Preparing NSF Data Management Plans

Since 2011 the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has required that all submitted proposals include a Data Management Plan (DMP). A DMP is a plan for the management and sharing of any data and other kinds of products resulting from the activities in a proposal. Why did NSF start to require DMPs? NSF is a U.S. federal agency supported by taxpayer dollars. As such, data and other products generated by NSF-supported research need to be made available in a format for others to use. Investigators need to be sure that their project meets the expectation that data gathered using public funding will be preserved in ways to facilitate long-term public accessibility and use. Making data publicly available in this way will also permit future meta-analysis, which adds value to the original data collection.

Learn more.

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AAG Members Publish New Book on Florida Weather and Climate

AAG members Jennifer M. Collins, associate professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida; Robert V. Rohli, professor of geography at Louisiana State University; and colleague Charles H. Paxton, an American Meteorological Society certified consulting meteorologist, just published, Florida Weather and Climate: More Than Just Sunshine. The book explores the conditions, forces, and processes behind Florida’s varied and remarkable weather. The authors explain the influence of atmospheric circulation patterns such as the Hadley cell, the Coriolis force, and the Bermuda-Azores high. It also covers major weather incidents from Florida’s history and looks ahead to what climate change will mean for the state’s future. The book is aimed for the general public to read, but also as a scholarly resource. To learn more, visit here.

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New Books: July 2017

Every month the AAG compiles a list of newly-published books in geography and related areas. Some are selected for review in the AAG Review of Books.

Publishers are welcome to send new volumes to the Editor-in-Chief (Kent Mathewson, Editor-in-Chief, AAG Review of BooksDepartment of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803).

Anyone interested in reviewing these or other titles should also contact the Editor-in-Chief.

July 2017

Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene by Anna Tsing, Heather Swanson, Elaine Gan, and Nils Bubandt (Eds) (University of Minnesota Press 2017)

The Cemeteries of New Orleans: A Cultural History by Peter B. Dedek (LSU Press 2017)

Defiant Earth: The Fate of Humans in the Anthropocene by Clive Hamilton (Polity Press 2017)

The End of Development: A Global History of Poverty and Prosperity by Andrew Brooks (ZED Books 2017)

Footprints in Paradise: Ecotourism, Local Knowledge, and Nature Therapies in Okinawa by Andrea E. Murray  (Berghahn Books 2017)

Genealogies of Environmentalism: The Lost Works of Clarence Glacken by S. Ravi Rajan (Ed.) (University of Virginia Press 2017)

Geographies of Growth: Innovations, Networks and Collaborations by Charlie Karlsson, Martin Andersson, and Lina Bjerke (Eds) (Edward Elgar Publishing 2017)

Horacio Capel: Pensar la ciudad en tiempos de crisis by Núria Benach and Ana Fani A. Carlos (Eds.) (Icaria Editorial 2016)

Institutional Investors in Global Markets by Gordon L. Clark and Ashby HB Monk (Oxford University Press 2017)

Latin America and the Caribbean: Lands and Peoples (Sixth Edition) by David L. Clawson and Benjamin F. Tillman (Oxford University Press 2017)

Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red by Alex Prichard, Ruth Kinna, Saku Pinta, and David Berry (Eds) (PM Press 2017)

The Man in the High Castle and Philosophy: Subversive Reports from Another Reality by Bruce Krajewski and Joshua Heter (Eds) (Open Court Publishing Company 2017)

Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine: How Occupied Landscapes Shape Scientific Knowledge by Jess Bier (MIT Press 2017)

Resigned Activism: Living with Pollution in Rural China by Anna Lora-Wainwright (MIT Press 2017)

A Short Environmental History of Italy: Variety and Vulnerability by Gabriella Corona (The White Horse Press 2017)

Smell Detectives: An Olfactory History of Nineteenth-Century Urban America by Melanie A. Kiechle (University of Washington Press 2017)

Space Invaders: Radical Geographies of Protest by Paul Routledge (Pluto Press 2017)

Water Scarcity, Climate Change and Conflict in the Middle East: Securing Livelihoods, Building Peace by Christopher Ward and Sandra Ruckstuhl (I.B. Tauris 2017)

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Camelia Kantor Named USGIF Director of Academic Programs

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) has appointed Camelia Kantor as its new Director of Academic Program. In this position, she will manage USGIF’s Collegiate GEOINT Accreditation Program, which awards students GEOINT Certificates accompanying their college degrees. Kantor was formerly an associate professor of geography at Claflin University in South Carolina. Most recently, she has served as a GeoMentor. Kantor is the recipient of AAG’s 2017 Dr. Helen Ruth Aspaas SAGE Innovator Award. The award is named for one of the founding members of the SAGE (Stand-Alone Geographers) Specialty Group, Dr. Helen Ruth Aspaas, a retired professor from Virginia Commonwealth University, and recognizes an outstanding and innovative Stand Alone Geographic Educator. To learn more, visit https://sensorsandsystems.com/usgif-appoints-new-director-of-academic-programs.

