Geography on the Banks of the Raritan: A history (1949-2024)

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Geography on the Banks of the Raritan: A history (1949-2024) *

James K. Mitchell Emeritus Professor of Geography

* Prepared April 2025, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Department of Geography, Rutgers University.

TABLE OF CONTENTS (supporting information included in a separate set of appendices)
1. Preamble
2. Historic roots before formal recognition of Geography as a distinct discipline
3. Rutgers Geography Faculty Members
3.1 The Founding Era (1946-1959)
3.1.1 Faculty appointments
3.1.2 Students and their perceptions of Geography in the 1950s
3.1.3 Goals and curriculum during the 1950s 25
3.1.4 Geography at the end of the 1950s 27
3.2 The Sixties (1960-1969): Consolidation and Modest Growth 28
3.2.1 Faculty Appointments 29
3.2.2 Student perspectives 38
3.2.3 Geography at the end of the 1960s 40
3.3 The Seventies (1970-1979): The Great Recruitment 43
3.3.1 Faculty Appointments 44
3.3.2 Geography at the end of the 1970s
3.4 The Eighties (1980-1989): University reorganization 56
3.4.1 Faculty Appointments 57
3.4.2 Geography at the end of the 1980s
3.5 The Nineties (1990-1999): Multiple pressures; new opportunities 63
3.5.1 Reorganization
3.5.2 Information Revolution 83
3.5.3 Postmodernism
3.5.4 Environmental Change 84
3.5.5 Faculty Appointments 67
3.5.6 Geography at the end of the 1990s 71
3.6 The Aughts (2000-2009): Millennial shifts 72
3.6.1 Faculty Appointments 73
3.6.2 Geography at the end of the 2000s 75
3.7 The recent era (2010-2024): A continuing story 78
3.7.1 Faculty Appointments 79
3.7.2 Geography in the recent era 83
4. Students 85
4.1 Ph.D. graduates 86
4.1.1 What subfields and topics did Ph.D. graduates embrace? 87
4.1.2 Careers of Geography Ph.D. graduates 90
4.1.3 Academic careers 91
4.1.4 Non-academic careers 92
4.1.5 Vignettes of Ph.D. graduates 93
4.2 M.A./M.S. graduates 97
4.2.1 Vignettes of Master’s graduates 98
4.3. Bachelor’s graduates 103
4.3.1 Vignettes of Bachelor’s graduates 104
4.3.2 Similarities and differences in careers followed by
The earliest and most recent graduates 109
5. Geography Support Staff 110
6. The Image of Rutgers Geography in the Wider World 117
7. Continuity and Change 126
8. What has been achieved? 130
9. Index of Appendices 135

1. Preamble
This history has been in gestation for at least two decades². It is a personal document that reflects its author’s experience and outlook. I joined the Rutgers Geography community in 1970, twenty-one years after it came into being with the founding of the Rutgers College Department of Geography (1949), and I remained an active member of the faculty until retiring on January 1, 2016. During the intervening years, what was initially a small department mainly teaching New Jersey students in one of Rutgers’ undergraduate colleges, eventually became a much larger community that included teaching and research-oriented geographers in several units, spread across the university, supporting a program of undergraduate and graduate study that attracts students from around the world. Key events of this history are summarized in Appendix 1.

The Rutgers Geography community is a disparate group, and its history is complicated, not least because of the varying trajectories of different units to which geographers have been attached. What was at one time known as the Rutgers College Department of Geography, based on the New Brunswick campus, and now is simply the Rutgers University Department of Geography, receives most attention here because it has contained the largest number of geographers and has the longest unbroken existence - since 1949. For much shorter periods, mostly during the 1970s, there were also two other Departments of Geography, one in the College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers-Newark and the other in Rutgers University’s Livingston College (New Brunswick). Neither currently exists. It is also known that the discipline had a presence on the Rutgers-Camden campus, though details are scarce.³ In addition, many individual geography faculty held positions in non-geography departments, usually teaching undergraduate courses in their respective units and participating in the common university-wide Rutgers Geography Graduate Program.⁴ Finally, scholars trained in other disciplines have affiliated with the Geography Graduate Program. Some of these have been among its mainstays and others have played lesser roles, serving mainly as dissertation advisers or occasional seminar leaders. (Appendices 3, 4 and 16)

The Geography community is comprised of faculty, students, and support staff. Over the years there have been at least: 97 faculty and a dozen or so support staff, as well as 180 Doctoral, 293 Master’s and approximately 950-1000 baccalaureate (B.A./B.S.) degree graduates. (Appendices 2, 18, 22, 36) The number of students enrolled in undergraduate classes, provides an additional indicator of the “reach” of instruction in Geography. In recent years this has been around 2,500 students annually. Over the decades, the number of Rutgers students in higher education who have been exposed to Geography possibly approaches six figures. In other words, the discipline’s “pedagogic footprint” has been very substantial, not including its outreach to a wider public via mass media channels. (Section 6)

² Letter from Ken Mitchell to Art Getis, March 25, 2004 and Department of Geography Minutes, March 25, 2004.
³ In 1964 it was reported that George Blyn was the lone geographer at Camden. See: “News from Geographic Centers: Rutgers – The State University,” The Professional Geographer 16 (2): 51. Blyn taught Economic Geography from 1954-1962 at Villanova University, after which he transferred to Rutgers-Camden as a professor of Economics. < https://www.chadwickmckinney.com/obituaries/George-Blyn/#!/Obituary>
⁴ In New Brunswick campus geographers have been attached to departments of Human Ecology, Environmental Resources, Marine and Coastal Sciences, Planning and Public Policy, and Urban Studies, among others.

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Today it is convenient to divide the faculty into two groups; first, a core of faculty in the Rutgers Department of Geography and, second all the members of the Geography Graduate Program (i.e., core plus other card-carrying geographers as well as those who hold non-Geography degrees but have professional affinities with the work of geographers). Ranks and titles associated with these individuals vary.5 Intra-university personnel transfers add further complications to our history. Sometimes faculty who were hired into one unit later migrated to another. Sometimes research and teaching faculty accepted administrative positions as Deans or Directors of larger university units, thereby largely removing them from regular contact with their disciplinary peers and students, at least for the duration of those appointments. It is likely that records of some people who may have served in faculty roles, especially in short-term appointments, have been lost.6

Of the 97 faculty, fully three-quarters were attached, at some time, to the Department of Geography7. Of the others, groups of five or six occupied positions in the Department of Geography at Livingston College and the Department of Geography at Rutgers-Newark, as well as the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the Cook College Department of Human Ecology. Half a dozen others were affiliated with the Marine Science program, the Department of Environmental Resources, the Department of Africana Studies, the Women’s Studies program or the Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis.

While faculty may be considered the core, students are of co-equal importance. However, records of students are much less extensive than those of faculty. The identities of students who completed Ph.D. degrees are known in detail, and copies of their dissertations are available online for the great majority (and in the Alexander Library for the rest.) The names of many Master’s degree graduates, and the titles of their theses, are also know though the list is incomplete. (Appendix 22) Records of undergraduates who received Bachelor’s degrees are also incomplete. The names of 866 seniors who graduated between 1950 and 2024 are listed in Appendix 36 together with lists of intending majors for 1990 and 1996.
There is incomplete information about members of the support staff who were integral to the operation of the Geography community. The professional and personal lives of most administrators and secretaries of the Geography Department are known in depth and there is also considerable information about the long-time departmental cartographer and several of the technical computing staff. However, there is only sketchy information about staff who served geography faculty attached to other university units.

⁵ In addition to the long-time conventional ranks of Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, and Distinguished Professor, more recently have been added positions designated as Teaching Professorships.
Whereas the conventional ranks include people who were tenured (permanent), or eligible to become tenured, and carry responsibilities for both teaching and research, Teaching professors are usually hired on fixed term contracts without tenure eligibility and do not have mandated research responsibilities. Rank and title details about current and former faculty are noted on the Department of Geography website. < https://geography.rutgers.edu/>)
⁶ For example, three geographers substituted for faculty member John Brush when he was on leave in 1963. They included: Harry Taylor (Glassboro State College); Daniel Jacobson (Montclair State College); and James Wray (Teaneck, New Jersey). See comments about Jacobson by David B. Smith in the Rutgers Oral History Project. < https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/64-text-html/1533-smith-david-b-part-1> More recently, Brandon Johnson, a decision researcher and Ph.D. in geography from Clark University held an adjunct position in Geography and in Human Ecology. <https://www.decisionresearch.org/researchers/branden-johnson> 7 Meaning the original (Rutgers College-based) Department of Geography and its subsequent manifestations as a unit, first of the Faculty of Professional Studies, and thereafter of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Record keeping has been greatly aided in recent years by the development of a Geography website. (< https://geography.rutgers.edu/>) This contains archived details about previous, current, and future activities of individuals and groups as well as about programmatic resources, publications, achievements, and events. Periods covered by these records vary. Most stretch back at least to 2010. Some document events since 2001 (e.g. Newsletters), others from 2003 (MaGrann conferences.)

What follows is based on documentary records, both scholarly and popular, personal experience, the reminiscences of colleagues, curricula vita, social media, and other sources8. By these means it has been possible to construct a timeline of Geography faculty members that serves as a reference base for organizing information about other aspects of the history (Appendix 2). Scattered throughout the text are statements by Rutgers faculty about the character and purpose of geography as an academic discipline in different eras. These illustrate some of the changes in the locus of geographical studies with the passage of time. Much detailed information has been placed in 40 Appendices.
Like all histories of ongoing academic units, this one is incomplete and may always remain a work in progress. But even though it falls short of a full accounting it will hopefully serve the valuable purpose of informing students and faculty where we have come from, and others interested in the roles that Geography and geographers have played in Rutgers and beyond.

⁸ I am indebted to many people for providing information on which this history is based. Among them are the following: John Brush; Guido Weigend; Frederick Nelson; Peter O. Wacker; Bruce Newling; Carissa Pastuch, Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress; Erika Gorder and Joie McIntosh, Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries. University Yearbooks (e.g. The Scarlet Letter) have provided important evidence about majors during the 1950s and members of the Geography Club in that period. I have borrowed shamelessly from several previous summaries and reports, especially the following – the Rutgers Oral History Project; Guido Weigend and John Brush, “A historical sketch of the development of Geography at Rutgers University”, 1969; and my own “50 years of Geography at Rutgers 1949-1999” (both of the latter reproduced in Appendices 14 and 15.) I am especially thankful for the periodic prodding by Michael Siegel, Department of Geography Cartographer, who never let me forget an early promise to produce this history.

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2. Historic roots before formal recognition of Geography as a distinct discipline
It has been more than 75 years since the first professional geographer was hired to teach at Rutgers but geography’s institutional presence at the university has deeper roots. A decade after the founding of the original Queens College (later Rutgers University) in 17669, during the early stages of the Revolutionary War, George Washington advertised for the services of "A good Geographer to Survey the Roads and take Sketches of the Country where the Army is to be
…" (Washington, 1777). The first Geographer and Surveyor General, Robert Erskine (1735-1780), soon recruited Simeon de Witt, the third graduate of Queens College, as his assistant and eventual successor (1780). Some idea of the requisite qualities of geographers at the time can be deduced from guidelines for hiring assistants that Erskine issued to his staff: “…a great part of the ground must be walked over, particularly the Banks of Rivers and Roads. …Young gentlemen of Mathematical Genius, who are acquainted with the principles of Geometry, and who have the taste for drawing would be most proper assistants for a Geographer." In other words, mapping was the geographer’s signature skill, and it was expected that maps would be based on direct, intimate field experience.

After DeWitt became Geographer-in-Chief,10 his responsibilities included preparing topographic maps of areas and routes directly pertinent to the war effort as well as more general map studies of strategic interest.11 He later surveyed much of western New York state, served on the three-person commission that was responsible for the street layout of Manhattan, and was involved in planning the Erie Canal.12 In a volume published to celebrate the Centennial anniversary of Rutgers’ college’s founding it was surmised that the systematic procedures of land subdivision adopted in New York (and later extended in other states) owed much to the “principles of instruction which prevailed at (Rutgers)” during DeWitt’s tenure there.13
While formal recognition of Geography at Rutgers, as a discipline or a discrete academic unit, did not occur until the mid-20th century, during the preceding 150 years some knowledge of physical and regional geography was often required for entrance to the college. For example, in 1779 Geography was included in the Queens College curriculum14; and in 1849 students were expected to take courses in Ancient and Modern Geography during their Freshman year.

⁹ The original colonial colleges included: New College (Harvard University) – 1636; College of William and Mary – 1693; Academy of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania) – 1740; College of New Jersey (Princeton University) – 1746; Kings College (Columbia University) – 1754; College of Rhode Island (Brown University) – 1764; Queens College (Rutgers University) – 1766; Dartmouth College – 1769.
¹⁰ Simeon de Witt (1956-1834): Industrial/Commercial Leader, Albany: New York State Library, New Netherland Institute < https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/dutch_americans/simeon-de-witt>
¹¹ New York Historical Society, < https://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/search?type=dismax&islandora_solr_search_navigation=0&f%5B0%5D=mods_name_creator_contributor_mt%3ADe%5C%20Witt%2C%5C%20Simeon>
¹² DeWitt was not the only New Jerseyan to assume the duties of Geographer of the United States and survey lands on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains. Thomas Hutchins, born in Monmouth County, NJ (1730-1789) was similarly distinguished. https://www.amphilsoc.org/exhibits/nature/hutchins.htm
¹³ Joseph P. Bradley, “Historical Discourse” in The Centennial Celebration of Rutgers College, June 21, 1870. Albany, New York: Joel Munsell. 1870. P. 43. < https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101068984010&view=page&seq=11&q1=geographer>

15 George H. Cook, after whom Cook College is named, was a visionary scientist who pioneered the concept of Land Grant education and mapped many of the natural resources of New Jersey.16 Under his aegis in the academic year 1863-64 the Rutgers Scientific School specified the kinds of geography knowledge that it was intended should be acquired: “Modern geography will also form a subject of examination, especially in regard to the natural divisions of the globe, the zones and their different climates, the principal natural features of the several parts of the globe, as well as the political divisions of the earth’s surface”.17 Certain other kinds of geography instruction were also undertaken at a sister institution, the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. For example, in 1889-91, under the heading Ancient Geography, knowledge about the location and nature of biblical sites in Palestine and other areas of the Eurasian world was part of the theology curriculum at the Seminary.18 Later, in the first half of the 20th century the College also incorporated Geography into extension-style courses for teachers that reached a broader population. One such was “New Materials in Natural Study, General Science and Geography” (1923-24).19 Also Ernest Leon Fisher was Lecturer in Economic Geography in Rutgers College from 1923.

In summary, at various times in the pre-1949 history of Rutgers University it is evident that college administrators wanted to ensure that students should be equipped with knowledge that would likely be recognized by today’s geographers as belonging within their sphere of interests. However, this was disparate learning in search of an organized discipline. Though the role of “geographer” has a long and distinguished intellectual lineage, formal recognition of Geography as a discipline did not begin to emerge in Europe and the USA until the late 19th century when it led to the formation of Geography departments in institutions of higher learning. The creation of a Geography department at Rutgers took longer.

¹⁴ The celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its founding as Queens College, 1755-1916,” Rutgers University 1917, p. 27. < https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ssd?id=mdp.39015076447237;page=ssd;view=plaintext;seq=45;num=27#seq45>

¹⁵ Officers and Students of Rutgers College, 1849-50. New Brunswick, NJ, p. 13.
<https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101063852477&view=page&seq=3&skin=2021&q1=geography>
¹⁶ Cook, George H. 1868. Report of the State Geologist for the year 1867. Trenton.
¹⁷ Report of the Trustees of the Rutgers Scientific School 1865. p. 10.
<https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t9864fx8p&view=page&seq=5&skin=2021&q1=geography>

¹⁸ New Brunswick, N.J., Theological Seminary of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America, Catalogue 1889/90-1890/91.
¹⁹ Rutgers College and the State University of New Jersey, Extension Courses for teachers in English, History, Education, Field Botany, 1923-1924.
<https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t6932sc7v&view=page&seq=11&skin=2021&q1=geography>

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3. Rutgers Geography faculty members
Faculty are the core around which University departments are created. This section provides sketches of all known Geography degree-holding faculty who participated in Geography programs at Rutgers since 1949. Most hires were of recently graduated Ph.Ds. although some were ABD (All But the Dissertation) or held Master’s degrees. Titles of doctoral dissertations are included to indicate the subfields that were being sought by their Rutgers colleagues at the time of hiring. The most detailed accounts pertain to faculty who have long departed, both because they often had formative roles in the evolution of Geography at Rutgers and because they are less well known to today’s geographers. Because faculty that are currently serving in Rutgers are still in the process of creating their legacies, and because activities of recent faculty are better documented in readily accessible sources,20 they have received less space. Additional information about a subset of faculty is contained in Appendix 16 which records information about the intellectual histories of some professors that was gathered by graduate students as a class project, in the Fall of 2000.

Except for the first and last periods, which each cover 13 years, the faculty entries are organized on a decade-by-decade basis. This facilitates discussion of changes in the mix of constraints and opportunities that confronted geographers at different times and illustrates the degree to which they were able to cope with those challenges. The heading name of each faculty member is followed by the years during which the person served at Rutgers. The faculty member’s birth year is included in the text together with the year of his or her death if deceased.

²⁰ See: “People” and “News and Events” sections of Rutgers Geography webpage < https://geography.rutgers.edu/>

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3.1 The Founding era (1946-1959)
The first geographer hired at Rutgers arrived in 1946 and the department achieved independent status in 1949. (Appendices 5,6,7) This was a time of great change in the United States and beyond. World War II had recently ended but its repercussions were still ongoing, especially societal readjustments to civilian life without wartime strictures. Universities were experiencing a period of rapid expansion spurred by the passage of the G.I. Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944). This funneled more than 8 million returning veterans into U.S. higher education during the subsequent decade (1945-1956). At Rutgers University, enrollment rose from 750 in 1945 to 4,200 in September 1947.21 That influx affected the size and composition of the professorate and the structure of universities as well as the student population. The new arrivals brought with them experiences of many different places where they had seen wartime service, new skills, and research techniques, often combined with a quest to make the world a better place by avoiding repeating circumstances that had led to global conflict. The emergence of the United States as a pre-eminent world power, as well as geo-political shifts in colonial territories and developing countries, also fueled a need for graduates knowledgeable about – and able to take on - public responsibilities at home and abroad that were different from those of earlier eras.

This context provided a dynamic and exciting milieu for the new Department of Geography. Isaiah Bowman, Emeritus President of Johns Hopkins University, caught some of this atmosphere in his inaugural 1949 address at the department’s founding, which opened with comments about the great strides then being made toward gaining widespread recognition of Geography’s role in American universities. (Appendix 8)

“In the United States, in the past 50 years, geography has had a development similar to that in Great Britain, until hardly a major university is without a separate department of geography, so insistent is the demand for it on the part of policy makers, educational experts, scholars in other fields of learning that make use of geographical principles and data, and students themselves who seek careers in geography, some of them in academic work and perhaps a larger number … in public service. To an increasing degree it is recognized that training in geography has a scientific disciplinary value as definite and substantial, if not as austere, as training in physics, chemistry, or biology. What the laboratory is to the physicist, the field is to the geographer. (People) who live on the land have made a wide variety of experiments at all stages of cultural advancement and in a wide range of environments. Their results are open to observation and critical analysis and comparison. In addition, planned experiments in resource development have required the use of scientific controls and thus have quickened the pace of sound experimentation. To a corresponding degree the field of geographical interpretation has widened and deepened. A regional synthesis of social life requires an investigator to think all around (the) subject.”22

²¹ “GI Bill passes, June 12, 1944” Rutgers through the years. < https://timeline.rutgers.edu/#event-gi-bill-passes>
²² Isaiah Bowman, “Geographical Interpretation,” Geographical Review 39(3), July 1949, pp. 355-370.

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3.1.1 Faculty appointments
Three faculty members dominate the first period of the Rutgers Geography community: Andrew Clark, Guido Weigend, and John Brush. Clark was instrumental in creating the Department of Geography; Weigend and Brush disproportionately shaped and sustained it after Clark departed. They were aided by a succession of eight or nine others, none of whom remained at the University for more than three years, though several made contributions that resonated through succeeding decades.

1. Andrew Hill Clark (RU: 1946-1951)
“Andy” Clark (b.1911-d.1975) founded the present Rutgers University Department of Geography in 1949 and initiated a broad departmental interest in the human dimensions of the physical environment that endures to this day. Born to medical missionary parents on an Indian Reservation in Manitoba, Canada, he developed environmental sensibilities on the Prairies before moving to Toronto and studying Canadian history. He then went on to receive a Geography Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley under the tutelage of Carl Sauer23, one of North American Geography’s early foundational figures.

