Geography Department News

Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts 1250 Bellflower Boulevard California State University Long Beach, CA 90840-1101 USA

as of 3 May 2006

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Banquet THIS Sunday!

Don't forget: Our banquet is THIS Sunday (7 May), 6 p.m., at the Lakewood Country Club (3101 East Carson just north of the Long Beach Airport, between Cheery and Lakewood). Late breaking news: We will have a very special guest, Ms. W. Jane Westenberger, who wrote the first M.A. thesis in geography at CSULB fifty years ago!!! Her thesis was entitled "Occupance in the San Jacinto Mountains, California." She is a WWII veteran who was stationed in Italy and Egypt. After the war, she decided to become a teacher and, back then, a high school credential required a master's degree in a subject commonly taught in high school. The campus was brand-new and she lived nearby and so she decided Long Beach State College would be a natural for her. After graduation, she taught at Orange High School, became principal, and then got into Outdoor School education, which eventually led her into the U.S. Forest Service, where she developed a very successful and visible career. She now lives in New Mexico, but she will be in Long Beach this weekend and will attend our banquet. Be there, or be square. RSVP to Ms. Lisa Mikhail at (562) 985-4977 or lmikhail@csulb.edu.

PS: Who will get the Photoshop treatment this time ... ...?

Late Breaking News: Baby Salvatore Brooks Del Casino Débuts!

Dr. Vincent Del Casino has just announced the arrival of his and Prof. Catherine Brooks' (faculty in the Communications Studies Department) baby, Salvatore Brooks Del Casino! Salvatore weighed in at 8 lb., 1 oz., and 20" tall. Everyone is doing fine, and the proud father notes that "he has a set of lungs on him" (which surprises exactly no-one...!).

   

Sigma Xi Inductions

Sigma Xi is a scientific honor society, which honors nominees from all scientific fields as practicing professionals. Full members are published scientists who have been nominated by their peers; associate members are students who have shown their promise as publishing scientists by presenting their work in a scientific conference. The Department of Geography is proud to announce the admission to Sigma Xi of Dr. Camille Holmgren (full member), Mr. James Woods (full member), and Mr. César Espinosa, current graduate student in Geography at CSULB (associate member). These three new members will be inducted during a banquet held in their honor this Wednesday from 5-7:30 (at which Dr. Chuck Hutchinson, a remote sensing expert from the University of Arizona, will be the keynote speaker). Our new inductees join several other Geography members: Drs. Suzanne P. Wechlser (vice-president of the CSULB chapter), Christopher T. Lee, Paul Laris and Christine M. Rodrigue among the faculty and graduate students Ms. Doreen Crespin, Ms. Zoe Schumacher, and Leslie Edwards.

Jobs in Geography Colloquium

There will be a "Jobs in Geography Colloquium" on Wednesday, 3 May, from 6-7 p.m. in LA4-204 to discuss teaching careers in the community colleges of California. Representatives of three different districts will be on hand to discuss teaching opportunities for recent M.A.s in geography, internship possibilities for advanced graduate students, and how undergraduate and graduate students can best prepare for careers in the community colleges. The panel will consist of:

• Dr. Ray Sumner, representing Long Beach City College
• Prof. Les Doak, representing Cypress College
• Mr. Ebenezer Peprah, representing new Long Beach City College part-time faculty
• Dr. John Menary, representing a seasoned multi-campus part-time faculty member

Anyone interested in part-time and tenure-track positions teaching geography in the community colleges is welcome to attend!

Dr. Sidorov's Study Abroad Class in Russia Featured in Inside CSULB

Dr. Dmitrii Sidorov and Dr. Harold Schefski of Russian Studies/RGRLL were the subjects of a March 2006 Inside CSULB article, entitled "Rediscovering Russia." The article, by Richard Manly, described the Study Abroad class that the two collaborating faculty conducted last summer in Russia. You can read the article here at http://www.csulb.edu/misc/inside/archives/vol_58_no_3/12.htm. By the way, given the tremendous success of the Russia 2005 trip, Drs. Sidorov and Schefski are going to offer the class again in Summer 2006.

Dr. Matthew Kirby Talk in Geography

Dr. Matthew E. Kirby, Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences, CSU Fullerton, gave a talk on Wednesday, 15 March. His talk was entitled, "Muddy Perspectives on Climate Change in Southern California." Thanks to Dr. Holmgren for organizing this!

