Department of Geography

College of Liberal Arts

California State University, Long Beach

News as of 21 September 2004

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How Far Will You Go in Your Career?

The Geology Student Association has invited the Geography Student Association (GSA²?) to a forum with Ms. Judy Geniac of the National Park Service's Geoscientists-in-the-Park program. The forum will be held on Wednesday, 22 September, 5-6 p.m., in PH3-101. Pizza will be served! Many thanks to Dr. Rick Behl, undergraduate advisor in Geological Sciences, for this information and invitation!

First GSA Meeting!!

The first GSA meeting will be held Monday, 20 September, from 5-6 p.m., in LA4-100. Munchies will be available. Please bring $5 fro membership dues. The agenda will be in the display box outside LA4-100 later this week. Be there or be square!

Heads up, Graduate Students!

The Department is hosting its annual Graduate Student Mixer on Sunday, 3 October, from 5-6 pm, at E.J. Malloy's (3411 E. Broadway, Long Beach). RSVP to Ms. Lisa Mikhail, (562) 985-4977 or -8432.

Long Beach Delegation to the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

Drs. Vincent Del Casino and Ray Sumner travelled to San Luis Obispo in September to participate in the APCG annual meeting. Dr. Del Casino gave a paper, "Rethinking regions and regionalization in the context of world regional geography," and chaired a session on "Theorizing and Teaching the Region." Dr. Sumner gave a paper she co-authored with Professor Joan Clemmons, "Tom Down Under: McKnight's relationship with the Fifth Continent," a tribute to the late Dr. Tom McKnight. She also chaired a session, "Historical Geography and Evolving Cultural Landscapes."

Dr. Sumner Takes on New Rôles in the Discipline

Dr. Ray Sumner was recently invited to join the Association of American Geographer's Committee on College Geography, her appointment beginning 1 July 2004. She is also a member of the AAG Diversity Task Force and participated in a tele-meeting as part of the 2004 Conference on Race/Ethnicity and Place, Washington, DC, Sept 16-18. Congratulations on these honors!

Welcome (back)!

The semester is off to a roaring start, with good enrollment in nearly all classes. We have a brand-new tenure-track professor, Dr. Christine L. Jocoy, who recently earned her Ph.D. from Penn State. She specializes in economic geography, globalization, regional development, and the social processes of corporate locational decision-making.

Also joining us are four new part-time faculty and a returning Professor Emeritus.

• Returning from retirement to teach the Middle East and North Africa is Dr. Edward Karabenick
• Dr. Ray Sumner, Chair of the Social Sciences Department at Long Beach City College, who is teaching Europe and the Urban Scene
• Dr. Chris Carter, Long Beach City College and recent participant in the Geosciences Diversity Enhancement Project, teaching Human Diversity in the U.S. and Introductory Human Geography
• Dr. Michael McDaniel, nearly done with his second master's degree, who is teaching the US and Canada
• Ms. Kathleen Moriarty, nearly done with her master's in geography, who is teaching Human Diversity in the US. She had earned her B.A. in Liberal Studies with a Concentration in Geography and has a decade of seasoning as a teacher, tutor, and teaching assistant.

Also joining us are fourteen new graduate students. To welcome grad students, faculty, and staff (back) to our new academic year, there will be a GRADUATE STUDENT/FACULTY/STAFF MIXER on 3 October, starting at 5 p.m., at E.J. Malloy's 3411 Broadway.

Mr. Nicholas Mikhail off to Illinois

Nick Mikhail, the son of Ms. Lisa Mikhail, our Department Administrative Support Coördinator, was accepted into the Brehm Preparatory School in Carbondale, Illinois, and has emigrated there already. We are all going to miss him a lot (especially his mom!): He was the best "student assistant" we had! Congratulations, Nick!

Dr. Rodrigue Interviewed on "Beach View"

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue was interviewed by President Maxson about her interests in hazards, especially chaparral fire hazard, for his "Beach View" show. The show was broadcast on 11 December 2003 on Channel 3 in Long Beach. The show will be re-broadcast on 9 September at 6:00 p.m.