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Geography and Human Rights

AAAS textual graphic containing many human rights terms

Geography intersects with human rights in various ways. As a a truly interdisciplinary field, geographers seek meaningful ways to act on these concerns and values in their personal and professional lives. For example, geospatial technology has been a useful tool in mapping evidence of human rights abuses, while geographic perspectives can influence media coverage of human rights issues around the world. The AAG supports members on human rights topics in the following ways:

Human Rights at the AAG Annual Meeting

Human rights is often featured as a theme at the AAG annual meetings.

  • The 2017 annual meeting in Boston featured a theme on Mainstreaming Human Rights in Geography and the AAG with more than 50 sessions and 250 presentations at the intersection of human rights and geography. Speakers from leading human rights groups, academia, government, and international organizations addressed human rights challenges around the world. These included: Noam Chomsky; James Hansen, climate change policy advocate; Rush Holt, CEO of AAAS; Terry Rockefeller, Amnesty International USA and Audrey Kobayashi.
  • At the 2012 meeting in New York, Social Justice, Media, and Human Rights was a featured theme with more than 20 sessions. One special panel session included prominent speakers Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist; Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International; and Ivan Simonovic, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights at the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Watch the video
  • The 2009 Meeting in Las Vegas featured a special track of sessions on Human Rights and Geographic Research. See a video of one of the sessions

Resources

A compilation of over 700 publications that apply geographic perspectives, tools and technologies to analyze human rights issues. Author abstracts and links to the full text have been included where available

Browse the PDF

Provides a guide to the literature on the relationships between science, engineering and human rights. The following citations are grouped under a variety of headings that encompass disciplinary fields of science and engineering and topics where science, technology and human rights intersect.

View the Bibliography

Links to human rights reference resources, organizations and advocacy groups, research centers and academic programs:

Human rights reference resources

Human rights organizations and advocacy groups

Human rights research centers and academic programs


Past Human Rights Initiatives

Over recent years, the AAG has been involved in various initiatives to engage geography and science with human rights.

The AAG was a founding member of this network, hosted by the AAAS, which encourages the application of scientific methods, tools, and technologies in human rights work. Since its launch in 2009, the Coalition has served as a catalyst for the increased involvement of scientific and engineering associations and their members in human rights-related activities.

Learn More

On January 14, 2009, over 50 scientific associations came together to launch the Science and Human Rights Coalition in a three-day series of workshops, presentations, and strategic meetings in Washington, DC. The Coalition draws upon its broad network to seeks to protect and advance the welfare of scientists whose human rights are threatened, science ethics and human rights, service to the scientific community, service to the human rights community, and education and information resources. As one of the founding members of the Coalition, the AAG contributed greatly to the formation of the Coalition during the months preceding its formal launch, and AAG representatives participated throughout the event.

The AAG supported this AAAS project to develop applications and information resources for the non-governmental human rights community. Since 2006, the project has brought high-resolution satellite imagery, GPS units, and geographic analysis and methods into wider use by human rights organizations and sought a more integrated approach to monitoring, documenting, and preventing human rights abuses. For example, geographic tools were used to monitor attacks on civilians in Darfur.

View the Eyes on Darfur Website

With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the AAG developed an inventory of geographic research and scholarship relating to human rights including bibliographic, informational, and research resources. Many of these resources can be found on this page. One particular goal was to identify research substantive enough to be used as evidence or in support of expert testimony in international tribunals investigating human rights abuses.

NGOs, Research Centers, and Other Institutions

Geography & Human Rights Organizations

The following organizations use geographic methods of analyis or apply a geographic perspective to address human rights issues.

Geography & Human Rights Research Centers

The following academic centers focus on human rights issues from a scholarly perspective. Their research–often drawing upon geographic methods or technologies–plays an important role in human rights discourse.

