Geography Commons^™

Volume 45-2 Complete Issue, C. Nicholas Raphael

The Geographical Bulletin

Volume 45-2 Complete Issue

Human Impact On Ancient Environments. By Charles L. Redman, James D. Lowry, Jr

The Geographical Bulletin

Having just taught conservation of natural resources to a small group of students over the summer, and just gearing up to teach it again in the fall, current environmental problems were foremost in my mind as I picked up Human Impact on Ancient Environments. Although my research background includes the Mayan culture area of MesoAmerica (via an interdisciplinary mix of geographers, archaeologists, and others) and I discuss their maladaptive environmental strategies in class, I offer them only briefly as an example of population growth and its relationship to environmental damage. My focus is on the present. In Human Impact Redman …

The Coming Age Of Scarcity: Preventing Mass Death And Genocide In The Twenty First Century. By Michael N. Dobkowski And Isidor Wallimann (Eds.), James D. Lowry, Jr

The Geographical Bulletin

The Coming Age of Scarcity is a collection of essays examining the relationship between population growth and resource depletion and genocide (and the collapse of our civilization!). The authors immediately jump into a fatalistic doomsday scenario. The Foreword, by John K. Roth, has the essence of strong anticapitalism bias. For example, Roth states “the great transformation from agricultural to . . . industrial societies has always been on the back of peasants” (4), refers to Eastern Europe as “once a highly selfsufficient economic and political system” (13), and states “markets, if left to themselves, cannot factor in long-term scarcity” (14). …

News From The Chapters 2002–2003, C. Nicholas Raphael

The Geographical Bulletin

News from the Chapters 2002–2003

Fieldwork Dilemmas: Anthropologists In Post Socialist States. By Hermine G. De Soto And Nora Dudwick (Eds.), James D. Lowry, Jr

The Geographical Bulletin

Fieldwork Dilemmas is a collection of essays from 10 anthropologists’ experiences in postsocialist eastern Europe. The primary focus is not to recount the results of their ethnographic research, but to detail the many problems and dangers they encountered in conducting the research in communities undergoing tremendous change in almost every facet of life. Research reports from Armenia, Macedonia, Serbia, eastern Germany, Kyrgystan, Siberia, Uzbekistan, and Bulgaria are included into three collections.

Blame Walt Rostow For Miss Som Rasmey’S Acid Bath, David J. Nemeth

The Geographical Bulletin

In general, the legal rights of women in Asia are ignored. The paper provides anecdotal evidence of “young, beautiful” women in several Asian countries who have been the targets of acid attacks by angry men and women over personal issues. Battery acid is the weapon of choice. The acid attacks intentionally transform these women from “beautiful” to “ugly.” Most of the victims are alone and poor, and youth and beauty may be their only assets. The courts of law, however, blame the victims’ beauty and wile for initiating the circumstances that result in their suffering. The attackers generally go free. …

Race And American College Testing (Act) Scores In Illinois, Wendy Shaw, Bin Zhou

The Geographical Bulletin

This paper explores links between race and ethnicity, and performance on the American College Testing (ACT) within Illinois. This paper utilizes information about the performance of Illinois’ 85, 480 year 2000 graduating seniors who took the ACT assessment. The ACT scores reported by county are broken down into various racial and ethnic groupings, and a Geographic Information System was used to map and explore the spatial dimensions of the data. The results of the analysis indicate that performance on the ACT varies by the type of county involved, and is linked to family income rather than to race per se. …

Indonesia: A Geopolitical Study, Jasem M. Karam

The Geographical Bulletin

Indonesia is one of the southeast Asian countries that had faced an economic disaster in 1997. As a result of this and its political and ethnic problems, Indonesia’s political future became unstable. Problems had begun when East Timor, a Portuguese colony that fell under Indonesian control in 1975, demanded its independence. Following a long struggle that cost many human lives, the East Timorese succeeded in voting for independence with the help of the United Nations in August, 1999. In May, 2002 it became an independent state. The separation of East Timor provoked other provinces such as Aceh, Riau, Papua, Kalimantan, …

