President's Column

Making Data Meaningful Or Geography’s Contribution to Data Science

Geography has always been about data. After all, the field was founded and developed over the search for more and better information. It was 200 years ago that Alexander von Humboldt, perhaps the most famous geographer, acquired field observations in the Andes Mountains and used these observations to make a series of connections. In her 2015 book, The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf writes how Humboldt presented data he had painstakingly collected about a mountain:

To the left and right of the mountain he placed several columns that provided related details and information. By picking a particular height of the mountain, one could trace connections across the table and the drawing of the mountain to learn about temperature, say, or humidity or atmospheric pressure, as well as what species of animals and plants could be found at different altitudes . . . All this information could then be linked to the other major mountains across the world, which were listed according to their height next to the outline of Chimborazo. (p. 103)

Alexander von Humboldt: 19th Century Data Scientist

Data continued to power geographical quests and queries.  While many nineteenth-century geographers sought to find novel information about places they encountered, geographers in the twentieth century questioned how to make sense of it. These debates focused on factors of causation, the value of regional synthesis, and the spatial variations of select data.  Later—as geographers came to critically inspect the sources, meanings, and uses of information—data continues to be the engine of our discipline.

So, it was particularly disheartening to hear the governor of Florida dismiss somebody with advanced degrees in geography as not being a “data scientist.” As most of you are probably aware, this remark came as justification for the firing of Rebekah Jones, the architect and manager of Florida’s acclaimed COVID-19 dashboard, purportedly because Florida officials did not like how she was presenting the data. Sadly, this follows along some other attempts at squelching inconvenient truths, like banning the use of the term “climate change.” In justification, Governor DeSantis said that Jones “is not a data scientist” because she has a degree in geography. Whatever the reasons for terminating an employee who had previously been praised and profiled, this is a particularly low blow.

And what is “data science” anyway? The Data Science Association, which ought to know, defines it as “the scientific study of the creation, validation and transformation of data to create meaning.” Accordingly, a data scientist “can play with data, spot trends and learn truths few others know.” This sounds an awful lot like what a lot of geographers do. Of course, I don’t need to tell you about how much data creation and analysis is involved in fields such as climatology, housing analysis, land science, big data, to name just a few. The major scientific development of our field, Geographic Information Science, is built around the manipulation of locationally based data. ESRI has developed a COVID-19 GIS Hub, and geographers have been active in examining COVID-19 in light of vulnerable people, economic data, and the spaces of everyday life.

The Florida governor’s drive-by slighting is yet more evidence of geographical ignorance and insensitivity. We have a long way in correcting for the type of geographical illiteracy that relegates half the world to “sh*t-hole countries” and where many cannot locate North Korea on a map. It begins early, as most school children still lack basic proficiency in geographical concepts. This has real consequences. It causes the public to overstate certain dangers to our security  while minimizing perils at our front door.

We also need to consider how we got to a place where the very essence of what we do can be so easily dismissed. The state of Florida has several fantastic geography programs: strong PhD granting departments, excellent masters, bachelors and community college programs. Yet, the lack of general knowledge about our field still disappoints. It is easy to complain about willful ignorance, but who could imagine people saying that a trained economist knows nothing about trade, or that a botanist provides no guidance on ecosystems. Yet here is where we are. The hope of the AP Human Geography explosion—especially prominent in Florida—is that it will result in a generation of people who know what geography does and why it matters. Any other steps we can take—from responding forcefully to these misstatements, to seeding geographers in public agencies and private companies—will mercifully wash away such unfortunate views.

__________

When I was elected as vice president of the AAG in February 2018, I would have never thought that my presidential term would be quite so eventful.  It began auspiciously, with the hiring of our new executive director and the prospect of new horizons, and it has ended with the upending of society as the pandemic has completely restructured how we live, work, and congregate, while the murder of George Floyd exposes once again the vicious and unrelenting racism embedded in our society.

If there was a theme to my presidential year, it lay in expanding the community of geographers. We have accomplished some terrific things including more assistance to the AAG regions and the prospect of a new international councilor. Unfortunately, the pandemic prevented us from experiencing the remarkable community manifested in our annual conference. This year, we missed the chance to come together in lecture halls, meeting rooms, hotel lobbies, bars, and cafes. We lost our chance to reunite with old friends, mentors, and students, to personally tell a colleague how much you enjoyed her article, to come together and plan further projects. To commune.

Given the circumstances, we have tried to carry forward, with virtual options and laying the groundwork for a return of physical conferences in the near future. We have also developed a remarkable taskforce to address the challenges brought about by COVID-19. My final presidential communication to you, later this month, will feature the results of that taskforce.

In the meantime, I want to thank everybody who has made this year so memorable and meaningful.  The past presidents, especially Glen MacDonald, Sheryl Beach, and Derek Alderman have each helped me find my footing. I look forward to working with Amy Lobben and Emily Yeh in the coming year as we continue to confront the issues of the coronavirus and the desire to move ahead. The AAG staff have been a remarkable backstop. They have all been so wonderful, but I would especially thank Candida Mannozzi, Gary Langham, Becky Pendergast, Emily Fekete, and Oscar Larson for guidance at various key points over the year. And of course, I want to thank you—for trusting me as president, for emailing me your insights, and for helping me through this unprecedented year. Never forget that the American Association of Geographers is your organization.  And never forget that our strength lies in our community.  May we move forward together.

— Dave Kaplan
AAG President

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0072

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Frank A. Friedman

Frank A. Friedman, a member of AAG since 1959, died at his home in Robesonia, Pennsylvania, on May 30, 2020. He was 81.

Friedman was a graduate of Liberty High School, in his hometown of Bethlehem, and earned his Bachelor of Science in Education from Kutztown State College in 1960. He earned a Master of Education in Geography from Penn State University in 1965, and a Master of Science from Drexel University in 1980. He was a longtime geography teacher in the Conrad Weiser School District in Pennsylvania. He is survived by his sister, Marie A. Friedman.

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Stephen Ladochy

Education: Ph.D. in Geography (University of Manitoba), M.S. in Atmospheric Sciences (Colorado State University), B.A. in Meteorology (University of California, Los Angeles)

Describe your job. What are some of the most important tasks or duties for which you are responsible?
Besides teaching classes in physical geography, meteorology and climatology, I mentor graduate students in their research and Masters’ theses.  I also write several letters of recommendation for students seeking jobs, graduate schools and research opportunities.  I continue collaborating with other scientists on climate research and occasionally answer requests from media on environmental stories.

What attracted you to this career path?
I always liked math, and found that it could be applied in meteorology.  At UCLA I interned at the National Weather Service as well as at air pollution consultants. While working at the L.A. County Air Pollution Control District, someone showed me information on “Jobs in Geography”, where you could teach weather courses at universities.  I was hired by the University of Winnipeg in the Great White North teaching weather and later climatology and environmental courses.  I enjoyed teaching, so went on to a Ph.D. in geography/climatology.

How has your education/background in geography prepared you for this position? Most of my education was in Atmospheric Sciences, so I had a lot of prep work to teach geography courses.  I found my niche and passion in meteorology and climatology and have been studying them since.

What geographic skills and information do you use most often in your work? What general skills and information do you use most often?
I like to show satellite images in my classes and the latest climatic data, such as from NASA. So using remote sensing, weather maps and oceanic conditions (being on the coast), I use statistics and recent environmental data in my classes and research.  Mostly, I’m looking at ENSO-Pacific Ocean Indices, weather maps and satellites and climate data to follow climate change.  We also have field instruments so my classes can measure surface weather data in different land uses in urban settings.

Are there any skills or information you need for your work that you did not obtain through your academic training? If so, how/where did you obtain them?
I was fortunate to have summer employment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA. There I collaborated with oceanography scientists and student interns on several climate-related projects.  My boss there was a wonderful science communicator, so I learned a lot from him that carried into classrooms and media interviews.

