AAG Welcomes New Editor of AAG Review of Books, Thanks Outgoing Editor
The AAG is pleased to announce Debbie Hopkins as the new editor of the AAG Review of Books. 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.
As the new editor of The AAG Review of Books, Debbie Hopkins brings a background in research, teaching, writing, and editing on transport and mobilities, sustainable urban development, low carbon transitions, and mobile labor. She 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 (Department of Continuing Education) program. She completed her master’s degree (Geography, with distinction) at King’s College London in 2010, PhD at the University of Otago (New Zealand) in December 2013, and postdoctoral training at the Centre for Sustainability (Otago, New Zealand, 2014-2016), and the Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford (2016-2017).
In addition to her responsibilities at the AAG Review of Books, Hopkins is the Associate Editor (Transport and Mobilities) of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism and sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Transport Geography. She has also been part of several large research centres and grant applications, including the Energy Cultures project (2013-2016, Otago), the Centre for Innovation and Energy Demand (2016-2018, Sussex, Manchester and Oxford), and the Centre for Research on Energy Demand Solutions (2019-2022, multi-institutional). In addition to this, she leads research on low-carbon transitions, labor and mobilities, largely in relation to freight/trucking and waste. She has co-edited two books: Low Carbon Mobility Transitions (GoodFellow Publishers, 2016) and Transitions in Energy Efficiency and Dema
Kent Mathewson is former Fred B. Kniffen Professor in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University. Mathewson helped start the AAG Review of Books in 2012, and has also been a book review editor for other publications such as the Annals of the AAG, Historical Geography, and Geographical Review for the past 25 years. His founding of the AAG Review of Books is rooted in his conviction that the books geographers publish are the discipline’s face to the world and offer a guide to measure progress in the discipline. AAG wishes him well and reiterates our thanks as he steps into retirement from both LSU and the AAG Review of Books.
Published quarterly, the AAG Review of Books is a special journal highlighting recent texts in geography and related disciplines. The journal features book reviews by geographers and other scholars at various points of their academic careers. We look forward to working with Dr. Hopkins.
Share
President's Column
The Spatial Scale of ‘We’
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.”
This messaging is clearly not limited to Oregon. We’re bombarded with fearful and dire characterizations of the force and magnitude of coronavirus. World leaders are asserting that coronavirus is “the worst public health crisis for a generation” (Boris Johnson), “we are at war” (Emmanuel Macron), or labeling themselves as “a wartime president” (Donald Trump).
At war? In his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, President Barack Obama summarized the conditions under which war is justified: if it’s a last resort, if force is proportional, and if civilians are spared from harm (i.e. collateral damage). He further reflected that throughout history, the notion of “just war” was rarely observed. Our world leaders are certainly invoking rhetoric of war to muster broad public support for their unprecedented actions in the fight against coronavirus. And, polls seem to show that we support these actions. Therefore, we are obliged to ask ourselves whether our actions are, in fact, just.
The World Health Organization collects and maintains statistics on pandemics, epidemics, endemics, and outbreaks. As only a few examples, in 2018 405,000 people died from malaria (out of 228 million known cases) and 1,500,000 people died from tuberculosis (from 10,000,000 known cases). The United Nations reports that 9,000,000 people die of hunger every year (out of over 820 million people who are chronically hungry). This already calls in question Boris Johnson’s assertion that Covid-19 is “the worst public health crisis for a generation.” But now include lockdown-related collateral damage and the UN predicts that the global coronavirus lockdowns will drive an additional 130 million people to the edge of starvation. The World Health Organization estimates that an additional 1.4 million people will die from tuberculosis as a direct result of the global lockdowns. The impact on other indices of health is dizzying, with surges in suicide, domestic violence, and mental health problems (the United States Centers for Disease Control reported in May that one-third of Americans are experiencing Generalized Anxiety Disorder, with rates higher for women, people of color, and people with less education). Factor-in unprecedented unemployment directly tied to coronavirus lockdowns that is surging across class, race, and gender lines, disproportionately affecting women, people with disabilities, and people of color. They bear the brunt of the crisis while we are protected in lockdown.
Apparently, this is what we accept as collateral damage in this war.
So, why doesn’t the world respond in the same way to malaria, tuberculosis, or starvation as it does to COVID-19? The answer is quite simple. Coronavirus has the audacity to attack wealthy white people. It affects visible people, rich people, important people, even world leaders. Those other maladies are primarily relegated to poor people in poor nations. In response to “the worst public health crisis for a generation,” these affected wealthy people adopted a large-scale extraordinary means in the “war” against coronavirus, while other maladies and the less privileged find funding and assistance dwindling. Lucica Ditiu, executive director of Stop TB Partnership succinctly summarizes the disparity.
“TB has been with us for thousands of years. For 100 years we’ve had only an infant vaccine and we have two or three potential vaccines in the pipeline. We look on in amazement at a disease that is 120 days old and it has 100 vaccine candidates in the pipeline. This is really fucked up.”
Ditiu’s statement illuminates the otherness in we. It illustrates the fluidity of how we define we. As a Geographer, I’m struck most by the sudden collapse of the social and spatial scale that defines the we in the rhetoric “we’re all in this together.” Shrinking the scale of we is demanded by our political leaders and supported by our society. But, usually, we lead very interdependent international-scale lives. Our political, economic, and social systems have created an international civilization that mandates the spatial scale of we to be global.