A two-year stint in New Zealand, where the landscape was deeply inscribed by human activities, was the basis for Clark’s 1944 doctoral dissertation. Like his earlier investigations of Maritime Canada²⁴, it instilled in him a preference for historically grounded research that involved deep immersion in specific places and relied heavily on empirical field evidence as well as archival material. As with many geographers of the era, Clark’s life and professional contributions were also significantly affected by experiences gathering and interpreting information pertinent to World War II. He and his wife were marooned in Auckland, New Zealand by the start of war in the Pacific and were preparing to be Red Cross volunteers there when they, unexpectedly, found passage on a ship carrying wounded American soldiers, that ran the harrowing gauntlet of a lone unescorted voyage to San Francisco. Later, during the years from 1944-1946, he worked in China and India for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner of today’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Among other things he interviewed Chinese Communist leader Chou En-Lai (Zhou Enlai) on several occasions and witnessed, at first hand, the Communist Party’s rise to power.
When he arrived at Rutgers in 1946 Andy held an Associate Professorship in the Department of Geology²⁵ but felt the need for a separate unit that would put humans at the center of environmental change research. At the time of his promotion to Full Professor in 1949 he had persuaded the University to set up a new Geography Department²⁶, the inaugural address²⁷ for which was written by Isaiah Bowman, Director of the American Geographical Society, President of Johns Hopkins University, and an adviser to President Woodrow Wilson. Bowman also had a significant hand in shaping American foreign policy through his close association with Franklin
D. Roosevelt. (Bowman was later to become the subject of a critical book28 written by a more recent Rutgers-based geographer, Neil Smith).
Clark articulated the purpose of the new department as follows: “to provide a clear and reasoned understanding of the earth’s surface so as to broaden and deepen the education of our general student body.” It was felt that this knowledge would be “particularly important to those who may be planning careers in international affairs, journalism, government service or teaching.” (Appendix 7)

Although Clark’s stay at Rutgers lasted only 5 years (1946-1951) they were highly productive of papers that focused mainly on Canadian and New Zealand geography. During this period his landmark doctoral dissertation was published by Rutgers University Press under the title The Invasion of New Zealand by People, Plants and Animals: The South Island (1949). (It was while reading that volume in the Geography Library at Queens University Belfast that I was initially attracted to this theme for my own studies.)
It is believed by some of his contemporaries that Clark moved on from Rutgers because it did not possess a Geography Graduate Program. By the time he left, for the University of Wisconsin-Madison – where he would establish a “school” of historical geography and mentor an outstanding generation of graduates – the Rutgers Department of Geography was firmly in being with four faculty, including Guido Weigend and John Brush who would consolidate Clark’s foundation and guide the next phase of the department’s growth.
Andy remained at Madison for the rest of his academic life, becoming President of the Association of American Geographers, receiving many honors from the United States and abroad, and a revered figure in the discipline. He died in 1975 at the age of 64. The Andrew Hill Clark prize, awarded annually to the most outstanding Rutgers Geography undergraduate, is a testament to his role in the Rutgers Department of Geography’s history.²⁹

²³ Andrew H. Clark, “The South island of New Zealand: A study of the introduction and modification of British rural patterns and practices associated with some exotic plants and animals,” Ph. D. Dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, 1944.
²⁴ Later published as Three Centuries and the island: A historical geography of settlement and agriculture in Prince Edward Island, Canada (University of Toronto Press, 1959)
²⁵ During Clark’s tenure it became, for a time, the Department of Geography and Geology.
²⁶ The separation occasioned some distress and opposition from the geologists. Source: Film of John Brush, interviewed by Ken Mitchell and Peter Wacker, August 26, 1999.
²⁷ “Geographical Interpretation,” April 6, 1949. Reprinted in Geographical Review 39 (3): 355-370.

²⁸ American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization. (University of California Press, 2003).
²⁹ For more detail see the following: (1) “Andrew Hill Clark’s Contributions to Geography at Rutgers University” https://geography.rutgers.edu/academics/undergraduate-program/prizes-research-stipends/628-prizes-research-stipends; (2) David Ward and Michael Solot. 1992. “Andrew Hill Clark 1911-1975”, in Geographers: Bibliographical Studies, Volume 14. Edited by Geoffrey J. Martin. London: Bloomsbury. 13-26; (3) Michael Roche. 2013. “A.H. Clark’s framing of Geographical Change,” Historical Geography 41 < https://ejournals.unm.edu/index.php/historicalgeography/article/view/3068/html_12>; (4) Donald W. Meinig. 1978. “Prologue: Andrew Hill Clark, historical geographer,” in European Settlement and Development in North America, ed. James R. Gibson (Folkestone: Dawson), 3–26; and (5) David Ward. 1977. “Andrew Hill Clark, 1911-1975,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 67 (1): 145-148. < https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1977.tb01125.x>

Under Clark’s leadership the new Geography department was initiated in 1949 and got off to a healthy start. Initially, there were 11 majors and an undergraduate Geography Club that held bi-weekly meetings attended by up to 65 students.30
Majors were expected to complete a yearlong course in physical geography, a semester of cultural geography, a course on the discipline’s history and philosophy, and a selection of courses about foreign regions. Photographs from that era also show students and faculty “roughing it” in winter field camps under canvas. Appendix 9 details the curricular requirements of 1949-50.

After Clark set up the Department, the University began to recruit other geographers. The initial members were Clark, Frank Keller, William L. Thomas, and a Graduate Assistant called Highley.31 During the 1950s the permanent staff numbered only three or four, but there were several other faculty hires though few remained for more than a year or two. Many, in this first generation, had military-related experience acquired during World War II.

Two of the early appointees became stalwarts of the Geography community at Rutgers who guided the fledgling unit for decades after Clark’s departure in 1951. Guido G. Weigend (b.1922-d.2016) and John E. Brush (b.1919-d.2007) had outsize influence on the shaping of Geography at Rutgers, because of their early arrival, long tenure, and executive leadership roles, as well as their scholarly contributions. Two others, William L. Thomas and William Wallace, made significant short-term contributions during the 1950s before moving on to different institutions. Other brief-duration appointments of this era, that reflected an early commitment to developing expertise in climate studies, included: B. Ross Guest, Iven V. Bennett and David I. Blumenstock. The remaining three, Frank Keller, William Goodwin, and Roberto Lizzaralde left only light imprints on the department before departing for appointments – and in the case of Keller and Lizzaralde new careers - elsewhere. Further details about the roles and contributions of each of these early faculty members follow below in the order of their first appointment date.

2. William LeRoy Thomas (RU 1948-1950)
William L. Thomas (b.1920-d.2002) was a Yale University Ph.D.32 and the second geographer hired at Rutgers. Born in Long Beach, California, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Bill arrived in New Brunswick on or about 1948 and stayed until 1950, during which time he attracted enterprising students to the study of human-environment interactions and reinforced the Department’s focus on that theme.33 His subsequent career included helping to establish another department of Geography, at University of California-Riverside, and Assistant Director at the New York-based Wenner-Gren Foundation where he edited one of the most influential 20th century scholarly books about the increasing impact of humans on the world’s ecosystems - Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth (1956). The noted British geographer L. Dudley Stamp declared that, for that publication alone, the whole world was in his debt.³⁴

³⁰ Data source: “50 years of Geography at Rutgers”, Document compiled in 2000 from faculty contributions to the celebration of the department’s Semicentennial anniversary. A more detailed account of the three initial faculty hires is available in Appendix 15.
³¹ Appendix 9
³² William L. Thomas, “Land, man. And culture in mainland southeast Asia: A study of the significance of the concept of culture for geographic thought, based upon an analysis of the writings on the human geography of southeast Asia by American, British, German, and French scholars,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Yale University, 1955.
³³ The noted anthropologist-geographer Frederick Simoons (1922-2022), who became a widely respected authority on milk as a culturally inflected food, was a Rutgers undergraduate who “discovered” Geography because of contacts with Thomas and Clark. Daniel W. Gade. 1987. “Frederick J. Simoons, Cultural Geographer: Commentary” Journal of Cultural Geography, Vol. 7 (2): 135-141.

3. Guido Gustav Weigend (RU 1949-1976)

With the arrival in 1949 of Guido G. Weigend (b.1920-d.2016) the Geography community at Rutgers acquired a scholar-administrator who was an able successor to Andy Clark and was instrumental in putting the department on a firm footing. Guido (Ph.D. University of Chicago 1944) stayed at Rutgers until 1976. He was a man of dramatic experiences, immense charm, and diverse accomplishments, who could, as reported by Peter Wacker, “look debonaire striding down a corridor in hobnail boots”35. His affinity for loud boots had previously been noted by a fellow student at Chicago who witnessed Guido wearing the garb of an Alpine mountain climber and sounding like an arriving Roman army. Born and raised in Austria, and subject to bring drafted into the German Army as war clouds gathered, Guido made a narrow escape in 1938 ahead of the outbreak of hostilities and followed a circuitous route through Bulgaria, Italy, and North Africa to the USA. Although initially classed as an “enemy alien” he was later recruited to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), because of his intimate knowledge of Nazi Europe, including proficiency in eight languages. He served in that capacity until after the end of the war. His (still secret) work there is believed to have involved clandestine trips behind German lines to gather intelligence about military facilities and map potential landing sites for Allied troops as well as other activities. His wartime experiences influenced his subsequent research and teaching. Transportation of goods and materials was a particular interest. He specialized in the economic geography of ports and harbors as well as the political geography of Europe36 and he put to work his detailed knowledge of aerial photos as research tools in an innovative team-taught multi-disciplinary air photo interpretation course at Rutgers.37 This included study materials from his collection of images of bombed railroad marshalling yards and barge marshaling sites in France that were eventually passed on to this writer in the 1970s.

Weigend was popular as a teacher and an empathetic supportive person. In the words of one Rutgers alumnus “Dr. Weigend was Geography, he was just a great guy!...That’s why I belonged to the Geography Club.”³⁸ Guido’s powers of persuasion were considerable, as testified to by a student who turned down an opportunity to attend Columbia University for graduate study, in favor of staying with the Rutgers geography program.³⁹ He was also committed to public service and “making a difference” in the most positive sense of that term.⁴⁰ As chair of the local branch of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) he advanced the interests of his colleagues while also representing the university as a tireless proponent of State bond issues that would benefit higher education in New Jersey. He led a campaign to secure higher salaries for Rutgers faculty.⁴¹ Guido was particularly imbued with a missionary zeal for geography as a tool for making Americans aware of the world beyond the country’s borders. This made him cognizant of globalization well before the term became widely recognized. His prescience was evident in a piece written in 1952: “The world can’t be separated into isolated units, as it is getting smaller and smaller because of modern means of transportation and communication.
We’ve got to learn to live together and have mutual international understanding.”⁴²

With this outlook it is no surprise that he was an early advocate of the United Nations organization, giving talks to local citizens groups about its purposes and progress. Guido served on the Board of Governors of the Rutgers Preparatory School and on charter commissions of local government. He was also Chair of the University Senate’s Academic Freedom committee which helped pave the way for removing a controversial loyalty oath administered to Rutgers faculty.43 He even ran for public office in Franklin Township, narrowly failing to be elected, and convinced that his German accent had not helped his candidacy. Rising through the University’s academic and administrative ranks to hold the position of Associate Dean of Rutgers College, Guido had expectations of becoming Dean and, when this was not to be, he departed for the Deanship of the College of Liberal Arts at Arizona State University. For further details see: “In memoriam: Guido Weigend”, Association of American Geographers,
<http://news.aag.org/2016/05/in-memoriam-guido-weigend/ >

³⁴ L. Dudley Stamp, Review of Man’s role in changing the face of the earth, by William L. Thomas, Jr. in
Geographical Review 47 (4): 597-600.
³⁵ I can corroborate that stylistic impression, having encountered him on a holiday afternoon rushing from outdoor labors into the office to address a sudden institutional emergency wearing an oil-stained, ragged tee shirt and grimy pants speckled with grease and grass cuttings, as if they were a formal suit.
³⁶ Guido Weigend, “The cultural pattern of the South Tyrol,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1949.
³⁷ This course was initially offered by faculty from the departments of Civil Engineering, Geography, Geology, Agricultural Soils, and Botany. Under the title “Air-photo interpretation” (11:372:371) remained on the books in the Environmental Planning and Geomatics curriculum at Cook College for decades after its inception.
^{<https://catalogs.rutgers.edu/generated/nb-ug_0507/pg21146.html> See also: “Rutgers offers air photo class,” The Daily Home News, December 28, 1953, p.2.}
³⁸ Richard F. Plechner, Rutgers Oral History Project, https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/30-interview-html-text/319-plechner-richard-f-part-1
³⁹ David B. Smith, Rutgers Oral History Project < https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/64-text-html/1533-smith-david-b-part-1
⁴⁰ An early example is a letter to the editor about post-war recovery policy in Germany, published in the Washington
Post, March 23, 1945 while he was still on active military service. < https://www.proquest.com/docview/151761536/fulltextPDF/1D99B59545C147C1PQ/1?accountid=13626>
⁴¹ Guido cited the case of a prospective hire who turned down an offer from Rutgers because he was expected to teach 12 hours a week for $5,774 per year whereas another institution had offered $8,000 for 6 hours per week. Targum, February 10, 1960, p.1.
⁴² “Woeful ignorance of geography discovered among students taking subjects at Rutgers,” The Sunday Times, March 16, 1952, p.8.
⁴³ “Loyalty oath may face court test,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 20, 1966, p.186.

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4. Frank Leuer Keller (RU 1949-1950)
Frank L. Keller (b.1918-d.2009) joined the Rutgers department following receipt of his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1949.44 During WWII, he held the rank of Colonel and oversaw the Latin American Section of U.S. Army Intelligence. He also served as Military Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia and published geography papers on the Bolivian Altiplano45 before switching disciplines to Economics and taking up a permanent post at Tulane University in 1950.46

5. Iven V. Bennett (RU 1950-195?)
Iven Velton Bennett (b.1921-d.2006) came to Rutgers in 195047 after gaining a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Chico State University. He quickly moved on to a climate research post with the Army Quartermaster Research and Engineering Command and later a long-term Geography position with the University of New Mexico.

6. B. Ross Guest (RU 1951-1952)
Following war-time service as a weather observer in Europe with the U.S. Army Air Corps, B. Ross Guest (b. 1920-d.2015) gained a Geography Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 195148 and taught at Rutgers for just one year, later going on to long term service with the U.S. Air Force and the Geography department at Northern Illinois University.49

7. John E. Brush (RU 1951-1984)
When John Brush (b. 1919–d.2007), (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, 1952) was hired in 1951, Rutgers Geography acquired another of its foundational pillars. John was a friend of Guido Weigend’s at the University of Chicago. Although John was cut from a different cloth than Guido Weigend, the two worked together for many years in a mutually beneficial partnership. John was the son of Baptist missionaries who raised him in Kharagpur, Bengal, India and set him on the path to pacifism and, ultimately, the Quaker religion50. He returned to the USA to enter college but left Bucknell University in 1940 to assist in relief work following a major earthquake in Jalisco, Mexico. During World War II he was a conscientious objector who spent several of those years (1943-1946) in alternative service roles, including digging agricultural drainage works in Iowa.⁵¹
John had a lasting love affair with India, especially its mountains. When he left there for undergraduate life at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA he stopped keeping his diary because “…he knew that nothing of equal importance to his life in India could possibly happen in America.”⁵² Intellectually, John was a student of Indian cities and one of the early exponents of quantitative spatial analysis of market locations and urban demography. His expertise in this area was responsible for attracting graduate students from India and Africa to Rutgers. For example, he closely advised Meera Kosambi (1939-2015), a young scholar from Mumbai who spent two years at Rutgers (1982-84), and then returned to India where she became one of the country’s most noted sociologists of urbanism and feminism.⁵³ His work on the spacing of rural service centers as Central Places in the American Midwest was also path- breaking for its era.⁵⁴ Finally, John was a practitioner of aerial photo research and cartographic representation of data. He produced many maps of places abroad and at home. In addition to detailed population and land use maps of India and South Asia that illustrated his professional papers he also produced maps aimed at wider public audiences. These included an historical map of Middlesex County during the Revolutionary War55 and his map of mid-19th century Piscataway Township; both remain important contributions to the historical geography of New Jersey. < https://geography.rutgers.edu/people/in-memorium/details/563-john-e-brush>

Brush served as chair of the Department of Geography on several occasions and showed himself to be an able administrator and an affable, courtly man who was endlessly amused by the antics of students and gentle in his criticisms of those who might not measure up to his expectations. When confronted by such he would usually employ A. A. Milne’s loving characterization of Winnie-the-Pooh as a “bear of little brain”.

⁴⁴ Keller, Frank L. 1949. “Geography of the Lake Titicaca Basin of Bolivia: A comparative study of great landed estates and Highland Indian communities,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Maryland 1949.
⁴⁵ Keller, Frank L. 1950, “Finca Ingavi –A medieval survival on the Bolivian Altiplano,” Economic Geography 26
(1): 37-50; Keller, Frank L. 1953. “Aerial mapping of the Santa Cruz region of Bolivia,” Journal of Geography 52
(7): 299-305.
⁴⁶ Frank Leuer Keller obituary < https://obits.nola.com/us/obituaries/nola/name/frank-keller-obituary?pid=129955398>
⁴⁷ Guido G. Weigend and John E. Brush. 1969. “An historical sketch of the development of Geography at Rutgers University.” Typescript. December 6.
⁴⁸ Buddy R. Guest, “Resource use and associated problems in the upper Cimarron area,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1951.
⁴⁹ Daily Chronicle (DeKalb, Illinois). Online obituary: Buddy R. Guest < https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/daily-chronicle/name/buddy-guest-obituary?id=23215589>
⁵⁰ His brother described John’s high school persona in India as follows: “(He) was a class leader in scholarship and extracurricular activities, including being photo editor of the yearbook The Whispering Pine. His classmates designated him the best student and the most likely to succeed. He was an enthusiastic hiker. As a junior he had been to Jumnotri, the source of the Jumna River at the foot of Bandarpunch Peak…In December he would be staying on to trek to the source of the Ganges River at Gangotri.. with a popular teacher and a classmate. They had a government permit to cross the “Inner Line” barrier set up by the British to keep travelers away from the Tibetan frontier.” Stanley Elwood Brush. 2002. Farewell the Winterline: Memories of a boyhood in India. Santa Rosa, CA: Chipkali Creations, p. 87.

51 Brush op. cit. p. 108.
52 Brush, op. cit. p.111.
53 Meera Kosambi, 1986. Bombay in transition: The growth and social ecology of a colonial city, 1880-1980. Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Stockholm, 204 pp. p. 14. See also: “Reclaiming feminism: The legacy of Meera Kosambi,” Contributions to Indian Sociology 49(2), 2015: 250-254.
54 John E. Brush, “The trade centers of south-western Wisconsin: An analysis of function and location,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1952. John E. Brush, "The Hierarchy of Central Places in Southwestern Wisconsin," Geographical Review, X~III, No. 3, 1953, pp. 380-402; John E. Brush and Howard E. Bracey, "Rural Service Centers in Southwestern Wisconsin and Southern England”, Geographical Review, XLV, October, 1955, pp. 559-69.
55 See “Map tells story of Middlesex County 200 years ago,” The Central New Jersey Home News, December 29, 1976, p. 38.

