Department Chair Lisa Benton-Short
Department Newsletter, Fall 2016
Notes From the Chair
Geography Students in Service: Teaching Others to Map
Dr. Marie D. Price: New President of AGS
Geography Students in Service: Tracing the Missing Maps
A Cold Summer in the Arctic
As the World Turns: introducing our new Department of Geography Blog!
Faculty Kudos
Student News
Student Research
Graduation 2016
Alumni Updates/Class Notes
Notes From the Chair
Geography Students in Service: Teaching Others to Map
Photo: Pictured here are the students playing a geographic version of the classic game Simon Says. Instead of shouting left/right or back/front, the students were challenged to figure out their cardinal directions, and turn north, south, east and west when Simon said so. They were so good, we added NW, SW, SE and NE as an extra challenge.
Dr. Marie D. Price: New President of AGS
Photo: Presidents Jerome Dobson and Marie Price at the American Geographical Society Council Meeting on June 24, 2016 where Marie became the society’s first female president.
Geography Students in Service: Tracing the Missing Maps
A Cold Summer in the Arctic
Photo (left): A balmy day in Alaska. Forrest Melvin, Professor Streletskiy and Kelsey Nyland observe the ice drifting on shore from the Arctic Ocean on Barrow’s Coast.
Photo (right): CALM research is a collaboration of faculty and students from many different universities. Here Dr. Anna Klene from University of Montana and Clayton Queen of Michigan State are conducting their research at Prudhoe Bay Oil Field in the town of Deadhorse (note the pipeline in the background).
As the World Turns: Introducing Our New Department of Geography Blog!
Fall 2016 marks the beginning of the Geography Department's new blog, As the World Turns! The blog is a space for our faculty, students and alumni to showcase their diverse and captivating research and highlight interesting developments happening in their fields. The honor of our first post goes to Professor Joe Dymond, who highlights the astounding growth that geography and geographic education have seen in just the last two decades alone. Visit our blog site and please contribute!
Keep learning! Find out what we’ve learned about our world… http://blogs.gwu.edu/geography/
Faculty Kudos
Dr. Lisa Benton-Short published her book, The National Mall: No Ordinary Public Space (University of Toronto Press, 2016). The National Mall in Washington, D.C., is one of the most important and highly visible urban public spaces in the United States. By taking a holistic view of the National Mall and analyzing the unique 21st century challenges it faces, the book explores critical issues that are redefining and reshaping this extraordinary public space. Her work focuses on three contemporary and interrelated debates about public space: the management challenges faced by federal authorities, increased demands for access and security post 9/11 and the role of the public in the Mall’s long-term planning and development plans. A short excerpt from her book was also feature in the online version of Time magazine.

Student News
Meet the Graduate Class of 2018




Photo (left): Geography alumnus Ben Hyman, BA ’10, geography faculty Joe Dymond, Marie Price and alumnus Ekrem Dimbiloglu, BA ’05. A big thanks to Ekrem who flew all the way from Atlanta, Ga., to attend the event (on Delta, of course!)
Student Research
Participatory Research: Mapping Over Couscous
Over the summer, Dr. Mona Atia and graduate student Grace Doherty conducted the first in a series of participatory mapping projects in the remote rural province of Tinghir, Morocco. Over 100 participants showed up to learn how to map topics of interest to them, from broken bridges to traveling doctors to symbols of Berber culture and resistance. The research team continues their work this fall, as they teach more cartographic tools to local associations interested in development and poverty reduction for their rural communities.
Graduation 2016
On May 13, 2016, Columbian College students were recognized for their achievement in the arts and sciences as they completed their undergraduate and graduate degrees. We are very proud of their accomplishments of geography undergraduate and graduate students! We hope that enriching and fulfilling experiences at GW will lead them to wonderful opportunities to shape their future careers.
Photo (left): Graduates and their families gather in the Spatial Analysis Lab and conference room for the annual graduation celebration.


Alumni Updates/Class Notes
Zand Bakhtiari, MA ’15, is a programmer analyst for the City of Newport News, Va., working on geodatabase administration and geoprocessing automation and creating web maps and apps. He is also an adjunct instructor of political science and geography at Old Dominion University. He writes: “I'm working a lot with the public works department mapping wastewater and storm water utilities. But I am also learning a lot about web mapping (it's the future y'all!).”
Samson Hall, Second Floor
2036 H St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20052
Coordinates: 38.899°N, 77.046°W
Phone: 202-994-6185
Fax: 202-994-2484
[email protected]