Geography & Human Rights Scientific Associations

The following scientific associations are members of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition.

News

  • AAAS SHRC Meeting featured in news article — The January 23, 2012 Science and Human Rights Coalition Meeting was the topic of an article in “Chemical & Engineering News” (February 14, 2012) Read More
  • Social Justice, Media, and Human Rights Track at 2012 AAG Annual Meeting— Two days of sessions, along with appearances by Mary Robinson, Nicholas Kristof, Salil Shetty, and Ivan Simonovic took place at the AAG’s annual meeting in New York. (February 10, 2012) Read More
  • AAAS Science and Human Rights Report — The January 2012 issue of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Report (February 1, 2012) Read More
  • Supreme Court Rules on GPS Tracking Case— GPS technology and privacy rights are considered in a recent Supreme Court case. (January 31, 2012) Read More
  • AAAS Documents Villagization in Ethiopia — Satellite imagery is used to confirm reports on the ground. (January 31, 2012) Read More
  • Geographers Address Ethics of GIS&T — Dawn Wright wrote about ethical scenarios discussed at a workshop, which was part of the two-year project “Graduate Ethics Seminars for Future Geospatial Technology Professionals,” funded by the NSF Ethics Education in Science and Engineering program. Read More

Useful links

  • AAG Ethics, Justice, and Human Rights Specialty Group — This group encourages inclusive and informed discussion throughout the discipline on normative concerns including applied, theoretical, and professional. In equal measure and in combination, to sustain an interest in, and teaching/research on, human rights issues at all scales of analysis, in all parts of the world.
  • YouTube Human Rights Channel  — A partnership between Witness, a human rights advocacy group, and Storyful, a web video producer, brings verified human rights videos from citizens and activists around the world.
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Newsletter – July 2017

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Expanding and Empowering a Culture of Mentorship 

By Derek Alderman

Words cannot adequately capture my excitement and honor to be able to serve as President of the American Association of Geographers. I look forward to working hard on behalf of AAG members and supporting and contributing to the excellent work of Executive Director Doug Richardson and the wonderful staff at Meridian Place. I have some big shoes to fill in following the recent presidencies of Glen MacDonald and Sarah Bednarz. Both have worked tirelessly in serving the Association. Please join me in thanking Glen and Sarah for their superb leadership. For my first presidential column, I wish to focus on the power of mentorship and the innovative ways that geographers are approaching the social practice. I encourage further expansion and empowerment of the Association’s culture of mentoring and identify some strategies for doing so.

Continue Reading. 

Recent columns from the President

ANNUAL MEETING

Save the Date: AAG 2018 New Orleans

Mark your calendar for the AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans on April 10 to April 14, 2018. We invite you to organize and participate in sessions, panels, field trips, events, and activities. The call for papers and registration will open Tuesday, August 1, 2017. Abstracts are due by October 25, 2017

Learn more.

 

FocusOnNewOrleansLogo

New Orleans: The Uncertain City   

New Orleans battles with its identity. Locals see their home as a river city. Its European colonial founders etched a street grid across the narrow natural levee and perched the incipient city on the banks of the Mississippi River. Since then it has benefited from waterborne commerce while battling high water that threatens its riparian site. The river loomed large in colonial life and looms large today.

Learn more.

[Focus on New Orleans is an ongoing series curated by the Local Arrangements Committee to provide insight on and understanding of the geographies of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast]


ASSOCIATION NEWS

Learn More About AAG’s Triple D: Disciplinary Data Dashboard

On July 20 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, the AAG will host a Twitter Chat entitled “The AAG Disciplinary Data Dashboard.” Guest speaker Mark Revell, AAG Workforce Development Specialist, will answer a variety of questions related to the AAG’s multiple ongoing data collection efforts involving members, departments and special research surveys. To join the chat, follow @theAAG on Twitter using the #AAGChat hashtag. Over the past decade this work has generated a considerable amount of data and content across the entire AAG website. In an effort to consolidate and facilitate access to all of the disciplinary data collected by the AAG, a new Disciplinary Data Dashboard has been created on the AAG website.

Learn more.

AAG Seeks Nominations for 2018 Vice President, National Councilors, Student Councilor

The AAG Nominating Committee seeks nominations for Vice President (one to be elected), for National Councilor (two vacancies) and Student Councilor (one to be elected) for the 2018 election. Those elected will take office on July 1, 2018. Members should submit the names and addresses of each nominee and their reasons for supporting nomination to any member of the committee no later than July 30, 2017. As part of your nomination statement, please confirm that the person is willing to be considered for the position for which you are recommending her or him. Nominations by email are strongly preferred.