8. David Irving Blumenstock (RU 1952-1955)
Next came David I. Blumenstock (b.1913- d.1963). Born in Illinois, he was a graduate of both the University of Chicago and the University of California-Berkeley who had a distinguished career as a climatologist in academia and government service.⁵⁶ His dissertation on the statistical definition of drought hazard grew out of an early appointment at the U.S. Soil Conservation Service ⁵⁷. He later applied his skills to practical effect in both the U.S. Navy Reserve and U.S. Army Air Force during and immediately following World War II. Afterwards he brought these interests to Rutgers for a three-year stint as Lecturer in Geography from 1952-55. During this time, he represented the University on one of the early TV appearances by a Rutgers professor ⁵⁸ and served as Interim Chair of the Department of Geography (1952-53). ⁵⁹ He also worked on his magnum opus, The Ocean of Air, later published by Rutgers University Press (1959).⁶⁰ As the eminent Canadian atmospheric scientist Kenneth Hare, said of this volume “one can hardly visualize a college course on climatology whose reading list will leave out The Ocean of Air since it offers much entertaining support to the dry-as-dust texts.”⁶¹ While mourning his untimely death, his memorialists underscored Blumenstock’s broad vision, deep learning and gregarious personality: “He was unscarred and undemeaned by life, generous in all ways, unvexed by self-interest and ambition, eager to know, and willing to share.”⁶²

9. William H. Wallace (RU 1954-1956)
William Huston Wallace (b.1924-d.2004) was born in Chicago and became a member of the Rutgers faculty in 1954 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and spending two years in New Zealand at the University of Auckland where he took a special interest in railways and transportation geography.⁶³ To a degree, Wallace’s early focus on New Zealand (and his later work on colonial settlement and land division practices) paralleled that of Andrew Clark, though Clark had already departed from Rutgers several years before Wallace arrived. Wallace’s work on transportation geography was closer to the interests of Guido Weigend – whose influence he acknowledged when he was an undergraduate at Beloit College ⁶⁴
- but, in any event, his role in the Rutgers program was short-lived – though not before he had established himself as a demanding instructor. Robert Max, an undergraduate from that era, reported getting a (low) grade of 4 or 5 on one occasion: “We went on a field trip to the Delaware Water Gap. It was a great field trip, looking at the stones, and the formations, and what have you. Delaware Water Gap is great for that, and a couple buddies and I made asses of ourselves on the back of the bus, and I guess he (Dr. Wallace) didn't forget that. … (but) I give him credit, I mean the guy was really good, he taught the subject well. I remember a lot of things, and this was as a freshman. Yes, a freshman. So, he was pretty good.”⁶⁵
In 1956 Wallace accepted a post at the University of New Hampshire where he eventually became the founder and long-time chair of the Department of Geography.⁶⁶

10. Roberto Lizzaralde (RU 1957-1958)
Roberto Lizzaralde spent just a single year in the Rutgers Geography department (1957-58) sandwiched between Ph.D. studies at the University of Wisconsin and ethnographic field work in Venezuela. A Uruguayan citizen of French birth, he was trained in Economics and Geography but, after leaving Rutgers, gravitated to cultural anthropology, becoming a pre-eminent leader in the discipline in Venezuela.⁶⁷

11. William Goodwin (RU 1957-1960)
The final recruitment of the 1950s was William Goodwin (Ph.D. Columbia 1957)⁶⁸ He was an Army Air Corps veteran who had served in World War II. After a stint as a part-time instructor, he joined the Department in 1957 as a physical and economic geographer specializing in Anglo-America.⁶⁹ He subsequently transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he remained until 1971 before taking a medical retirement.⁷⁰

56 J. B. Leighly H. H. Aschmann J. J. Parsons C. O. Sauer. 1965. “David Irving Blumenstock, Geography: Berkeley” in In Memorium: University of California. https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb338nb1j4&chunk.id=div00005&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text
57 David I. Blumenstock, “Drought lengths and frequencies in the United States,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, 1943.
58 Central New Jersey Home News, July 29, 1954, p.16.
59 Weigend and Brush, op. cit. 1969.
60 To celebrate the publication, Blumenstock sent the staff at RU Press – including the wife of University President Mason Gross - two dozen leis from Hawaii where he was then based. Central New Jersey Home News, November 12, 1959, p.24.
61 F. Kenneth Hare, 1960. “The Ocean of Air,” Book Review, Geographical Review 50(4): 615-616.
62 C. O. Sauer, “David I. Blumenstock, 1913-1963”, Eclectic Climatology, Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 30, 1968: 9-11.
63 William H. Wallace, “A geography of the New Zealand government railways,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1956.
64 William H. Wallace, Geographers on Film. See: Geoffrey Martin, 2012. Maynard Weston Dow (1929-2011) and “Geographers on film,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 102, Issue 1: 1-4.

65 Robert H. Max, who eventually became a Colonel in the US Air Force. Rutgers Oral History Project,
<https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/30-interview-html-text/404-max-robert-h-part-2
66 William Wallace (Necrology). 2005. AAG Newsletter 40(11): 17.
67 Stephen Beckerman and Roberto Lizzaralde, 2013. The ecology of the Bari: Rainforest Horticulturalists of South America. Austin: University of Texas Press.
68 William Goodwin, “The Middle Passaic Valley: Manufacturing developments in an older economic region,” Ph.D. Columbia University 1957. < https://www.proquest.com/docview/301947897?pq-origsite=primo&accountid=13626>; William Goodwin.1965. “The management center in the United States,” Geographical Review 55 (1): 1-16.
69 The Herald-News, (Passaic) August 8, 1957. P.14.
70 Harold M. Mayer. 1990. “Fifty years of professional geography,” Edited by Lutz Holzner and Jeane M. Knapp. The American Geographical Society Collection of the Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. < https://archive.org/stream/haroldmmayerfift00holz/haroldmmayerfift00holz_djvu.txt>

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3.1.2 Students and their perceptions of Geography in the 1950s
Who were the students who enrolled as majors in the earliest Geography classes? Some of their names and photographs appear in annual editions of The Scarlet Letter, the University’s yearbook. At least 21 have been identified, though there were probably more. Names, home addresses and yearbook class years are shown in the accompanying table.

Identified Geography Majors 1950-1960

STUDENT NAME ADDRESS YEAR
Robert B. Mercready Plainfield, NJ 1950
Alfred Philip Muntz Newfoundland, NJ 1950
Francis John Devaney Butler, NJ 1951
Robert N. McCoy Metuchen, NJ 1951?
Irving (Ira) Pincus Woolfson Plainfield, NJ 1951
Robert T. Freese New Brunswick, NJ 1952
Ralph C. Lutes Metuchen, NJ 1952
William E. Reed New Brunswick, NJ 1952
J. Latourette Highland Park, NJ 1953?
James McLaren Kearny, NJ 1953
Walter A. Nebiker, Jr. Garfield, NJ 1953
Robert Peltz 1954
Raymond S. Honda 1954
Gordon W. Hipko New Brunswick, NJ 1956
Bernard R. Laucius Elizabeth, NJ 1956
R. Bruce Ritter Rahway, NJ 1956
Douglas F. Ungemah 1957
Wayne T. Fish Paulsboro, NJ 1957
Donald A. Kirkwood 1957
Richard M. Tahl Westfield, NJ 1957
Ronald G. Battafarano Teaneck, NJ 1958
William J. E. Bolen 1958
Thomas F. Higgins, Jr. 1958
Robert A. Muller 1958
Steven F. Buckley 1960
Alan A. DeLucia 1960
Andrew R. Kardos 1960
Richard E. Wegryn 1960

These early majors were uniformly twenty-something white males; Rutgers College (home of the Geography Department) did not admit women until 1972. Any women who wanted to pursue higher education at Rutgers would have attended Douglass College (until 1955 the New Jersey College for Women).

Second, the Geography majors appear to have been drawn exclusively from New Jersey communities. There were no out-of-state or overseas home addresses. It is noteworthy that, after graduation, all but one of these alumni followed careers in public service institutions, many in the military, intelligence, or cartographic support agencies. Others took positions with federal agencies that collected and analyzed demographic information or were administrators of international aid organizations. More than a few had been members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) during the college years. Available details about the lives and careers of these early graduates are instructive.

According to his obituary in The Washington Post (January 30, 2000) Robert Mercready followed his Rutgers Geography BA with an MA in Geography from the University of Maryland. This led to a 25-year career at the Defense Intelligence Agency. In retirement he continued as a computer mapping consultant (d. 2000).
After receiving his Rutgers BA, Arthur Philip Muntz graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and served from 1961, as chief of the Cartographic Records Branch, National Archives. His doctoral thesis The Changing geography of the New Jersey Woodlands, 1600-1900 was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1959.

Francis John Devaney was, for many years, employed by the U.S. Census Bureau where he authored several landmark reports and became a widely cited expert on housing.71

Robert N. McCoy (1951). Little information about his career is available although it is possible that he retired with the rank of Major from the U.S. Air Force.
Irving (Ira) P. Woolfson entered the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Center, St. Louis as a cartographer in 1958 and later served as a teacher in his hometown of Plainfield, New Jersey.

Robert T. Freese (1952). While at Rutgers he was a Henry Rutgers Scholar, Business Manager of the Targum newspaper and Secretary-Treasurer of the Geography Club. He wrote a thesis on “The development of geographic patterns in Metuchen, New Jersey: The analysis of the anatomy of a large town” (1952). (d. 2014).

Ralph C. Lutes (1952). President of the Rutgers Geography Club (1952). He was a Henry Rutgers Scholar whose thesis was on the “Historic and Economic Geography of the Raritan Valley in the Eighteenth Century”. In 1955 he was awarded a Master’s (Education) degree from Rutgers and commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Lutes served in Korea and later became Chief Inspector of the Morris County Mosquito Extermination Commission for 34 years. (d. 1991) Daily Record, December 9, 1991 (Morristown)

71 For example, F. John Devaney, Tracking the American Dream – 50 Years of housing history from the Census Bureau: 1940-1990. Current Housing Reports H121/94-1, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington DC. 1994.

Details are lacking, but William E. Reed (1952) appears to have served as Deputy Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between the years of 1968 and 1972.
Walter A. Nebiker, Jr. (1953) made the Dean’s List in 1953 and planned to enter the
U.S. Navy as an Ensign from Rutgers ROTC. His long letter to the Editor of the (Passaic) Herald News (27 February 1957, p.14) displays the influence of his Geography education. It protested the over industrialization of the Jersey Meadows. Excerpts follow:
“To one who has studied Geography and has taken courses on natural history, both in the class and in the field, the Meadows represent a page out of our geologic past, a time when ice sheets advanced, retreated, and readvanced over this area scouring the tops of the nearby hills and depositing their load of sand, silt and other materials in a broad hollow several hundred feet deep to create the low-lying meadowlands that now form an important ecological community….I would request that planners, now and in the future, use discretion in the parceling of land, to ensure that at least some vestiges of the former natural environment remain and that the esthetic value of the land be taken into consideration along with the material value.”

Robert Peltz (1954). Joined the U.S. Air Force as an officer from the ROTC and served 28 years (on active service and the reserves), retiring with the rank of Lt. Colonel.72 Thereafter he worked in the Bay Area of California at Crocker Bank and taught in San Francisco City College.

Gordon W. Hipko (1956) enlisted in the U.S. Army 1957-1961 and served in Korea as an Intelligence officer. Subsequently he worked for the U.S. Post Office in New Jersey and Vermont and obtained his MA from Plattsburg State University.
Bernard R. Laucius (1956) worked in electrical engineering and was a Scout Master of Troop 89 in Kendall Park.
R. Bruce Ritter (1956) became Director of Placement at the University of Maryland.

Douglas F. Ungemah (1957). Received graduate education at Catholic University in Washington DC. and was employed at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) until retirement in 1990. (d.1995).

72 Excerpt from letter by Robert Peltz to James K. Mitchell, dated July 19, 2004: “I believe all my courses were given by Dr. Weigend, the chair, or John Brush. As I was selling shoes for A.S. Beck on George Street on Thursdays and Saturdays, the department was most flexible in allowing me to accomplish various course projects at other times – especially in my cartography class. At Rutgers I was in Advanced Air Force ROTC as I wanted to fly, and I entered the Air Force in September. 1954, to go to navigation school in Houston, Texas. I received my wings in September 1955 and was stationed for two years at Hamilton Air Force Base. 20 miles north of San Francisco, where I taught navigation to Air Force Reserve navigators on weekends. I spent another eighteen years as an Air Force Reserve navigator, flying from Travis Air Force base to Vietnam, Japan and all over the Pacific, during the war. … So, you can see, my education at Rutgers helped me pursue three careers (in sales, military and banking) which I enjoyed immensely.”

There are few testimonies about Geography from the student’s perspective during the 1950s but those that are available suggest the coursework was often judged to be unexpectedly demanding for people accustomed to notions that college level geography would be an easy option. In the words of Ray Burson, a 1958 graduate who made a career with the U.S. Information Agency (USIA):

“(I thought) Geography, that's good. I can handle that. I've lived around, you know, been here, been there, world's round." So, I signed up and I went into the first class and the professor was an old European guy who was big on Karst topography from Europe, and he said, "I know a lot of you are here just because you think that this is going to be an easy course, but it's not." So, the first thing they did was send us out to survey stuff, and I was sent out to Buccleuch Park, where I was running cross-country. I should have known what the hills were. I couldn't read a map. I couldn't read these contour lines. They meant nothing to me Are they up? Are they down? I had to get some help, and I squeezed by.
...Rutgers was a demanding school. I mean, you had to do the work and you had to read a lot of stuff and ... you had blue book exams at the end of the year.”73

73 Ray H. Burson, Rutgers Oral History Project <https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/30-interview-html-text/670-burson-ray-h>

3.1.3 Goals and Curriculum during the 1950s
The role that was initially envisaged for institutionalizing geography as a formal department at Rutgers was modest. It was conceived as a service unit primarily offering courses in geography for students in other fields (e.g. liberal arts, business administration, engineering).74 However, it was also able to offer a Geography major, which became the building block for future expansion.75

Towards the end of the Department’s first decade the Chair, Guido Weigend, published a rationale for studying Geography:

“(Geography) is the study of people, man-made features, and natural elements, as they exist together in any given area. Thus, by analyzing the interrelationship of these factors for an area (the geographer) is attempting to discover and interpret the character and personality of that area.” 76

This statement reflects an explicit commitment to a regional study interpretation of the discipline, focused on processes of areal differentiation that produced distinctively different places, a then widely accepted notion throughout the field of Geography, that was articulated by Richard Hartshorne among other disciplinary scholars.77
Weigend specified the undergraduate curriculum of this era in some detail:

“First, our majors are given a thorough elementary background in physical and cultural geography. The former, a one-year laboratory course, provides an understanding of the nature of our physical world such as distribution and significance of weather, types of climate, and landforms. The basic cultural geography sequence emphasizes the distribution, ethnic character and livelihood of the inhabitants of major cultural areas of the world as, for example, the “Oriental World,” the “Dry World,” or the “Anglo-American World.” These two sequences are taken by many students from other departments. In this connection, it has been our objective to familiarize the students with the world geographic patterns sufficiently so as to enable them to interpret intelligently certain aspects of national and international affairs.
The academic work of our majors beyond the basic courses includes specialized systematic and regional geography courses, as well as work in the social studies and sciences. “Systematic” courses are those in which the areal differentiation of the earth’s surface is studied in a number of different contexts: economic activities, political organization, settlement, transportation, and so on. “Regional” courses concentrate the

74 Appendix 6
75 “Rutgers sets up Geography department,” The Sunday News, May 8, 1949, p. 28.
76 Guido G, Weigend. 1958. “Geography at Rutgers,” Rutgers Alumni Monthly, May.
77 Richard Hartshorne, 1939. “The nature of Geography: A critical survey of current thought in light of the past,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 29 (3): 173-412. Richard Hartshorne, 1959. Perspective on the nature of Geography, Association of American Geographers Monograph Series Number 1. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.

student’s attention on particular segments of the earth’s surface as, for example, Anglo-America, the Soviet Union, and South Asia. In all these courses, our students are building a background for what we have been calling world-mindedness. Finally, in order to give them as solid a grounding as possible, the students are also required to take a year of social study over and above the two years required by the College of Arts and Sciences, one year of meteorology, and one year of geology. For those who wish to narrow their specialization, we have worked out a joint program with the City and Regional Planning Department of the College of Engineering.” (Weigend op cit. 1958)
Although the emphasis was on teaching undergraduate students, graduate Geography courses made their first appearance in 1956 and the first graduate degree was conferred in 1958. (Appendix 10) The recipient, John Rickert, wrote an M.A. thesis on “Urbanization in Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey” and went on to gain a Geography Ph.D. from Clark University. Later he held faculty posts at Kent State University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Stockton State College.78 At least two more Master’s degrees were awarded by the end of the decade.

78 Obituary for John Earl Rickert, Verona-Cedar Grove Times, March 12, 1981, p.6. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120036913/obituary-for-john-earl-rickert/

3.1.4 Geography at the end of the 1950s
In summary, the first decade of Rutgers Geography saw the successful creation of a “…small but enthusiastic department”79 (3-4 person) and a high level of personnel turnover. By 1960 several of the emphases that have long characterized the study of Geography at Rutgers had already emerged. In addition to a basic commitment to the study of human-environment relationships and the use of cartographic methods, there was an early effort to bring onboard a climate specialist, though staffing this position proved frustrating because of faculty turnovers.
Even more important in the long run, but less explicitly recognized at the time, was an affinity for the integration of geographic knowledge. In contrast to then prevailing trends toward greater fragmentation and specialization that affected many of the contemporary physical and natural sciences, Rutgers geographers strove to bring together knowledge from diverse sources in pursuit of broader and more inclusive explanations of physical and social phenomena. The urge toward synthesis is today more prevalent in scholarly inquiry across much of academia and Geographers can perhaps claim some degree of prescience by being ahead of their time in this regard.

79 Quoted from an obituary of Clark written by Chelsea Morse, Valparaiso University, p. 495.

3.2 The Sixties (1960-1969): Consolidation and Modest Growth
The second decade opened with a spate of recruitments that brought to Rutgers a group of new young faculty trained at two of the best Geography Ph.D. programs in the country (Universities of Chicago and Wisconsin). They were also faculty who had little direct experience of World War II and had the potential to chart new disciplinary paths. However, international conflict was still a topic on the national agenda because their time at Rutgers coincided with the Cuban Missile crisis (1962) when fears of nuclear war came to the fore80. Unfortunately, for the stability of the Rutgers program, this initial batch of faculty came and went within four years.

80 Two of the new faculty (Marcus, Kolars) were among 67 Rutgers faculty who signed a petition urging President Kennedy to build shelters in preparation for nuclear fallout. The Home News, February 8, 1962, p.18.

3.2.1 Faculty Appointments
12. Harry Roy Merrens (RU 1960-1961)
H. Roy Merrens (b.1931–) was the first hire of the 1960s. He was a historical geographer educated at University College London, the University of Maryland, and the University of Wisconsin under the tutelage of Andy Clark, the Rutgers’ department’s founder.81 Merrens stayed for just one year (1960-1961), later becoming a noted Canada-based expert on the colonial era of the Southeastern USA and Canada.

13. William Warntz (RU 1961-1962)

William Warntz (b.1922-d.1988), “a pioneer in mathematical approaches to spatial analysis,” taught a course at Rutgers while he lived in Princeton and served as a Research Associate at the American Geographical Society in New York.82

14. Melvin Gerald Marcus (RU 1961-1964)
15. Ann Evans Larimore (RU 1961-1964)
16. John Francis Kolars (RU 1961-1964)

As Roy Merrens was leaving Rutgers, a trio of young graduates from the University of Chicago’s nation-leading Geography program arrived. (Appendix 11) These three faculty are treated together because not only did they arrive at the same time, but they were also trained at the same university, addressed closely related research topics, and departed simultaneously, for similar reasons, to the same institution. They also taught at a time of great international tension. Together with Weigend and Brush these three increased the total complement of geographers to five, including the first woman faculty member (Larimore). Four of them staffed the Department of Geography at the New Brunswick campus, with Larimore teaching geography in a different unit at Rutgers-Newark.

Mel Marcus (b. 1929-d.1997), an energetic, talented and imposing 6’6” fireball, who graduated from the University of Chicago in 196383, was offered an instructorship at Rutgers at the grand sum of $5,000 per year. There he revamped the physical geography sequence, making it more scientific, and worked feverishly to write his dissertation. One Rutgers student remembered him as “a terrific professor” who “made things come alive.”84 Another student who took a class with Mel recalled him predicting that houses built on New Jersey’s barrier islands would be swept away in a future storm, a prediction that came true in 2012 when Hurricane Sandy devastated many such places.85

81 H. Roy Merrens, “The changing geography of the colony of North Carolina during the eighteenth century,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1962.
82 Donald G. Janelle, “In Memoriam: William Warntz, 1922-1988,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87(4), 1997: 723-731.
83 Melvin G. Marcus, “Climate-Glacier studies in the Juneau Ice Field Region, Alaska,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1963.
84 Roger H. Kirschen, Rutgers Oral History Project. (June 16, 2005) < https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/64-text-html/1666-kirschen-roger-h>
85 Gene Lyons, “Snowbirds, hurricanes keep coming to Florida,” West Hawaii Today, October 7, 2022, p.A6.

