Virtual Geography Convention 2014: Does Distance Matter in Distance Education?

Welcome to the Virtual Geography Convention 2014!  If you wish to submit to the virtual geography convention please contact catholicgauze [at] gmail [dot] com.

Heng Luo, Anthony Robinson, James Detwiler, and John Dulton of Pennsylvania State University have posted on the internet their quantitative study: Does geographic distance matter in distance education?  Though they only look at the Master's in GIS program at Pennsylvania State for the study their answer makes sense.

Does geographic distance matter in distance education from hengluo628

Virtual Geograph Convention 2014: What is Wrong with the Geography in Academia in One Tweet

This is what happens when the Association of American Geographers lets anyone present at their annual conference without any sort of review.  This is also what happens when geography is lost as a discipline in academia.

Wendy Burk shows her transcription - not translation - of an interview with a tree, in the subject's habitat #AAG2014 #geopoetics
— VAdm Richard Scriven (@RichardScriven) April 10, 2014

"Geographic Inventory" (aka "Battlespace Inventory") for Business and Non-Profit Research

When I was in Afghanistan I had some military friends do what I called a "battlespace inventory" (BI).  The BI is a mental map of requested variables drawn on a loosely defined area called "the battlespace" along with areas of influence.  This allows the map creator to show what they consider to be important, where these variables are, and more importantly reveals gaps to be studied.  For instance, the drawer could show they only know of two of the three local rebel groups or reveal that they only have a loose idea of where the rebels are.   And most interestingly, they could show that they only consider a ten mile-area as important even though they have been assigned a much larger area, or on the flip side they could show that they consider a whole zone under their influence while rebels hold most of the country side.

The BI was then compared with what I knew as the battlefield's "brain geographer".  This way the solider could gauge what they need to be more aware of and areas of poor understanding.

Right now in helping out build up a parish I am about to redeploy the battle inventory as the Geography Inventory" (GI).  I am going to be asking certain people to draw the nearby churches in the "local area".   I will be using the GI to see what the church operators consider to be the local area, how far people will likely come from, what churches they are aware of, and what churches they are not aware of.  I can then help them by filling in any gaps of knowledge.

As I continue to develop the GI in various field studies I will test out how variables like known urban/rural transportation barriers such as limited bridges over rivers, quantifying variables like bigger business versus mom-and-pop shops, demographics, etc.  Finally, I desire to make the final steps of the GI to move beyond the mental map of one person to a group comparing each other's mental map and conducting field research to fill any gaps.  The end goal is to have the customer more aware of their "battlespace".  Greater knowledge of one's geographic surroundings and their competition will aid businesses and other groups in understanding where to focus efforts and even areas to avoid.

As this develops I will keep you all informed.

The Military-Industrial Complex and Geography

Geography is a racket.  Well, professional and academic Geography can be, anyways.  The crooked relationship between professional geography, academic geography, and the military is not universal but it does exist.  While many academic geographers are on the political Left and would go well out of their way not to be associated with the military while they feed off public money via salaries and grants, some in the more conservative geospatial realm of Geography are forming a military-industrial-academic iron triangle.

The main main alliance is between ESRI and the government and the military.  ESRI controls GIS in the government via ArcGIS.  One will never find another GIS program on closed government systems.  ESRI does not need to make a popular GIS program which people can afford as it can rely on high cost (up to $1,500 per user) licences.

Another example is the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation.  The USGIF is an organization which lobbies for federal funding for geospatial technology and tools.  Its board is comprised of member of the geospatial business community and former government officials.  The USGIF has a close working relationship Department of Defense bodies like the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.  It hosts the GEOINT conferences which brings the directors of these agencies to speak to the crowd of government officials, military officers, and professionals.

Finally, the Geography Military-Industrial-Academic Complex self sustains itself by giving federal funds to academic to produce overpriced textbooks which could not be profitable without forcing students to by them for classes.

Now the latter two examples are true for many subjects not just Geography.  The first example is common in many computer science fields as well.  It is just depressing that Geography is playing part in this game too.

"Geographies": A Warning Term

A Catholicgauze rant.

