Dear alumni, friends and fans of Ohio State Geography,
This will be my last chair’s letter as part of this wonderful geography department. In mid-August, my family and I will be relocating to Cambridge, MA, so that I may take the job of Director of Research at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
I have so enjoyed the last four years of leading this vibrant community, and have appreciated working with faculty, staff, students, and alumni in this capacity. Some of the most important developments of the last few years include new faculty, new academic programs (most notably our planned Master’s in Geographic Information Science and Technology), curricular innovations, and alumni events, like our last party in 2019 at the American Association of Geographers annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
In the last academic year, we renewed our commitment to a residential campus in our teaching and research missions, albeit with greater flexibility than before. Our colloquium series remained largely online, but we were lucky to have three in-person speakers during the academic year. Hybrid workplaces and meetings have now become the norm. There are costs and benefits to these new trends – it is much easier to keep up with faculty and student meetings, even with other obligations. And therefore, it’s arguably harder to “unplug” and check out than before. It is unlikely that our university spaces and places will return to a pre-2020 state; rather, we can hope to build on what worked in our virtual connections, and restore and refresh our physical spaces.
I am proud to have been a part of this department these last 18 years; it’s amazing how quickly time passed. I will be forever grateful I had this opportunity to lead, to serve the department and the university in a new capacity, and for all the collaborations and friendships I built along the way.
Here’s to a great 2022-2023, and I hope to see many of you at the AAG in the future!
Warmest regards,
Darla Munroe July 2022
