Does the High School Geography Experience Influence Enrollment in University Geography Courses?

The literature suggests that owing to profound difficulties with high school geography curricula, teachers play a vital role in stimulating student interest and in providing a platform for continuation in the study of geography at university. Yet, with little empirical evidence offered in support, it is unclear why students select geography at university and if their high school experience informs their decision. Through a survey of students enrolled in an introductory geography course at an Ontario university, this research questions the relationship between students' high school experience and their enrollment in the course and ponders the implications for the health of the discipline.     

Bridging the Qualitative–Quantitative Divide in Transport Geography∗

Recent viewpoints concerning the state of research in transport geography have touched on the issue of insularity and the need to bridge the divide between the largely spatial–analytical or quantitative research in transport geography and the critical or qualitative research prevalent in urban, economic, and most other subfields of human geography. Transport geography has been criticized by some for being a quiet corner of our discipline that has lost its centrality largely because it remains within the analytical framework of the 1960s. This article explores these sentiments by reexamining recent transport-oriented research in highly cited geography journals to assess the degree to which the qualitative–quantitative divide exists within transport geography and between transport and other subfield in human geography, as well as to explore issues of productivity and centrality of transport-oriented research in geography. Results indicate that geographical research involving transport topics is much more prevalent and reflects a wider range of epistemological and methodological approaches than is frequently assumed. Nevertheless, there is still a considerable divide between “mainstream” transport geography and other human geographical research that necessitates much more interaction between transport and other subfields and greater incorporation of alternative research approaches within the mainstream of transport geography. To that end, we propose a preliminary critical transport geography research agenda that is open to a variety of methodological approaches, including quantitative analysis.     

Knowing our own history? Geography department archives in the UK

The paper presents an analysis of the returns to a questionnaire survey on the state of department archives within UK departments of geography. The results of the survey are discussed in relation to recent work in geography which has examined the archive as a site for knowledge's making but seldom in its own terms as a resource for the history of geography, and studies within the archival sciences which have considered the archive as something more than a 'storehouse' for collective memory. The paper reveals that the archival record for the history of British geography is at best uneven, and in many departments non-existent, although information on departmental history is held, often as memory, by individual geographers. The paper considers the survey's implications for the future histories of British geography and addresses the nature of the UK geography department archive as resource and responsibility.     

The Key Websites of Geography in China

Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR): www.igsnrr.ac.cnThe Geographical Society of China (GSC): www.gsc.org.cnChina Society of Natural Resources (CSNR): www.csnr.orgChina Society on the Tibetan Plateau (CSTP): www.cstp.org.cnInstitute of Remote Sensing Applications (IRSA): www.irsa.ac.cnNanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology (NIGL): www.niglas.ac.cnState Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information …     

End of an Era? Population Geography in New Zealand at the Turn of the Century

Research into and teaching on population issues in New Zealand's university geography departments is at a crossroads. A significant cohort of New Zealand population geographers who gained their graduate and post-graduate training during the 1950s and 1960s is rapidly diminishing as a result of retirements and late career shifts. In the much more competitive university environment of the 1990s staff are either not being replaced, or their positions and programmes are being reshaped as part of radical restructuring of the social sciences and humanities. This paper reflects on recent developments in population geography in New Zealand, highlighting the contributions made by three of the country's most prominent researchers and teachers in what is fast becoming a dying field of discourse in university geography departments. The paper concludes on an ambivalent note about prospects for geographers in the era of sub-replacement fertility and the heightened attention that will be accorded to migration processes.     

The Geography of the Journal of Geography: Paper Origins, 2008–2015

The Journal of Geography publishes work on geography education from throughout the world. This article investigates the origins of articles from 2008–2015, uncovers differences in rejection rates among articles from developed versus less developed regions, and makes suggestions to improve publication success by non-North American authors.     

Where Are the Women? Accounting for Discrepancies in Female Doctorates in U.S. Geography

Although there have been noticeable improvements in recent years, geography continues to be a predominantly male discipline. The percentage of women receiving PhDs in geography has tracked lower than the U.S. average of female PhDs. Previous studies of women's contribution to geography have focused on personal accounts or on the study of some of the most prominent practitioners, with a few studies using basic data on PhDs awarded and Association of American Geographers membership to determine trends. This article provides a comprehensive overview of doctoral degrees in geography by gender, over time, and across all universities in the United States by examining an alternative database, that of doctoral dissertations. The analysis yields three separate types of results. First, historical and contemporary variations among U.S. universities are examined. Second, data indicate that male and female doctoral students differ in the sex of their advisor. Third, a simple regression model explains some of the discrepancies in the proportion of female doctoral students by department. In sum, this article provides a comprehensive empirical study of the factors that might contribute to the continued disparities in female doctoral students in geography.     

Productivity Profiles of PhD-Granting Geography Departments in the Unites States: 1980–1994

In our study, 48 U.S. departments that grant geography PhDs are compared along four measures of academic productivity. Using 1980–1994 as the base period, research productivity of faculty was assessed by counting book titles, as well as authorships in 77 journals. Teaching productivity was determined by placement of PhDs in graduate programs of geography in North America, and by a weighted index of teaching outcomes. Data were summed for departments, but are reported primarily as productivity per person (per FTE count). The results point to a wide variety of departmental profiles, from those departments that appear to emphasize teaching outcomes to those that are more productive in book publishing and journal authorship, with several exhibiting a balance between teaching and research.     