Learn more.

AAG Seeks Interns for Fall Semester

The AAG is currently seeking interns for the spring semester, although the organization offers opportunities on a year-round basis for the spring, summer and fall semesters. Interns participate in most AAG programs and projects such as education, outreach, research, website, publications, or the Annual Meeting. The AAG also arranges for interns to accompany different AAG staff on visits to related organizations or events of interest during the course of their internship.

Learn more.


MEMBER NEWS

Geographers Kristine DeLong and Grant Harley featured in New Documentary, “The Underwater Forest”

Kristine L. DeLong, associate professor of geography at Louisiana State University and Grant Harley, assistant professor of Geography at the University of Southern Mississippi, were both part of a team of scientists featured in the new documentary, “The Underwater Forest.” The documentary is about an ancient cypress forest discovered in 60 feet of water and about 10 miles off the coast of Alabama in the Gulf of Mexico. The Underwater Forest, which dates to an ice age approximately 60,000 years ago, could provide information about ancient plant populations, rainfall in the region and more.

Learn more.


PUBLIC POLICY

AAG Policy Action Center

Image-118 capitol buildingAAG continues to monitor, intervene, and update you on key issues that have a clear impact on geography or in which our discipline can serve as a valued stakeholder in shaping viewpoints and policy outcomes. The site features recent actions and responses by the AAG and  information to help you take action within your communities.

Learn more.

 


RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES

NCRGE Announces New Grants for Transformative Research 

NCRGE_logoThe National Center for Research in Geography Education (NCRGE), a research consortium headquartered at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and Texas State University, has approved awards for three new projects under its Transformative Research grant program. This investment by NCRGE continues a long-term and broad-based effort to develop a research coordination network supporting implementation of the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education project’s landmark report on geography education research.

Learn more.

Updates from the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program at NSF

The Geography and Spatial Sciences (GSS) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces the release of a new GSS strategic plan as well as new program solicitations for both its regular and its doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) competitions. These documents are available via links on the GSS websites. The new strategic plan and the new solicitations replace the previous versions of these documents. The solicitations include some changes and provide clarification regarding proposal preparation for submission of proposals to the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program.

Learn more.

NSF Is Recruiting Geographers for its Graduate Research Fellowship Program

national science foundation nsfIn addition to opportunities via the DDRI program in GSS, grad students in geography and related spatial sciences also have an opportunity to compete in NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). This program is run separately from GSS, but will benefit from more geographers serving as panelists. To participate, you will need to register as a potential 2018 Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) panelist. GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students pursuing research-based masters and doctoral degrees in science or engineering at accredited US institutions. (See the Program Solicitation, NSF 16-588, for more details on GRFP.) NSF seeks GRFP panels composed of researchers and educators from a wide range of institutions, geographic locations, and disciplinary and interdisciplinary backgrounds.

Learn more.


PUBLICATIONS

New Books in Geography — May 2017

New Books in Geography illustration of stack of booksEvery month the AAG compiles a list of newly-published books in geography and related fields. Some are selected for review in the AAG Review of Books. Anyone interested in reviewing these or other titles should contact the Editor-in-Chief, Kent Mathewson.

Learn more.

August 2017 Issue of ‘The Professional Geographer’ Now Available

PG coverThe AAG is pleased to announce that Volume 69, Issue 3 (August 2017) of The Professional Geographer is now available. The focus of The Professional Geographer is on short articles in academic or applied geography, emphasizing empirical studies and methodologies. These features may range in content and approach from rigorously analytic to broadly philosophical or prescriptive. The journal provides a forum for new ideas and alternative viewpoints.

Learn more.

Methods, Models, and GIS Section Editor Sought for ‘Annals of the AAG’

Annals-cover-2016The American Association of Geographers seeks applications and nominations for the Methods, Models, and Geographic Information Sciences editor for the Annals of the American Association of Geographers. This new editor will be appointed for a four-year editorial term that will commence on January 1, 2018. The appointment will be made in the Fall of 2017. Nominations and applications should be submitted by Friday, September 29, 2017.

Learn more.