Or does it?
What happens when the we who are threatened are defined by ever-shrinking social and spatial scales of privilege? In the face of a pandemic, the admission to the world of we who can engage in lockdown is brutally strict. The more people we allow into our we, the less safe we are. It becomes necessary to expand the margins of “other” in our effort to define and protect the we.
We have been told that saving lives is more important than the economy. Whose lives? This new we defined by coronavirus is the very essence of privilege, including only those who have the choice to stay at home. And even among those with housing, it works only for those who remain employed and have a home that is uncrowded, safe, non-violent, clean, warm, and well stocked with food and potable water. Our we excludes any of those who cannot participate in the lockdown. This means that we accept a giant portion of the world’s population being collateral damage in this war against coronavirus.
During Spring 2020, I have watched with distress at how easy it has been for the privileged to re-shape their we to a remarkably small spatial and social scale. I’m further horrified by the acceptance of collateral damage that has been caused by the systematic and intentional re-forming of that we. But, of course, the idea of we is fluid. It always has been. Throughout history, membership in we has been defined by spatial and social boundaries. Coronavirus has just created another boundary defining a we: those who benefit from lockdown and those who are collateral damage from lockdown.
Summer Series on questions of Geoethics and Human Rights highlighted by COVID-19 Conditions
By Coline Dony and Emily Fekete
This series developed from discussions that took place at the AAG’s Virtual Annual Meeting, April 6-10, 2020, during publicly available panels of the breaking theme “Geographers Respond to COVID-19”. The panels were set up by AAG specialty groups and their chairs who wanted 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. Recordings of the panels are still available for anyone to watch.
The discussions raised important, high-stakes questions of ethics and human rights, including ecological-ethical dilemmas of geographical research; access to digital spaces as a vital right; higher education in internet-deserts; the unequal burden of diseases in urban settings; as well as ethics of animal testing for vaccine development. The breaking theme attracted about 1,050 live attendees across the nine panels and an additional 230 views of the panel recordings. As one of the founding members of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition, the AAG is interested in bringing these important discussions to a broader audience.
We invited the panel organizers to write the pieces below to reflect on the ethical and human rights costs of advancing science in times of immediacy, such as COVID-19, when personal geographical data are abundant. We further asked them to reflect on the responsibility of geographers to the public?
‘Slow’ Geographies and Ecological-Ethical Dilemmas of International Research
By Ashley Fent, Joseph Holler, Christine Gibb, Sachiko Ishihara, and Bill Moseley. Sidra Pierson and Hannah Gokaslan contributed editing.
The novel coronavirus spread rapidly into a global pandemic on the heels of unprecedented global social and economic integration—including academic practices of research and education in distant field sites, networking for research collaboration, and dissemination at national and international conferences. In response to COVID-19, governments imposed lockdowns and travel restrictions, fracturing global integration and cancelling plans for field research and academic conferences. Our virtual AAG panel deliberated how geographers may ethically and responsibly sustain climate and development research from home, and the costs of limiting travel on research quality and individual careers.
The pre-COVID status quo of global integration, consumerism, and carbon-intensive capitalism has caused unprecedented global environmental change, increased economic inequality, and disproportionately affected marginalized communities. Geographers are complicit; we have developed long-standing research relationships in vulnerable communities through a global system of unequal mobility, access to resources, and consumption of fossil fuels. Emissions dropped during the pandemic, but economic recovery and stimulus threaten to return us to our pre-COVID collision course with climate change. Scientists and business leaders are calling on us to reject business-as-usual, inventory our value systems and build back a cleaner economy. Corbera and others advocate a new ethics of care in academic professions, echoing the Great Lakes Feminist Geography Collective’s call for slow scholarship.
While our panel shared concerns about the adverse climatic impacts of international travel, we recognized the benefits of being immersed in the communities whose challenges we seek to understand. We shared commitments to physical presence in international field sites for building relationships, serendipitous discoveries, and avoiding pitfalls of disembodied data; but we also recognized an imperative to reconsider our own professional practices. We debated strategies for limiting the ecological costs of our travel-intensive approaches: less frequent but longer research trips, in-country travel by bicycle or public transportation, and substituting in-person conference attendance and fieldwork with remote participation and collaboration.
Strategies to limit ecological costs of academic work also present discriminatory challenges. Longer research trips require substantial funding and time, good health, and freedom from caregiving responsibilities. Students gain valuable international experience facilitated by shorter field visits with faculty supervisors. Successful remote collaboration is easier when it is based on pre-existing in-person relationships, and therefore still requires upfront investments in research travel.
Panel participants raised concerns about neocolonial representations and practices of international fieldwork. The pandemic has highlighted extreme inequalities in health systems, economic relief options, and vulnerabilities within and between nations; yet the near-global travel restrictions have partially and temporarily leveled the playing field among academics usually characterized by highly differential mobilities. Facing the prospect of prolonged restrictions on international travel, we must develop different and more collaborative strategies for maintaining international research programs. These strategies may be less fulfilling or effective for those of us accustomed to hypermobility; however, they also have potential to improve equity in academia and bolster the research capacities and profiles of our academic colleagues in the Global South.
