Department Spotlights

Department of Geography Fall 2016

A Message from the Chair

Dear Friends of the Department of Geography,

This is an exciting time to be a geographer! Graduates in geography and those with geospatial skills are in high demand to help solve real- world problems and enhance organizations' efficiency and effectiveness. A 2015 report by the U.S. Department of Labor noted that cartography was among the eight fastest-growing careers in the United States and that the need for people who gather and interpret geographic information to make maps will grow by 30 percent by 2024. A story by Time magazine said jobs in geography were among the five most creative jobs that pay well.

The GW Geography Department continues to teach these important skills to a growing number of students. Last year we taught almost than Department Chair 2,100 students. We boast 75 geography undergraduate majors, 80 environmental studies majors, 27 master’s students and more than 45 Lisa Benton-Short GIS graduate certificate students. Our students excel in research, and many undergraduates and graduates presented their research at professional conferences or published their work in refereed journals. Our newsletter profiles several of our outstanding students.

Our big news is that starting with the class of 2017, the Department of Geography offers a Master of Science in geography. By changing from an MA to an MS, we are realigning our master’s degree to better reflect our faculty expertise, changes in the discipline and to provide our students with better career outcomes outside of academia. As a result of recent hires, the department expertise and breadth looks very different than it did only five years ago. The department is now better balanced in the three critical subfields of geography (physical, human, techniques) and the move to the MS degree reflects our faculty expertise and the emerging demand for quantitative geographic and geo-spatial analysis and research.

The commitment to service remains a defining feature of the Geography Department. Over the last year, hundreds of GW students volunteered their time to assist in humanitarian mapping. The GW Humanitarian Mapping Society, a student led organization, organizes monthly “Mapathons” using open-source mapping software to contribute towards international aid efforts. The society works with many partners including the Red Cross and USAID to map areas which are identified as at-risk for or have recently experienced disasters.

The GW Department of Geography flourishes because of our engaged students, our dedicated faculty and our generous alumni who support student research and faculty development. We invite you to join us here at 1922 F Street to attend a speaker series talk, visit a class or have lunch with your favorite professors. You are always welcome!

Don’t forget: Please update us on your life, your accomplishments and your travels. Drop us a postcard, send us an email, follow us on Facebook or keep in touch by reading our newly launched department blog, “As the World Turns.”

Department Spotlights

Pictured here are the studentsplaying a geographic version of the classic game Simon Says. Instead ofshouting left/right or back/front, the students were challenged to figure outtheir cardinal directions, and turn north, south, east and west when Simon saidso. They were so good, we added NW, SW, SE and NE as an extra challenge.

Geography Students in Service: Teaching Others to Map

Congratulations to Marietta Gelfort, BA ’15, MA ’17, Ellie Davis, BA ’16, and Arzo Malhotra, BA ’15. They received a 2015-2016 GW Eco-Equity Award for their project to bring mapping technology to underserved areas of D.C. Together, they created GIS for Youth Empowerment (GISFYE), a project to expose middle school students in Ward 8 of Washington, D.C., to geography and GIS. By training the students to collect and analyze geographic data, read maps and learn about key environmental and social issues, the GISFYE team hopes to help these young scholars (and future geographers?) identify assets and issues in their communities and to provide them the tools to be positive change agents, locally, regionally and globally. One of the program goals is to cultivate the students' basic spatial skills and thinking through fun games and projects that involve physical activity, Legos, maps and other less conventional teaching strategies. The GIS for Youth Empowerment project also produced some stop-motion films about geography that you can view here.

Learn more about this project on their blog.

Dr. Marie D. Price: New President of AGS

“I’ve always enjoyed being a geographer and believe we have much to contribute. My hope is to share the joy of exploration and discovery with the next generation as President of the American Geographical Society.”

Dr. Marie Price became the president of the American Geographical Society (AGS) on June 24, 2016. She is the first woman to hold this position. The society, which is based in New York City, has existed for 165 years. It is the oldest national geographical organization in the country. As such it has been dedicated to advancing geographic knowledge and bringing together people from business, government, NGOs and academia. The society will hold its annual meeting, the Geography 2050 conference, at Columbia University on November 17 and 18. The themed event will focus on “Envisioning a Sustainable Earth.”

Various members of the GW community will be participating in Presidents Jerome Dobson and Marie the Geography 2050 conference. Dr. Nuala Cowan and Price at the American Geographical Mr. Richard Hinton will lead a Mapathon on the morning of Society Council Meeting on June 24, November 17 with 50 AP high school human geography 2016 where Marie became the society’s teachers who received a grant to attend the conference. first female president. Professors Michael Mann, Lisa Benton-Short and Wesley Reisser will be presenting at the conference. And a GW Alumnus, Kristen Walker Painemilla, BA ’97, the vice president for social policy and practice at Conservation International will be participating in a panel on Conservation and Indigenous People.