As recounted in a memorial to Marcus “…Guido Weigend, then chair of the Rutgers Geography Department, recalls Mel lugging heavy boxes of computer cards, then the medium for digital data, around the department after long nights in the computer center. Computer time was rationed by the University, and new faculty members were allocated times between 2:00 am and 4:00 am. In the aftermath of a gigantic winter snowstorm that shut down most of the state of New Jersey, Mel skied to work fifteen miles over empty roads to meet his class. Nobody showed up—a fact he never let his students forget.” 86

An Air Force pilot veteran from the Korean War, Mel had a particularly distinguished career thereafter, becoming not just a globally prominent scholar of glacier geomorphology and climatology but also President of the Association of American Geographers. When Marcus moved to Arizona State University in 1974 he was joined there by Guido Weigend, reuniting the two men who had been colleagues at Rutgers over a decade earlier.87

John Kolars (b. 1929-d.2014) and Ann Larimore’s (b. 1931-) areas of study seemed to follow in the paths of their Rutgers predecessors insofar as they were both students of the Society-Environment Interaction tradition of the discipline. Kolars became a specialist in water management in the Middle East88 and Larimore focused on ethnic and gender dimensions of human adjustments to environment in Turkey and other regions89.
In a collective blow, during 1964 all three (Marcus, Kolars, Larimore) – together with several Rutgers students - were spirited away to positions at the University of Michigan. Guido Weigend was later overheard at a Geography conference bitterly remarking that the Michigan Department of Geography had grown at Rutgers’ expense when it secured all three of his colleagues’ “scalps”.90 In later years the loss continued to rankle as a missed opportunity because Marcus, Kolars, and Larimore (the latter pair at that time, a husband and wife team) quickly became tenured faculty at what was then a nationally prominent Geography institution (U. of Michigan).

Despite the setback of losing three promising members, the next few years saw further growth in Rutgers faculty numbers. Several of these new hires became tenured and stayed in New Brunswick for the rest of their careers, making strong imprints on the program that were discernable for decades thereafter.

86 William Graf, Patricia Gober and Anthony J. Brazel. 2001. “In memoriam: Melvin G. Marcus (1929-1997)”
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 91(4): 724-733.
87 Mel Marcus died while leading a geography field class 11,000 feet up in the Colorado Rockies.
88 John F. Kolars, “Tradition, season and change in a Turkish village,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1963.
89 Ann E. Larimore, “The alien town: Patterns of settlement in Busaga, Uganda – An essay in cultural geography,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1958.
90 I am indebted to Frederick Nelson, former Rutgers faculty member and recently retired from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for this anecdote. (Email April 4, 2022). The precise quote is: “look at Nystuen standing there with the scalps of our people on his belt”. The reference is to John Nystuen who was then Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Michigan.

17. Arthur M. Getis (RU 1963-1977)
Next came Arthur Getis (b.1934-d.2022), a “gentle and generous spirit” who was one of the quantitively sophisticated group of students who gathered at the University of Washington to study with William Garrison the luminary pioneer of Geography’s “Quantitative Revolution” in the 1950s and early 1960s.91 In a new departure from prevailing approaches to urban and economic geography that had been grounded in observational evidence gathered from fieldwork, Getis ignited student interest in quantitative analyses that were derived from abstract scientific theories about spatial behavior92. Employing this perspective, he became a prolific producer of Ph.Ds. during his 14 years at Rutgers (1963-1977). Together with his wife Judy, another Geography graduate from the University of Washington, who briefly taught cartography at Rutgers93, Art also authored a widely adopted text for Introductory college Geography courses, among other books aimed at a broad disciplinary audience. During Art’s tenure he was instrumental in bringing geographers specializing in locational analysis from other universities in the United Kingdom and the USA to Rutgers on visiting appointments (e.g. Allan Frey, Barry Garner, Howard Gautier) and for lobbying on behalf of major changes to the Geography curriculum. When I arrived at Rutgers I found that Art had created a definite “buzz” that made the second floor of the DeWitt House an exciting place to be. After Art departed from Rutgers he held leadership posts at the University of Illinois and San Diego State University, receiving accolades from the Regional Science Association for his seminal contributions to spatial analysis, including creation of the Getis-Ord family of spatial statistics.94

18. Peter Oscar Wacker (RU 1964-2003)

In the years after Andrew Clark’s departure there were several efforts to recruit a replacement historical geographer, but it was not until 1964 that these bore permanent fruit. Peter
O. Wacker (b.1937-d.2020) was a New Jersey born son of immigrants who received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University under the guidance of Fred Kniffen, an outstanding scholar of vernacular house types95. Pete’s work on the historical geography of New Jersey appeared in several books and together with the Rutgers historian Maxine Laurie he co-edited the landmark Atlas of New Jersey which remains the source of record for scholarly cartographic investigations into the changing physical and cultural landscape of the state since ancient times.96 A publicly honored figure in the New Jersey’s community of historic preservationists he was also an avid student of numismatics. Geographers in Lucy Stone Hall benefitted from his gardening talents, especially in the form of produce brought from home in the summer and freely available to all comers. In addition, he found time to take on the burden of chairing the Federated Department of

91 Obituary: Arthur Getis. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/san-diego-ca/arthur-getis-10752410; see also Regional Science Association Newsletter, November 2012, <https://regionalscience.org/index.php/about-us/sections/item/2241-arthur-getis.html>
92 Arthur Getis, “A theoretical and empirical inquiry into the spatial structure of retail activities,” Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Washington, 1961.
93 Judy Getis (Necrology). 2010. AAG Newsletter 45(9): 22.
94 Andy Mitchell, The ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis, Vol. 2 (1 ed.), 2005.
95 Peter O. Wacker, “Forest, forge, and farm: An historical geography of the Musconetcong Valley, New Jersey,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1966.
96 The third contributor to this effort was Michael Siegel, the Geography department’s staff cartographer who was responsible for many original maps in that volume.

Geography, a unit that brought together Geographers from all the Rutgers colleges but never succeeded in melding them into a coherent body before it was followed by another short-lived multidepartment unit. This was the New Brunswick Department of Environmental Studies – that included the departments of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Resources in an experiment that was part of the University’s 1980s campaign to streamline administration. Peter performed a similar role when the Geography department was, for a time, a unit of the School of Urban and Regional Policy.

A New Jerseyan through and through, he was never happier than when informing listeners about the evolution of the state’s underappreciated, and fascinating landscape. In this respect he became a valued guide to many a new faculty member from out of state. He also had a well-developed sense of humor and delighted in telling this writer about a certain University President at a neighboring lunch table who remained diplomatically deaf to the overheard fulminations of an irate Geography faculty member who was unaware of the President’s presence. Well into retirement Pete’s sense of humor was often displayed via newspaper cartoons attached to his office door. He was the historical conscience of Geography at Rutgers and his chief regret was that relatively few undergraduate students seemed to be interested in more than a passing acquaintance with historical geography. When he retired, historical geography ceased to be a headline specialism at Rutgers. For further details see his obituary at < https://www.mycentraljersey.com/obituaries/asb239460>
19. Robert Albert Muller (RU 1964-1968)
Robert Muller (b.1928-d.2020) was the first alumnus of the Rutgers Geography program to join the faculty on a full-time basis. Bob was a climatologist who gained his Bachelor’s in Geography (1958) at Rutgers and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 1962.97 Thereafter he served for a time in a joint position between the University of California-Berkeley and the U.S. Forest Service before being hired at Rutgers in 1964. His research focused on water-budget climatology models applied to floods and droughts.

As recalled by one student in New Brunswick he developed a reputation for keeping noses to the grindstone. “He used to be very strict, and the guys were always pulling gags on him. He was up on the podium, and he used to pull these maps down and start lecturing…. One time the students planted a Playboy centerfold in his map. He found the centerfold when he pulled (the map) down, and he jumped off the stage (and demanded) Who did this?.”98 Thereafter he must have mellowed for he became a well-loved mentor and strong positive influence. Bob Muller stayed for four years and then moved on to other positions, eventually spending the bulk of his career at Louisiana State University. There he went on to found and

97 Robert A. Muller, “The effects of farm abandonment on water yield on the Allegheny Plateau, New York,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Syracuse University 1962.

98 Report by Robert Faszczewski, Rutgers Oral History Project. https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/64-text-html/2269-faszczewski-robert

direct the Southern Regional Climate Center, an internationally important center of climate data and information.

20. Jacqueline Laura Beyer (RU 1964-1969)

Jacqueline (Jackie) Beyer (b.1924-d.2008) was educated in the distinctive approaches to environmental geography that were pioneered at the University of Chicago under the leadership of Gilbert F. White.99 Before attending graduate school, during World War II, she ran a photography lab for the U.S. Army Security Agency in Arlington Hall, Virginia working on experimental processing techniques that helped break Japanese military codes.100 Following her Ph.D. graduation in 1957 she taught at several universities in the United States and South Africa before joining the Rutgers faculty in 1964. She was variously affiliated with the Department of Geography at Rutgers-Newark, the Department of Geography at Rutgers-New Brunswick and the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (now Cook College) at Rutgers-New Brunswick. She also prepared the Geography syllabus for a newly formed Geography department at Rutgers Livingston College. Jackie helped develop courses in natural resource management and immersed herself in local field research on public policy problems. A strong supporter of women in Geography and Gay Rights, she later moved to Colorado Springs (1969) and helped found the Department of Geography at that University of Colorado campus. Her departure from Rutgers prompted a search for a replacement that eventually resulted in my appointment. (I also inherited a storied piece of her household furniture.)

21. Bruce Edgar Newling (RU 1965-1967)
Bruce Newling was an Instructor in the Department of Geography between 1965 and 1967. Born and raised in England, he gained his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1962, specializing in quantitative economic geography101. He later held a position in the Economics Department at City College in New York102 but continued to live in New Brunswick not far from the Rutgers department. This put him in a position from which he could observe later developments. Thereafter he immersed himself in community life and has become noteworthy for jousting with government agencies, writing letters to the New York Times,103 publishing poetry and getting involved in local politics, including running for the position of Mayor of New Brunswick.

99 Jacquelyn L. Beyer, “Integration of grazing and crop agriculture: Resources management problems in the Uncompahgre Valley irrigation project,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1957.
100Allan Bérubé, “Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two” https://tinyurl.com/2p9ujhux; also Military LGBT Pride, March 16, 2022. < https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilitaryLGBTPrideMonth/posts/3343087429259054/>
101 Bruce E. Newling, “The growth and spatial structure of Kingston, Jamaica,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Northwestern University, 1962.
102 Where he was known for “natty rep ties, precise bearing and Masterpiece Theater tastes”. William McGowan, “The battle for City University,” Lingua Franca, January/February 1993, cover story.
103 Bruce E. Newling, “I wish would run”, Opinion, Letters to the New York Times, October 7, 2023.

22. Frank S. Kelland (RU 1967-1970?)
In his High School Yearbook, Frank Kelland (b.1929-d.1995) said he wanted to teach Latin American history after college104. But he received a Geography M.A. from Clark University in 1954 and specialized in cartography. Thereafter he secured a position at Montclair State College that also involved teaching cartography at Rutgers.105 He was already teaching at Montclair in 1961106 but the dates of his appointment at Rutgers-New Brunswick are not clear. His name as a Rutgers faculty member appeared in the AAG Directory between 1967 and 1970.
23. Robert Marshall Hordon (RU 1967-2009)

Physical Geography has always been considered an essential component of the discipline at Rutgers and physical geographers have featured prominently among the faculty. After the departure of Mel Marcus in 1964, three years elapsed before another physical geographer was hired. Robert M. Hordon (b.1936-d.2018) served as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy (1959-1962) before gaining his Ph.D. at Columbia University, working with the noted field geomorphologist Arthur Strahler107. Bob was a specialist in water resources and a professionally certified hydrologist who chaired the New Jersey section of the American Water Resources Association and advised state and local water organizations on practical management and policy problems.
For many years he took the lead in teaching a two semester “Introduction to Physical Geography” course whose enrollments were usually measured in the hundreds and was disappointed when the department developed “Transforming the Global Environment” a new course that bridged Physical and Human Geography and reduced “Introduction to Physical Geography” to a single semester offering. He was also a strong proponent of mapping as an essential geography skill and taught a course on Map Interpretation that drew students from across the University. Bob was particularly keen to make sure that his students understood where the water they drank came from and what was entailed in its treatment. An unflagging champion of public water supplies he railed against the sale of commercially touted plastic water bottles judging that their contents were, at best, no safer than what came out of household faucets and many times more expensive. As he said about the outrageous cost of bottled water: “maybe we should think of training some of our majors to become "water sommeliers" at fashionable restaurants if market conditions continue in this fashion."108
24. Barry J. Garner (RU 1967)

Barry Garner is an urban economic geographer who spent a year at Rutgers (1967) as a visiting professor while on leave from Bristol University and helped develop the quantitative analytic approach fostered by Arthur Getis in New Brunswick. He had earlier come to the United States as a Fulbright student from Britain and expressed a wish to remain but could not do so

104 Keane High School (New Hampshire) Yearbook 1947, p. 41.
105 P.7, The Monadnock, Volume 40, Clark University Geography Society, June 1966.
106La Campana, 1961. Montclair State College. p. 29.
<https://archive.org/stream/lacampana1961mont/lacampana1961mont_djvu.txt>
107 Robert M. Hordon, “A graph-theoretical analysis of the water transfer networks of the New York Metropolitan region,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1970.
108 Geography News 2004, p.3.

because of Fulbright regulations that required him to return to his native country. He later moved to Australia and became a professor at the University of New South Wales specializing in Geographic Information Systems.
25. Osa Elizabeth Brand (nee Lindberg) (RU Fall 1967)

Osa Lindberg (b. 1940-) was a graduate of Barnard College who held a temporary teaching appointment for one semester at Rutgers. She later completed a Ph.D. in economic geography at Columbia University109 and held several university positions before becoming a long-time staff professional with the Association of American Geographers and the National Council for Geographic Education.

26. George Warren Carey (RU 1968-199?)

George W. Carey (b.1917-d.2012) gained a Ph.D. in geography from Columbia University110 after serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1944-1946. (Thereby he may have been the last faculty member with personal experience of World War II.) He came to Rutgers in 1968 as part of the recruitment of faculty for the newly established Livingston College, a unit that was intended to have an explicit focus on urban areas, their populations, and problems.111 He laid out the rationale for inclusion of a Geography department in Livingston and served as the department’s Chair for a time. (Appendix 13) Drawing on his ethnic heritage he was immensely proud of a copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic that was displayed in his office.
A strong advocate of teaching as a primary faculty responsibility, his academic engagement was not restricted to Geography. He later served as Chair of the Division of Urban Studies and then as Acting Dean of Livingston College (1973-1974) retiring from the University in the 1990s.

27. Harry Lewis Margulis (RU 1967-1975?)

Harry Margulis (b. 1938-d.2023) was a student of urban geography who studied under the direction of Arthur Getis. According to his colleague Ralph Caprio, Harry was already a member of the Rutgers-Newark faculty in 1967. He subsequently graduated from the doctoral program at Rutgers in 1973.112 Harry held a series of posts in the departments of Geography and Urban Studies at Rutgers-Newark until the late 1970s. Thereafter he moved to Cleveland State University where he spent the next 31 years.

109 Osa E. Brand, “The availability of timber as a locational factor in the Swedish iron industry prior to 1800,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1974.
110 George Warren Carey, “The application of vectors and correlation analysis to the study of the urban economic geography of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico,” Educat. D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1964.
111Paul G. E. Clemens and Carla Yanni. 1987. “The early years of Livingston College 1964-1973: Revisiting the ‘College of Good Intentions’”, The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 6 (2): 71-114. < https://jrul.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/jrul/article/download/1987/3393>
112 Harry L. Margulis, “Consumer perception and the intra-urban journey to shop: A case study in Newark, New Jersey,” Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University, 1973.

28. Neils West (RU 1967?-)
Neils West (b.1937- d. 2014) was born in Denmark and was a Rutgers Ph.D. who served on the faculty of the Geography Department at Rutgers-Newark for an indefinite period. Most of his career was as a professor in the Marine Affairs program at the University of Rhode Island. He was a specialist in marine geography who loved sailing and indulged his passion in and around Narragansett Bay.

29. Allan Frey (RU 1968) Note: Not to be confused with Alan Frei, Rutgers Geography Ph.D. alumnus 1997.

Allan Frey was a long-time (1952-1987) member of the Geography department at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom113 who spent a semester at Rutgers in 1967-68 at the invitation of Arthur Getis. He was educated at the University of Washington under the tutelage of William Garrison, a leader in the 1960s movement to remake the discipline as a spatial science.

30. Jerry P. Schofer (RU 1969-2001)

Jerry Schofer was appointed as a Lecturer in the Rutgers-New Brunswick Department of Geography and became an Assistant Professor after receiving his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 1971114. In the Fall of 1974, he transferred to the Geography Department at Rutgers-Newark and remained there until it was reorganized into the Urban Studies department and subsequently became the Department of Public Administration, from which he retired in 2001. While in the Geography departments Jerry specialized in computer cartography and associated statistical procedures. These were skills much in demand by many disciplines and public agencies and he was kept busy meeting external calls for assistance. For example, he “…personally served as a consultant or advisor for three university computer centers, fourteen academic departments (including geology, engineering, anthropology, forestry, resource management, architecture, urban planning, geography, education, biology and public health), three state agencies, three city government agencies and five private corporations.”115 Jerry was also an inveterate globetrotter, never happier than when submerged in foreign cultures, including six months spent taking his family on an extended round-the-world excursion.116

During his 32 years at Rutgers Jerry taught a wide variety of courses including Introduction to Geography, Cultural Geography, Economic Geography, Latin American Geography,

113 Peter Haggett, A. G. Hoare and Kelvyn Jones, “Geography at Bristol: An historical account of the School of Geographical Sciences,” prepared for the University’s Centenary Celebrations in 2009, University of Bristol. < https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256802439_Geography_at_Bristol_An_Historical_Account_of_the_Schoo l_of_Geographical_Sciences_Prepared_for_the_University%27s_Centenary_Celebrations_in_2009>
114 Jerry P. Schofer. “On some geographic aspects of higher education in the United States: A systems approach,” Ph.D. dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 1971.
115 Jerry P. Schofer. 1975. “Computer cartography and professional geographers,” The Professional Geographer, 27
(3): 335-340.
116 The trip visited Hawaii, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, The Philippines, India, Egypt and England. “Student’s learning goes beyond high school walls,” The Courier-News (Bridgewater, NJ), November 28, 1978, p.12.

Computer Mapping, social statistics, Urban Studies, and Introduction to FORTRAN. He also served as Rutgers University Resident Director of Study Abroad for five years in Spain, two years in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and three years in Mexico.
31. Robert Wylie Brown (RU 1969-1977)
Robert Brown was born in Los Angeles (1932). He secured degrees from UCLA and Colorado before completing a Geography Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1970 that focused on the Libyan oil industry.117 He then joined the Department of Geography at Rutgers-Newark, eventually becoming its Chair.118 He remained there for eight years until the Department was transformed into a Department of Urban Studies. Thereafter he left academia and became the proprietor of a map store in Montclair, NJ.119 According to a local newspaper he is (or was) “…perhaps the only map store owner in the United States who holds a Ph.D. in geography.”120

32. Norbert P. Psuty (RU 1969-2002)

Norbert P. Psuty (b. 1937-) is another long serving member of the Rutgers Geography community; he was the first Rutgers geographer to specialize in coastal geography. He was also an institution builder, helping to create in turn the Center for Coastal and Environmental Studies, then the Marine Sciences Center and later the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences.
A geomorphologist trained at Louisiana State University, Norb taught a variety of Geography courses and has been identified as the premier national authority on physical processes that shape the beaches of New Jersey. Initially attached to the Department of Geography (1965-1973), and later also jointly rostered with the Department of Geology, he then moved to Chair the newly formed Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, while continuing to guide several generations of Physical Geography students. He has been a long-time consultant of the U.S. National Park Service and led a succession of academic and public research committees, commissions, and other bodies both in New Jersey and the International Geographical Union.121 Not least among Norb’s achievements is training a group of coastal researchers who are now established in other institutions of higher education.

33. Howard L. Gauthier, Jr. (RU 1960s?)

Howard Gauthier (b.1936-) is an expert on transportation geography who was a prominent figure in the field of quantitative spatial analysis, based for most of his career at Ohio State University. For a year during the 1960s he was affiliated with Rutgers University, but the precise dates of this (visiting?) appointment are not known.

117 Robert Brown, “A spatial view of oil development in the desert: Libya in the first decade, 1955-1965,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University.
118 Montclair Times, May 25, 1978, p.35.
119 “Geography as art: Visit to map man’s “gallery of the world,” UPI Archives, April 11, 1982. S ee also: “Test your Geography IQ at Geo Graphics,” The Montclair Times, November 17, 1988, p.3.
120 The Montclair Times, March 16, 1989, p.20.
121 https://marine.rutgers.edu/media/downloads/cv/cv_psuty_2015_full.pdf

3.2.2 Student Perspectives
It is unusual to have record of what students thought about the program in its early years but the decade of the 60s is an exception. We can draw on the testimony of several who took Geography classes during that period and later contributed to the Rutgers Oral History Project.122 Frequent observations made by this group include: (1) contrasts between the kind of geography that was taught in high schools and in college; (2) the unexpectedly demanding nature of college Geography courses; (3) the important roles played by field observation and mapping; and (4) the warm social relations between Geography faculty and students. These sentiments also seem to echo reactions of students in the preceding decade. (e.g. Robert Max, p. 19 this manuscript.)