AAG Cartography Editor Sought for ‘Annals of the AAG,’ ‘Professional Geographer,’ and ‘GeoHumanities’

The American Association of Geographers seeks applications and nominations for a Cartography Editor for the AAG journals Annals of the American Association of GeographersThe Professional Geographer, and GeoHumanities. The new editor will be appointed for a four-year editorial term that will commence on January 1, 2018. The appointment will be made in the Fall of 2017.

Learn more.

ADDENDA

IN THE NEWS

Popular stories from the AAG SmartBrief


EVENTS CALENDAR

Submit News to the AAG Newsletter. To share your news, submit announcements to newsletter [at] aag [dot] org.

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Expanding and Empowering a Culture of Mentorship

The Geography Faculty Development Alliance (GFDA) Early Career Workshop class of 2017 gathered for a photo at the close of the conference on June 24 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn

Words cannot adequately capture my excitement and honor to be able to serve as President of the American Association of Geographers. I look forward to working hard on behalf of AAG members and supporting and contributing to the excellent work of Executive Director Doug Richardson and the wonderful staff at Meridian Place.

I have some big shoes to fill in following the recent presidencies of Glen MacDonald and Sarah Bednarz. Both have worked tirelessly in serving the Association. Please join me in thanking Glen and Sarah for their superb leadership.

For my first presidential column, I wish to focus on the power of mentorship and the innovative ways that geographers are approaching the social practice. I encourage further expansion and empowerment of the Association’s culture of mentoring and identify some strategies for doing so.

Careers as Social Relationships

Mentorship has been on my mind a lot lately. No doubt, my own career would have faltered long ago without the positive and patience “coaching up” I received from experienced colleagues, work supervisors, community partners and other collaborators. Mentorship need not be restricted to a one-way, hierarchal structure. Students have taught me some invaluable lessons. One of my doctoral advisees, Jordan Brasher, recently reminded me of this fact. He said something germane to this column: “While teaching and publishing are important in and of themselves, as well as communicating those ideas to the public, people and relationships are ultimately the currency on which we borrow, trade and accumulate value in our lives. We are only as good as the people we surround ourselves with and the people we impact.” In other words, one’s career, although it can feel like a lonely, solitary pursuit, is constantly defined by social relationships, with mentorship being one of those critical points of impact.

As a Department Head for the past five years, I have become acutely aware of the consequences of good and poor mentorship. It affects not just the individual professional but the larger health of the program and the discipline. As I write this column, we at the University of Tennessee are in the midst of hosting for the second time the Geography Faculty Development Alliance (GFDA) Early Career Workshop, a long-running immersive mentoring program for beginning faculty and senior graduate students. In the Knoxville workshops, we maintain the tradition of stressing active learning, tenure and promotion readiness, good practices in publishing and grant writing, work/life balance, and the advancement of diversity. But GFDA participants now also learn about media relations and public advocacy, civic-engaged teaching, and addressing controversial topics in the classroom. And workshop goers participate in improvisational (“improv”) games to sharpen their skills in listening, communication, and team-work and to help them let go of the “self-judgement” that often compromises their creativity and confidence.

The Call for More and Better Mentorship      

Particularly striking from my two years of hosting and co-directing the GFDA workshop are the strong opinions that participants hold about their mentoring needs. They seek mentors who can help them establish networks in the discipline, speak candidly about job-related issues, and provide peer-based feedback and accountability. A number of early career colleagues ask for assistance in navigating what I call the “egosystem” of departmental politics and personalities. They have mixed experiences about the availability and effectiveness of mentoring at their home institutions; but all are united in saying they want more and better mentorship.

The call for increased mentorship is especially critical for those from historically under-represented groups within geography. Enhancing the efficacy of mentoring has a direct bearing on the ability of geography programs and other workplaces to recruit and retain talented women and people of color and to achieve greater representation and inclusion in the discipline. Yet, increasing mentorship activities is unsatisfactory if simply for the sake of checking off a human resources box or serving the growing push within universities and other workplaces to achieve peak performance or “return on investment” from employees.

“Mentoring by and for the numbers” is part of a political arithmetic that reduces our responsibility to each other to purely legal and market imperatives. A more helpful and ethical approach recognizes that mentorship can and should play a role in enhancing the sense of place and belonging, psychological and professional well-being, and social equality of others.