Do you participate in hiring, screening, or training of new employees? If so, what qualities and/or skills do you look for?
I was just on two search committees for new hires. We looked for someone who would be a good instructor with our students, many of whom had English as a second language and were working while in school. We also looked for good mentors for these students, who could relate and encourage high achievement.  Scholarships were also important where they could lead student research

What advice would you give to someone interested in a job like yours?
You need to have a passion for your work and for helping students. That makes the hard work actually fun and something you look forward to doing.  We have special students that work hard and often reach their goals. You need to be a good mentor and inspiration to your students.  Your enthusiasm for your subjects will rub off.

What is the occupational outlook for career opportunities in your field/organization, esp. for geographers?
Our graduates have been fairly successful in finding employment in geography and related environmental fields.  Having skills in computer programming, GIS and remote sensing training or certificates, statistics and the sciences are all helpful.  Internships or summer help in companies or government agencies can often lead to more permanent employment.

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Newsletters

Newsletter – May 2020

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Facing an Existential Crisis or COVID-19 and the Long-Term Future of Geography

By David Kaplan

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It does not seem so long ago that people were talking about the compression of space and time, about the “ends of history and geography.” How recent events have obliterated this! The pandemic of COVID-19—with its echoes of the 1918 Spanish Flu and the great contagious scourges of the past—demonstrates again that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” And how well this pandemic also affirms geography’s significance! The importance of place, of distance, of context, of networks—all show the enduring importance of geography and how central geographical concerns are in understanding the disease.

Continue Reading.

ANNUAL MEETING

Save the Date for AAG Seattle!

Dusk view of the skyline, Seattle, Washington

Join us for the AAG Annual Meeting April 7-11, 2021. We invite you to organize and participate in sessions, workshops, field trips, special events, and activities. Look for the call for papers in July 2020. We look forward to seeing you in the Pacific Northwest!

Virtual Session Recordings Available until May 14!

AAG facilitated a virtual annual meeting April 6-10, in response to restrictions on travel and gathering during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual conference hosted more than 180 sessions and panels. Recordings of most sessions are available through May 14 in the online session gallery.

PUBLICATIONS

NEW Annals of the American Association of Geographers Issue Alert:
Articles with topics ranging from unusually devastating tornadoes to offshore wind power to contemporary Mongolian pastoralism

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The most recent issue of Annals of the American Association of Geographers has been published online (Volume 110, Issue 3, May 2020) focusing on current geographic research. Topics in this issue include geoprivacy, data activism, hazard prediction maps, local food systems, countermapping, conservation law enforcement, The Holocaust, Burmese migrants, Nigerian geographers, and extractive economies. Regional areas of interest include the Big Thicket National Preserve in southeast Texas; Shijiazhuang, China; Taiwan; the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana; and Gangnam District, Seoul. Authors are from a variety of research institutions including: Durham University, University of Kentucky, Florida State University, University of Nottingham, and University of Oxford.

All AAG members have full online access to all issues of the Annals through the Members Only page. Each issue, the Editors choose one article to make freely available. In this issue you can read Disturbance after Disturbance: Combined Effects of Two Successive Hurricanes on Forest Community Structure by Daehyun Kim, Andrew C. Millington & Charles W. Lafon for free for the next two months.

Questions about the Annals? Contact annals [at] aag [dot] org.

NEW The Professional Geographer Issue Alert:
Research featuring sonic methods to urban growth models to participatory data

The-PG-2017-generic-213x300-1The latest issue of The Professional Geographer is now available (Vol 72, Issue 2, May 2020) with 10 new research articles in geography that emphasize applied studies. Topics include banking deserts, Twitter use among Geography Departments, fieldwork in geography, and migration. Study areas include Albuquerque; Flushing, Queens, New York City; and the Hubei and Hunan Provinces of China. Authors are from a variety of global institutions including: University of Tennessee, Salzburg University, and University of California, Santa Cruz.

All AAG members have full online access to all issues of The Professional Geographer through the Members Only page. In every issue, the editors choose one article to make freely available for three months. In this issue you can read Examining Spatial Disparities of Obesity: Residential Segregation and the Urban–Rural Divide by Heewon Chea & Hyun Kim for free for the next three months.

Questions about The PG? Contact profgeog [at] aag [dot] org.

Journals-newsletter-100-1In 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

NEW Spring Issue of the AAG Review of Books Published

AAG-RoB-spring-8-2-cvr-babyThe latest issue of The AAG Review of Books is now available (Volume 8, Issue 2, Spring 2020) with 5 book reviews on recent books related to geography, public policy and international affairs. The Spring 2020 issue also includes four book review discussions and two book review essays. The Spring 2020 Issue features two items selected by the editor to be made available free of charge: Mustafa Dikeç’s book review of Revolting New York: How 400 Years of Riot, Rebellion, Uprising, and Revolution Shaped a City, by Neil Smith and Don Mitchell and a Book Review forum by Elizabeth Johnson, Christian Anderson, Becky Mansfield, Shiloh Krupar, Julia Corwin, Scott Prudham and Jesse Goldstein of Jesse Goldstein’s Planetary Improvement: Cleantech Entrepreneurship and the Contradictions of Green Capitalism.

Questions about The AAG Review of Books? Contact aagreview [at] aag [dot] org.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

A Special Thank You from our Executive Director

Earlier this month, AAG unveiled our COVID-19 Rapid Response Task Force. Immediately, 125 of you stepped up to offer your time as volunteers, including many students. This generosity was in keeping with the earlier support AAG members offered one another when we had to rapidly pivot from an in-person Annual Meeting to a virtual meeting: 239 of you, including 88 students, donated a portion of your registration fee back to AAG, raising $22,763 that helped us make the meeting such a success for more than 1,000 attendees. Just this week, in a matter of days, our community raised more than $4,800 for the COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, which will support the Task Force proposals that AAG Council will set in motion in June.

As the reality of COVID-19’s impact has set in during these past months, these are only some of the examples of how you have rallied to show your commitment to the discipline of geography, to your colleagues, and to your place in AAG’s community. Your support makes it possible for us to strengthen geography while facing this unexpected challenge. I am deeply grateful to all of you who have volunteered, contributed to the Fund, and otherwise assisted each other and shown your support for our organization. We will continue to work hard to be there for you, as you have done for us.

Read more.

AAG Substantially Revises Professional Conduct Policy

Harassment-Free-AAG-logo533px-290x290-1In April, AAG formally adopted a revised Professional Conduct Policy, signaling an important benchmark in the work of the Harassment-Free AAG Task Force, AAG Council, and AAG leadership and staff. Two years of the Task Force’s intensive reviews and discussions, including the 2019 Harassment-Free AAG Survey, contributed to the policy changes, which broaden the consideration of professional misconduct beyond AAG-sponsored events and into the field itself. Under the new policy, professional misconduct includes discrimination, sexual harassment, and bullying to the extent that such conduct relates to AAG activities or the professional roles of AAG members. The policy applies to all AAG members, staff, attendees and participants at any AAG-sponsored event, including online venues, and at AAG-sponsored meeting social events.

The revised 12-page policy also identifies standards for professional behavior and outlines processes for reporting and addressing violations, including an online form that can be used to submit a complaint.

Read the Policy.

2020 AAG Nystrom Award Recipient Announced

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Marynia Kolak of the University of Chicago is the recipient of the 2020 J. Warren Nystrom Award, established by a former AAG Executive Director to annually recognize a paper based on a recent dissertation in geography. Kolak’s contribution, Distilling the Effect of the Great Recession on Food Access in a Segregated City: A Spatial, Quasi-Experimental Approach, is based on the dissertation she completed at Arizona State University in 2017. Kolak presented her paper along with three finalists, Kevin Mwenda of Brown University, Yago Martin Gonzalez of the University of South Carolina, and Mark Rhodes of Michigan Technological University, in a special session on Tuesday, April 7, 2020 at #AAGVirtual.

Learn more about the Nystrom Award and previous awardees.