Multimedia Technology In The School Geography Classroom: A Case Study, Daniel P. Donaldson

The Geographical Bulletin

Today, educators are being called on to cultivate a more geographically literate body of students. Just as computer technologies have found use in nearly all aspects of North American society, they are now looked upon as a tool which will enhance students’ geography learning. Through the use of multimedia software packages, it has been suggested that students will gain a more intricate collection of spatial understandings. This work draws on results of direct intervention in two sixth-grade classrooms in Cleveland, Ohio. It compares two methods of teaching and learning geographic concepts: one employing the use of multimedia and the other …

Afghanistan’S Cultural Diversity: A Reflection Of Its Turbulent Past, James B. Dalton, Jr

The Geographical Bulletin

This paper examines the historical geography of the distribution of people occupying Afghanistan and the surrounding the region. The analysis reveals a complex political pattern that defies the international boundaries displayed on most world maps. Further understanding is gained from this examination of human occupation patterns as it relates to people who have controlled the space now known as Afghanistan. The history of this region provides valuable insights into the present conditions and the current geopolitical reality of Afghanistan. The periods examined are pre-18th Century, 18th and 19th Centuries and concludes examining the early 20th Century with an analysis of …

Geography, Gamma Thetaupsilon (Gtu), And The Millennials In The New Millennium, M. Duane Nellis

The Geographical Bulletin

In reviewing GTU’s Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU) history, one sees where this international honor society has experienced periods of sustained growth, and it continues to play an important role in geography’s success (Maxfield, 2003). And today, we not only celebrate the first 75 years of GTU’s history but also we begin to look forward to a new generation of college students, a new generation of geographers—a generation some have referred to as the millennials—with their changing values and expectations. In this keynote address, I would like to briefly comment on this new generation in the context of GTU and geography …

Coupling Between Evapotranspiration, Water Use Efficiency, And Evaporative Stress Index Strengthens After Wildfires In New Mexico, Usa, Ryan C. Joshi, Annalise Jensen, Madeleine Pascolini-Campbell, Joshua B. Fisher

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Aim

Methods

Results …

Foreign Funding Of U.S. Higher Education Relates To Sanctioning Of Scholars And Antisemitism, Michael Bass, Alexander Reid Ross, Ben Wolfson, Joel Finkelstein, Sonia Yanovsky, Danit Finkelstein, Sean T. Stevens, Nathan Honeycutt, Pamela Paresky, Ayal Feinberg, Multiple Additional Authors

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

We examined relations between foreign funding of U.S. colleges and universities and campus political developments. Seven studies investigated associations between foreign funding and campus liberal democratic norms, specifically, deterioration of free speech and academic freedom, and presence of antisemitism. Study I found that 349 colleges and universities received a total of almost $18 billion from foreign sources between 2014 and 2019. Study II examined relationships of foreign funding to campus deplatforming of speakers and punitive actions for speech protected by academic freedom. Main results were: 1. overall foreign funding was not strongly related to campus speech outcomes; 2. higher levels …

No. 03: Covid-19 Impacts On Food Security Of Refugees And Other Vulnerable Populations In Canada, Sujata Ramachandran, Zhenzhong Si, Danny Ning Dai

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

This policy audit explores the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security in Canada, with a focus on immigrants, refugees, and other marginalized communities, particularly in Ontario and the Waterloo Region. COVID-19 significantly exacerbated food insecurity in the country, adding to existing vulnerabilities especially in historically disadvantaged communities, who already faced barriers such as low-income employment, poor housing, and limited healthcare access. COVID-19 responses, including lockdowns and travel restrictions, disrupted food production, processing, and retail services. The supply chain disruptions, along with inflation, drove food prices to their highest levels in decades. Economic access to food became a pressing …

