The Chesapeake Bay: Destruction and Rehabilitation in the Nation’s Largest Estuary
It’s another drizzly day on the Chesapeake, and the boat we are on bobs gently on the opaque, mud-colored water. A crusty old crabber from Tangier Island, by the nickname of Captain Cook (use of nicknames is an old and strong tradition on Tangier), has just dropped a scraper overboard and brought up a bunch…
Paradise Lost, Global Warming Report, and Geographers Speak Up
The 2019 Annual Meeting of the AAG is shaping up, and I thank those who responded to participate in the three featured themes, Health and GIScience, Human Rights, and Physical Geography in Environmental Science, in addition to the many independent abstracts and sessions submitted. Program committees and AAG staff, to whom I offer my deepest…
AAG Announces Launch of Geography.com for 2018 Geography Awareness Week
The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is pleased to announce the launch of in conjunction with the celebration of Geography Awareness Week, November 11-17, 2018. The website is a joint venture and collaboration between the AAG and Esri, designed for educational purposes and the promotion of the discipline. is intended as an outreach tool for…
Watershed Moments
It is time to show our democracy, our humanity, our compassion, and our resolve. It is time to say no to the murders of journalists, worshippers in synagogues, African American churchgoers, schoolchildren, theatergoers, yoga practitioners, and disco dancers. It is time to VOTE. Please take a moment of silence for all victims of ever-senseless and…
Get Involved in Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day
Geography Awareness Week is just around the corner, November 11th - 17th, with GIS Day on November 14th. Below you’ll find GeoWeek and GIS Day resources, announcements, and ways to get involved, big and small. Do what you can to promote our wonderful discipline during OUR week of the year! Focus on the Theme: The…
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center
“I never ran my train off track and I never lost a passenger.” Harriet Tubman was fond of saying this in her later years, but during the 1850s when she was actively escorting enslaved people north to freedom using the Underground Railroad (UGRR) network, she was taking grave risks with her own life and liberty…
US Geographer Mei-Po Kwan honored as Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences
The UK Academy of Social Sciences announced today that it has conferred the award of Fellow on US geographer Mei-Po Kwan, among other leading social scientists. Academy Fellows are drawn from academics, practitioners and policymakers across the social sciences. They have been recognized after an extensive peer review process for the excellence and impact of…
Geography and Climate Change in the 21st Century: Keeping our Eyes on the Prize
Geography has many grand challenges for the 21st Century: combatting climate change and biodiversity loss; providing clean water; investigating safe refuge, health care, education, and poverty; preparing for natural hazards, and ensuring food security among many. Another grand challenge is ensuring a harassment-, bullying-, and bias-free Geography workplace, to ensure that progress continues on our…
The Resilient Streams in the Urban Landscape of Washington, D.C.
The process of urbanization often leads to the alteration of local streams. Such alterations range from complete disappearance of streams by making them flow underground, converting them into canals, loss of their aquatic habitat, and changes in their morphology (Kang and Marston 2006; Kang 2007) . In Washington, many streams and springs have disappeared during the last 200 years…
A New Academic Year
This Labor Day weekend marks the return to University instruction for many geography faculty and students, and as an educator, I welcome you all back to our academic community and wish you a successful new academic year. Many of us are returning from field and lab research, writing, and conferences, wondering where the summer went…
Researchers with disabilities in the academic system
Although researchers with disabilities are an exceptional category, they are a still very much underrepresented group in Academia worldwide. With billion people with disabilities worldwide, the percentage of academic positions filled in by academics with disabilities is surprisingly low. For example at the University of California at Berkeley, it was indicated that of 1,522 full-time…
Stories of Change Hidden in Washington, D.C.’s Alleys
Washington, is known for its monuments, museums, and grand government buildings. It is associated with policy wonks, foreign dignitaries, and political controversy. But it is also a home town for thousands of people who live in its lively neighborhoods. How best to get a glimpse of everyday life for ’s residents, those people living in…