Introduction

Dear Readers,

With the new academic year upon us, we trust that everyone had an enjoyable and productive summer, and hope that you enjoy this issue of the Southeastern Geographer as you begin the sometimes-arduous process of getting settled into the semester.

With the coming of the new academic year, we would like to announce an important change to our editorial staff. Luis Sánchez-Ayala, a faculty member at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, became the first Spanish translator for Southeastern Geographer in 2010. When we took over from the previous editors, Bob Brinkman and Graham Tobin, Luis generously offered to continue to provide this vital service to the journal. Earlier this year, however, an opportunity to conduct extended field work in Ecuador prompted him to step down. We thank Luis for his years of service to the journal and we wish him all the best in his research. Carmen Carracelas-Juncal, a faculty member in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Southern Miss graciously agreed to take over as Spanish translator for the journal and we look forward to working with her over the next year.

For this issue, we are excited to have Sam Miller, of the University of Southern Mississippi, back for his second cover photo, entitled “T-Bone and The Shed.” The photo shows 81-year-old bluesman Tommie “T-Bone” Pruitt performing at The Shed in Ocean Springs, MS. The essay that accompanies it briefly reviews the career of this famous “Piney Woods” bluesman, and explores the link between the Blues and Southern barbeque. What follows are five strong research articles that cover a wide range of topics. The first article, written by Jerry Weitz, explores industrial employment change within the Carolina Piedmont megapolitan area. The second article, by Jacob Sadler and Hilda Kurtz, discusses the challenges and controversy surrounding the Big Spring Mountain wind farm in Ashe County, North Carolina. This is followed by Emily Fekete’s manuscript that uses social media (Foursquare) data to examine consumption trends in the contemporary Southeastern U.S. urban hierarchy. Next, Carroll Courtenay and Todd Look-ingbill use concepts of green infrastructure and tools of connectivity modeling to identify priority locations for a regional trail network in the James River watershed, Virginia. The final article, written by Susan Walcott, looks at Chinese outward foreign direct investment in the three southeastern states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia to test the hypothesis that place-based advantages strongly influence the location choice of foreign firms. These articles are followed by two geographic notes. The first, by Thomas Patterson, is a geographic pattern analysis of North Carolina climate division data (1895–2013). The second note, written by Brian Bossak, Sarah Keihany, Mark Welford, and Ethan Gibney, analyzes hurricane landfall frequency in coastal Georgia using the HURDAT2 dataset. Lastly, we have one book review, written by Samantha Earnest, which critiques Creek Paths and Federal Roads: Indians, Settlers, and Slaves and the Making of the American South by Angela Pulley Hudson. Again, we hope you enjoy this issue of Southeastern Geographer. As always, we encourage you to submit your research articles, cover art ideas, geographical notes, and book reviews for consideration in future issues of the journal. We also welcome your comments, and any suggestions you might have on how we can improve the journal.

Best regards,

Andy Reese and David Cochran