Geography and Geology Blog @ WKU

Dr. Keeling is on sabbatical for the Spring 2008 semester. Keep up on departmental activities through the website /. The annual Department of Geography and Geology Student Awards night is scheduled for Wednesday April 23 at 5:00 pm in the lobby of EST. Presentations will begin at 5:30 pm in EST 260 - everyone is encouraged to attend.

In partnership with the American Geographical Society and the Foreign Military Studies Office, Dr. David Keeling has been awarded a competitive grant to conduct research in Colombia. The FMSO already has a team of Colombian researchers in place, and Keeling’s role is to evaluate their materials and harmonize for open source publication on the Bowman Expedition website of the AGS. A workshop held recently in New York (see news story posted online) presented results from the México Indígena project led by Dr. Peter Herlihy at the University of Kansas (visit the website here). For more information about the AGS Bowman expeditions, visit the AGS website.

Over the past few months, there have been myriad news stories about problems with America’s transportation infrastructure. From congested airports, cancelled flights, collapsing highway bridges, and other tales of woe, the U.S. has a serious challenge ahead in providing adequate infrastructure to facilitate more productive engagement with the global economy. My latest Op Ed about this issue - titled Who will put America back together again? - was published in the Honolulu Hawaii Reporter and reprinted in Haitiweb online on September 29, 2007.

Classes are back in session as a new academic year begins in the Department. We welcome our new geologist, Dr Aaron Celestian, who specializes in crystallography and materials characterization, and Dr Kolson Sclosser, a visiting assistant professor who will teach our general education cultural courses. Dr Nick Crawford and Jim Bingham have elected optional retirement this year and will only teach part-time for the next few years. Some great courses are scheduled for Winter, Spring, and Summer terms, 2008, so stayed tuned for more information. Have a good semester everyone!

New study abroad programs are in development for Winter and Summer semesters 2008. In Winter term, the Department has a program to the Yucatán region of Mexico to explore the Mayan world. The program will run from January 2 to 18, 2008, and will cost approximately $1,900 (including tuition). For more information visit the Department’s Study Abroad website, or email debbie.kreitzer@wku.edu. In the early summer, probably May 13 to June 6, 2008, the Department will take students to western Turkey (Istanbul, Troy, Izmir), the Greek Islands, Athens, and northern Italy, with a side trip to western Slovenia. Use the same contacts above for more information. The summer 2008 study abroad program will cost approximately $3,900. Tuition scholarships are available through the WKU WorldTopper scholarship program - use this online form to apply for your scholarship.

The Kentucky Council for Post-Secondary Education (CPE) approved the Department’s new B.S. degree in Meteorology recently. This new professional degree requires 49.5 hours of coursework, with an additional 24 hours in supporting mathematics and physics courses. For more information, visit the Meteorology Blog, or visit the Department website’s Meteorology Program page. High-school students are encouraged to take at least single elements of calculus in their senior year and to earn AP math credit if possible.

Congratulations to all of our students who graduated this Spring. Fourteen students earned degrees in geography, with various concentrations, and ten GIS certificates were awarded. Geology students continue to find success in REU opportunities - Chelsea Brunner is the latest to spend the summer on an exciting REU research project. Two geoscience students finished their MS thesis projects and graduated - Ashley Littell and Johanna Kovarik. Faculty and students are busy this summer on a variety of research projects, the Kentucky Geographical Alliance is running a workshop for P-12 teachers, and a new summer course - Geographic Concepts for Teachers - is being taught by Dr. Kay Gandy (Teacher Education). Please join the Department on Friday August 31st at 3 pm in EST 260 for the annual departmental Fall welcome. Have a good summer everyone.

Conflicts over boundaries (terrestrial and oceanic) continue to make news around the world. Iran’s disagreement over British naval activities in the Gulf, and ongoing debate about the US-Mexico border are just two of the most recent areas of conflict. Geographers have a long history of contributing to analyses of boundaries - Isaiah Bowman served as President Woodrow Wilson’s official geographer during negotiations at the Versailles treaty talks in 1918-1919 as boundaries in Europe and elsewhere were being redrawn and renegotiated. My recent Op Ed Commentary addresses the issue of boundary disagreements and argues that the U.S. should be less concerned about building bigger fences along the Rio Grande than in helping to develop stronger economic communities south of the border. Bigger fences do not always make better neighbors.

With the International Polar Year underway, more research attention is being focused on the implications of global climate change for the planet’s polar regions. Missing from the discourse, however, is any serious consideration of the policy implications of global climate change for these regions. In a recent Op Ed column, I argue that a failure to consider the geopolitical, environmental, and resources implications of a melting Arctic could have serious implications for the U.S. and its neighbors. Clashes between Russia, Canada, and the US could develop over trans-Arctic shipping. As the Arctic ice melts, it will be easier for large ships to travel across the Arctic Ocean between Asia, Europe, and North America. More shipping in this environmentally sensitive region raises important concerns about territorial sovereignty, pollution, piracy, and new infrastructure. The US needs to take the lead on starting a dialogue that can begin to address these critical long-term policy implications of global climate change.

Despite recent advances in the teaching of geography in the K-12 and university classrooms across the U.S., most Americans remain woefully ignorant of the world around them. Assessments of geographical knowledge in general education classes at WKU, for example, routinely reveal a level of ignorance about the world’s basic geography. Less than 20 percent of students tested typically are able to find places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, or Vietnam on a map, and far fewer are able to provide geographically informed analyses of key issues such as global climate change, conflict, environmental damage, or resource use.
My recent OP ED column on this topic for the American Geographical Society’s Writers Circle calls for a No American left Geographically Ignorant Act to go along with the renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act. This commentary was published in the Henderson (KY) Gleaner and in the Northwest Arkansas Times. Americans cannot succeed in a global economy, nor can they vote wisely about issues that have global implications, without a basic level of understanding of the world around us!