Mentoring Innovations in the AAG

There are noteworthy efforts within the AAG to encourage mentorship. The Association bestows annually the Susan Hardwick Excellence in Mentoring Award. Along with early career training, the Association helps support an annual department leadership workshop that meets in the same place and at the same time as the GFDA summer event. The AAG Department Leadership Workshop provides senior colleagues a chance to mentor each other in issues of program assessment and review, budgeting, personnel evaluation, student recruitment, and the nomination of faculty for awards—another key but sometimes neglected dimension of mentorship. Meanwhile, the AAG-ESRI ConnectED GeoMentors Program is assembling a large number of volunteers to go into K-12 schools to assist teachers with using GIS in the classroom. The new AAG Fellows Program, in addition to recognizing those who have made significant intellectual contributions to the field, is also about identifying mentors for faculty.

Speed women mentoring session held during the 2016 AAG annual meeting in San Francisco. Photo courtesy the AAG Committee on the Status of Women in Geography
An impressive recent effort is the Mentoring Network for Women in Geography, organized by the AAG Committee on the Status of Women in Geography. SWIG leaders have organized a database of women seeking mentorship as well as available mentors. They organized an onsite mentoring session at the 2016 San Francisco meeting and held an assessment of the Mentoring Network at the 2017 Boston meeting. To date, the number of female geographers in need of mentoring greatly out numbers available mentors (by as much as 2 to 1). The large demand for mentorship at 2016 San Francisco conference forced organizers to resort to “speed” mentoring sessions. According to Women’s Mentoring Network organizers Jessica Jacobs (Queen Mary University of London) and Lisa Davis (University of Alabama), female geographers express an overwhelming desire to receive more mentoring at annual AAG meetings. If you are interested in becoming part of this worthwhile mentoring project, then feel free to contact Jessica and Lisa.

Rethinking the Who, When, and Where of Mentorship

Geographers are making important strides in growing a culture of mentorship within the AAG and beyond, but more can certainly be done.

First, a culture of mentorship recognizes that mentoring is a career-long need, although most mentorship has focused traditionally on students and early-career faculty members. There is far less attention paid to guiding Associate Professors to (full) Professors or to mentoring non-academics entering private industry, government agencies, and the not-for-profit sector. Professionals as they transition to retirement are also in need of mentoring and these retired colleagues are an untapped resource as mentors. A broader “whole-life” approach to mentorship can help manage anxiety and success at these career and life changes.

Second, a culture of mentorship recognizes the insufficiency of the traditional, single “guru-mentor” model for most people. Effective and meaningful mentoring happens by drawing from the expertise, experiences, and opinions of a community of mentors who can address the many varied needs of our professional and personal lives. My colleague Latoya Eaves introduces GFDA early career workshop goers to the idea of a “mentoring map,” an innovation available from National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity to assist faculty in cultivating networks of mentors, sponsors, and collaborators.

Third, a culture of mentorship recognizes that experience and professional success do not necessarily mean that a senior colleague is ready to guide and assist another professional. Mentoring is not the same as directing a student thesis or being someone’s supervisor. In this respect, it would be helpful to create “mentor the mentors” workshops to connect new mentors with veteran mentors and training materials for a variety of institutional settings.

Finally, a culture of mentorship recognizes the need to sometimes alter the conventional balance of power within the mentee-mentor relationship. Early career professionals are critical for helping their senior colleagues stay fresh on latest disciplinary, technological, and social trends. Taking a page from the Women’s Mentoring Network, we might consider creating more mentoring and workshop sessions at annual meetings to help coach and retool veteran geographers in cutting edge theories, methods, and issues. This would be a decidedly different environment from the formality of conventional paper or poster sessions.

If you have some thoughts about mentorship, then feel free to email me (dalderma [at] utk [dot] edu) or share on Twitter #PresidentAAG.

— Derek Alderman
University of Tennessee
Twitter: @MLKStreet

 

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0008

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New Orleans: The Uncertain City

Skyscrapers in the New Orleans business district in the foreground contrast with the French Quarter in the background. Photo credit: Craig Colten

New Orleans battles with its identity. Locals see their home as a river city. Its European colonial founders etched a street grid across the narrow natural levee and perched the incipient city on the banks of the Mississippi River. Since then it has benefitted from waterborne commerce while battling high water that threatens its riparian site. The river loomed large in colonial life and looms large today.