Dr. James Till Spoke to Geography about Human Subjects Compliance at CSULB

Dr. James Till, Professor of Communicative Disorders and Director for Research Compliance, CSULB Office of University Research, discussed the Human Subjects protection protocols on this campus in Dr. Rodrigue's graduate seminar Wednesday, 15 March. The graduate students were asked to take the self-directed module on human subjects at
http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/research/our/compliance/orientation/modules/human_subjects/index.html and those receiving a score above 70% were automatically registered with the Institutional Review Board, which will save them a lot of time later in their research process. This module, by the way, will become a mandatory requirement of all graduate students and graduate thesis advisors in Fall, 2006, so everyone involved in research can save themselves a bit of time by going through the process now, ahead of the rush.

Dr. Laris Has Another Publication out

Dr. Paul Laris has an article out, entitled, "Managing a burned mosaic: A landscape-scale human ecological model of savanna fires in Mali." It just appeared in an anthology, Savannas and Dry Forests: Linking People with Nature, edited by Jay Mistry and Andrea Berardi, and published by Ashgate of Aldershot, UK. Congratulations!

Dr. Thien's CD Publication Project Honored at the AAG's GPOW Book Event

Dr. Deborah Thien, who will be joining us in August, has just learned that the Association of American Geographers' Geographic Perspectives on Women Specialty Group will be showcasing a multimedia CD publication she co-edited in the GPOW Book Event at the AAG meeting in Chicago in early March. She was one of the editors and also an author in the anthology, Women and Geography Study Group: Gender and Geography Reconsidered. The multimedia CD publication, edited by J. Sharp, K. Browne, and D. Thien, came out in 2004, and Dr. Thien's article in it is entitled "Love's travels and traces: The 'impossible' politics of Luce Irigaray," pp. 43-48. Congratulations for this innovative publication and its recognition at this event!

Information about this publication and how to purchase it can be found at
http://www.fordhamweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/wgsg/events2.html.

Dr. Laris in the Press-Telegram

Dr. Paul Laris, the Geography Student Association, and Ms. Pam Parkin's third grade class at Lowell Elementary School in Long Beach spent Friday, 17 February, gathering "nerdles" from the beach at Belmont Shore as part of an international citizen science research project based in a Japanese university to assess persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in ocean water. Nerdles are tiny plastic pellets a few milimeters wide, which are the raw material for plastics manufacture. The pellets are melted and then formed into plastic products. While being shipped, some of them manage to escape into ocean water before the ships make it to port. They eventually wash up on beaches everywhere but, during their time out at sea, they absorb an assortment of chemical pollutants in ocean water. A Japanese reearch team has put out a call for people around the world to collect these pellets from the shore, using tweezers to avoid contaminating them and placing them in special foil envelopes that are then mailed to Japan for chemical analysis to measure the amount of POPs in them. This citizen science project was written up in a story by Kevin Butler in the Long Beach Press Telegram, "Children gather pellets for science," on 18 February, on p. A2. The article may be read online until 4 March at http://presstelegram.com/search/ci_3521526.

Geography and GSA Welcome You (back) to Spring 2006!

The Geography Student Association is hitting S/06 running. They have a full program of activities brewing, and others fermenting. There's a rumor about another tour of Jet Propulsion Lab, a tour of Thomas Guide, Earth Day activities, and the cultural nights out that were such a hit last semester. GSA is thinking about putting out a newsletter for alumni so that current students can stay in touch with past students. For more information and to get involved, please contact President Michelle Lynch at geographystudentassociation@yahoo.com. Dr. Laris, our Undergraduate Advisor, is often in the thick of things, too. He can be reached at plaris@csulb.edu or (562) 985-1862 or in LA4-101E.

Welcome to Dr. Michael Blazey

Dr. Michael Blazey is the Director of Facility and Technology Planning for the College of Liberal Arts and a professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies (in the College of Health and Human Services). His areas of research interest are travel and tourism and community recreation, and he's quite interested in the geography of tourism. He has graciously agreed to teach GEOG 352 (Geography of Tourism), and we would like both to thank him and to welcome him into our department this spring!

Team GDEP Published Yet Again.

The Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Project gang is at it again: They have another publication out, this time in the CUR Quarterly (Council on Undergraduate Research). This is the lead article in the December 2005 issue: "Geoscience field studies at California State University at Long Beach: Urban applied research with a community focus." The authors are Drs. Elizabeth L. Ambos (Associate Vice-President for Research and External Support), Christine M. Rodrigue, Richard J. Behl (Geological Sciences), Christopher Lee, Suzanne Wechsler, Gregory Holk (Geological Sciences), Daniel Larson (Anthropology), R. Daniel Francis (Geological Sciences), and David Whitney (Psychology).

Dr. Rodrigue Published. Again. And Again.

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue has two articles hot off the press. The first is entitled "James Blaut's critique of diffusionism through a Neolithic lens," and it appeared in Antipode in December. The second is "The state of geography and its cognate disciplines in the California State Universities from Fall 1992 through Fall 2004," and this one came out in The California Geographer in December 2005.

And So Is Dr. Sumner!

Dr. Ray Sumner has an article in the December 2005 issue of The California Geographer, too. Her paper is entitled, "Tom Down Under: McKnight's relationship to the Fifth Continent."

And So Is Dr. Thien!

Dr. Deborah Thien is joining our faculty in Fall 2006. She has certainly hit the ground running, with a new article hitting the presses: The article is entitled "After or beyond feeling? A consideration of affect and emotion in geography," and it just appeared in the December 2005 issue of Area. What is this about December?!

Hold onto Your Hats! Dr. Sidorov ALSO Has an Article out!

What is going ON in Geography? Dr. Dmitrii Sidorov also saw the publication of his article, "Corporate rescaling of the city: The geographical construction of urban lightscapes in Soviet and post-Soviet" in a bilingual (English and Estonian) book entitled Constructed Happiness: Domestic Environment in the Cold War Era/, edited by Mart Kalm and Ingrid Ruudi for the Estonian Academy of Arts. It, too, came out in, you guessed it, December of 2005!

Geography Awareness Week/GIS Day

The Department and the Geography Student Association are pleased to announce a full program of National Geography Awareness Week/GIS Day activities for the week of the 14th-18th of November. There was a speaker on the national theme of the year, "migration," and a speaker on GIS uses in biogeography. The Department also hosted the third annual Geography Photography Contest and the third annual Community College Geographers luncheon. Here is the itinerary:

• "The Lost Boys of Sudan", a movie shown by the Geography Student Association, on Monday, 14 November
• Dr. Jack Humphrey, formerly Advanced Planning Director, City of Long Beach, and now head of Diversa Consulting and member of The Southlander editorial team, discussed "Demographic Trends in Long Beach," on Tuesday, 15 November. Dr. Humphrey's life exemplifies the "migration" theme, as he has served as a professor and planner in the US and Singapore.
• Bake Sale of the World was hosted by the Geography Student Association along the LA4 walkway on Wednesday, 16 November, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• Dr. Robert S. Taylor, Biogeographer and GIS Specialist for the Coast Mediterranean Network, National Park Service, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, spoke about the biogeography of coastal sage in western Los Angeles and eastern Ventura counties and how GIS is used. His talk was on Thursday, 17 November
• Bake Sale of the World continued Thursday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
• The Third Annual Geography Photography Contest ran all week, with photos on display boards along the LA4 walkway from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ballots were provided to all interested Geography faculty, emeriti, students, staff, and alumni, who voted for their favorite entries in each of seven categories (physical landscapes, flora and fauna, urban landscapes, rural landscapes, people and culture, geography in action, and migration) as well as for their favorite overall photo. Results and prizes were announced on Friday, and the winning photos were put in the display case by LA4-100. For more information, please visit http://www.csulb.edu/~dsidorov/PhotoContest/F05PhotoContestFlyer.html.
• The Third Annual Community College Geography Luncheon was held on Friday, 18 November, at noon, in the Chartroom. Geography faculty were treated to lunch and the results of the photo contest, and discussed geographical issues of interest at all our institutions. The GSA spotted President Bob Maxson at the next table and presented him with a "Geography Is Cool!" t-shirt. He said he knows Geography is cool and "I just love you guys."

International Education Week

International Education Week coïncides with National Geography Awareness Week/GIS Day. Wouldn't you know it, but the Department has gotten involved in that series of events, too!

