Editors’ Introduction

This latest issue of Southeastern Geographer continues to showcase the range and dynamism of geographic research relevant to the southeast region. We are delighted to present a special forum on the Geographies of the Presidential Election which brings together voices from across the discipline to offer geographic insight into some of the undercurrents of the 2016 campaign for U.S. President. As with the Southeastern Geographer’s Special Forum on the Charleston Massacre of 2015 (Derickson 2016; Eaves 2016; Inwood and Alderman 2016; Kurtz 2016; McCutcheon 2016; Webster and Leib 2016), we invited geographers known for working in different scholarly “corners” of the discipline to weigh in on a complex field of conditions and events. The result is a textured set of essays that meld historical perspectives with dramaturgy, that counterpoise conventional analytics of electoral geography with innovative uses of social media data, and that draw on a wealth of geographic knowledge and techniques to offer insight into politically somewhat turbulent times. We thank John Agnew, Michael Shin, Fred Shelley, Ashley Hitt, Caroline Nagel, and Jamie Winders for their contributions to this special forum.

In addition to the special forum, this issue contains three full length articles and a full book review section.

Hiscox and Flecher developed a novel online application to document the sugarcane burn emissions to replace the manual smoke mitigation process. They argued that agricultural prescribed burning is one application area where deployment of new technology can make a difference in management practices. Louisiana, one of the sugarcane growing states, does not have a mandatory mitigation program which makes the tool, “Sugarcane Burn Planner”, even more justifiable and hopefully will enhance participation from sugarcane farmers in the state.

Sharma engages with questions raised by the passage of HB 56 in Alabama, one of the strongest pieces of anti-illegal immigration legislation in the U.S. H.B. 56’s wide-ranging “show me your papers” provision led many immigrants to leave the state, and created the possibility that labor needs in some sectors would go unmet. Sharma builds on work that links immigration and/or ethnic diversity with economic growth, to examine the relationships between economic growth and racial/ethnic diversity across the counties of Alabama.

Ravuri explores the possible impact of the “Great Recession” on interstate migration in and out of Florida. While Florida has long been a migrant destination for sunbirds and retirees, the state showed a net loss of 31,000 interstate migrants in 2008–2009. Ravuri uses Internal Revenue Service Migration Files at the county level to explore relationships between change in housing value, and interstate migration.

In short, these articles demonstrate the rich breadth of scholarship that makes contemporary academic geography in the southeast region so exciting. We invite readers to continue submitting their excellent work to the journal. As always, we welcome your feedback.

We conclude here by inviting proposals for themed issues of Southeastern Geographer, particularly in the broad areas of human-environment interactions, weather and climate, spatial ecosystem analysis, crowdsourcing and participatory sensing, and application of new technologies in geographic research. If you would like to organize a special issue, please send a 2-page proposal highlighting the summary, justification, list of specific research area, and potential author names/affiliation (if already known) to segeditors@uga.edu.