President's Column

The Invisible and The Silent

July 31, 2020

I am the parent of an adult child with intellectual and developmental disabilities and have spent the past two decades watching how society (dis)engages with him. People avert their eyes. People pretend not to see him. People give him a wide berth in store aisles.

Some adults demonstrate shockingly bad behavior when he makes his noises or rocks back-and-forth. They display disapproval of his imperfect body and social conduct with facial expressions, comments, or gestures—such as picking up their groceries and moving to another checkout line. My reaction is a swift but reasonably (I think) calm tongue-lashing. Then, I always tell myself I won’t make a public display again. But I do.

Believe it or not, I’m happy when kids stare. At least they’re acknowledging his presence. And Jeffrey loves social interaction, if given the chance.

Amy Lobben’s son, Jeffrey, is wearing one of his favorite shirts.

That Jeffrey is singled out like this reflects how our society is obsessed with physical perfection. Examples are too numerous to list. Vanity sizing is just one example. Is that international? If not, I’ll explain. In America, as bodies get larger, sizing gets smaller. A women’s size 6 today was a size 12 fifty years ago. Because…we cannot have socially defined “imperfections” in our bodies. So, the fashion industry wisely adjusts their sizing over the years. It is remarkable how I have been a size 6 my entire adult life (I hope you hear the sarcasm regarding myself).

Society trains us to have low tolerance of imperfections in our own and others’ bodies. It’s no wonder that in the race to perfection, those with physical imperfections are ultra marginalized by society. And if we are intolerant of weight gain or imperfect eyebrows, imagine how intolerant we are with non-functioning eyes or legs. We have been taught to actively ignore those imperfections and the bodies they’re attached to. Even being near such a person in a grocery line is unendurable. The only distance at which this imperfection can be tolerated is so far away as to be indiscernible. It is the spatial scale of exclusion.

And that’s when it happens. People with disabilities become invisible. Through able-ism, they are silenced, left alone past the detectable edges of the universe that able-bodies and able-minded individuals inhabit.

Fortunately, an increasing number of countries have laws that protect the invisible and silent. In the United States, for example, organizations are required by law to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities.

Of course, “reasonable” is vague and open to opinion. For example, under the cover of “reasonable,” the state of Alabama developed their ventilator rationing policy, which said: “Persons with severe or profound mental retardation, moderate to severe dementia, or catastrophic neurological complications such as persistent vegetative state are unlikely candidates for ventilator support.”

Horrible, right? Let us not cast our righteous stones. Alabama was not alone in developing policies for ventilator support that excluded people with imperfections. Fortunately, disability advocacy groups and the U.S. Health and Human Services Department have now ensured that ventilator policies don’t discriminate based on imperfection.

The American Association of Geographers is not immune; historically, it has not been welcoming of people with disabilities. At the same time, we have mostly not been overtly discriminatory. There is no need for intervention by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But we have created a culture and a structure that presents barriers to inclusion and participation of people with disabilities. For example:

Cost of our annual meeting remains a persistent (and often vocal) concern for many AAG members. AAG responds to this concern and attempts to defray costs when possible. Some strategies include: booking venues off-season, booking older venues, and including multiple locations in a single meeting. All of these strategies address membership demands to keep costs down. But, the result is an increase in barriers to participation for people with disabilities. Remember Denver 2005? Or Las Vegas 2009? Even without disabilities, it’s pretty hard to get around in a blizzard or between venues that are over 1km apart. How many times have you experienced overcrowded stairwells between sessions because the elevators were unable to support capacity? These are trade-offs that most membership welcomes in AAG’s responsive efforts to defray conference fees.
The AAG website is a disaster and does not come close to providing Universal Access. It’s not even screen-reader compliant. We are unique in our antiquatedness relative to most other large, professional organizations. This is ethically unacceptable and, for an organization that is always worried about recruiting more people to Geography, it’s not even good business.
The physical headquarters of AAG is Meridian Place. It’s far from being ADA compliant. People who use manual or motorized wheelchairs cannot enter the front door.

