Dr. Thomas Bell, professor emeritus with the Department of Geography and Sustainability, was honored at the ISLPMC (International Society for Landscape, Place, and Material Culture) Annual Meeting for receiving the Henry H. Douglas Distinguished Service Award.

PhD candidate Seth T. Kannarr recieved the Warren E. Roberts Graduate Student Paper Award at the ISLPMC Annual Meeting! His paper was titled “Public Memory in Your Pocket: Analyzing Coins as Everyday Geographies of American Identity.” Congratulations Seth!

❗️Publication Alert❗️Congratulations to Derek Alderman, Mayra Román-Rivera, Michael Camponovo and Rev. Reneé Kesler for their recent publication, “Mapping as Black Memory-Work: Toward a Restorative Cartography of Urban Renewal/Removal in Knoxville, Tennessee”! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Another successful teamwork with the best dendro-team! 🌲💚 @utk-dendro.bsky.social @utkgeography.bsky.social

World maps get Africa’s size wrong: cartographers @utkgeography.bsky.social @geographers.bsky.social explain why fixing it matters. Grateful for the talent and collaboration of @jswab.bsky.social theconversation.com/world-maps-g...

Drs. Jack Swab and Derek Alderman have a new article for @theconversation.com, “World maps get Africa’s size wrong: cartographers explain why fixing it matters.” Read it at the 🔗 below! theconversation.com/world-maps-g... @derekgeographer.bsky.social @jswab.bsky.social

Congratulations to Swachhatoya Das for presenting her paper, “Gendered Income Disparities among Indian Immigrant Workers in the United States: Analyzing the Returns of Education to Income” at the Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference this week at the University of Birmingham!

🌎 We’re hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor in climate extremes and their impacts on the environment and/or human communities. 🔗 Link to apply + full description is in our bio!

Happy first day of classes to our favorite geographers, sustainers, and GIScientists! 🍊

Ready for a new era 🌎🧡 Seriously, a new semester starts next week!

Although recent headlines have drawn attention to naming conventions, #maps have always been #political. Derek Alderman, professor at @utkgeography.bsky.social, says: Maps are... shaped by decisions about what matters, who gets to be seen, and how the world should be understood. buff.ly/Tea3gJd

❗️Publication Alert❗️Congratulations to Dr. Qiusheng Wu on the release of his book “Introduction to GIS Programming: A Practical Python Guide to Open Source Geospatial Tools" 🎉 📘 Amazon: amazon.com/dp/B0FFW34LL3 💻 PDF on Leanpub: leanpub.com/gispro

❗️Publication Alert❗️Dr. Reagan Yessler (PhD, ‘25) and PhD candidate Katrina Stack just published their chapter, “‘Once Upon a Time, Somewhere in Europe…’: Mythicisation and Identity Crafting in Renaissance Festivals,” in Magical Tourism and Enchanting Geographies! Find the 🔗 to the book in our bio!

Congratulations to Elizabeth Barnes, who successfully defended her Masters thesis, "Long-Term Fire and Vegetation History from Soil Charcoal in Boone Creek Barrens, Indiana, U.S.A." last week!

Congrats to Dr. Qiusheng Wu on receiving the Paul E. Trentham Sr. Library Partner Award! He invited UT Libraries to participate in the Open Science Workshop and Symposium, creating space to discuss open-access funding, open data, and library services. lib.utk.edu/news/2025/05...

Congratulations to everyone recognized at this year’s department awards ceremony! Check out this 🧵 of this year’s graduate and faculty recipients!

Big congratulations to Annie Liu for successfully defending their Master’s Thesis, “Being Asian American in Southern Appalachia: Counternarratives of Race and Space in Higher Education”! Special thanks to their committee: Drs. LaToya Eaves, Nikki Luke, and Stefanie Benjamin!

Congratulations to Jenny Ott, who successfully defended her Masters thesis, “Campus Social Infrastructure for International Students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)” on Tuesday! Thanks to her committee: Drs. Derek Alderman, Solange Munoz and Gabe Schwartzman.

Our group just had a fantastic semester! @nazifa57.bsky.social won the prestigious GSRA @utknoxville.bsky.social, Jordyn finished her first semester with top grades, and Karson presented her first research poster ever, winning the award for best use of graphics and design. @utkgeography.bsky.social

not my best set, but kinda cute for @utkgeography.bsky.social end of the year awards ceremony

On the count of three, everyone smile and say “plot work!!” 😬 🌲 💍 @greatsmokynps.bsky.social @utkgeography.bsky.social

Another successful sampling trip in the Smokies this week! PhD student Brij Banerji will be using tree-ring data to evaluate the efficacy of hemlock woolly adelgid treatments across GSMNP. @utkgeography.bsky.social @greatsmokynps.bsky.social

Congratulations to our Ph.D. student @nazifa57.bsky.social for winning a prestigious Graduate Student Research Award sponsored by UTK Graduate School! Congratulations, Nazifa! @utkgeography.bsky.social.

Congratulations to all the Geography and Sustainability undergraduate students who presented their research at EUReCA! We are so proud of all of your work and how you represent our department!

Congrats to PhD candidate Seth Kannarr who was recognized with the Extraordinary Graduate Student Teaching Award at the Academic Honors Banquet!

