2009-2010 Officers

President:

Kathy Sherman-Morris Ph.D.
Mississippi State University
Email

Secretary/Treasurer:

Jon Malinowski, Ph.D.
United States Military Academy
Email

Academic Directors:

Dan Montello, Ph.D.
UC Santa Barbara
Email

Chris Badurek
Appalachian State University
Email

Student Director:

Rui Li
Pennsylvania State University

EPBG Facebook Group

At the recent Las Vegas business meeting, some members suggested creating an EPBG Facebook Group to help members share ideas, report publications, etc.. Well, here it is:

EPBG Facebook Group

Las Vegas EPBG Sessions

Click here for a pdf listing of all behavioral geography and environmental perception sessions at the upcoming AAG annual meeting in Las Vegas. We promise that anything that happens at an EPBG session stays at an EPBG session.

2009 EPBG Sessions

2009 Saarinen Student Paper Announcement

Saarinen Student Paper Competition

The Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group announces the 2009 Saarinen Student Paper Competition. The EP&BGSG will award a $200 prize for the best student paper, illustrated paper, or poster (graduate or undergraduate) presented in either environmental perception or behavioral geography at the 2009 AAG meeting in Las Vegas.

Entrants in the Saarinen Student Paper Competition must also submit a maximum 25-page (double-spaced) version of their work. Papers must be based upon original research done as an undergraduate or graduate student and must be written entirely by the applicant. Awardees must be in attendance at the Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group business meeting at the 2009 AAG meeting.

All submissions will be judged on written clarity, methodological soundness, contribution to the field of EP&BG, and their presentation at the meeting. The Academic Directors of the EP&BGSG will judge all entries. The deadline for receiving your Saarinen Competition application form and your paper submission is Friday, February 13, 2009.

To apply for the Saarinen Student Paper Competition, fill out an application form available here:

2009 Entry Form

Send completed application form and manuscript to:

Dan Montello

Geography Department

University of California

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060

For questions contact Dan Montello via telephone (805 893-8536) or e-mail (montello@geog.ucsb.edu)

2010 Student Travel Grants

Environmental Perception & Behavioral Geography Specialty Group Travel Grants 2010

A maximum of five Travel Grants of $145 each are available to qualified applicants.

Preference for the awarding of a Travel Grant will be:

1) any student who competes in the Saarinen Paper competition;

2) any student presenting a paper or poster in either environmental perception or behavioral geography at the annual meeting who is not competing in the Saarinen Paper competition.

Awardees must be in attendance at the Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group business meeting at the 2010 AAG meeting.

Application deadline: Friday, February 12, 2010.

To apply for a Travel Grant, fill out an application form available here:

2010 Travel Grant Application

Send completed application form (electronically is preferred) to:

Dan Montello (email montello@geog.ucsb.edu)

Geography Department

University of California-Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060

For questions contact Dan Montello via telephone (805 893-8536) or e-mail (montello@geog.ucsb.edu)

Call for Papers

Geographies of Sustainable Lifestyles

Session Organisers: Stewart Barr (University of Exeter) and Frances Fahy (University of Ulster). Sponsored by the Environmental Perception and Behavioural Geography Specialty Group of the AAG

The start of the 21st century has been characterised by urgent calls to examine the role of consumption in driving global environmental change and framing responses to these ecological dilemmas. Indeed, the ways in which consumption has been constituted and influenced by environmental, technological, economic, social and political processes have become critical issues for geographers. The convergence of these two research agendas has therefore provided geographers and other social science researchers with a range of opportunities to explore the emerging contexts for ‘sustainable lifestyles’ and the growing political importance of behaviour change. These have been undertaken at a range of scales (from individuals and households, to organisations and institutions) and have examined numerous environmentally-related practices that encompass consumptive, habitual and ‘post-consumption’ behaviours. Indeed, research in this field is characterised by a range of theoretical and applied approaches. Accordingly, this session aims to bring together geographers and other social scientists who are engaged in research on sustainable consumption, lifestyles and behaviour change. The session will provide an opportunity to explore the range of approaches towards sustainable consumption and will enable delegates to share theoretical and practical experiences from their research. We welcome contributions from researchers who are exploring this wide field, including those working on issues such as energy conservation, water resources, waste management, travel and transport, leisure and tourism and the broader field of ethical and green consumption. Contributions are welcome from those working at different scales (e.g. individual, household, organisational) and in a range of contexts (socio-economic, cultural, environmental).

Please forward expressions of interest and abstracts (250 words) for contributions to the session organisers: Stewart Barr (S.W.Barr@exeter.ac.uk) or Frances Fahy (f.fahy@ulster.ac.uk).