David B. Smith, gained both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Rutgers and subsequently served in the Army for 27 years, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was exposed to classes in physical geography and cultural geography and enjoyed both:

“The Geography department were just great folks. …All the professors knew all the graduate students very well. I mean we went to their houses. We socialized. We had classes in their houses. Everybody knew everybody, it was just one big happy family…. I remember one of the things we had to do--crazy stuff. I mean, we had to go out to ...
Buccleuch Park. It snowed, and whoever was in charge of that physical geography class decided, "We're going to map Buccleuch Park, and we're going to show the different depths of snow throughout the park and how it changes”.,,, So, we spent like two days out there, you know, with poles and everything and mapping, and then, you had to draw this thing. That was murder, but I did it.”123

From David’s perspective another project was more congenial,

“…what I did is map all the ethnic establishments in New Brunswick, by hand, ... and I'm telling you, Weigend and those professors were so impressed…. They loved that. I mean, I remember Dr. Brush, he just (said), "Whoa, this is just, oh, wow!"

Additional insights were provided by Richard Melanson, who received his Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers in 1966 and later a Ph.D. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University. His testimony suggests that geography was not for the faint hearted.

“I was taking a course in physical geography in order to fulfill one of my science requirements. It was a large class taught by a man named …Marcus and, in our first hourly test, I got the highest grade of the two hundred or 250 students or so in the class. There were mostly upperclassmen taking it, there were very few freshmen. I remember that he called me into his office after the test and congratulated me on doing so well and asked me if I would consider becoming a geography major when it was time to declare a major. … So, I studied very, very hard. I went to the library every night. I was in a

122 Many of the people interviewed by the Project had military careers.
123 David B. Smith, Rutgers Oral History Project, https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/64-text-html/1533-smith-david-b-part-1

"suite"--that's a euphemism. I had two roommates …and we were crammed into a corner room in Demarest Hall. I had a metal desk and a metal bed. It was pretty Spartan and I realized I wasn't going to be able to get much studying done in my room. So, I hauled myself off to the library whenever possible. Every night, after I ate at the Commons, I would go directly to the library and I would probably stay there until it closed at midnight.”124

The demanding nature of geography training was also emphasized by others. Timothy Killion, a 1967 graduate, reported a chastening experience with one reportedly easy class:
“…we ended up taking “Economic Geography” and everybody said. “Oh, yes, take this.” Well, it turned out to be a really tough course …”125
Michael T. Jackson, an African Studies major who graduated in 1971, reported his surprise at the content of geography classes:
“We took geography and it wasn't the geography in high school, buddy. I mean, it was about the Earth--… it was Earth science to the max. I remember, we had to learn the Köppen climatic system. That meant that we had to know all the climate areas, what they grew, dah-dah-dah, for the whole world, Köppen climatic system, and that was one of the questions on the final.”126

Finally, there are plaudits from Roger Kirschen, for one particular instructor:
“I had a professor, Dr. [Melvin G.] Marcus, who …just made things alive and explained things ... [in a] very understandable [way]. Actually, he taught what was called physical geography. It was… half geology and half meteorology, and it was a fun course. We went on field trips and that made it even more fun, too. So, he was a terrific one.”127

124 Richard Melanson, Rutgers Oral History Project, https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/64-text-html/1984-melanson-richard
125 Timothy Killion, Rutgers Oral History Project <ttps://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/64-text-html/1982-killion-timothy
126 Michael T. Jackson, Rutgers Oral History Project <https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/64-text-html/1817-jackson-michael
127 Roger Kirschen, Rutgers Oral History Project, https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/64-text-html/1666-kirschen-roger-h

3.2.3 Geography at the end of the 1960s128
What of the larger perspective of the entire Geography Program during the 1960s? (Appendix 12) Minutes from Geography faculty meetings during the years 1967-70 reveal an academic community undergoing significant changes and contemplating more far-reaching ones. Attendees at these meetings typically consisted of nine or ten individuals including full time professors, a part-time lecturer, and a visiting foreign scholar from the United Kingdom.129 From November 1969 onwards three graduate student representatives were also approved as participants.

At some point, members of the department agreed that the undergraduate geography program should shed its erstwhile primary role as a service unit for the University and focus instead on training Geography majors.

Proposals for changes to the curriculum took center stage and dominated routine business like the acquisition and allocation of support for graduate students130 as well as lobbying for increased and improved physical facilities (a perennial source of annoyance).131 (Appendix 24) By 1970 the undergraduate program included three specialized tracks, each with different course requirements: cultural, economic, physical.

Arthur Getis was a leader in discussions about curricular changes that emphasized research approaches and tools useful in the spatial analytic and urban aspects of the discipline.132 As a by-product of these initiatives, the First Rutgers University Conference on Models and Methods in Geography was conducted on April 12, 1969 involving participants from several Rutgers departments as well as Professor Julian Wolpert (U. Pa), discussant.

By 1967 the Geography Master’s and Ph.D. programs enrolled 40 students, 133 55% of whom were part-time. Eight Master’s degrees were awarded by the end of the decade, including to Winnifred Fischer, the first woman at Rutgers to receive a Geography Graduate degree. Her thesis was based on observational data derived from foreign field research in Peru134 whereas most of the Masters’ theses focused on U.S.-centered spatial science topics. While most graduate students were enrolled in the Master’s program, eight (8) would eventually go on to gain doctoral degrees. Among the approved components of the Ph.D. program were diagnostic examinations

128 This section relies heavily on a folder of Minutes of Department and Graduate Program Meetings, compiled by John E. Brush and delivered to this author on Brush’s retirement.
129 Professors Beyer, Brush, Carey, Getis, Hordon, Kelland, Muller, Wacker, Weigend plus Lecturer Osa Lindberg and Dr. Allan Frey (Bristol University visitor). By 1970 Beyer and Muller had moved to other Universities, their places taken by Psuty and Schofer.
130 At this time 12 students held (whole or partial) assistantships and four others prestigious NDEA and NSF Fellowships. A major in the ROTC Program also received support from his military position.
131 For example, the Minutes of December 4, 1969 record discussions about consolidating and moving the department to Murray Hall or perhaps to a new Social Sciences building that is expected to be built on the Rutgers College campus. Nothing ever came of those alternatives.
132 Basic courses included Geog. 103-4: Introduction to Geography: Spatial Systems in Human Geography.
133 33 male, 7 female. 30 married. 30 married. 33M/7F. (4 married F) 1 a major ROTC Program.
134 Fischer, Winnifred V. “The Geographical Structure of Lima, Peru”, Master of Arts, 1962. This work was carried out over several years when the author lived in Lima and – at the urging of Professor John Brush - she produced a unique map of the land uses in all buildings of the city’s historic core.

for all incoming graduate students135, as well as requirements for graduation that demonstrated competence in cartography, quantitative methods, field methods, the history and philosophy of Geography, and reading knowledge of an approved foreign language136.
New scholarly initiatives were undertaken. A Colloquium series was begun with the initial year relying on existing graduate students and faculty presenters. Distinguished external geographers were also invited to give separate public lectures to the general university community. For example, on May 1, 1968, David Lowenthal (American Geographical Society) made a presentation entitled “American landscape: Dream or Nightmare” that was jointly sponsored by the Geography and History departments.137 During the next year other public lectures and departmental colloquia featured a range of prominent speakers.138

Scholarly activities moved up a further notch with the 1970 inauguration of a formal Discussion Paper series intended to disseminate research by Rutgers geographers to a wide audience. The first of these appeared in 1970 - Boots, B. N., ‘An approach to the study of patterns of cellular nets’, Discussion Paper No. 1, Department of Geography, Rutgers University. Dozens of others followed.

The Geography Graduate Program made major strides by initiating a doctoral program in 1964. Graduate students began to be important contributors to the structure and functioning of Geography at Rutgers. For example, they sought expanded representation in departmental decision making, requested specific new courses in geographic research methods, asked for timely information about summer employment opportunities, organized an intermural basketball team, held Geographical Society banquets and a Christmas Party, and started a joint student-faculty Newsletter.139 They also entreated members of the department to participate in a Vietnam Moratorium both as geographers and as “citizens of the world.” 140
However, space and facilities continued to be a problem throughout the 1960s and 1970s. It was not until the early 1980s that a satisfactory (if imperfect) solution was found on the Kilmer campus. Appendix 24 provides a more detailed account of the protracted search for the discipline’s physical home at Rutgers.

135 These proved to be highly unpopular among students. Various attempts were subsequently made to reform them and they were eventually eliminated.
136 The language requirement was eliminated in 1970 following a University decision to give departments the authority to set Ph.D. language requirements.
137 At the time Lowenthal was best known for his work on George Perkins Marsh but he later gained an internationally recognized role as the originator of Heritage Studies.
138 Among others these included: Lewis Alexander (U. of Rhode Island), “Political geography of the Seas”; Michael Woldenberg (Harvard U.) “Mixed Hexagonal Hierarchies” (a series of 3 sessions); Karlheinz Hottes (Ruhr U.) “The developing megalopolis in the Rhine-Meuse delta region”; Julian Wolpert (U. of Pennsylvania), “Confrontation over Locational Issues: A Location Theory for Noxious Facilities”; Henry Glassie (Penn. State U.) “Geographic patterns in the folk culture of the Eastern United States”; Anthony Williams (Penn. State U.) “The use of game theory in Geography: Stochastic or Deterministic?”
139 Volume 1, Issue 1, May 1969 was the first edition of Interaction put together by three graduate students – Barry Boots, Jeffrey Milne and Cedric Page.
140 Interaction, Vol. 2, No.3, October 15, 1969. Professors Weigend and Newling had previously both been active in making public their political views about Soviet suppression of writings by fellow Russian academics. “Scholars ask Reds to lift sentences,” The Central New Jersey Home News, February 21, 1966: p. 45.

With the prospect of additional geography faculty hires at Livingston College and in a possible new undergraduate liberal arts college, the time was deemed right for creation of a single New Brunswick-wide Department of Geography that would supersede the existing Rutgers College based department and nascent units elsewhere. The formation of this entity was temporarily put on the back burner because of conversations with higher level administrators who judged it premature, and some faculty were not in agreement with the full span of proposed curricular changes during a time of growing uncertainty with respect to university reorganization and shifting funding priorities by federal and state governments. But the impetus to pull most, if not all, geography faculty into a single administrative unit persisted thereafter.

The academic year 1968-69 ended with conferrals of 11 Bachelor’s degrees141, 6 Master’s degrees142, one M. Phil143 as well as four Ph.D. students completing their doctoral Qualifying Exams144.

The preceding information pertains mostly to the Rutgers College Department of Geography and the Graduate Program in Rutgers-New Brunswick. Meanwhile, Geography was also advancing on the Newark campus, where a Geography major was being offered with emphasis on urban aspects of the discipline.

In short, geographers were beginning to lay out ambitious plans that envisaged a larger faculty, more students - especially at the graduate level, more specialized courses, greater emphasis on research, as well as exacting disciplinary goals and standards, a sharper focus on spatial scientific human geography, and stronger efforts to build a self-conscious professional Geography community with high levels of student involvement. In the subsequent years progress towards many of these goals would be significant.

¹⁴¹ Brent Danner, Ronald Dering, Jakob Efsen, Joseph Fedeyka, Joseph Higgins, Walter Jones, James Julian, Laurence Kalkstein (Honors), George Miller, Judith Monte (Honors) and Jeffrey Peake (Honors).
¹⁴² By examination: Bharat L. Bhatt, Harbans Singh, Richard Steffan. With thesis: Elena Knox, “A Simulation Model of Urban Residential Location Based Upon the Location of Work Places,” Jeffrey Milne, “A Heuristic Model of Path Generation,” Cedric Page, “A Game Theory Application for Planning Decisions.”
¹⁴³ Christine Drake, who subsequently went on leave overseas for several years of missionary work.
¹⁴⁴ Christine Drake, Steven Frakt, Neils West, Peter Muller.

3.3 The Seventies (1970-1979): The Great Recruitment
The third decade was a remarkably successful period for the recruitment of geography faculty to Rutgers and for their outsize impact on the Geography community. The 1960s and early 1970s were an era of social turmoil and technoscience advances in the United States, comprised of spectacular space program achievements, scientific recognition of growing ecological deterioration, an unpopular war, political assassinations, student activism, unrest in black inner cities, and a campaign for expanded civil rights, among others. These developments had strong effects on the evolution of Geography at Rutgers chiefly because of a major influx of new geographers to non-Geography departments, some of which were formed in response to the spate of destabilizing events. Many of these hires remained at Rutgers for most, if not all, of their subsequent careers. In numbers of faculty at Rutgers holding terminal Geography degrees, this was to be a high-water era. (Appendix 2)

Twenty new faculty held positions for some years during the decade and all the longest serving geographers come from this era. (Boxer, Greenberg, Holcomb, Lake, Mitchell, Nordstrom). The majority were originally attached to interdisciplinary or professional academic units like the Departments of: Environmental Resources (Mitchell, Cutter); Human Ecology (Boxer, Hewitt, Crane, Ross, Roundy); Planning and Policy Development (Clark, Lake); Urban Studies (Greenberg, Holcomb); and Community Development (Chatterjee). Two others went to staff departments at Rutgers-Newark (Obudho, Schofer) Of the half dozen or so whose initial appointment was to the Rutgers College Department of Geography only William Renwick, Wilbert Gesler and William Hamilton remained beyond the end of the decade. Glen Miller (Ph.D. Cincinnati 1983), a human geographer with interests in urban transportation and a penchant for the Rolling Stones’ song “Satisfaction”, was also hired to teach in the Rutgers College Department of Geography on or about 1980, leaving in 1983 for a position at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts.

Two other important changes began in the 1970s. First was the admission of female students to what had previously been all-male units of Rutgers. Douglass College had been (and remains an all-female) unit, and Livingston College was co-educational from its inception in 1969, but Rutgers College only began to admit women in 1972. Second, was the creation of a so-called Federated Department of Geography that included geographers from three Rutgers colleges – Rutgers, Livingston and Cook. This was chaired by Peter Wacker and was primarily intended to rationalize course offerings and avoid overlaps or duplications. It functioned for several years (1975) before being outmoded by a more sweeping university wide reorganization.

(up to Table of Contents)

3.3.1 Faculty Appointments
34. James Kenneth Mitchell (RU 1970-2016)
Ken Mitchell (b.1943-) was born and raised in Northern Ireland and came to the United States for doctoral study, receiving his University of Chicago Ph.D. in 1973 ¹⁴⁵ under the tutelage of Gilbert F. White, the so-called “father of flood plain management”. The initial decade of his academic career (1970-1980) was spent in the Rutgers Department of Environmental Resources and the remaining 35 years (1980-2015) in the Department of Geography. His research focused on human responses to natural hazards, often in coastal settings, mostly in the United States but also in Europe, East Asia and Australasia, coming into close contact with disastrous events that shaped his personal life as well as his professional one.¹⁴⁶ Spurred by proposals to drill for oil and gas off the New Jersey coast, he also addressed onshore impacts of Outer Continental Shelf energy development and chaired the U.S. Scientific Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf (1979-1982).¹⁴⁷ The bulk of his work was cognizant of its public policy implications and he was involved in hazards and coastal policy research and advising at state, national and international levels, throughout his career. He produced the first evacuation map for New Jersey’s coastal islands and, as Chair of an Ad Hoc National Academy of Sciences Committee, worked to shape the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (1990-1999), a UN-sponsored global program of research and development that eventually was initiated during the 1990s¹⁴⁸. He also taught a wide range of courses including Natural Hazards, Conservation of Natural Resources, Europe, Geographic Background to Current World Affairs, and History and Theory of Geography. While at Rutgers he founded and edited the international journal Global Environmental Change and served as Director of the Geography Graduate program for 13 years and Departmental Chair for 8 years. During his tenure as Chair he also wrote the grant proposal that resulted in the department’s computer lab coming into existence and later commissioned a commemorative painting of the department’s four home quarters that was expertly executed by his former graduate student Roger Balm. This piece mysteriously disappeared from its public display space and, after an absence of months, just as mysteriously was returned, evidently due to a change of heart by its anonymous pilferer following a public appeal by the Chair; the original now hangs in a more secure location.

¹⁴⁵ Mitchell, James K. 1974. Community response to coastal erosion: Individual and collective adjustments to hazard on the Atlantic shore, Department of Geography Research Paper No 156, Chicago: University of Chicago, 209 pp
¹⁴⁶ Mitchell, James K. 2016. “Personal and professional encounters with hazards in context: The challenge of ambiguity,” Journal of Extreme Events 3(2) (June) 24pp. < https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2345737616710044 >
¹⁴⁷ Mitchell, James K. 1978. “Impact of offshore oil and gas development on the coastal zone: Reforming the impact assessment process”, Coastal Zone Management Journal. 4 (3): 299-327; Mitchell, James K. 1986. “Coastal management since 1980: The U.S. experience and its relevance for other nations”, Ocean Yearbook 6 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press): 319-345.
¹⁴⁸ Mitchell, James K. 1988. “Confronting natural disasters: An international decade for natural hazard reduction”,
Environment. 30(2): 25-29.

35. Baruch Boxer (RU 1970-1999)
Baruch Boxer (b.1932-) studied Geography at the University of Chicago in the late 1950s and completed a Ph.D. dissertation on ocean shipping’s role in the evolution of Hong Kong that was published in 1961.149 This signaled the beginning of a life-long interest in the geography of China.¹⁵⁰ He came to Rutgers around 1970 after stints at Indiana University and Michigan State University and was appointed as Chair of the Livingston College Department of Geography (1971-1974), a short lived entity that was merged with other urban study units. At that time Baruch migrated to the interdisciplinary Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers-Cook College, with which he was associated until his retirement in 1999.
Baruch’s passion was China, especially its environmental management issues, though his work also addressed other matters. After retiring he carried these interests forward in visiting scholar positions with Resources for the Future of Washington DC and later at Stanford University.¹⁵¹ Among his Rutgers peers Baruch long had a signal distinction; until Jesse Rodenbiker’s recent appointment he was the only geographer to have made China the central region of concern for their research and teaching. Given the global salience of China and East Asia generally this gap is perhaps a little surprising. Rutgers Geography’s long and deep involvement with India is a striking contrast.

36. Robert A. Obudho (RU 1970-1978)
Robert A. Obudho (b.1940?-) was the tenth Ph.D. to graduate from the Rutgers Geography Program152 and the first to hold a faculty position in the Rutgers Department of Geography. He received the degree in 1974 having initially worked outside academia with the New Brunswick-based pharmaceutical corporation Johnson and Johnson, Inc. Between 1970 and 1978 he was an Instructor in the Rutgers Department of Geography. His research and teaching focused strongly on Africa and especially on processes of urbanization and regional development therein. After leaving Rutgers for a position as an Associate Professor at the State University of New York-Albany he spent the bulk of his career as a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Nairobi.153

¹⁴⁹ Baruch Boxer. 1961. Ocean shipping in the evolution of Hong Kong. University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No.72.
¹⁵⁰ Baruch Boxer. 1964. “Planning conference on the geography of China,” The Professional Geographer 15 (5): 36.
¹⁵¹ The Spartan Geographer (Newsletter of Alumni and Friends of Geography at Michigan State University), Spring 2010. P.18. <https://geo.msu.edu/_assets/pdfs/newletters/2010-Newsletter-%20for-the-web.pdf>
¹⁵² Robert A. Obudho, “Development of urbanization in Kenya: A spatial analysis and implication for regional
development strategy,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University, 1974. 153 Academic Vignette, Robert A. Obudho, University of Nairobi < https://profiles.uonbi.ac.ke/files/113510_Obudho.pdf>

37. Raphael J. Caprio (RU 1970-2024)
Raphael (Ray) Caprio (b. 1945-) was originally a history major at Rutgers-Newark when he was attracted to the study of Geography. He entered the Rutgers Ph.D. program and completed a doctoral dissertation under the supervision of George Carey, that focused on quantitative aspects of urban housing. ¹⁵⁴ Thereafter he spent more than two decades at Newark in a variety of roles first teaching urban geography courses at Newark, both in the Geography Department and later, chairing the Urban Studies Department, the Department of Public Administration, Associate Dean of RU-Newark College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Provost. Ray then moved to RU-New Brunswick and served 15 years as a Vice President for Continuing Studies and latterly as a University (Research) Professor attached to the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
38. Michael Richard Greenberg (RU 1971-2018)

At 47 years, Michael R. Greenberg (b.1943-) holds the record as the longest serving geographer at Rutgers, almost entirely as a member of the Department of Urban Studies and the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1969 ¹⁵⁵ and took up a position at Rutgers in 1971 remaining at the University until retiring in 2018. Mike specializes in risk analysis of hazardous technologies and their impact on public health. He has authored more than 800 books, articles, reports, and editorials, making him by far the most prolific of all Rutgers geographers. He has served as a member of approximately 80 dissertation committees (half of them as primary dissertation supervisor, including 7 for Geography students). While maintaining this high level of professional activity, for 18 years he also found time to serve as an Associate Dean and Interim Dean of the Bloustein School.