Why is this the current state of AAG? Historically, our collective membership has relegated issues of accessibility to the margins in favor of other priorities, such as saving money.

Fortunately, many accessibility issues are now being addressed by our new Executive Director, Gary Langham, and the AAG staff. For example, for the first time in my over 25 years in attending AAG meetings, child care for older children with disabilities was offered for the Denver 2020 meeting. Unfortunately, because of Covid, no one attended that meeting in person. But, the precedent was set. Don’t underestimate how big of a game-changer this support is for parents of older children with disabilities. For me, traveling as a parent of an older child with intellectual and developmental disabilities frequently represents an impossible obstacle. I’ve missed AAG meetings over the years because I couldn’t find support at home and because my son was too old for the child care provided by AAG.

As for examples two and three, though no concrete designs are yet in place, both website and Meridian Place renovations are actively being planned. ADA compliance and Universal Access are major parts of the discussion.

I am also delighted to announce that the AAG Council has unanimously supported the formation of a new AAG Accessibility Task Force. The members will identify the most pressing barriers to access within the AAG and develop strategies and guidelines to inform website design, building renovation, conference venue choices, and practices at conferences that enhance access.

I will always argue that supporting access for even one person with disability justifies great effort. However, if numbers are important to justifying the effort, we should consider why persons with disability are such a small proportion of AAG membership and conference attendance. For example, each year prior to the annual conference, AAG asks members for accommodation requests. Few requests are made. But, according to the Institute on Disability, the overall rate of people with disabilities (in the U.S.) is almost 13%. Disaggregated, disability increases dramatically by age. The most common disability reported is ambulatory.

But, AAG does not receive accommodation requests from 13 percent of the attendees (i.e. equivalent to disability prevalence in the overall population). Perhaps the disability rate for geographers is shockingly low? I doubt it.

July 26 was Disability Independence Day, commemorating the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act that was signed on the same day in 1990. Yet, this day seemed to come and go with little notice. How many people did you hear talking about it, marching about it, let alone celebrating it? As we experience the wave of social justice demanding amplification of marginalized voices, an important perspective is missing.

For too long AAG members with disabilities have been kept invisible and silent. Based on my brief tenure as Vice President and President, I have learned that many such individuals left the organization or stopped coming to conferences when barriers become too overwhelming. The Accessibility Task Force will advocate for AAG members with former and current disabilities, as well as that large portion of us who will, based purely on statistics, develop future disabilities. If we wish to have true lifetime members, we need to get ready now.

The task force’s charge over the next two years is to identify barriers and develop remediation recommendations, to move beyond the ADA and what is required by law to create true opportunities for access and inclusion for people with disabilities. We’re at the start of new AAG leadership and experiencing a nationwide awakening to the damages of exclusion and social injustice. Yes, there is much work to be done. But as we enter the dawn of the new decade, I am profoundly optimistic that this dawn will cast a bright light that makes us see those with disability and the barriers that prevent them from being in the AAG, the discipline of geography, and our society at large.

This is when the invisible become visible.

And that is when we as individuals and the AAG become true facilitators to access.

— Amy Lobben
AAG President

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0077

Programs

Bridging the Digital Divide

July 15, 2020

Glowing lines radiating upward from city skyline symbolizing network concept

Tomorrow’s Geographers Need the Best Tools Now

The Bridging the Digital Divide (BDD) program was created in mid-2020 by the American Association of Geographers, to quickly address the technology needs of geography students at minority-serving institutions, as COVID-19 disrupted their learning environments. In 2020, BDD provided $238,000 in equipment and software assistance to faculty and students at 23 institutions, including 8 Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), 14 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and 1 predominantly Black institution.

“Now, because of AAG’s Bridging the Digital Divide Initiative, impacts of the global pandemic may better be met by our department in the months and even years to come….The gesture truly creates a win-win situation for Morgan State University, other HBCUs, and other minority-serving institutions invested in making geography an indispensable component of our liberal arts endeavors.”