Survey Request

Nadine Schuurman is conducting a survey on the balance between work and life amongst academic geographers. This is an issue of interest to many of us as our lives are increasingly sped up - and our inboxes are permanently overfilling. Nadine is keen to discern what common threads link our experience of work and stress in our discipline. The survey is completely anonymous and has ethics approval. There are no personal identifiers and the results will be automatically collated. Nadine offers her thanks in advance for filling out the survey and requests that you do not hesitate to contact her with any questions.

Take Survey Here


Nadine Schuurman
Associate Professor Geography
Simon Fraser University
www.sfu.ca/gis
nadine@sfu.ca
ph: 778 782 3320
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar

Call for Papers: AAG 08

Weather and Society*Integrated Studies (WAS *IS) Session

Co-sponsored by the Climate Specialty Group, and the Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group

Organizers: Jennifer Cox (City University of New York Graduate Center) and Carlie Lawson (Natural Hazards Consulting)

WAS*IS engages in identifying and pursuing research opportunities in addition to improving or facilitating the ongoing relationships among practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders in meteorology and the social sciences. This panel session seeks theoretical, empirical, or practical applications that demonstrate the integration of weather research and societal impacts.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Quantitative or qualitative methodologies for improving understanding, communication, and use of weather and climate information,
• Communicating uncertainty and forecasts,
• Intersections of warnings, response and emergency management,
• Research in mitigation, preparedness, and sustainability,
• Role of technology for modeling or mapping hazards and vulnerability.

We invite papers exploring new approaches to study weather, climate, and society.

Please submit your abstract (250 words or less) and PIN to one of the organizers, Jennifer Cox (jennrcox@gmail.com) or Carlie Lawson ( naturalhazard@gmail.com) by November 27, 2007.

WAS* IS Climatology and Hazards of Severe Weather Session

Co-sponsored by the Climate Specialty Group, and Hazards Specialty Group

Organizer: Walker Ashley (Meteorology Program, Department of Geography, Northern Illinois University)

Severe weather poses a significant threat to societies around the world. Improving the forecasts and warnings of these events is a result of advancements in analysis and forecasting techniques, technologies, dissemination methods, and the new scientific understanding that develops from basic and applied research such as descriptive or synoptic climatologies. This paper session will explore the climatology and hazards of tornadoes, hail, high winds, lightning, floods, and/or severe winter-weather phenomenon. Contributors are encouraged to provide descriptive or synoptic climatologies of severe weather phenomena, assess past hazards or illustrate the future risks and potential vulnerabilities of societies to severe weather events, and/or present novel techniques in overcoming issues related to severe weather reporting procedures.

Please submit your abstract (250 words or less) and PIN to the organizer, Walker Ashley (washley@niu.edu) by November 27, 2007.

If you have any questions about the sessions, please contact the organizers.

Abstract instructions are available from the AAG website at:
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/papers.htm#abstracts

AAG 08 Call for Papers: Indigenous Peoples

Call for Papers: GEOGRAPHY AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (various sessions; individual papers welcome) Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting April 15-19 2008, Boston Massachusetts:

The Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group (IPSG) invites scholars working on issues that involve Indigenous peoples, across all regions and specializations within Geography, to participate in IPSG-sponsored sessions. Indigenous-Geography issues operate on the forefront of Postcolonial Theory, Cultural Studies, and Critical Theory, as well as addressing issues of human rights, protected areas, environmental management, borders and mobility, and much, much more.

If your work intersects with Indigenous issues, consider participating in one of our sessions, or if you have a session that pertains to indigenous people and their issues, please let us know that we may look into (co-)sponsorship. Every year, the IPSG sponsors a range of sessions, some of which are conceptualized from the start, and some which come together out of the diverse interests expressed by potential participants.

Please view the IPSG website for full information on these and forthcoming sessions.
http://www.pacificworlds.com/ipsg/meetings.html:

--New Stories for Old Places: Theorizing the Philosophy and Politics of Place for Indigenous Geographies --Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas: Conservation Through Self-Determination --Indigenous Geography and Education: Negotiating pedagogy in the classroom and the discipline.
--Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples
--Indigenous Tourism
--The U.N. Adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Strategies for the Future of Human Rights --Geography’s “Colonial Present” and Postcolonial Scholarship Additional proposals an individual papers are welcome.

If you are interested in participating in a particular session, you can contact the session organizer directly. Otherwise, interested persons, including session organizers and discussants, should contact Doug Herman at The National Museum of the American Indian:
hermand@si.edu.

Abstracts and materials must be received in time to submit before the 31 October 2007 deadline.