39. H. Briavel Holcomb (RU 1972-2017)
Helen Briavel Holcomb (b. 1942-) is an English born human geographer who joined Rutgers after receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in 1972 ¹⁵⁶ and retired in 2017. During the intervening 45 years she was a member of the Urban Studies Department and the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Beginning with studies of urban perceptions that emphasized the role of gender she maintained a varied portfolio of interests including urban revitalization, geographic education, research on happiness, and tourism. Perhaps more than any other Rutgers geographer Briavel employed New Brunswick as a teaching laboratory via field trips and other intimate engagements with the local urban community. A consummate teacher, she twice traveled around the world as an instructor in the Semester at Sea program. Briavel also played a unique role in Rutgers Geography as a social bonding agent who organized and hosted dozens of seasonal parties and post-Colloquia get-togethers at her home, as well as providing residential accommodation for a succession of Geography graduate students. In short, she was a valued and vibrant part of the Geography community at Rutgers.

¹⁵⁴ Raphael J. Caprio, “Housing preferences: A multivariate analysis,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University 1973.
¹⁵⁵ Michael R. Greenberg, “The implications of urbanization for public water supply systems in the New York Metropolitan region,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1969.
¹⁵⁶ H. Briavel Holcomb, “The influence of culture on perception of the urban environment,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1972.

40. William Michael Ross (RU 1973-1974)
Bill Ross (b.1946-d.1989) gained his Geography Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1972157. Following an initial appointment at Kent State University he came to Rutgers in 1973 as a member of the Department of Human Ecology at Cook College. He was an expert on the management of natural resources, especially fishing, logging and energy in Western North America and decided to return to that region a year later, taking up a position at the University of Victoria until his premature death in 1989. In addition to his command of the professional literature and deep compassion for students, those who knew him remember his zest for life as well as his sorely limited patience with university bureaucrats.
41. Lata Chatterjee (RU 1973-1975)

Lata Chatterjee (b.1938-) received her Ph.D. in 1973 from the Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with the internationally known urban geographer David Harvey.158 Her research has long focused on issues of housing and public policy, in cities like Baltimore and Boston and countries like Indonesia and Nigeria. Between 1973 and 1975 she held a faculty position at Rutgers and worked with the Center for Urban Policy Research. Subsequently she transferred to Boston University and completed her career as a Professor of Geography and Environment at the Center for Transportation Studies.

42. Kenneth Hewitt (RU 1973-1976)
Ken Hewitt (b.1937-) received a Geography Ph.D. from University College London in 1967, specializing in geomorphology, and was attached to the University of Toronto for several years thereafter. He left Toronto in 1973 to become Professor of Human Ecology and Chairman of the Environmental Studies program at Rutgers University’s George H. Cook Campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey.159 During this period he began publishing works on human vulnerability to natural hazards which have become original and widely respected contributions to the field. In 1976, Dr. Hewitt returned to Canada where he accepted a position in Wilfrid Laurier University’s Geography Department. He remained there until retirement in 2002.

43. Robert W. Lake (RU 1974-2020)
Robert W. Lake (b.1946-) is one of a coterie of distinguished urban geographers who have been members of the Rutgers Geography community. After living in Nepal for a couple of years he arrived in 1974 as an Assistant Professor in what is now the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. He remained there until retiring as a Professor in 2020. During that period he received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (Ph.D. 1981)160 and became a national authority on housing, community development and environmental policy, whose research was often grounded in social theory.161 Although primarily affiliated with the Bloustein School’s graduate planning program he made major contributions to the Geography Graduate Program by: editing two major Geography journals, teaching graduate courses on urban and political geography, providing able guidance to the Program’s administrative committees, and serving as principal advisor to more Geography Ph.D. students (20) than any other faculty member.

¹⁵⁷ William M. Ross, “Oil pollution as a developing international problem: A study of the Puget Sound and Strait of Georgia Regions of Washington and British Columbia, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington, 1972.
¹⁵⁸ Lata R. Chatterjee. “Real estate investment and deterioration of housing in Baltimore,” Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins University 1973.
¹⁵⁹ Wilfred Laurier University Archives, Kenneth Hewitt. https://libarchives.wlu.ca/index.php/hewitt-kenneth 160 Robert W. Lake, “The Social Construction of Space and Place: Community and Change in a Residential Suburb,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1981.

44. Bonham Richardson (RU 1974-1977)
Bonham Richardson (b.1939-d.2020) was a cultural-historical geographer whose painstaking field and archival research focused on the human use of the Caribbean, particularly Guyana, Grenada, St. Kitts, and Barbados162. He gained a Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after spending two years as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and completing a dissertation on the rice culture of Guyana163. A first appointment at California State University-San Bernardino led to him join the Rutgers Department of Geography as an Assistant Professor in 1974. There, among other activities, he assisted Andrew P. Vayda, the anthropologist founder of Human Ecology, by serving as that pathbreaking journal’s Book Review Editor. Three years later (1977) Bon moved to Virginia Polytechnic and State University, remaining there until retirement in 2003.

45. Janet (Crane) Schuh (RU 1974-1979)
Janet Schuh (b. 1944-) was among the first hires of the newly established Department of Human Ecology at Cook College. She served as an Assistant Professor there between 1974 and 1979. During this time, she received her Ph.D. from UC-Berkeley (1977), having completed a dissertation on human adjustment to the changing mountain environment of central Peru.164 Thereafter, the management of natural resources in Latin America and the Caribbean remained her research focus. She later became a well-regarded community college teacher and school board member in Salem, Massachusetts.165

46. Charles Everett Ogrosky (RU 1975-1979)
Chuck Ogrosky (b.1945-d.2024) was an Assistant Professor in the Rutgers Department of Geography between 1975 and 1979. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1977¹⁶⁶ and specialized in cartography. After leaving Rutgers “Chuck” moved to Washington D.C. and spent the rest of his career working on map making and geo-information technology at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Mapping Division¹⁶⁷

¹⁶¹ https://bloustein.rutgers.edu/lake/; and https://bloustein.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Lake-CV.pdf
¹⁶² For example: Bonham C. Richardson. Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press.1983 and Bonham C. Richardson, Igniting the Caribbean: Fire in British West Indian History. University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
¹⁶³ Bonham C. Richardson, “The Rice Culture of Coastal Guyana: A study in location and livelihood.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Wisconsin, 1970.
¹⁶⁴ Janet Crane Schuh, “People and place in transition: Pangoa, upper central montana of Peru” Thesis (Ph. D. in Geography)--University of California, Berkeley, Dec. 1977.
¹⁶⁵ <https://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/crane-strong-believer-in-diversity/article_be97d8dc-a8dc-5eea-b7a0-fa0d558c196a.html>

47. Karl Frederik Nordstrom (RU 1973-2020)
Academically and by upbringing, Karl Nordstrom (b.1943-) was a home-grown product – receiving bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Rutgers, the last in 1975. ¹⁶⁸ After finishing undergraduate college, he spent two years in the U.S. Army, stationed near the Fulda Gap in Germany, adjacent to what military tacticians believed might be the preferred Soviet invasion route in the event of war. This experience probably heightened Karl’s appreciation of the role of physical geography in human affairs. In 1973 Karl joined the Rutgers faculty as a Research Associate in the Marine Sciences Center and subsequently rose through the ranks of the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, retiring in 2020 as a Distinguished Professor. His research focused on physical and human-forced processes that affect beaches and dunes in the United States. ¹⁶⁹ His purview later broadened through experiences gained as a visiting scholar at half a dozen universities in Europe, Australia, and Brazil. Although primarily holding research positions in Cook College and the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS), he taught several graduate and undergraduate courses in Geography, ranging from Introduction to Physical Geography, and Coastal Geomorphology to Field Techniques. He also chaired 9 Geography Ph.D. committees.

48. Thomas Arthur Clark (RU 1976-1982)
Thomas (Tom) A. Clark (b.1944-) was awarded a Ph.D., specializing in Urban and Economic Geography, from the University of Iowa in 1975170. After brief spells at McGill University and Middlebury College, he spent six years at Rutgers in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy Development, departing in 1982 for a permanent position in Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado-Denver, from which he retired in 2011. Although Tom participated in the Rutgers Geography Graduate Program and published in Geography journals, his principal involvement was with the Planning department, especially in relation to issues affecting housing, income inequalities and economic development.171

¹⁶⁶ Charles Everett Ogrosky, “The ordinal scaling of point and linear symbols for tactual maps,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington, 1977.
¹⁶⁷ Charles Ogrosky, Cartography at the U.S. Geological Survey: The National Mapping Division’s Cartographic Programs, Products, Design and Technology. 2013. < https://www.amazon.com/Cartography-U-S-Geological-Survey-Cartographic/dp/128868116X>
¹⁶⁸ Karl Fredrik Nordstrom, “Beach response rates to cyclic wave regimes at Sandy Hook, New Jersey,” Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University 1975.
¹⁶⁹ Karl F. Nordstrom, “Curriculum Vitae, 2020”.
<https://marine.rutgers.edu/media/downloads/cv/cv_nordstrom_2020_full.pdf>
¹⁷⁰ Thomas A. Clark, “The urban residential system: Spatial simulations,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Iowa, 1975.
¹⁷¹ Thomas A. Clark, Curriculum Vitae (July 2019). < https://www.slideshare.net/ThomasClark65/t-clark-curriculum-vitaejuly-2019>

49. Susan Cutter (RU 1977-1993)
Susan received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago,172 (1978) where she studied under the well-known urban geographer Brian J. L. Berry. She came to Rutgers as a member of the interdisciplinary Department of Environmental Resources in 1977 but switched to the New Brunswick-Department of Geography within a few years. While at Rutgers she published papers on subjects as diverse as the rating of places, public support for community resolutions on nuclear weapons control, and human responses to the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. In addition, Susan joined with departmental colleagues William and Hilary Renwick to produce one of the most widely used college textbooks on Conservation. Her departure for the University of South Carolina was a significant loss for the Rutgers Geography community. Not only did she go on to become a major authority on the human dimensions of environmental risks, both inside and outside the discipline, but also garnered honors as a spokesperson for Geography, including a stint as President of the Association of American Geographers.

50. Glenn Richard Miller (RU 1978-1983)
Glenn R. Miller (b.1954-d.2022) was an urban-economic geographer with a strong interest in the cultural history of transportation. He attended the University of Cincinnati for Ph.D. studies and accepted a position in the Rutgers Department of Geography on or about 1978, before finishing his dissertation in 1983.173 To a significant degree Glenn’s work on the Amish and others reflected his quiet religious convictions as well as his academic training. After leaving Rutgers he moved to Bridgewater State University, where he remained for the next two decades.

51. William Harvey Renwick (RU 1978-1985)
Bill Renwick (b.1951-) is a physical geographer who joined the Rutgers Department of Geography as an instructor in 1978. After finishing his Ph.D. at Clark University,174 he was promoted to Assistant Professor and remained at Rutgers until 1985, eventually serving out the rest of his career at Miami University (Ohio) until retiring in 2015. During his Rutgers stint he taught courses on Introductory Physical Geography, Conservation of Natural Resources, and Fluvial geomorphology among others. He is particularly remembered for studies of the bed of the Raritan River, done in collaboration with Geography Graduate Program member Gail Ashley (Geology Department). These extended knowledge about the stream in our departmental backyard that was frequently used as an example in many field and classroom courses.¹⁷⁵ Together with an all-Rutgers team that also included his then-wife Hilary ¹⁷⁶ and Susan Cutter, he authored a widely used textbook on resource conservation that ran to several editions. ¹⁷⁷ Bill has recently recollected that opportunities for inter-disciplinary research with colleagues from other units like Coastal Studies, Urban Planning and Human Ecology were a particular strength of Geography at Rutgers.

¹⁷² Susan Caris, “Community attitudes towards pollution,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1978. 173Glenn Richard Miller, “Transportation and urban growth in Cincinnati, Ohio, and vicinity:1788-1980.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 1983.
¹⁷⁴ William H. Renwick, “Short-term sediment movements and related channel changes: The Piceance Basin, Colorado”, Ph.D. Dissertation, Clark University, 1979.
¹⁷⁵ William H. Renwick and Gail M. Ashley, 1984, Geological Society of America Bulletin 95 (11): 1343-1348; Gail
M. Ashley, William H. Renwick and Gary H. Haag, 1988, “Channel form and processes in bedrock and alluvial reaches of the Raritan River, New Jersey,” Geology 16(5): 436-439
¹⁷⁶ Later the couple divorced and Hilary became an editor of the American Geographical Society’s journal Focus
and its “Around the World” book series.

52. Wilbert Morgan Gesler (RU 1978-1981)
Wil Gesler (b. 1941-) is the son of a U.S. Lutheran minister and was born in Rajahmundry, Andhra, India during his parents’ mission there. Unlike John Brush, whose parents also were missionaries to India and who subsequently pursued India-focused research, Wil worked almost exclusively in Africa. Shortly after finishing his dissertation at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1978 he came to Rutgers as an Assistant Professor of Geography.178 His professional career has been devoted to the study of health and its relationship to place about which he produced a series of publications that pioneered the concept of “therapeutic landscapes”. Wil left New Jersey for Sierra Leone in 1981 on a Fulbright scholarship. Thereafter he completed his scholarly career at his Ph.D. alma mater.

53. Robert Wayne Roundy (RU 1979-2005)
Bob Roundy (b. 1944-) is a California-born medical geographer179 who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia and later carried out field work there for which he received a Ph.D. from the University of California-Los Angeles in 1976.180 He came to Rutgers in 1979 and had a lengthy career, first as a faculty member in the Department of Human Ecology at Cook College and then as a Cook College staff member (Assistant Dean) with special responsibilities for student personnel. Between 1979 and 1986, 30% of his appointment line was allocated to the Department of Geography, for which he taught the undergraduate Conservation of Natural Resources course and several Geography graduate seminars on Environment and Development. Thereafter, he switched to administration and continued to teach a suite of undergraduate Geography courses until 2001. In the meantime, his 30% Geography position was converted to what a colleague, Susan Cutter, satirically dubbed the Robert W. Roundy Memorial Geography TA and may have become part of the Department’s permanent TA allocation. Retiring from Rutgers in 2005 he returned to the Bay Area and continued as an academic personnel administrator at UC-Berkeley until 2014.

¹⁷⁷ Susan L. Cutter, Hilary L. Renwick and William H. Renwick, 1985, Exploitation, conservation, preservation: A geographic perspective on natural-resource use. Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Allanheld, 448pp.
¹⁷⁸ Wilbert M. Gesler, “Health care utilization: A case study of Calabar, Nigeria”, Ph. D. dissertation, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1978.
¹⁷⁹ One of four medical geographers at Rutgers, three of them housed in non-Geography units. (Michael Greenberg, Wilbert Gesler, Dona Schneider, Robert Roundy).
¹⁸⁰ Robert Wayne Roundy. “Hazards of communicable disease transmission resulting from cultural behavior in Ethiopian rural highland-dwelling populations: A cultural-medical geographic study,” Doctoral dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 1976.

54. Quentin Gillard (RU 1979-1982)
Quentin Gillard (b.1947-d.2022) was an English born geographer who gained his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1975181, working with one of the “fathers” of metropolitan spatial analysis, Brian J. L. Berry. He came to Rutgers in 1979 and taught urban geography for three years, leaving to take up a position with an environmental consulting firm in Santa Barbara, California. Subsequently he worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corporation in Washington, DC and then became an independent environmental consultant based in Bend, Oregon.

¹⁸¹ Quentin Gillard, “Incomes and accessibility: Metropolitan labor force participation, commuting, and income differentials in the United States, 1960-70,” Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1975.
tended to suppress the visibility of Rutgers Geography among peer programs though the department did feature favorably in a New York Times report. (February 17, 1980).

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3.3.2 Geography at the end of the 1970s¹⁸²
The 1970s were distinguished by a profusion of new faces among Geography faculty – twenty-one (21) were hired during the decade. Taking account of those who did not stay for more than a few years, by 1979, seventeen (17) geographers held full-time faculty positions at Rutgers. They were doctoral graduates of: University of Chicago (5); Columbia University (3); Louisiana State University (2); and one each from the Universities of Wisconsin, Washington, North Carolina, Colorado, and Iowa, as well as Clark University and Rutgers University.

In 1975 a Special Committee on the Status and Development of Geography at Rutgers, composed of John Brush, Michael Greenberg and Ken Mitchell, anticipated that “On account of the complex decentralized structure of Rutgers University, it appears inevitable that geographers will continue to be appointed and supported in at least three colleges and in five departments.” A second detailed report on the status of Geography at Rutgers was written by Geography faculty in 1981 and validated those predictions. It stated that “the most significant … change during the (1970s) was the integration of geographers with professional and interdisciplinary programs in the coordinate colleges of Rutgers University in New Brunswick.”183 The report pointed out many ways that the infusion of fresh blood prompted new institutional and scholarly departures within the Geography community. However, the 1970s also saw the termination of separate small Geography departments at Rutgers-Newark and Livingston College-New Brunswick, although the personnel who staffed them continued as members of other units.
By 1980 research and teaching had consolidated around two major themes: (1) natural environmental processes and the management of the physical environment; and (2) socio-spatial aspects of urban and rural settlement. Two-thirds of the faculty pursued research on the first set of topics and all but one other faculty member addressed the second set.

On the New Brunswick campuses, the scholarly activity of geographers clearly accelerated. The importance of research grew substantially. By 1980 approximately half (10) of the geography faculty were garnering significant external research funding. This totaled $600,000+ annually (equivalent to at least $2.2 million in 2023). Among others, funding sources included: National Science Foundation; National Institute of Mental Health; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. National Park Service; New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; New Jersey Department of Energy.
A survey of scholarly productivity in Ph.D. granting geography departments, published in 1980184, gave Rutgers high marks for its research output but it was observed by others that most publications were directed to audiences outside the discipline. That external focus may have tended to suppress the visibility of Rutgers Geography among peer programs though the department did feature favorably in a New York Times report. (February 17, 1980).

¹⁸² Two lengthy unpublished reports provide much of the information in this section: Graduate Program in Geography, Annual Report 1978-79 (37 pages); Annual Accountability Report 1981-82, The Graduate School-New Brunswick (Appendices 20 pages).
¹⁸³ “Summary of the discipline of Geography 1976-1981” an unpublished 28-page account probably prepared by John Brush and/or Peter Wacker.
¹⁸⁴ Richard L. Morrill, “Productivity of American Ph.D.-granting Departments of Geography,” The Professional Geographer 32 (1): 85-89.

The representation of Rutgers geographers in public and professional life also became appreciably higher during the 1970s. They served on more than 20 international, national, and state government bodies, from the World Health Organization and the U.N. Environment Programme to the U.S. National Park Service and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration, as well as NJ advisory committees on mapping, historic sites, water management, coastal erosion, and recycling, among others. Many faculty also held leading positions on editorial boards and professional governing bodies, often also featuring in newspaper stories and appearing on radio and television programs.

In terms of teaching, the average faculty load was 5 courses per year, one of which was at the graduate level. Faculty in the Department of Geography taught Geography courses, but seven faculty attached to inter-disciplinary units taught courses in other undergraduate curricula. The latter had titles like: Natural Hazards; Man-made Landscapes; Environmental Management; Social and Ecological Problems of Modern Agriculture, Urban and Suburban Field Studio, and Senior Seminar in Community Development. As part of a campaign to raise the overall quality of instruction, systematic course evaluations were introduced throughout Rutgers College by the Dean’s Office. In the next decade these became a general practice within the faculty of Arts and Sciences and such evaluations have constituted an important element in the hiring and promotion process for faculty ever since.
During the years 1972-79 the number of students enrolled in the Geography Graduate Program varied from 41 (1972-73) to 64 (1978-79) with a mean of 55. Most of these (70%) were New Jersey residents. Throughout the decade a steady stream of Master’s and Ph.D. graduates appeared, eventually numbering 31 Master’s and 21 Doctorates. The work of these individuals is discussed in further detail in the section of this history that focuses on graduate students and dissertation research. (Appendices 18 and 19) It is also important to note the attention paid to reforms of the graduate program. A “house-cleaning” of long time inactive graduate students was undertaken in 1979 and, a sustained effort to recruit women and minority students was begun, resulting in a rapid increase in numbers of the former and marginal gains among the latter. Systematic, standardized, course evaluations by students were instituted in 1980 and faculty evaluations of student progress were solicited each semester rather than once a year. Graduate students also joined with faculty to restart the Rutgers Geography Discussion Paper series.