• Our own Dr. Dmitrii Sidorov, together with Dr. Harold Shefski of Romance, German, and Russian Languages and Literatures and Dr. Carol Itatani of Biological Sciences, put together a panel of student participants in their very successful and interesting three week summer study tour of Russia in August 2005. The panel, entitled, "Rediscovering Russia: Reflections on a CSULB Field Course," featured presentations on Monday, 14 November, in the Multicultural Center (FO3-002). Light refreshments were served.
• Dr. Sidorov also organized a week-long student photo exhibit and contest showcasing the photography of the Russian field course students. "From Russia with Love" ran all week, with photos on display boards at Brotman Hall. Everyone who was interested got to serve as a judge!
• The rest of the International Education Week program can be read at
  http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/grad_undergrad/cie/executive_director/events/index.html, about halfway down the page.

James Woods Published. Again.

Along with Roger D. Peng of Johns Hopkins University and Frederick Paik Schoenberg of UCLA, Mr. Jim Woods is co-author of a paper entitled, "Multi-Dimensional Point Process Models for Evaluating a Wildfire Hazard Index," which just appeared in the UCLA Department of Statistics Papers, paper #2003010113, which is available at http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1098&context=uclastat.

F. King Alexander Chosen as CSULB President

Dr. F. King Alexander, president, Murray State University (Kentucky), was selected to replace Dr. Robert Maxson. You can learn more about our incoming president at http://www.calstate.edu/pa/news/2005/lbprez.shtml. A short biography is presented at http://executivesearch.calstate.edu/LB_President/alexander.shtml.

GSA at Mai Thai

The Geography Student Association enjoyed another of its by now (in)famous cultural nights out, this time featuring Thai cuisine at Mai Thai.

GSA Celebrates Oktoberfest

The Geography Student Association enjoyed its second cultural night out featuring beer and sausages on Friday, 21 October, at Alpine Village, near the I-405 and 110 interchange. Dr. Rodrigue showed up -- and is now discreetly inquiring about ransoming photographs that caught her among the student chicken dancers.

GSA Korean BBQ Run

The Geography Student Association enjoyed a cultural night out featuring Korean BBQ on Friday, 30 September, at Manna Korean BBQ, up in Koreatown, just west of Downtown Los Angeles. The students met at the Willow Blue Line Station and rode up the Blue Line and then the Red Line to get to the restaurant.

Dr. Wechsler Is the Lead Author in a Journal of Geography Article!

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler led a team of Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Project authors (which also included Drs. Chrys Rodrigue and Chris Lee) in writing an article, which just came out in the Journal of Geography! The article is entitled "Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences," and it is the lead article in the July/August 2005 issue. Other authors included Dr. David Whitney (Psychology), Dr. Elizabeth Ambos (Office of University Research), Dr. Dan Larson (Anthropology), Drs. Rick Behl, Dan Francis, and Greg Holk of Geological Sciences. Way to go!

Team GDEP Appears in EOS!

Drs. Chris Lee, Chrys Rodrigue and Suzanne Wechsler saw another of their GDEP efforts appear in EOS, the weekly newsletter of the American Geophysical Union! The article is entitled "Ethnic Differences in Geoscience Attitudes of College Students," and it appeared in the 26 July 2005 issue. The lead author was David Whitney of the Psychology Department, who was the GDEP program evaluator. Other authors included Drs. Rick Behl, Elizabeth Ambos, Dan Francis, and Greg Holk of Geological Sciences, and Dr. Dan Larson (Anthropology).

Dr. Rodrigue's Letter Appears in the New York Times!

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue wrote a letter challenging columnist David Brooks' conclusions about the government rôle in the Katrina disaster, and it was published in the New York Times Op-Ed section on 13 September 2005.

Mr. Frazier on Roundtable Panel

Mr. Tom Frazier served as a panelist on a roundtable discussion, entitled "What in the World is Happening in Germany? Elections September 2005." Mr. Frazier is finishing up his Ph.D. at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Joining him on the panel are Dr. Christian Stocks, German Consul General, Los Angeles; Mr. Daniel M. Evans, American Council on Germany, Los Angeles; and Dr. Jutta Birmele, Chair of the Romance, German, and Russian Language and Literature Department, CSULB. The panel is 11-12:30, Thursday, 15 September. For more information, please contact RGRLL at 985-4318.

Dr. Holmgren Receives Grant!

