Meet the AAG Journals Editors – Barney Warf and Blake Mayberry
Barney Warf and Blake Mayberry work on The Professional Geographer, one of three academic journals published by the AAG. The Professional Geographer, published four times a year, was initially a publication of the American Society of Professional Geographers but became a journal of the American Association of Geographers in 1949 after the two organisations merged. The focus of this journal 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.
Barney Warf is the current Editor for The Professional Geographer and a Professor of Geography at the University of Kansas. His professional interests lie within the broad domain of human geography. Much of his research concerns information technology and telecommunications, notably geographies of the internet, including fiber optics, the digital divide, and e-government. He has also written on military spending, electoral geography, religious diversity, cosmopolitanism, and corruption. While most of his research involves secondary data, Barney’s most memorable research experiences have involved doing interviews in Latin America, particularly in Panama and Costa Rica, that added a human depth to the topics he researched. He has authored, co-authored, or co-edited eight research books, three encyclopedias, three textbooks, 50 book chapters and more than 100 refereed journal articles.
In addition to serving as editor of The Professional Geographer, he also currently serves as the editor of Geojournal, co-editor of Growth and Change, and edits a series of geography texts for Rowman and Littlefield publishers. For Barney, the best thing about being a journal editor is “reading about the diverse set of topics that authors write about. It’s truly astonishing the things people choose to research. Being an editor has exposed me to all sorts of issues and worldviews that I didn’t know existed.” For new authors, Barney encourages them to “keep an eye on important issues in the world like poverty and inequality. I worry that at times geography becomes overly ‘academic’ and too concerned with relatively obscure issues that have little bearing on the ‘real world.’”
Barney’s teaching interests include urban and economic geography, the history of geographic thought, globalization, and contemporary social theory. When asked about which area of geographic thought needs the most attention at this point in time, Barney believes “human geography today is at the confluence of several intersecting lines of theory, including poststructuralism, postcolonialism, feminism, queer theory, and the social construction of nature. I think the most interesting works are those that bring these perspectives into a creative tension with one another.”
Blake Mayberry is the editorial assistant for the Professional Geographer where his role is to help screen manuscripts initially for style and then to assign appropriate peer reviewers. Blake is also currently Assistant Professor of Geography at Red Rocks Community College where he edits an on-campus student-oriented scholarly journal, teaches in the Water Quality Management Program (a four-year program), and serves on the City of Golden Planning Commission.
Blake’s path to become a geographer has been appropriately circuitous, but he could start in the beginning: as a child he slept with a globe instead of a teddy bear! At times Blake wanted to be Indiana Jones, and at other times, Leonardo DaVinci. He found that geography was the best way to satisfy the scientific, analytical side of my brain, while also indulging my more romantic, artistic side. As a career, He also found geography to be extremely rewarding. Blake has worked as an urban planner in the Omaha metropolitan area, and with environmental groups conducting ecological restoration and advocating for the protection of native ecosystems.
Blake has done research on topics ranging from urbanization and water resources in the southwestern United States, to the Indian Removal Period during the nineteenth century. However, his real passion is for grasslands. His master’s thesis at the University of Nebraska-Omaha focused on the effort to create a national park in western Iowa’s Loess Hills in the aftermath of the Farm Crisis, specifically, the role that media play in natural resource conservation policy. Expanding on that theme, his dissertation research at the University of Kansas involved an ethnographic study of environmentalists working to restore prairies on the Great Plains and how cultural identity and sense of place influence people’s actions to remake the landscape. In his spare time Blake enjoys reading maps, drawing maps, and exploring places real-life places that he find on maps.