Marie became involved in AGS as a graduate student, publishing her first paper based on her MA research in Belize in the society’s magazine, Focus on Geography. She has served on the council since 1995. As president, she believes there is a public that is passionate about geography, in part due to advances in technology that have radically changed the way businesses, scholars, institutions and even the public at large experience maps and engage in spatial thinking. Yet, there is also serious geographic ignorance that can have dangerous implications for public policy and human understanding of a globalized world.

Through social media, the AGS is exploring new ways to reach people and tell geographical stories. The society has an active Facebook following, especially for its map of the week. Focus on Geography became a fully digital and interactive publication this year with open access. Its GeoQuiz is especially popular. Check it out here.

One of Marie’s goals as president is to build its membership, attracting people from government, business and academia who have a passion for geography and want to participate in the society’s activities. She would also like to see greater diversity and more young people involved in the society. One of the new initiatives is the creation of the Junior Service Fellow, open to students who get a 3, 4 of 5 on the AP Human Geography exam, earn a GeoBadge and complete 10 hours of geographically oriented service annual. She observes, “I’ve always enjoyed being a geographer and believe we have much to contribute. My hope is to share the joy of exploration and discovery with the next generation of geographers as president of AGS.”

Grace Doherty, research assistant for poverty mapping & development, Professor Nuala Cowan and the many student volunteers with GW Humanitarian Mapping Society begina long but productive night of mapping.

Geography Students in Service: Tracing the Missing Maps

The GW Humanitarian Mapping Society (HMS), a student led organization, is an opportunity for GW students to use open-source mapping software to contribute towards international aid efforts. The society works with many partners including the Red Cross and USAID to map areas which are identified as at-risk for or have recently experienced disasters. Over the past year, they hosted speakers from USAID, the American Red Cross, Peace Corps, NASA and other organizations. HMS also participated in St. Lucia's first-ever mapathon, held several other solo mapathons and even helped with the Geography Awareness Week map off! Finally, HMS became a founding member of Youth Mappers, an international mapping organization. To finish the spring semester, representatives attended the 2nd Annual White House Mapathon in July.

With the help of 40 young mappers, HMS started off fall 2016 by putting remote villages in Morocco on the map—literally. Tracing buildings and road in the online software OpenStreetMap, HMS established the foundations for Dr. Mona Atia and research assistant Grace Doherty's participatory mapping project in the rural province of Tinghir, Morocco. The efforts of HMS contribute to the researchers' new findings on data- driven development and participatory methodologies in places labeled as the poorest of the poor. In one evening, volunteers mapped 2,144 buildings, 1,135 km of roads and 3,722 total edits in nine villages in Morocco. Kudos for such extraordinary effort!

Visit their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter: @HMS_GW

A Cold Summer in the Arctic

During August of 2016 GW geography graduate student Forrest Melvin, GW alumni Kelsey Nyland, BA ’13, MA ’15, and GW visiting Fulbright scholar Anna Abramova trekked to Alaska to conduct field research in Barrow, Nome, Prudhoe Bay and several other locations throughout the Arctic Alaska. Their research is part of the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) project funded by NSF Arctic Observing Networks program and led by Professors Nikolay Shiklomanov and Dima Steletskiy. CALM is a long- term program established to monitor the response of permafrost-affected landscapes to climatic variability A balmy day in Alaska. Forrest Melvin, and change operating in Arctic, Antarctic and high Professor Streletskiy and Kelsey Nyland mountain permafrost terrain. observe the ice drifting on shore from the Arctic Ocean on Barrow’s Coast. The field work involved traveling to previously established CALM sites throughout Arctic Alaska including Prudhoe Bay, Barrow, Ivotuk and Atqasuk in the North Slope and Council, Kougarok and Nome in the Seward Peninsula. Students used handheld GPS units and high precision differential GPS systems to locate and monitor changes in surface elevation asociated with melting of ground ice; installed and servicing data loggers for temperature monitoring, and probed the active layer. While there, they learned about the culture and history of each place through visits to cultural sites and museums, and had an opportunity to speak with community members and leaders about issues facing the rural communities of Alaska.

A highlight was the opportunity to view local landscapes from a variety of vantage points. Students flew over the thermokarst landscape of the North Slope, the Covil River and the foothills of the Brooks Range in charter planes. They took ATVs out to Point Barrow (the northernmost point in the United States at 71 degrees north) to see ice coming ashore and polar bear tracks amongst the backdrop of whale and walrus bones, the remains of the still present indigenous subsistence lifestyle. Helicopter flights offered oportunities to see grizzly bears with young cubs, muskox, and caribou.