Dr. Camille Holmgren has just learned that a $12,000 grant proposal she and Dr. Julio Betancourt of the USGS and the University of Arizona submitted to the National Park Service has been funded! The study, entitled, "A Long-Term Vegetation History of the Mojave-Colorado Desert Ecotone at Joshua Tree National Monument," will fund the collection of woodrat middens, which contain fossils and pollen that allow the reconstruction of vegetation history and climate change over thousands of years. The field work sounds like good clean dirty fun! For more information, please contact Dr. Holmgren at cholmgre@csulb.edu or (562) 985-8432. Congratulations!!!

Ms. Doreen Jeffrey Crespin Lands a Beach Graduate Research Fellowship!

One of our graduate students, Ms. Doreen Jeffrey Crespin, has been awarded one of the first CSULB Graduate Research Fellowships! Graduate Research Fellowships will be awarded competitively each year to master's students engaged in scholarly research or creative activity in their field of specialization. The awards are based on the strength of the proposed research or creative activity and the faculty mentor's nomination. Only ten of these substantial fellowships were awarded this year. Congratulations! We are really proud that one of our graduate students put together a winning proposal.

Dr. Gossette Puts Us on the Map

The current issue of the CSU Geospatial Review has an article, entitled, "Long Beach: GIS Goes Global," which showcases the "International Coördination with GIS Mini-Exchange Program" run by Dr. Frank Gossette during Spring 2005.

Dr. Laris Appears in Print

Dr. Paul Laris has co-authored an article with Peter Klepeis of Colgate University, which is coming out in Geoforum. Its title is "Contesting sustainable development in Tierra del Fuego." The article is available through the CSULB's electronic journal subscription service. Congratulations!!

Mr. Woods Has a Publication out

Mr. Jim Woods co-authored an article with Roger D. Peng (post-doctoral fellow in biostatistics at Johns Hopkins) and Frederic Paik Schoenberg (Associate Professor of Statistics at UCLA). It is entitled "A space-time conditional intensity model for evaluating a wildfire hazard index," and it appeared in the March issue of the Journal of the American Statistical Association. Our library has electronic access, so you can get your own copy online. Congratulations on this achievement, Woody!

Dr. Curtis Has Another Publication out

Dr. Jim Curtis has an article out in a long-awaited international anthology. His chapter is entitled, "A typology of Brazilian urban squares: Its application in the city of Manaus," and it appeared in Cities and Urbanism in Latin America, ed. Vicent Ortells Chabrera, Robert B. Kent, and Javier Soriano Martí, published by Universitat Jaume I Press in Spain. Outstanding!!

Dr. Wechsler Has an Article Forthcoming. Again.

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler has just learned that her article, "A methodology for quantifying DEM uncertainty and its effect on topographic parameters," has just been accepted by Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. Way to GO!!!!

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 ] [ Conferences ]

 

Jobs

Part-Time Lecturing at CSULB

The Department of Geography at CSULB may have part-time lectureships available for Fall 2006. For more information on the positions and the application process, please click here.

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

 

Lectures and Field Trips

Drs. Lee, Rodrigue, Behl, and Wechsler Host an AMP Field and Lab Project

Drs. Chris Lee, Chrys Rodrigue, and Rick Behl (Geological Sciences) are taking a group of Alliance for Minority Participation (AMP) students from Cerritos College and CSULB into the field on Monday, 25 July. The field trip will go to Del Cerro Park in Rancho Palos Verdes, where Dr. Lee will train students in the use of GPS and relate the appearance of vegetation and slopes in a 1 meter panchromatic IKONOS image to actual points on the ground. Dr. Rodrigue will discuss the fire ecology of chaparral and coastal sage vegetation and changes in the fire régime created by such invasive plant species as fennel and thistle. Students will see (and smell) the fire scar from the recent Rancho Palos Verdes fire and learn why no homes were lost this time in an area that saw dozens of homes burn in 1973. Dr. Behl will introduce the marine stratigraphy of the area and how it poses a very severe landslide hazard, showing students the surface expressions of active slides. The three faculty will train students in the application of the mathematical concepts of scale and slope and then connect changes in slope angle with landslide and the accelerated erosion seen after a major fire. The purpose of AMP is to support and encourage minority students interested in majoring in sciences, math, and engineering. The program prepares students for enrollment in precalculus and calculus, in order to give them the greatest flexibility in pursuing any scientific or technical field that attracts their interest without having to delay their graduations to backtrack through math late in their college careers. The idea is to relate abstract mathematics to real world (and really fun) applications in the field and lab and help reduce math phobia. Once the students have collected their field data and return to campus, Dr. Wechsler will show them how to process their data in the lab using GIS and remote sensing.