In the past, up until the late 1980s, the term "geographies" was little used anywhere.  It was used simply as a plural term for "geography".  One could write about the "geographies" of New Zealand and Australia meaning just the geography of New Zealand and the geography of Australia.  However, many thought there was no need to make "geography" plural so the term "geographies" was rare.

An Ngram searched revealed that "geographies" as a term was reinvented in the late 1980s

However, starting in the late 1980s and surging in the 1990s, the term "geographies" was hijacked.  A coalition of "post-modern", "critical", openly Marxist, and other schools of leftist academia took the word "geographies" as one of their own.

No standard definitions of "geographies" exists, not even in academic geographic dictionaries.  What can be accepted though is that due to the hard left nature of the new "geographies"-users its usage is limited to human and barely used, if at all, in physical geography.  A basic understanding is that "geographies" claims there is no objective, unified truth combined with heavy usage of sociology.  An example would be that for City X, homosexuals, feminists, homeless, migrants, and rich all experience and "feel" the urban area differently.  One group's "geography" is then combined with other's to create a "geographies of City X".

Further, the "geographies"-using leftist geographers tend to advocate for somesort of change, "activist geographies", with their studies.  Further, due to the merging of hardcore leftism in academia many times the very geographic nature of some "geographies" project is in question.  For example, the emotional geographies conference has this blurb on their website about their upcoming conference

this fourth conference provides a forum for a range of people from different disciplinary backgrounds as well as societal partners and artists to creatively explore the role of emotion in thinking about and experiencing space and society.

All this has lead to me treating "geographies" as different from traditional geography and one of the main reasons there is such a disconnect between geographic studies/geography and academic geographers.  The main book on globalization "Commanding Heights" had no input from any geographer.  Try to name recent a mainstream/popular/impactful book by an academic geographer who uses the term "geographies".  I dare you.

For examples of these "geographies" which I dislike so much check out these posts Geographies of Feminist Art, Fourth International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies, Communifesto for Fuller Geographies: Towards Mutual Security’, Urban Uprising/Re-imagining the City, Critical Geography Forum, and David "Most cited geographer ever in academia" Harvey's Reading Marx's Capital.

Note:  There has been a trend by some younger geographers to use the term "geographies" just  because older academics use the term.  These younger geographers sometimes lack political motive in their "geographies" studies.

Top Geography Programs in the United Kingdom

Justin Homan's study of top Geography programs in the United States has been one of this year's most popular posts.  However, a few people have been searching for the top geography programs in the United Kingdom.  Fortunately, The Guardian has created released a list of the top 67 geography and environmental studies programs in the United Kingdom.

The top ten with links to their programs' websites are

1. Cambridge 
2. Oxford 
3. University of East Anglia 
4. Bristol 
5. Keele 
6. London School of Economics 
7. St Andrews 
8. Edinburgh 
9. Queen Mary 
10. Durham

Note how the true, big name, "Major League" universities have geography programs unlike many Ivy League schools in the United States.

Virtual Geography Convention 2012: Changes in Geography Programs in the United States

Welcome to the 2012 Virtual Geography Convention!  If you have a presentation or blog post you wished published please contact me at catholicgauze [at] gmail [dot] com!

Justin Holman, CEO of TerraSeer and blogger at Geographical Perspectives, has a follow-up to his post of the top twenty geography doctoral programs.  In the chart below he compares how schools' scores changed from 1995 to 2005.  In short, the geography departments in the United States were not static but evolving in a fight or die struggle.  Others, like that of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, were the seen of civil wars between human, physical, and GIS geographers which often resulted in schism.