AAG Signs On to Support Key Positions on COVID-19

In April, AAG participated in two letters to Congressional leaders, denouncing anti-Asian racist rhetoric, attacks, and discrimination during COVID-19 and supporting House Resolution 908, introduced in late March by Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY-6). A companion bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate by Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

Acting in concert with the AAAS and 49 other scientific institutions, AAG wrote to reject anti-Asian racism, especially in characterizing the COVID-19 virus. Instead, AAG and its colleague organizations vow to “focus on leveraging global human diversity to solve today’s public health crisis.” AAG also signed a letter along with more than 450 diverse organizations, spearheaded by the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and the Democracy Initiative, in support of H.R. 908, affirming, “Hate and bigotry are not consistent with realizing the promise of American democracy where all of us have an equal voice.”

Need for GIS and Shared Data: Earlier this month, AAG was one of nine organizations that signed the National States Geographic Council’s letter in support of geo-enabling key data sets from public health and emergency response sectors, in order to gain better spatial insights into COVID-19. “[K]nowing where the outbreak is growing, where high-risk populations are, where the hospital beds and important medical resources are, and where to deploy resources is essential,” the letter stated, urging a nationwide effort to disaggregate existing data for improved nationwide spatial analysis.

Deadline Extended to List Your Geography Program in The Guide

2018_2019_AAG_Guide-300x185-1The American Association of Geographers is accepting entries from geography programs for the 2020 edition of the Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas. The deadline for submitting a listing has been extended to Friday, June 12, 2020.

The 2020 edition of the Guide will be available exclusively online. 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.

New COVID-19 Resource Hub – Open to all AAG Members

COVID-KC-300x109-1The AAG has set up a new Knowledge Community to facilitate communication and knowledge-sharing among our members during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 Resource Hub is open to all current AAG members, and is free to join. We encourage members to use the hub to share resources and data, seek research collaborations and information, connect to colleagues across subdisciplines, and support each other as we all experience and seek to understand the impacts of this pandemic from local to global. The AAG has posted initial resources and discussion topics, and we encourage our membership community to make this resource and space your own. We also encourage you to share any COVID-19 related posts from specialty group communities with this new community if you would like to reach more members.

Join and contribute to the COVID-19 Resource Hub.

Call for Abstracts: AAG ‘Annals’ Special Issue on Displacements

Annals-generic-225x300-2The 2022 Special Issue of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers will explore how — building on our history of critical engagement with place — geographers from across the discipline can contribute empirical, theoretical, and methodological insights on displacements and their implications. The AAG welcomes contributions that address displacements through multi- and inter-disciplinary engagements with geographical theory and methods, from a broad range of perspectives and locations, and in historical and contemporary contexts. Abstracts of no more than 250 words are invited by May 15, 2020.

Learn more about submitting.

POLICY CORNER

EPA Rulemaking Jeopardizes Utilization of Geospatial Research

US_Capitol

There is currently a rule under consideration by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that is cause for major concern within the research community. The proposed Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science rule indicates that as the EPA uses scientific research to guide future policy decisions, preference will be given to studies which make their raw data publicly available. Consequently, this would allow the EPA discretion to discount research that does not fully disclose such data, which includes any findings that draw from personally identifiable medical and location information as well as proprietary data.

The American Association of Geographers (AAG), in partnership with the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), plans to submit a public comment expressing our opposition to this proposed rule.

While the principles of open data sharing and reproducibility are key to scientific integrity and advancement, certain health and environmental research are only possible when personally identifiable information is guaranteed to remain confidential. As organizations at the intersection of science, industry, and geospatial technologies, we fully appreciate that confidential and proprietary geospatial data, including remotely sensed satellite imagery, location tracking of individual mobility, and georeferenced demographic and health information (which can reveal identity), play essential roles in environmental and health research. We are deeply concerned that by favoring research in which data and models are made publicly available, the EPA will overlook or disregard findings from valid, scientific research.

The rule, first proposed in 2018, was recently modified in reaction to many of the comments originally received. However, the modifications fail to ameliorate the issues identified above.

You can make your voice heard on this proposed rule by visiting the public comments portal and submitting a response by the May 18th deadline. If feeling unsure on where to start, we recommend following this helpful guide from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

For additional background, watch this November 2019 hearing from the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, & Technology entitled, “Strengthening Transparency or Silencing Science? The Future of Science in EPA Rulemaking.”

In the News:

  • The latest results for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in geography have been released. Click here to explore the data and see where our nation’s eighth-graders stand.
  • On April 24th, Congress passed its fourth stimulus bill addressing the COVID-19 crisis, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (H.R. 266). The bill provides funding for small business loans, health care providers, and additional COVID-19 testing.
MEMBER NEWS

Update: Geographers Act on COVID-19

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Our thanks to AAG members and geographers all over the world for sharing their work with us. Here are some of the efforts AAG has been hearing about:

Medical geographer Tolulope Osayomi of University of Ibadan has been interviewed frequently by the media about the value of lockdown procedures in Nigeria during COVID-19, including Vanguard Nigeria and Business Day.

Geographer Francesco De Pascale of L’Istituto di Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologica has worked with colleagues in geography and anthropology to collect testimonials from Italian citizens from within the spaces of their homes during COVID-19. The work, entitled “My lived space,” recalls the concept elaborated by the late French geographer Armand Frémont (1933-2019), defining lived space as “the space of individuals with which they appropriate, with their paths, their perceptions, their representations, their signs, their drives and passions” (2005). Dr. De Pascale and Giovanni Gugg of the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Stefano Montes of the University of Palermo, and Gaetano Sabato of the University of Catania are collecting testimonies of “geographies of the home,” published in Il Sileno · Rivista Divulgativa (in Italian)

Geographer Charles Travis of Trinity College Dublin and University of Texas-Arlington has mapped social media posts about the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April, Arizona State University School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis Research Center (SPARC) sponsored an online gathering on Digital Contact Tracing and Surveillance: A National Conversation with Geospatial Experts. Organized by ASU professor Trisalyn Nelson, the conversation examined what we currently know about the accuracy of cell phone GPS data, how social media can be used for tracking, and looming privacy issues posed by these capabilities. View the recorded meeting here.

Profiles of Professional Geographers

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Geographers often have a background in meteorology and climatology like this month’s featured professional geographer, Stephen Ladochy, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles, Department of Geosciences & Environment. Ladochy’s love of math got him interested in meteorology, but his job at the L.A. County Air Pollution Control District opened up a career path to pursuing a PhD and becoming a professor in Geography. He recommends geography students seek out internships or summer employment to give their career a boost!

Learn more about Geography Careers.

Geographers Honored this Spring

Katherine McKittrick, professor of gender studies at Queen’s University (and recipient of AAG’s 2019 Harold M. Rose Award for Anti-Racism Research and Practice); Diana Liverman, Regents Professor and director of the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona; and Lisa Naughton, professor of geography at University of Wisconsin-Madison were inducted as members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 2020 Class. 

Liverman was also elected to the National Academy of Sciences, along with Marilyn Brown, Regents Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology.

In April, Frank Magilligan, Erica Schoenberger, and Lisa Brooks (Abenaki) have received Guggenheim Fellowships for their work in geography. Magilligan is a professor of geography at Dartmouth whose work examines how science, politics, & values intersect in river restoration. Schoenberger is a professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University, as well as a political and economic geographer and environmental historian with specialties in the history of technology. She is the author of the recent Nature, Choice, and Social Power (Routledge 2015). Brooks is Chair of American Studies at Amherst College. Her recent work includes The Common Pot: The Recovery of Native Space in the Northeast and the book and companion website Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War.

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

News from the International Geographical Union (IGU)

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On April 2, 2020, the IGU postponed the 34th International Geographical Congress, originally scheduled to be held in August 2020, for one year.  It has been re-scheduled for August 16-20, 2021 in Istanbul, Turkey. Fees already paid and abstracts accepted will be carried forward to 2021 and there will be opportunities to submit new papers.  You can find further information about the IGU Congress and the IGU at https://igu-online.org/.

April 6 was to have been GeoNight (GéoNuit), an evening of public events that promote the discipline of geography. The annual April GéoNuit, launched in France in 2017, has gained in popularity in other countries, too. Events of any type, from public lectures to guided bike rides, have involved thousands of people. GeoNight events for 2020 were cancelled to avoid public gatherings, but geographers around the world can begin thinking about organizing Geo Night events for 2021.