GDEP Concludes

Drs. Suzanne Wechsler, Chris Lee,'s and Chrys Rodrigue spent eight weeks this summer hosting projects for the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program here at CSULB. GDEP provides summer research assistantships for underrepresented students from five local community colleges and five LBUSD high schools, who work with CSULB faculty in Geography, Geological Sciences, and Anthropology and faculty from the partner institutions. The Geography projects this year focussed on using SPOT satellite imagery to classify the vegetation in the South Coast Wilderness and track habitats most susceptible to exotic invasive plant species. The Geography projects also included a field test of the elevation accuracy of digital elevation models and parameters derived from them, such as slope and aspect. The Geography student researchers (aka the "Geographists") were Messrs. Simeon Haynes (Cabrillo High School), Terry Lumati (Long Beach City College and starting at CSULB this fall), and Carlos Takashima (El Camino College). Their work was showcased in a GDEP symposium on 6 August. GDEP was the subject of a Long Beach Press Telegram article that day and a press release from Cerritos College. To learn more about GDEP, visit its home page: https://home.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/geography/gdep/.

Dr. Wechsler's Work Is Cited

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler's work on the issue of uncertainty in digital elevation modeling was extensively discussed in a forthcoming article by A. Wiyadati et al., "Uncertainty and effects of resolutions of digital elevation model and its derived features: Case study of Sumberjaya, Sumatera, Indonesia." Unlocally notorious!

Dr. Del Casino's Study Guide Comes out

Dr. Vincent Del Casino's instructor's manual for a popular world regional geography textbook (Marston, Knox, and Liverman. World Regions in Global Context: Peoples, Places, and Environments, 2nd ed.) is out, with an official publication date of 2005 from Prentice-Hall. Congratulations!

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue off to Two Conferences

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue went to two conferences to present papers. The first of these was the NASA/Universities Space Research Association sponsored Earth System Science Education for the 21st Century (ESSE21), held in Monterey June 28th-30th. Representing the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Project team, she presented a poster entitled, "GDEP (Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program): An NSF-OEDG Program Emphasizing Interdisciplinary Earth System Science Research." The second conference was the invitation-only 29th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop in Boulder, Colorado, from the 11th-14th of July. There she presented "Disaster by Management: Managerialism and Normal Accident Theory in the Columbia Accident and FBI Headquarters' Response to Field Office Concerns before 9/11" and hosted the "First-Timers' Orientation" to the Workshop.

Dr. Jocoy off to Workshop

Dr. Christy Jocoy has been accepted into the "Spatial Analysis and GIS for Undergraduate Course Enhancement in the Social Sciences" workshop at San Diego State University in coöperation with the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) and sponsored by the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science. It is August 2nd-6th, 2004.

Geography Spring Awards Banquet

Student achievements were celebrated at the annual Geography Spring Awards Banquet on 2 May 2004. Here are the honorees:

Department Awards

Eileen Johansen Memorial Award: Ms. Kayla Folkins
Rodney Steiner Stipend Award: Ms. Doreen Jeffrey
Burton Anderson Award: Ms. Michel Perlin
Geography Student Association Needs-Based Award: Ms. Zoe Schumacher
Geography Department Outstanding Graduate Thesis Award: Ms. Rebekah Boulton
Geography Department Outstanding Graduating Seniors:

Ms. Leslie Edwards
Ms. Nadine Gano
Ms. Doreen Jeffrey

Student Winners in the Geography Photography Contest

Ms. Janet Troeger, Urban Landscape: "Roman Aqueduct" (Pont du Gard, Provence, France, 2003
Ms. Janet Troeger, Physical Landscape: "Receding Glacier" (French Alps, 2003
Ms. Zoe Schumacher, Geography in Action: "GPS'n'" (Ms. Doreen Jeffrey collecting GPS points on a busy street in Carson, 2003

Graduate Students Completing Theses:

Ms. Rebekah Boulton
Mr. Dan Hofer
Mr. Christopher Quinn

External Awards Won by Our Students

College of Liberal Arts Awards for High Grade Point Averages:

Ms. Leslie Edwards(S/04)
Ms. Nadine Gano(S/04)
Ms. Doreen Jeffrey(S/04)
Ms. Bryna Dambrowski(F/04)
Ms. Leeta Latham(F/04)
Mr. John Wynhoff(F/04)

CSULB Women and Philanthropy Scholarships

Ms. Doreen Jeffrey
Ms. Zoe Schumacher

California Geographical Society Joe Beaton Poster Award (second place)

Ms. Zoe Schumacher

Los Angeles Geographical Society Richard Logan Scholarship

Ms. Doreen Jeffrey

Sigma Xi Scientific Honor Society Inductees

Ms. Leslie Edwards
Ms. Doreen Jeffrey
Ms. Zoe Schumacher

Students Presenting Papers at Conferences

Ms. Leslie Edwards: SCCUR, AEOE, LAGS
Ms. Julienne Gard: AAG, LAGS
Ms. Doreen Jeffrey: SCCUR, LAGS
Mr. Andrew Huston: SCCUR, LAGS
Ms. Leeta Latham: SCCUR, AEOE, LAGS
Ms. Zoe Schumacher: CGS, LAGS

AAG=Association of American Geographers
CGS=California Geographical Society
LAGS=Los Angeles Geographical Society
AEOE=Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education
SCCUR=Southern California Conference on Undergraduate Research

Dr. Ellis Miner

Prof. Doug Behrens volunteers his time to the Senior University program here at CSULB, teaching courses in geography, meteorology, and astronomy. He brings in speakers for Senior University, and on April 14th, he hosted Dr. Ellis Miner of JPL, who works on the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. Dr. Miner gave a fascinating talk on the goals of the mission and how the spacecraft is designed to meet them, along with a wonderful JPL video explaining and illustrating the mission and the basics of remote sensing.

California Geographical Society

Several people from Geography at CSULB participated in the CGS meeting in Long Beach. Drs. Tyner and Rodrigue and recent graduate alumnus, Mr. Edward Huefe presented papers, while Ms. Zoe Schumacher gave a poster presentation. Dr. Wechsler, Ms. Wranic, Ms. Julienne Gard, Mr. Jeff Marotta, and alumnus Mr. Kim Hatch presented field trips or workshops. Additionally, Profs. Wechsler, Tyner, and Woods served as judges for the student mapping competition. Also, spotted helping as student volunteers were Ms. Kimberly Yutani and Ms. Hedy Hager.

Dr. Vincent Del Casino Speaks at Kaleidoscope

Dr. Vincent Del Casino made a presentation to the Kaleidoscope Festival and Open House showcasing why transfer students should consider geography as a major.

Friends of the Pleistocene

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue and Dr. Teresa Ramírez-Herrera (Geological Sciences) joined Dr. Eugenie Rovai and her students from Geography and Planning at Chico State in attending the 2004 Friends of the Pleistocene conference in the field, which was held in and around Santa Barbara this year. FOP entails strenuous hikes ("death marches") to various field sites, where people doing research on a geological or geomorphological subject present their work in front of the landforms in question, with energetic debate over interpretations and methodologies. The next FOP will be held in Death Valley during Fall 2005, and GSA might think about organizing a CSULB Geography delegation out there!

Dr. Norman Thrower

Dr. Norman Thrower, Professor Emeritus at UCLA, spoke on "Five Themes in History of Cartography," to Dr. Judith Tyner's Geography 381 (Maps and Civilization) course on 25 March.

Dr. Wechsler Has a New Article out

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler has just had her research on user perceptions of uncertainty in digital elevation models published in the latest issue of the Journal of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. Congratulations!!!

