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Geography

  Geography 

UNBC Group at Ganora, SA May 17, 2012: The UNBC, University of Pretoria, and Rhodes U. Crew at Ganora in South Africa

Spring Courses 2012
Geog 101: Human Geography, May 7-June 15
Geog 203: Geography of Canada, May 7-June 15

UNBC Geography in Guatemala -
May & June 2012
 
GUATE 2012 
The Guatemala crew including: 
Front row: Dr. Catherine Nolin, Heather Carson, Kathryn Wesley; Back row: Natalie Wiesmann & Robyn Oxley. Missing from photo are graduate students Erica Henderson & Alexandra Pedersen who are already in Guatemala and Cristian Silva, Emilie Teresa Smith, James Rodríguez, and Grahame Russell of Rights Action who will meet up with us there. Departure day is Thursday, May 24th from Vancouver.
 
UNBC Geography in South Africa,
April & May 2012
UNBC Group on train to Cape Town, SA 
Drs. Kevin Hall, Greg Halseth & Neil Hanlon are leading a Geography field school to South Africa. Here, on a train from Johannesburg to Capetown, April 29, 2012.
 

Adjunct Professor Fredy Peccerelli
Top Human Rights Award recipient, May 2012
Fredy PeccerelliFredy Peccerelli, winner of the 2012 ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism, addresses the audience at the Museum of the City of New York, May 13, 2012. Photo Len Tsou See: http://www.albavolunteer.org 
 
 

UNBC Named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers
Thirsty Moose
UNBC Geography professor Roger Wheate, left, and UNBC BA Geography student Shane Doddridge meet under the new LED lights at the Thirsty Moose Pub at UNBC's Prince George campus. The lights, installed in 2010, were just one reason for UNBC's selection as one of Canada's Greenest Employers. See: UNBC Press Release, 20 April 2012

Professor Kevin Hall -
Fellow of the Society of South African Geographers
 
Professor Kevin Hall 
The Geography Program sends warm congratulations to our own Dr. Kevin Hall who, in June 2012, will be made a Fellow of the Society of South African Geographers (SSAG). Since 1970 there have been but 24 Fellows, and this award will be only the second to a non South African.

In the written notification, Cecil Seethal, the SSAG President, wrote that the award was for "inter alia, the indelible mark you have made on Geography in South Africa through globally respected research and a legacy of students who are now leaders in the discipline in the country....and for your prolific and sustained publication record."
 

WDCAG 2012
 
Once again this year, the UNBC Geography Program sent a group of undergraduates, graduate students and faculty to the Annual Meeting of the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers.
WDCAG 2012 
This year’s conference was held 8-10 March in Kelowna, BC, and was hosted by The Geography program at the Okanagan Campus of the University of British Columbia (UBCO) . Click here for a few photos from the conference.
 

New Adjunct Faculty Member José Pablo Baraybar
 
José Pablo is the Executive Director of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team / el Equipo Peruano de Antropología Forense (EPAF) which is a non-profit organization that promotes the right to truth, justice, and guarantees of non-repetition in cases of forced disappearance and extrajudicial execution.
 
Jose Pablo Baraybar (EPAF Peru) 
In mid-Februry 2012, José Pablo sends this photo from Bungoma, Kenya where the EPAF is starting a new project in the area and in partnership with Western Kenya Human Rights Watch to assist in recording gross Human Rights violations in the area of Mount Elgon.  
 

Dr. Brian Menounos on CBC
Dr. Brian Menounos 
Glacier time-lapse images reveal 'epochal change,'
13 January 2012


Dr. Greg Halseth helps Kitimat, BC Prepare for Smelter Expansion
 
Dr. Greg Halseth
Geography professor Dr. Greg Halseth working wtih Kitimat to prepare for one of the largest industrial expansions in the history of northern B.C. See: UNBC News Release, 5 December 2011

 Ice Breaking Research
Matt Beedle VideoPlay Video 
Play Video
NRES Geography PhD candidate Matt Beedle takes you on a tour of Castle Creek Glacier where he & supervisor Dr. Brian Menounos are conducting a comprehensive study of the current state and future fate of glaciers in BC and Alberta. For UNBC students and researchers, the world is the classroom.
 

Convocation 2011
Aimee Smith & Dr. Neil Hanlon
Aimee Smith & Dr. Neil Hanlon. Aimee received the Top Geography Student Award for the Class of 2011. Photo: Z. Meletis
 
The UNBC Geography Program congratulations to all of you who graduated with Geography Majors & Minors and graduate degrees! After Friday, May 27th, click here to view a photo gallery of images from the Convocation Day.
 

Geography Field Schools 2012
 
Guatemala 2010 
Plan to join one of our fascinating geographical field schools. Look for information sessions in Fall 2011 and/or contact the following people:
 
South Africa: Dr. Kevin Hall (hall@unbc.ca), Dr. Greg Halseth (halseth@unbc.ca) or Dr. Neil Hanlon (hanlon@unbc.ca
 
Guatemala: Dr. Catherine Nolin (nolin@unbc.ca)
 
Peru: Dr. Nolin and/or Scott Emmons (emmons@unbc.ca)
 

WDCAG 2011
UNBC Geography Contingent to WDCAG 2011Once again this year, the UNBC Geography Program sent a group of undergraduates, graduate students and faculty to the Annual Meeting of the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers. This year’s conference was held 10-12 March in Burnaby, BC, and was hosted by the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University. Click HERE for a list of presenters & presentations.
 