Program	1995 Rank	2010 Rank	Change
Boston University	27	1	+26
University of Maryland College Park	29	3	+26
University of Oregon	28	6	+22
Oregon State University	33	18	+15
University of Colorado	12	2	+10
University of Kentucky	20	15	+5
Univ of California-Los Angeles	8	4	+4
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee	31	27	+4
Arizona State University	15	12	+3
University of Cincinnati	36	33	+3
Clark University	9	7	+2
U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	16	14	+2
University of Arizona	19	17	+2
University of Georgia	21	21	0
U of North Carolina-Chapel Hill	22	25	-3
Pennsylvania State University	1	5	-4
Univ of California-Santa Barbara	4	9	-5
Ohio State University	5	11	-6
University of Wisconsin-Madison	2	10	-8
State Univ of New York-Buffalo	11	20	-9
University of Iowa	17	26	-9
Indiana University	25	35	-10
University of Utah	34	45	-11
Kent State University	35	46	-11
University of Kansas	26	38	-12
Syracuse University	6	19	-13
University of Hawaii at Manoa	30	43	-13
University of Washington	10	24	-14
University of California-Berkeley	6	22	-16
University of Nebraska-Lincoln	32	48	-16
University of Florida	24	42	-18
Rutgers State Univ-New Brunswick	13	34	-21
Louisiana State U & A&M College	18	41	-23
University of Texas at Austin	14	39	-25
University of Minnesota	3	37	-34

2012 Virtual Geography Convention: Top Twenty Geography Ph.D. Programs in the United States

Welcome to the kick-off of the 2012 Virtual Geography Convention!  If you have a presentation or blog post you wished published please contact me at catholicgauze [at] gmail [dot] com!

Justin Holman, CEO of TerraSeer and blogger at Geographical Perspectives, provided a link to his article and thoughts on the National Research Council's survey of doctoral programs in geography.  Be sure to read his post and other interesting posts on his blog.

According to the National Research Council, the following are the top 20 doctoral geography programs in the United States:

Rank	Program	Website
1	Boston University	http://geography.bu.edu/
2	University of Colorado at Boulder	http://www.colorado.edu/geography/
3	University of Maryland College Park	http://www.geog.umd.edu/
4	University of California – Los Angeles	http://www.geog.ucla.edu/
5	Penn State University	http://www.geog.psu.edu/grad/
6	University of Oregon	http://geography.uoregon.edu/
7	Clark University	http://www.clarku.edu/geography
8	University of South Carolina – Columbia	http://www.cas.sc.edu/geog/
9	University of California – Santa Barbara	http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/
10	University of Wisconsin – Madison	http://www.geography.wisc.edu
11	Ohio State University	http://www.geography.ohio-state.edu/
12	Arizona State University	http://geography.asu.edu/
13	University of California – Davis	http://ggg.ucdavis.edu
14	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	http://www.geog.uiuc.edu
15	University of Kentucky	http://www.uky.edu/AS/Geography/
16	University of Southern California	http://www.usc.edu/dept/geography/
17	University of Arizona	http://geog.arizona.edu
18	Oregon State University	http://www.geo.oregonstate.edu
19	Syracuse University	http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/geo
20	State University of New York at Buffalo	http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/

Through the Looking Glass: Geography and History Gibberish

A quasi-Catholicgauze rant

A quick look at several American Association of Geographers specialty groups reveals many academic geographers who focus on topics barely (if at all) geographic.  These groups have siblings in other social science fields such as history.

Recently the historian KC Johnson wrote about how the Montana Supreme Court has forced to consult old history texts because modern historians produced nothing of relevance or use.  Others have also noticed a change in the last decades in the various sciences.  The conservative Weekly Standard wrote a feature on how a congress of academic Medievalists focused on matters of little use and trivia.  Meanwhile Alex Standish has pointed out that what is taught as geography in geography is not really geography.

Trivia has its place and as do rare in-depth studies of minutia (like some of my blog posts for instance).  However, the purpose of study and education should produce knowledge that is useful in some way, shape, or form.  Sadly much money ear-tagged for education in academia, including tax money in the form of grants, is wasted on the overproduction of pointless knowledge.  The excess of this waste is actually choking real education by denying it resources and clouding peoples' minds. 

I take great joy in people contacting me saying they wish their geography class "back in the day" taught things like I blog about.  I am glad to be such a service but I wish the various levels of classes would teach what I discuss.  Geography and other fields can be useful, informing, and interesting if taught correctly.  That is what I am trying to do.  I hope I can fill that role for you, my readers.

A "Tribute" to Critical Geographers

 Now another Catholicgauze rant.  Normal geography blogging to continue on Tuesday.