— Mark Barnes, Associate Professor, Department of History, Geography, and Museum Studies, Morgan State University

Donate Now

The COVID-19 crisis aggravated a longstanding problem for students of color, for whom access to technology is a career-threatening challenge. In partnership with Esri, AAG is continuing the BDD program to close this critical access gap for geography students who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Help us create a future in which the next generation of geographers is more representative of the places and people where geography’s most crucial work is located.

Learning environment bar chart

GIS Projects bar chart

An AAG survey of student members this year showed how COVID-19 has affected their learning environment and access to technology. Students of color have experienced these effects even more acutely, due to inequities that existed before COVID-19.

BDD’s first round of equipment grants in 2020 helped students in more than 95 geography courses gain access to laptops, internet connections, software, and other equipment, while also enabling a few faculty to offer socially distanced classroom and fieldwork experiences through the use of advanced technologies such as virtual reality (VR) headsets and action cameras.

Your Support Makes All the Difference

As AAG prepares for the second phase of this program, we are seeking out additional institutional partners to continue to grow the initiative. We also rely on the support of our 12,000 members worldwide—geography instructors, faculty, students, and professional geographers in the public and private sectors—to help us secure greater access to the critical tools of learning for the next generation of BIPOC geographers. Even if you can only give a small amount, your support helps us demonstrate our members’ commitment to this initiative, which is vital to attract greater support from partners.

“Minority-serving institutions, including TCUs, are up against some of the biggest challenges we have ever faced. Although food security, financial stability, and academic preparedness are issues that the TCUs have always faced, COVID-19 has exacerbated those issues and also created additional concerns of isolation and lack of connectivity. With $10,000 from the Bridging the Digital Divide fund, we purchased laptops, webcams, wifi, Microsoft Office, and ArcGIS licenses. With additional funding, we could purchase more …”

— Mandy Guinn, Environmental Science Chair, United Tribes Technical College

As campuses enter into a new era of belt-tightening, we can anticipate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to hamper many students’ access to technology—adding to decades-long racial disparities. We count on our members and partners to help us realize the vision for a level playing field for young geographers of colors, enabling them to access the tools they need to succeed.

BDD is part of AAG’s Rapid Response to COVID-19 which is dedicating nearly $1 million in Council-designated funding from AAG’s reserves to help support and stabilize the geography discipline during the COVID-19 crisis, while also addressing long-standing systemic issues and inequities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Equitable access to equipment and connections is but one such issue, yet it is one that we know can be remedied immediately with resources.

Donate Now

News

The Geography of Despair (or All These Rubber Bullets)

July 10, 2020

Aretina R. Hamilton

This article was originally published on Medium. Follow Dr. Hamilton on Twitter at @BlackGeographer.

As a scholar, I entered the world of academia as a planner. I examined urban planning and the devolution of American cities — and then I discovered Geography. The original scene of the crime. This original technology was used to cut up the world into pieces and to fulfill manifest destinies. When non-Geographers think about Geography, they imagine GPS maps, landscapes, physical terrain, and valleys. They don’t think of culture, people, conflict, contestation, imperialism, or exploitation. In the same way, geographical thinking frequently ignores how geographies enact violence, create spaces of belonging, reproduce systematic equalities, and codify race. Yet for Black People, geography operates across multiple sites and multiple planes, and it is all-encompassing, frequently defining the outcomes of our lives.

My first site of geographic containment occurred within the walls of my mother’s uterus. It was a site of warmth, love, and nourishment. Even before I sprang into the world, I could feel the yearning for me and the love of my parents as they spoke to me. As a Black child growing up in Louisville, Kentucky in the 1980s, I began to understand that my geographies were filled with visceral meanings and assumptions. At my elementary school, I attended one of the most racially and socioeconomically diverse schools in the city. We were a fulfillment of the dream. However, as I grew older and reflected back on those times, I remember how the Black kids who lived in Southwick, Parkhill, and the West End were disproportionately called out for behavioral or socio-emotional issues. They lived in spaces that lie along the margins of the map, sites on “the other side of the tracks,” and there was a definite difference in how they were treated. At that age, we never discussed where we came from, but we knew that geography had a dramatic impact on where we might end.