Peirce Lewis, however, identified an uneasy relationship between the riverside site and maritime/inland hinterland situation when he labeled New Orleans as “the impossible but inevitable city.” The site on the banks of the river, had long been used by Native Americans as a strategic portage between the river and Lake Pontchartrain — in effect a bay of the Gulf of Mexico. The city’s French founder, Bienville, foresaw the importance of a city that could connect the vast North American hinterland with the Gulf and the French empire beyond. Indeed, colonial leaders abandoned two prior attempts to establish colonial capitals on the Gulf Coast before selecting the site about 100 miles upstream from the river’s mouth. Thus, the city is an heir of more direct coastal-oriented settlements, but reflects the significance of the river in its development. As the city celebrates it tricentennial in 2018, New Orleans may continue to see itself as a river city, but it functions very much as a Gulf Coast city on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Its relationship to the two water bodies remains thoroughly intertwined. In the years since 1718, the city’s economy has depended on the commerce coursing down the Mississippi – furs and cypress during the colonial era; corn, whiskey, hogmeat, sugar, and cotton during the antebellum period; grain and petrochemical products during much of the last century. New Orleans served as the entrepôt for this waterborne trade that relied on both the river and the Gulf. Another commercial tie has been tourism. Residents from across the Gulf South turned to New Orleans for a variety of pleasures since the 19th century, while New Orleans’s citizens have been prominent in the development of the Mississippi shore and visit the beaches of Alabama and Florida – furthering the city’s connections to the larger Gulf.

Elevated house after Hurricane Katrina. Credit: Craig Colten

Coping with hazards also reflects the city’s position at the intersection of fluvial and marine environments. Flood control efforts have focused on protecting the city while diverting risk via engineered floodways onto coastal fishermen in Mississippi Sound and near the mouth of the Atchafalaya River. Tropical weather presents a powerful threat from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and with the loss of it coastal wetlands, New Orleans is ever closer to the Gulf and to storm surges driven by cyclones. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, some homeowners reluctantly raised their houses on stilts, like beach houses – a concession to their coastal location. When the BP oil platform erupted in a tragic fire in April 2010 and released millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf, neighboring coastal states faced economic catastrophe as the slick washed onto their sandy beaches and drove tourists away. Florida’s governor criticized Louisiana for carelessly developing its offshore oil resources which he saw as a threat to his state’s economy. Residents of New Orleans complained that they could smell the oil from off shore – emphasizing their proximity to the Gulf.

Mississippi River levee during high river in 2011 at Baton Rouge. Photo credit: Craig Colten

Based on its role as entrepôt to the Mississippi River valley, New Orleans was among the country’s five largest cities on the eve of the Civil War. Levees obstructed the view of the river although they did not impede commerce, and these structures became one of the dominating features of the lower river landscape. The Civil War diverted Midwestern commerce to the eastern seaboard by rail, and New Orleans declined in the rank order of the country’s cities. The conflict also left the levees in a poor state of repair and a flood in 1874 provided a political tipping point in a long-running campaign to pass the costs of levee construction and maintenance to the federal government. At the urging of Southern planters and politicians Congress passed legislation in 1879 to fund and maintain the levees, not for flood protection of the recently rebellious region, but to maintain a navigable waterway for interstate commerce. By the early 20th century, engineers abandoned the mistaken belief that the river confined by levees would maintain a deep channel. Following several floods culminating in the most tragic U.S. flood on record in 1927, the Mississippi River Commission declared the main purpose of levees was to fend off inundation and not enable commerce. Despite the fact that the flood of record did not inundate New Orleans, it prompted massive re-engineering of the river that was oriented toward protecting New Orleans and its shipping interests. Its role as the entrepôt connecting the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico remained a dominating concern.

Creole cottage in the French Quarter. Photo credit: Craig Colten

With its distinctive French and Spanish colonial heritage, a sizable number of African Americans, along with later Anglo, German, and Italian immigrants, New Orleans may have fallen in its ranking among the country’s largest cities, but it emerged in the 1800s as the largest Gulf Coast city of what Terry Jordan called the Creole Coast. With a legal system based on French civil code, a persistent French-speaking population well into the 19th century, culinary traditions from France, Spain, Africa, and indigenous populations, it became a most peculiar place. African and European cooks and chefs combined local seafood, rice, and spices from multiple hearths to fashion a creole cuisine that is a hallmark of the city’s culture today. Building traditions from Africa and Europe created a landscape unlike other American cities. Celebrations, most notably Mardi Gras, have incorporated elements of the Catholic sacred calendar with Caribbean and African influences to produce arguably the city’s best known spectacle each spring.   In addition, Afro-Caribbean rhythms blended with European brass instruments to give rise to jazz.