 

Announcements
Grad Student News
Jessica Blewett 
WDCAG Award Winners
 
Congratulations to
Jessica Blewett (MA NRES candidate, supervisor: Dr. N. Hanlon) for best Master's oral presentation
&
Alex Koiter (PhD NRES candidate, supervisor: Dr. Ellen Petticrew) for best PhD poster
 
Canadian Association of Geographers (WDCAG) held at UBC-O in Kelowna, BC (8-10 March 2012).
Alex Koiter 

Congratulations
 to Christina Tennant
Christina Tennant
Congratulations to Christina Tennant & her supervisor Dr. Brian Menounos on the successful defence of her MSc thesis in Natural Resources & Environmental Studies (Geography):
 
"Nine Decades of Glacier Change in the Canadian Rocky Mountains"

Nick Ehlers

Congratulations to Nick Ehlers (MA NRES candidate) who was awarded the Archie Carr Student Award for Best Conservation Oral (Runner Up) at the 32nd Annual International Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation, March 13-16, in Huatulco, Mexico.
 

 New Publications
 
de Leeuw, S.*, Maurice, S., Holyk, T., Greenwood, M. & Adam, W. 2012. With Reserves: Colonial geographies and First Nations health. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. DOI:10.1080/00045608.2012.674897
 
Heikkilä, K., and G. Fondahl. 2012. Co-managed research: Non-Indigenous thoughts on an Indigenous toponymy project in northern British Columbia. Journal of Cultural Geography 29 (1), 61-86. 
 
Hall, K., Thorn, C., & Sumner, P. 2012. On the persistence of ‘weathering’. Geomorphology, Vol 149-150 (May), 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.12.024
 
Skinner, M., N. Hanlon, and G. Halseth. 2012. Health- and social-care issues in aging resource communities In Health in Rural Canada, eds. J. C. Kulig and A. M. Williams, 462-480. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. 
 
Albers, Sam J.* and Petticrew, E.L. 2012. Ecosystem response to a salmon disturbance regime: Implications for downstream nutrient fluxes in aquatic systems. Limnology and Oceanography. 57 (1): 113-123. DOI: 10.4319/lo.2012.57.1.0113
 
Jost, G., Moore, R.D., Menounos, B., and R. Wheate 2012. Quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to
streamflow in the Columbia River Basin, Canada.
Hydrology and Earth System Science 16, 849-860.
 
New book publications
 
Congratulations to Geography Senior Lab Instructor Chris Jackson and affiliated geographer Dr. Peter Jackson for the publication of their new textbook (co-authored with C. Donald Ahrens) Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate, and the Environment.
Meteorology Today 
Congratulations to affiliated Geographer Sarah de Leeuw on the publication of the book Front Lines: Portraits of Caregivers in Northern British Columbia.

Front Lines
 
See our New Publications page for a full listing of faculty publications.


Alumni News
 
Christine Creyke
2010 Jane Glassco Arctic Fellow
Christine Creyke 
Christine Creyke defended her MA NRES-Geography thesis (Co-supervisors: Drs. Greg Halseth and Gail Fondahl) in April 2011 & is now based in her mother's home community of Old Crow, Yukon, working as a "Jane Glassco Arctic Fellow" on research titled "Natural Resource Policy Recommendations for the Vuntut Gwitchin Government."
 

 Graduate Student News
 JP Laplante
NRES (Geography) graduate student JP Laplante (Supervisor: Catherine Nolin) and Stephen St. Laurent directed and produced this film Amazay: A Film About Water to highlight the battle against the Kemess North development in northern BC during 2007-2009.
The full film is now available through YouTube.


What is Geography all about?
 
Geography provides a framework for comprehending the world we live in. Every one of us is born with an inherent curiosity about the world around us: geographers channel that intellectual curiosity into a systematic and disciplined method of study. As a modern physical and social science, geography plays a crucial role in addressing local, national and global concerns such as acid rain, hazardous waste, housing for low income people, and world population growth.

Geographers work in a wide array of fields including cartography and computer mapping, remote sensing and climatology, urban and regional planning, housing and community development, retail site analysis and market research, environmental analysis and resource conservation, geophysics and natural science research. Given this breadth there are significant employment opportunities with government, in teaching, in business, or in private sector consulting. The reason for this wide range of opportunities, and for the demand for trained geographers in the workplace, is the perspectives and range of skills the geography graduate has to offer.

Geography is the study of objects, ideas, or processes in place, or space, in the same sense that history is the study of events across time. This spatial perspective helps the geographer to make sense of available information to explain specific phenomena - whether that involves rock weathering in Antarctica or homeless populations in the inner-city. As such, geography is an integrative field of study - it can draw upon a wide range of work from other disciplines in order to understand the outcomes of processes or actions in particular places.

The constantly changing physical and human landscapes demand continuing interpretations of the world from a spatial point of view, a challenge geographers are well prepared to meet.


 

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