Spring 2026 Newsletter
Welcome to the April 2026 edition of the Panther Geographer Newsletter! If you look at the menu titled “On This Page,” you’ll see the table of contents. Or just scroll down to see all the sections, from profiles of alumni to general news around the department.
Thanks for reading, and remember, you can stay in touch by emailing yoon3@uwm.edu.
From the Chair
- Letter from the ChairGreetings from 51猎奇 Geography! The spring semester is in full swing, and our geography community has been very active since my last letter. We recently received the fantastic news that Distinguished Professor Mark Schwartz has received an American Association of Geographers鈥� (AAG) Distinguished Scholarship Honors Award. This AAG Honors category celebrates a career-long, distinguished track record of high-quality research in geography which has moved …
Alumni News
- Alumni NewsRobert Brinkmann (PhD 1989) Robert Brinkmann has been named the next Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin鈥揝tevens Point. Brinkmann, currently Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Northern Illinois University, will begin his role as UW鈥揝tevens Point鈥檚 16th leader on July 1, 2026. Congratulations to Dr. Brinkmann on this significant appointment! Jonathan Burkham (PhD …
Alumni Featured Stories
- Alumni Highlights – Cheyenne HughesCheyenne Hughes (BS 2022) When I started college I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, so I went to an engineering school and majored in civil engineering. Through my coursework I …
- Alumni Highlights – Alexandra HamiltonAlexandra Hamilton (PhD 2025) My geography story started in 6th grade. I was required to take a class titled 鈥淲orld Cultures,鈥� essentially an introductory human geography course for middle school students. I immediately fell in love …
- Alumni Highlights – Yang SongYang Song (PhD 2018) I am currently a Senior Data Scientist at Ashley Furniture Industries. The rigorous statistical and machine learning training I received during my PhD at …
Student News
- Student NewsYiming Zhang (PhD Candidate) Our Ph.D. candidate, Yiming Zhang, has published his co-authored journal article with our alumnus, Dr. Wei Xu (Assistant Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin: Ph.D. 2019). Zhang, Y., & Xu, W. (2025). Accelerometer-based physical activity, air聽pollution聽and risk of dementia subtypes: a prospective study using UK biobank. Frontiers in Public Health, 13, 1695462.聽 Yiming also won third …
Student Profiles
- Student ProfileHenry Valley (Undergraduate BA Student) Hello, I鈥檓 Henry, a senior undergraduate geography student at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. I鈥檝e always been drawn to maps since I was a kid 鈥� drawing them and looking at different globes and maps, etc. I was also really interested in ways people interact with and shape the spaces around them, which first sparked my interest in geography. …
Department News
- Department News51猎奇 Department of Geography Hosts 2025 AAG West Lakes Division Meeting The Department of Geography at UW-Milwaukee hosted the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers鈥� West Lakes Division on Oct. 23鈥�25, 2025. Faculty and students from across the region 鈥� including Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin 鈥� gathered to share research on topics ranging from flood preparedness and …
Faculty News
- Faculty NewsDr. Anne Bonds (Professor of Geography) Dr. Anne Bonds recently presented three lectures. First, Dr. Bonds and her collaborator Dr. Derek Handley (Department of English, 51猎奇) presented their project about mapping racial covenants to the public on Nov. 8, 2025 at the Milwaukee Public Library. The second lecture was about "Mapping Racism and Resistance in Milwaukee county" in a Zilber College of Public Health seminar at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Feb. 5, 2026. In this seminar, Dr. Bonds discussed a crowdsourced, community-engaged …