Working in a Landscape of Recession and Expansion: Academic Jobs in Geography in the United States, 1990–2011

The recent economic recession brought much university hiring to a standstill in the United States. Geography, in spite of strong prerecession growth, was no exception. Without a sense of how the academic geography job market has changed over the past decades, however, it is difficult to assess any recession-related decline or the relative strength of any recovery. This article presents an analysis of academic job postings in the field of geography from 1990 through 2011. Using data aggregated from the AAG Newsletter, which acts as an informal clearinghouse for most academic openings for geographers at four-year colleges and universities in the United States, we assess changes in the overall magnitude in numbers of academic job openings, with the particular goal of placing the recession-based paucity of openings within its broader historical context. Our results indicate that, indeed, the recession led to a very sharp decline in advertisements, but compared to previous recessions, the recovery appears to have occurred very quickly. Open-rank and temporary/non-tenure-track positions appear to have been fairly robust to the poor economic conditions, whereas assistant professor openings were particularly hard hit.     

“Teaching Against Culture” in Geography of Islam

This article explores various ways of how to challenge the “otherness” of Islam and Muslims when teaching geography of Islam. It suggests a critical project of “teaching against culture,” which challenges essentializing notions of Islam as a monolith, and rather demonstrates the complexity of Muslim geographies and “lived” Islam. Furthermore, it implies examining the various identity categories and binaries such as secular–religious and West–East that come about in the classroom itself in the secular academic context of an urban state university. As such, the article engages in questions of significance to a wider set of courses on social and cultural geographies, geography of religion, and postcolonial geographies     

Ingress in Geography: Portals to Academic Success?

Niantic Labs has developed an augmented virtual reality mobile app game called Ingress in which agents must seek out and control locations for their designated factions. The app uses the Google Maps interface along with GPS to enhance a geocaching-like experience with elements of other classical games such as capture-the-flag. This study aims to assess the effect Ingress can have on introductory to physical geography students. These goals include: whether the students can acquire greater geographical interest through Ingress, garner a sense of community, and whether students exhibit improved exam scores in the classroom.     

A Vulnerability Interpretation of the Geography of HIV/AIDS in Ghana, 1986–1995

Ten years after the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) was first reported in Ghana, it continues to spread throughout the country following patterns that are rare in other African countries. HIV is seen in twice as many females as males, more frequently in rural than urban regions, and regions with high rates of polygamy have significantly lower rates. The evidence presented in this paper shows that HIV diffusion patterns probably reflect the spatial distribution and social networks of vulnerable social groups. While information-based campaigns are still necessary in the fight against HIV/AIDS, they fail to enable or empower vulnerable people to protect themselves against infection.     

A Review of “The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World”

In contrast to the conventional gravity model that estimates flows between cities of given sizes, the reverse gravity model attempts to reconstruct the theoretical gravitational attractions of cities from network flow data. This article introduces the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method in solving the reverse gravity model. With comparison to the linear programming (LP) and the simplified algebraic method (SAM), the advantages of the PSO method include flexibility in the impedance function and better goodness of fit. The method is applied to the case study of air passenger transport in China. The results indicate that estimated nodal attractions in cities are generally in line with their population sizes, but there are significant discrepancies between them. A close examination of the discrepancies reveals that a better developed tertiary sector and higher tourism revenue per capita are associated with overestimated attractions in air transport, and stronger railway dominance influences their underestimation. The changes of gravitational attractions in major cities from 2001 to 2008 indicate the declining dominance of the largest cities and a move toward a more balanced development in the air transport system of China.     

Washington Women: Practicing Geography in the U.S. Government, 1915–1970s

Histories of geography, especially those dealing with the twentieth century, tend to focus on geographic thought or academia rather than on practice in other arenas such as government agencies. In the United States during that period, however, the latter included a higher proportional representation of women professionals than did research-oriented universities. This article examines the careers of selected women geographers who had long-term and senior positions in Washington, DC, in agencies such as the Library of Congress, Bureau of the Census, the Department of State, and the Office of Naval Research. Drawing on sources including directories, the archives and oral history collections of the Society of Woman Geographers, and interviews conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I explore four main themes: how these women came to government work, aspects of the intersections of personal and professional lives, ways in which economic and political contexts shaped their opportunities and experiences, and the nature of their contributions.     

Meeting the Challenge of Systemic Change in Geography Education: Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s Young Geographers

The history of K–12 geography education has been characterized by recurrent high hopes and dashed expectations. There have, however, been moments when the trajectory of geography education might have changed to offer students the opportunity to develop a thorough working knowledge of geography. Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s geography program developed in the 1920s and 1930s was brilliant in its conception and execution but it did not lead to large-scale systemic change. Analyzing the origins, development, and outcome of her program suggests the conditions that facilitate and inhibit systemic change, and therefore perhaps we can learn to capitalize on comparable moments in the future.     

Using Qualitative Methods in Medical Geography: Deconstructive Moments in a Subdiscipline?

As medical geography reinvents itself as health geography, the linkages between social theory and the deconstruction of central categories organizing its medical orientation are being explored. This paper discusses the contribution of qualitative research to this process. In providing access to alternative ways of understanding health concerns, and emphasizing issues of power in the production of knowledge, qualitative methodology carries the potential for reconceptualizing key issues framing investigation of the relationships between place, people, and their health. In pursuing current issues in social theory, qualitative research also contributes to the blurring of the subdiscipline's boundaries and revitalizes its agenda.     

Commentaries on “Automated Geography”. Automated Geography and the DIDS (Decision Information Display System) Experiment

Age profiles of geographers having varying topical and areal subfields are compiled using the Guide to Graduate Departments of Geography in the United States and Canada, 1983–1984 and the 1982 AAG Directory. Major retirement trends for the next 10 to 20 years suggest that replacement of faculty may raise key appointment issues and priorities that may significantly change the nature of academic geography.