Los Angeles Geographical Society Presentations

The Los Angeles Geographical Society hosted its third annual special student research symposium on 6 May 2005. The student research symposium is made up of papers and posters that students have presented at research conferences or thesis defenses in the last year, which they are invited to re-present to the LAGS. The following CSULB Geography students have been invited:

• Ms. Alma Vargas presented her thesis, "Implementing Modern Geographic Technology in the Trucking Industry: A Case Study"
• Ms. Wanjiru Njuguna presented her thesis, "Water Perception and Consumption Patterns Among Latinos and Whites in Whittier, CA"
• Mr. Terry Lumati dislayed the poster, "The use of digital elevation models (DEMs) in managing natural habitats in the South Coast Wilderness" (originally presented at the Southern California Conference on Undergraduate Research)
• Ms. Denise Behrens displayed the poster, "The Lost Constellations of European Celestial Cartography" (originally presented at the Association of American Geographers)

Dr. Del Casino Is an Invited Speaker at the UCLA Geography Colloquium

Dr. Vincent Del Casino was invited to make a presentation at the UCLA Tod Spieker Geography Colloquium. His talk was entitled, "Sexuality/Health/Geography" and was presented on 6 May.

Community College "Jobs in Geography" Colloquium

The "Jobs in Geography" colloquium series hosted a panel of faculty from a variety of local community college districts, who explained to graduate students interested in community college teaching how to apply for part-time and tenure-track positions, jobs prospects, and the subtleties that each district looks for. The panel was held on Wednesday, 4 May. On the panel was:

• Dr. Ray Sumner, Chair of the Social Sciences Department at Long Beach City College, Professor of Human Geography (and adjunct faculty here at CSULB)
• Dr. Robert Kreger, Professor of Geography, Cerritos College
• Ms. Irene Naesse, Professor of Geography, Orange Coast College
• Ms. Vicki Drake, Geography Instructor, Department of Earth Sciences, Santa Monica College
• Mr. Dan Walsh, Chair, Geography Program, Saddleback College

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

 

Changes among the Faculty

New Faculty Member to Join Us in Fall 2006!

Dr. Bipasha Baruah will begin teaching here in Fall 2006. She earned her Ph.D. from York University in Canada, specializing in gender and development; the informal sector of the economy; microcredit programs; urban poverty; and housing and water issues in India, Indonesia, and the Caribbean. Her doctoral studies were funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research council, which is a very signal honor. She has served as a gender expert on CIDA's Eastern Caribbean Economic Management Program and as a liaison between local civil society organizations and multilateral funding agencies on a United Nations field mission in East Java, Indonesia. Part of her position here will entail serving as the Associate Director of the Yadunandan Center for India Studies, where she will be helping CSULB faculty mainstream Indian content into their classes and curricula. She is right now working on a post-doctoral research and teaching project at the University of Toronto We are really looking forward to welcoming her (and her husband, Paul Perret) to our Department!

New Faculty Member to Join Us in Fall 2006!

Dr. Deborah Thien will begin teaching here in Fall 2006. She earned her Ph.D. from Edinburgh University in Scotland, specializing in feminist geography; the geography of emotions; uneven social geographies of health; health and well-being in remote, rural communities; and qualitative research methods. She focusses particularly on the high latitude rural areas of Scotland (e.g., the Shetland Islands), northern Canada, and New Zealand (where she was an International Exchange Scholar). She is exploring the theme of (social) isolation for research topics in rural California and urban Long Beach and looks forward to resuming her work on New Zealand, too. She is the recipient of a Commonwealth Scholarship, a very prestigious and very subtantial award, to pursue her doctorate in Scotland, and she is right now working on a post-doctoral research and teaching project at the University of Northern British Columbia. We are very much looking forward to her arrival!

New Faculty Member Survives First Year!

Dr. Camille Holmgren began teaching in Fall 2005. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, specializing in palæoclimatology and palæoecology, particularly in the arid environments of the Southwest. In these environments, micro- and macro-fossils in woodrat middens provide a great record, sometimes going back many thousands of years. They are invaluable to the examination of global climate change and its timing, speed, and magnitude over the last 12,000 years or so. Dr. Holmgren has started a project entailing collection of these middens from Joshua Tree in the ecotone between high desert and low desert, and she's going to be going out there this spring, which may be of interest to students who'd like to get out in the field. You can learn more about her interests by clicking here and here and now here! We hope the first semester hasn't been toooooo trying!

