The 2000 Chapel Hill SEDAAG Program Report

Southeastern Geographer Vol. XXXXI, No. 1, May 2001, pp. 157-158 THE 2000 CHAPEL HILL SEDAAG PROGRAM REPORT Ronald L. Mitchelson The Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers (SEDAAG) continues to enjoy a high level of activity, as indicated by participation at its annual meeting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The total of 102 submissions (posters and papers) was about 5% greater than the number of submissions last year at the Tampa meeting. The number of posters, only in their third year of program inclusion, increased from 9 in 1998, to 12 in 1999, and to 17 for the Chapel Hill meeting. This type of opportunity for sharing research results appears to be favorably embraced by SEDAAG's membership. While the number of posters submitted increased, the total number of paper submissions held constant at 85 from the Tampa meeting. The number ofpaper submissions remains substantially less (25%) than the record of 1 14 submissions set at the Memphis meeting in 1998. A substitution probably is in evidence, as the popularity of posters appears to come at the expense of papers, i.e., the proportion ofposters to total submissions to the program has increased from 7% in 1998 to 17% in 2000. When paper authors, poster authors, panelists, session chairs, discussants, committee members, and World Geography Bowl participants were aggregated, 219 program participants are listed. This is above the mean of 200, which has emerged as the norm for meetings over the past six years. In compliance with the SEDAAG decision to limit the number of Student Honors sessions to two, the Honors Committee evaluated eight papers. All eight of these student papers were selected for competition. On a disturbing note, only one undergraduate student submitted a paper for the nonrefereed Gamma Thêta Upsilon session. That paper was included in a regular paper session after being reviewed by the Program Committee and communication with the author/sponsoring faculty member. Please note that student authors and coauthors continue to account for about 30% of total participants. The meeting thus remains a comfortable place for students to share research activities. However, an increasing portion ofthese participants is found in the poster session. The Chapel Hill program was organized into 23 sessions, with five concurrent sessions during much ofthe meeting. The program provided an excellent Southern Studies Session focused on the agricultural geography ofNorth Carolina. Physical geography was again well represented in the program, with four sessions dealing with aspects ofclimate, geomorphology, biogeography, and hazards. Three interesting panel sessions dealt with the future of our disciplinary organizations, the identity of human geography, and issues in Geographic Information Science. Political geographers from within and outside the region assembled in large number to honor Dr. Mitchelson is Professor and Chair ofthe Department ofGeography at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858. Email: MitchelsonR@ mail.ecu.edu. 158RONALD L. MITCHELSON the upcoming retirement of Julian Minghi at South Carolina. Exceptional sessions on "soft" economic geography and cognitive geography were additional program highlights. The World Geography Bowl (WGB) remains a prominent element within the annual program, with continued leadership from Neal Lineback and a large group of over 30 faculty. This year marked the 1 1th WGB event at SEDAAG. A total of 74 undergraduate and graduate students from 21 colleges and universities participated. Students again competed against a Faculty Dream Team as a warm-up to the Championship Round. The Dream Team emerged victorious, thus reversing last year's drubbing in Tampa. The North Carolina team defeated the South Carolina team in the Championship Round. The victorious team included Chassem Anderson, Brendan Blackburn, Andy Dilbert, Lawrence Kimmel, Michelle McHugh, and Jed Santa Maria. The Local Arrangements Committee, headed up by John Florin, provided an excellent field trip opportunity and assured that the full range ofsouthern hospitality was apparent at the historic Carolina Inn. Although an unusually early snowfall inconvenienced a number of travelers to the meeting, the snow provided a beautiful landscape for the visit to Chapel Hill. The annual business meeting and the honors luncheon, which featured keynote speaker Susan Cutter, AAG President, concluded the busy agenda. Susan provided an informative talk, entitled "American Hazardscapes," on the key role that geographers have played...