Learn more about GeoNight (GéoNuit).

Comptroller Nominations Sought for Gamma Theta Upsilon

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The Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU) Nominations Committee seeks candidates for consideration as nominees for the position of comptroller. The volunteer comptroller position oversees the financial management of GTU, including general accounting, yearly budget preparation, creation of financial reports, overseeing the filing of taxes, and acting as the liaison in managing GTU’s investment portfolio. This is a five year position starting in January 2021. If you believe that you or someone you know has the talents and resources required, the nominations committee hopes that you’ll consider serving GTU as Comptroller, a position that is integral to the functioning of GTU.

More information about applying for the comptroller position.

IN MEMORIAM

John W. Webb

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John W. Webb, 93, former Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Geography, University of Albany (SUNY); former Professor of Geography, University of Minnesota; and co-author (with Jan O.M. Broek) of the world-wide best-selling text “A Geography of Mankind” (McGraw-Hill, 1968), died in St. Cloud, MN, on August 18, 2019.

Read more.

Allen G. Noble

Allen G. Noble, 90, a longtime AAG member, Pulitzer-nominated author, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Akron, Ohio, died on March 24, at age 90. Noble was recognized in 1989 with the AAG Honors, the highest award offered by the AAG, and was named one of Ohio’s Distinguished Scientists.

Read more.

Ezekiel Kalipeni

Ezekiel-Kalipeni-245x300-1Ezekiel Kalipeni, a longtime geography professor, died in the early hours of April 11, 2020 from heart-related complications while he was in his native country, Malawi at age 66. Globally known for his work focusing on medical geography, population and environment, and international development in Africa, Kalipeni was the 2014 recipient of the Kwado-Konadu-Agyemang Distinguished Scholar in African Geography Award. He also served as editor of the African Geographical Review, enjoyed mentoring and teaching students, and established the Kalipeni Foundation to support local development projects in Malawi’s southern district of Mulanje.

Read more.

David Hornbeck

hornbeckofficeOn Earth Day, 2020, COVID-19 claimed the life of Dr. David Hornbeck, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, California State University, Northridge. Hornbeck was particularly interested in both the historical geography of California during the mission and rancho periods and the development of GIS for business applications, particularly in banking. He was actively involved in career advising and development for students in his department and in developing his collection of papers, maps, and journals related to historical land use in California.

Read more.

The AAG is also saddened to hear of the passing of Evan Weismann this past month with a written tribute forthcoming.

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AAG Staff

David Hornbeck

On Earth Day, 2020, COVID-19 claimed the life of Dr. David Hornbeck, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, California State University, Northridge. David led a full and productive life, ranging from two hitches in the Air Force from 1958 to 1966, earning his B.A. and M.A. in geography at what is now called California State University, Fresno (1968 and 1969, respectively) and his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 1972. In 1972, he began his career in the Department of Geography at San Fernando Valley State College, now California State University, Northridge. He retired in 2009.

Dominating the majority of his work, David’s passion was historical geography, especially of California during the mission and rancho periods and during the early establishment of the American agricultural and urban landscapes on the underlying Native Californian, Spanish, and Mexican cultural landscapes. He had a particular interest in the impacts of Spanish colonial expansion on the Native Californians and their fate in the mission system, meticulously reconstructing their demographics through mission archives in California and Mexico. He worked out the details of the economics of the mission, pueblo, and presidio systems in the context of the global trade and politics of the day. He was fascinated by the privatization of lands in California by the newly independent Mexico, which eventually led to the expropriation of the mission holdings to support that purpose. Privatization required petitioners for a land grant to map their proposed properties, submitting diseños as part of the petition. These petitions and diseños became part of the process by which Mexican ranchero families defended their claims to the American Board of Land Commissioners after 1848 (79% of them successfully, though the legal expenses typically led to sale or subdivision of the adjudicated holdings). David was interested also in the development of the distinctive California agricultural system and how the California urban system still bears the marks of the preceding Spanish and Mexican settlement systems. David loved the intense archival work historical geography required and, indeed, built up quite a collection of original materials that now comprise the Hornbeck Collection at the Monterey County Historical Society.

A second compelling interest David pursued was business GIS. His earliest work in this area was in grant and contract work in business location analysis and market area analysis, first for restaurants and then for banks. By 1984, he had begun to build and license fieldwork-based GIS systems for banks’ branch analysis, market area analysis, network analysis, and merger and acquisition needs. The LandBank GIS became so popular with major banks across the country that David and his wife, Ginny, founded Area Location Systems, Inc., to develop, market, and service it and train bank staff in its use. As a result of this work, banks became among the first corporations truly to understand what it was geographers do and to seek out geographers for their own marketing and IT staffs! David and Ginny eventually sold their shares in the company by the late-1990s, Ginny moving into special education and David continuing to do consulting and workshops for the banking industry, law firms, and water agencies until he entered the Faculty Early Retirement Program in 2002.

As a university faculty member, David devoted a lot of his time and energy to his students, many of whom remembered him fondly as a vivid and caring character and remained in contact with him long after their graduations. Indeed, the root of his interest in applied economic geography and business GIS was originally his desire to help his students develop rewarding careers using their geographic education. He served as the career advisor in his department and organized sixteen annual jobs symposia for geography students. Some of his publications were explicitly devoted to geographic education and to how faculty could cultivate both applied and academic dimensions in their work to mentor their students.  Many of the “Hornbeck School of Thought” (or “Hornbeck University of Geography”) went on for Ph.D.s themselves or entered highly successful careers in banking, environmental consulting, information technology companies, education, or government. Typical of David was an insight he shared shortly before retiring. He noted that academics often deeply enjoy teaching and mentoring the “A list” students who will go on to graduate school but sometimes tend to overlook the C students in the middle of the class curve. Many of these kids are much brighter than their GPAs suggest but are either too overworked, engulfed in personal problems, or immature to do well while they are students. But they are still taking it all in and, then, he said, they “grow into their educations” a few years later. Their geographic education all comes together for them in the context of their careers, which then take off. He commented that it’s the “C” students who seem to go on into six figure salaries and highly placed jobs, not the “A” students who go on to graduate school and academic penury!

David’s tragic encounter with COVID-19 leaves behind a large cadre of students, colleagues, business associates, and friends who mourn his loss and wish to comfort his wife of forty years, Ginny; his siblings, Arlene Suart (Sutter Creek, CA) and Claro Cabading (Honolulu); his sons, David, Christopher, and Brian; his grandchildren, Ashton, Vincent, and Robin. A webpage commemorating his life has been set up where there are links to his curriculum vitae, the Hornbeck Collection, his retirement “roast” materials, and examples from David’s little known pastime, flower photography.  A full obituary will also be posted there.

Donations will be gratefully received to support the Monterey County Historical Society that physically houses his collection (https://mchsmuseum.com/salinas/). Many thanks to Mr. Patrick J. “Mike” Maloney and Ms. Miriam Infinger, Research Associate, of the Law Offices of Patrick J. Maloney (Alameda, CA); Mr. James Perry of the MCHS; and Dr. Rubén G. Mendoza, Chair of the Department of Social, Behavioral, and Global Studies, and Ms. Jennifer A. Lucico, M.A., Lecturer, Department of Social, Behavioral, and Global Studies, California State University, Monterey Bay, for their years of work getting this collection assessed and physically moved to the Museum, for creating its digital portal, and for getting it all catalogued on WorldCat.

Very sadly yours,

Chrys Rodrigue
Dave’s second graduate student and friend of 48 years

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President's Column

Doing Geography in the Age of Coronavirus or How is Everybody Coping?

You hear it from everyone you know: these are strange and frightening times. While most of us have witnessed major disease outbreaks from afar – Ebola, SARS, Swine Flu – it is another thing to encounter something so directly, so personally, so comprehensively. Pandemic: what once seemed part of a grim historical record has smashed into our contemporary reality.

