Geography Department News

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

as of 29 June 2008

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GDEP 2 Launches!

The Department of Geography partnered with the Geological Sciences Department, the Archæology Program, and the Environmental Science and Policy Program to secure $1.1 million to launch the second track of the highly successful Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program. GDEP originally ran from 2002 through 2004. GDEP 2 will run from (today) through summer 2011. Dr. Chris Lee is the Principal Investigator. Other faculty involved are Drs. Paul Laris, Suzanne Wechsler, Chrys Rodrigue, Lora Stevens, Rick Behl, Greg Holk, Tom Kelty, Dan Francis, Dan Larson, Carl Lipo, and Hector Neff. The GDEP team, along with partner faculty from several local community colleges and high schools, and students from these institutions will be involved in field and lab work in two field sites this summer: the South Coast Wilderness in Orange County and Palos Verdes. Look for a symposium presenting the results of all these investigations in early August! For more information about this program, please visit https://home.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/geography/gdep/.

Mr. James Woods' Photograph Selected for Press-Telegram

Our own "Woody" had a photograph of his selected for publication in the Long Beach Press-Telegram "Reader Page" section. The photograph is quite amazing: It shows the exact moment that a cannon went off during a Civil War re-enactment of the Battle of Gettysburg held in El Dorado Park in late May. You can read the article and view this photograph at http://www.presstelegram.com/readerpage/ci_9739208. Congratulations!

Ms. Deborah Hann Wins Outstanding CLA Thesis!

The Department of Geography is very proud to report that one of our graduate students, Ms. Deborah Hann, won the "Outstanding Thesis Award" from the College of Liberal Arts. Her thesis is entitled Maps in Children's Literature: Their Uses, Forms, and Functions, and her graduate advisory committee was Drs. Chrys Rodrigue, Suzanne Wechsler, and Judith Tyner. What makes this even more remarkable is this is the third graduate student to win this award in the last three years, and Geography had run a graduate program for 50 years before the first such distinction.

Dr. Laris Earns a Sabbatical!

The Department of Geography is very pleased to report that Dr. Paul Laris wrote a winning proposal for a sabbatical next year. We wish to congratulate him on this achievement, particularly since relatively few sabbaticals were granted for next year.

Student Research Competition

All CSULB students are invited to participate in the 21st Annual CSULB Student Research Competition on Friday, March 7, 2008.

• $200.00 award for first place in each category
• $100 award for second place in each category

Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to participate by submitting a five-page summary of their research or creative project (Due Friday, February 15, 2008) and giving a ten-minute oral presentation (on Friday March 7, 2008).

Ten students will be selected to represent CSULB at the statewide CSU Research Competition Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3, 2008 at CSU East Bay. Cash prizes are also awarded for first and second place winners in each category. All travel expenses will be covered by the Office of the Provost. This is an excellent opportunity to share your research, scholarship, or creative activity with students from the other 22 campuses of the CSU system.

Please see the following web site for more information: http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/projects/grad/research/. Let Geography faculty know if you are interested: We would love to work with you to make your presentation as competitive as possible.

Boldly Going Where No Geographer Has Gone Before

Dr. Vin Del Casino has initiated a new Brown Bag Colloquium series, an informal venue for presentation of faculty and student research or other projects. The first Brown Bag was held on November 30th: Dr. Chrys Rodrigue presented "Boldly Going Where No Geographer Has Gone Before: Taking Mars into the Geography Classroom," which described the Special Topics (GEOG 494) course she did in Spring 2007, "Mars: A Regional Areography." Ms. Kristie Mamelli, one of the students in the class, was spotted in attendance!

Geography Wins the College of Liberal Arts European Culture Bowl!!!

As part of its International Education Week celebration, the College of Liberal Arts held its first ever "Culture Bowl" on November 15th. The Bowl consisted of a competition among department teams of undergraduate students, who vied with one another in fielding questions in general knowledge about Europe and the European Union. Dr. Sidorov was part of the organizing group and knew it would be a shame not to have his own Department of Geography in the thick of things. He put out a call and Mr. Tom Frazier rose to the coaching challenge, assembling a crack team of geography students. Guess what! Team Geography won first place!!! Here are the members of the team who brought home the gold:

• Mr. Anthony Vasquez
• Ms. Yuki Konishi
• Mr. Ernesto Sanchez
• Mr. Malcolm Bourne
• Mr. Michael Vladoianu

We are all incredibly proud of you for showing off the merits of a geographic education in front of the whole College! Geography ROCKS!!!