Finally, our panel noted the timeliness of a discussion on slow geographies and addressing ecological-ethical dilemmas of international research during a global pandemic. This forced experiment challenges us to transform our professional practices as geographers.
The Digital Divide and the Right to Safe Internet Access in Times of COVID-19
The activated “Corona-Warning App” that launched in Germany in mid-June 2020. Credit: Authors
By Elisabeth Sommerlad and Yossi David
The current coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis highlights the importance of access to the internet in everyday life. During the pandemic, the restrictions on freedom of movement around the world are offset through digital platforms for our basic needs. Interpersonal communication is increasingly taking place in the digital sphere, and the growing importance of digital spaces for the fulfillment of basic needs has become apparent (e.g., food supply, education, information, health care, welfare). However, this argument ignores people affected by digital inequalities. We argue that the COVID-19 crisis is a unique event that reveals various critical aspects that were easier to be disregarded in our previous, so-called “normal” lives. We call for reviewing prior norms and practices, addressing the importance of internet access in times of crisis, and focusing on three key elements of digital spaces: (1) the digital divide could constitute a violation of fundamental (human) rights, (2) the unregulated internet penetration could lead to a violation of the right to privacy and security, especially for vulnerable groups, and (3) the lack of systematic and reliable fact-checking is dangerous to the public, in light of (mis)information distributed by ordinary people and official figures. The observable developments of new digital spaces of flow make us call for a debate on safe internet access as a human right.
We propose not to consider access to information via the internet as a mere privilege. Instead, the current pandemic emphasizes the necessity of accessing vital services and accurate information online. The question arises as to the extent to which (inter)national communities have an obligation to provide their citizens with affordable and stable internet access and to device-based digital media, independent of place of residence or financial resources. While promoting this, it is essential to strengthen the transparency of digital platforms and the responsibility of involved players. This is aimed at establishing neutral and democratic means of media regulation to ensure privacy (e.g. protection of personal data) and cyber security. It is also intended to prevent the abuse of online data as (new) instruments of cyber surveillance and of social media to spread misinformation. When we look at the tensions triggered by the crisis, numerous ethical questions arise, which we should approach from a perspective that combines media geography and communication studies. Times of crisis reinforce social barriers, emphasizing gaps, inequalities, and vulnerabilities. In the context of COVID-19, social inequalities are escalating and tangible new dimensions of digital divide reveal themselves on a global and local level.
The advantages and disadvantages that crises bring to our lives also require a deeper involvement of human geography and media scholars in public and civic policy making. Critical perspectives are essential to ensure full and comprehensive awareness of the different facets of political instructions, increased internet use, and social distancing. We argue that it is part of our duty as academics to take a critical perspective on the different aspects of digital inequality and also to pay attention to the dangers of reducing the importance of ethics under the heading of life-saving measures taken by governments and businesses.
By Libby Lunstrum, Stephanie Rutherford, Neel Ahuja, Bruce Braun, Rosemary Collard, and Rebecca W.Y. Wong
As part of the AAG Initiative “Geographers respond to COVID-19,” we examined how more-than-human geographies and study of the wildlife trade can shed light on COVID-19’s roots, routes of transmission, and impacts.
This begins with the need to question and problematize “origin stories,” the discourses that circulate about how pandemics emerge. These origin stories have high stakes, legitimizing certain modes of intervention over others. For example, the narrative that Chinese live animal markets are the roots of the coronavirus’s jump from animal to human is often tinged with an Orientalist gaze and oversimplifies our understanding of COVID-19’s origin, spread, and impact. We must consider these markets and the wildlife trade, but only in their complexity (which uncomfortably implicates Western countries too), the possibility of other points of origin, and the broader intensification of our interactions with animals and non-human environments, including factory farms and habitat disruption. We must also ask what is truly killing us. The latter, for instance, includes systemic discrimination, including poverty and racism, and the austerity measures crippling our early response and healthcare systems.
The wet-market origin story has also led numerous conservation organizations to demand the shutting down of much of the wildlife trade and live animal markets. This carries unforeseen risks from pushing poor rural people dependent on the trade deeper into poverty and pushing the trade itself underground, to amplifying modes of zoonotic security and surveillance that disproportionately target the poor.
Our response to COVID-19 also highlights the ethics and politics of animal testing, in particular test subjects whose lives are sacrificed to find treatments and an eventual vaccine. There are pressing questions surrounding their availability, sacrifice, and care. Every year China exports thousands of monkeys, the most sought-after test subjects, to the US, and it is unclear whether they will be included in the proposed wildlife trade ban, one the US government has resisted on these very grounds. Bringing these “test subjects” into the realm of moral subjects, we must reflect on how to develop an ethical framework that can embrace them as “frontline care workers,” albeit not of their own accord, in ways that foreground their welfare and sacrifice. Here we must shift the lens to look at animals not just as vectors of disease. They are so much more.
Against calls for a return to normalcy and while recognizing the horrific impacts of COVID-19, especially on the already-vulnerable, we have a profound opportunity to rethink our relationships with our economy, political system, each other, and the natural world, including wildlife. We see a need to foreground dignity and protection over efficiency, austerity, and brute nationalism. COVID-19 reveals the political fiction of human exceptionalism and exposes our shared intimacies with the natural world and one another. Our task as critical scholars is to reimagine how we might better live amidst intimacies that are both dangerous and life-giving to both us and our more-than-human counterparts.