If you are one of the lucky ones, you are reading this inside your comfortable home, self-isolating, dashing out only to gather the most essential items. If you are one of the lucky ones, you are struggling to refit your classroom activities, your research, your office operations, your interactions with colleagues, and your accessibility to other people within this extraordinary era – pushing everything from the physical to the virtual realm. Maybe you also have children at home who want to be with their friends, or now need to be home-schooled. A hassle for sure, but hopefully something we will come through.

Of course not everyone is so lucky. Some are still on the front lines, making this strange new world tenable for the rest of us. Medical care workers of all sorts, people working for essential services or industries, people who must put themselves in the middle of this pandemic every single day. Still others are ill from the disease or care for sickened loved ones. And then there are those who have lost their jobs because of virus-related shutdowns or whose existing precarity threatens to push them over the edge. Poor pupils worried about the loss of their school lunches and struggling without secure internet connections. Students blocked from conducting their long-planned research and who may also be anxious about paying their rent. Job seekers who have just seen their prospects shrivel up. And junior scholars fearing how this might affect their tenure clock.

In my columns I have tried to touch on issues that affect some of us. The coronavirus threat is an issue that affects ALL of us in a way unimaginable just a few short weeks ago. It is important for us to remember that while the effects and the worry are universal, the outcomes are uneven. What for some of us may be an annoying inconvenience can prove to be truly horrific for others.

For those of us leading the AAG, the past two months have been challenging but manageable. As it became clear that the novel coronavirus would be so much more than a small disruption, we made the difficult decision to cancel our annual meeting, the first cancellation since the United States entered World War II. While the decision seems obvious now, we knew that many, many of our members would be seriously disappointed as the annual meeting is one of the highlights of their year.  We also realized that all of the careful planning conducted by the AAG staff and so many in the membership would be upended.

Even before we decided to cancel the in-person meeting, the staff was working on ways to allow some of the existing sessions to be conducted virtually. So far we have 150 virtual sessions ready for the AAG conference week. The platforms that are being assembled should allow for a fairly smooth operation for those who participate and attend. If you have already registered for the Denver meeting, you can attend these sessions free of charge and use your registrations for future meetings, while others pay a nominal fee. We will continue with the AAG council meeting (virtually of course) and hold the AAG business meeting. And we have a prepared a wonderful book, The Rocky Mountain West: A Compendium of Geographic Perspectives, which is available on the AAG website.

Of course there are so many aspects of the AAG annual meeting that cannot be done virtually and several of these will be postponed. Many of the themes for Denver will continue in Seattle (along with some new themes) and participants are invited to continue their sessions as they had already intended. I have reached out to the marquee participants for our Denver meeting and most have agreed to return next year. The presidential plenary will be a joint affair with president-elect Amy Lobben and myself looking at issues of marginalization, accessibility, and expanding the geography community. Past-president Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach will be able to present her address next year. We are working to make sure all of this year’s honorees will get their rightful due at next year’s Awards Luncheon. And the best news is that the AAG will host the annual meeting in Denver after all, in March 2023. It will be an opportunity for us to make good on all the work and preparations conducted by the local arrangements committee and local professionals.

Our annual meetings are so much more than sessions. They are opportunities for us to affirm our place in the geographical community. They provide a way for people to meet and connect with those they have only encountered on paper or online. They give students a much-needed boost in their professional development and networking. And they reignite old friendships and foster new ones. To continue with this, we hope that geographers consider some of the other options offered in Fall 2020. I have long championed the value of regional meetings, and this will be an opportunity for many of us to explore these. While we had intended to provide publicity for the regional meetings in Denver, we will be sure to advertise these over the summer. Other meetings, such as Race Ethnicity and Place, Geography 2050 and the Applied Geography Conference should go forward as we overcome this affliction.

How this novel coronavirus changes us is open to speculation. But I have no doubt that the modifications to our society and to our geography will be profound, exceeding the transformations wrought by 9/11. Everything from personal hygiene to store design will harbor the possibility of a new pandemic. Right now, geographers can provide the necessary analytics and visual tools to help all of us understand the impact of the virus today. Looking toward the future, there will be ample opportunity for geographers to unpack all of the implications of this unprecedented and devastating disease.

But now is a time to step back. Many people are hurting. Many more are scrambling. First, take care of yourselves and your families. Then take care of those to whom you are directly connected – your students and the people who depend on you – inasmuch as you can do so. Look out for those who may be fearful and alone; there are more like this than you think. Be kind to one another. Keep your physical distance, but preserve and enhance your social community. The world has become a scary place. We need connections – now more than ever. Please help make these connections happen.

— Dave Kaplan
AAG President

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0070

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News

‘Annals of the AAG’: COVID-19 Announcement

The Long View

When the Annals was launched in 1911, penicillin did not yet exist. As Editors, we are taking the long view on the COVID-19 pandemic. While the journal has persevered through many global crises, the present moment is clearly not business as usual.

We recognize these are exceptional times that are creating unusual burdens for individuals and communities. Many people are taking on additional duties as they cope with self-isolation and social distancing; cancelled classes, school and childcare; caring for and assisting older people and those with underlying health conditions; and the very real needs of students, staff and colleagues in our institutions. Those with caring responsibilities are facing more demands on their time, not fewer. These caring responsibilities are diverse and include friends, neighbors, colleagues and students—not just family members or dependent children.

We have chosen not to suspend our journal activities or operations for a set period, given the uncertain duration of this crisis. Instead, we are slowing things down, in order to stay nimble and responsive to differential challenges, capacities, and needs of our staff, contributors, and community members. Editorial decisions and copy-editing will be slower than usual; the window of reviewing will be extended and adapted to personal circumstances; responses and communications may be uneven or delayed. The months ahead will test all of us in different ways. Through difficult times, we ask for your patience.

Most important, we ask that our readers put care and community first. Peer review and academic publishing is, at its core, an act of goodwill—it requires sustained, thoughtful engagement with others, a kind of relation-building. We fully recognize and respect that not all members of our community are in a position to submit or review papers at this time. If you are able to engage in peer review, we will work with you to fully take account of your circumstances.

In the months to come, we expect to see trials and tests like never before, requiring us to pull together as a community. In this community, we find strength and hope. Reflecting on the recent words of Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, we take some inspiration: “in the years to come, let them say of us: when things were at their worst, we were at our best.”

Editors, Annals of the American Association of Geographers

Ling Bian, David R. Butler, Katie Meehan, Kendra Strauss

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Journals

‘GeoHumanities’: COVID-19 Announcement

Not Business as Usual: A Message from the Editors of GeoHumanities

There is little about being an academic in the current time that can be called “business as usual”. Academic publishing is no exception. It is the joint act of many people – authors, reviewers, readers, people in the offices of publishers and professional societies such as the AAG, editors, and many others. All of us live in communities that have been, and increasingly will be, shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We join with our fellow AAG editors in choosing not to suspend our journals’ activities or operations for a set period, given the uncertain duration of this crisis. Instead, we are slowing things down, to allow more space and time for listening to the different challenges, capacities, and needs of our staff, contributors, and community members. Editorial decisions and copy-editing will be slower than usual; the window of reviewing will be extended and adapted to personal circumstances; and responses and communications may be uneven or delayed. The months ahead will test all of us in different ways. Through difficult times, we ask for your patience.

Alongside our fellow AAG editors, we ask that all of us who contribute to the existence of our journals put care of self and others first. Submission of papers and peer review are, we believe, at their core, a means of building, maintaining and sharing an academic community. They require sustained, thoughtful engagement with others – a relation-building founded on trust, generosity and empathy as well as rigour, honesty and accountability. This engagement takes many forms, works to different tempos, and is itself immersed in a world of cares and responsibilities. For many of us, ‘not business as usual’ means taking time to simply care for others and ourselves; for others, it means slowly taking stock of events, and reserving our voice until a time when we feel a contribution is feasible and useful. As such, we urge critical conversations on the links that have been, and continue to be, drawn between academic publishing, productivity, and career progression within academia. Universities and the apparatus that surrounds them can, and will, frame articles as measures of academic ‘belonging’ and ‘success’, reducing the work involved to metrics, and arguably glossing the many values that scholarship can provide to both the individuals undertaking it and their potential audiences. This framing can also erase or ignore other sites where other practices are cherished and valued – including caring for ourselves and others – practices that are especially important during times of crisis.