Dr. Del Casino Receives the First Glenda Laws Award

Dr. Vincent Del Casino has just been selected as the first recipient of the Glenda Laws Award for activist-scholarship in geography. The Glenda Laws Award of the Association of American Geographers was bestowed at the 2004 AAG Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. 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. All scholars involved in geographic research on one or more social issues will be eligible for this award, with preference given to researchers who have received their Ph.D. within the last five years. Dr. Del Casino was nominated by Drs. Chrys Rodrigue and Dennis Fisher (Department of Psychology and Director of the Center for Behavioral Research and Services) and Dr. Katherine Gibson of Australian National University and Dr. John Paul Jones III of the University of Arizona wrote letters of support. CONGRATULATIONS, Dr. Del Casino, for all your hard work, which led to this internationally prestigious honor.

Dr. Curtis Speaks in San José

Dr. James R. Curtis gave an invited lecture on March 11th to the Department of Geography at San José State University. The title of his presentation is "The Evolving Barrio: From Alviso to East L.A. and Beyond."

Mr. Senn's Company Receives the President's "E" Award

Mr. Jason Senn is one of our part-time faculty. His "day job" is as Director of Channel Sales with Urchin Software Corporation, a company which produces visitor reporting software that its clients can use to make sound business decisions based on or concerning their web pages. For example, they can let their clients know which sites their visitors are linking from, the pages they visit, and where they link to leave a site. Mr. Senn has been working on connecting these cyberspace geographies with real world geographies, so that companies can make some market area analytic sense of all this link traffic. His company has recently received the President's "E" Award for Excellence in Exporting. This is the most prestigious award given by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and it is given to companies which show evidence of substantial increase in export volume over a five year period, demonstrate breakthroughs in especially competitive markets, and otherwise attain measurable export related goals. Urchin's software exploded onto the international market when the company decided to tailor its tracking software for ten different languages and cultures, an area supported by Mr. Senn's cultural geographic research in multicultural communication.

Drs. Del Casino's and Fisher's Grant Profiled on My.CSULB!

Dr. Vincent Del Casino and Dr. Dennis Fisher (Psychology) won a $341,221 grant for the the CSULB Center for Behavioral Research and Services from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant funds a project aimed at reducing HIV risk through interventions aimed at reducing the use of club drugs at mini-raves in the Long Beach area. The project is profiled on the My.CSULB home page, http://my.csulb.edu/! You can read the full story by clicking here.

Dr. James Curtis Hosts Stephens Middle School Students

Dr. Curtis met with fifty seventh graders from Stephens Middle School and talked with them about what the college experience is like and explained the great variety of classes that students here take and how they're organized: large lectures, seminar/discussion courses, and so on. He invited them to sit in on his large section of Geography 100, which they did and had a great time. He really enjoyed the large influx of curious students, too!

Ms. Doreen Jeffrey and Ms. Zoe Schumacher appear in Press-Telegram

Zoe Schumacher and Doreen Jeffrey received scholarships from the Women and Philanthropy Program at Cal State Long Beach. The story was written up in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, and you can read the story by clicking here. Congratulations!!

Dr. Curtis Invited to Iowa State

Dr. James Curtis was invited to serve in February 2004 as a distinguished visiting scholar in the Iowa State Center for Excellence in Arts and Humanities, in response to his novel, Shangó, a mystery story set in the context of Afro-Caribbean religious expression in South Florida urban landscapes. The Center's programming gathers artists, creative writers, and scholars who address in their work the question of our place in the world. Dr. Curtis was invited to address the issue of what it means to live and work and write and create with a deep sense of place and how this affects the world around us. Another theme is exploring the rôle that the arts and humanities can play in understanding sustainability issues and what "nature" means to artists, historians, philosophers, scientists, and fiction writers. Dr. Curtis joined a lineup of prominent artists and scholars that includes Annie Proulx, another fiction writer; Ned Kuhn, an environmental sculptor; Lucy Lippard, artist and critic; John W. Roberts, African-American folklorist; Winona LaDuke, activist and writer; Osha Gray Davidson, non-fiction writer; and Scott Slovic, writer and critic. Congratulations!

Dr. David Porinchu Appears in the AAG Newsletter!

