

Inaya Rakhmani, Universitas Indonesia, Australia

Carlos Ramos Scharrón, University of Texas, Austin, USA

Colleen Reid, University of Colorado Boulder, USA

Lynn M. Resler, Virginia Tech, USA

Sergio Rey, San Diego State University, USA

Andrea Rishworth, University of Toronto, Canada

Caitlin Robinson, University of Bristol, UK

John Rogan, Clark University, USA

Carolina Rojas, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile

Samuel Rufat, CY Cergy Paris University, France

Sadie J. Ryan, University of Florida, USA

Nari Senanayake, University of Kentucky, USA

Eric Seymour, Rutgers University, USA

Patrick Shabram, Front Range Community College, USA

Shih-Lung Shaw, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

Mimi Sheller, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA

Taylor Shelton, Georgia State University, USA

Jamie Shinn, SUNY ESF, USA

Renee Sieber, McGill University, Canada

Julie Silva, University at Buffalo, USA

Kendra Strauss, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Daniel Sui, Virginia Tech, USA

Juanita Sundberg, University of British Columbia, Canada

Jean-Claude Thill, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

Gabriela Valdivia, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

Bhanwar Vishvendra Raj Singh, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, India

Marissa Isaak Wald, Central New Mexico Community College, USA

Qihao Weng, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Michael J. Widener, University of Toronto, Canada

John Wilson, University of Southern California, USA

Dariusz Wójcik, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Levi John Wolf, University of Bristol, UK

Charlotte Wrigley-Asante, University of Ghana, Ghana

Wenfei Xu, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Yang Xu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China

Sofia Zaragocin, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador

For general inquiries about this journal email [email protected].