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.

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 … Read the rest

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.… Read the rest

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!… Read the rest

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 … Read the rest

In our Fabulous New Monroe, Joe and I have a Pollen Analysis Laboratory. Right now, it looks very bare – a huge fume hood, an emergency shower & eyewash, and stainless steel cabinets…   soon we will fill it with mud and nasty chemicals, on our way to extracting pollen grains from the La Sal Mountains! In the Physical Prep Room, we’ve set up two microscopes… … Read the rest

It is my pleasure to announce the 2011 recipients of student research awards funded by the Geography 50^th Anniversary Endowment.  A committee of three faculty carefully reviewed student proposals and made the following awards:… Read the rest

Morgan Lamon (2012)  is one of five undergraduates in the United States to win a $5,000 scholarship from the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF). Congratulations Morgan!… Read the rest

Quite a week!  Now that classes are cancelled on this bright, clear, sunny day, we have a moment of calm after the hurricane, thunder storm, and earthquake. So, check out the pictures of our new labs, classrooms, and other spaces just waiting to be used.… Read the rest

The newly renovated but still 100 year-old Monroe Hall came through Virginia’s August 23 magnitude 5.8 earthquake extremely well (elsewhere, there are cracks in the plaster walls of Virginia Hall, the stairwells in Combs Hall, and parts of GW Hall; serious – but not enough to close those buildings). Faculty in the building did a double-take, but then kept on working – till campus police threw us out an hour later! Belmont, Gari Melchers’ Home & Studio in Falmouth, suffered … Read the rest

We’ve had a hazardous start to the semester, though I wouldn’t call it disastrous… Geography has moved back into Monroe Hall and we think you will all LOVE the new space – and our 100-year-old building came though the earthquake (8/23/11) with no problems! On the GEOG 240 Natural Hazards blog page I’ve posted seismograph/seismogram images and some news about the severe thunderstorm on Thursday (8/25/11) and Hurricane Irene (8/27/11). Now we’re waiting for the swarm of locusts – … Read the rest