One could argue that New Orleans thrives on these important elements of its past. Visitors flock to stroll through the narrow streets of the French Quarter, to sample the spicy creole fare, to enjoy the seductive rhythms and melodies in the jazz clubs, and to forget their cares along the parade routes during Mardi Gras. And beyond the well-worn tourist paths, there are countless lesser-known architectural, culinary, and musical treasures. Of course, the city is highly cognizant of its rich history and aggressively seeks to parley that into heritage tourism income. Indeed, in 2015 tourists spend over $7 billion dollars in the city. Tourism has largely recovered from the downturn after 9/11, the devastating decline caused by the hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the Great Recession a decade ago.

French Quarter Festival. Zack Smith Photography, courtesy of French Quarter Festivals, Inc.

Always looking for a way to expand its tourism calendar, the city supports numerous special events to attract visitors beyond the Mardi Gras season. The Jazz and Heritage Fest held each spring is one of the world’s premier music festivals. Operating since 1970, it began as a celebration of regional music — jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, and Acadian sounds. It still features local talent and traditions, but has exploded into an international event drawing major popular music performers. There are countless other festivals — such as the Essence Music Fest, the Voodoo Music Fest, the Cajun and Zydeco Fest, the Satchmo Fest, along with Southern Decadence, the Creole Tomato Fest, the Oyster Fest, and the Oak Street Po-boy fest. Plus there are sports events such as the Sugar Bowl, the Crescent City Classic Marathon, and periodic NCAA championships. The annual calendar ensures that most visitors who stay even a few days will be able to participate in one of these celebrations. Indeed one the most noteworthy events will overlap with the AAG meeting in New Orleans — The French Quarter Fest.

The French Quarter Fest was created to showcase local musical performers on multiple outdoor stages in and near the French Quarter. Initially, a “locals” event it offered free performances in the midst of the city’s historic district where local cuisine was available around every corner. It has grown but still offers a more intimate setting than that sprawling Jazz Fest, and admission is FREE. The festival’s web site [https://fqfi.org/] boasts that it will host 300 hours of entertainment by 400 performers during its run from April 12 to 15, 2018. It is truly one of the jewels of the city’s festival calendar, and it falls at a time when weather is generally quite pleasant and conducive to a street festival.

New Orleans has persisted in a perilous place for three centuries now and in that time it has given rise to a rich array of visual, auditory, and gustatory experiences. After the 2005 hurricane season, some questioned whether it made economic sense to rebuild the devastated city. Some 20 percent of the city’s population were not certain about the safety of returning and stayed away. Yet, rebuilding and denying risk, along with celebrating at the drop of a hat, are things that the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast excel at. Long-time residents are deeply attached to this quirky place, and new arrivals since 2005 came to get a taste of the traditions that endure, even if altered by the newcomers and their influences.

In the face of a disappearing coast, there is grave concern about the long-term future of the city and the outlying wetlands. Louisiana is investing huge sums of money to offset the encroachment of the Gulf across its coastal marshes. But with the highest rate of relative sea-level rise in the U.S., this deltaic coast will certainly change in the coming decades. How that will impact the city has yet to be seen and uncertainty hangs over the city like another layer of humidity. But we encourage you to come pay us a visit while you can.

— Craig Colten, Louisiana State University

 

Recommended reading, by geographers for geographers:

S. Hemmerling, Louisiana Coastal Atlas (2017)

A. Sluyter, C. Watkins, J. Chaney, A. Gibson, Hispanic and Latino New Orleans (2015)

R. Campanella, Bourbon Street (2014), Geographies of New Orleans (2006)

R. Orgera and W. Parent, eds., Louisiana Field Guide (2014)

C. Colten, Unnatural Metropolis (2005), Perilous Place, Powerful Storms (2009) USGS, Environmental Atlas of Lake Pontchartrain Basin

P. Lewis, New Orleans: Making of an Urban Landscape (2003)

Also visit the web page of the unofficial “Geographer in Residence” of New Orleans, Richard Campanella and his Geographer’s Space in the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Cultural Vistas

Also visit the web page of the unofficial “Geographer in Residence” of New Orleans, Richard Campanella and his Geographer’s Space in the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Cultural Vistas

 

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0009

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