Dr. David Porinchu has a news item in the AAG Newsletter, "Symposium Report Examines Climate Change Ph.D. Programs." The article summarizes a symposium that discussed how graduate programs can provide graduate level training within one of the disciplines related to climate change, while still producing people who can work in the interdisciplinary approaches necessary to understand and respond to this problem. The article appears on p. 8 of the January 2004 issue.

Dr. Rodrigue's Latest Article Cited

The Natural Hazards Research and Appliations Information Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder, assembled a peer-reviewed volume of twenty studies from the hazards research community on the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, a volume that includes an article by Dr. Chrys Rodrigue. The volume was reviewed in the Hazards Center's Natural Hazards Observer, where it was stated, "Based on findings from these studies, the book includes numerous conclusions and recommendations for the improvement of public policy and disaster response." Dr. Rodrigue was pleased to see that four of these are specifically called out, and her paper's conclusion was one of these: "More media attention to the broader political, social, religious, and other aspects of September 11 and similar disasters could help Americans better understand the terrorism risk and the consequences of preventative actions the country might take." The review is available online here.

Dr. Del Casino's Latest Article

Dr. Vincent Del Casino has a new publication out, the first article out of this department for 2004. The reference is Del Casino, V.J., Jr.. 2004. (Re)placing health and health care: Mapping the competing discourses and practices of `traditional' and `modern' Thai medicine. Health and Place 10, 1: 59-73.

Dr. Sidorov Has a New Article in Print

Dr. Dmitrii Sidorov has a new publication out, this one in a premier German geography journal. The reference is Sidorof, Dimitrij. 2003. Raum für Religion? Die neue alte Rolle der Russisch Orthodoxen Kirche. Geographische Rundschau 54, 12, the title of which translates roughly as "Space for religion: The new old rôle of the Russian Orthodox Church."

Mr. Dan Hofer's Maps Help Orange County Fire Authority and ESRI Get FEMA Grant

Mr. Dan Hofer is a graduate student, who now works for the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA). His thesis is on the application of GIS to the creation of the Silverado Fire Plan, and it entails the creation of beaucoup maps in an ESRI software environment. ESRI, meanwhile, was interested in applying for a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Homeland Security Grant. It sought a partner among local planning agencies to go in with it on this proposal, and Dan's thesis maps became the deciding point leading to ESRI's choice to go with OCFA! And the grant proposal was successful, to the tune of $21 million!!! As Battalion Chief Mike Rohde described it, "ESRI could have pick a different agency but OCFA has the best contemporary looking Fire plan out there ... Aka Dan's maps." Whew!

Dr. Lee Appointed to CSULB Foundation Board of Directors

Dr. Christopher Lee has been appointed the Representative of Principal Investigators on the CSULB Foundation Board of Directors, effective 1 March 2004. Congratulations!

Dr. Wechsler Receives an NSF Grant!

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler just found out that a grant proposal she submitted as a Co-PI to NSF last February, along with Tom Meixner and Edith Allen of UC Riverside, Michael Goulden of UC Irvine, and M.E. Fenn of the U.S. Forest Servicehas been funded! The proposal is entitled, "SGER: Post-Fire Hydrology, Biogeochemistry, and Vegetation Response," and deals with the San Dimas Experimental Forest, which was burned out in 2002. Way to go!!!

Dr. Wechsler Part of a Team Honored by URISA

Dr. Suzanne Wechsler has been serving as part of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) Committee on GIS Certification. The URISA Board of Directors honored the Committee with its Service Award this October. A thankless task gets ... thanked!

Southern California Conference on Undergraduate Research

Undergraduates Ms. Leslie Edwards, Mr. Andrew Huston, Ms. Doreen Jeffrey, and Ms. Leeta Latham represented the Department of Geography at SCCUR on Saturday, 22 November. They gave a multimedia poster presentation entitled, "Oakland Berkeley Firestorm 1991," which included a web report on the firestorm and the map prepared for the web report by cartography students at CSU, Chico, and a movie organized around map animations of the fire's progress. Faculty mentors were Drs. Christine M. Rodrigue and Judith Tyner and Mr. Steven Stewart of CSUC. SCCUR is a very prestigious, multidisciplinary, refereed conference, which draws student research delegations from all over the country, so we are very proud of our Geography representatives!

