Geography Department

NEWS RELEASE

Association of American Geographers Conference, Boston April 2008

Several CSUN geographers attended the recently held Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), this country’s leading professional organization for geographers.  Held each year in cities across the land, the AAG is considered the premier venue for showcasing geographic research.

Participating faculty included Jim Craine, who organized several sessions dealing with geography and media and presented his own research on “Emotional Life of Maps and Other Visual Geographies”; Ron Davidson, who spoke on “Recalcitrant Space: Modeling Variation in Humanistic Geography”; Doug Fischer, who presented work on “Modeling Larval Dispersion for Marine Reserve Selection” and contributed to a Panel Session on Marine Geomorphology; and Ed Jackiewicz, who organized, chaired, and presented in a Panel Session on “Teaching Latin American Geography.”  In addition, Jim Hayes, who will be joining the Department in fall, was in Boston speaking on his research on Landscape analysis.

Three students presented papers as well: undergraduate Jenny Duncan presented her 490 paper “Genocide of Affect,” which critically assessed media coverage of the Rwandan massacre; graduate student and Teaching Associate Pat Kahn, who spoke about his Master’s Thesis research on “Predicting Karst Development in an Alpine Location: Mineral King Valley, Sequoia National Park, California”; and graduate student Mike Pesses, who presented “The city she loves me: The Los Angeles of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”  Graduate student and Teaching Associate Lisa Baughn also attended the Conference.

The 2009 AAG Conference will be held in Las Vegas, which is a lot closer—and less expensive!—than Boston, so CSUN participation should be even more extensive.

Photos of the conference.