ArticlePDF Available

An American Association of Geographers?

Authors:
Eric Sheppard at University of California, Los Angeles
Eric Sheppard
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation
Content uploaded by Eric Sheppard
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Eric Sheppard on Nov 27, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
news.aag.org http://news.aag.org/2013/04/aag-name-change/
April 30, 2013
An American Association of Geographers?
Naming objects is a time-honored preoccupation among geographers, whether those objects
are places, concepts, or discourses. We know that names profoundly convey meaning, reflect
the agendas and thinking of those who coin them, and are always contested and occasionally
altered (Mumbai/Bombay, Chemnitz/Karl Marx Stadt and Myanmar/Burma come to mind). It’s
high time we turned these debates to how we name ourselves. Inter alia, “Association of
American Geographers” conveys the sense that we think of our community as composed of
American geographers. But the AAG is so much more now, and our name should reflect this.
Our current name made eminent sense in the context where the Association was founded, in
Philadelphia on December 29, 1904. (The story is told by Preston James and Geoffrey Martin (1978) The
Association of American Geographers: The First Seventy-Five Years. AAG: Washington DC.) William Morris Davis
wanted to create an academic association for scholars in the United States who thought of themselves as
geographers. Regional groups labeled geographical societies and geographical clubs already existed, as did the
American Geographical Society (AGS) and the National Geographical Society (NGS). But these were places
where philanthropists and other elites gathered to share their passion for things geographical, rather than
gatherings of professional geographers. An attempt to create a sub-group of scholarly geographers within the
NGS, “Fellows,” had been rebuffed; it was deemed as implying an un-American class distinction.
After Davis was elected Vice-President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in
1903, he gave a speech to the AAAS, titled “Geography in the United States.” He advanced the case for a
professional society of geographers, which would establish standards for scholarship for a discipline of
considerable popular interest. Such a society should restrict membership to persons with a track record of original
published research in a sub-field of geography. (The AAAS did have a Section E designated as Geology and
Geography, but Davis had experienced this as dominated by geologists disinterested in Geography as a field of
scholarship.)
Davis proposed to the AGS that it help form a League of American Geographical Societies as a step toward
creating such a professional society, which he proposed naming “the American Geographers Association.” He was
rebuffed again, but brought this proposed name to a meeting of potential members convened during the
September 1904 IGU meeting in Washington, D.C. The following December, after much debate about who
(almost entirely men) would qualify as geographers, an organizational meeting was held at the University of
Pennsylvania. At this meeting, it was agreed “at once” to change the name to the Association of American
Geographers.
In that context, the city where the Declaration of Independence was drafted, at a moment when the USA was yet
to become a global hegemon and the status of being American was taken for granted, and with Geography
marginalized as an academic activity (sounds familiar?), the name made sense. Yet the result was that the
moniker American was attached to the members rather than the organization or the discipline. In the name of
almost every other U.S. American academic association, “American” is attached to the discipline (e.g., the
American Geophysical Union, American Sociological Association, American Anthropological Association, American
Historical Association, American Meteorological Society, etc.).
Today, the AAG has become far more than a community of American geographers. Many of our members, even
among those working in the United States, are not (only) American citizens. Many more attend our annual
meetings from outside the United States as our national meetings have become the gathering place for
geographers from across the world. The percentage of meeting participants from outside the United States has
risen from just 2.8% in 1982, to one fifth by 2006, to one third this year and last.
It is thus time to consider changing our name to the American Association of Geographers. This renaming is not a
new idea. Some of my predecessors have argued this (indeed I find myself channeling many of the arguments in
Susan Cutter’s February 2001 presidential newsletter column making a similar proposal). Many members from
within and beyond the United States also have advocated such a name change (most recently at the 2013 AAG
Business Meeting). This particular renaming is also not ideal: “American” has very different, contested meanings
across the Americas, and the use of this self-appellation by U.S. Americans often is regarded by other Americans
as an, at best unwitting, assertion of U.S. hegemony. We live in an age when brands matter, however, and
retaining the initials AAG (rather than, say, USAAG) is a far easier organizational transition to envisage.