Departing Faculty

Dr. Joel Splansky has decided to retire, effective winter, 2006. He has long been a legend teaching Field Methods, Africa, and World Regional Geography (and more than a bit notorious for his "shrink wrap"). His classes were always very thorough and meticulous in preparation and very challenging for students. Students don't necessarily shy away from hard work, though, or at least Geography students don't, since he recruited a lot of majors. He served as chair from F/99 through S/01 and then again during F/02. He isn't planning a quiet retirement, however, with travel plans and teaching a class at the University of Judaism up on Mulholland Drive, and he has agreed to teach Africa and World Regional Geography on a part-time basis in F/06.

Dr. Judith Tyner decided to retire (prematurely in our opinions!), effective summer 2005. She has long been a prominent scholar in cartography and the history of cartography, authoring a well-regarded textbook in cartography and pursuing topics as diverse as the women who made maps for the WWII effort ("Millie the Mapper"), the Colonial education technique of having girls embroider maps and globes, the cartography of the moon, and, most recently, the use of maps in murder mysteries ("bloody maps"). She and Dr. Peters developed the first computer cartography and, later, GIS courses, and she worked with Dr. Gossette on the Cartography and GIS certificates the Department offers. She will be sorely missed, both professionally and personally!

Graduate Advisor

Dr. Christopher Lee is the graduate advisor. His office is in LA4-205, and he can also be reached at (562) 985-2358 and clee@csulb.edu.

Undergraduate Advisor

Dr. Paul Laris is the undergraduate advisor. His office is in LA4-101E, and he can also be reached at (562) 985-1862 and plaris@csulb.edu.

Internship and Extension GIS Certificate Program Director

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler is the Director of the Internship Program and the GIS/Cartography Certificate Program run through University College Extension Services. Her office is in LA4-206E, and she can also be reached at (562) 985-2356 and wechsler@csulb.edu.

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

 

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

May 2006

Los Angeles Geographical Society

The LAGS will hold its fourth annual invitational student research symposium at Los Angeles City College on the evening of Friday, May 6th. This symposium invites any geography students from any Southern California institution, who has given a paper at another conference (e.g., AAG, CGS, SCCUR, or a campus brown-bag) to re-present it for the benefit of the LAGS. The LAGS is a geography outreach organization that has hosted free public lectures on geographical topics for the last 52 years. It also provides scholarships for Southern California geography students. More information on the Annual Geography Student Presentation is available at http://www.lageographic.org/lecture_s/AGSP/AGSP_2005.htm.

Southern California Academy of Sciences

The SCAS will hold its annual meeting at Pepperdine in Malibu on May 12th and 13th. Abstracts are due 10 April. This cross-disciplinary meeting will include symposia on riparian watershed restoration, river plumes and runoff dynamics in marine environments, and a GIS workshop. This conference is very receptive to student research, too. More information on the Annual Geography Student Presentation is available at http://scas.jsd.claremont.edu/annual/annual.html.

June 2006

Caring for the North: A Symposium on Gender, Care, and Northern Places

Caring for the North is a special symposium being organized by our incoming faculty member, Dr. Deborah Thien. The conference will be held at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, on the 7th and 8th of June. For more information, please visit https://home.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/geography/thien/caringforthenorth.doc

August 2006

ESRI International User Conference

The ESRI International User Conference will be held in San Diego from the 7th through the 11th of August. It will be immediately preceded by the ESRI Education User Conference from the 5th-8th of August. For more information, please visit http://www.esri.com/events/index.html

September 2006

Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

The APCG will hold its 2006 meeting in Eugene, Oregon, from the 6th through the 9th of September. More information is available at http://apcg.uoregon.edu/.

October 2006

National Council on Geographic Education

The NCGE will meet from October 5th through 8th in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. More information, including the call for abstracts, is available at http://www.ncge.org/events/meetings/currAMdetails.cfm. Abstracts are due 10 March.

North American Cartographic Information Society

NACIS will hold its annual meeting from October 18th through 21st in Madison, WI. More information can be had at http://www.nacis.org/index.cfm?x=2.

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