News as of 11 February 2003

Monday, 18 November

• Mr. Noel Ludwig demonstrated the operation of the flume in the walkway in front of LA4
• All day book sale on the benches outside LA4-100
• Ms. Jamie Vallianos-Healy brought her fourth grade class from Tincher Preparatory School to see the flume demonstration and attend a computer mapping demonstration from graduate student and RESAC research associate, Mr. Shaun Healy in LA4-207
• Away Team: Dr. Chrys Rodrigue and Ms. Crisanne Hazen of Science Education went to Orange Coast College to recruit students from Mr. Erik Bender's Geology course for the upcoming G-DEP internship summer program and for a possible intership program in the RESAC (GT-REP). They then met with Ms. Irene Naesse, and Dr. Rodrigue attended her world regional geography course to recruit for GDEP and GT-REP and to give a presentation on careers in geography for Geography Awareness Week.

Tuesday, 19 November, GIS Day at CSULB

• Dr. Charles Hutchinson, who is professor of geography at the University of Arizona and a NASA researcher, spoke about GIS and remote sensing-based early famine detection systems.

Wednesday, 20 November

• Dr. Jon Keeley, from the U.S. Geological Survey, spoke about historical patterns of burning in California shrublands.
• Away Team: Mr. James Woods traveled to Rio Hondo College to take part in their GIS Day program and disseminate information on the CSULB GIS programs.

Thursday, 21 November

• Mr. Noel Ludwig will demonstrate a groundwater model in the walkway outside LA4-100.

Dr. Sidorov's Research Discussed in New Textbook!

Dr. Dmitrii Sidorov, while going through a new textbook that he'd like to use in his World Regional Geography course, was delighted to find two of his photographs of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow shown in the book -- and his research discussed in a section on cultural revival in the nations of the former Soviet Union. The reference is: Lydia Mihelic Pulsipher and Alex A. Pulsipher, 2002, World Regional Geography: Global Patterns, Local Lives, 2nd ed. (New York: W.H. Freeman & Co.): 260. Cool!

The RESAC Featured in Inside CSULB

The activities of the NASA Regional Earth Science Applications Center housed in the Department and directed by Dr. Christopher Lee was the focus of an article in Inside CSULB, entitled, "Bushes into Brushfire." You can read it by clicking here and scrolling to page 3. Thank you to Drs. Lee and Wechsler and graduate student, Mr. Brian Sims for bringing such positive campus-wide attention to the Department!

Sad News from CSUN

The Department of Geography at CSU Northridge lost a faculty member on Tuesday, 1 October, when Dr. Robert Hoffpauir was killed in a car wreck during his morning commute. He was the graduate advisor for the department there and was interested in cultural geography, especially the cultural geography of the use of water buffalo and similar bovines in Asia. Our department offers theirs our condolences. The family would appreciate those who knew him to make a donation in his name to their favorite charity.

Department Sends Delegation of Six to APCG

Drs. Suzanne Wechsler, Chrys Rodrigue, and Stephen Koletty, as well as Messrs. Brian Sims and David McCune and Ms. Valerie Müller went to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers on 5 October to present five papers. Drs. Wechsler and Rodrigue presented two papers on behalf of the large Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Project team, one describing G-DEP and then the other reviewing baseline data that G-DEP collected on how students perceive the geosciences. The latter paper is available by clicking here. Dr. Koletty presented a paper on how the Census categories for race and ethnicity can be completely misinterpreted because the categories used in the Census don't match the ways some groups conceive of who is in their group and who is not (he used the example of Pacific Islanders). Ms. Müller presented her work on the Gateway Cities 2000 project, which involves updating land uses for 27 cities in the so-called "Gateway Region" of L.A. County. Messrs. Sims and McCune presented a paper on behalf of the Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center (part of the department's NASA Regional Earth Science Applications Center). This paper was on diurnal changes in live fuel moisture in a common chaparral plant species (chamise).