Gavin H. Cochran Elementary School, Louisville, Kentucky

In March, when one of my best friends called and told me that a Black woman was murdered by police in Louisville, I sighed. Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American emergency room technician, was killed by police who used a battering ram to crash into her apartment and kill her. I was so sick of hearing stories of Black Death, but this one happened in my hometown. For months and years before, I had heard stories of shootings in the city but had tried to block it out — if only temporarily. I think I had become numb or was trying to isolate the pain. I hadn’t lived in Louisville in over 20 years, but I remembered the racial politics and understood that the history of racial residential segregation, gerrymandering, white flight, and educational disparities had set the stage for this event. The police who murdered Breonna and David McAtee had a particular understanding of the geography and understood that these geographies and the people that lived in them didn’t matter. They were considered disposable and irrelevant.

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The Geography of Despair (or All These Rubber Bullets)

July 10, 2020

Aretina R. Hamilton

This article was originally published on Medium. Follow Dr. Hamilton on Twitter at @BlackGeographer.

GavinCochran — Gavin H. Cochran Elementary School, Louisville, Kentucky

police-state-640x389-1 — The Army National Guard and Louisville Metro Police block a street during a protest in Kentucky on May 31, 2020.

As a Black Geographer who understands how race takes place, it is impossible for me to not view these crucial moments — the protests, anti-colonial movements, and rage — in isolation. They are all interwoven into my fabric. If I occupied different geography (birth, neighborhood, city), any of these deaths might have befallen me. As most Black folks are aware, no amount of degrees, money, or social class will protect you. Even as I try to look for glimmers of hope, I am, in the words of Dr. Robert Sellers at the University of Michigan, “ bone-weary tired.”

Over the past 72 hours, I have watched social media, news, and reports on TV as atrocious things were done to protestors who were merely exercising their rights as citizens.

It is a harrowing enterprise that few of my white colleagues will ever understand, even as they lament the injustices — it is clear that a cognitive dissonance occurs. While I am distraught and heartbroken by the thousands upon thousands of Black bodies and others who are being shot down by the military-industrial complex, I find myself experiencing an extensional crisis as I consider the frequent violence that has been cast upon Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the academy, in graduate school, and yes, in our professional organizations. This violence is often invisible and difficult to comprehend. It may not cause bloodshed or impede your physical mobility. There are no batons or angry, fear-mongering cops with knees on your neck. And yet it is palpable. We feel the pain. It never ceases. It remains contained in our bodies, violently thrashing.

Young-Man-640x480-1 — Black student at a campus protest in support of Black Lives, holding sign that says “I’m a scholar, not a criminal.”

The violence occurs as you attend academic conferences even as you are relegated to the margins — unless it’s a popular topic that can be marketed and commodified. The violence occurs as you watch your white classmates and professors walk past you — erase you from memory even as they brag about the growth of diversity in the department. The violence occurs as you watch your white colleagues climb in their station on the backs, social proximity, and scholarship of Black folks whom they claim to respect; even as they only acknowledge you when it’s convenient or professionally advantageous. The violence falls upon your body like rubber bullets as you listen to them lament about the desire to “do more to ensure that [any subject] as a discipline becomes inclusive and equitable,” even as there remain a paucity of positions, postdocs and Black tenured faculty in those areas.

Tweet-from-LaToya-Eaves — Tweet by AAG Executive Committee and Council member LaToya Eaves (@spacedemands): “Some of our geography departments are pretty violent spaces. Violence isn’t just about being murdered by police. It’s also other ways white supremacy is held up, for us in higher education and our discipline. / Tenure, microagressions, your guilt imposed on Black colleagues…”

We are hemorrhaging — as we feel the blow and impact on our souls.