A geographer friend of mine is currently suffering due to his reading papers by critical geographers for class.  These "critical" "geographers" are Marxists, feminists, and alike who tend to study issues through their own political lenses.  Most do work that most people would not recognize as geography.  These geographers are almost always academics who hate the state that pays them to work in ivy towers.  What irks personally me the most is that they completely reject the concept of truth.


Example

Currently my friend is reading the book "Rethinking the Power of Maps" by Denis Wood.  Wood's now famous argument (in academia) is that maps are not depictions of places but instead propaganda trying to argue a particular viewpoint.  Some maps certainly are arguments but Wood's claims every map is an argument... even highway road maps and city chamber of commerce maps.

Wood spends a full chapter in the book blasting the North Carolina's official road map for highlighting North Carolina at the cost of other states.  Yes, you read that right.  Wood repeatedly savages North Carolina for cartographic "sins" including the use of a legend which, in Wood's mind, highlights what only North Carolina thinks important and "rapes" the landscape of other features.  My friend stated Wood goes straight into a rant that only an "educated, highly paid conspiracy theorist could write."

So is my friend right or is Wood's an academic genius?  Is there any way to find out?  Maybe.  Knowing that Wood's was a state of North Carolina employee until he lost his job for repeatedly raping a child in his care and then threatening the kid does help one reach a judgment.

Conclusion

Are all critical geographers rapists, no of course not.  However, they tend to spout out ideas that either have little relevance to geography or fail to advance the science in any meaningful way (check out what the the Socialist & Critical Geography specialty group's presentations or Antipode for examples).  So much academic time and resources have been spent on trying to figure out if maps are really depictions or arguments rather than focusing geography on exploration of other planets, cultural studies for military and foreign policy, or even figuring out how to improve geographic literacy without just throwing money at the problem.  Give me a good National Geographic, book, or a blog post on the Catholicgauze Reads list anyday for real geography.

Post-Script

My friend created "The World According to Critical Geographers" as a rebuttal to critical geographers...

The World According to Critical Geographers.  Click to enlarge

The Globe and Mail Notice What "Geographers" Do Today

American-born Canadian journalist Margaret Wente loves her adopted homeland.  So in loves that she once wrote of a story of how she tried to live out Pierre Berton's saying that "a Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe" and she humorously wondered if present-day immigrants would try to live that out as well.

Sadly for her the present-day elites of geography accused her of racism.  One of those elites is the current head of the Association of American Geographers, the Canadian Audrey Kobayashi.  These geographers-elites wrote such words as "Against a backdrop of imagined wilderness, it [the love-in-a-canoe comment] privileges the universality of Canadian canoe culture, marginalizes dark-skinned bodies as peripheral to national origins, and positions white heterosexual procreation in a canoe as the highest achievement of national identity."

This so surprised and confused Wente that she looked into the present state of academic geography and wrote the article They hijacked the humanities, then my canoe.  While I wish I could defend geography here I have to agree with Wente that many academic geographers, more in the human subfield vice the physical subfield, are no longer doing geography.  She provides a few good examples of how academic geography has been hijacked by the same wave of Marxists, femistists, and even "queer" "geographies." Instead of actual geography much of what is discussed is radical theory with no real purpose or possible implementation.

This infiltration has been mirrored in lower education as documented in Global Perspectives in the Geography Curriculum: Reviewing the Moral Case for Geography.  In the meantime, those who want real geography can read National Geographic or some of the fantastic geography blogs that I follow as well as this one!

India to Teach Geospatial Technology in Secondary Schools

According to All Points Blog, India has begun a pilot program to teach students how to use geospatial technology. The instruction will give students the ability to use tools like GIS to become geospatial analysts.

Two important notes on this development:

1) India's emphasis on geospatial technology further divides what geography is between the East and West. Western geography is currently split sedevacantist-style between British-style social thought human geographers, hard core physical geographers, and GIS users who are making geographic information science its own separate field. Meanwhile, the Eastern geography powers of India and the People's Republic of China (PRC) focus solely on technical geography. There is no room in Eastern geography for "soft" human geography while physical geography is done by geology-based engineers. Much of the geographic work done today in the East is applied in construction, engineering, and urban planning.