Geography Awareness Week Photo Contest Winners

This was the biggest year ever! We had 170 entries, in seven different categories (our six standing categories and a seventh "floating" category defined by the theme for each year's National Geography Awareness Week -- "Asia" this year). Here are our grand prize winners by category:

• Ms. Yuki Konishi for "Standing on the Prime Meridian" (Geography in Action)
• Mr. Gregory Ziolkowski for "Teton Range, Sunrise" (Physical Landscape)
• Ms. Mary Ngo for "Quechuan Woman with Her Baby Alpaca" (People and Culture)
• Mr. Charles Warren for "Tree Tunnel" (Flora and Fauna)
• Ms. Katie Cole for "Windy City Skyline" (Urban Landscape)
• Ms. Melanie Kroeger for "Walnut Blossoms" (Rural Landscape)
• Mr. Eric Wong for "Downtown" (Asia)

We Have a New Faculty Member

Dr. Suzanne Dallman joined us in Fall 2007 as Assistant Professor of Geography. She is a hydrology and water resource management expert, which will build the Department's strength in environmental and physical geography. Welcome aboard!

Mr. Scott Eckhardt Is the CSULB Nominee for Best Thesis in the West!

Mr. Scott W. Eckhardt is the campus nominee for the annual Western Association of Graduate Schools Outstanding Thesis Award!!!

Student Scholarships

The Department of Geography is delighted to publicize the recipients of our student scholarships:

• Eileen Johansen Scholarship: Mr. Kentaro Iwamoto
• Burton Anderson Scholarship: Mr. Brian Nagy
• Rodney Steiner Award:
  • Mr. Ernesto Sanchez
  • Mr. Brian Nagy

Student Honors

The Department of Geography is very pleased to announce the following student awards:

• Outstanding Graduating Senior: Ms. Sharon Michelle Lynch
• Distinguished Undergraduates:
  • Ms. Sharon Michelle Lynch
  • Ms. Aregnaz Mooradian
• Distinguished Graduate Students:
  • Mr. Scott Eckardt
  • Ms. Janet Troeger

College of Liberal Arts Exceptional Achievement Awards

The Department of Geography is very proud to announce that three of its advanced undergraduates earned the CLA Exceptional Achievement Award: Ms. Jessica N. Jaynes, Ms. Devon T. Nelson, and Mr. Patrick R. Weber. This award recognizes outstanding scholastic achievement throughout a student's academic career at CSULB. Congratulations!

Mr. Scott Eckhardt Has Won Outstanding Thesis Honors!

Mr. Scott W. Eckhardt has been awarded the CLA Outstanding Thesis Award for his 2006 thesis, "Assessment of wildfire frequency and coastal sage scrub vegetation dynamics in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California," chaired by Dr. Paul Laris and read by Drs. Chris Lee and Chrys Rodrigue. This is only the second time that a Geography thesis has received this distinction in the 51 years that we have had graduate work (the last time was last year, when Dr. Mike McDaniel's 2005 thesis was given this award. Lightning DOES strike twice in the same place!)! Congratulations on this well-earned award!

Ms. Julienne Gard's Thesis Wins the National Jacques May Prize

Ms. Julienne Gard was named the 2007 winner of the Jacques May Prize, which honors the best thesis in medical geography. This is a national award given by the Medical Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers! Ms. Gard is presently working on her Ph.D. in geography at USC. Her thesis was chaired by Dr. Vin Del Casino and Drs. Christy Jocoy and Ray Sumner.

Dr. James A. Tyner Wins the Glenda Laws Memorial Award

Dr. James A. Tyner, son of our own Drs. Judith Tyner and Gerald Tyner, and alumnus of our program (B.A., 1989) was named the 2007 winner of the Glenda Laws Memorial Award. This award is administered by the Association of American Geographers and endorsed by members of the Institute of Australian Geographers, the Canadian Association of Geographers, and the Institute of British Geographers. The annual award and honorarium recognize outstanding contributions to geographic research on social issues. This award is named in memory of Glenda Laws, a geographer who brought energy and enthusiasm to her work on issues of social justice and social policy. Dr. Jim Tyner does work on the interconnections among gender, race, ethnicity, migration, and urbanism. This is the second time a Beach geographer has won the Glenda Laws Award: The very first recipient of this award was Dr. Vincent Del Casino! In the four years of this award, one Beach faculty member and one Beach alumnus have won it! This speaks volumes about the commitment that our program seems to instill in Beach geographers not just to understand the world but to change it and improve the lives of others.