Names are invested with all kinds of identities, and no such action should take place without every opportunity for
members to have their say. So, while this idea has the unanimous endorsement of the current AAG Council and of
past Presidents with whom I have shared it, let us know what you think. Respond [below] to this column, but also
participate in an on-line referendum that the Association will organize in the near future. If there is substantial
support from across our membership, the Association’s published procedures for a change to its constitution will
be initiated. In the absence of such support, the idea will not be further pursued.
Eric Sheppard
Audrey Kobayashi (Past President)
Julie Winkler (Vice President)
Derek Alderman
Ron Hagelman
John Harrington, Jr.
Thomas Maraffa
Bryon Middlekauff
Marilyn Raphael (Treasurer)
Bradley Rundquist
Grant Saff
Michael Scott
Laura Smith
Karen Till
James Tyner
Elizabeth A. Wentz
Richard A. Wright
Jenny Zorn (Secretary)
Ron Abler (Past President, 1985-86)
Kenneth Foote (Past President, 2010-11)
Janice Monk (Past President, 2002-03)
Thomas J. Baerwald (Past President, 2008-09)
http://dx.doi.org/10.14433/2013.0008
Past president columns can be found in the AAG President’s Column archives.
... Pragmatism as a philosophy developed in North America around the turn of the century, and is a movement that aimed to ground philosophical activity in the practices of daily life. Smith write that pragmatism sought to negotiate the seemingly irresolvable big questions of philosophy by examining the constitution and application of knowledge in everyday life (Smith 1984quoted in Cloke et al 1991. It was initiated by Charles Peirce and William James and later by John Dewey. ...
Social Constructivism and Environmental Problems -Epistemological challenges
Article
  • Jan 2002
During the past decade social constructivist approaches to the environment have gained increasing strength within geography and the social sciences. This has raised the ultimate question; is it possible to apply a social constructivist approach to environmental problems, and yet still underpin this with a biophysically accurate perspective of environmental processes? This article revolves around this question and tries to develop an epistemological framework for approaches that seek to blend researchon the social construction of environmental change with attempts to understand the nature of ‘real’ environmental changes. With the political ecology approach as a point of departure the article examines various forms of social constructivism, from weak to strong ones. Further it is suggested that the two theoretical thrusts of critical realism and environmental pragmatism have something to offer in this respect, as both incorporate a certain aspect of social constructivism but reject strong forms of relativism.
View
... Certainly, many causes and implications in relation to, for example, dominant politico-economic orders or social injustice have geographical underpinnings and have long been in the centre of geographical concern and education (Merett, 2001). Geography has also developed as a non-dogmatic discipline, where a lack of a privileged canon allows for multiple ways to undertake geography, including a plurality of methods and explanations (Sheppard, 2004). But geography also has the power of the experiential learning of field-based studies. ...
Negotiating critical geographies through a “feel-trip”: experiential, affective and critical learning in engaged fieldwork
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2015
The paper proposes the notion of a “critical feel-trip” as a pedagogical narrative to entertain the relationships of experiential, affective and critical learning in field-based studies. It is argued that explicit mobilization of the triadic relations of these three modes of learning is a powerful way to strengthen students' appreciation of human geography's concepts and to interrogate their positionality. The paper particularly draws on a fieldcourse taught to UK undergraduates, which explores Moscow as a “field laboratory” for critical geographies. The analysis considers both effectiveness and limitations of such modes of pedagogy.
View
... He demonstrated that spatial auto correlation in the "mass" terms of the gravity model produces nonlinear relationships between the independent variables of a log-linearised gravity model, thus, biasing its Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimates. In a later work, Sheppard (1982) suggested that bias can occur as a result of a number of factors such as measurement errors on the explanatory variables, mis-specified functional relationship and residuals that are correlated with explanatory variables or when a non-linear relationship is estimated using linear relationship. ...
On the Effects of Outliers on Traffic Modelling Accuracy Using Multiple regression Analysis
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2002
The study demonstrates the effect of 'outliers' on the accuracy of a model specified using the multiple regression analysis. Using the traffic volume from Minna to 27 other destinations, the model indicates that the mean trip rate, rail connectivity and bus trips per day account for 70% of the variations in the traffic volume, Further examination of the data reveals that Suleja contain unusually high daily bus trip rate of 12 and Lapai a high mean trip rate of 23.4. The two towns were dropped from the analysis and the explanatory power of the model increased appreciably to R 2 = 83.60%. The study suggests the use of sufficiently large sample size, say a minimum of 50, as a way of eliminating the influence of extreme values in modeling.