On June 1, 2020, the largest national professional organization of geographers, the American Association of Geographers (AAG), released a statement regarding the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Like many other organizations, the AAG released a neatly packaged statement condemning the violence of these acts of racist violence while recognizing its own growing edges.

AAG recognizes that it must do more to ensure that geography as a discipline becomes inclusive and equitable. Geographers have long been at the forefront of scholarship on the social and spatial foundations and consequences of racism, violence, and inequality. But this is not enough. We need to use our research, our teaching, our mentorship, our work, and our science to stand up against systemic inequality. Source link.

As I read the statement, I thought about the numerous sessions I chaired during the annual Meetings of the AAG where scholars of Color talked and sometimes whispered about the trauma that occurred in their departments. I thought about the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Geographers who write about racism, inequality, and violence and how these same scholars have reinvigorated and conducted vital research and praxis on environmental racism, southern geographies, LGBTQ sites of exclusion, radical Black Power Movements, Black food Geographies, blues epistemologies, the prison industrial complex, racial conflict, community building, police brutality, and the racial politics of citizenship and migration. This list is not exhaustive. And yet while the organization was right to call out the violence in the streets, I wondered when we might turn the gaze inward.

Dark-Zone-Tweet — Two Tweets by Dr. Johnathan Flowers (Twitter @shengokai) that begin, “Especially when what happens ‘in here’ is merely another extension of the violence that happens ‘out there.’…”

Despite our understanding of colonial thought and power, geographers — like many other scholars — are less willing to look inward. We speak in platitudes and identify oppression as placeless, when the place is here and now. The colonial space of the academy has never truly been exposed. Instead, we point and judge and critique — ignoring the ways that all the Black, Brown etc. people sit next to each other in the sessions, in classes, in working groups. We see you.

Six months before I received my Ph.D., my father passed away. I could not grieve. I had killed those parts of me a long time ago. So like a drone, I delivered his eulogy, buried him, and went back to my work. I was a prisoner. And when I finished my degree, I had no energy to enter into a job or to pursue a traditional academic career. I was broken. I was tired.

Even as some geographers unpack the systemic inequality and violence initiated by the state, they remain blind to the violence they perpetuate daily within classrooms, research settings, advising and mentoring, conferences, publishing venues, professional organizations, career networks, job searches, and tenure and promotion decisions. So while they may condemn the theatres of violence playing out at this historical moment, it is not just a moment for me and others like me. In the words of Dr. Harold Rose, the first and only Black president of the AAG, the overwhelming despair we feel right now is not just a moment. It is built into the very fabric of African African life:

“It would have been more pleasant to have reported on a topic that reflects the geography of happiness…[but] my geography was the geography of despair”. ~Dr. Harold Rose, 1978 American Association of Geographers Presidential Address

Dr. Aretina Rochelle Hamilton is a cultural geographer whose areas of specialization include Black Geographies, Black Queer Cartographies, and Racialized Space and Trauma. Dr. Hamilton received her doctoral degree in Geography from the University of Kentucky. She was recently appointed as the inaugural Associate Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. You can follow her on Twitter @BlackGeographer.

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0076

Newsletters

Newsletter – July 2020

July 1, 2020

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

The Spatial Scale of ‘We’

By Amy Lobben

lobben_amyw “Every day around my town, I see signs of encouragement, most frequently – “We’re All In This Together.” That statement refers to the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting and assuming that we are all equally engaged in and affected by the pandemic. Similar messaging is delivered via emails, websites, and store speakers. Oregon’s public campaign takes the messaging even further, reminding us that ‘It’s up to you how many people live or die,’ staying home ensures that we ‘don’t accidentally kill someone today.’”

Continue Reading.

ANNUAL MEETING

Save the Date for AAG Seattle!