Los Angeles Geographical Society Presentations

The Los Angeles Geographical Society hosted its fifth annual special student research symposium on 4 May 2006. Three graduate students represented Geography @ The Beach this year:

• Mr. César Espinosa presented "ArcIMS -- An Advanced Logistics Concept Project for Strategic Mobility 21"
• Mr. Kevin Flaherty presented "Understanding Housing Need in San Francisco"
• Mr. Simon Wright presented "The Volcanoes and Earthquakes of Japan: An Interactive Map"

Ph.D. Program Acceptances

Two of our graduate students and one of our part-time faculty have been accepted into Ph.D. programs! Ms. Nazie Naraghi has been accepted into the doctoral program at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Mr. Ryan Goode has been accepted into the joint Ph.D. program of San Diego State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara (where Dr. Christopher Carter earned his Ph.D. and where Mr. Norm Carter is nearly done with his). Both graduate students start their studies in F/07. And Ms. Angela Wranic has also been accepted into the Ph.D. program at Texas State University, San Marcos, where she starts this summer. This is an innovative program focussed on geographic education research and it was designed for working education professionals around the country. They are in residence in Texas during the summers and then they take courses through distance education during the regular academic year. Congratulations to each and all of you! This has to be a record for Geography @ The Beach!

Two Graduate Students Fêted at the CGS!

Messrs. Simon Wright and César Espinosa won first and second place, respectively, in the Cartography Digital Map Competition at the California Geographical Society meeting on March 16th-18th in Anza-Borrego. The awards conferred monetary prizes, too, which defrayed their travel. Both graduate students commented about how important Dr. Wechsler's support and help were. Geography @ The Beach Rocks!!!

Dr. Wechsler Wins Award!

The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing notified Dr. Suzanne Wechsler that she and Charles Kroll of SUNY, Syracuse, have won the 2007 ESRI Award for Best Scientific Paper in Geographical Information Systems for their paper, "Quantifying DEM uncertainty and its effect on topographic parameters," which appeared in Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing in late 2006. This recognition is accompanied by a $500 check! Outstanding!!!

Dr. James Curtis Has Article Reprinted. For the Fourth Time!

Dr. James Curtis had an article printed as the lead article in the very first issue of the Journal of Cultural Geography back in 1980. This article, "Miami's Little Havana: Yard shrines, cult religion, and landscape," is being reprinted for the fourth time in a scholarly anthology, Southern Crossroads: Perspectives on Southern Religion and Culture, edited by Rodger Payne and Walt Conser, which will be published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2008. This is the fourth article that Dr. Curtis has seen reprinted more than two times! Dr. Curtis has created articles with lives of their own as classics in the field! Congratulations!

Dr. Bipasha Baruah Flown to South Africa

Dr. Bipasha Baruah presented a paper entitled, "Women and multiple vulnerabilities: Opportunities and constraints in landed property ownership for informal sector workers in urban India," this at the international conference, Living on the Margins: Vulnerability, Social Exclusion, and the State in the Informal Economy, which was held at Cape Town, South Africa, from March 26th-28th. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Development Bank of South Africa, USAID, and the National Research Foundation, among others.

Mr. Woods' CSULB Alumni Maps the Focus of an Article in GIS Educator

Mr. James Woods created a stunning set of maps showing the locations and concentration patterns of CSULB alumni for President King Alexander. These were showcased in an article in GIS Educator, entitled "The Geographic Distribution of Graduates: Where Are CSULB Alumni Living?" The article can be accessed at http://www.esri.com/library/newsletters/giseducator/gised-winter07.pdf Congratulations!

Dr. Carter Wins Rotary Grant!

Dr. Chris Carter, Lecturer in Geography at The Beach and Associate Professor of Human Geography at Long Beach City College, has just learned that he has received a $22,500 Rotary Grant for University Teachers. He will use the grant during his sabbatical from LBCC, from Spring 2008 through Fall 2008. The goals of his grant project including teaching in the Geography Department at the University of La Serena, Chile; developing online collaborative exercises to link geography students in Chile with geography students in Long Beach; offer a seminar series on changing ethnic patterns in Southern California, trade between Long Beach and Chile, and the community college model of higher education in Californial. Congratulations!