Geography SCCUR Delegation in the L.A. Times!

The Geography SCCUR delegation wound up in the Los Angeles Times the day after! You can read about it in David Reyes' story, "Rabbit Diets Were Just for Starters: More than 500 undergrads from 90 schools show research projects at UC Irvine," in the California section of the paper on 23 November 2003, which you can get to (for a short while) here. Way to go, Mesdames Leslie Edwards, Doreen Jeffrey, and Leeta Latham and Dr. Chrys Rodrigue! And thanks to Dr. Rick Behl of Geological Sciences for spotting the article and letting everyone in GDEP know!

Dr. Rodrigue Interviewed on "Beach View"

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue was interviewed by President Maxson about her interests in hazards, especially chaparral fire hazard, for his "Beach View" show. The show was broadcast on 11 December 2003 on Channel 3 in Long Beach.

Dr. Rodrigue Has a New Publication

Dr. Chrys Rodrigue has a new publication out on her work on the media representation of the September 11th attacks of 2001. The paper is entitled, "Representation of the September 11th Terrorist Attacks in the Online Edition of the Los Angeles Times, and it came out in Beyond September 11th: An Account of Post-Disaster Research, ed. Jacquelyn L. Monday.

Dr. Del Casino's Work Is Discussed in a New Review of Medical Geography

Dr. Vincent Del Casino was delighted to find his work discussed in an important new review of medical geography. The reference is Hester Parr (2003), Medical Geography: Care and Caring," Progress in Human Geography 27, 2: 212-221. Dr. Del Casino's work is cited on p. 213 and extensively discussed on pp. 216-218. Congratulations on earning such prominence in an important review article!

Dr. Del Casino's New Book Is out!

Dr. Vincent Del Casino and his collaborator, Dr. Stephen Hanna (Mary Washington College) have just published a new book they edited, entitled, Mapping Tourism. They have an article in it, too: "Introduction: Tourism Spaces, Mapped Representations, and the Practices of Identity." You can get a copy here. Way to GO!!!

Prof. Woods Has a Letter in GIS Monitor

Mr. James Woods has a letter to the editor published in the current issue of GIS Monitor. The letter, cautioning readers about the artificial impression of accuracy created by copying line features on maps drawn from a small scale map onto a large scale map. It can be read at here, just below the "lawn map of the United States." Thanks!

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 2004 and Spring 2005, though the State fiscal crisis will negatively impact the number of courses the Department has to offer. For more information on the positions and the application process, please click here.

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

 

Lectures and Field Trips

Graduate Student Thesis Proposal Defenses

Three graduate students gave presentations of their thesis proposals on Friday, 30 April, as part of their application for advancement to candidacy for the Master of Arts degree in Geography.

• Mr. Travis Brooks, "Processes that shape the distributional pattern of native perennial grasses (bunchgrass) in central Orange County, California."
• Ms. Seri McClendon, "Analysis of industrial ecology, cradle-to- cradle principles, and an alternative packaging delivery system (APDS)."
• Ms. Sarah Powers, "Vulnerability to toxic dust pollution in the Owens Valley, California."

Graduate Student Thesis Proposal Defenses

Several graduate students gave presentations of their thesis proposals on Friday, 5 December, as part of their application for advancement to candidacy for the Master of Arts degree in Geography. In attendance were most of the faculty in Geography, a faculty member from Geological Sciences, and a large contingent of graduate students. Presenting their proposals were:

• Mr. Dan Hofer, who presented "Application of GIS mapping to fire planning: Silverado Canyon, Orange County."
• Ms. Maribel Enriquez, who presented "Health care accessibility and provisioning for homeless women in Long Beach, California."
• Ms. Sue Timm, who presented her work on ecological assessment and restoration in the Crystal Cove State Park area.
• Mr. Mike McDaniels, who presented "Cultural persistence in land use patterns: Vestiges of Mexican land tenure system in contemporary Los Angeles and Orange counties."
• Mr. Mike Mercurio, who presented "Defining a theme park archetype: A comparative analysis of Southern California theme parks."