University station in Hong Kong during the pandemic
Post-Secondary Teaching and Learning in a Pandemic
By Terence Day, I-Chun Catherine Chang, Calvin King Lam Chung, William Doolittle, Jacqueline Housel, Paul McDaniel
COVID-19 forced universities and colleges throughout the world to move classes online. In most cases there was very little time to prepare, but faculty and students confronted the challenge. Courses were completed, and students graduated. Seen through the eyes of some college and university administrations, the transition went surprisingly well. However, looking at things more closely, there were issues, inequities, and unfairness for many students and faculty. And, of course, geography played a role in that, with different infection rates and ability of students and faculty to adapt.
For some students it was easy. Many students appreciated the opportunity to work from home, without the hassle of having to go to campus, or get up early. They could wake up, walk over to their desk, open their laptop, and take their class. However, that assumed the student had a home conducive to work. A 2018 survey found that 36% of university students in the US were housing insecure (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018). Many of us also assumed that students have laptops. That turned out not to be the case as some students struggled to do exercises on their phones, and maintain wifi connectivity. Their difficulties highlight the social vulnerabilities of people living in internet deserts, as internet access is a lifeline for many, especially those in lockdown areas.
The loss of employment income was an added stressor for many students. COVID-19 related lay-offs and reduced hours of paid employment provoked financial stress. Those who live in areas with a high concentration of businesses related to hospitality and transport, are likely to have been most hard hit. In other cases students worked increased hours due to their status as ‘essential workers’ and also to support the family financially as the collective household income plummeted. Some students were pressured to work in conditions they felt were unsafe. With elementary and high schools closed, families with children at home and no daycare confronted challenges as they tried to study, and look after and educate their children.
Race, ethnicity, and nationality also played a role. Evidence suggests that Black and Latinx populations have higher age-adjusted COVID-19 related mortality rates than the general population (Gross et al., 2020). This impacts Black and Latinx students directly, but also provokes distracting concern about friends and family. There were other issues as well. Students who looked Asian were targeted for abuse based on the perceived Chinese origin of COVID-19. International students had to make hard decisions as borders closed. These same issues impacted faculty, as well as students.
Article 26 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “… higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit”. This means that universities and colleges have an obligation to support ALL their students, and to facilitate ways to overcome the challenges imposed by COVID-19. Universities and colleges must provide enhanced services and accommodations for disadvantaged students, and address inequalities, prejudices, discrimination, disparities, racism and sexism issues in both online and face-to-face learning environments. We suggest that universities and colleges undertake student and faculty surveys throughout the coming year and adapt institutional policies for local circumstances.
The City at Risk: Urban Geographers Respond to COVID-19
By Richard D. Quodomine, Dayne Walling, Augusta Wilson, Eric Hoffman, Michael J. Allen, Ian Purcell, Toni Castro-Cosio, and Hannah Torres
In April of 2020, Urban Geographers from the academic and practicing sides of the discipline came together to begin to assess and address the public, social, economic, and scientific challenges apparent in the early stage of the pandemic because of how adversely, and disproportionately, COVID-19 had impacted several populations and institutions linked to urban environments. While the most serious outbreaks had occurred in places with large population sizes and high densities, such as in New York City, Chicago, and New Orleans, and clusters can theoretically appear anywhere, several other urban area characteristics and spatial factors of systems, such as mobility of wealthy suburban cohorts, mass transit patterns, locations of municipally supported housing, concentrations of poverty, immigration networks and status, air quality attainment, aging water infrastructure, occupational and industrial growth sector mismatch, and fragmented government authority, compound negative public health effects and complicate effective response.
The multi-faceted and multi-scalar demands of responding to the pandemic are immense in every urban area. In Philadelphia, for example, 53 percent of Philadelphia’s COVID-19 fatal cases were in prisons, senior living facilities or similar protective quarters, many of which are municipal facilities. The schools have been closed, but as that is also the source of nutrition for many young people, school food services have had to remain open and attempt to serve in creative ways. Providing access to instruction has meant the rapid deployment of a laptop loaner program and discount high speed internet rolled out to upwards of 50,000 students.
The COVID-19 outbreak has also overlapped with existing and long-term patterns of disinvestment, imposed austerity and fiscal distress, which limit resources delivered to communities that need them most. The tax base of central and older cities has been reduced through federal and state public policy decisions in recent decades. In Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, the virus had an early severe effect. This is part of a trend where the state retains a greater share of public revenues leaving cities with less funding for essential services than fifteen years ago. Additionally, revenues from many local sales and business taxes are significantly reduced. Drops in transit ridership not only worsen bottom lines but potentially impact local shares of capital projects and jeopardize the receipt of future matching federal and state funds. Cities operate as hubs for regional activities, transportation, medicine and government, and their ability to be that is heavily impacted by the pandemic.