NSF-AAG Award

Dr. Unna Lassiter received a grant from the National Science Association and the Association of American Geographers to travel to the International Geographical Union meeting in Durban, South Africa, in August. She gave a paper at the conference, entitled, "On the social construction of animals." The IGU meeting, by the way, commenced with a speech by Nelson Mandela on the relevance and value of geography! Congratulations!

City of Lakewood Contract

Dr. Frank Gossette has just received a $25,000 contract from the City of Lakewood. The award is to provide custom GIS analysis and mapping services for the City. Dr. Gossette has brought a number of such contracts to the Department, which have provided many benefits to students over the years in the form of jobs, professional contacts, and funds for various enrichment activities. Thanks!

Promotion

Dr. James R. Curtis has been promoted to Full Professor, effective the 2002-03 academic year. Congratulations on this recognition for years of active scholarship and outstanding teaching!

Speaking of Scholarship

Dr. James R. Curtis has just had a book review published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, the flagship journal of the AAG. The book is The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth, which was authored by Blake Gumprecht. Congratulations!

Scholarship Is Contagious

Mr. James A. Woods had ten of his maps published in Imre Sutton's "Cartographic Review of Indian Land Tenure and Territoriality: A Schematic Approach," American Indian Culture & Research Journal 26, 2. This is a journal produced by the UCLA American Indian Studies Center. Way to go!

Geospatial Technology Research and Education Partnership

Drs. Christopher T. Lee, Suzanne P. Wechsler, Christine M. Rodrigue, and Paul Laris just signed off on a major grant proposal to NSF's Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Called the GT-REP for short, this $600,000 proposal will ramp up the data-collection activities of the Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center very significantly. For the last couple of summers, RESAC interns have been collecting live-fuel moisture data to help UCSB and Aerospace Corp. search for changes in hyperspectral imagery that correlate with changes in LFM and, so, monitor changes in fire hazard conditions. The grant proposal would enable sampling from more collection points, recording more data about the sites, and allow the SCWHC to follow LFM changes over the full course of three entire years. This will create 24 student internships each year, including geography, biology, geology, and archaeology students from CSU Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Los Angeles, and Northridge and from Long Beach City College and Rio Hondo College and other local community colleges. Dr. Lee will serve as PI (Prinicipal Investigator), Dr. Wechsler as Co-PI, and Drs. Rodrigue and Laris (together with Drs. Rodrick Hay and John Roberts of Dominguez Hills) will serve as senior research mentors. You can learn more about GT-REP by clicking here. The GT-REP team will learn whether it's been funded in March. Here's hoping!!!

Dr. Laris Hits the Ground Running!

Dr. Paul Laris, one of our new assistant professors, has a new article just out. The paper is entitled, "Burning the seasonal mosaic: Preventative burning strategies in the wooded savanna of southern Mali," and it's the lead article in Human Ecology (Vol. 30, No. 2). Congratulations!

Dr. Lassiter Is Smokin' the Presses!

Dr. Unna Lassiter has unleashed a torrent of writing over the last several months and this summer has received notice that FOUR of her articles have been accepted. Espaces et Sociétés has accepted, «La mouche dans la soupe: L'endroit et l'authenticite des animaux» ("The fly in the soup: Place and authenticity of animals"). Gender, Place, and Culture accepted "'This is none of that Jack Kerouac thing ...': an essay review on narratives of poverty," while the California Geographer will publish "Cultural aspects of attitudes toward marine animals: a focus group analysis." With Marcie Gilbert and Jennifer Wolch of USC, Dr. Lassiter will be publishing "Animal practices and the racialization of Filipinas in Los Angeles" in Society and Animals. Congratulations on this remarkable scholarly achievement!

G-DEP Concludes Its First Summer Program

The departments of Geological Sciences, Geography, and Anthropology collaborated on a grant proposal that the National Science Foundation funded to run for three years (from September 2001 through August 2004). The purpose of the proposal was to create an intensive summer research internship program, in which students from groups underrepresented in the various geosciences would come from local community colleges and high schools and work with CSULB faculty and with faculty from the source institutions on research projects involving a lot of field and lab work, as well as workshops on various issues related to the life of a geoscientist. The first summer program finished up on August 16th, with the students presenting excellent posters on their work and the larger research contexts in which it fit. Hopefully, we will see these students transferring in as majors in one of the three collaborating departments!