Dusk view of the skyline, Seattle, Washington

Join us for the 2021 AAG Annual Meeting April 7-11, 2021 both in person and virtually. 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 and online!

Stay up to date on the latest Annual Meeting news

PUBLICATIONS

NEW Annals of the American Association of Geographers Issue Alert: Articles with topics ranging from mountain ecology and the topographies of Black freedom, to tech entrepreneurship in South Africa and credit unions as sites of social transformation

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The most recent issue of Annals of the American Association of Geographers has been published online (Volume 110, Issue 4, July 2020) with 19 new research articles on current geographic research. Topics in this issue include the social media spaces and networks of the fashion industry; how viral, human, and animal ecologies entwine in the Zika virus; a biogeographic analysis of similarities and differences in mountain tundra; a study of 76 years of data on spatial inequality in Denver; feminist geographic courtroom ethnography; examination of the geographies of a tech hackathon in Capetown, South Africa; a critical/feminist geographic information system (GIS) approach to credit unions as “noncapitalist alternatives to banks and possible sites of social transformation toward a solidarity economy,” and an exploration of the interrelationship of marronage (fleeing captivity to free oneself) with “the topographic and geomorphologic traits of natural environments.” Locational areas of interest include West Berlin; England and Wales; the Rio Grande Valley, Texas; the Pearl River Delta, China; and Cambodia. Authors are from a variety of research institutions including Indiana University; University of Cambridge; University of Namur; University of Tennessee; University of KwaZulu-Natal; and University of California Los Angeles.

All AAG members have full online access to all issues of the Annals through the Members Only page. In every issue, the editors choose one article to make freely available. In this issue you can read The Morphology of Marronage by Willie Jamaal Wright for free for the next two months.

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

Journals-newsletter-100 In addition to the most recently published journal, read the latest issue of the other AAG journals online:

• Annals of the American Association of Geographers
• The Professional Geographer
• GeoHumanities
• The AAG Review of Books

New issue of African Geographical Review

African-Geographical-Review-cvr-212x300-1 The latest issue of the journal of the Africa Specialty Group of the AAG, the African Geographical Review, has recently been published. Volume 39, Issue 2 (June 2020) is available online for subscribers and members of the Africa Specialty Group. In this issue you can read Information systems and actionable knowledge creation in rice-farming systems in Northern Ghana by Andy Bonaventure Nyamekye, Art Dewulf, Erik Van Slobbe, and Katrien Termeer for free.

See more about the journal.

ASSOCIATION NEWS

AAG Specialty Groups Call for Action Against Racism

In June, 37 AAG Specialty and Affinity Groups wrote letters of support and pledged action to fight anti-Black racism in the discipline. The Black Geographies Specialty Group wrote a letter that acknowledged the support, urging AAG and its members “to go beyond their statements and work to transform the discipline by addressing its legacies of racism, imperialism, colonialism, homophobia, and sexism.” The letter calls for specific actions for institutions and individuals to take to combat anti-Black racism, support Black scholars, and realize the “potential for transformative change.”

Read the Call to Action from the Black Geographies Specialty Group.

New Specialty Group Written Series on COVID-19, Geoethics, and Human Rights

Coronavirus-290x290-1 During the Virtual AAG Annual Meeting in April 2020, nine AAG specialty groups responded to a call for panels on the breaking theme “Geographers Respond to COVID-19.” The panels, which were set up to initiate discussions about the ongoing pandemic using a geographic lens, showcase the application of geography to urgent issues, and to learn from the evolving circumstances to build future preparedness, are still available for public viewing. Reflecting on the important questions of geoethics and human rights raised by many participants, panel organizers have compiled their thoughts in an online essay series from a variety of sub-disciplinary perspectives.

Read the essays.