Serious scientific questions remain about how COVID-19 is manifesting and intersecting with environmental, racial, and medical justice issues. Due to historical inequality, urban areas have seen this disparity has recently come into stark view with the Black Lives Matter protests. While seen as primarily in opposition to potentially racist or overly violent police tactics, there is as much concern over how people of color are treated in health and social services. In many areas, those attainment areas have higher vulnerable populations, including lower income, people of color, aging populations and people with disabilities, resulting in higher mortality or long-term morbidities in their resident populations. Public health, policing and other policies must help guide equitable recovery and pay keen attention to the challenges confronting urban areas that have created deeply disparate effects and outcomes.
Going forward, studies will be necessary to determine COVID-19 impacts on Urban spaces. Possibly more importantly, the impacts of the recovery efforts, in terms of return on investment and the equity of those investments as they impact many impacted populations of color, LGBTQ status, and incomes.
Participatory Forum on New Requirements for Ethical Geographic Science in Rapid Research
To continue the discussion of questions that have been developed throughout both the AAG Annual Meeting Breaking Theme sessions and this Summer Series, please join us in a participatory forum on October 1, 2020. Click here to register and for more information.
Two new interns have joined the AAG staff this summer! The AAG would like to welcome Sekour and Sarah to the organization.
Sekour Mason recently graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Geographical Sciences: GIS and Computer Cartography. He hopes to secure a full-time career in the near future and return to UMD later to obtain his Master’s degree. Sekour was born in Washington, DC and currently resides in Laurel, Maryland. In his spare time, Sekour likes to watch sports, play video games, and be in the company of his friends.
Sarah Strope is a senior at George Washington University, pursing a B.A. in International Affairs and Environmental Studies with a concentration in international economics. Sarah has previously interned for the Smithsonian National Zoo as a finance intern and the World Bank Group’s Conference on Land and Poverty as a VIP coordinator and a conference assistant. After graduation she hopes to potentially work as a Peace Corps volunteer or go to graduate school for a geography or environmental studies-related subject. In her spare time Sarah enjoys reading and traveling.
If you or someone you know is interested in applying for an internship at the AAG, the AAG seeks interns on a year-round basis for the spring, summer, and fall semesters. More information on internships at the AAG is also available on the Jobs & Careers section of the AAG website at: https://www.aag.org/internships.
Share
GeoMentor Case Study
GIS Career Mentorship with High School Juniors in Virginia
GeoMentor Volunteers: Clark Nexun Firm (Pravin Mathur, Kate Chaney, Jose Carvalho, Janet Webster, Gene Corbell)
Location: Chesapeak, Virginia
Grade level of participating students: 11th
Activity Theme/Focus: GIS Immersion
Number of Participants: 9
How did you connect with your collaborator? The initial partnership was introduced through an employee whose son attended the school. We have continued to partner with the school each summer.
Describe your collaboration process. There is an initial information night for the students where they can meet with representatives from different firms/companies. The students are then allowed to sign up for the company they are interested in. A colleague met with the Department Heads to see how much time they can commit to mentoring the students each summer. Then they let the teacher/school know how many students we can accept each summer.
Describe your tasks/involvement. Clark Nexsen is a multi-disciplinary firm — Architecture, Civil Engineering, GIS, Transportation, Bridges, Wireless and Interiors. Each summer, high school students enrolled in the STEM program are invited to our corporate office for a week of immersion. The STEM students meet for several hours with each department, to learn about how professionals in these fields do their day-to-day projects.
The GIS Department and the Wireless Department had the students for a two-hour span. We divided our GIS information into four sections:
Basic Overview: What is GIS?, How many industries GIS supports, How GIS can be used to analyze data to solve problems, and How we use GIS at Clark Nexsen. Also, the components of GIS, a BASIC explanation of Map Projections, and images of GPS equipment. We then provide them with links to local colleges with Geospatial classes and programs with links to useful geospatial websites.
Introduction Videos: This year we added videos from the ESRI Users Conference.
GIS related Apps that are fun to use: We showed how we use the what3words free app during our demonstration — mostly for fun and adventure/social activities in our off hours, but also to assist us in foreign countries where there is a language barrier. We also demonstrated ESRI StoryMaps and viewed a few public StoryMaps created by other users.
Field Data Collection & Equipment Overview: A demonstration of some of our equipment we use in the field was presented — Leica Disto Laser Range finders for measuring building footprints (we let the students measure the room), the Trimble GPS units (more about this later) and the Tough Pads with Draft Site (a lite CAD program) and ArcGIS Desktop loaded. We were partnered with our Wireless Department and they demonstrated the Leica 360 Scanner and discussed the benefits of use and how the technology works.
We conveyed what makes the GPS equipment work, but also shared an example of how the equipment could be used to benefit our clients. Some examples covered were on the benefits of data produced by feature collection efforts and the sort of information one could assign to those points collected (attribution).
Our overarching goals were to engage the students, open their awareness to GIS, and show how they are already interacting with GIS without even realizing it (navigational apps). Most of the students were focusing on Engineering studies. We showed them GIS and the science behind engineering and other market sectors. We explained how we solve complex questions through the analyzing of spatial data. Once in college, Clark Nexsen offers them to return to us for their internships during the summer months. Once graduated from college, some of our interns have returned to start their careers with us.
What did you gain from the experience? What do you think your educator collaborator and/or the students gained? Our GIS department gained a new perspective of how little the high school demographic is aware of GIS as a stand-alone technology field of study, how the Science of Where is at the forefront of so many industries, and how GIS plays a role in their daily lives.
