News as of Cinco de Mayo 2001

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Check Out the Alumni News Page!

Alumni have been responding to the Geography Department Newsletter that Dr. Ed Karabenick put together. As reports come in, they'll be shared on the brand-new alumni news page. So far, we have information on the doings of Dr. Douglas M. Cotner (1967), Ms. Lindsay D. Tognetti (1978), and Mr. James A. Woods (1992). Send in those newsletter surveys or e-mail us to let us know what you've been up to, and we'll be happy to share your news with the entire CSULB Geography community.

Spring Banquet and Awards Evening

The Geography Department would like to extend an invitation to all Geography students, faculty, and staff and your guest(s) to attent the Department's annual Spring Banquet and Awards Evening. Parents are especially welcome! We will be celebrating the completion of a successful 2000-2001 academic year in Geography, honoring student award winnders, and saying good-bye to graduating students.

Please join us on Saturday 12 May at Sam's Seafood Restaurant, which is located at 16278 South Pacific Coast Highway, in Huntington Beach. The restaurant is located about one mile south of Seal Beach Blvd. on PCH.

• 6:00 pm social hour with cash bar
• 7:00 pm buffet dinner
• 8:00 pm awards program

The buffet will offer several different kinds of salad, Hawaiian chicken, sirloin tips, mahi-mahi, Hawaiian rice, potatoes au gratin, bread and butter, desserts, and coffee and tea.

The cost is $15.00 for students and their guests and $21.75 for faculty and their guests, payable by checks made out to Joel Splansky by Friday, 4 May.

Please RSVP as soon as possible to Lisa Mikhail, LA4 106.

We really look forward to your attendance!

Department Chair Changing of the Guard

Dr. Joel Splansky, who chairs the Department of Geography, has decided to enter the Faculty Early Retirement Plan (FERP). He will be taking every other semester off. As a result, he is stepping down as chair, effective late summer of 2001.

The department met today to hear the breathlessly-anticipated results of the faculty election to select his successor. In a triumph of democracy, Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue handily defeated Dr. Write-in Candidate to become the new department chair.

On learning the results, Dr. Rodrigue commented, "Thank you. I think."

She has one tough act to follow! The department wishes to thank Dr. Splansky for his leadership in two years of unprecedented change and growth in the department.

NACIS Student Web Map Contest

The North American Cartographic Information Society is hosting its third Student Web Map Contest. It's free to enter, and EASY, besides. You just send in an e-mail with the URL where your web mapping effort resides. That's pretty much all there is to it. There are two categories: interactive web map and animated web map. And, the best part (besides adulation and recognition, of course), these puppies pack a $500 award. Each! Oh, your chances are so much the better, too, because prior winners are ineligible!

The deadline for submissions is 23 September 2001 (so they can dish out the awards at the October meeting, described below). To learn more about the rules and get the guidelines for entry, check out the Student Web Map Contest web page.

Call for Papers: October Meeting of NACIS

The North American Cartographic Information Society will hold its annual meeting from the 3rd-6th of October, in Portland, Oregon. Faculty and students are invited to give oral and poster presentations. The deadline for submitting abstracts is May 15th. Conference registration payment and forms will be due in September.

To submit a paper for consideration, please e-mail your 250 word abstract to the program chair, Jim Meacham. Please include your submission within the e-mail message itself, instead of as an attachment. List names and affiliations of all authors and include telephone and e-mail contacts for the presenting author. Also include any special equipment needs you may have. Participants will be notified by June 15th whether their abstract has been accepted.

If you would like to present your work or services as a poster or exhibit, please contact Jeffrey McMichael with poster/exhibit title, the names and affiliations of authors, and your exhibit space needs.

Call for Papers: June Meeting of the AAAS Pacific Division

The Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is holding its annual meeting from June 17- 20, at UC Irvine. Faculty and students are invited to give oral and poster presentations on their scientific research or teaching innovations, and student presentations are eligible for competition in the awards program, which includes cash prizes. The deadline for submitting abstracts is May 10. Papers are welcome in all fields of science and technology, and both members and non-members are eligible to present.

The "Call for Papers" and details of the meeting, including information about abstract submission, housing, registration, and the host campus, are posted on the Division's website: http://biology.umt.edu/aaas.

For questions or to receive a copy of the Division's recently published Newsletter, contact Alan Leviton at aleviton@calacademy.org, call him at (415) 752-1554, or contact the Division's Administrative Assistant, Julie Morrison, at jmevents@bigsky.net or (406) 542-8045.

Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

The APCG will hold its annual meeting from September 12- 15 at UC Santa Barbara. The call for papers hasn't come out yet, so keep an eye on http://www.csus.edu/apcg/ for details as they become available.

Association of American Geographers

The AAG will be holding its annual national conference in Los Angeles (at the Westin Bonaventure downtown) next year from March 19-23! The call for papers will be out shortly, in the AAG Newsletter and on the AAG website: http://www.aag.org. The AAG looks to the geographers and geography departments in the area to develop field trips in the local area, so, if you have a great field trip you'd like to showcase nationally, you might start thinking about proposing it to the AAG.

Distinguished Visitor

Dr. Frank Gossette reports that Dr. Josef Strobl, chair of Geography at the University of Salzburg visited our campus Monday, 5 March. He was treated to lunch at the Chart Room by Dr. Gossette and then shown around the campus and department.

