Newsletter – April 2016
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Excellence in a Geography Program
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Bednarz
By Sarah Witham Bednarz
One of the best parts of the annual meeting for me, as president, was the Awards Luncheon. It is a privilege to greet and honor the students and distinguished colleagues who receive the acknowledgement of their specialty groups and the discipline at large.
This year, for the first time, the Association bestowed the Program Excellence Award. The award highlights the accomplishments and health of non-PhD-granting departments and acknowledges a critical role in the discipline and the production of geographers that these departments play. The award alternates annually between BA/BS granting institutions (2016) and MA/MS granting universities (2017). The inaugural winner is the Department of Geography, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois. Receiving an honorable mention is the Geography program within the Department of Geography and Geology, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois. Congratulations to the awardees and to the AAG Council for initiating this very important recognition. I hope that it leads to positive publicity for these programs and that the faculty in both institutions feel a sense of pride and accomplishment; that is certainly the intent of the award. Continue Reading.
Recent columns from the President
AAG 2016 San Francisco Recap
Whether you want to reminisce or just see what you missed, check out our retrospective of the the special events and sessions from the AAG 2016 annual meeting!
The San Francisco conference hosted more than 9,000 geographers, GIS specialists, environmental scientists, and other registrants from around the world sharing the latest in research, policy, and applications in geography, sustainability, and GIScience.
ANNUAL MEETING
2016 Annual Specialty and Affinity Group Awards
The AAG has around 65 Specialty and Affinity Groups which bring together AAG members around interests in particular topics, regions or professional communities.
Many of these groups bestow awards for outstanding achievement and service, prizes for papers and posters, and give grants for research and travel to students, faculty and professionals in their respective fields.
Some of these awards were presented at the AAG’s annual Awards Luncheon held in San Francisco on April 2, 2016 and can be viewed here. The full list of all 2016 Specialty and Affinity Group Awards will be published on the AAG website in due course. Learn More.
MORE AWARDS
ASSOCIATION NEWS
Awardees Announced for 2016 AAG Dissertation Research Grants
Every year the AAG provides support for doctoral research in the form of small grants to PhD candidates of any geographic specialty. Three recipients were chosen this year from among 25 applicants and will each receive $1,000. This year’s recipients are Clifton Barrineau from the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University, Lucia Hussey from the Department of Geography at Western University in Ontario, and Sandy Wong from the Department of Geography & Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Learn More.
FUNDING & RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
2016 William T. Pecora Award: Call for Nominations
The William T. Pecora Award is presented annually to individuals or groups that have made outstanding contributions toward understanding the Earth by means of remote sensing. The Department of the Interior (DOI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) jointly sponsor the award. Nominations accepted through June 10, 2016. Learn more.
MEMBER AND DEPARTMENT NEWS
Three Prominent Geographers Honored with Guggenheim Awards
Mei-Po Kwan, Katharyne Mitchell and Laura Pulido have been named 2016 fellows by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Kwan plans to use the Guggenheim fellowship to deepen understanding of the uncertain geographic context problem (UGCoP) and to conceive possible methods for mitigating the problem in social science and health research. In her time as a Guggenheim Fellow Mitchell will look at the nature of sanctuary and the role of faith-based movements in migration policy and human rights discourse in Europe. As a Guggenheim Fellow, Pulido will work on a project called, Sangre en la Tierra (Blood in the Soil), which attempts to develop a methodology for encouraging cities to grapple with their histories of foundational racial violence. Learn more.
Tarek Rashed Announced as New Director of GeoInformatics at The Polis Center at IUPUI
The Polis Center at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has announced that Tarek Rashed has joined the Center to direct and further develop the GeoInformatics project portfolio of partners in the fields of emergency management, hazard risk analysis, disaster mitigation, land-use planning, and economic development. The Polis Center at IUPUI specializes in providing place-based research tools to transform data into usable information for more effective local decision-making. Learn More.
Scott Carlin of LIU Post to Co-Chair UN Conference
Dr. Scott Carlin, an associate professor of geography at Long Island University Post, has been named Co-Chair of the 66th United Nations Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organization Conference to be held in the city of Gyeongju, Republic of Korea from May 30 – June 1, 2016. The theme of this year’s conference is “Education for Global Citizenship: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Together.” This will be the first UN DPI/NGO Conference held in Asia. Learn More.
IN MEMORIAM
PUBLICATIONS
Spring 2016 Issue of the ‘The AAG Review of Books’ Now Available
The AAG is pleased to announce Volume 4, Issue 2 of The AAG Review of Books. AAG members have full access to all content, and the following reviews from this latest issue of The AAG Review of Books are being featured free of charge to non-members as well: Mapping the Cold War: Cartography and the Framing of America’s International Power by Jeremy W. Crampton and Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition by Glen Sean Coulthard. Learn More.
New Books in Geography — March 2016
The AAG Review of Books office has released the list of the books received during the month of March. Learn More.
EVENTS CALENDER
- 10th Annual Midwest Undergraduate Geography Symposium, St Paul, MN, April 23
- 2016 Geographic Names Conference, Reno, NV
- NCRGE 2016 Early Career Scholar Workshop, Lafayette, LA, May 15-18
- UCGIS 2016 Symposium, Scottsdale, AZ, May 24-26
- Upper Midwest Geospatial Conference 2016, La Crosse, WI, May 25
- Institute of Australian Geographers 2016 Conference, Adelaide, Australia, June 29-July 1
- 2016 Earth Educators’ Rendezvous, Madison, WI
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