UT Human Geography Faculty and Students Attended the Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Dear friends,
Last week, the Department of Geography had several faculty and students attending the Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This is the sixth installment of the conference (it is held every two years) and it attracts several hundreds of scholars from across the US and the globe who examine the intersection of racial and ethnic issues with geography. 
 

The REP conference is the brain child of the AAG Ethnic Geography Special Group. Our own Drs. Sharma and van Riemsdijk serve on the board of the specialty group. The Department of Geography serves as a co-sponsor of the conference.

UT Geographers at a strong presence at this year's REP event. Four faculty members (Alderman, Inwood, Sharma, and van Riemsdijk) and two grad students (Cook and White) presented papers/posters, chaired sessions, organized sessions, and served as panelists in other sessions. The Department also hosted a table of brochures and article reprints to promote Tennessee Geography. These materials flew off the table and I had to re-stock a number of times during the conference.

I just wanted to say congrats to those who attended the REP conference and thank them for representing the Department so well. Finally, a special word of appreciation is given to Dr. Sharma and Mr. Fontanez for working to design a special promotional brochure for the REP conference. They did an incredible job. Thanks Madhuri and Will.

 

 

 

Best wishes,

Derek H. Alderman, PhD
Professor & Head

Geography Graduate Students at the Luncheon Honoring Graduate School Fellowship Recipients

Our Geography graduate students were well represented at the Luncheon Honoring Graduate School Fellowship Recipients on October 16, 2012. They are:
+ Huairen Ye, recipient of the Bruce Painter and Eva Woody Seaton Memorial Graduate Fellowship.
+ Lauren Stachowiak, recipient of the J. Wallace and Katie Dean Graduate Fellowship.
+ Kevin Krivacsy, recipient of the Newton W. and Wilma C. Thomas Graduate Fellowships Congratulations to Huairen, Lauren, and Kevin!
Special thanks go to Dr. Grissino-Mayer, our former Director of Graduate Studies, who had worked very hard on those fellowships and brought in those excellent students to our program. Below are some pictures of our geography graduate students at the luncheon.

Huairen Ye

 

Lauren Stachowiak

Kevin Krivacsy

Boggy Future for Department of Geography Members

Department of Geography graduate student Matt Boehm and faculty members Sally Horn and Henri Grissino-Mayer recently visited two rare bog communities in the north Georgia mountains at the invitation of Dr. Mincy Moffett of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (Non-game Conservation Section) to evaluate the potential of obtaining sediment cores for learning more about the past environments in the region of these uncommon sites. The bogs are home to the very rare purple pitcher and swamp pink plants, key motivators for conserving these habitats. Their visit was recently highlighted in the newsletter Georgia Wild of the GDNR. Read more here: http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/GADNR-54d1bd.