As her current and former students all know, Dawn’s dedication to student learning inside and outside of the classroom is unparalleled. From introductory courses to her field programs in Guatemala, she works harder than any other member of the faculty to develop course content that will enrich student experiences. Continue reading »
Our annual symposium was a great success and, as always, ended with our banquet down at Brock’s where we celebrated student accomplishments, caught up with about a dozen recent graduates, and learned about a new map projection – the Unterschenkel Projection (see picture). We had a great turn out to honor the new members of Gamma Theta Upsilon and to congratulate the Class of 2012.
Tomorrow (April 18) is the day for the Nth Annual Geography Department Symposium! Highlights will include talks on post-earthquake development in Haiti, fair trade, the geography of hate crime, and landscapes in science fiction film. All are welcome to come to Monroe Hall to see the great stuff Geography students have accomplished this year! Continue reading »
In this guest blog, Dr. Dawn Bowen, Professor of Geography at the University of Mary Washington, writes about a journey she and UMW Geography major Colin Hess made to Haiti in April 2012. During the first week of April, Colin Hess and I undertook a truly transformational journey. We traveled to the island nation of Haiti; the only country in the world with a last name: “The poorest country in the western hemisphere.” Despite U.S. Government warnings about travel to Haiti (the Department of State strongly urges U.S. citizens to consider carefully all travel to Haiti), we were neither robbed, raped, or murdered. In the view of U.S. authorities, this might be considered somewhat miraculous. Not only did I survive, but I returned with a powerful sense of what Haitians can and have achieved, witnessing their organization and capacity building. I also learned about the demoralizing, destabilizing, and dehumanizing influence of NGOs and missionary groups on the Haitian people (I make this last comment knowing that I may once again be labeled as the anti-Christ or being in bed with the devil.) Every day, I was impressed with the Haitian people and their organizations. OP7G was the most amazing. [...]
It’s now 6.15 am on Monday February 27, and I am sipping a cup of coffee in Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok’s new, gleaming and vast international air gateway. I arrived here late last night on a journey that began on Saturday in Richmond, Virginia, when I boarded 7.40am flight for Chicago. There I connected to a 16-hour nonstop flight to Hong Kong, followed by a short 2 1/2 hour hop to Bankgkok. In an hour or so, I will leave here on Thai Airways for Phnom Penh, a journey of less than an hour. All being well, I will reach my final destination some 37 hours after departure; of that time, I will have spent about 22 hours in the air. This sounds like a grueling journey and, sitting in a cramped economy class seat of a full aircraft, I must admit that it is an experience I did not relished. But then I got to thinking about the discussion we had in one of my classes last week about the first European ships making their from Lisbon to Malacca (in modern-day Malaysia) in the early 1500s. This journey, which would have covered a distance roughly the same as mine, took the better [...]
Such a busy winter, but now our early and very warm spring has taken root and it is past time to up date you on what Mary Washington Geographers are up to.
Our current crop of students are, as always, garnering well-deserved recognition. Ethan Battone (2014) and Brian Brown (2012) each won a Writing Center Award for their seminar papers last month. In addition, Brian was selected for an internship at the National Geographic Society – continuing the tradition Mary Washington geographers getting this highly competitive positions! And, as just posted on Mary Washington’s homepage, Ethan was awarded a trip to the Association of American Geographers’ Annual meeting in New York because of his stellar performance at the SEDAAG Geography Bowl. Continue reading »
Cambodia is best known for Angkor Wat, the vast temple built in the first half of the 12th century by King Suryavarman II to honor the Hindu goddess Vishnu (and, more than incidentally, himself too.) Angkor Wat, though, is by no means the only temple dating back to the days of the Angkor empire. Nearly a hundred other temples dot the landscape around Angkor, and many others are to be found in other parts of Cambodia. Phnom Chiso is one of these temples, located atop a hill in Takeo Province, about 60 km south of Phnom Penh. This temple is older the Angkor Wat; it was built in the 11th century. Though damaged by American bombing during the war in Southeast Asia in the 1970s, much of the temple still stands. You can see some of the remains of the temple in this short video I made in December 2011. In the opening segment, I try to give an idea of the landscape around the temple; a landscape very typical of much of southern and central Cambodia. It is flat, and sugar palms dot the landscape, surrounded by rice paddies (most of them recently harvested when the video was taken.) [...]
Guest post by Dr. Dawn Bowen, Professor of Geography at the University of Mary Washington.
In January, I traveled to Guatemala to interview young Maya women who had received scholarships so continue their secondary education. An organization, Community Cloud Forest Conservation (CCFC) run by Rob and Tara Cahill and several Guatemalans, began providing small scholarships for young women, aged 13-24, about seven years ago. Its goal was to accomplish two things: 1) educate young women, thus producing better educated mothers who would raise healthier, fewer, and better educated children, as well as providing them the opportunity to become teachers or nurses, or any other occupation of their choosing; and 2) train them in agroecological techniques that would help directly improve the nutrition of their own families and help conserve the remaining cloud forest. I spent a week with many of these young women, talking about what they had learned and what they hoped to achieve. I also saw the end product of their five week course, where they had developed a proyecto de vida, or life project, a tangible goal that [...]
The 2011-12 UMW Cambodia Study Abroad program ended on Wednesday January 11 as the seven participants left Phnom Penh for home. Students were unanimous in their opinion that the three-and-a-half week program was a great success, that they learned a lot, and that they intend to visit Cambodia again as soon as they can.
During their time in Cambodia, students kept a daily blog recording their activities, impressions, and insights. Over the next few weeks, each participant will post a more detailed reflective entry, focusing on specific issues they encountered or places they visited.
Plans are already underway for the 2012 Cambodia Study Abroad Program, which will take place over the 2012-13 Winter break. We will post information here and on the program website as soon as details have been confirmed.
Here Mary Washington Geographers will find department news, information about events, and job and internship announcements. In addition, faculty, students, and alumni may post thoughts about travel or provide career advice.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Dawn Bowen, professor of geography, for winning the Grellet C. Simpson Award at the 2012 Commencement Ceremony on May 12. The Simpson award is considered UMW’s most prestigious annual award for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