Our Grad Students Wow 'Em in Portland!

Congratulations to the large contingent of graduate students who made their way to Portland in early February for the 5th Annual Western Geography Student Conference. This group, in fact, won the prize for the most highly represented department at the meeting (and thanks to Dr. Chris Lee for supporting his students' travel to this meeting). On top of the general great attendance, students presented two papers, entitled:

"In the Line of Fire: An Investigation into the Relationship between Aspect and Fire History in the Santa Monica Mountains, 1925-1997" by Lewis Francis, Romey Hagen, Shaun Healy, and Steve Newberg.

and

"Using GIS to Update 27 General Plan Maps" by Valerie Müller

Nice job!! The Department is really proud of you! For photographs of the delegation, check out the Portland Files.

Computing Help Available to Students Now

Faculty have enjoyed a telephone, e-mail, and web-based Technology Help Desk for years: Someone to contact when your computer goes non-linear on you. Well, that service has just been extended to students, too! The Help Desk can help you out on a wide range of computer issues, including operating systems, CSULB e-mail account problems, problems with remote connection to CSULB from home, Microsoft Desktop applications, anti-virus programs, Internet and Web related topics, and Blackboard (formerly CourseInfo), too. You can get hold of them by phoning (562) 985-4959, e-mailing them at helpdesk@csulb.edu, pointing your browser to http://helpdesk.csulb.edu, or simply visiting them in LA5-363. The only downside is it's going to make that trusty old "my computer chewed up my homework" excuse a wee bit less credible! Thanks to Dr. Richard Outwater for this news item (and he helped push the initiative to make this service open to students, too).

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.

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Jobs

Part-Time Lecturing at CSULB

The Department of Geography at CSULB is offering part-time lectureships for Fall 2001 and Spring 2002. For more information on the positions and the application process, please click here.

Earth Science Associates

A small petroleum research/software development firm in Long Beach seeks a part-time undergraduate or graduate student in geography or geology for administrative and research work. The job starts as soon as possible and will be part-time through the end of the semester, followed by full-time work over the summer, and part-time or full-time work during the 2001-02 academic year. Compensation depends on experience and ranges from $12 to $20 an hour. The work schedule is flexible and the atmosphere is informal.

Requirements include knowledge of Microsoft Office programs (including Word, Excel, and Access) and of ArcView. Candidates must have completed at least one course in GIS using ArcView. Highly desirable is experience in Avenue programming, Oracle (SQL), Visual Basic, JAVA, and HTML/XML, as well as experience or course work in petroleum geology, math and/or geostatistics.

Earth Science Associates specializes in quantitative analysis in oil and gas exploration and development, GIS, and creation of spatial analysis tools. Projects range from model development through building add-on tools for spatial analysis to empirical, site-specific projects for clients. ESA's clients are mainly major oil and gas companies, but they also include other consulting firms and government agencies.

Students meeting the qualifications are invited to fax their resumés to (52) 437-7722 or e-mail brandy@earthsci.com. You can scope out the company at their web site: http://www.earthsci.com.

Many thanks to Jim Woods for this scoop!

Watch This Space!

The Department has just learned that it has been given a rather large budget for student assistantships, which will be offered to qualified graduate students and relatively advanced undergraduates. The jobs will include teaching assistantship duties, webmastering for individual faculty, and research assistantship work. So, keep your eyes peeled for further news, as this exciting opportunity to work on campus this semester is developed and finalized.

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Lectures and Field Trips

Ms. Angela Wranic

Ms. Angela Wranic, a chemist on the scientific staff at Planet Earth Tech and a lecturer in the Department of Geography, will discuss her work and educational experiences for the Jobs in Geography lecture series. The talk will be held on Monday, 7 May, at 5:30-6:30 pm. in LA4-100. Ms. Wranic holds an M.S. in Environmental Science and teaches physical geography courses here and at other local colleges. The Jobs in Geography lecture series is part of the Geography Department Internship Program. For more information on internships and the lecture series, please contact Dr. Suzanne Wechsler.

Dr. Vincent Del Casino

Dr. Vincent Del Casino gave a talk to the College of Education Brown Bag Series on Monday, 23 April. The talk was entitled, "Social Protest, Spatial Praxis, and Radical Geography in the Teaching of World History." Dr. Del Casino reports that this talk is part of a larger paper that he is working on with Dr. Tim Keirn in the History Department, continuing a long tradition of interaction between the Geography and the History departments on this campus.

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler

Dean Abrahamse invited Dr. Wechsler to address the Emeritus Faculty Luncheon, which is a series of colloquia given to retired faculty and faculty participating in the Faculty Early Retirement Program. The purpose of the luncheon series is "Informal conversation and a program where three new junior faculty discuss their research with time for discussion about their experiences at CSULB." Dr. Wechsler discussed what geographical information systems are, what they can do, and the work she does to improve GIS' rôle in predicting stream runoff and flood hazard. The Emeritus Faculty Luncheon was held on April 20th. It's a small world after all: Dr. Wechsler knows the other two speakers from other contexts. She was a classmate of Dr. Sherry Span (Psychology) back at Tufts University, and Dr. Sara Goering (Philosophy) is co-advisor with her of the CSULB Golden Key National Honor Society!