As the World Turns: Introducing New Department of Geography Blog!

Fall 2016 marks the beginning of the Geography Department's new blog, As the World Turns! The blog is a space for our faculty, students and alumni to showcase their diverse and captivating research and highlight interesting developments happening in their fields. The honor of our first post goes to Professor Joe Dymond, who highlights the astounding growth that geography and geographic education have seen in just the last two decades alone. Visit our blog site and please contribute!

Keep learning! Find out what we’ve learned about our world… http://blogs.gwu.edu/geography/

Faculty Kudos

Dr. Lisa Benton-Short published her book, The National Mall: No Ordinary Public Space (University of Toronto Press, 2016). The National Mall in Washington, D.C., is one of the most important and highly visible urban public spaces in the United States. By taking a holistic view of the National Mall and analyzing the unique 21st century challenges it faces, the book explores critical issues that are redefining and reshaping this extraordinary public space. Her work focuses on three contemporary and interrelated debates about public space: the management challenges faced by federal authorities, increased demands for access and security post 9/11 and the role of the public in the Mall’s long-term planning and development plans. A short excerpt from her book was also feature in the online version of Time magazine.

Elizabeth Chacko spoke to WAMU-FM for the article “Why Is There Such A Large Ethiopian Population In The Washington Region?”

Dr. Nuala Cowan and Richard Hinton were in the news again for the cutting edge work in humanitarian mapping. Drs. Nuala Cowan, Ryan Engstrom, Mike Mann and Richard Hinton helped secure a partnership with USAID. Read more here.

Congratulations to Dr. Wes Reisser! The United Nations Association of the National Capital Area awarded Wes the 2015 Allen "Tex" Harris Diplomacy Human Rights Award for promoting the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. Dr. Reisser, MA ’10, teaches our Political Geography courses, and Energy Resources. He is also senior foreign affairs officer, Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, International Organization Affairs Bureau, State Department.

Read More. Geography faculty spent a fall day on retreat at the Mt Vernon campus to plan future curriculum development. They took a long lunch break that included a ropes course, which they successfully conquered. Pictured from Front R: Mona Atia, Melissa Keeley, Dima Streletskiy, Ryan Engstrom, Marie Price, Elizabeth Chacko, Nuala Cowan, Qin Yu; in the Back: Andrii Berdnyk, Mike Mann, Lisa Benton- Short, David Rain, Joe Dymond, Richard Hinton.

Students News

Meet the Graduate Class of 2018

We are pleased to welcome 11 new master’s students to our department. They will spend the next two years learning about geography, conducting research and presenting their findings. We hope the coming year will be an exciting and productive one for them. Each has a profile at the link above.

Geography Students Inducted into Gamma Theta Upsilon, Spring 2016

Congratulations to Cody Eitlin, Max Grossman, Charles Christonikos, Stephen Conley, Jennifer Mannix, Rose Choi, Katie Cann, Sarah Chadwick First year graduate students learn about Dr. and Shannon Kelley. These outstanding geography Ryan Engstrom’s research in the Geographic undergraduates were inducted into Gamma Theta Thought and Theory class. From left: Shannon Upsilon (GTU), the International Geographical Patty, John William Caroll, Sam Guildford, Honor Society. The inductees earned their place in Meghan Rorher, Brendan Cox, Luis Suter, the honor society based on their overall and geography Eddie Painter, Hannah Wang and Katie Cann. major GPAs.

GW Geography Team Wins MAD Geography Bowl Competition, Places 3rd at National Competition

On Saturday, October 31, 2015, in Towson, Md., six students on the GW Geography Bowl Team competed against three other schools to come out on top at the Mid-Atlantic Division (MAD) Meeting Geography Bowl Competition. GW’s team captain Kean McDermott, a first year MA student, also won the MVP award for answering the most questions of any of the competitors. Professor Marie Price is the faculty representative for the team. Two GW players, McDermott and Patrick Nahhas, were selected to be Holding the MAD trophy, the team members on the region-wide MAD Team that competed in San include (left to right): Forrest Melvin (MA Francisco, Calif., in March 2016 when the Association student), Hannah Hassani (undergraduate), of American Geographers has its annual meeting. Patrick Nahhas (undergraduate), Kean They placed third overall. And McDermott was co-MVP McDermott (captain and MA student), Matthew of the entire tournament! Congrats Kean! See the Mittler (MA student) and Victoria Winch story in full here. (undergraduate).