Boldly Going Where No Geographer Has Gone Before: Taking Mars into the Geography Classroom

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue offered what looks like the very first Geography of Mars class! The class went through the history of Mars exploration, the basics of remote sensing as applied to spacecraft sent to Mars, the physical landscapes of Mars, the Martian weather and climate, and how Mars affects the human imagination. To learn more about the class, please visit its home page: http://www.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/mars/.

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 may have part-time lectureships available for Fall 2008. For more information on the positions and the application process, please click here.

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Lectures and Field Trips

Palos Verdes Field Trip

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue took her Geography 442 (Biogeography) and a dozen of her Geography 140 (Introductory Physical Geography) students out to Palos Verdes Peninsula. While there, they learned to identify coastal sage, chaparral, and (exotic) woodland vegetation formations and then how to identify individual species using a floristic key she has been developing for the Peninsula. They then set up a transect to identify the larger species dominating about a dozen sampling areas, and used these identifications to classify the sites as dominated by native species or exotic species or a mixture of the two. The prevalence of introduced exotics was very high. They then looked at an area of accelerated erosion created by off-trail mountain bike riders and the use of imported decomposed granite to mitigate the erosion with possible consequences for altering soil chemistry. Afterwards, the field trip went down to the coast to observe the Abalone Cove and Portuguese Bend translational landslides and the old Point Fermin rotational slump ("Sunken City"). A stray flock of pigeons led to an impromptu discussion of the differences between wild and feral and the natural selection and migration/re-introduction processes that maintain the color patterns of the feral birds. The Cornell University Ornithology Lab Pigeon Watch project was discussed and their hypothesis about sexual selection possibly leading to the pattern diversity of feral pigeons.

Community College "Jobs in Geography" Colloquium

The "Jobs in Geography" colloquium series hosted a panel of two faculty from 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, 25 April. On the panel:

• Prof. Kim Hatch, Instructor of Physical Geography and Environmental Science in the Physical Sciences Department at Long Beach City College
• Prof. Irene Naesse, Instructor of Geography, Orange Coast College

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Changes among the Faculty

New Faculty Member in 2007-08!

Dr. Suzanne Dallman began teaching in Fall 2007. She earned her Ph.D. from UCLA, specializing in hydrology and watershed management. She has been working with the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council for the last several years, where she has taken a particular interest in the use of waste water for aquifer recharge and evaluating whether this might pose pollution or disease risks. She will eventually be teaching such courses as Land and Water Environments, Watershed Processes and Management, Land Use Planning, Introductory Physical Geography, and some GIS courses, as well as developing a new course in Environmental Impact Assessment. We are very excited that she will be joining us this fall!

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. She will be on sabbatical this fall, and so we won't run GEOG 492 as such this fall. Students can do an internship and receive credit for it in the spring or, alternatively, work with a particular faculty member to do an internship in the fall and receive credit in the fall through that faculty member's GEOG 497 listing. The Extension GIS Certificate will continue under the leadership of its co-director, Mr. Woods.

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

April 2008

Association of American Geographers

The AAG will be holding its annual national meeting from the 15th through the 19th of April in Boston (hope you get your taxes in!). For more information, please visit http://aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/index.htm

American Planning Association

The APA is holding its 100th National Planning Conference from the 27th of April through the 1st of May in Las Vegas. For more information, please visit http://www.planning.org/2008conference/

May 2008

Southern California Academy of Sciences

SCAS will hold its annual meeting at CSU Dominguez this year, from May 2nd through May 3rd. For more information, please visit http://scas.jsd.claremont.edu/

California Geographical Society

The CGS will meet in Chico on the 2nd through the 4th of May. For more information, please visit
http://www.csun.edu/~calgeosoc/upcoming.html.

Society of Woman Geographers

The SWG will hold its next triennial meeting in Chicago from the 24th through the 27th of May. For more information, please visit
http://www.iswg.org/triennials.html.

August 2008

International Geographical Union

The IGU will be holding its 31st International Geographical Congress in Tunis, Tunisia, 12-15 August 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.igc-tunis2008.com/.

October 2008

North American Cartographic Information Society

NACIS will be meeting in Missoula, Montana, from the 8th through the 11th of October. For more information, please visit http://dev.nacis.org/index.cfm?x=2.

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Have Any News Items You Want to Share?

This news page is for everyone in the Department -- students, faculty, staff, and alumni. If you would like to tell folks about your accomplishments or notify us of something you think we'd like to know about, please contact Dr. Rodrigue (rodrigue@csulb.edu) or LA4 206D and she'll get your news up here.

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