2) The second note is one of worry. An overemphasis on geospatial technology would favor how to use technology over spatial thought. I have feared in the past that geospatial technology like GIS would be tech schoolized as the spatial reasoning and geography in general are abandoned. This has happened in the PRC and I worry that India may head down the same path.

Skills and Job Options that a Geography Degree Gives - United Kingdom Version

Most people are interested in geography in some way, shape, or form. Geography is a hobby for the majority of the its fans. Some people use geographic knowledge to analyze global or regional issues to better understand the world. Others use geographic knowledge to aid them their professions while a few are full time professional geographers. A major problem for geography as a field-of-study is that alot of people do not realize that studying geography (whether in college or self-study) can help them get jobs in a variety of fields.


The Guardian and Prospects have nice guides on what a geography degree can get a person. I know those going into college will be interested in the jobs options and careers, the skills that geographical study can give one are great as well. From Prospects:

[D]uring your multidisciplinary course you develop other personal and intellectual skills which are required by all employers, whether they are employing graduates in careers related to, or unrelated to, geography. These skills can be developed through your experience at university as a whole but also through your degree programme, as geography is very diverse and includes lots of hands-on, practical application work. Skills you develop include analysing and problem-solving, decision-making, critically interpreting data and text, developing a reasoned argument, numerical skills - interpreting and presenting relevant numerical information, teamworking, planning skills, presenting oral and written arguments and information, communication and technology skills (ICT) - including word processing, databases, internet communications, information retrieval and online searches.

The job options mentioned deserve a good look as well. Jobs listed include

• Surveyor: Comes in combination with engineering study
• GIS Technician: Growing industry where one can study everything from environmental disasters to urban planning to marketing
• Teacher
  
• Environmental consultant: Geography helps one understand the system
• And many more

Those currently in college should consider related geography courses to complement their course of study. Real estate legal students may be interested in taking a environmental geography course to better understand the environmental factors which impact property values. Medical students may want to take a geographical research class since spatial reasoning discovered the cause of cholera. Finally, a world regional geography class can explain many of the world's current hot body issues.

Tribute to Dr. Charles "Fritz" Gritzner

Dr. Charles "Fritz" Gritzner, Distinguished Professor of Geography, has officially retired. He was and continues to be an inspiration to both his students and those who were fortunate enough to meet him. Fritz had expertise in both cultural geography and geographic education. His career spanned across the country while focusing on college instruction at East Carolina University, Louisiana State University, University of Montana, University of Houston and South Dakota State University. However, one of his favorite things to do was to visit schools and tell children about geography and geographic adventures with his stuffed animal friend Bov.

It was at a high school talk, sans Bov, that I met Dr. Gritzner. Dr. Gritzner opened my eyes (I flunked his geography trick pop quiz) to the wide range of subjects that could be studied geographically. I learned from him that it is possible not only to major in geography but, more importantly, I could have a career in the field. He also directed my love of geography into the subfield of Cultural Geography (the old school study of different cultures ala anthropology, not the modern sociology-like subfield).

Dr. Gritzner dedicated his career to expanding geography to the masses. Two of his best works are call to actions that better explain just what geography is. They are "Why Geography?" and "What is Where? Why There? and Why Care?". These are must reads for any geographic educator. Other works of his include world regional and human geography textbooks as well as studying the geography of the paranormal.

This blog is in part inspired by Dr. Gritzner's work of making geography accessible, fun, and entertaining to all. I can only hope to reach as many people as Fritz has done.

AAG 2010 Interview: Dr. Carol Harden

Dr. Carol Harden is a professor of geography at the University of Tennessee and President of the Association of American Geographers.

During the AAG 2010 convention I was fortunate to spend thirty minutes with Dr. Harden about her background, thoughts on blogs, and geography in general.

Background

Like many geographers Dr. Harden’s path to the field was not a straight one. She originally was involved in environmental studies until she worked with past AAG President Melvin Marcus who told her how her work was geographical in nature.