Dr. Ren Vasiliev

Dr. Ren Vasiliev is our visiting professor this semester. She is the chair of the Department of Geography at the State University of New York at Geneseo and is here to do her sabbatical research (on the historical derivation of place names in New York). She also normally lives here each summer! She is interested in maps and cartography, and she gave an invited guest lecture to the department on 17 April. The title of her presentation was "Maps in Art/Maps as Art." Her exciting and provocative devil's advocate argument that map-like art objects are in fact maps set off a lively exchange among the audience about what exactly qualifies a representation of the terrain as an authentic map. The debate brought out the different constructions of the "map" among the geographic and the artistic communities. This was such a well-attended talk that people were turned away at the door for lack of space.

Dr. Judith Tyner

Dr. Tyner conducted a field trip for her Geography 482 ("Principles of Thematic Map Design") class to the famous mapping company, Thomas Bros. Dr. Suzanne Wechsler accompanied the class, and she and Dr. Tyner met with the new head of Human Relations there to learn his expectations of new hires there, which may lead to even more internship opportunities there.

Mr. Kris Jones

Mr. Kris Jones gave a talk to the Los Angeles Geographical Society on Friday, 6 April, at Los Angeles City College (for future reference, LACC is at 855 N. Vermont Ave., Franklin Hall, right on Vermont, and the talks are always held in Room 101). The title of his talk was "Cuba 2000." The LAGS is a 48 year old public service organization, which promotes geography to the community in the form of free public lectures (with free cookies and beverages!), field trips, dinner talks, and a number of scholarships. For more information on this great organization, visit their web page at http://www.lageographic.com.

Mr. James Woods

Mr. James Woods gave a guest presentation on the 17th of April concerning his award-winning atlas project, "Membership Analysis of the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific."

Ms. Fay Mancebo

Ms. Fay Mancebo gave a guest lecture on the 4th of April. The topic of her presentation was "Overview of Remote Sensing and GIS in the Philippines."

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue was one of a panel of eight hazards experts flown to St. Petersburg, Florida, by the Center for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance. The panel reviewed 24 research proposals submitted for funding in order to recommend four or five that fit within the CDMHA budget. Dr. Rodrigue made presentations and moderated discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of three proposals.

Ms. Brandy Berker

Ms. Brandy Berker gave a talk in the "Jobs in Geography" series. Ms. Berker is a CSULB Geography Department alum, who now works for Earth Science Associates. ESA is a petroleum research and software development firm located in Long Beach, and Ms. Berker discussed her work and how her educational experiences relate to what she does now. ESA, by the way, is advertising for geography and geology students to work for them part-time and, later, full-time. Check out the announcement in the "Jobs" section above. Ms. Berker's talk is sponsored by the Geography Department Internship Program.

Dr. Frank Gossette

Dr. Frank Gossette gave a talk to the International Brown Bag Lunch Discussion Series on Wednesday, 14 March. His talk provided information about "Living in Salzburg, Austria." The International Brown Bag Lunches are hosted by the Center for International Education and the Phi Beta Delta International Honor Society.

Ms. Susanne Byrne-Dronkers

Ms. Susanne Byrne-Dronkers, presently a graduate student in geography, gave a talk on "Careers in GIS" to the "Jobs in Geography" lecture series on Tuesday the 27th of February. The Jobs in Geography guest lecture series is sponsored by the Geography Department Internship Program, which is coördinated by Dr. Suzanne Wechsler. For more information on the Internship Program, either contact Dr. Wechsler or visit the program's web page.

Ms. Robin Lee

Ms. Robin Lee is the Coördinator for Coöperative Education at the CSULB Career Development Center. On the 26th of February, she presented a talk, entitled, "How to Make the Most of Your Internship," to the Jobs in Geography lecture series organized by Dr. Suzanne Wechsler this semester.

Dr. Frank Gossette

Dr. Frank Gossette made a presentation on "Study and Teaching abroad as Part of the Liberal Arts Experience" to the College of Liberal Arts Faculty Retreat on February 9. The theme for the heavily-attended all-day retreat this year was "Teaching and Learning in the Liberal Arts: Different Formats, Different Paths."

Dr. Stan Trimble

Dr. Stan Trimble of UCLA was our guest for National Geography Awareness Week. The theme this year was conservation, and Dr. Trimble gave a guest lecture on this theme, focussing on "Human-Induced Soil Erosion and Sedimentation in the Upper Midwest." Many thanks to Dr. Suzanne Wechsler for organizing this talk.

Dr. Bryan Baker

Dr. Bryan Baker of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) out in Redlands, was our featured speaker for GIS Day 2000, a part of National Geography Awareness Week. His lecture addressed "Can GIS Survive the Internet?" This talk was organized by Dr. Suzanne Wechsler.

Dr. Peter Black

Dr. Peter Black of Syracuse University visited our campus on Thursday, 9 November, on his way to give presentations in New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, and Ethiopia. Dr. Black is a world-known expert in watershed hydrology and related land resources. He is the author of numerous books including Watershed Hydrology and Soil and Water Conservation Policy. He made a dynamic, accessible, and engaging presentation on how watersheds function in Dr. Suzanne Wechsler's class on Thursday, November 9th.

