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Sziarto, Mansson McGinty, and Seymour-Jorn have since 2010 collaborated with Muslim community members on the Muslim Milwaukee Project. Their Collaboratory award of $1350 will be used to develop a network of scholars with related research agendas from around the Milwaukee area, and continue the focus group phase of their project.

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It is with great sadness that we share news of the death of Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and Urban Studies Harold M. Rose. Originally from Tennessee, Dr. Rose received his PhD in Geography from Ohio State University in 1960. After holding positions at Northwestern University, UCLA, Washington University, and Florida A&M, Dr. Rose joined the Geography faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (51����) in 1962. Professor Rose had a long and distinguished career at 51����. He was active not just in Geography, where he served as chair from 1990-1994, but he was also a key figure in the Department of Urban Affairs (now Urban Studies), which he chaired from 1970-1973 and 1974-1977, and in the Department of Afro-American Studies (now Africology), which he chaired from 1977-1978.  While the number of students Dr. Rose worked with is difficult to enumerate, he touched the lives of countless urban scholars and practitioners. He modeled the role of public scholar and mentor long after his retirement.

Dr. Rose was a groundbreaking and courageous scholar whose research challenged racism at a time when very few in geography even acknowledged racism and its consequences. Professor Rose’s interest in racism and the social and spatial production of the Black ghetto developed upon his arrival to Milwaukee. He came to a deeply segregated city during a time of heightened civil rights activism around housing and school segregation. He began his career exploring issues of natural resource management but shifted his focus to examine those problems that he found more immediate to his lived experience in the mid-1960s Milwaukee. Joining a small group of geographers in a debate about the relevance of the discipline, Professor Rose modeled the example of community-engaged research. He was extensively involved in community service, from his early work with the Milwaukee Urban League to his seat on the Board of Directors for the community-based North Milwaukee State Bank.

Professor Rose retired from 51���� in 1995 after thirty-three years of teaching, pioneering scholarship, and a remarkable career of mentoring and public scholarship. He served as President of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) from 1976-1977 and received an AAG Lifetime Achievement Honor in 1996. He was the first Black president of the AAG—and remains the only Black president some 38 years later—and he used his platform to challenge urban racial segregation and discrimination. His presidential address, entitled “Geographies of Despair” (published in the Annals of the AAG in 1978) focused on racial inequality and violence involving Black males. In 2012, Audrey Kobayashi, then president of the AAG, announced the creation of the Harold M. Rose Award for Anti-Racist and Practice in Geography, on behalf of the AAG council, noting his pioneering work in the study of urban racial segregation and discrimination.

Geography has lost an extraordinarily important, but often overlooked figure. Dr. Rose made significant contributions to geographic understandings of segregation and racism as a socio-spatial process and yet too few in our discipline know and recognize his contributions. In celebrating his remarkable life and achievements, let us not lose sight of the challenges that motivated Dr. Rose’s anti-racist scholarship and teaching. We extend our deep sympathy to his family—including his wife, Ann and his son and granddaughter—and to the many others whose lives he touched.

In Sorrow,

The 51���� Geography Department

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Geoffrey Henebry presents the Fall 2015 – Harold & Florence Mayer Lecture

As a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at the Brazilian Space Agency in 1993-94, Dr. Geoffrey Henebry used imaging radar to investigate flooding patterns in the Pantanal Matogrossense, the largest wetland on the planet. He is a member of NASA’s Land Use Land Cover Change Science Team. Dr. Henebry entered the field of ecological remote sensing while serving as a post-doctoral fellow with the Konza Prairie Long Term Ecological Research project at Kansas State University. He earned a Ph.D. and a M.S., both in Environmental Sciences, from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Santa Fe.

He currently serves on the editorial boards of BioScience, International Journal of Biometeorology, and Landscape Ecology, and previously at Ecology/Ecological Monographs, Conservation Ecology, and Applied Vegetation Science. He is active in the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the U.S. Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE). Since 2001 Dr. Henebry has been a Certified Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America.

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Dr. Cuiyu Song

Please join us to welcome Dr. Cuiyu Song, who is a short-term visiting scholar, and currently works with Prof. Changsha Wu in research areas of urban remote sensing and land use land cover change analysis.

Dr. Song is associate professor at the College of Earth Science & Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Shandong, China. She receives her Ph.D., Master’s, as well as bachelor’s degrees from the same university.

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(l-r) Donna Genzmer, Mark Schwartz, Dorothy Copeland, and Anne Bonds

Congratulations to our faculty and staff award winners! On Oct. 20, they were recognized for their service to our department and the university.

• Donna Genzmer, 51���� Academic Staff Outstanding Performance & Serivce Award
• Professor Mark Schwartz, 51���� Faculty Distinguished University Service Award
• Dorothy Copeland, 51���� University Staff Outstanding Service Award
• Professor Anne Bonds, 51���� Faculty Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award

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]]> /geography/%ef%81%aestudents-from-justsu-liebig-university-in-giessen-germany-visit-department/ Sat, 10 Oct 2015 17:14:27 +0000 /geography/?p=1490 The Department of Geography welcomed visitors from Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen, Germany. The group of undergraduate students were led by their instructor, Timo Kleiner, a former exchange student in the department

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]]> On September 16, the 51���� Department of Geography welcomed visitors from Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen, Germany. The group of undergraduate students were led by their instructor, Timo Kleiner, a former exchange student in the department during the Fall 2013 semester. As part of their visit, the group toured the 51���� campus and the department, met with Profs. Woonsup Choi and Linda McCarthy, talked with Donna Genzmer of the Cartography & GIS Center, and toured the American Geographical Society Library.



In the evening, graduate students and faculty convened with the group at the Hubbard Park Beer Garden to socialize. Although it was a short visit, the group enjoyed their time here and were appreciative of the hospitality extended by the department.

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]]> /geography/department-launches-teaching-assistant-handbook-and-workshop/ Fri, 09 Oct 2015 17:22:29 +0000 /geography/?p=1494 Geography kicked off the Fall semester 2015 with a workshop using our new Teaching-Assistant Handbook which provides a framework to develop an effective discussion section.

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]]> The Geography Department kicked off the Fall semester 2015 with a very lively and interactive workshop designed to launch our new Teaching-Assistant Handbook and to build a framework by which to develop an effective discussion section. The Handbook provides information to new and experienced TAs on topics such as, roles and responsibilities of TAs, advice and tips on effective teaching, guidance on training opportunities and the pros and cons of TA evaluation.



The workshop was attended by 12 graduate students and provided an opportunity for TAs to network and exchange experience and ideas. Together we agreed on a topic to use as a test discussion topic and from there we established a number of key messages to be conveyed, how best to convey the messages (use of images, videos, maps, etc.), how to design appropriate engaging questions to get the discussion underway and finally how to create useful exit and/or homework assignments. Some of the key points that were raised include:

• a discussion topic should be precise and focused (for example, instead of discussing Climate change it might be more useful to discuss how climate warming might impact plants and animals in the wild)
• the section should be well structured – tell the students what to expect during the class
• provide some background and clear definitions of the topic
• time management – give the students time to understand the topic and ensure there is enough time to complete any in-class exercises

Given the success of this workshop we will review the output at a follow-on workshop and identify possible areas where further training might be useful.

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]]> /geography/new-department-chair-takes-office/ Thu, 08 Oct 2015 17:37:20 +0000 /geography/?p=1499 Prof. Changshan Wu took office as new Chair of the Department of Geography in August 2015.

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]]> Prof. Changshan Wu took office as new Chair of the Department of Geography in August 2015.

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