Congratulations to Brian Boyce, who has been selected as a McClure Scholar by the Center for Global Engagement! The McClure Scholarship, rooted in a legacy of global understanding and cross-cultural collaboration, supports students whose work transcends both geographic and intellectual borders.

PhD candidate Katrina Stack is the research fellow for the Beauford Delaney Papers Collection at UT Libraries. Read this article that discusses how she brought her perspective as a geographer to studying the archive of an abstract expressionist artist. volumes.lib.utk.edu/features/see...

Stunning spring day in East Tennessee. Couldn’t ask for better sampling weather, mountain stream lunch spot, or sampling crew! GEOG 432- Environmental History from Tree Rings @utkgeography.bsky.social

Join us tomorrow for our colloquium "A Multiproxy View of Gulf Coast Paleohurricanes" with Dr. Josh Bregy from Clemson University. 📅 April 10th, 2025 ⏰ 4:05pm-5:15pm 📍 WAB M307 and on Zoom

Congratulations to Elizabeth Barnes, who won the AAG Biogeography Specialty Group's paper award at the Master's level for her paper, "A Soil Charcoal Record of Fire History from Boone Creek Barrens, Indiana."

Yesterday, we had several grad students, as well as faculty and staff who support them, recognized at the GSS awards brunch! Check out this 🧵 to see all the awards our department received!

Katrina Stack also received an Honorable Mention for the Clyde Woods Graduate Student Paper Award from the Black Geographies Specialty Group for her paper, “Researching and Preserving Resistant Homescapes: The Past and Present of Freedom Houses in the Mississippi Delta."

Congratulations to PhD candidate Katrina Stack, who won the Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov Paper Award from the Cultural Geographies Specialty Group for her paper, “Exhibit Space Activism: The Potential for Using Civil Rights Memory as a Catalyst for Change.”

Congratulations to Madison Moore (front right), who won a research award from the AAG's Paleoenvironmental Change Specialty Group for her proposal, "Untangling the Mystery of the Barrens: Long Term Fire History from Tullahoma, Tennessee."

Congratulations to Luke Blentlinger, who received the Chimborazo Award from the Mountain Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers!

Continuing our recap of #AAG2025 🌎 Dr. Madhuri Sharma organized two sessions on Housing, Assimilation and Economic Mobilities of Immigrants and Minorities.

Last week at AAG, Dr. Madhuri Sharma and Dr. Mikhail Samarin were presented with the the Wrigley-Fairchild Award for their outstanding Geographical Review article, "Rent-burdened in the South? A Neighborhood-scale Analysis of Diversity and Immigrants in Nashville, Tennessee.”

Congratulations to Dr. Changwha Oh on the successful defense of his dissertation, “Spatially Informed Solving Approaches for Spatial Optimization Problems,” on March 31, 2025! Thank you to his dissertation committee members Drs. Shaw, Nagle, Hugh (ISE), and Kim (Chair).

Masters student Jenny Ott presented her research “Campus Social Infrastructures for International Students” at the Global Engagement Summit yesterday! Her work combines mapping and photography to explore international student experiences.

Big congratulations to Micah Ortiz for successfully defending his thesis, “Field of Forgotten Dreams: The Role of Memorial Myopia in Representing Black Baseball History in Birmingham, Alabama." ⚾️

Huge congratulations to Seth Thompson for successfully defending his thesis, "Thermal Conditions in Residential Tents in Knoxville, Tennessee, During Hot and Cold Nights."

Some of our UTK Geography family attended the Southern Appalachian Weather and Climate Workshop over spring break, networking with other meteorologists and climatologists from across the region.

Looking for a course to register for this fall? Check out Dr. Norrell's class GEOG 461 Russia and its Neighbors!

PhD candidate Seth Kannarr, his advisor Dr. Derek Alderman, and alum Jordan Brasher (PhD ‘20) have a new @theconversation.com article, “From Greenland to Fort Bragg, America is caught in a name game where place names become political tools.” Read at the 🔗 below! theconversation.com/from-greenla...

Some UTK Geography & Sustainability grad students @ #AAG2025 🧡🌎 We’ve been having an amazing week of papers, posters, and panels here in Detroit!

Where can you find UTK at #AAG2025 next week? Click the 🔗 below to check out some of the papers, posters, and panels we’re part of at the annual meeting in Detroit starting March 24! www.canva.com/design/DAGhW...

Join us tomorrow for our next colloquium speaker, Dr. Jason Blackburn. We are looking forward to his talk, "Mapping Anthrax: 20 Years of Field Work, Wildlife Wrangling, High Containment Labs, and Road Stories from West Texas to Vietnam." 🗓️ March 13th ⏰ 4:05 PM 📍 WAB M307

Congratulations to the recipients of this year’s Department of Geography & Sustainability Alumni Awards 🌎 ✨ Early Career Award – Danielle McClanahan 🌟 Mid-Career Award – Yang Xu ✨ Lifetime Achievement Award – Jim Speer

Our very own Dr. Kelsey Ellis was recently in the news, discussing the impacts of recent budget cuts on NOAA and the NWS. www.wbir.com/video/news/l...

Join us tomorrow for our 2025 Ralston Speaker, Professor Kathleen Stewart of University of Maryland! 📅 Thursday, February 27, 2025 ⏰Reception 3:30pm, Ralston Lecture 4:05pm 📍 Lindsay Young Auditorium in the Hodges Library