Dr. Harden became a self-identified geographer after discovering that she was “very, very comfortable” in geography and that the field was welcoming. Her work is more physical geography, geomorphology, but she has also looked at how physical and cultural landscapes affect each other like in the papers Interrelationships between land abandonment and land degradation: A case from the Ecuadorian Andes and Geomorphic response of an Appalachian Valley and Ridge stream to urbanization.

Geography Blogs

Dr. Harden and the geographic blogosphere’s first encounter was not as good as it could have been. She wrote in the November 2009 edition of the AAG newsletter that “[t]he media are changing. Now we have wikis, twitters, and blogs as well as OpEds and classic journalism. Is blogging an effective way to launch your research results into the public domain? My informants prefer up-to-date websites and personal contacts. And, compared to a blog, a good website is more visible to internet searches.”

The statement certainly is not hostile to blogs and when compared to other things said to me because of Geographic Travels [with Catholicgauze!] like me being a monster or Zionist agent it comes across as nearly nothing. However, many in the geoblogosphere (which include geography, geospatial, geopolitical, and cartographic blogs) felt that our researched and well read work was being ignored by the greater geographic community. I contacted Dr. Harden stating my concerns and she was gracious in her reply and promised to give the topic more thought.

During the interview Dr. Harden stated she appreciates the “inviting and open” atmosphere of blogs. She realizes that blogs are a key part of the online media suite which knowledge and opinions are shared within the discipline and public. She also mentioned that blogs do a great job pulling lots of information together. Blogs are a “tremendously useful” tool that can open doors to future research.

However, she still has some valid concerns. The wide range of style from academic to pure opinion with the added element of anonymity has made the blogosphere hit or miss when it comes to credibility (though there are excellent quasi-anonymous blogs out there like Coming Anarchy).

The Fight to Advance Geography

When talking both about the AAG 2010 convention and the state of geography in the United States Dr. Harden stated the need for geography to be relevant and visible. From a top-down approach she discussed the renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act and the hope that geographers can work with congress to make sure somesort of geographical education is mandated. However, she believes geographers need to look past No Child Left Behind and work on relevant projects that can inform the public about important things. Climate Change was explicitly brought up with at least one session (four to five presentations) being conducted at the convention from Wednesday morning to Sunday afternoon. Climate change sessions ran throughout the meeting--over 50 sessions in two continuous tracks.

She offered these key steps to advance geography: work on “real world problems,” make work visible to the public and power makers, and conduct outreach to schools, alliances, etc.

The Best Point

Dr. Harden said that geography is big and it has successfully shed its inferiority complex. We geographers must get out there and make our work visible. And yes, blogs are a valid way to make our work more visible.

Search for Your Ideal American Geography Graduate School Program

PhDs.org has a very useful tool for those interested in searching for the right geography program at the university level.  The tool is very customizable as one it gives the option to sort rankings by user-valued importance of variables like education quality, faculty, tuition, financial support, student demographics, program size, and undergraduate selectivity.  Each school has a multi-page, indepth profile that breaks down all data a student would be interested in (Check out Kansas State University's program for an example).

While the tool only ranks schools with a graduate program, its results are useful for undergraduates who are willing to travel for a geographic education.

Interview with Dr. Reardon-Anderson of Georgetown University

Dr. James Reardon-Anderson of Georgetown University is making an effort to bring geography into his foreign service class. Sadly, some students oppose this move because they do not see the purpose of geography in the "Map of the Modern World Class." Not one but two Facebook groups have even been established to give voice to the protesters.

Dr. Reardon-Anderson has taken time out of his busy schedule and allowed himself to be interviewed by Catholicgauze. Here below are the questions and answers.

Catholicgauze: What convinced you to add geography to the Map of the Modern World class?
Dr. Reardon-Anderson: I have long believed that physical geography has been both important and neglected in the study of international affairs -- as well as other areas of human behavior. I consider this neglect a major short-coming of education at SFS (and other institutions of higher learning) and think it is time to introduce it into the curriculum.

CG: You have encountered some public opposition by students to the change. Why do you think that is?
DRA: There has been considerable negative reaction to the announced change in the content of the course, "Map of the Modern World." The reasons are varied. It is better to let the critics speak for themselves.