Dr. Douglas Herman
Senior Geographer
National Museum of the American Indian
Smithsonian Institution
4th St. & Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20560

AAG 08 Call for Papers: Katrina

AAG 2008: Call for Paper/Abstracts

"In the Shadow of a Storm: Geographies of Katrina and Post-Katrina New Orleans"

Organizers: Scott Bell, Brown University and University of Saskatchewan; Xun Shi, Geography, Dartmouth University

These sessions will focus on hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans. We anticipate these sessions will attract physical and human geographers and span a variety of approaches to geographic inquiry.
Furthermore, we hope to attract non-geographers working on topics related to Katrina and New Orleans. The potential topics covered by sessions and submissions might include Social and Environmental Justice, participatory mapping, governance and community involvement, hazard mitigation/perception, soil mapping, hydrology, historical development, development geography, among many others (see a longer list below). The breadth of the topics is sure to make these sessions a rich opportunity for geographers and researchers of all backgrounds to come together to better understand the storm and its impact on New Orleans. The organizers are willing to develop themed Katrina/New Orleans sessions if there is enough interest; feel free to contact us with ideas.
Submissions will be grouped in an effort to bring common themes together in single sessions.

Please send notes of interest to xun.shi@dartmouth.edu and scott_bell@brown.edu. We will eventually need an abstract PIN in order add presenters to these sessions.

The Association of American Geographers Annual meeting will be held from April 15th through 19th in Boston, MA. Additional information and conference registration/abstract submission can be found at www.aag.org

Other potential topics: demographic dynamics, social and environmental justice, land use and land cover changes, environmental conservation, environmental health, urban planning and management, hydrological modeling, emergency response, historical development, gentrification, governance and community involvement, participatory mapping, and the applications of spatial information technologies (GIS, remote sensing, and GPS) in all these issues
**********************************************************
Scott Bell
Assistant Professor, Population Studies Training Center Brown University
303 Maxcy Hall
Providence, RI 02912
scott.bell@brown.edu
ph. 401 863-1064 fax 401 863-3213

also

Associate Professor
Geography, University of Saskatchewan
scott.bell@usask.ca
**********************************************************

AAG 08 Call for Papers: Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization

Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers Boston, MA, April 15-19, 2008

Call for Participation

Session: Cognitive Issues in Geographic Information Visualization

Organizers: Sara Irina Fabrikant (University of Zurich) and Amy Lobben (University of Oregon)

Specialty Group Sponsors: Cartography, GIS, and Environmental Perception & Behavioral Geography

Content

We invite papers within the interdisciplinary research area of geographic information visualization and cognition. Specifically of interest are theoretical and empirical contributions exploring the human-geovisualization display interface. This includes (but is not limited to):

~ geovisualization design research (2D/3D, animated/virtual/ immersive, static/interactive/mobile, etc.) ~ the application of cognitive theories and methods to understanding
geovisualization displays & geovis tool use ~ the application of geovisualization displays & tools to understanding spatial cognition ~ reasoning, inference & decision making with geovisualization displays & tools ~ human-geovisualization interaction research


Participants

In addition to geographers, GIScientists, and cartographers, we are also looking for speakers from a broad range of disciplines, including but not limited to psychology, cognitive science, education, HCI, etc.


To be included in this session, please:

1. Register and submit your abstract online following the AAG Guidelines (http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/).

2. Email your presenter identification number (PIN), paper title, and abstract to both of the session organizers by October 26, 2007.


Contact Information

Sara Irina Fabrikant (University of Zurich)
Email: sara@geo.uzh.ch, http://www.geo.unizh.ch/gia/aboutus/homepages/
sara/

Amy Lobben (University of Oregon)
Email: lobben@uoregon.edu, http://geography.uoregon.edu/department/
faculty-staff/faculty/lobben/index.html

AAG 08 Call for Papers: Consumerism

Call for Papers: 2008 AAG Meeting, Boston, MA, April 15-19

The Geography of Consumerism

Organized by Galen Martin (University of Oregon)

Advertising and non-conventional product promotion increasingly penetrates into formerly non-commercial spaces. In clothing that promotes the brand names or in proposals to advertise in space, we are witnessing the nearly ubiquitous presence of consumerist promotions on larger scales. Nature, culture and public spaces are increasingly commodified, packaged, and sold.

At the same time, levels of consumption remain grossly uneven between and within countries. While capitalism suggests unencumbered growth in production and consumption, finite natural resources imply limits to growth. The enticing message of consumerism far outstrips the ability of the global economy to deliver affordable goods, even basic goods, while ignoring the environmental implications of increased levels of consumption. Attempts to address these issues on the part of affluent consumers are often criticized as superficial fixes that fail to address fundamental inequities and false assumptions.