Dr. Del Casino Is off to Australia!

Dr. Vincent Del Casino will be heading to Australian National University for six months where he has been invited to take up a position as a Research Fellow in the Department of Human Geography in the Research School for Pacific and Asian Studies. While we'll all miss him greatly, we laud him for receiving this prestigious honor and research opportunity. He will be Down Under from August through January.

Dr. Del Casino Receives a Major Grant

Dr. Vincent Del Casino has been notified that his proposal, "Cognitive Distance, Mobility Patterns, and Drug Use Among MSM" has been funded for 2002-2003 by the Universitywide AIDS Research Program of the University of California. The grant is for approximately $83,000 in direct costs and will cover release time for Dr. Del Casino to conduct ethnographic research on designer drug use and related HIV risks in Long Beach among "men who have sex with men." The research draws from his background in medical/social geography and ethnographic methodologies and will focus attention on how MSM "cognitively map risk." Way to go!!!

Drs. Wechsler and Rodrigue and Mr. Brian Sims Give Papers at ESRI

Drs. Suzanne P. Wechsler and Christine M. Rodrigue gave a presentation at the ESRI Users Conference in San Diego on the 7th of July, in the "HiEd: GIS Articulation" session. Their paper was entitled, "GIS articulation: Addressing the issue, sharing experiences and moving forward" and it presented the outcomes of the CSULB GIS Articulation Workshop back in April. Mr. Brian Sims, a graduate student and RESAC research associate, gave a paper to the Landline Engineering and Support moderated session, entitled, "Centralizing Corporate Assets with GPS Technology at Southern California Edison."

Dr. Del Casino Has a Publication out

Dr. Vincent Del Casino has a publication out: Del Casino, V.J., Jr. 2002. World Regions in Global Context: Study Guide. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Congratulations!

Dr. Del Casino Receives Enhancing Educational Effectiveness Award!

Dr. Vincent Del Casino, together with Dr. Tim Keirn of History, has received a summer stipend from the Enhancing Educational Effectiveness Award program, so that he can work on developing a World Historical Geography Certificate Program.

Dr. Wechsler Receives Enhancing Educational Effectiveness Award!

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler, together with her collaborators, Dr. Teresa Ramírez-Herrera (a geographer in the Geological Sciences Department) and Dr. Christopher Lowe (Biological Sciences), received a substantial Enhancing Educational Effectiveness award. Each will receive 0.2 re-assigned time to work on geological, ecological, and marine biological labs and modules for the new course, Geography *481 (GIScience Applications for the Natural Sciences), which is targeted to Geology and Biology majors.

Internship Web Page

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler would like to remind students and faculty to visit the Geography Internship web page, which has been redesigned and is being updated very frequently. There is always a list of new jobs available to students and the current speaker coming up in the "Jobs in Geography" lecture series.

[ Jobs ] [ Talks ] [ Changes ] [ Social ] [ Conferences ]

Jobs

Part-Time Lecturing at CSULB

The Department of Geography at CSULB may have part-time lectureships available for Spring 2003. For more information on the positions and the application process, please click here.

[ Jobs ] [ Talks ] [ Changes ] [ Social ] [ Conferences ]

Lectures and Field Trips

Mr. Greg Armento

Mr. Greg Armento, alumnus and currently CSULB Librarian, will discuss "Careers in Cartographic and Geographic Information Services in Public and Academic Libraries," for the "Jobs in Geography" colloquium series. The talk will be held Wednesday, 9 October, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., in LA4-100.