Fall Geography Senior Alumni Dinner: Thanks to several of our geography alumni for attending the annual Senior-Alumni Networking Dinner. Geography seniors have the opportunity to learn from recent alumni who share information about hiring trends, job search strategies and the importance of networking. To volunteer for a future dinner, please email Anita Ponchione, CCAS Alumni Programs ([email protected]), and reference that you are interested in volunteering for the annual Geography Senior-Alumni Networking dinner.

Student Research

Participatory Research: Mapping Over Couscous

Over the summer, Dr. Mona Atia and graduate student Grace Doherty conducted the first in a series of participatory mapping projects in the remote rural province of Tinghir, Morocco. Over 100 participants showed up to learn how to map topics of interest to them, from broken bridges to traveling doctors to symbols of Berber culture and resistance. The research team continues their work this fall, as they teach more cartographic tools to local associations interested in development and poverty reduction for their rural communities. Graduate student Grace Doherty in the field. Green Building Research:

Undergraduate Luther Rice Fellow Sydney Goldstein worked with Dr. Melissa Keeley to chart green building trends across the United States. “I haven’t seen anybody look at green building in the way Sydney approached it,” Keeley said. “The implications are broad. If we can understand what cities are trying to achieve through their green building policies and where they are getting their information, it puts us in a better place to support them.” To learn more, read about it here.

Geography Student Presentations at AAG Annual Meeting in San Francisco, March 2016

The following undergraduate and graduate students presented their research as papers or posters at the 2016 AAG conference in San Francisco:

Natalie Armstrong, “Business Improvement Districts and Urban Sustainability” Jamee Ernst, “Public Space, Street Harassment and Gender Mobility” Zhaohui Li, "Ghost Cities in China: Urban Sprawl & Urbanism without People" Kean McDermott, “Washington D.C.’s U Street Corridor: placemaking through heritage infrastructure” Forrest Melvin, “Population History of Alaskan Natives" Gloriana Sojo, “The Diffusion and Evolution of the Undocumented Youth Movement in the United States” Kelsey Taylor, "Environmental Justice in U.S. Urban Sustainability Planning" (poster) Qi Yang, “Examining the Relationship Between Spatial Features Derived from High Spatial Resolution Imagery and Census Variables in Accra, Ghana” Shiyan Zhang, “The Relationship Between Geographic Environment and NTDs based Newborn Defects in Hainan Province, China” Read More.

Graduation 2016

On May 13, 2016, Columbian College students were recognized for their achievement in the arts and sciences as they completed their undergraduate and graduate degrees. We are very proud of their accomplishments of geography undergraduate and graduate students! We hope that enriching and fulfilling experiences at GW will lead them to wonderful opportunities to shape their future careers.

Graduate Student Awards 2016

The Robert D. Campbell Prize is presented to a Geography Senior Student for Outstanding Leadership and Scholarship. This year, the award was presented to Stephen Conley.

As an international affairs major, Stephen did not know anything about the discipline of geography at GW until his sophomore year. After taking Introduction to Human Geography and World Regional Geography with Professor Joe Dymond, Stephen not only recognized the applicability that geography had to international affairs, but he decided to add geography as a second major. While taking classes in the geography department, he researched the history of political conflict between China and Taiwan and the potential for nuclear energy in Kazakhstan. Stephen interned on Capitol Hill and at Fabretto Children's Foundation where Stephen Conley he researched volunteer outreach opportunities to improve childhood health and nutrition in Managua during his sophomore year. During his junior year, he worked as a government relations and administration intern at the National Association of Broadcasters and this past year he worked as a government relations intern at the National Restaurant Association. Stephen joined Gamma Theta Upsilon, the national geography honors society, this spring and he has always been appreciative of the responsiveness of towards students and the tight-knit community that comprises the department.

The Thomas Foggin Award is presented to an environmental studies senior in recognition of scholarly excellence. This year the award was given to Eleanor Davis.

Growing up, Ellie’s parents taught her about the natural world through hiking, canoeing and digging in the backyard of their home in Pennsylvania. As an environmental studies major with sustainability and GIS minors, she spent her undergraduate experience at GW continuing that childhood education. While interning at the GW Office of Sustainability for two and a half years, she created new engagement strategies, including the Sustainable Student Leaders Committee. Ellie was also the president of the Humanitarian Mapping Society, and led a team of students that taught geography and open source mapping to middle school students through the Eco-Equity Grant. Additionally, Ellie attended the UNFCCC COP 21 in Paris after bringing together students from 10 universities for a mock climate negotiation in D.C. Ellie Davis During her undergraduate career, she conducted research with NASA DEVELOP at Langley Research Center and with CSIRO while studying in Australia. Ellie is excited to continue her geography education as a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, but will always consider her time in Old Main to be a defining influence in her education.