We seek contributions, theoretical and demonstrative, that address the spatial or environmental aspects of consumerism, advertising and citizen responses. Topics may include:

"Green" consumerism
Citizen responses to commercialism
Siting and resistance to big box stores
China as the new consumer
Commodity chain studies
Product life-cycle analysis
Bottled water
Commodification and commercialization of public space Voluntary simplicity Non-conventional product promotion Commidification of culture and nature "Buy local" movements Fair trade movements Carbon bonds

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to Galen Martin (gmartin@uoregon.edu) by Oct 15.

AAG 2008 Call for Papers: Everyday Spaces

Exploring the Place of Space in Environments for Human Activities and Experiences.

Organized by Molly Boeka Cannon and Doug Amedeo, Geography, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

We envision this 2008 AAG session to be one which would entertain papers examining the role of space as an inextricable component with other fundamental dimensions in the structuring of everyday environments for activities and experiences. Some of the topics which may fit under this theme, for example, include the importance of space in the conduct of activities and the having of experiences, why space matters in apprehending the nature of environments for activities and experiences, the role of space as a structuring-dimension in everyday environments, the role of space in scale effects on alternative versions of activity spaces, comprehending human activities and experiences in non-spatial settings, how space influences the conceptual and structural coherence of stimuli constituting activity environments, and the like. We are seeking papers that show distinctive and, perhaps, innovative ways of exploring these spatial issues in either an applied or theoretical way. Any perspective is, of course, welcome ranging from cognitive to more experiential positions, as long as one's principle focus is about space as a dimension of ordinary, everyday, environments for human activities and experiences.


Please send comments and or submissions to Molly Boeka Cannon at mcannon3@bigred.unl.edu

Call for Papers: Subversive Cartographies...

Call for Papers, AAG Meeting Boston April 15-19, 2008

Subversive Cartographies for Social Change

Chris Perkins, University of Manchester

Jörn Seemann, Louisiana State University

To be subversive, is to wish to overthrow, destroy or undermine the principles of established orders. As such subversive cartographies offer alternative representations to established social and political norms. Maps are no longer cast as mirrors of reality, instead they are increasingly conceived as diverse ways of thinking, perceiving and representing space and place which express values, worldviews and emotions. Maps are no longer part of an elite discourse: they can empower, mystify, and enchant. More critical assessements of mapping increasingly explore subversive contexts strongly associated with innovative methodological approaches, with mapping seen as an explicitly situated form of knowledge. This shift has been strongly facilitated by the increasing popularity of new media, burgeoning technological change and newly developing mapping spaces (eg OpenStreetMap, WorldMapper and EmotionMap). So subversive mapping has an agency (Corner 1999), which can be enacted outside existing cartographic conventions. It has escaped from the grasp of cartographers: everybody is mapping nowadays.

This session focuses upon these subversive elements in contemporary cartographic practice and theory. We invite critical contributions from researchers concerned with the subversive potential of mapping, working in the fields of cartography, cultural, social, political, historical and social geography, ethnic and indigenous geography, qualitative approaches and allied areas. We are keen to have contributions from practitioners enacting change and making new maps, in artistic practice, protest movements, participatory development, and community activism. The aim is dialogue between academics and practitioners and with exploring how mapping research can challenge conventions and become more relevant to more people.

POSSIBLE THEMES:

* New approaches and methods in subversive cartography. What qualitative and ethnographic approaches are most appropriate for which mapping circumstances?

* Institutional forms and agency: how do links and flows facilitate subversive mappings?

* The cultural significance of subversive mapping practices.

* The implications and consequences of technological shifts for subversive mapping. How does Web 2.0 change the oppositional mapping world?

* Subversive cartographies created through personal mappings.

* What is the role of mapping aesthetics and artistic practice in creating subversive cartographies ?

* Can subversive cartographies really work as countermapping to enact political changes?

Proposed papers in the form of a title and short abstract (250 words maximum) should be submitted to Chris Perkins (c.perkins@manchester.ac.uk) or Jörn Seemann (jseema4@lsu.edu) by 30^th September 2007. Further details on the paper requirements and registration for the AAG meeting are at http://aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/index.htm .

2008 AAG Student Travel Grants

The Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group offers a maximum of five Travel Grants of $130 to qualified student applicants. Preference for the awarding of a Travel Grant will be: 1) any student who competes in the Saarinen Paper competition; 2) any student presenting a paper in either environmental perception or behavioral geography at the annual meeting who is not competing in the Saarinen Paper competition. Awardees must be in attendance at the Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group business meeting at the 2008 AAG meeting.