[ Jobs ] [ Talks ] [ Changes ] [ Social ] [ Conferences ]

Changes among the Faculty

Acting Chair and Graduate Advisor for Fall 2002

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue will be on sabbatical during Fall, 2002. While she is gone, Dr. Joel Splansky will serve as acting chair and graduate advisor. His office is in LA4-103, and he can also be reached at (562) 985-4454 and splansky@csulb.edu.

Undergraduate Advisor

Dr. Frank Gossette is the undergraduate advisor. His office is in LA4-206A, and he can also be reached at (562) 985-7808 and gossette@csulb.edu. He holds office hours by appointment. To set up a visit, please contact Lisa Mikhail at (562) 985-4977.

Internship Director

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler is the Director of the Internship Program. Her office is in LA4-206E, and she can also be reached at (562) 985-2356 and wechsler@csulb.edu.

[ Jobs ] [ Talks ] [ Changes ] [ Social ] [ Conferences ]

Social Events

Grad Student and Faculty Get-Together

There will be a graduate student, staff, and faculty kick off get-together on Sunday, 22 September, from 5-8 p.m.-ish in Long Beach at E.J. Malloy's. E.J. Malloy's is at 3411 East Broadway (at Redondo).

[ Jobs ] [ Talks ] [ Changes ] [ Social ] [ Conferences ]

Upcoming Conferences and Calls for Papers (by month of conference)

March 2003

The Association of American Geographers

The AAG will hold its 2003 annual meeting from March 4th-8th in New Orleans. Meeting particulars are described at: http://www.aag.org/AnnualMeetings/Intro.html. The AAG is accepting abstracts for spoken papers and illustrated papers until 30 September and for posters until 31 October. The call for papers and detailed instructions are available here. You need to submit abstracts and register online at http://convention.allacademic.com/aag2003/.

A recent dissertation (completed after April 2001) is eligible for consideration for the Nystrom Award and submission is through Luke Warner by 30 October.

April 2003

The California Geographical Society

The CGS will meet at American River College in Sacramento from April 25th-27th. More information is at: http://cgs.csusb.edu/cgs_sacramento.htm.

European Geophysical Society, American Geophysical Union, and European Union of Geosciences Joint Assembly

The EGS, AGU, and EUG will hold a joint meeting from the 6th through the 11th of April in Nice, France. The meeting is described at: http://www.copernicus.org/egsagueug/index.html. Abstracts are due no later than 15 January, but special rates for registration end on the 31st of December.

There will be a Technical Session on The Geomorphic Effects of Wildfire (NH8.01) which will be part of the Natural Hazards Program of the Joint Assembly. The recent occurrence of catastrophic wildfires throughout the world, coupled with the continued encroachment of human development into fire-prone ecosystems, has resulted in the need for a better understanding of how fire affects the hydrological and depositional responses of watersheds. Recent studies of burned watersheds provide the basis for better methods for predicting the form and magnitude of post-wildfire runoff processes, as well understanding of the role of wildfire in shaping the landscape. These advancements are necessary to guide post-fire mitigation decisions, to inform development of plans to restore fire processes to fire-prone ecosystems, and to minimize loss of life and property. In this session we welcome papers on field and modeling studies of post-wildfire runoff (hillslope to landscape scale), fire effects on soil, the effectiveness of post-fire rehabilitation efforts, post-wildfire hazard assessments, and the development of new tools and methodologies for assessing post-wildfire runoff and erosion.

The Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers

CLAG will hold its next meeting from the 4th through the 8th of January in Tucson. The meeting is described at: http://las.arizona.edu/clag2003.html. Abstracts are due no later than 4 November.

The Western Social Science Association

The WSSA will meet in Las Vegas at the Riviera Hotel from the 9th through the 12th of April. The meeting is described at: http://wssa.asu.edu/wssa_conference.htm. Abstracts are due no later than 15 November.

The National Social Science Association

The NSSA will also meet in Las Vegas also at the Riviera Hotel but from the 16th through the 18th of April. The meeting, entitled the "National Technology and Social Science Conference" is described at: http://nssa.apsu.edu/lv2003/nssalv2003.pdf.

May 2003