Member-Approved: AAG’s New Conduct Policy

Harassment-Free-AAG-logo533px-290x290-1 Our thanks to all of the AAG members who ratified AAG’s formal adoption of a revised Professional Conduct Policy, taking action on the work of the Harassment-Free AAG Task Force, AAG Council, and AAG leadership and staff. The new policy is now included in the AAG’s Constitution and Bylaws.

Read the finalized policies.

AAG Welcomes New Editor of AAG Review of Books, Thanks Outgoing Editor

Hopkins_Debbie-228x300-1 The AAG is pleased to announce Debbie Hopkins as the new editor of the AAG Review of Books. Hopkins is an Associate Professor in Human Geography at the University of Oxford, UK, jointly appointed between the School of Geography and the Environment, and the Sustainable Urban Development program. The AAG sincerely thanks founding editor Kent Mathewson, whose vision and ideas have shaped the AAG Review of Books since its beginnings eight years ago. Hopkins will take the helm when Mathewson steps down on July 1.

Learn more about Dr. Hopkins.

AAG Welcomes 2020 Summer Interns

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The AAG is excited to welcome two new interns coming aboard our staff for the Summer of 2020! Joining us this summer are Sekour Mason, a recent graduate from the University of Maryland, College Park with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Geographical Sciences: GIS and Computer Cartography, and Sarah Strope, a senior at George Washington University, pursuing a B.A. in International Affairs and Environmental Studies with a concentration in international economics.

Meet the summer interns.

POLICY CORNER

Policing Research Bill Introduced as Congress Continues Focus on Police Reform

US_Capitol-1

The following update comes from our colleagues at the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)

In the wake of mass protests against police violence throughout the country, Congress has been active in introducing several bills addressing systemic racism and police violence, including a bill for more social and behavioral science research on these issues. On June 18, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (SST), introduced the Promoting Fair and Effective Policing Through Research Act, a bill that mandates that the National Science Foundation (NSF) fund social and behavioral science research on policing practices and the mitigation of police violence. It also directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish a program to study potential bias in policing tools and technology, and directs the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) at the Department of Homeland Security to establish a program to support the reduction of police violence. More information can be found on the SST website.

In the meantime, Congress remains fixated on broader policing reform legislation. In the Senate, Tim Scott (R-SC) has introduced the JUSTICE Act (S. 3985), a bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has indicated will be considered by the full Senate. The bill requires police departments to implement de-escalation training and report the use of force and prevents police from using chokeholds in most situations. In the House, Democrats have coalesced around the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (H.R. 7120) introduced by Karen Bass (D-CA) and endorsed by the Congressional Black Caucus. The bill mandates much more substantial reforms to policing, including labeling chokeholds as a potential civil rights violation, denying grants to some police jurisdictions, and making it easier to sue individual police for civil rights violations.

In the News:

On June 18th the Senate confirmed Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan as the next Director of the NSF.
Last month, President Trump further restricted the use of foreign work visas to fill vacancies in the U.S. citing potential threat to the employment of American workers. The suspension included H-1B visas for highly skilled workers and J-1 visas for academics. Several organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association of American Universities (AAU), and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) have issued statements criticizing the move.

MEMBER NEWS

Profiles of Professional Geographers

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The potential to make a real impact on society attracted Yasuyuki (Yas) Motoyama to his career as an Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning at The Ohio State University and the former Research Director at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (2011-2017). For geographers interested in a career like his, Yas recommends thinking outside the box and being proactive in explaining why a geographer is the perfect fit for the job. For example, the Kauffman Foundation promotes entrepreneurship, however it has only been recently that has entrepreneurship been examined from a geographic perspective. Be creative about where your skills can apply!

Learn more about Geography Careers.

Update: Geographers respond to COVID-19

Geographers continue to act on COVID-19.