Storm-Driven Tree Exposure And Geomorphic Change: Predicting The Distribution Of Preserved Late Pleistocene Tree Stumps On The Outer Alabama Continental Shelf, Kelli L. Moran, Kehui Xu, Jeffrey Obelcz, Kristine L. Delong, Kendall Fontenot, Carl A. Reese, Grant L. Harley, Douglas Jones, Alicia Caporaso

Faculty Publications

The Alabama Underwater or Drowned Forest is a well-preserved Late Pleistocene (dated to 72–56 ± 8 ka, 2σ) terrestrial landform on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf that provides geomorphic and ecosystem information rarely preserved during the glacial intervals. Stumps of bald cypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.) trees were exposed in ∼18 m of water following Hurricane Ivan in 2004. This research investigates geomorphic changes to the Mississippi-Alabama-Florida (MAFLA) sand sheet, which presents as shore-oblique Holocene sand ridges, and the exposure and burial of tree stumps following the passage of Hurricane Sally in 2020 using repeat sidescan and bathymetric …

Media Use, Interpersonal Communication, And Personal Relevance As External And Internal Representations Of Climate Change, Sonny Rosenthal, Pengya Ai

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Personal relevance is a key driver of individual climate action. It is also related to media use and interpersonal communication, which the current study examines from two perspectives. First, individuals may find climate change personally relevant because they experience it vicariously through the media and other information sources. Second, they may engage with climate change information because the issue is personally relevant. This study tested these models using structural equation modeling of online survey data from representative samples in Singapore (n = 1,997) and the United States (n = 2,009). Findings supported both models, albeit the first one more strongly. …

Human Sensors In The City Of Super Apps: Mobilizing People As Infrastructure For Smart City Development In Jakarta, Indonesia, Prerona Das, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In this paper, we argue that contextual factors such as availability of infrastructure, socio-cultural characteristics of users, governance style, and the regulatory environment in global south cities creates opportunities for public and private sector actors to come up with innovative strategies to smart city development and the platformization of services. Despite different objectives, operationalization strategies, and expected outcomes between the public and private sectors, both sectors learn from one another to come up with innovative solutions for navigating contextual contingencies. Due to limited infrastructure and contextual diversities in global south cities, digital platforms require significant and specific forms of groundwork …

Montana's Trail To The Stars: Understanding Stargazing In Eastern Montana And Beyond, Carter Bermingham, Ava Worbets, Melissa Weddell

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

Night sky recreation is an emerging yet relatively unexplored segment of the tourism industry within Montana. Despite being home to some of the darkest skies in the nation, little is known about those who choose to stargaze in Montana. This study was designed to gather insights from previous visitors to Montana to better understand night sky recreation in the state and how visitors perceive Montana’s night skies. Part of the research purpose also was to provide information on respondents who visited a site along Montana’s Trail to the Stars, a collaborative effort between Southeast Montana, Central Montana, and the Missouri …

Montana Resident Report: Tourism Impacts And Perceptions Of Recreation And Visitor Behavior Q1 2024, Carter Bermingham, Megan Schultz, Matthew Pettigrew, Glenna Hartman

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

A summary of Montana residents’ perceptions of others’ ability to appropriately participate in outdoor recreation. Other topics include community respect, as well as amenities and challenges presented from tourism.

From Data To Application: Harnessing Big Spatial Data And Spatially Explicit Machine Learning Model For Landslide Susceptibility Prediction And Mapping, Min Naing Khant, Mei Yi Victoria Grace Ann, Tin Seong Kam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent advancements in information and communication technology have significantly enhanced access to extensive geospatial data, presenting a valuable opportunity to leverage big spatial data for improved modeling and predictive capabilities in natural disaster risk assessment. This paper explores the integration of a comprehensive dataset comprising historical landslide events and various geo-environmental variables within a spatially explicit machine learning framework. The study empirically demonstrates that incorporating big spatial data allows a more nuanced understanding of local variations and spatial dependencies. Ultimately, this empirical assessment produces more accurate landslide risk predictions than traditional baseline models. Using Italy’s expansive Valtellina Valley as a …