Please take good care.

Editors, GeoHumanities

Tim Cresswell and Deborah Dixon

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Newsletters

Newsletter – March 2020

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Facing an Existential Crisis or COVID-19 and the Long-Term Future of Geography

By David Kaplan

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It does not seem so long ago that people were talking about the compression of space and time, about the “ends of history and geography.” How recent events have obliterated this! The pandemic of COVID-19—with its echoes of the 1918 Spanish Flu and the great contagious scourges of the past—demonstrates again that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” And how well this pandemic also affirms geography’s significance! The importance of place, of distance, of context, of networks—all show the enduring importance of geography and how central geographical concerns are in understanding the disease.

Continue Reading.

ANNUAL MEETING

Save the Date for AAG Seattle!

Dusk view of the skyline, Seattle, Washington

Join us for the AAG Annual Meeting April 7-11, 2021. We invite you to organize and participate in sessions, workshops, field trips, special events, and activities. Look for the call for papers in July 2020. We look forward to seeing you in the Pacific Northwest!

Virtual Session Recordings Available until May 14!

AAG facilitated a virtual annual meeting April 6-10, in response to restrictions on travel and gathering during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual conference hosted more than 180 sessions and panels. Recordings of most sessions are available through May 14 in the online session gallery.

PUBLICATIONS

NEW Annals of the American Association of Geographers Issue Alert:
Articles with topics ranging from unusually devastating tornadoes to offshore wind power to contemporary Mongolian pastoralism

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The most recent issue of Annals of the American Association of Geographers has been published online (Volume 110, Issue 3, May 2020) focusing on current geographic research. Topics in this issue include geoprivacy, data activism, hazard prediction maps, local food systems, countermapping, conservation law enforcement, The Holocaust, Burmese migrants, Nigerian geographers, and extractive economies. Regional areas of interest include the Big Thicket National Preserve in southeast Texas; Shijiazhuang, China; Taiwan; the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana; and Gangnam District, Seoul. Authors are from a variety of research institutions including: Durham University, University of Kentucky, Florida State University, University of Nottingham, and University of Oxford.

All AAG members have full online access to all issues of the Annals through the Members Only page. Each issue, the Editors choose one article to make freely available. In this issue you can read Disturbance after Disturbance: Combined Effects of Two Successive Hurricanes on Forest Community Structure by Daehyun Kim, Andrew C. Millington & Charles W. Lafon for free for the next two months.

Questions about the Annals? Contact annals [at] aag [dot] org.

NEW The Professional Geographer Issue Alert:
Research featuring sonic methods to urban growth models to participatory data

The-PG-2017-generic-213x300-1The latest issue of The Professional Geographer is now available (Vol 72, Issue 2, May 2020) with 10 new research articles in geography that emphasize applied studies. Topics include banking deserts, Twitter use among Geography Departments, fieldwork in geography, and migration. Study areas include Albuquerque; Flushing, Queens, New York City; and the Hubei and Hunan Provinces of China. Authors are from a variety of global institutions including: University of Tennessee, Salzburg University, and University of California, Santa Cruz.

All AAG members have full online access to all issues of The Professional Geographer through the Members Only page. In every issue, the editors choose one article to make freely available for three months. In this issue you can read Examining Spatial Disparities of Obesity: Residential Segregation and the Urban–Rural Divide by Heewon Chea & Hyun Kim for free for the next three months.

Questions about The PG? Contact profgeog [at] aag [dot] org.

Journals-newsletter-100-1In 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

NEW Spring Issue of the AAG Review of Books Published

AAG-RoB-spring-8-2-cvr-babyThe latest issue of The AAG Review of Books is now available (Volume 8, Issue 2, Spring 2020) with 5 book reviews on recent books related to geography, public policy and international affairs. The Spring 2020 issue also includes four book review discussions and two book review essays. The Spring 2020 Issue features two items selected by the editor to be made available free of charge: Mustafa Dikeç’s book review of Revolting New York: How 400 Years of Riot, Rebellion, Uprising, and Revolution Shaped a City, by Neil Smith and Don Mitchell and a Book Review forum by Elizabeth Johnson, Christian Anderson, Becky Mansfield, Shiloh Krupar, Julia Corwin, Scott Prudham and Jesse Goldstein of Jesse Goldstein’s Planetary Improvement: Cleantech Entrepreneurship and the Contradictions of Green Capitalism.

Questions about The AAG Review of Books? Contact aagreview [at] aag [dot] org.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

A Special Thank You from our Executive Director

Earlier this month, AAG unveiled our COVID-19 Rapid Response Task Force. Immediately, 125 of you stepped up to offer your time as volunteers, including many students. This generosity was in keeping with the earlier support AAG members offered one another when we had to rapidly pivot from an in-person Annual Meeting to a virtual meeting: 239 of you, including 88 students, donated a portion of your registration fee back to AAG, raising $22,763 that helped us make the meeting such a success for more than 1,000 attendees. Just this week, in a matter of days, our community raised more than $4,800 for the COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, which will support the Task Force proposals that AAG Council will set in motion in June.

As the reality of COVID-19’s impact has set in during these past months, these are only some of the examples of how you have rallied to show your commitment to the discipline of geography, to your colleagues, and to your place in AAG’s community. Your support makes it possible for us to strengthen geography while facing this unexpected challenge. I am deeply grateful to all of you who have volunteered, contributed to the Fund, and otherwise assisted each other and shown your support for our organization. We will continue to work hard to be there for you, as you have done for us.

Read more.

AAG Substantially Revises Professional Conduct Policy

Harassment-Free-AAG-logo533px-290x290-1In April, AAG formally adopted a revised Professional Conduct Policy, signaling an important benchmark in the work of the Harassment-Free AAG Task Force, AAG Council, and AAG leadership and staff. Two years of the Task Force’s intensive reviews and discussions, including the 2019 Harassment-Free AAG Survey, contributed to the policy changes, which broaden the consideration of professional misconduct beyond AAG-sponsored events and into the field itself. Under the new policy, professional misconduct includes discrimination, sexual harassment, and bullying to the extent that such conduct relates to AAG activities or the professional roles of AAG members. The policy applies to all AAG members, staff, attendees and participants at any AAG-sponsored event, including online venues, and at AAG-sponsored meeting social events.

The revised 12-page policy also identifies standards for professional behavior and outlines processes for reporting and addressing violations, including an online form that can be used to submit a complaint.

Read the Policy.

2020 AAG Nystrom Award Recipient Announced

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Marynia Kolak of the University of Chicago is the recipient of the 2020 J. Warren Nystrom Award, established by a former AAG Executive Director to annually recognize a paper based on a recent dissertation in geography. Kolak’s contribution, Distilling the Effect of the Great Recession on Food Access in a Segregated City: A Spatial, Quasi-Experimental Approach, is based on the dissertation she completed at Arizona State University in 2017. Kolak presented her paper along with three finalists, Kevin Mwenda of Brown University, Yago Martin Gonzalez of the University of South Carolina, and Mark Rhodes of Michigan Technological University, in a special session on Tuesday, April 7, 2020 at #AAGVirtual.

Learn more about the Nystrom Award and previous awardees.

AAG Signs On to Support Key Positions on COVID-19

In April, AAG participated in two letters to Congressional leaders, denouncing anti-Asian racist rhetoric, attacks, and discrimination during COVID-19 and supporting House Resolution 908, introduced in late March by Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY-6). A companion bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate by Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).

Acting in concert with the AAAS and 49 other scientific institutions, AAG wrote to reject anti-Asian racism, especially in characterizing the COVID-19 virus. Instead, AAG and its colleague organizations vow to “focus on leveraging global human diversity to solve today’s public health crisis.” AAG also signed a letter along with more than 450 diverse organizations, spearheaded by the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and the Democracy Initiative, in support of H.R. 908, affirming, “Hate and bigotry are not consistent with realizing the promise of American democracy where all of us have an equal voice.”

