Newsletter – June 2019
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Postcard from Mesoamerica
By Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
“As Geography research begins in the field and ends in the field, so does my Presidential Column. I had the good fortune to be able to compose most of my first column (July 2018) during my fieldwork in Belize and Guatemala in Central America. Now I am filing my final column as your AAG President from field camp in northwestern Belize, working with an international team of colleagues, students, and volunteers to study the resilience of ancient Maya society… I thank you, my readers and fellow AAG members, for the Opportunity to freely explore challenging and timely issues and to share thoughts and opinions on current events and research over the last year.”
ANNUAL MEETING
#aagDENVER Hotel Room Rates Announced
The 2020 AAG Annual Meeting will be headquartered in downtown Denver, Colorado at the Hyatt Regency – Convention Center. While many of the special events and sessions will be taking place at the Hyatt Regency – Convention Center, the neighboring Sheraton – Denver Downtown will also house some of the meeting. A block of rooms is now available for AAG Meeting attendees to reserve at a discounted rate.
Denver, Colorado to host 2020 AAG Annual Meeting
Mark your calendar for the AAG Annual Meeting in the Mile High City April 6-10, 2020. Registration and the call for papers for #aagDENVER will be announced this summer. We look forward to seeing you in the Rocky Mountains!
PUBLICATIONS
NEW GeoHumanities Issue Alert:
Articles with topics ranging from soundscapes and television, alpine exploration to travel writing
The most recent issue of GeoHumanities has been published online (Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2019) with 18 new research articles and creative pieces on subjects within geography. Topics in this issue include climate change, sustainable economies, trauma, literary geography, soundscapes, mountaineering, ghost stories, social media data, and nationality. Articles also explore mediums such as museum exhibitions, television shows, public art, travelogues, and photography. Authors are from a variety of research institutions including Coventry University, UNSW Canberra, York St. John University, and Swansea University.
All AAG members have full online access to all issues of GeoHumanities through the Members Only page. In every issue, the editors choose one article to make freely available for two months. In this issue you can read #OurChangingClimate: Building Networks of Community Resilience Through Social Media and Design, by Sheryl-Ann Simpson, N. Claire Napawan & Brett Snyder for free.
Questions about GeoHumanities? Contact geohumanities [at] aag [dot] org.
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
ASSOCIATION NEWS
AAG seeks two editors for the Annals of the American Association of Geographers
The flagship journal of the AAG, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, has two upcoming editor vacancies to start January 2020. The open positions are in the subject areas of Human Geography and Nature & Society. Applications for the four year term will be accepted until September 6, 2019, with appointments being made in the fall of 2019.
More information about the editorial positions.
Final Call for Submissions to the Guide to Geography Programs
The AAG will continue to accept late submissions to the 2019 Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas through Wednesday, June 12, 2019.
Updated each academic year, the Guide lists undergraduate and graduate programs in all areas of geography and includes an interactive map that students can use to explore and discover geography programs, with easy-to-use search tools to find programs by degree type, region, and program specialization. It has long been an invaluable reference for faculty, prospective students, government agencies, and private firms in the United States, Canada, and throughout the world.
For more information and to list your program, please contact Mark Revell at guide [at] aag [dot] org.
Call for AAG Honors and Nominating Committees
The AAG Council seeks nominations for candidates to serve on the AAG Honors Committee and the AAG Nominating Committee. The Council will prepare the final slate of candidates for both committees from the nominations received, and committee members will be elected by a vote of the AAG membership. The Honors Committee submits nominations for awards and fellows to the Council every fall. The Nominating Committee recommends to the Council the slate of candidates for the AAG Vice President, President, and National Councilor elections.
If you wish to nominate yourself or other qualified individuals for service on these committees, please send your recommendations by email to AAG Secretary Cathleen McAnneny by June 30, 2019.
MEMBER NEWS
Profiles of Professional Geographers
You can make a difference with geography and GIS at any stage in your career. Just ask Carlos Saavedra who is spending his retirement doing volunteer work at Puerto Rico Rises, Dallas GiveCamp and the Boy Scouts of America. Carlos stresses the importance of GIS in today’s economy, saying that “the most fulfilling thing is that I can share how GIS works and educate non-profit organizations on how this tool can change the way they do business.”
Learn more about Geography Careers.
June Member Updates
The latest news about AAG Members.
A new research paper entitled “Extracting human emotions at different places based on facial expressions and spatial clustering analysis” was published in Transactions in GIS, led by the research team of Yuhao Kang with his advisor Dr. Song Gao at the Geospatial Data Science Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison along with their collaborators from Wuhan University, Peking University, and New Jersey Institute of Technology. Related to this work, graduate student Yuhao Kang won first place in the 2019 AAG Robert Raskin best student paper competition from the AAG Cyberinfrastructure Specialty Group. Learn more.
Thirty-three students and early career scholars will participate in the summer school on Reproducible Problem Solving with CyberGIS and Geospatial Data Science. The week long program will be co-led by the CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the American Association of Geographers, and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science. Learn more.
RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES
New Geography & Indigenous Studies Programs Interactive Map
In consultation with the Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group, the AAG has developed a new resource to assist Indigenous students in finding safe places to pursue geography education. This interactive map highlights geography and Indigenous Studies programs throughout the US and Canada as well as those colleges and universities that offer support systems for Indigenous students. The resulting database of 185 schools is now available online and will be a part of the 2019-2020 Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas.
Learn more about the creation of this resource.
Fellowships Available for Antarctic Research
The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research has fellowships to help early career researchers join a project team from another country that is working in the Antarctic. For 2019, 5 to 6 fellowships of up to $15,000 will be awarded for the purpose of creating lasting partnerships over the course of several research seasons in the Antarctic. The deadline for fellowship applications is July 17, 2019.
Find out more about the SCAR fellowships.
2020 IGU Congress to be held in Istanbul, Turkey
The International Geographical Union has announced its next Congress to be held August 17-21, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey. The submission deadline for session proposals is July 31, 2019. Other key dates are: August 1, 2019 – Early registration starts; January 13, 2020 – Deadline for submitting abstracts for papers and posters; February 24, 2020 – Notification of results of abstract reviews; and March 9, 2020 – Deadline for early registration fee payment.
See the 2020 IGU Congress website.
GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS
- Doctoral student Laura Smith finishes decades old tree-ring research abandoned due to sexism
- Scott Warren, geography instructor and volunteer for No More Deaths, facing felony charges for humanitarian efforts
EVENTS CALENDAR