Medical geographer LaShale Pugh took part in an online public forum held by the Youngstown, Ohio-based grassroots organization A.C.T.I.O.N. on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black Americans, even in affluent areas with more opportunity and better health care: “Many of them haven’t been able to stay home,” Push told participants. “They have to go to work, especially if they are in the medical field, custodial work, transportation, and food services.”
Dr. Tolulope Osayomi, medical geographer at the University of Ibadan, has established and now directs the COVID-19 Mapping Lab at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Dr. Osayomi is working with Dr. Olalekan John Taiwo, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Geography, University of Ibadan; and Prof Adeniyi S. Gbadegesin, immediate past Vice-Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, professor of Biogeography at the Department of Geography, University of Ibadan.
Felicity Callard, Health geographer and Professor of Human Geography at the University of Glasgow, documents the experiences of herself and others living with COVID-19 symptoms considered “mild” by governmental health organizations. “Mild, then, as it is used by different actors, in different locations, in different contexts, experiences profound shifts in meaning,” Callard argues.
Geographers Derek Watkins and Jeremy White contributed to a storymap in the New York Times showcasing data behind the spread of COVID-19 in the US. The map not only highlights cases of infection, but also the effects of state level stay-at-home orders on the reduction of movement and travel.

Are you working on COVID-19? Join the AAG COVID-19 Knowledge Community, and let us know so we can share your work. Email Lisa Schamess at lschamess [at] aag [dot] org.

July Member Updates

The latest news from AAG Members.

“Despite our understanding of colonial thought and power, geographers — like many other scholars — are less willing to look inward.” Aretina R. Hamilton shares her experiences as a Black Geographer navigating the systemic racism built within geography and the academy in The Geography of Despair (or All These Rubber Bullets).

Geographers Timothy Beach and Fernando Casal from the University of Texas, Austin unearthed a 3,000 year old Mayan structure – the earliest and largest Mayan structure uncovered to date. The site, named Aguada Fénix, was located using a LIDAR survey. Details of the excavation can be found in a recent article in Nature.

Sarah Stinard-Kiel, Geography PhD Candidate and former AAG Student Councilor, argues on behalf of graduate students and the precarious positions they currently hold as essential labor during the COVID-19 pandemic in Inside Higher Ed.

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

New Issue of Journal of Latin American Geography Focuses on COVID-19

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The most recent issue of the Journal of Latin American Geography from the Conference of Latin American Geography (CLAG) focuses on COVID-19 in Latin America. The Perspectives Forum includes 22 essays from over 50 authors who hail from 12 different countries on 4 continents. CLAG was organized in 1970 to develop geographic investigation in and on Latin America and invites participation from social scientists in all disciplines.

Read more.

Fall 2020 Geography Conferences Shift to Online Format

The Applied Geography Conference and the Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference have both moved to online meetings in response to health and travel concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Favorites of geographers, both conferences were originally scheduled to be held the week of October 18-24, 2020 in Baltimore, Maryland. The Applied Geography Conference will be held online October 18-20, 2020 with plans for an in-person 2021 conference in Toronto. The 10th Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference has been rescheduled to October 20-23, 2021 with a smaller online conference focused on Race, Ethnicity, Place and the Covid-19 Pandemic to be held October 22-23, 2020. Both conferences are still accepting abstracts.

Register for the July Kauffman Early-Stage Research Professional Development session!

Kauffmann-300x110-1 Join Kauffman in their virtual professional development series that links early-stage entrepreneurship researchers with mentors focusing on impactful research. The next session will take place on July 31 from 1 pm-2 p.m. (Central US), with mentors Tami Gurley, PhD Program Director and an Associate Professor at the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and Jurnell Cockhren, the Founder of Civic Hacker, a tech company with the mission to use software, policy, and data to empower activists to end oppression. This monthly series is open to 15 early-stage researchers to connect with research mentors to discuss research approaches, professional development and the research career trajectory.

Register here.

IN MEMORIAM

The AAG is saddened to hear of the passing of Dr. Robert A. Muller and Dr. Dwight Brown this past month.

GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS

EVENTS CALENDAR

July 5, 2020 – Abstract Deadline: North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, San Diego, California, November 11-14, 2020: Smart Cities and Connected Regions