Newsletter – March 2018
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Non-Killing Geographies
By Derek Alderman and James Tyner
Throughout my tenure as AAG President, I have forwarded efforts to make Geography REAL, that is, responsive, engaged, advocating, and life-improving. As we work to further enhance our discipline’s responsiveness to critical issues and its commitment to the welfare of people and their social and natural environments, geographers can and should play an important role in better understanding the place of violence—and its many forms, causes, and consequences—within contemporary society and space.
Read past columns from the current AAG President on our President’s Column page.
ANNUAL MEETING
Social Media at #AAG2018
We’re getting closer to the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting! Whether you will be attending the meeting all week, for a few days, or looking to follow the action from afar, there are plenty of ways to get involved using social media. Start planning your #AAG2018 social media strategy today with these helpful guidelines!
Join the #AAG2018 conversation.
Special Theme Sessions and Plenaries to Take Place at #AAG2018
The Annual Meeting will host 194 Sessions in #AAG2018’s three featured themes: Black Geographies; Public Engagement in Geography; and Hazards, Geography, and GIScience. Each featured theme has its own plenary and special sessions to engage with the wide variety of topics covered by these geographic areas of specialty. Plan your schedule ahead of time to include theme events.
Last Chance to Reserve a Room in the AAG Hotel Block
AAG discounted rates at the Sheraton New Orleans expire at 5:00 pm CST on March 19, 2018. Be sure to book your accommodations soon!
Undergraduate Student Activities & Resources at the 2018 Annual Meeting in New Orleans
Undergraduate membership in the AAG is the fastest growing segment of the organization. This year over 500 undergrads have already registered to attend the upcoming meeting in New Orleans! To celebrate and engage this important and growing part of the AAG community, there will be many events, activities, and resources geared for undergraduate students in attendance in New Orleans.
Learn more about undergraduate activities.
Jobs and Careers Center at the 2018 Annual Meeting
The Jobs and Careers Center will be open daily from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM daily during #AAG2018. Stop by for over 65 sessions, workshops, and field trips related to careers and professional development. Sessions will cover a broad range of topics, from working as a geographer in the public, private, nonprofit, or academic sector, to networking strategies, to becoming a certified GIS Professional (GISP), to women in leadership roles in geography. Students, be sure to attend the Student Networking Happy Hour on Thursday, April 12 from 3:00 – 5:00 pm.
Full schedule of Jobs and Careers events.
Essential Geographies of New Orleans Music
Part 2: Rhythms, Blues, and the Infinite Potential of Congo Square
While jazz music is certainly iconic of the New Orleans soundscape, the setting of the Crescent City between the Mississippi Delta and Gulf of Mexico created a confluence of cultures that resulted in the development of a wide variety of musical styles. In the second of a two part series, Case Watkins of James Madison University explains how jazz led to the development of rhythm and blues, and, later, rock and roll, introducing readers to some of the musical artists and styles that might be found throughout New Orleans and at the French Quarter Festival being held congruent to the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting.
Continuing Creolization in New Orleans Foodways
Contemporary foodways of New Orleans are tied up in the history of the city itself as a site where many cultures met, due to both forced and free migration. Food has come to symbolize the recovery of the city Post-Katrina, but that does not mean the cuisine is not continuing to evolve. Catarina Passidomo of University of Mississippi elaborates on the foods most associated with the Crescent City.
New Orleans: Place Portraits
New Orleans’ unofficial “geographer laureate” Richard Campanella of the Tulane School of Architecture knows well the local vernacular in the Big Easy. Like in most cities, New Orleans’ residents have their own way of classifying neighborhood boundaries, their own terminology for meridian street lines, and plenty of opinions on how to develop the urban area post-Katrina. March’s Place Portraits series’ articles explore all three:
- A Glorious Mess: Perceptual History of New Orleans Neighborhoods
- Neutral Ground: From the Political Geography of Imperialism to the Street of New Orleans
- The Great Footprint Debate, Updated
“Focus on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast” is an ongoing series curated by the Local Arrangements Committee to provide insight on and understanding of the geographies of New Orleans, Louisiana, and the greater Gulf Coast region in preparation for the 2018 Annual Meeting.
ASSOCIATION NEWS
Encoding Geography: A New AAG Initiative
Events are underway for Encoding Geography, an AAG initiative to increase diversity and computer science literacy among all geographers to strengthen our discipline for the future. Workshops held at the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting will each have a specific focus on either education, employers, students, or gender. Future program goals aim to increase coding literacy, enabling geographers to build connections to other disciplines such as computer science and engineering and lead the way in idea creation and implementation.
Second Round of 2018 AAG Award Recipients Announced
Congratulations to the recipients of 2018 AAG Awards including the Harm de Blij Award, Miller Award, Wilbanks Award, and BA/BS Geography Program Award! Also announced are those receiving community college, dissertation, and research grants. Formal recognition of the awardees will occur during the AAG Awards Luncheon at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, April 14, 2018.