GDEP Field Work in the South Coast Wilderness of Orange County

Drs. Chrys Rodrigue, Chris Lee, Suzanne Wechsler, together with Drs. Rick Behl and Tere Ramírez (Geological Sciences), Dr. Elizabeth Ambos (Associate Vice President for Research and External Support), and Dr. Dan Larson (Anthropology) have a Geosciences Diversity Enhancement Project going on this summer, in which their combined GDEP teams are field mapping the terrain, stratigraphy, and biogeography, and doing archæological prospecting in the South Coast Wilderness in Orange County, in order to create maps and analyses for the various governmental agencies who manage this system of interconnected parklands.To learn more about GDEP and these projects, click here.

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

 

Changes among the Faculty

New Faculty Member!

Dr. Christine L. Jocoy begins teaching in Fall 2004. She earned her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 2004, specializing in economic geography, urban geography, globalization, and regional restructuring. She has a particular interest in the application of learning theory in corporate decision-making contexts, especially in their locational decision-making, which has tremendous ramifications for regional urban political economies. You can learn more about her by clicking here! Welcome aboard!

Departing Faculty Members

Dr. David Porinchu began teaching in Fall 2003. He earned his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2002 and specializes in palæoclimatology, or the reconstruction of past climates and environments. He has mainly specialized in the interpretation of lake sediments as records of past environmental conditions, and his study area is the eastern Sierra Nevada. He is also moving into the area of dendroclimatology, which entails the analysis of cores removed from trees. He's been gone in the spring to take up a postdoctoral fellowship in Canada to work in dendroclimatology. Very unfortunately for us, he has accepted a position at Ohio State and will be leaving in August 2004. He can be reached at porinchu.1@osu.edu.

Dr. Unna Lassiter began teaching for us part-time in Fall 2000 and then was appointed visiting assistant professor as a full-time replacement for Dr. Richard Outwater while he worked as CSULB's Associate Vice President for Academic Information Technology and Facilities. She earned her Ph.D. from USC in 2000 and specializes in cultural geography and urban geography. She has done work on the social representation of nature, particularly human ties with animals, among the different ethnic groups of Southern California. More recently, her work has begun to move into political and social geography, particularly focussing on the study of migration and the formation of expatriate communities in the context of globalization. She has published a number of articles and reviews while here at CSULB, and that record has led to an offer of a tenure-track position in the Department of Political Science and Geography at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas. Congratulations! Dr. Lassiter can be reached at lassiterui@sfasu.edu.

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)

August 2004

The 30th International Geographical Congress Glasgow: One Earth, Many Worlds

The IGC (including the Royal Geographical Society and the Institute of British Geographers meetings) will convene from the 15th-20th of August 2004 in Glasgow. The deadline for submitting all abstracts is 31 January. To learn more, please visit here.

September 2004

Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

The APCG will be meeting in San Luis Obispo from the 9th-11th of September. For more information, please visit http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jkeese/. Abstract submissions are due by 1 July.

October 2004

North American Cartographic Information Society

NACIS will be meeting in Portland, Maine, from the 6th-9th of October. The call for papers and more information are available at http://www.nacis.org/meetings.html. Poster abstract submissions are due by 30 August.

November 2004

Southern California Conference on Undergraduate Education

SCCUR will meet at Whittier College on November 20th. For more information, please visit http://web.whittier.edu/sccur2004/.

December 2004

American Geophysical Union

The AGU will be meeting in San Francisco from the 13th-17th of December. The call for papers is available at http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm04/. The deadline for abstract submission is 9 September 2004 at 23:59, if you submit online. If you submit paper, disk, or CD abstracts by regular mail, it must be received no later than 1 September.

April 2005

Association of American Geographers

The AAG will be meeting in Denver from April 5th-9th. The call for papers is available at http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/call_For_Papers/call_for_papers1.html. The deadline for spoken papers and illustrated papers is 21 October 2004, while that for posters is 28 October.

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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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