Kansas State University

K-State geographers active at an annual meeting of Association of American Geographers

Submitted by Communications and Marketing

Geography faculty and students participated in the annual Association of American Geographers conference in New York City, Feb 24-28. Abstracts and additional session information are here.

Faculty paper presentations and other conference activities included:

• Lisa Harrington, professor of geography, and colleague, presented "Building an International Community of Researchers: The Quadrennial Rural Geography Conferences." Ryan Bergstrom, graduate student in geography, and Harrington, presented "A Transition toward Sustainability: Challenges in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem." Harrington also served as chair of the paper session Research, Frameworks and Methodologies.
• Brandon Weihs, doctoral student in geography; William Butler, master's student in geography; and Richard Marston, university distinguished professor and head of the department of geography, "Cross-Valley Profiles and Mass Movement Hazards in Deglaciated Canyons." Marston also presented "Integrative Concepts in Understanding Human Impacts in Riverscapes."
• Lisa Tabor, doctoral student in curriculum and instruction; John A. Harrington Jr., professor of geography, and a K-State geography alumni presented "Stakeholder Adaptation to Climatic Change in Kansas: What Have We Learned?" Harrington also presented When is it Climatic Change?" In addition, he was co-organizer of the paper session Climate And Climate Change Literacy, and was co-organizer and chair of the Climate Change Literacy panel session.
• Shawn Hutchinson, associate professor of geography, and colleagues presented "Fire history reconstruction using multisource remote sensing data in grassland ecosystems." Hutchinson; Stacy Hutchinson, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering; and colleagues presented "Spatiotemporal analysis of remotely-sensed imagery to explore the relationship between vegetation change and fire regime on military training lands."
• Rhett L. Mohler, research associate in geography, presented "Mapping prescribed burning in the Flint Hills of Kansas and Oklahoma, USA, 2000-2011."
• Bimal Paul, professor of geography, presented "Explaining Record Fatalities: The Case of 2011 Joplin, Mo. Tornado."
• Lis Pankl, assistant professor, K-State Libraries, and Kevin Blake, professor of geography, presented, "Frida Kahlo as Emerging Mexican Symbol."
• Melinda Daniels, associate professor of geography, and Katie H. Costigan, doctoral student in geography, presented "Damming the Prairie: Human Alteration of Great Plains River Regimes."
• Ben Champion, director of sustainability, presented "Beyond Skepticism: engaging central Great Plains agricultural producers and rural communities toward climate literacy as an NSF Climate Change Education Partnership."
• Chuyuan Wang, master's student in geography, and Marcellus M. Caldas, assistant professor of geography, presented "Fragment Patterns and Land Reform Settlements: Evidence from the Transamazon Highway and Southern Pará." Caldas also presented "The Decline of the Cocoa Economy and Land Reform Settlement Formation."
• Max Lu, associate professor of geography, organized Population Specialty Group Plenary: The Human Planet.