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue took her biogeography students into the field for an all-day data-gathering expedition to Charmlee Park. Charmlee Park is in westernmost L.A. County, in the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking Malibu (about 12 miles west of downtown Malibu and 4 miles up Encinal Canyon). It contains four distinct vegetation communities (coastal sage, chaparral, California prairie, and oak park) and the ruins of an old cattle ranch. Students examined soil compaction and severe gullying on trails and the change in vegetation as a trail is approached (using a transect sampling method). They got plenty of practice in the use of a floristic key to identify woody plants and composites. They then assembled two one square meter quadrat sampling frames (thanks to Dr. Jean Wheeler, recently retired, for those!) and used the grids to map three species of lichen on rock faces. Field data were brought back to class and analyzed statistically, the results presented in class and in group reports. A dividend on this trip was the bus driver, who turned out to be unexpectedly (and sometimes disconcertingly) entertaining!

Ms. Cecilia Padres

Ms. Cecilia Padres, Environmental Project Manager for Geotek, Inc., of Vista, California, spoke about her career in environmental assessment to the Jobs in Geography lecture series, being organized this semester by Dr. Suzanne Wechsler.

Dr. Stephen Pyne

Dr. Stephen Pyne, an expert on wildfire in America and on the Grand Canyon and author of numerous books, gave the Phi Beta Kappa lecture on Monday, 2 October. Dr. Pyne is an historian and professor in the Biology and Society Program at Arizona State University. His riveting talk was entitled, "Where Have All the Fires Gone? A Look at Why and How the American West Burns." The talk was co-sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Fellows and The Odyssey Project, hosted by Dean Dee Abrahamse, and was organized by Dr. Suzanne Wechsler and Mr. James Woods.

Dr. Judith Tyner

Dr. Tyner gave an invited lecture to the Santa Clara Chapter of the Embroiderer's Guild of America, up in Saratoga, CA, on the 19th of July, 2000. Her talk was entitled, "The History of Embroidered Maps and Globes."

Dr. Tyner describes the Guild as an outgrowth of the British Guild, which was organized on this side of the "Pond" in 1958 and incorporated here in 1973. The different chapters have classes in skills and history (Dr. Tyner's thing). She is scheduled to co-teach a national workshop in October, 2001 (these workshops are so competitive they must be booked two years in advance).

Dr. Jim Curtis

Dr. Jim Curtis conducted a field trip of the Long Beach area for new faculty at CSULB. Dr. Curtis has been offering this popular field trip for a few years now to help orient new faculty in all disciplines to the cultural and environmental riches of the area the campus serves. This year's trip was held on Saturday, 30 September..

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Changes among the Faculty

Dr. Outwater Takes Administrative Leave

Dr. Richard Outwater has accepted appointment as the Associate Vice President, Academic Information Technology, effective immediately! He is responsible for technology planning and development for Academic Affairs. Academic Affairs includes all of the colleges and the campus-wide support services, such as Academic Computing Services and Audio Visual Services. He reports that his e-mail remains the same, outwater@csulb.edu, but his new office is in Brotman Hall (BH 308), and his new telephone number is (562) 985-4128. The department is very proud of Dr. Outwater's achievement and campus-wide recognition, and we wish him the best of luck in his new position. Very sadly for us, this is a full-time position, so he cannot continue to teach for us or serve as undergraduate advisor. Dr. Judith Tyner (who was undergraduate advisor last year) has graciously agreed to resume undergraduate advising for Spring 2001.

Geography Welcomes New Human Geography Lecturer!

The Department of Geography is delighted to report the appointment of a new full-time human geography lecturer, Dr. Terence Young. Dr. Young comes to us with a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, an M.A. in Biogeography from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in Cultural-Environmental Geography from UCLA. His areas of specialization are the cultural aspects of North American recreational environments in urban, rural, and wildland settings. He has published in a range of academic journals and edited volumes, including a forthcoming article, "Moral Order, Language, and the Failure of the 1930 Recreation Plan for Los Angeles County" in Planning Perspectives and a book, The Parks of San Francisco, from the Johns Hopkins University Press. He has served as Acting Director of Studies in Landscape Architecture at Harvard University's Dumbarton Oaks and as a Project Manager in the Sustainable Cities Program at USC. He has also held fellowships at Dumbarton Oaks, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, and at the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA. Dr. Young also has ten years teaching experience at Clemson University, George Washington University, Mary Washington College, UCLA, and USC with courses in cultural geography, environmental geography, history and philosophy of geography, geography of the US and Canada, historical geography of the US, historical-environmental geography of European expansion, urban geography, and world regional geography. Professor Young will be with us for one year to replace Dr. Outwater. Next semester, he is scheduled to teach Geography 100 ("World Regional Geography"), Geography 160 ("Human Geography"), and Geography 466 ("Principles of Urban Geography"). We are pleased to welcome Dr. Young!

Geography Welcomes New Physical Geography Lecturer!

The Department of Geography is very pleased to report the hire of a new full-time physical geography lecturer, Mr. Noel Ludwig. Professor Ludwig will be with us for three semesters to replace Dr. Azary, who's on parental leave. Mr. Ludwig has a joint BS/BA degree in Geology and English from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and an M.S. degree in Geophysics from the University of Hawaii. He is ABD (which means nearly done with his Ph.D., "all but dissertation") from the Department of Geography at the University of Hawaii. His area of specializaton is watershed science and management, and he also has a background in international environmental issues. He has published research articles on various topics in well-regarded academic journals. He served for five years as project manager of the Environmental Center at the University of Hawaii. He has taught courses in physical geography, statistics, water and society, and the geography of peace and war. He is teaching introductory physical geography and climatology this semester and will also be doing people as agents of environmental change next semester. Welcome aboard!!!