View
The Contemporary Academic Conference: A Space of Enclosure
Article
  • Jul 2021
In 2019, the Council of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) mandated the formation of the Climate Action Task Force, which is charged with reimagining the organization of the annual conference to fully acknowledge and actively address the scale of the contemporary climate crisis. In considering alternative conference models, this article argues that the AAG should avoid reaching for a simple, technical fix, such as maintaining a central conference location, with virtual participation added in. I argue here that the current high-emissions configuration of the AAG Annual Meeting reflects a confluence of processes, including the neoliberal internationalization of the academy. This form of internationalization, oriented toward those who can both afford and are permitted to gain entry to the United States, currently reproduces and deepens a politics of knowledge enclosure, in which ideas are most available to an elite transnational group of scholars. If the underlying cultural politics that promote hypermobility remain unchallenged, any shift in format might simply reproduce, even deepen, the process of knowledge enclosure. Thus, a strong reaffirmation of geography as a public good in practice and intent should serve as a guiding principle for change.
View
A Long Way to Go: Collective Paths to Racial Justice in Geography
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2019
Despite decades of recognition and worry about diversity, our discipline remains persistently white. That is, it is dominated by white bodies and it continues to conform to norms, practices, and ideologies of whiteness. This is a loss. At best, it limits the possibilities and impact of our work as geographers. At worst, it perpetuates harmful exclusions in our discipline: its working environments, its institutions, and its knowledge production. This remains deeply concerning for many geographers, and there has been important research, commentary, and institutional activity over the years. Yet, research shows us that little meaningful progress has been made. We know that mentoring is one vital part of the journey toward change. As such, we reflect here on our experience developing a research collective built on a transformative mentoring practice. We outline the key challenges, strategies, and tentative successes of the collective in supporting women of color undergraduate, graduate, and faculty geographers, arguing that such feminist formations are a vital part of the path to intellectual racial justice in our field. Key Words: diversity, feminist geography, higher education, mentoring, race.
View
Changes affecting generalization of land cover features in a smaller scale
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2012
Reference spatial data sets represent the least changing natural and anthropogenic features of terrine. As a rule, such data are stored in different scales and most frequently updated consequently starting with a spatial data set of a larger scale (usually base scale) thus later performing an update of data in smaller scales. The generalization of features in a larger scale is one of the major processes employed in the creation and update of spatial data of a smaller scale. In order to effectively carry out works, it is recommended to use automatic procedures and generalization only in those cases when changes in features are significant, i.e. affect the update of features in a smaller scale. The article discusses the relation between changes in polygon features (identify land cover territories in a base spatial data set) and different generalization processes as well as the evaluation of significance of likely changes.
View
Seeking red herrings in the wood: Tending the shared spaces of environmental and feminist geographies
Article
  • Feb 2007
  • CAN GEOGR-GEOGR CAN
In this article I argue the need for feminist and environmental geographers to work more diligently to find, mind and tend the intersections of their research agendas to enrich scholarship and deepen impacts on public policy. Such a project requires us to move beyond an obvious call to acknowledge one another's work and towards the boundaries of our respective fields in order to co-create 'boundary objects' that provide opportunities for mutual exchange, collaboration and learning. Rather than being 'red herrings' or diversions from our main research foci, boundary objects bring new insights to taken-for-granted concepts. I focus on one example to argue that social sustainability of rural places is better understood by an integrated understanding of what constitutes a 'worker' in a forestry community. A redefinition of the worker that draws on insights and interests from both environmental and feminist geographers reveals an underlying gender bias in environmental decision-making processes and illustrates how the concept of social sustainability has been artificially restricted in practice. Nevertheless, collaborations are never easy. I draw attention to potential challenges of such collaborations that include the need to establish mutually agreeable protocols, joint commitment to constructive, respectful debate and strategies to ensure that research provides meaningful contributions to theory and public policy.
View
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.