How did the Geography program compare with other Rutgers social science and natural science programs? Measured by number of students enrolled it was bigger than Geological Science and Meteorology, similar to Philosophy, Economics, and Anthropology, but considerably smaller than Political Science, Sociology, Urban Planning, and Psychology. How did the Rutgers Geography Program compare with the nation’s 116 other Geography Graduate Programs? In terms of student enrollments and faculty size it was clearly the premier center for Geography in New Jersey and both the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. Farther afield, it was rated at or near the top of a group of major geography programs in the Northeastern

USA including Pennsylvania State University, Syracuse University, and the University of Maryland, though behind Clark University.

During the period 1976-81, 175 undergraduate Geography courses were taught that enrolled 7,250 students. Annually there were 30-40 undergraduate Geography majors and the number of Bachelor’s degrees awarded was 11-14. Cartography and Planning options attracted most students. There was a strong vocational orientation among the undergraduates; few were pursuing the major for scientific or liberal education purposes.

In summary the 1970s was a period of expansion, innovation, and revitalization for Geography at Rutgers. The basis for subsequent progress was measurably strengthened, especially in the production of research-oriented doctorates and there was the tantalizing possibility for creation of a much larger and more integrated Geography community than was envisaged two decades earlier. However, events in the 1980s set in motion broader university changes that tended to frustrate much of this ambition and to channel it towards a different outcome.

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3.4 The eighties (1980-1989): University reorganization
During the 1980s pressures for far-reaching institutional changes became evident at Rutgers.
These prompted members of the Geography department to begin the decade by inviting all geographers in New Brunswick to an open discussion about the future of the discipline at Rutgers.185

This was an era when, in the words of one former faculty member, the task of turning Rutgers into a world class research university really got under way. Efforts to centralize what had been a highly decentralized system of organization and accountability gained support and multiple disciplinary units based in each college were combined and collected in specific locations. There was considerable uncertainty about whether and how the units to which geographers belonged would be re-organized. These institutional forces triggered an administrative experiment that, first, extracted the Department of Geography from its home in the liberal arts-focused Rutgers College (1980), then transferred it to a new Faculty of Professional Studies and finally returned it to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, all within the space of eight years (1988).186
Administrative reorganization brought about internal faculty transfers and new physical quarters for the Department of Geography. The decade began with the recruitment of several faculty who did not remain long and ended with a trio of hires that brought to campus other faculty who made major contributions to Geography both within Rutgers University and well beyond. In addition, two of the existing faculty (Mitchell, Cutter) elected to switch from an interdisciplinary unit (the Department of Environmental Resources) to the Department of Geography. Appendix 14 records professors who were members of the Geography faculty in 1981.

¹⁸⁵ This was promoted in the student-faculty newsletter Diffusion, Vol. 7, No.3, March 24, 1980, as follows: “Consider the Possibilities - The Bloustein Plan? Rejuvenated Federated Colleges? Will geographers get together? Is that good? How can we have our heart’s desire in the cold world? How can our needs be met and our independence retained? Can we rise above the constraints and make our own future? What might reorganization mean to you?
Does it matter anyway? You are invited to an open discussion in Geography 105 at 11.30 a.m. on Thursday, April 3.”
¹⁸⁶ Even when the process of combining departments from different colleges was complete, vestiges of the former system remained, reflected in the institution of College Fellows. In 1989, members of the Geography department were also Fellows of different colleges: Rutgers College (Mitchell, Robinson, Wacker); Douglass College (Cutter, Regulska); Livingston College (Hordon, Smith); and University College (Nelson). College Fellows were intended to serve in the administrative and governance bodies of the undergraduate colleges which, at that time, still played distinctive roles in student admission and the awarding of degrees. Although Mitchell and Cutter still had partial appointments in Cook College, none of the other Geography Department faculty participated in Cook College because it was not identified as a liberal arts college under the jurisdiction of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

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3.4.1 Faculty Appointments

55. Robin Flowerdew (RU 1980-1981)
Robin Flowerdew (b.1947- d.2020) was born and educated in England and spent one year at Rutgers as a visiting professor. He specialized in population geography, particularly the use of spatial statistics to understand patterns of health and disease. Normally resident at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom he returned there and eventually took a permanent senior position at the University of St. Andrews. His thoughts on reform of the Rutgers Geography curriculum are recoded in Appendix 35.

56. Merle Gerald Fish (RU 1980-1982)
Gerry Fish (b. 1939-) was a specialist in cultural ecology who studied under James J. Parsons at the University of California-Berkeley and received his Ph.D. in 1980.187 After a brief spell teaching at Virginia Polytechnical Institute he came to the Rutgers Department of Geography in 1980 and stayed for two years, departing for positions at the College of the Bahamas (1983-85) and then a permanent post at Winthrop University, North Carolina from which he retired in 2001.

57. William L. Hamilton (RU 1980-1983?)
Bill Hamilton (b. 1952-) received his Ph.D. from Oregon State University in 1980188 and appears to have joined the Rutgers faculty shortly thereafter. He was recruited as a physical geographer with skills in Geographic Information Systems and it was hoped he would play a key role in organizing the University’s budding community of GIS researchers and teachers.
However, the institutional complexities of bringing this about were significant and he departed for an attractive position in his home state (Massachusetts) at Salem State College.
58. Damaris Rose (RU 1981-1982)

Damaris Rose (Ph.D. University of Sussex, 1984)189 was a British born urban geographer who specialized in gendered dimensions of gentrification and housing in (mainly Canadian) cities. She spent a single year at Rutgers (1981-1982) as an Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Geography, teaching several courses, including Introduction to Geography, Field Geography, and World Cultural Regions.190 She subsequently became an independent scholar and then a professor attached to the National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS) in Montreal.

¹⁸⁷ Merle Gerald Fish, “El Cultivo del Roza: Shifting cultivation in a dry forest of northwest Mexico,” Ph. D. Dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, 1980.
¹⁸⁸ William L. Hamilton, “An investigation into modeling snow cover elements at Crater Lake National Park and surrounding environs as an improved “ground truth” method for satellite snow observations,” Ph. D. dissertation, Oregon State University, 1980.
¹⁸⁹ Damaris Rose, “Home ownership, uneven development and industrial change in late-nineteenth century Britain,”
D. Phil. dissertation, University of Sussex, 1984.
¹⁹⁰ Damaris Rose, Curriculum Vitae. <https://inrs.ca/wp-content/uploads/dr_CV-2021-11-08.pdf>

59. Joanna Maria Regulska (RU 1982-2015)
Poland born (1951) Joanna Regulska arrived in New Brunswick in 1982 after receiving a geography Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.191 She remained on the Rutgers faculty for 33 years until 2015, first in the Department of Geography, then as Director of the Center for Central and East European Studies, and later as the University’s first Vice President for Global and International Affairs.192 Thereafter, she transferred her skills as an institution builder west to the University of California-Davis where she became Vice Provost and Dean of Global Affairs and garnered further accolades as a leader in international education193. Her lengthy tenure at Rutgers encompassed the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the USSR’s hegemony in Eastern Europe. These events opened a vast field of scholarship that focused on changes in the social, economic, and political arrangements of countries in the former Soviet bloc and their consequences. Joanna initially undertook research that focused on women’s roles in New Jersey politics194 but, once the Soviet Union collapsed, she threw herself into studying and assisting local democracy movements in Poland and elsewhere. This led to a wider engagement with women’s political activism and the reform of higher education systems in a broad swathe of former Soviet domains. It also brought a succession of scholars from Eastern Europe to Rutgers as visitors or colloquium speakers. On her retirement from Rutgers it was said that the University’s geographers owed Joanna a great “debt of gratitude for keeping the area studies tradition of our discipline vigorous and for securing a firm institutional foothold for us among the many fields that lay claim to international studies.”195

60. Benjamin G. Wisner (RU 1983-1985)
Ben Wisner (b. 1944-) is an Independent Scholar of international sustainable development who spent two years as a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Geography. This followed a similar two-year appointment to the Rutgers Department of Human Ecology. He received his Ph.D. from Clark University in 1978196 and – before coming to Rutgers - held a variety of positions at universities in Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. After leaving Rutgers he continued to circulate among educational and research institutions that address issues of hazard, food, and development, primarily in developing countries.

¹⁹¹ Joanna Regulska-Poniz, “Women’s role in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan migration trends,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado, 1982.
¹⁹² A Regulska quote: “It’s not that globalization is somewhere out there, beyond us. It is us. We are creating it. In many ways, we are the driving force.” Geography News, 2007.
¹⁹³ Association of International Education Administrators, “AIEA recognizes Dr. Joanna Regulska with 2022
Charles Klasek Award for outstanding service to the field of International Higher Education”. Press Release, February 21, 2022.
¹⁹⁴ Joanna Regulska, Susana Fried and John Tiefenbacher. 1991. “Women, politics and place: Spatial patterns of representation in New Jersey,” Geoforum 22 (2): 203-221.
¹⁹⁵ A toast to Joanna Regulska offered, on behalf of the Rutgers Geography Department, by James K. Mitchell on her departure from Rutgers University to the University of California-Davis. 2015.
¹⁹⁶ Benjamin G. Wisner, Jr. “The human ecology of drought in Eastern Africa,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Clark University, 1978.

61. Susan Michelle Macey (RU 1982-1988)
Susan M. Macey spent six years in the Department of Geography as an Assistant Professor before transferring to Texas State University, where she remained until retirement in 2014.197 She received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1982198 and was adept in the use of geospatial methods (e.g. GIS, computer cartography) to address issues of medical geography, energy conservation and natural hazards, especially among aging populations.199 Susan is the only Australia-born Rutgers Geography faculty member and she returned to Melbourne at retirement.

62. Ernestine (Tina) K. Cary (RU 1984-1988)
Tina Cary (b. 1949-) is a specialist in Geographic Information Systems who received a geography Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1985200 and took up a research position in New Brunswick associated with the Department of Environmental Resources at Cook College. She worked at the Cook College Remote Sensing Center in Rutgers while contributing to the Geography Graduate Program for four years in the late 1980s201. After leaving Rutgers Tina held positions at the Earth Observation Satellite Company (EOSAT) and eventually established her own consulting firm in Longmont, Colorado202 which she continued to operate until retiring in 2012.

63. Frederick E. Nelson (RU 1986-1994)

Fritz Nelson (1950-) is a specialist in the physical geography of Arctic regions who received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1982.203 While at Rutgers his work particularly focused on permafrost and periglacial phenomena, but he also made a lasting mark on the administrative structure of the Graduate Program by strongly promoting the production of research doctoral scholars as its primary purpose. Fritz is also remembered for, at one stage, living out of his campus office and later for organizing an overland fieldtrip under canvas to Alaska with a human geography colleague (see Neil Smith, below). Later he departed for the University of Delaware and other institutions where he extended his scientific studies to encompass the history of Arctic science, polar exploration, and geographical science.

¹⁹⁷ Geonews, Vol. 20, Texas State University, Department of Geography, 2015. https://gato-docs.its.txst.edu/jcr:fe705da4-b834-49c7-8f69-c7ba42eb7a97/Spring%202015.pdf
¹⁹⁸ Susan Michelle Macey, “Factors affecting the adoption of home heating energy conservation measures: A Behavioral approach,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1982.
¹⁹⁹ Profile: Susan Macey, Association of American Geographers, Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group, 2011. web site https://aag-hmgsg.org/profiles-of-health-geographers/profile-susan-macey/
²⁰⁰ “Spatial patterns of Kenya Agriculture and their relationship to elevation, soils, and population: A study of grid cell sizes (Remote sensing, scale, resolution”, Ph. D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1985.
²⁰¹ “Chicken coop crew has eyes in the sky,” The Central New Jersey Home News, December 20, 1987, p.16.
²⁰² “Women in GIS: Tina Cary,” Directions Magazine, January 21, 2000. < https://www.directionsmag.com/article/4079>
²⁰³ Frederick Edward Nelson, “Spatial properties of cryoplanation terraces and associated deposits in northwestern North America,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan State, 1982.

64. Neil Smith (RU 1986-2000)

Neil Smith (1954-2012) was born in Scotland and received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1982 under the direction of the internationally noted Marxist geographer David Harvey. After a brief spell at Columbia University, he came to Rutgers in 1986 and remained for 14 years before taking up the position of Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Smith was a leading scholar and activist in the critical study of urbanization, especially the process of gentrification, for which he developed explanatory ideas about “rent-gaps” and “cultural revanchism”.204 He also addressed topics of revisionist historical geography that highlighted biases and flaws in the work of geographical luminaries like Isiah Bowman and Jean Gottman.

Neil served as an able department chair and an active spokesman for geography within the university and beyond. Although most noted for his work on urban political-economic and socio-cultural topics he was initially trained as a geomorphologist. He had an active appreciation of natural landscapes and migratory birds, on one occasion joining forces with another Rutgers geographer for a rifle-toting trip to Alaska during which glaciers and grizzly bears were major objects of concern.

A man of deep convictions and a controversial figure who often evoked strong emotions among those who encountered him, Neil was attended by polarizing professional and personal disputes.205 Perhaps his most enduring contribution at Rutgers may have been opening the way for Geography students and faculty to engage with scholars from the humanities and post-modern sciences in the study of complex contemporary problems that challenge existing modes of analysis. His directorship of the Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture helped to facilitate this exposure.

65. David A. Robinson (RU 1988-2026)

David Robinson (b. 1955) is a climatologist and physical geographer who gained a Geology Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1984206 and now serves as both a Distinguished University Professor and the New Jersey State Climatologist. A convert to the discipline he was a long time Geography department chair and is currently the most senior active member of the Rutgers Geography community. In addition to publishing frontier-pushing research on snow climatology he has nurtured a generation of climate aware students and graduates and stimulated them with his personal passion for the field. He is also the best-known public face of Geography at Rutgers by virtue of being sought out by journalists and other experts because of his command of climate data and climate lore, constantly consulted for commentary and analysis of past and ongoing climate events as well as projected futures. No Rutgers Geographer has racked up as many column inches in regional newspapers or given so many interviews and appearances on television, even to the point of outdoing the state’s political leaders.

²⁰⁴ Don Mitchell. 2013. “Neil Smith, 1954-2012: Marxist geographer,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 104 (1): 215-222.
²⁰⁵ Neil Smith (geographer), Wikipedia. < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Smith_(geographer)>
²⁰⁶ David Alton Robinson, “Anthropogenic impact on winter surface albedo (Climate, snow),” Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1984.

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3.4.2 Geography at the end of the 1980s.
Compared with the heady pace of recruitments during the previous decade, hiring of new Geography faculty slowed considerably during the 1980s. There were eleven (11) new hires, of whom four (4) were destined to remain well into the 1990s and, in some cases, for decades beyond. Taking account of arrivals and departures, the total number of full-time Geography faculty in 1989 (16) was about the same as a decade earlier.207

Debates about University reorganization dominated the 1980s and deeply affected the evolution of the Rutgers Geography program. A high-level university Committee on Standards and Priorities was set up and began systematic evaluation of academic quality in departments, centers, and programs throughout Rutgers. By the end of the decade (1989) the university also achieved a badge of distinction among peer institutions when it was invited to join the prestigious Association of American Universities, the exclusive national “club” of premier research institutions. These moves signaled a commitment to securing research grants and creating specialized institutes that would build on the university’s comparative advantages, mostly in scientific fields, as priority tasks for the University administration. In subsequent decades Rutgers would strongly reinforce subjects like computing, mathematics, biosciences, and health sciences as well as related professions. It began to appear that the liberal arts and the social sciences, though still supported, were becoming junior partners. Geography’s position at the intersection of the arts and sciences offered potential advantages in negotiating these changes.

During the 1980s, the department became a program in a newly created School of Urban and Regional Policy (SURP) within the (also new) Faculty of Professional Studies and was physically moved across the Raritan River from the (centrally located) College Avenue campus to the (more peripheral) Livingston College (Kilmer) campus208. Not only did this entail swapping a smaller number of large offices for a larger number of smaller ones, but it also required working out new arrangements with a new set of colleagues about faculty recruitments, teaching assistantships, cartography facilities and other matters. Though relationships were generally amicable, some tensions arose209, possibly because the goals and needs of professional education and liberal arts education were somewhat different.

By the end of the 1980s the University reorganization plan was still not fully agreed though moves were afoot to rehouse the School of Urban and Regional Policy in a purpose-built
facility in New Brunswick. Meanwhile, an external review of Geography (1988) recommended that the department be returned to the College of Arts and Sciences ²¹⁰.

²⁰⁷ According to a national survey of 43 Ph.D.-granting Geography Departments in the U.S., carried out by geographers at the University of Minnesota, the Rutgers Department of Geography included 8.97 full-time faculty lines. This is equivalent to just over half of all Geography faculty at the University. See: Letter from John S. Adams to “All Ph.D.-granting departments in the U.S,” June 15, 1989.
²⁰⁸ As noted in the Annual Report of the Department of Geography 1980-81, this move came “without full consultation and consent of the Rutgers geographers.” P.1.
²⁰⁹ Proposals to cede control over Teaching Assistantships that had long been allocated to the Geography Department were particularly fraught.

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In the interim, the Department of Geography continued to function much as previously, teaching around 2,000 undergraduates annually,211 attracting 50-58 undergraduate majors and graduating about half of these with Bachelor degrees each year, some with additional Certificates in Cartography or International Geographic Perspectives. The majority of majors chose curricular options in the more technical and vocational aspects of the discipline (e.g. cartography, remote sensing, environmental analysis and management). Although there were 65 different approved courses on the books, most of these were not taught every year212. In addition, the department was offering at least three Summer Session courses and three Winter Session courses each year. For a time, these latter ventures were popular among department chairs, because, compared to regular courses, they directly returned a disproportionately large share of the revenue raised from summer and winter term enrollments to the host departments, substantially boosting their self-directed resources.

The Graduate Program continued to evolve during the 1980s. Compared with the previous decade total numbers of graduate degrees awarded increased from 52 to 83, mostly through growth in the Master’s program. One striking trend was the increasing representation of women. In the 1970s women constituted 29% of Masters’ degree graduates and just 5% of Ph.D.s. During the 1980s they accounted for 59% of Master’s degrees and 36% of Ph.D.s.

The list of invited speakers for the Geography Seminar series of 1987-88 gives an indication of the research interests of the Rutgers Geography community at that time. The 20 scheduled talks were evenly split between topics in Physical Geography (8) and Urban Socioeconomic Geography (9) with three (3) presentations straddling the Environment-Society divide. (Appendix 27) Most speakers were associated with U.S. institutions though three were based in universities of overseas countries (Sweden, France, South Africa).
By the 1990-91 academic year there were also 41 Geography graduate program enrollees, the majority (24) seeking Ph.D. degrees, with females (22) outnumbering males (19) for the first time. Seven graduate students were from overseas countries, a proportion that was subsequently to increase. Most graduate students were classified as pursing study topics that focused on aspects of environmental geography (21) with urban-centered students (4) surpassed by those who listed social theory (8) as a primary theme and lesser numbers addressing other subfields (e.g. remote sensing, historical geography, economic geography).

²¹⁰ The review team consisted of three leading contemporary geographers whose specialties overlapped with those of the Rutgers program: Charles Alexander (U. of Illinois), Susan Hanson (Clark U.) and Gregory Knight (Pennsylvania State U.).
²¹¹ 1988 AAG Survey of Departments of Geography in the U.S. and Canada.
²¹² The undergraduate master course list included: 7, 100-level courses (most offered every semester); 7, 200-level courses (offered every year); 24, 300-level courses (of which perhaps a quarter were offered each year, the rest rarely); and a small number of specialized 400-level seminars, out of 25 listed, that reflected the research expertise of (past and present) faculty and enrolled graduate students.

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3.5 The nineties (1990-1999): Multiple pressures; new opportunities
The Rutgers Geography community celebrated a half-century of existence during the 1990s. A formal two-day conference was held in 1999 to mark the occasion. This brought together current and former faculty and students. Among former faculty in attendance were Guido Weigend, John Brush, Arthur Getis, Bob Muller and Susan Cutter. This was the last time that founding members of the Geography community were present at an official Rutgers Geography function.213

Far-reaching changes were afoot in this decade - some administrative, others technological or intellectual; some originating within the university and confined to it, but most global in genesis and scope.