In Memoriam

Dr. Fred Scantling, Professor Emeritus of Geography, died of cancer on 31 July. He had joined the faculty in 1966, retiring in 1980. Dr. Splansky had this to say about him: "His most remarkable class was Geography of the Pacific area. Fred's knowledge of the region and his stylish delivery made the class an early favorite. We will all certainly miss his charm and ready smile, yet he has left us with many warm memories."

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Social Events

GSA Camping Trip

The GSA organized a field trip for the weekend of April 21st. They went out to Joshua Tree this time. For more information on this or other GSA events, please contact Amy Eifler or Joe Recker.

GSA Ethnic Food Night -- Part Deux

The GSA held its second ethnic food night of the semester on Friday, the 30th of March, at Amy's. The theme this time was Croatian- and Korean-style barbeque! For the Korean-style main course, you can thank Jimmy/Mark and for the Croatian-style contribution, it's Danny. Tiffany provided sodas, Will other beverages, Eric a salad, and Amy "s'mores" (and a venue).

GSA Ethnic Food Night

The Geography Student Association held its first GSA Ethnic Food Night, featuring Greek Mediterranean Cuisine, on Friday, the 23rd of February, at The Greek Grill. The Greek Grill is on the corner of Cherry and Broadway in Long Beach. For more information on this or other GSA events, please contact Amy Eifler or Joe Recker.

Jeopardy!

Mr. Jim Woods is tickled pink to report that he has been selected for the pool of potential contestants on the quiz show, "Jeopardy." Way to go, Woody!

Dr. Azary Becomes a Mom!!!

Dr. Irisita Azary is now a mom! She and her husband, Roger Lee, are really excited and very happy, as they have been looking forward to this for a very long time. She is taking two years of parental leave. Here's a picture of the adorable little guy (Alexander) and one way happy Dr. Azary. By the way, while she's on leave, she can still be reached at azary@csulb.edu. ¡¡¡FELICITACIÓNES!!!

A Brand-New Baby Menguita!!!

Graduate student, Ron Menguita is proud and happy to announce that he and his wife, Azin Menguita, have had a baby!!! Her name is Kiana, and she was born Saturday, February 10, 2001, at 1:58 pm. She weighed in at 6 pounds 10 ounces, and is 20 1/2 inches tall. Heavens -- is a Geography baby boom underway? You can congratulate them by e-mailing Ron and Azin. Here's a picture of Kiana taking a nap, and here's Kiana enjoying a big yawn! What a cute kid! CONGRATULATIONS!

Faculty Get-Together in Yucca Valley

Dr. Judith Tyner, and her husband, Dr. Gerald Tyner, were inundated by geography colleagues Drs. Chrys Rodrigue, Molly Debysingh, and Richard Outwater, who dropped in at the Tyner's second home in Yucca Valley on the weekend of the 21st of April. Everyone enjoyed their lovely desert ærie, several venturing out on a hike up the canyon behind their home, and a somewhat different cast of characters headed out to Joshua Tree to see if they could find and surprise the GSA campers (to no avail).

Faculty Get-Together in Los Osos

Dr. Judith Tyner, her husband, Dr. Gerald Tyner, and Dr. Chrys Rodrigue trekked out to Los Osos in January to catch up with Dr. Jean Wheeler, newly retired from our department and Dr. Gary Peters formerly of our department and now at Chico State. It was one soggy time on the Central Coast, as the faculty party got wetter than marine mammals while visiting the elephant seals building up their colonies just north of Morro Bay and while hiking out at Montaña de Oro State Beach. Everyone enjoyed catching up with one another, fighting off hypothermia, checking out Dr. Wheeler's great new digs, and comparing notes on the Beach and Chico campuses.

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Publications

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue has a new article out about risk amplification and risk attenuation in Internet media. The reference is: Rodrigue, Christine M. 2001. "Construction of Hazard Perception and Activism on the Internet: Amplifying Trivial Risks and Obfuscating Serious Ones."Natural Hazards Research Working Paper 106 (University of Colorado, Boulder, Natural Hazards Research and Applications Center). This online publication is available at http://www.colorado.EDU/hazards/wp/wp106/wp106.html.

Dr. Judith Tyner has an article about the history of map samplers out, hot off the press. The reference is: Tyner, Judith A. 2001. "Following the Thread: The Origins and Diffusion of Embroidered Map Samplers."Mercator's World (March-April): 36-41.

An article co-authored by Dr. Irisita Azary has just come out! The reference is: Weir, Daniel and Azary, Irisita. 2001. Quitovac Oasis: A Sense of Home Place and the Development of Water Resources. The Professional Geographer 53, 1: 46-55. The article is a humanistic analysis of the cultural geography of a seemingly failed agricultural development in the Sonoran Desert. This "failure" actually strengthened the residents' Tohono O'odham ethnic identity within the modernizing Mexican cultural milieu and ensured the continuation of religious rites surrounding a sacred site. Daniel Weir, by the way, is a doctoral student at Louisiana State University, who was once one of Dr. Azary's master's students at San Diego State. He spoke here last year.

