Announcements

Geography alum Jesse Rodenbiker (PhD 2019) awarded 2020 Student Paper Award at Geoforum

May 6, 2020

Geography alum Jesse Rodenbiker (PhD 2019) was awarded 2020 Student Paper Award at Geoforum, for his paper "Uneven incorporation: Volumetric transitions in peri-urban China's conservation zones"

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Uneven incorporation: Volumetric transitions in peri-urban China's conservation zones

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Geography Department Open Letter

June 8, 2020

June 6, 2020

Dear Geography community,

We write to you with feelings of incredible outrage and sadness in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. His violent killing by “law enforcement” officers, along with the killings of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY, Tony McDade in Tallahassee, FL and Ahmaud Arbery by white civilians in Brunswick, GA, reflect only the most recent and visible examples of anti-Black violence endemic to this country, and to many of the nation’s institutions.

We also condemn the violence of the repressive state apparatus firing...

Geography alum Julie Guthman (PhD 2000) awarded 2020 Meridian Award at American Association of Geographers

June 3, 2020

Geography alum Julie Guthman (PhD 2000) awarded 2020 AAG Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography at American Association of Geographers (AAG)

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Wilted: Pathogens, Chemicals, and the Fragile Future of the Strawberry Industry

Strawberries are big business in California. They are the sixth-highest-grossing crop in the state, which produces 88 percent of the nation’s favorite berry. Yet the industry is often criticized for its backbreaking labor conditions...

Geography Lecturer Seth Lunine awarded 2020 AC Excellence in Teaching Award

July 17, 2020

Geography Lecturer Seth Lunine (and Geography alum, PhD 2013) is one of this year's recipients of the 2020 American Cultures Excellence in Teaching Award.

2020 AC Prizes Virtual Ceremony

2020 AC Excellence in Teaching Award

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Italian newspaper ranks sociology professor and Geography alum Camilla Hawthorne (PhD 2018) among top women of the year

January 22, 2021

Italian newspaper ranks sociology professor and Geography alum Camilla Hawthorne (PhD 2018) among top women of the year

Italy’s most widely read newspaper, Corriere della Sera, released its year-end list of the world’s top women of 2020, and UC Santa Cruz assistant professor of sociology Camilla Hawthorne made the list at number 20 for her highly influential research into the Black diaspora across Italy and the Mediterranean.

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2021 AAG Diversity & Inclusion Award awarded to Professor Jovan Lewis

December 17, 2020

Jovan Lewis, assistant professor of Geography and co-lead of the Economic Disparities research cluster in the Othering and Belonging Institute, is awarded the 2021 Diversity and Inclusion Award, from the American Association of Geographers (AAG).

Per the press release: "Within the AAG, Lewis is a key leader leveraging and amplifying Black Geographies, helping to lead the Black Geographies Specialty Group and successfully advocating for the inclusion of Black Geographies as a theme of the 2018 AAG Annual Meeting. Notably, Dr. Lewis is still only in the first decade of his career as a...

Two Berkeley Geography community members named to AAG Black Geographies Specialty Group Executive Team

February 9, 2021

Two Berkeley Geography community members named to the AAG Black Geographies Specialty Group executive team.

Dr. Camilla Hawthorne, Assistant Professor at UC Santa Cruz and a Berkeley Geography PhD, was appointed as Chair April L. Graham-Jackson, current PhD candidate in Berkeley Geography, was appointed as Graduate Student Representative

The BLACK GEOGRAPHIES SPECIALTY GROUP strives to create a global platform for: (a) promoting study of the social, political, cultural, economic,...

Graduate Student Erin Torkelson receives Best Dissertation award from AAG Economic Geography Specialty Group

April 10, 2021
Erin Torkelson has received the Best Dissertation award from the Economic Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers for her dissertation “Taken for Granted: Geographies of Social Welfare in South Africa.”

Geography Department Statement on Anti-Asian Violence and Racism

March 25, 2021

March 22, 2021

We are appalled by the spread of anti-Asian violence and racism this past year. This week saw the killing of 6 Asian women in the Atlanta area, as part of a murderous rampage that claimed 8 lives. Since the pandemic started, Asian Americans have increasingly been attacked and harassed with racial slurs, getting coughed and spat upon, and subjected to physical and deadly violence. From March 2020 to February 2021, nearly 3800 incidents of racism and hate against Asian Americans have been logged, and over 700 anti-Asian hate incidents in...

Geography Professor Laurel Larsen explains how Data Science can help California's Drought in Q&A

July 29, 2021

Geography Professor Laurel Larsen explains how Data Science can help California's Drought in Q&A

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California’s Drought is Getting Worse. In a Q&A, Laurel Larsen Explains How Data Science Can Help.

Rachel Leven

California is amidst a period of intensifying drought. As of July 8, Governor Gavin Newsrom (D-Calif.) had issued drought emergency declarations for 50...