2018 AAG Election Results
The AAG members have spoken and the candidates running for various AAG governance positions have been selected. Election results for the 2018 AAG Election have been posted. Congratulations to all who will be assuming their new roles on July 1st. The AAG thanks those whose terms will be concluding later this year.
MEMBER NEWS
Profiles of Professional Geographers
Julie Dunbar, Manager of Editorial Development at ABC-CLIO, found a career that perfectly merges her interests in geography and writing! In this month’s career spotlight, she offers advice for students looking to start their careers post-graduation: practice writing skills early and often and make sure to ask meaningful questions.
Learn more about Geography careers.
IN MEMORIAM
Peirce F. Lewis
Peirce F. Lewis, an American geographer and professor emeritus at the Department of Geography at Penn State, died on February 18, 2018 in State College, PA. He was 90. Lewis was an acclaimed lecturer and essayist known for his research interests in the American landscape and the cultural geography of America. In 2004, he won the AAG J. B. Jackson Award for his book, ‘New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape.’
Waldo R. Tobler
Waldo R. Tobler, professor emeritus of Geography at the University of California Santa Barbara, died on February 20, 2018. He was 88. A famed cartographer, Tobler is best known in the discipline as the founder of the first law of geography, “Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.”
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES
Early Career Faculty and Department Leadership Workshops
On behalf of the Geography Faculty Development Alliance, the AAG is pleased to announce the 2018 Early Career and Department Leadership Workshops! These annual workshops for early career faculty and late career graduate students or geography department leaders will be held at the George Washington University in D.C. from June 10-16, 2018 (early career) and June 13-16, 2018 (department leaders).
More information and registration available.
NCRGE Transformative Research in Geography Education Funding
The National Center for Research in Geography Education (NCRGE) invites proposals to develop new collaborative and interdisciplinary research networks in geography education. Through this program, NCRGE aspires to strengthen geography education research processes and promote the growth of sustainable, and potentially transformative, lines of research. Along this vein, NCRGE is also hosting a series of sessions in Transformative Research in Geography Education at the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting.
Funding proposal deadline May 15, 2018.
PUBLICATIONS
Read the March 2018 Issue of the ‘Annals of the AAG’
Volume 108, Issue 2 of the Annals of the AAG is now published! The March issue is the annual special themed issue. For 2018, the theme is Social Justice and the City.
Full article listing available.
New Books in Geography — January 2018 Available
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! See the latest books in geography with titles that span the whole discipline. Topics include energy, ethics, and exploration as well as culture regions, critical GIS, and Czechs.
Browse the whole list of new books.
Winter 2018 Issue of ‘The AAG Review of Books’ Now Available
Volume 6, Issue 1 of The AAG Review of Books has now been published online. In this first issue of 2018 be sure to check out the discussions of Concrete Revolution: Large Dams, Cold War Geopolitics, and the US Bureau of Reclamation, Degraded Work: The Struggle at the Bottom of the Labor Market, and Cities in Global Capitalism.
February 2018 Issue of the ‘Professional Geographer’ Now Available
The Professional Geographer, Volume 70, Issue 1, has been published. The focus of this journal is on short articles in academic or applied geography, emphasizing empirical studies and methodologies. Volume 70, Issue 1 includes a focus section entitled: Critical Data, Critical Technology.
FEATURED ARTICLES
Exploring New Orleans and Beyond Using Web Mapping Tools, Maps, and Data
By Joseph KerskiThe evolution of geographic information system (GIS) technology to the web presents an excellent opportunity for the geography community to foster spatial thinking among colleagues, students, and administrators. The use of web maps, spatial data, and analysis tools to examine local to global issues has never been so powerful and easy to embrace. It also provides a means for the community to promote geography as an essential twenty-first-century subject to the general public. With the upcoming 2018 AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans in April, these web maps and analysis tools can be used by anyone to thoroughly explore the city in order to enhance the time spent there and in the surrounding area
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.
GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS
- Geographer led team uses dendrochronology to date cabin assumed to be Lincoln’s birthplace
- Past President Glen MacDonald on climate change and California wetlands
- Western Illinois GIS students help search for missing local woman
IN THE NEWS
Popular stories from the AAG SmartBrief
- Hurricane Irma formed new island
- What can be done about the sinking of New Orleans
- The link between geography and global health
- Geographers study activity of hate groups
- Study finds millions of Americans consume unsafe drinking water
EVENTS CALENDAR
- April 10-14, 2018 – AAG Annual Meeting: NEW ORLEANS 2018
- May 20-22, 2018 – 35TH CONFERENCE OF LATIN AMERICANIST GEOGRAPHERS
- June 10-16, 2018 – Geography Faculty Development Alliance Workshop for Early Career Faculty
- June 13-16, 2018 – Department Leadership Workshop
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