Mr. James Woods reports that an atlas of maps he produced completely within Atlas GIS has been selected for inclusion in this year's ESRI's 2001 Map Book, Vol. 16. The map collection is entitled "Membership Analysis of the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific." This is the second time that Jim Woods has been honored by having his work showcased in the ESRI Map Book series (the last time was in Vol. 14 in 1999).

The Daily News, a newspaper out in the San Fernando Valley, published a brief letter to the editor by Dr. Chrys Rodrigue objecting to the movement to have the Valley secede from the City of Los Angeles and pointing out the advantages of remaining within the L.A. City Department of Water and Power. The letter came out Friday, 9 February.

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue's research on media performance during natural disasters has just been profiled in the campus publication, Inside CSULB. The reference is: Manly, Richard. 2001. Some Media Coverage a Disaster. Inside CSULB 53, 1: 1. You can get a PDF copy by clicking here.

Dr. Vincent Del Casino has just learned that an article of his has just been accepted for publication in The Professional Geographer. The reference is: Del Casino, Vincent. 2001. Healthier Geographies: Mediating the "Gaps" between the Needs of People Living with HIV and AIDS and Health Care in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Professional Geographer (forthcoming).

The Los Angeles New Times published a brief letter to the editor by Dr. Chrys Rodrigue. It was entitled "East L.A.'s Picasso: Out of this World," and it corrected a factual error about the Cassini mission. The letter came out 6 July 2000 and is available at: http://www.newtimesla.com/issues/2000-07-06/letters.html.

Prof. Noel Ludwig has just learned that an article of his is coming out right now: Ludwig, Noel A. 2000. Swords into timeshares: A marine park alternative for the Spratly Islands. Ocean Yearbook 15 (University of Chicago Press). This article is based on a paper he presented at the 17th Pacific Science and Technology Conference, Honolulu, HI, June 6-10, 2000.

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue has just been notified that an article she wrote based on her Hazards Workshop presentation this July has been accepted for publication and is due out in early 2001. The reference is: Rodrigue, Christine M. 2001. Impact of Internet Media in Risk Debates: The controversies over the Cassini-Huygens mission and the Anaheim Hills, California, landslide. The Australian Journal of Emergency Management 15.

Dr. Vincent Del Casino has an article out about his work on the geography of organizations, such as health care agencies. The reference is Del Casino Jr., V.; A. Grimes; S. Hanna; and J.P. Jones III. "Methodological frameworks for the geography of organizations." Geoforum 31, pp. 523-538.

Dr. James R. Curtis recently had a book review published on Urban Latino Culures: La vida latina en L.A., edited by Gustavo LeClerc, Raul Villa, and Michael Dear (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999). Dr. Curtis' review can be round in Urban Geography 21, 3 (April-May, 2000): 278-279.

Jan Olsen's, Ed Huefe's, and Jim Covin's March 29th public presentation, Emergency Preparedness in Pedro, was the focus of a front page article in the Random Lengths biweekly newspaper. The article, with the byline of staff writer, Andy Harris, gave a very positive review of the three CSULB Geography graduate students' research and summarized the highlights of citizen discussion with local Fire Chief Lou Roupoli and L.A. Firefighter David Stamp. The full reference is Harris, Andy. 2000. "Disaster Preparedness: When the Big One Hits Pedro," Random Lengths Harbor Independent News (April 28-May 11): 1, 16.

Jim Woods, alumnus, Geography Computer Lab Manager, and lecturer, reports that his map, "Executions by State Since 1976," is published online by the Death Penalty Information Center, at http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executionmap.html. Mr. Woods' map is updated each month. This necrogeography represents a socially, politically, and culturally revealing use of GIS and cartography and is well worth visiting on a regular basis.

Mr. Woods is also profiled on the Association of American Geographers website in its "Geographers at Work" page, under its "Careers in Geography" section. The profile is entitled, "An Interview with James A. Woods - Hazard Geographer," and the direct link is http://www.aag.org/Careers/Geogwork/Woods.html. The article describes a lot of Mr. Woods' GIS work in fire hazard analysis and mitigation and his work with the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. It is nice to see our department's strong record in applied geography recognized by a profile of one of our alumni on the AAG web site!

Dr. Irisita Azary recently had an article out in a peer-reviewed proceedings. It's entitled, "Application of the Rosgen Stream Classification System to Southern California Wildland Streams," and it came out in the June/July 1999 issue of American Water Resource Association Conference Proceedings: Wildland Hydrology.

Dr. Judith Tyner had an article on her work on embroidered maps and globes appear as, "Stitching a New Country," in Needlearts 33, 1 (March 1999): 12-14.

Dr. Tyner had an article, "Millie the Mapper," in the February 1999 issue of Meridian, which is the journal of the Map and Geography Round Table of the American Library Association. The article is in volume 15, pp. 23-28. Dr. Tyner also served as the guest editor for this special theme issue on Women in Cartography.

Dr. Tyner also had another article, "A World of Their Own, James Wilson and the First American Globe," in the January/February 1999 issue of Mercator's World 4, 1: 28-33.

Our hyperactive Dr. Tyner was invited to submit a commentary in California 49, California Map Society Occasional Paper. Its title is "A New Map of Texas Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining," and it appeared in the sixth issue (1999) on p. 30.