CG: Do you know of any other efforts by Georgetown to integrate geography into other classes?
DRA: I believe geography is included in some courses in the major on 'Science, Technology and International Affairs,' but not in other parts of the curriculum. That is why I have taken this initiative myself.

CG: What does geography mean to you?
DRA: The course in question focuses on physical geography, which include land forms, climate and the resultant life forms and their impacts on human behavior. This is a particular take on "geography" and does not represent the discipline as a whole.

I would like to personally thank Dr. Reardon-Anderson for taking time out of his day to be interviewed for this blog.

Geography Battle at Georgetown University

All Points Blog has a short blurb (below) about one professor's effort to introduce geography into a foreign service class at Georgetown University.

Map of the Modern World is the name of a course in the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. It's being reshaped per James Reardon-Anderson, director of the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service program. The new version focuses on physical geography and its role in international affairs.

Per the school paper: "The changes will be embodied by three lectures on the fundamental forces that shape physical geography at the beginning of the course and a final lecture on global climate change. Reardon-Anderson, who will be teaching the class, acknowledged that the changes are part of the SFS’s effort to increase its students’ exposure to the sciences."

Students are not pleased. A protest group has sprung up on Facebook with more than 300 members. Some feel political issues will take a backseat to geography.

The blurb has a link to the Georgetown Voice article on the matter.

Clearly politics needs to have a very high perch in an international affairs class. However, too often these types of classes only do international politics. They ignore deeply powerful varables like physical geography, cultural differences which determine the end goals for various parties, religion, and so much more. If done correctly, Dr. Reardon-Anderson can open up many minds to the factors deeper than politics in international studies. Good luck to him!

What Will Space Do to Geography?

The recent news about water ice on Mars is a neat scientific discovery. The geographer in me is thrilled at the new opportunities for study. This brave new frontier (space) is slowly becoming more and more of interest to scientists. As science and people reach out into the heavens, geographers must think about where their place is among the stars. If they do not then geography will forever be imprisoned on Earth.

Geographers must ask themselves how will space impact geography.

Geotechnology Adjusts to New Mapping Demands

For millennium people have been mapping the Earth's surface. For the last one hundred years or so humans have been travelling in the air and under the sea while the charts they used merely added new data layers to old maps. Space travel past the solar system will require three-dimensional maps to be used since travel will be in volumetric space. Star Trek-style paper star charts will not do. Computers and handheld devices will be able to compute travel and display data on maps. Right now GPS units form the foundation of what is needed to be developed.

Physical Geographers Need to Be Appreciated Or They Will Leave

For the decades there have been those who constantly mention the importance of physical geographers. Environmental issues have helped boost the prominence of physical geographers but still the human and technical geographers do not give fair representation to their physical brethren at geography conferences and meetings.

Meanwhile those studying the landforms of other planets are geologists. Geological groups have space branches that encourage and fund studies. Sometimes geomorphologists (physical geographers) get involved with these studies but they are quickly absorbed into the geology lobby. Unless geographers appreciate physical geographers and groups like the Association of American Geographers feature space studies then geography will be forever imprisoned on Earth without the best and brightest physical geographers.

New Terminology Is Needed

Geographers will use terms like "earth and "terra" to convey the ground or features on the ground. These words will be used less and less in geographical studies as extraterrestrial studies become more common. The word "Geography" meaning "to write about the Earth" will likely remain because of tradition though there will always be a place for "selenography" and "areography."

Before Copernicus proved the Earth was not the center of everything astronomy was a subfield of geography. Since then there has been a noticeable spilt with the two fields going their separate ways. There will always be things worthy of study here on planet Earth. Yet, if geography wishes to grow and learn new things then it must prepare for the next age of exploration and discovery.

Free Online Journal: Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine

Ethnobiology comprises biology and cultural studies. The science focuses on how cultures interact, use, and are impacted by biology. It is a very interesting subject that Catholicgauze does not excel in.

The Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine is an open-access journal that does excel; however. It is meant for academics but the articles can still be read by people who are use to such writing style.

A good introduction to the science can be found in this paper about rituals involving sacred trees in the Middle East. The article shows how environmental geography and culture geography, while usually not studied together, mix well.