The Difference That an Award Can Make (For All of Us)
One of the greatest pleasures of serving as President of the AAG is attending and participating in the Association’s awards ceremonies, both at Regional Division conferences and at the Honors Luncheon held every year at our national meetings. Words cannot adequately describe the feelings of pride and fulfillment that award recipients appear to experience upon…
Stop Teaching GIS
Teach how to learn GIS instead. That was a guiding principle as I recently redesigned the gateway course to the Penn State Online certificate and master's degree programs in GIS. I began developing Nature of Geographic Information in 1998, at the outset of the Penn State Online program. I designed the course to serve adult students…
Annals Special Issue on Social Justice and the City
Every year since 2009 our flagship journal, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, has published a special issue that highlights geographic research around a significant global theme. The tenth special issue of the Annals, published in March 2018, brings together 27 articles on the topic of Social Justice and the City, edited by…
Continuing Creolization in New Orleans Foodways
Among other points of distinction, New Orleans is often and enthusiastically celebrated as a great place to eat. Boosters of the city’s cuisine point to the same cultural hybridity and cosmopolitanism that enabled the flourishing of jazz music and distinctive architectural styles as explanation for the development of Creole cuisine. Tom Fitzmorris, a prominent restaurant…
Essential Geographies of New Orleans Music
Part 2: Rhythms, Blues, and the Infinite Potential of Congo Square What comes after jazz? How does a city reprise its collective creation of the Americas’ most original and distinctive art form? Part 2 of this essay surveys happenings in New Orleans music since the emergence of jazz around the turn of the twentieth century.…
Coastal Land Loss in Louisiana: From Denial to Reality
The coastline formed by the Mississippi River is changing continually as part of the never-ending interplay between the forces and processes reshaping and realigning coastal contours and bathymetry. Over millennia, this formative process created Louisiana’s expansive wetlands that once encompassed million acres (11,500 square miles) – about the size of Connecticut and Delaware combined –…
2018 AAG Annual Meeting Presidential Plenary Announced
The AAG announces the 2018 annual presidential plenary session from its current president, Derek Alderman, as well as a panel of esteemed scholars. The presidential plenary is currently slated to take place during the 2018 AAG annual meeting on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 in the Grand Ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel from 6:30 -8:30 Alderman will…
AAG Announces 2018 Annual Meeting Themes
The AAG is pleased to announce three themes for the 2018 Annual Meeting to be held in New Orleans from April 10-14. Each year, the AAG Council and Executive Director identify theme areas of geography for the annual meeting in order to provide a fresh take on some of the more pressing and timely issues…
Essential Geographies of New Orleans Music
Part 1: Congo Square, Atlantic Exchange, and the Emergence of Jazz New Orleans is a meeting ground. Situated at the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, the city connects North America’s most expansive riverine network with the vast Atlantic basin. Its strategic location has long attracted diverse peoples and ideas, whose…
AAG Releases New Edition of Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas
The AAG's Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas, or The Guide, includes detailed information on undergraduate and graduate geography programs in the United States, Canada, and Latin America, including degree requirements, curricula, faculty qualifications, program specialties, financial assistance, and degrees completed, and more. The 2016-2017 edition of The Guide is now available for free online at The…
Civil Rights Featured Theme of 2017 Geography Awareness Week: A Call for Participation
Established by a joint resolution of the Congress in 1987, Geography Awareness Week (GAW) is observed the third week in November every year. GAW promotes what geography is, why it is important, and the relevance of a geographic education in preparing citizens to understand and debate pressing social and environmental issues and problems. This year's…
Publicize Your Department in the AAG Guide to Geography Programs
The American Association of Geographers is accepting entries from geography programs to be included in the 2017 edition of the Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas. The deadline for submitting a listing has been extended to Friday, June 2, 2017. The 2017 edition of the Guide will be available exclusively online. The Guide serves as a complete and invaluable reference for faculty, prospective students,…