We are hoping they gained a general understanding of GIS and how it can walk lock-step with the STEM industries they are interested in pursuing. We provided follow-up information on the colleges offering GIS programs and a sheet of helpful weblinks to Geospatial websites.
Share
Council Meeting Minutes
Council Meeting Minutes June Summer 2020
Share
Newsletters
Newsletter – June 2020
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Making Data Meaningful Or Geography’s Contribution to Data Science
By David Kaplan
Geography has always been about data. After all, the field was founded and developed over the search for more and better information. It was 200 years ago that Alexander von Humboldt, perhaps the most famous geographer, acquired field observations in the Andes Mountains and used these observations to make a series of connections… Later—as geographers came to critically inspect the sources, meanings, and uses of information—data continues to be the engine of our discipline.
Join us for the 2020 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!
AAG has issued a statement condemning the racism, violence, and systemic inequities that directly threaten the lives of Black Americans. Within our own community, we stand in support of Black geographers and geoscientists, who bear a disproportionate daily burden in confronting and fighting structural racism. We renew our commitment to actively combat oppression and support our members who challenge institutions to create a more just and inclusive society. We welcome your thoughts, feedback, and suggestions on how we as an organization can offer support. Contact us at feedback [at] aag [dot] org.
Celebrate Pride 2020: Join AAG’s Queer and Trans Geographies Specialty Group
The Queer and Trans Geographies Specialty Group (QTGSG) welcomes AAG members who identify as LGBTQ2IA+, whether or not your work touches on LGBTQ2IA+ topics. QTGSG is here to support and connect you to our community of LGBTQ2IA+ geographers in all the subdisciplines and all sectors. To find out more, follow @QTGAAG on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook; or find the group in the AAG’s Knowledge Communities.
AAG to Hold Special Election to Update Conduct Policy
In April, AAG formally adopted a revised Professional Conduct Policy, signaling an important benchmark in the work of the Harassment-Free AAG Task Force, AAG Council, and AAG leadership and staff. In order to include the provisions of the new policy in the AAG’s Constitution and Bylaws, members must vote on whether or not they choose to ratify the proposed changes. The special election will be held online between June 4 and 19, 2020. As in other elections, an electronic ballot will be emailed to all member’s current email addresses. Please ensure your email address is up to date to receive the ballot.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released its most recent report card on geography education in the United States. The 2018 report card, with a representative sample size of 13,000 8th graders, provides insight into student achievement in a wide array of geographic content and skills. Senior Advisor for Geography Education, Michael Solem discusses the outcomes of the NAEP report and the questions it poses for researchers in geography education.
Updated each academic year, the Guide lists undergraduate and graduate programs in all areas of geography and includes an interactive map that students can use to explore and discover geography programs, with easy-to-use search tools to find programs by degree type, region, and program specialization. It has long been an invaluable reference for faculty, prospective students, government agencies, and private firms in the United States, Canada, and throughout the world.
For more information and to list your program, please contact Mark Revell at guide [at] aag [dot] org.
POLICY CORNER
As States Reopen Amid COVID-19, Data Integrity is Key
In response to his recent comments that a Florida Department of Health employee with a geography degree “isn’t a data scientist,” the AAG sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) reminding him of the importance of geography in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. These comments were made after the GIS manager at hand claimed her recent termination was the result of her refusal to manipulate state health data to reflect favorable conditions for reopening. Florida is not the only state that’s been called into question over issues of COVID-19 data integrity. Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont and others have been in the spotlight on issues ranging from accidental inconsistencies in calculations to perceived manipulation of the numbers.
With the U.S. unemployment rate hitting 14.7%, reflective of some 23.1 million people out of work, there is no doubt that Americans need solutions and resources to sustain themselves while the economy stagnates. But as we craft plans to send laborers and consumers back into the market, it is imperative to do so strategically and with the most up-to-date public health data available. We cannot let eagerness to resume everyday life preclude our capacity to contain the spread of the virus and to keep individuals safe.
The AAG recognizes that geographers and GIScientists continue to play a crucial role in the public health analyses that inform our urgent policy decisions addressing the COVID-19 crisis. It is up to our nation’s public officials to join us in upholding the highest quality of science and to subsequently act with the most accurate, transparent available data.
In the News:
On May 21, Sens. Schumer (D-NY) and Young (R-IN) introduced the Endless Frontier Act (S. 3832), which proposes a new Technology Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and renames the agency the “National Science and Technology Foundation” (NSTF). The bill provides $100 billion over five years for research and development in 10 technology areas of global strategic significance.
On June 3rd, Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan’s nomination as next Director of the National Science Foundation was favorably reported out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. His final confirmation will be before the full Senate.
“If you have a passion for a subject and a passion for mapping it, then you can be a geographer,” says Richard Quodomine, Senior Lead GIS Analyst, Department of Public Property, City of Philadelphia and this month’s featured Professional Geographer. Quodomine emphasizes that the ability to solve problems, a desire to learn new things, and clear communication skills are some of the best assets for a geography career. In terms of job growth, Quodomine thinks that the future is bright, especially for GIS work focusing on urban redevelopment, public safety, or climate change mitigation efforts.
As many countries resume higher levels of activity, geographers continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 and draw out the lessons of the winter and spring.
At Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, PhD students Siqiao Xie and Yining Tan are working with professor Wei Li on a project entitled The Geography of COVID-19 and Asian American Vulnerability, Infection, and Anti-Discrimination and are adopting geographer Susan Cutter’s Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) through a customization of the CDC’s SVI, using its four themes (socioeconomic, household composition and disability, minority status and language, housing type and transportation) and 15 variables, but crosstabbing each variable with Asian population. The illustration is a county-level map that illustrates the distinct spatial patterns between the two sets of SVIs (Asian specific v CDC general population). The project team then used the adapted SVI to explain the patterns of COVID-19 Asian infection and death data, and anti-Asian discrimination incidents. The team will now further examine whether such a method is applicable and can be generalizable among different vulnerable population groups.
Penn State’s geographers–both professors and alumni–are using geospatial data in several projects, from tracking disease transmission and allocating resources to prevent spread, to proactively assessing activity and mobility to address prevention.
Do you know about a geographer’s work to respond to COVID-19? Contact Lisa Schamess, AAG Director of Communications.
RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Call for Nominations for AAG Honors, AAG Fellows, and Committees
Please consider nominating outstanding colleagues for the AAG Honors, the highest awards offered by the American Association of Geographers, and the AAG Fellows, a program to recognize geographers who have made significant contributions to advancing geography. Individual AAG members, specialty groups, affinity groups, departments, and other interested parties are encouraged to nominate outstanding colleagues by June 30. Openings are also available to serve on either the AAG Honors Committee or the AAG Nominating Committee. Nominations of members who wish to serve on these committees are also due June 30.
Call for Participants: AGI Study on the impact of COVID-19 on the Geosciences
AGI is conducting a year-long study to understand how geoscience employers and educational institutions are changing their workplace and instructional environments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to discover which of these changes will become permanent. This study is open to all geoscientists, including geoscience students, retired, and not currently employed, who reside in the United States, and are at least 18 years old. Over the next 52 weeks, AGI will email a brief online status survey twice a month to each participant, which will only take a few minutes to complete. The results of this study will be valuable in helping geoscience academic institutions, geoscience employers and decision makers to understand the structural impacts on the geoscience enterprise from the COVID-19 pandemic.
James R. McDonald passed away on April 20, 2020. A proud 50 year member of the AAG, McDonald was a professor of geography at Eastern Michigan University from 1965 until his retirement in 2000. McDonald’s work specialized in migration, tourism, and environment assessment in Eastern Europe, predominantly France. In addition to publishing two books and numerous articles, McDonald was the recipient of research grants from the National Geographic Society, the Social Science Research Council, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
AAG Statement on Racism and the Death of George Floyd
Share
President's Column
Making Data Meaningful Or Geography’s Contribution to Data Science
Geography has always been about data. After all, the field was founded and developed over the search for more and better information. It was 200 years ago that Alexander von Humboldt, perhaps the most famous geographer, acquired field observations in the Andes Mountains and used these observations to make a series of connections. In her 2015 book, The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf writes how Humboldt presented data he had painstakingly collected about a mountain:
To the left and right of the mountain he placed several columns that provided related details and information. By picking a particular height of the mountain, one could trace connections across the table and the drawing of the mountain to learn about temperature, say, or humidity or atmospheric pressure, as well as what species of animals and plants could be found at different altitudes . . . All this information could then be linked to the other major mountains across the world, which were listed according to their height next to the outline of Chimborazo. (p. 103)
Alexander von Humboldt: 19th Century Data Scientist
Data continued to power geographical quests and queries. While many nineteenth-century geographers sought to find novel information about places they encountered, geographers in the twentieth century questioned how to make sense of it. These debates focused on factors of causation, the value of regional synthesis, and the spatial variations of select data. Later—as geographers came to critically inspect the sources, meanings, and uses of information—data continues to be the engine of our discipline.
So, it was particularly disheartening to hear the governor of Florida dismiss somebody with advanced degrees in geography as not being a “data scientist.” As most of you are probably aware, this remark came as justification for the firing of Rebekah Jones, the architect and manager of Florida’s acclaimed COVID-19 dashboard, purportedly because Florida officials did not like how she was presenting the data. Sadly, this follows along some other attempts at squelching inconvenient truths, like banning the use of the term “climate change.” In justification, Governor DeSantis said that Jones “is not a data scientist” because she has a degree in geography. Whatever the reasons for terminating an employee who had previously been praised and profiled, this is a particularly low blow.
And what is “data science” anyway? The Data Science Association, which ought to know, defines it as “the scientific study of the creation, validation and transformation of data to create meaning.” Accordingly, a data scientist “can play with data, spot trends and learn truths few others know.” This sounds an awful lot like what a lot of geographers do. Of course, I don’t need to tell you about how much data creation and analysis is involved in fields such as climatology, housing analysis, land science, big data, to name just a few. The major scientific development of our field, Geographic Information Science, is built around the manipulation of locationally based data. ESRI has developed a COVID-19 GIS Hub, and geographers have been active in examining COVID-19 in light of vulnerable people, economic data, and the spaces of everyday life.
