Chair's Blog

Hillary on GEOG 319 field trip at Friday prayers  at mosque in Twin Cities , MN spring 2012. Just a week or so ago, we received just that kind of note that faculty and departments love to get from their graduates -- an update that all is well and that aspirations are being fulfilled.  We are very happy to learn that Hillary Johnson has accepted a GIS Intern position with the French NGO ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) and will soon be working in Amman, Jordan. Hillary graduated with her geography degree in Spring 2012, and has been working at Garmin International in the Kansas City area since fall 2012.  As a human geographer with interests in humanitarian aid and sustainable development, and with a kit of geospatial skills, she had been thinking of continuing her studies in graduate school.   Those will now wait.   Hillary on GEOG 319 field trip to Kurdish restaurant in Twin Cities , MN spring 2012. In April, Hillary goes to Paris for three day

This past fall, the Department of Geography & Anthropology made numerous catalog changes to the geography curriculum, some of which will have implications for the geography major. These are part of an ongoing attempt to improve our program, our offerings and how we prepare our students -- not only geography majors, but those from other disciplines who take our courses. The implications for continuing majors will scarcely be noticeable, but there will be new requirements for students arriving at UWEC under the 2014-2015 calendar. Perhaps the biggest change will be that, in the future, geography majors will be required to take GEOG 368, the geography field seminar -- this was already discussed in the blog post of 1 February .  But there is more.   Comprehensive Environmental Geography majors will now be required to take at least  one upper level physcial geography course and one upper lever human-environmental geography course.  Until now, this was not a requirement, and comprehe

Members of SAGGA introducing the All Majors Summit A summit suggests mountain-top experiences, high-level gathering, meetings of the minds. Well, the Student Advisory Group for Geography and Anthropology (SAGGA) – with support from the Geography and Anthropology Club – recently hosted the first of what we hope are annual summits to bring geography and anthropology majors and minors together with department faculty and staff to highlight our disciplinary community and tradition.   About 60 geography and anthropology students, staff and faculty gathered on Thursday, February 27th, in the Davies Center's Dakota and Alumni rooms from 5-7:30 pm to share and encourage.  SAGGA's program was designed for faculty, staff and students to meet, to get to know one another, and to learn from each others' experiences.  Over refreshments, students shared their stories in small groups and, more formally, the department presented programmatic developments and academic opportunities.

Click here to see and become part of our geography Ever wonder about what the geography of geography (or anthropology, for that matter) looks like?  Well, here's one possibility.  Martin Goettl, the UW-Eau Claire Department of Geography and Anthropology's Geospatial Technology Facilitator has put together a "living" map of the department's people and activities.  Click here to check out where we take our classes and field seminars, where our students do their internships, where our students and faculty conduct research, where our alumni live, and more.  On this map, you can zoom in and out, and can click on a symbol for a pop-up with specific details of the field experience, internship, alumnus and so on.   So, i f you are a student or a graduate of the Department of Geography and Anthropology please go to the map and add your information.  As more of us contribute to this map resource, we hope to increase our capacity to reach out to, learn from and support