To apply for a Travel Grant, download an application form here.

Send completed application form and manuscript to:

Dan Montello, Geography Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060

For questions contact Dan Montello via telephone (805 893-8536) or e-mail (montello@geog.ucsb.edu)

2008 AAG Call for Papers

Call for Papers: Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting,
Boston, April 15-19, 2008.

The Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group would like to make a general call for papers for the Annual AAG Meeting in Boston, MA, April 15th-19th, 2008. We are soliciting calls for sessions, organized sessions, and individual papers that fit within our mission to advance the theoretical and applied interests of environmental perception and behavioral geography within the discipline of geography. We are open to both qualitative and quantitative research, taking a disaggregate approach to the study of human activity, culture, and society, on issues of human behavior, perception, attitudes, beliefs, memory, language, intentions, reasoning and problem-solving involving space and place. We are also very interested in co-sponsoring sessions with other specialty groups that would integrate with our focus. Since I have an idea for my own paper this year, I'd like to start by proposing a session on wayfinding.

The final deadline for sessions and papers to be submitted is October 31st, so please send your titles, abstracts, organized sessions, or questions and other inquiries to Dave Lemberg at lemberg@wmich.edu by October 20th at the latest (earlier would help). Students, please apply for the EPBG 2008 Saarinen Paper Competition and 2008 Travel Grants.

Call for Papers: AAG 2007

Call for Papers: Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, April 17-21, 2007.

The Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group would like to make a general call for papers for the Annual AAG Meeting in San Francisco CA, April 17th ? 21st. We are soliciting calls for sessions, organized sessions, and individual papers that fit within our mission to advance the theoretical and applied interests of environmental perception and behavioral geography within the discipline of geography. We are open to both qualitative and quantitative research, taking a disaggregate approach to the study of human activity, culture, and society, on issues of human behavior, perception, attitudes, beliefs, memory, language, intentions, reasoning and problem-solving involving space and place. We are also very interested in co-sponsoring sessions with other specialty groups that would integrate with our focus.

The final deadline for sessions and papers to be submitted is October 26th, so please send your titles, abstracts, organized sessions, or questions and other inquiries to Dave Lemberg at lemberg@wmich.edu by October 20th at the latest (earlier would help). Students, please apply for the EPBG 2007 Saarinen Paper Competition and 2007 Travel Grants.

2007 Student Travel Grants

The Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group offers a maximum of five Travel Grants of $130 to qualified student applicants. Preference for the awarding of a Travel Grant will be: 1) any student who competes in the Saarinen Paper competition; 2) any student presenting a paper in either environmental perception or behavioral geography at the annual meeting who is not competing in the Saarinen Paper competition. Awardees must be in attendance at the Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group business meeting at the 2007 AAG meeting.

To apply for a Travel Grant, download an application form here.

Send completed application form and manuscript to:

Dan Montello, Geography Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060

For questions contact Dan Montello via telephone (805 893-8536) or e-mail (montello@geog.ucsb.edu)

2007 Saarinen Student Paper Announcement

The Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group announces the 2007 Saarinen Student Paper Competition. The EP&BGSG will award a $200 prize for the best student paper, illustrated paper, or poster (graduate or undergraduate) presented in either environmental perception or behavioral geography at the 2007 AAG meeting in San Francisco.

Entrants in the Saarinen Student Paper Competition must also submit a maximum 25-page version of their work. Papers must be based upon original research done as an undergraduate or graduate student and must be written entirely by the applicant. Awardees must be in attendance at the Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group business meeting at the 2007 AAG meeting.

All submissions will be judged on written clarity, methodological soundness, contribution to the field of EP&BG, and their presentation at the meeting. The Academic Directors of the EP&BGSG will judge all entries. The deadline for receiving your Saarinen Competition application form and your paper submission is Friday, February 23, 2007.

To apply for the Saarinen Student Paper Competition, fill out an application form available here.

Send completed application form and manuscript to:

Dan Montello, Geography Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060

For questions contact Dan Montello via telephone (805 893-8536) or e-mail (montello@geog.ucsb.edu)

Saarinen Student Paper Award Winner Announced

The Environmental Perception & Behavioral Geography Specialty Group (EPBG SG) is pleased to announce that Martin Swobodzinski, San Diego State University Ph.D. Candidate, is the 2006 recipient of the Saarinen Student Paper Award ($200). His paper was entitled “Route Calculation Constraints for an Indoor Navigation Service for the Blind.” Swobodzinski and Tatyana Schoenberg, SUNY at Buffalo Ph.D. Candidate, were the recipients of the EPBG SG travel grants ($130 each). Congratulations to Martin and Tatyana!