Enjoy and celebrate Veteran’s Day this Friday!

An enlightening timeline article about honoring our heroes here at OSU

November 10^th 2016

The new special section of the Annals of the AAG on Radical Intradisciplinarity is now available online. Becky Mansfield has an article in it, co-authored with Duke University geomorphologist Martin Doyle. The article is "Nature: A Conversation in Three Parts." They argue that geography's longstanding and intradisciplinary attention to interconnections among humans and nature is as essential now as ever.

Speaking of the Annals, it is perhaps a good time to recognize our faculty currently serving on the editorial board of our flagship journal: the latest issue [volume 106(6)] shows that we have Mat Coleman, Bryan Mark, and Ningchuan Xiao on the board. Thanks to them for this important service.

Mapping has played a basic role in portraying the results of the presidential election. An especially informative effort has been in the New York Times. I'm sure many have seen this, but just in case here are some interactive maps (mouse over the individual counties)
The map showing the leading vote getter by county (with a scaled circle proportional to the lead) and is remarkable for the almost unanimous pattern for Secretary Clinton in our urban areas through much of middle America . These leads were offset by the rural votes. (Just a few examples in otherwise red states: Pittsburgh, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Dallas.) The ability to scan this and zoom in will definitely give a fresh perspective on the spatial patterns. Political scientists and geographers will be mulling over these results for some time!

This weeks (Wednesday) edition of On Campus featured a note on Kenneth Madsen, Ohio State Newark Associate Professor of Geography. He is on sabbatical this academic year studying border security near Tucson, Arizona. Kenneth studies borders and bordering from the perspective of political and cultural geography.

I am pleased to announce a departmental special committee to study the delivery of our GIS Program (in all its aspects). The committee will be chaired by Ningchuan Xiao. I am pleased to report that Harvey Miller and Emily Castellucci have agreed to serve as well. They will consider expansion into certificate courses or professional masters -- areas of great interest that would need to be staffed appropriately. We hope to get some results back by the end of the year for discussion early in 2017. Thanks for this vital work! 

Morton O’Kelly