The Florida governor’s drive-by slighting is yet more evidence of geographical ignorance and insensitivity. We have a long way in correcting for the type of geographical illiteracy that relegates half the world to “sh*t-hole countries” and where many cannot locate North Korea on a map. It begins early, as most school children still lack basic proficiency in geographical concepts. This has real consequences. It causes the public to overstate certain dangers to our security while minimizing perils at our front door.
We also need to consider how we got to a place where the very essence of what we do can be so easily dismissed. The state of Florida has several fantastic geography programs: strong PhD granting departments, excellent masters, bachelors and community college programs. Yet, the lack of general knowledge about our field still disappoints. It is easy to complain about willful ignorance, but who could imagine people saying that a trained economist knows nothing about trade, or that a botanist provides no guidance on ecosystems. Yet here is where we are. The hope of the AP Human Geography explosion—especially prominent in Florida—is that it will result in a generation of people who know what geography does and why it matters. Any other steps we can take—from responding forcefully to these misstatements, to seeding geographers in public agencies and private companies—will mercifully wash away such unfortunate views.
__________
When I was elected as vice president of the AAG in February 2018, I would have never thought that my presidential term would be quite so eventful. It began auspiciously, with the hiring of our new executive director and the prospect of new horizons, and it has ended with the upending of society as the pandemic has completely restructured how we live, work, and congregate, while the murder of George Floyd exposes once again the vicious and unrelenting racism embedded in our society.
If there was a theme to my presidential year, it lay in expanding the community of geographers. We have accomplished some terrific things including more assistance to the AAG regions and the prospect of a new international councilor. Unfortunately, the pandemic prevented us from experiencing the remarkable community manifested in our annual conference. This year, we missed the chance to come together in lecture halls, meeting rooms, hotel lobbies, bars, and cafes. We lost our chance to reunite with old friends, mentors, and students, to personally tell a colleague how much you enjoyed her article, to come together and plan further projects. To commune.
Given the circumstances, we have tried to carry forward, with virtual options and laying the groundwork for a return of physical conferences in the near future. We have also developed a remarkable taskforce to address the challenges brought about by COVID-19. My final presidential communication to you, later this month, will feature the results of that taskforce.
In the meantime, I want to thank everybody who has made this year so memorable and meaningful. The past presidents, especially Glen MacDonald, Sheryl Beach, and Derek Alderman have each helped me find my footing. I look forward to working with Amy Lobben and Emily Yeh in the coming year as we continue to confront the issues of the coronavirus and the desire to move ahead. The AAG staff have been a remarkable backstop. They have all been so wonderful, but I would especially thank Candida Mannozzi, Gary Langham, Becky Pendergast, Emily Fekete, and Oscar Larson for guidance at various key points over the year. And of course, I want to thank you—for trusting me as president, for emailing me your insights, and for helping me through this unprecedented year. Never forget that the American Association of Geographers is your organization. And never forget that our strength lies in our community. May we move forward together.
AAG Members get exclusive access to publications, prominent journals, unique advocacy, grant, scholarship and professional opportunities with access to industry focus communities, and event discounts, including our annual meeting.
Some content may only be accessible if you belong to specific Specialty or Affinity Groups. You can still update your membership below. You will need to go through the Join flow, but you do not need to repurchase your membership unless it is expired or about to expire.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
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.”
GeoMentor Volunteers:
In addition to the most recently published journal, read the latest issue of the other AAG journals online:
In April, AAG formally adopted a revised 
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released its most recent report card on geography education in the United States. The 2018 report card, with a representative sample size of 13,000 8th graders, provides insight into student achievement in a wide array of geographic content and skills. Senior Advisor for Geography Education, Michael Solem discusses the outcomes of the NAEP report and the questions it poses for researchers in geography education.
The AAG will continue to accept late submissions to the 
In response to his 
“If you have a passion for a subject and a passion for mapping it, then you can be a geographer,” says Richard Quodomine, Senior Lead GIS Analyst, Department of Public Property, City of Philadelphia and this month’s featured Professional Geographer. Quodomine emphasizes that the ability to solve problems, a desire to learn new things, and clear communication skills are some of the best assets for a geography career. In terms of job growth, Quodomine thinks that the future is bright, especially for GIS work focusing on urban redevelopment, public safety, or climate change mitigation efforts.
At 
Please consider nominating outstanding colleagues for the 
AGI is conducting a year-long study to understand how geoscience employers and educational institutions are changing their workplace and instructional environments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to discover which of these changes will become permanent. This study is open to all geoscientists, including geoscience students, retired, and not currently employed, who reside in the United States, and are at least 18 years old. Over the next 52 weeks, AGI will email a brief online status survey twice a month to each participant, which will only take a few minutes to complete. The results of this study will be valuable in helping geoscience academic institutions, geoscience employers and decision makers to understand the structural impacts on the geoscience enterprise from the COVID-19 pandemic.
James R. McDonald passed away on April 20, 2020. A proud 50 year member of the AAG, McDonald was a professor of geography at Eastern Michigan University from 1965 until his retirement in 2000. McDonald’s work specialized in migration, tourism, and environment assessment in Eastern Europe, predominantly France. In addition to publishing two books and numerous articles, McDonald was the recipient of research grants from the National Geographic Society, the Social Science Research Council, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Geography has always been about data. After all, the field was founded and developed over the search for more and better information. It was 200 years ago that 