[ Jobs ] [ Talks ] [ Changes ] [ Social ] [ Conferences ] [ Publications ] [ Grants ]

Faculty and Graduate Students off to Conferences

Association of Asian Studies, Chicago, 21-24 March 2001

Dr. Vincent J. Del Casino was the primary co-author (with Rachel Safman, Cornell University) of a presentation, entitled:

"Working the 'Middle Ground': NGOs, Health Care, and AIDS in Chiang Mai, Thailand."

Association of American Geographers, New York, 27 February-3 March 2001

The Department of Geography at CSULB sent one of the largest delegations to the AAG conference (the major national conference across the discipline) of all the Southern California geography departments. Only UCLA, SDSU, and UCSB sent larger groups (8-10 people), but their Ph.D.-granting departments are considerably larger than ours (18-24 tenured and probationary faculty each). At 58 percent, our delegation included the largest percentage of the faculty from any Southern Califoria geography department, and towered over the 29 percent average for all the CSU campuses. This kind of showing at a major national conference is just one easily quantified expression of a diverse and hard-working group of scholars, teachers, and university and community servants! Go Beach!

Dr. Chris Lee authored a paper with a large group from UC Santa Barbara's Department of Geography and Institute for Computational Earth System Science (Dar A. Roberts, Phil Dennison, Charles Jones, and Marco Morais) and The Ærospace Corporation of El Segundo (Ray Talbot):

"Integrated Assessment of Fire Hazard in Southern California using Remote Sensing, GIS and Wind Models."

Dr. Vincent Del Casino presented:

"Organizational Ethnographies and the Politics of Fieldwork."

Dr. Del Casino also served on a panel, which he co-organized. The title of the session is:

"Interrogating Tourism Maps: New 'Guides' to Space and Identity."

Dr. Jim Curtis presented a paper with Ms. Aimée R. Mindes (Physical Sciences Department, Rio Hondo College, Whittier, and a graduate alumna of Geography at CSULB):

"Urban Structure in Ensenada and La Paz, Mexico."

Dr. Curtis also chaired a session, entitled:

"Latin American Urban and Economic Geography."

Dr. Suzanne P. Wechsler delivered:

"Effect of Digital Elevation Model Uncertainty and Scale on Topographic Parameter Estimators."

Dr. Judith Tyner went off to New York to present:

"Millie the Mapper II: Experiences of Women Geographers and Cartographers in WWII."

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue, also headed to the AAG to present:

"Construction of Hazard Perception and Activism on the Internet."

Dr. Rodrigue also chaired a session, entitled:

"New Departures in Research on the Human Dimensions of Technological Hazards."

Dr. Frank Gossette, frantically flew to New York to present:

"Geography of the Last Moment." Or so he insisted right up to the very last moment. Actually, he co-presented (with Dr. Roni Wade of Stanford University) "Using GIS to Model At-risk Populations for Emergency Planning and Response" and, yes, the real abstract is now available by clicking on Dr. Gossette's name above.

Dr. Unna I. Lassiter was also part of the New York delegation, showcasing her USC dissertation research:

"Cultural Diversity and the Construction of Marine Animals."

Dr. Stephen R. Koletty, also representing El Camino College, delivered:

"Tiki L.A. -- Geography of an Urban Exotica."

Mr. Ed Huefe, a graduate student in the Geography Department, was also part of the AAG delegation, where he made the following presentation:

"Across the Borderline: U.S.-Mexico Borderlands as Locus of Transformation in North American Popular Music."

Mr. Huefe is working on his thesis with Dr. James Curtis.

Mr. Tom D. Frazier, an M.A. alumnus of the Geography Department, also went to the AAG to present:

"The Waning Berlin Wall: Topography of a Relict Boundary."

Mr. Frazier is presently working on his doctorate at the Geographic Institute of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. He noted that his AAG presentation is based on research he started while doing his master's thesis here (under Dr. Gary Peters, now at Chico State) and he wants to say hello to everyone here and be considered an unofficial member of our huge AAG delegation this year! We got to catch up a bit there, Tom (and regards to Dr. Marlies Schulz, who spoke here last year)!

College of Liberal Arts Faculty Retreat, CSULB, 9 February 2001

Dr. Frank Gossette made a presentation on:

"Study and Teaching abroad as Part of the Liberal Arts Experience."

Several other Geography faculty attended, including Drs. Suzanne Wechsler, Vincent Del Casino, Irisita Azary, Joel Splansky,and Chrys Rodrigue.

Western Geography Student Conference, Portland, OR, 2-4 February 2001

Ms. Valerie Müller presented:

"Using GIS to Update 27 General Plan Maps."

Mr. Lewis Francis, Ms. Romey Hagen, Mr. Shaun Healy and Mr. Steven Newberg presented:

"In the Line of the Fire: An Investigation into the Relationship between Aspect and Fire History in the Santa Monica Mountains, 1925-1997."

American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, 15-19 December, 2000

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue presented:

"The Use of the Internet and Web-Based Technology for Space and Geoscience (Mis)Education: New Media in Natural and Technological Hazard Debates."

In addition, Dr. Rodrigue chaired a session at the AGU:

"New Tools and Perspectives on Understanding Natural Hazards Worldwide."

GIScience 2000, Savannah, Georgia, 28-31 October, 2000

Dr. Suzanne P. Wechsler presented:

"Applications of a Methodology For Digital Elevation Model Uncertainty Simulation Within ArcView Spatial Analyst."

Texas Map Society, October, 2000

Dr. Judith Tyner gave an invited presentation:

"The Hidden Cartographers: The History of Women in Cartography."