Blake encourages prospective authors to read as much as they can before publishing: “Engage with the literature, all of it, in depth, all the time, all throughout your research… as someone who sees a lot of manuscripts come and go at the PG, the really successful ones, and the ones that end up having the most impact on the discipline, are the those that engage deeply with theory, and from multiple perspectives. Resist the temptation to get into a ‘citation silo,’ where you only engage with the literature on your subject matter from the perspective of your PhD advisor and their former students. There is nothing more I love than to see a manuscript on spatial regression that cites Tuan! I tell my students that your written work reflects your effort, and I’d say the same about being a scholar – your lit review tells us whether you did your homework or not. Doing your homework will go a long way towards preventing revise and resubmits, and outright rejections.”
One of the AAG’s most time-honored programs are the AAG 
The AAG Grants and Awards represents a fantastic way to become more involved in service to the discipline while also honoring those geographers who have made a difference in your life. Many honors are awarded through nominations from friends and colleagues, a meaningful contribution to the discipline recently 
What was your favorite class in K-12? English. I love to read!.
The Mid Atlantic Team won first place in the 2018 World Geography Bowl, an annual geography knowledge competition for teams of college-level geography students representing the AAG’s regional divisions. The MAD Team defeated Team SEDAAG during the final round of the event where AAG President Derek Alderman served as a guest judge. In its 29th year of hosting, the 2018 AAG World Geography Bowl provides a fun nighttime conference activity while also assisting students in attending the AAG Annual Meeting.
A fund established by former AAG President J. Warren Nystrom supports an annual prize for a paper based upon a recent dissertation in geography. There were 4 finalists in this year’s competition. They presented their papers in a special session on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 where the Nystrom Committee selected two Nystrom Awardees. The Nystrom Committee and the AAG are pleased to announce Bisola Falola of the University of Texas Austin and Qunshan Zhao of Arizona State University as the recipients of the 2018 J. Warren Nystrom Award. Bisola Falola’s dissertation is entitled “Terrains of Trauma – Urban Youth and Policies of Disinvestment.” Qunshan Zhao’s dissertation is entitled “Impact of tree locations and arrangements on outdoor microclimates and human thermal comfort in an urban residential environment.”
Over the next several months, the AAG will be adding a new section to our newsletter and social media accounts to help members get to know the many editors of the AAG suite of journals. This month, meet one of the AAG Journals’ newest editors, Dr. Stephen Hanna. Hanna serves as the Cartography Editor for three of the AAG journals: the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, the Professional Geographer, and GeoHumanities.
Geography education often emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach as a way to understand the breadth of knowledge the discipline has to offer. The two professional geographers interviewed this month in the AAG Profiles of Professional Geographers, Joe Scarpaci, Executive Director of Center for Study of Cuban Culture & Economy and Matthew Connolly, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Central Arkansas, both agree that this big picture approach to understanding the world is a key asset for those looking to undertake a career path in geography. Combine this diverse knowledge base with time management skills to make a winning combination!
The American Association of Geographers is accepting entries from geography programs for the 2018 edition of the Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas. The deadline for submitting a listing has been extended to Friday, June 1, 2018. The 2018 edition of the Guide will be available exclusively online. The Guide lists undergraduate and graduate programs in all areas of geography and includes an 
The American Geosciences Institute’s Policy & Critical Issues program, in partnership with the American Association of Geographers, is hosting a free webinar, Adapting Wildfire Management to 21st Century Conditions, that will take place May 16th from 1:00-2:00 PM EDT. This webinar will explore recent trends in wildfires and changes in contributing factors/drivers of these hazards; examine different wildfire policy and management strategies and how they apply to different ecosystems; and feature case studies of wildfire policy and management strategies in the western and southern states. Speakers will be Tania Schoennagel from the University of Colorado-Boulder, David Godwin from the Southern Fire Exchange, and Vaughan Miller from the Ventura County Fire Department.
Please consider nominating outstanding colleagues for the AAG Honors, the highest awards offered by the American Association of Geographers! AAG Honors are offered annually to recognize outstanding accomplishments by AAG members in research and scholarship, teaching, education, service, and for lifetime achievement. Individual AAG members, specialty groups, affinity groups, departments, and other interested parties are encouraged to nominate outstanding colleagues by June 30.