Need for GIS and Shared Data: Earlier this month, AAG was one of nine organizations that signed the National States Geographic Council’s letter in support of geo-enabling key data sets from public health and emergency response sectors, in order to gain better spatial insights into COVID-19. “[K]nowing where the outbreak is growing, where high-risk populations are, where the hospital beds and important medical resources are, and where to deploy resources is essential,” the letter stated, urging a nationwide effort to disaggregate existing data for improved nationwide spatial analysis.

Deadline Extended to List Your Geography Program in The Guide

2018_2019_AAG_Guide-300x185-1The American Association of Geographers is accepting entries from geography programs for the 2020 edition of the Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas. The deadline for submitting a listing has been extended to Friday, June 12, 2020.

The 2020 edition of the Guide will be available exclusively online. 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.

New COVID-19 Resource Hub – Open to all AAG Members

COVID-KC-300x109-1The AAG has set up a new Knowledge Community to facilitate communication and knowledge-sharing among our members during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 Resource Hub is open to all current AAG members, and is free to join. We encourage members to use the hub to share resources and data, seek research collaborations and information, connect to colleagues across subdisciplines, and support each other as we all experience and seek to understand the impacts of this pandemic from local to global. The AAG has posted initial resources and discussion topics, and we encourage our membership community to make this resource and space your own. We also encourage you to share any COVID-19 related posts from specialty group communities with this new community if you would like to reach more members.

Join and contribute to the COVID-19 Resource Hub.

Call for Abstracts: AAG ‘Annals’ Special Issue on Displacements

Annals-generic-225x300-2The 2022 Special Issue of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers will explore how — building on our history of critical engagement with place — geographers from across the discipline can contribute empirical, theoretical, and methodological insights on displacements and their implications. The AAG welcomes contributions that address displacements through multi- and inter-disciplinary engagements with geographical theory and methods, from a broad range of perspectives and locations, and in historical and contemporary contexts. Abstracts of no more than 250 words are invited by May 15, 2020.

Learn more about submitting.

POLICY CORNER

EPA Rulemaking Jeopardizes Utilization of Geospatial Research

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There is currently a rule under consideration by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that is cause for major concern within the research community. The proposed Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science rule indicates that as the EPA uses scientific research to guide future policy decisions, preference will be given to studies which make their raw data publicly available. Consequently, this would allow the EPA discretion to discount research that does not fully disclose such data, which includes any findings that draw from personally identifiable medical and location information as well as proprietary data.

The American Association of Geographers (AAG), in partnership with the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), plans to submit a public comment expressing our opposition to this proposed rule.

While the principles of open data sharing and reproducibility are key to scientific integrity and advancement, certain health and environmental research are only possible when personally identifiable information is guaranteed to remain confidential. As organizations at the intersection of science, industry, and geospatial technologies, we fully appreciate that confidential and proprietary geospatial data, including remotely sensed satellite imagery, location tracking of individual mobility, and georeferenced demographic and health information (which can reveal identity), play essential roles in environmental and health research. We are deeply concerned that by favoring research in which data and models are made publicly available, the EPA will overlook or disregard findings from valid, scientific research.

The rule, first proposed in 2018, was recently modified in reaction to many of the comments originally received. However, the modifications fail to ameliorate the issues identified above.

You can make your voice heard on this proposed rule by visiting the public comments portal and submitting a response by the May 18th deadline. If feeling unsure on where to start, we recommend following this helpful guide from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

For additional background, watch this November 2019 hearing from the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, & Technology entitled, “Strengthening Transparency or Silencing Science? The Future of Science in EPA Rulemaking.”

In the News:

  • The latest results for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in geography have been released. Click here to explore the data and see where our nation’s eighth-graders stand.
  • On April 24th, Congress passed its fourth stimulus bill addressing the COVID-19 crisis, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (H.R. 266). The bill provides funding for small business loans, health care providers, and additional COVID-19 testing.
MEMBER NEWS

Update: Geographers Act on COVID-19

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Our thanks to AAG members and geographers all over the world for sharing their work with us. Here are some of the efforts AAG has been hearing about:

Medical geographer Tolulope Osayomi of University of Ibadan has been interviewed frequently by the media about the value of lockdown procedures in Nigeria during COVID-19, including Vanguard Nigeria and Business Day.

Geographer Francesco De Pascale of L’Istituto di Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologica has worked with colleagues in geography and anthropology to collect testimonials from Italian citizens from within the spaces of their homes during COVID-19. The work, entitled “My lived space,” recalls the concept elaborated by the late French geographer Armand Frémont (1933-2019), defining lived space as “the space of individuals with which they appropriate, with their paths, their perceptions, their representations, their signs, their drives and passions” (2005). Dr. De Pascale and Giovanni Gugg of the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Stefano Montes of the University of Palermo, and Gaetano Sabato of the University of Catania are collecting testimonies of “geographies of the home,” published in Il Sileno · Rivista Divulgativa (in Italian)

Geographer Charles Travis of Trinity College Dublin and University of Texas-Arlington has mapped social media posts about the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April, Arizona State University School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis Research Center (SPARC) sponsored an online gathering on Digital Contact Tracing and Surveillance: A National Conversation with Geospatial Experts. Organized by ASU professor Trisalyn Nelson, the conversation examined what we currently know about the accuracy of cell phone GPS data, how social media can be used for tracking, and looming privacy issues posed by these capabilities. View the recorded meeting here.

Profiles of Professional Geographers

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Geographers often have a background in meteorology and climatology like this month’s featured professional geographer, Stephen Ladochy, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles, Department of Geosciences & Environment. Ladochy’s love of math got him interested in meteorology, but his job at the L.A. County Air Pollution Control District opened up a career path to pursuing a PhD and becoming a professor in Geography. He recommends geography students seek out internships or summer employment to give their career a boost!

Learn more about Geography Careers.

Geographers Honored this Spring

Katherine McKittrick, professor of gender studies at Queen’s University (and recipient of AAG’s 2019 Harold M. Rose Award for Anti-Racism Research and Practice); Diana Liverman, Regents Professor and director of the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona; and Lisa Naughton, professor of geography at University of Wisconsin-Madison were inducted as members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 2020 Class. 

Liverman was also elected to the National Academy of Sciences, along with Marilyn Brown, Regents Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology.

In April, Frank Magilligan, Erica Schoenberger, and Lisa Brooks (Abenaki) have received Guggenheim Fellowships for their work in geography. Magilligan is a professor of geography at Dartmouth whose work examines how science, politics, & values intersect in river restoration. Schoenberger is a professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University, as well as a political and economic geographer and environmental historian with specialties in the history of technology. She is the author of the recent Nature, Choice, and Social Power (Routledge 2015). Brooks is Chair of American Studies at Amherst College. Her recent work includes The Common Pot: The Recovery of Native Space in the Northeast and the book and companion website Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War.

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

News from the International Geographical Union (IGU)

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On April 2, 2020, the IGU postponed the 34th International Geographical Congress, originally scheduled to be held in August 2020, for one year.  It has been re-scheduled for August 16-20, 2021 in Istanbul, Turkey. Fees already paid and abstracts accepted will be carried forward to 2021 and there will be opportunities to submit new papers.  You can find further information about the IGU Congress and the IGU at https://igu-online.org/.

April 6 was to have been GeoNight (GéoNuit), an evening of public events that promote the discipline of geography. The annual April GéoNuit, launched in France in 2017, has gained in popularity in other countries, too. Events of any type, from public lectures to guided bike rides, have involved thousands of people. GeoNight events for 2020 were cancelled to avoid public gatherings, but geographers around the world can begin thinking about organizing Geo Night events for 2021.

Learn more about GeoNight (GéoNuit).