Western Conference of the Association of Asian Studies, CSULB, 6-7 October, 2000

Dr. Vincent Del Casino gave a panel presentation on:

"HIV/AIDS in Thailand."

Hazards Research and Applications Workshop, Boulder, CO, July 9-12, 2000

Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue made an invited hour-long research presentation:

"Public Perception and Hazard Policy Construction When Experts and Activists Clash in the Media."

Dr. Rodrigue also made a poster available at that conference:

"Internet Recruitment and Activism in the Cassini Controversy."

Dr. Ben Wisner served as an invited discussant in a plenary session. This is his last professional presentation while still a professor in this department (he has since moved to Oberlin College, in Ohio). His presentation was:

"The Political Economy of Hazards: More Limits to Growth?"

Dr. Frank Gossette also attended the Workshop, with his new bride, Dr. Ronnie Wade, of Stanford University.

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Grants

Drs. Chrys Rodrigue and Suzanne Wechsler

just signed off as principal investigators (PIs) on a major grant being submitted to the National Science Foundation on March 16th. This project was spearheaded by Dr. Beth Ambos, Department of Geological Sciences and Associate Dean for Instruction, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Other PIs in the three year project include Drs. Dan Francis, Rick Behl, Jim Sample, and Maria-Teresa Ramirez-Herrera of the Department of Geological Sciences, Dr. Laura Henriques of the Department of Science Education, and Dan Larson of the Department of Anthropology. Dr. Chris Lee is also an associate of the proposed project and will put the resources of the Wildfire Hazards Research Center at the disposal of the project. The purpose of the grant is to integrate underrepresented students in the geosciences by involving them in research projects to be conducted by CSULB geosciences faculty and faculty from several community colleges and high schools in the area. The students recommended by the high school and community college faculty will work as research assistants during the summer and then co-author scientific publications and conference papers and present their work to their home institutions. This project is to help remedy the lack of exposure to the field-oriented geography, geology, and archaeology disciplines experienced by promising young urban students who may never have even gone on a field trip outside the city. The hope is that, by participating in field research and working with faculty in the geosciences, some of these students may begin to put the various geosciences on their radar for possible major selection and lend their perspectives to geography, geology, and archaeology. If urban students won't come to the geosciences, then the geosciences will come to them! Here's hoping the NSF finds the proposal as exciting as the participants do.

Dr. Chris Lee

gave a recent report to the department on his NASA research projects. He directs a NASA Regional Earth Science Application Center (RESAC), which he brought over from CSU Dominguez Hills on moving to our department. This RESAC is the Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center. There are only eight RESACs in the country (the others, all doctoral institutions, are UC Berkeley and the universities of Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Maryland, and Connecticut). Besides CSULB, the other partners in this center are UC Santa Barbara, Ærospace Corporation, Los Angeles County Fire Department, and Jet Propulsion Lab. Funding amounts to $1.5 million through February of 2002. The goal of this NASA RESAC is to provide fire hazard maps incorporating remote sensing and weather modelling data to the LACFD to assist them in managing fire hazards at the urban-wildlands interface.

Beside the Wildfire Hazard Center, Dr. Lee is conducting two pilot projects for the NASA Earth Science Applications Research Program (ESARP), in coöperation with the Soil and Water Science Department of the University of Alexandria in Egypt, the University of Guelph in Canada, and Boulder County in Colorado. The overall purpose of the ESARP is international, state, and local workforce development and capacity-building in support of NASA Earth Science Enterprise goals. This $300,000 pair of pilot projects includes one project in Egypt and one in Colorado. The first entails analysis of new high resolution satellite data for farm systems analysis and to build an historical data archive of 50 Landsat Thematic Mapper images for use by the students of Alexandria, Guelph, and CSULB in studies of long-term vegetation dynamics and agricultural development on the northwest coast of Egypt. The second project is to assist Boulder County in developing remote sensing capacity, including high resolution IKONOS imagery, software and training, and image processing support.

Dr. Lee arrived at CSULB after spending a year away from CSUDH as a NASA Visiting Senior Scientist in Washington, D.C., where he worked on developing the NASA State, Local, and Tribal Initiative design. He was (and remains) responsible for the Workforce Development and Capacity Building element, which he represents at conferences, workshops, and to NASA Headquarters.

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue

was pleased to learn that she has been awarded one class of reassigned time in the fall and student assistant money to work on a campus project on incorporating program assessment into the curriculum.

Dr. Frank Gossette

reports that the Department is currently working with the CSULB President's Office on an enrollment management mapping project. Its purpose "is to provide a visual representation of a proposed CSULB service area which maintains the university's ethnic, geographic, and academic program diversity while enrolling applicants who demonstrate the most potential for academic success."

Two versions of the map are planned. The maps will show CSULB and indicate high school districts, individual high schools, and their distances from CSULB with the use of 5-mile concentric rings. The locations of CSU Fullerton and CSU Dominguez Hills will also be shown for reference. In addition, the first version will include the number of first time freshman enrollees for Fall 1999, and the second will include Stanford 9 scores and the percentage of AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) population for each school.

Dr. Judith Tyner

reports that she received an AAG Research Grant to help with expenses for "Millie the Mapper: The Role of Women in Geography and Cartography in WWII." She commented that this means she'll actually have to do this project! ;-)

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