Comptroller Nominations Sought for Gamma Theta Upsilon

Gtulogo

The Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU) Nominations Committee seeks candidates for consideration as nominees for the position of comptroller. The volunteer comptroller position oversees the financial management of GTU, including general accounting, yearly budget preparation, creation of financial reports, overseeing the filing of taxes, and acting as the liaison in managing GTU’s investment portfolio. This is a five year position starting in January 2021. If you believe that you or someone you know has the talents and resources required, the nominations committee hopes that you’ll consider serving GTU as Comptroller, a position that is integral to the functioning of GTU.

More information about applying for the comptroller position.

IN MEMORIAM

John W. Webb

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John W. Webb, 93, former Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Geography, University of Albany (SUNY); former Professor of Geography, University of Minnesota; and co-author (with Jan O.M. Broek) of the world-wide best-selling text “A Geography of Mankind” (McGraw-Hill, 1968), died in St. Cloud, MN, on August 18, 2019.

Read more.

Allen G. Noble

Allen G. Noble, 90, a longtime AAG member, Pulitzer-nominated author, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Akron, Ohio, died on March 24, at age 90. Noble was recognized in 1989 with the AAG Honors, the highest award offered by the AAG, and was named one of Ohio’s Distinguished Scientists.

Read more.

Ezekiel Kalipeni

Ezekiel-Kalipeni-245x300-1Ezekiel Kalipeni, a longtime geography professor, died in the early hours of April 11, 2020 from heart-related complications while he was in his native country, Malawi at age 66. Globally known for his work focusing on medical geography, population and environment, and international development in Africa, Kalipeni was the 2014 recipient of the Kwado-Konadu-Agyemang Distinguished Scholar in African Geography Award. He also served as editor of the African Geographical Review, enjoyed mentoring and teaching students, and established the Kalipeni Foundation to support local development projects in Malawi’s southern district of Mulanje.

Read more.

David Hornbeck

hornbeckofficeOn Earth Day, 2020, COVID-19 claimed the life of Dr. David Hornbeck, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, California State University, Northridge. Hornbeck was particularly interested in both the historical geography of California during the mission and rancho periods and the development of GIS for business applications, particularly in banking. He was actively involved in career advising and development for students in his department and in developing his collection of papers, maps, and journals related to historical land use in California.

Read more.

The AAG is also saddened to hear of the passing of Evan Weismann this past month with a written tribute forthcoming.

GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS
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President's Column

Going Global or How Best to Recognize the Internationalization of the AAG; Plus – an Addendum to my Previous Column

We have always been the “AAG” but five years ago the membership overwhelmingly decided to change the full title from the Association of American Geographers to the American Association of Geographers. I remember being part of the Council when this change was discussed. It went beyond verbal tweaking and reflected our best efforts to recognize that the AAG was no longer just an organization of U.S.-based geographers. Instead we had become a community in which geographers from many countries gather.

The value of internationalization was promoted especially by past President Kavita Pandit. In her columns, she recognized that higher education has become more international. With geography leading the way, we must welcome and validate students from around the world and incorporate study abroad curricula in our programs. Kavita was not alone in pointing to the importance of international geography. Past presidents such as Victoria Lawson, Ken Foote, and Derek Alderman, among many others have spoken to the need to extend our reach and our knowledge beyond national borders.

For me the internationalization of geography and of the AAG has been a godsend. Over 20 years ago I met a number of geographers from Finland who regularly attended the national meetings — resulting in long and fruitful collaborations that continue to this day. I have also collaborated with geographers from France and Italy who regularly partake in our yearly conference. And I am delighted to renew friendships each year with geographers from a whole host of different countries.

Unlike the International Geographical Union (IGU), the AAG is not structured as a super-organization made up of various national geographic societies. But we are growing ever more international and becoming a vital meeting space for geographers from around the world. In 2018, 3,476 members came from outside the United States, comprising 31 percent of all members. This is up from 22 percent international membership in 2013. The following charts show the breakdown by the largest countries and then by broad regions. International membership is led by Canada, China, and the United Kingdom, with over 90 other countries represented. Many of these geographers travel to our annual meeting to present and to network. Here the international presence is even greater, with fully 36 percent of attendees arriving from outside the United States.

This international presence adds tremendous value to our organization. This has been recognized already in several ways. We have implemented the Developing Regions initiative, which provides low-cost membership to geographers in several countries where access might otherwise be too dear. On the editorial side, we just selected two new Annals editors, both of whom work at institutions outside the United States. And about a quarter of our editorial boards are also international. What is more, I have been working with the presidents of the Canadian Association of Geographers and the European Association of Geographers to foster greater collaboration across national geographical societies.

We should move forward to the next level. Now is the time to consider international representation that better reflects our membership and puts force behind the meaning of our name change in 2015. For this reason, I am in favor of adding a dedicated international councilor, somebody who comes from an institution outside the United States. Right now international geographers have little representation. All U.S.-based geographers also belong to regional divisions, with their own regional councilor. Yet, with the exception of a few Canadian provinces folded into these AAG divisions such as NESTVAL, there is no dedicated representation for international members.

Why should we accord international members this special status? As with other groups, we could try to increase international representation through the nominations process, creating a larger pool of non-U.S. candidates for our existing “national” councilor and vice president slots. But this would be slow and unsteady — with few guarantees. In the last 10 years, we have had only two vice president and three councilor nominations from outside the United States. Of these, only past President Audrey Kobayashi from Canada was elected under our standard process.

Moreover, the AAG is intrinsically geographical in its own organization, befitting the nature of our field. Just as we divide the United States into nine geographical regions for the sake of governance, to bring an AAG experience closer to home and to represent the concerns of different parts of the United States, so we should pursue the unique advantages of recognizing the geographies of the one-third of our membership who do not live in any of these regions.

A dedicated international councilor would ensure that the AAG Council always has a representative from outside the United States. And while “international” encompasses the vastness of the world, there are relevant concerns that an international councilor could address and that would be common to members from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Such concerns include the difficulties of access to U.S.-based meetings, potential linguistic issues, visa problems (particularly prevalent in this political environment), and better strategies for linking the AAG to geography societies around the world. I believe that an international councilor would add a great deal to our discussions and provide a hitherto underrepresented perspective.

While we have a team of people working on the particulars, I should emphasize that this reflects my personal views. The details behind creating this position will need to be worked out and approved by Council, and I will not go into them here. We may also consider a trial run, much as we did with our Student Councilor, so that we can see how well this idea works in practice and make modifications if need be. But make no mistake — the time has come to represent the international reach of our organization. The time has come to elect an International Councilor.

Addendum

As the latest in the lineup of AAG presidents charged with writing a weekly column, I would like to thank all of you who offer praise, reflections, insights, and corrections around the themes brought out each month. February’s column, Beyond the Academic 1 Percent, garnered more than its usual share of comments. Some of you noted omissions in my map of geography programs, which has been quite helpful in revising our comprehensive database of geography programs. Others agreed with the main premise of the column, in the need for greater institutional diversity and sympathy with the basic points.

There were also some critiques related to what was perceived by some as my denigrating geography at elite universities, especially Ivy League universities. My “unpopular” opinion was intended to be controversial and I will stick by my major view: the lack of large Ph.D. programs at Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and others has had some drawbacks, especially in regard to visibility — as many have pointed out over the years. But judging from the evidence among other disciplines, it has also had a salutary effect of making institutional geography more equitable. People can disagree about which is more important.

One thing we can all agree on, however, is the value of having strong geography programs at elite private institutions. Like all of you, I would like to see geography as an option for every undergraduate major. Many students tend to pick colleges first and then consider their majors, and it is a serious lapse not to have a geography degree among the options. Strong geography programs at colleges like Middlebury, Macalester, Vassar, and Mount Holyoke (to name just a few) should be encouraged and replicated across the country. The undergraduate geography program at Dartmouth College has been a true standout in this regard. Its faculty continue to contribute to the discipline while they introduce geography to legions of highly talented and demographically diverse students, who go on to become leaders in the field. These institutions are truly beacons in our geographical landscape, and our discipline would be a lot poorer without their presence and energy.

— Dave Kaplan
AAG President

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0069

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David Kaplan
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