• First, was the continuing fallout from Rutgers University’s ongoing administrative reorganization, especially effects on the construction of new University buildings and budgeting priorities as well as the physical relocation of many departments.
• Second was the rapidly expanding impact of new information management and computing systems, especially as this affected cartography production, the interpretation of geocoded data, and teaching technologies.
• Third was the emergence of postmodernism as an intellectual movement that sought to reshape all higher education, including the discipline of Geography.
• Fourth, was a quantum leap in public awareness of the threats posed by anthropogenic climate risks and other human-forced environmental changes.

Each of these changes is discussed in somewhat greater detail below.

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3.5.1 Reorganization

The consequences of University reorganization carried over from the 1980s into the 1990s and beyond. It was not until 1995 that the Urban Planning and Urban Studies departments, next door to which Geography had been billeted in Lucy Stone Hall on the Kilmer campus and with whom we shared ties of personnel and scholarship, moved out to the Civic Square campus in downtown New Brunswick. Though the geographers who left (e.g. Greenberg, Holcomb, Lake) continued to contribute to the Geography Graduate Program, there was a reduction in face-to-face contacts with those personnel and with others in the Urban Planning, Urban Studies, and the Center for Urban Policy Research communities. Following their incorporation into the new Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy (1992), those units acquired a distinctive professional identity as the university’s premier center for urban research and instruction. One result for the Geography program was a renewed emphasis on aspects of human interaction with the physical environment, especially in developing regions of Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
A shift in this direction began in the 1990s but did not become a dominant theme until the opening decades of the 21st century.

²¹³ Other events scheduled to celebrate the 50th anniversary are identified in Appendix 38.

At the same time, reorganization had also affected other University units with which Geography shared intellectual affinities. These pressures manifested themselves in efforts to consolidate the sciences that study “Nature” in one location – the Cook College campus. It was already home to the Remote Sensing Center, the Marine Sciences Center, and the Food Science Center as well as the Departments of Environmental Resources, Human Ecology and Environmental Science. Plans for a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences were ongoing but did not come to fruition until the next decade. Discussions about formal affiliation between the geography department and several of these natural science-oriented groups were begun but concluded without changing the existing arrangements. Likewise, efforts to relocate the Geography department to another campus did not bear fruit.

Increased funding pressures also began to appear in University budgets at the end of the 1980s and during the 1990s214. For example, proposed Department of Geography cuts for the 1989-90 academic year were estimated to result in a 20% reduction in undergraduate enrollments and the cancellation of 10 undergraduate courses. Although these did not occur that year, belt tightening was clearly in prospect. The following year (1991-92) Rutgers’ allocation from the state budget was reduced by 8%. Another expression of lean times was the adoption of a voluntary early retirement program intended to encourage older (and more expensive) faculty to leave so that more resources could be diverted to younger replacements, and for other purposes.215 No geographers took part in this program but it foreshadowed moves to apply cost-cutting (and other) business practices that would gather greater steam in the years ahead.
3.5.2 Information revolution

The 1990s were marked by revolutions in information and communication technologies that had major impacts on teaching and learning. Geographic Information Systems had been pioneered by geographers in the 1960s and by the 1990s several spatial analysis software packages (ARC/INFO and GRASS) were in general use. During the 1990s the field accelerated with the development of the World Wide Web (Internet) which made possible rapid widespread sharing of Geo-referenced data and information. At Rutgers this was a period when a Geography computer research laboratory was created and equipped with state-of-the-art terminals available to graduate students and later extended to include undergraduates in classrooms and a research lab. Traditional manual cartography was progressively replaced by computer-based map production. It was also the first decade during which students began bringing their own laptop machines to class and cell phones began to make an appearance.

Classroom teaching was also increasingly harnessed to, and affected by, changing technologies. The arrival of computerized Power Point software, quickly led to the retirement of manually operated overhead projectors and acetate transparencies, thereby permitting instructors to employ vastly greater numbers of visual illustrations in lectures. “Seeing” began to displace “saying” as a dominant mode of lecturing in Geography classes. Cognizant of these changes, as well as continuing efforts to strengthen geography’s role in the American educational system, the 1990s saw the introduction of National Geography Standards that were intended to guide curricular offerings and instructional innovations in a new information era.

²¹⁴ For example: “Planning for more budget reductions,” Faculty Newsletter for Rutgers -New Brunswick, November 1990, p. 2.
215 “Early Retirement Program” Memo from Richard L. McCormick, Dean FAS to FAS Department Chairs, May 17, 1991.

3.5.3 Postmodernism
During the 1990s, together with scholars in other social sciences and humanities, geographers became enmeshed in an upsurge of intellectual debates about the limitations of approaches to the production of knowledge that had dominated for more than a century. These were approaches that emphasized traits such as: objectivity, quantification, the search for binding universal laws, the authority of experts, and other elements of what was often labelled positivism. Instead, new importance was attached to the roles of instability, unevenness, complexity, contradiction, and paradox in human affairs; relations of power and structure; contending ideologies and multiple realities; uncertainty, continency, and context. These new “turns” were labelled postmodernism. Postmodernism shifted attention to settings and topics that had been neglected in previous research. Among others, these included: the outlooks and contributions of minority populations; vernacular perceptions and practices; as well as emergent, transitional, and liminal processes. It became common to speak of alternative “geographies” characterized by varied and dynamic human experiences rather than a single fixed system of “geography”. While physical geographers were relatively untouched by these debates, they affected other disciplinary subfields to varying degrees, especially those that focused on urban, historical, socio-economic, and political dimensions of Geography.
Rutgers geographers took part in postmodernist activities within the discipline and the university. For example, they helped to found new journals and change existing ones. New books informed by postmodern revisionism appeared on course syllabi and the discipline’s history was up for searching reevaluations. Some Geography faculty became fellows and affiliates of the newly established Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture (CCACC), a Rutgers institution that explored alternatives to existing intellectual practices in the context of broad social, economic, and political changes of global scope and implications.
Postmodernist ideas also appeared in debates about the degree to which physical environments were artefacts of human construction or decisions about environmental management were driven primarily by class, race, and gender politics. For some these trends were disturbing and for others they were liberating.
3.5.4 Environmental change

Many types of human-forced environmental changes were highlighted by the classic 1956 conference report, Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, in which geographers were heavily involved, and which was edited by William L. Thomas, one of the founding members of the Rutgers Geography faculty. More than 40 years later a follow-on volume reinforced and extended its findings.216 By 1990, of these findings, concerns about the specific problem of global scale anthropogenic climate change had claimed center stage. The First Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1990) underlined the importance of climate change as a challenge with global consequences and requiring international cooperation. A second report appeared in 1995, expanding and reinforcing the initial message, and paving the way for further regular updates that resulted in the award of a Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC in 2007.
These developments affected geographers at Rutgers by raising the public profiles of individual faculty who worked on climate-related topics as well as research and outreach projects that addressed climate trends in general and specific extreme climate events. For example, during the 1990s the New Jersey State Climatologist (David Robinson) became a go-to person for mass media outlets seeking information about climate and weather matters, the Great Raritan Flood Project was a well-publicized collaborative effort by geographers to document and analyze the causes and consequences of Hurricane Floyd’s impacts on the state, and the now 34 year old international journal, Global Environmental Change: Human and Policy Dimensions was founded and edited by Ken Mitchell. More importantly Rutgers geography program became strongly identified with environmental change research in many different forms with both physical and human emphases and in places as different as the Arctic cryosphere and the world’s megacities.

²¹⁶ Billie L. Turner, William C. Clark, Robert W. Kates et al. 1990. The Earth as Transformed by Human Action: Global and Regional Changes in the Biosphere Over the Past 300 Years. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press with Clark University.

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3.5.5 Faculty Appointments
During the decade ten new geography faculty were appointed to at least three different university units, including two physical geographers, two urban specialists and six human or political ecologists. Eight of these held tenure track positions and two served as temporary one-year fill-ins. Six of the faculty hires were women, two of whom (D. Schneider, Leichenko) became long term appointees who have remained at Rutgers throughout their subsequent academic careers. The others stayed for periods ranging from three years to 25 years, making valuable contributions to the geography community along the way.

66. Dona F. Schneider (RU 1990-2022)
Dona (b. 1946) is a medical geographer and a Rutgers Graduate Program alumna who received her Ph.D. in 1988 under the direction of Michael Greenberg.217 She joined the faculty of the Bloustein School shortly thereafter and contributed important studies on the geography and epidemiological effects of pollution, juvenile justice, cancer, deer hunting, political violence and other topics in the decades that followed. By the time of her retirement in 2022 she had also served as an Associate Dean in the Bloustein School.

67. Edward Ramsamy (RU 1991-)
Ed Ramsamy (b. 1964) received undergraduate Geography degrees at the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa, 1986-87). After two additional years in his homeland, he came to Rutgers as a graduate student and received a Master’s degree in Planning (1990), followed by a Planning Ph.D. in 2002218. He specializes in geographies of globalization and international development and has taught Rutgers University courses related to these themes in the departments of Geography, Political Science, and Africana Studies. He is currently chair of the latter department. Ed is married to Kavitha Ramsamy, a Ph.D. alumna (2013) of the Rutgers Geography Ph.D. program.

68. Richard A. Schroeder (RU 1993-2018)
Rick Schroeder (b. 1956) is a political ecologist who studied under Michael J. Watts in the Geography department of the University of California-Berkeley and graduated in 1993219. Much of his research focused on the gender dimensions of African agricultural practices. After serving for 25 years in a variety of academic and administrative roles, including Geography Department Chair, founder of the Center for African Studies and Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, he (and his wife, a Rutgers anthropologist) transferred to Brandeis University where he held a senior position in the Department of Anthropology from which he has recently retired.

²¹⁷ Dona F. Schneider, “The effect of tourism on emergency medical services: The New Jersey shore,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University, 1988.
²¹⁸ Edward Ramsamy, “From projects to policy: The World Bank and housing in the developing world,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University, 2002.
²¹⁹ Richard F. Schroeder, “Shady practice: Gender and the political ecology of resource stabilization in Gambian gardens/orchards,” Ph. D. Dissertation, University of California-Berkeley 1993.

69. Kirstin M. Dow (RU 1995-1996)
Kirstin (b. 1963) was a student of Roger Kasperson at Clark University, whose doctoral dissertation focused on vulnerability to oil spills in the Straits of Malacca.220 She came to Rutgers on a one-year appointment (1995-96) and is now on Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of South Carolina.

70. Elvin K. Wyly (RU 1995-2002)
Elvin Wyly (b. 1966) received his Ph.D.221 from the University of Minnesota in 1995.
Most of his work focused on gentrification, housing, mortgage markets and their relationship to social inequalities. While at Rutgers he held a joint position divided between the Geography Department and the Center for Urban Policy Research before departing for the Geography Department at the University of British Columbia. One of his 2002 Honors B.A. (Religion and Geography) students – Ella Watson-Stryker222 - was later named among a group of Ebola fighters as Time Magazine’s 2014 Person of the Year.²²³

71. Sean M. DiGiovanna (RU 1996-2003?)
Sean DiGiovanna (b. 1969) completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto with a dissertation that focused on the responses of labor unions to globalization.224 He subsequently served as an Assistant Professor of Planning and Public Policy at the Bloustein School beginning in 1996.

72. Robin M. Leichenko (RU 1997-)
Robin Leichenko (b. 1967) was a student of Rodney Erickson and Amy Glasmeier at Pennsylvania State University from where she received her Ph.D. in 1997.225 She is an expert on the intersection of economic and environmental change who co-authored a landmark book on the topic.226 Robin has also served as Department Chair, Co-founder of the Rutgers Climate Institute and Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Rutgers University. Most recently (2023), Robin and her spouse William Solecki, (a Rutgers Geography alumnus, Ph.D. 1990), have received prestigious appointments as Fellows of the Association of American Geographers.

²²⁰ Kirstin Dow, “Vulnerability transitions along the Straits of Malacca,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Clark University, 1996.
²²¹ Elvin Kirk Wyly, “Mapping the gender division of labor: A geographical exploration of local labor markets in the Twin Cities,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1995.
²²² Ella Watson-Stryker, “Churches across borders: The Christian churches and the global anti-apartheid movement,” Henry Rutgers Scholar Thesis, Rutgers College, April 2002.
²²³ “Person of the year,” Time 2014. < https://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-ebola-caregivers/#ella-watson-stryker-34> ; Nancy Gibbs (2014). “The Choice.” Time, December 10; and Carla Cantor (2014). “Rutgers Alumna Among Ebola Fighters Named Time Magazine Person of the Year.” Rutgers Today, December 16.
²²⁴ Sean M. DiGiovanna, “Fighting for a working future: Emerging models of local union strategy in a new era of global competition,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Toronto, 1997.
²²⁵ Robin M. Leichenko, “Exports, employment and production: A causal assessment for United States states,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 1997.
²²⁶ Robin Leichenko and Karen O’Brien, Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures, Oxford University Press, 2008.

73. Roger C. Balm. (RU 1997-2012)
Roger (b. 1947) gained his Ph.D. from Rutgers 227 and stayed on in various capacities as an Instructor and Director of the Undergraduate Geography Program before eventually returning to his native England as an Independent Scholar. His combination of talents as a teacher, student of archaeology, and artist skilled in the use of charcoal, pencil, and watercolor field sketching techniques, was unique. He specialized in applying his artistic skills to the task of interrogating and reinterpreting conventionally accepted meanings that have become attached to iconic places (e.g. Machu Picchu) that were “discovered” by explorers and other privileged travelers. He also created his own painted interpretation of the Geography Department’s many “homes” that has become a prized departmental heirloom. (Fig. 1)

DoG houses Balm

Michael Johns Medler (RU 1998-2001)

Mike Medler (b. 1962) studied at the University of Arizona under Stephen Yool and specialized in applying GIS and cartographic techniques to the analysis of environmental disturbance, especially in forested landscapes of the western United States that are subject to fire.²²⁸ He also enjoyed the outdoors and the social milieu of outdoor-oriented communities, so it was no surprise when he chose to accept a position at Western Washington University and return to the West after sampling a markedly different milieu in the urbanized East.

²²⁷ Roger C. Balm, “Resilience, resourcefulness, and the necessity of scarcity: The case of Malta (Mediterranean Sea),” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University, 1996.

²²⁸ Michael J. Medler, “Integrating remote sensing and terrain data in forest fire modeling,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Arizona, 1997.

Michelle Goman (RU 1998-2001)

Michelle Goman (b. 1967) is a Quaternary scientist who specializes in the analysis of lake and wetland sediments for purposes of unravelling the recent history of environmental and climatic transformations wrought by humans. She received a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley in 1996.²²⁹ and came to Rutgers shortly thereafter, later relocating to California, where she now runs the Sonoma State University Quaternary Laboratory.²³⁰

Marjorie Clarke (RU 1999-2000)

Marjorie studied Geography and Environmental Science at the City University of New York and received a Ph.D. in 1999.²³¹ As well as serving in a one-year position at Rutgers (1999-2000) she has had a life-long involvement with environmental public issues in New York City. She has a strong interest in environmental activism and has testified at government hearings on matters affecting air quality, recycling and waste management, especially public health issues that arose in the aftermath of the 9/11terrorist attacks in New York. More recently she formed her own consulting company and has been founder and president of the Riverside-Inwood Neighborhood Garden in Upper Manhattan.

²²⁹ Michelle Goman, “A history of Holocene environmental change in the San Francisco estuary,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, 1996.

²³⁰ <https://gep.sonoma.edu/faculty-staff/michelle-goman>

²³¹ Marjorie Clarke, “Testing the effectiveness of supermarket-based environmental shopping campaigns in changing consumer behavior in New York City,” Ph.D. Dissertation, City University of New York, 1999.

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1.1.1 Geography at the end of the 1990s

By the end of the 1990s, as geographers at Rutgers were celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the department’s existence, there were 23 full-time faculty members trained in Geography, though almost half of them were attached to non-Geography departments. This was a period when innovations of different kinds were being undertaken and others, that had begun in the previous decade, began to bear fruit. For example, investments in faculty hirings brought new personnel who fostered lively discussions about climate change and about postmodernist thinking, both inside and outside classrooms. The administrative uncertainties and instabilities of the 1980s had been largely resolved. Morale was further buoyed by a significant improvement of the Rutgers Geography program’s position, from 21^st to 13^th place in the National Research Council rankings of Doctorate research Geography programs.²³² Drawing on this report the University President Frances Lawrence foregrounded the Geography doctoral program as one of only two at Rutgers whose faculty quality was rated in the top 15 nationally.²³³ At the undergraduate level the curriculum was revamped to reduce most of its service functions and to bring remaining courses into line with graduate offerings, as well as to give students more opportunities to work with faculty on research projects.²³⁴ Geographers of every stripe were well on the way to becoming computer adepts and traditional lectures were being displaced by Power Point presentations. All introductory courses were adapted to take advantage of new teaching technologies that could be employed in “smart” classrooms newly available on campus. Positive effects on class participation were clearly visible in the form of crowded computer labs, with students eager to gain experience of newly available computerized cartographic aids and Geographic Information Systems.

²³² National Research Council. 1995. Research Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change. Washington, D.C.

²³³ Letter to the Faculty from President Francis L. Lawrence, December 4, 1995, 5 pages, p.1.

²³⁴ 1995-96 Annual Report of the Department of Geography to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University. 7 pages.

1.2 The aughts (2000-2009): Millennial shifts

The new millennium brought far-reaching changes to American society that had, and continue to have, repercussions for Geography at Rutgers University. At the time, a prominent newspaper piece described a hoped-for threshold of unlimited possibilities: “we come to the end of this millennium in an expansive mood, the world before us. What we make of it is ours to choose.” (New York Times, December 5, 1999, Section 4, p. 16.) However, this optimism was dashed by the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the reactions that followed leading to a period of American involvement in overseas conflicts (Iraq, Afghanistan) and economic instability at home [i.e. “the Great Recession” (2007-8]. Meanwhile, concerns about the emergence of China as a global economic giant and the destabilizing effects of global climate change were growing.²³⁵ And, in a development that reflected decades of research by geographers and others, the term Anthropocene entered public discourse in reference to the thesis that society was now in an epoch where humans were the dominate force shaping the global environment.²³⁶

In many respects, there was a changing of the guard among faculty. A total of ten departed during the decade. Five of the longest serving faculty transitioned into retirement²³⁷ and five others accepted positions elsewhere.²³⁸ The departures were felt most strongly in subfields of physical geography, historical geography and urban geography… less so among specialists in ecological relationships between people and physical environments. However, these changes were counterbalanced by recruitment which brought half a dozen new Geography faculty to Rutgers, including three women born - and at least partially educated - outside the United States (in India, Colombia, Sweden). Most of the new additions held positions in the Department of Geography and all but one remained with the University thereafter.

²³⁵ Rupert Cornwell, “The first decade: The age of uncertainty,” The Independent, December 7, 2009.

236 Will Steffen, 2021. “Introducing the Anthropocene: The human epoch,” Ambio 50(10): 1784-1787. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7957438/.

²³⁷ Wacker, Hordon, Psuty, Roundy, Schofer.

²³⁸ Smith, Wyly, Medlar, Goman, M. Clark.

1.2.1 Faculty Appointments

Jasbir Puar (RU 2000-2010?)

Jasbir majored in Economics and German as a Rutgers undergraduate and gravitated toward Geography after gaining a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from University of California-Berkeley.²³⁹ For several years she held a joint Assistant Professor appointment in the Rutgers departments of Geography and Women’s Studies before moving permanently into the latter unit while retaining a foothold in the Geography Graduate Program. Most of her research has focused on queer tourism, sexuality and space, and geographies of globalization with special attention to the situation of Palestine.

Kevin St. Martin (RU 2001-)

Kevin St. Martin (b.1962-) is a specialist in political ecology who is an authority on vernacular groups engaged in fishing and fishery resource management, their knowledge bases, and their interaction with formal public institutions. He was awarded a Ph.D. by Clark University in 1999,²⁴⁰ held a joint position at Rutgers divided between the Department of Geography and the Center for Urban Policy Research (2001-2002) and then transitioned fully into the Geography Department the following year. He currently serves as Rutgers Department Chair and also holds a part-time appointment at the University of Tromso, Norway.

Laura Schneider (RU 2005-)

A native of Colombia, Laura Schneider (b. 1969) received her Ph.D. from Clark University where she studied under Billie Lee Turner II.²⁴¹ At Rutgers she leads an interdisciplinary land systems science research group that employs remote sensing techniques to understand the development and use of tropical forests, mostly in Latin America. Her work on forest disturbance by tropical storms and wildfires has received coverage in national mass media outlets²⁴² and she is a departmental leader in popularizing the production and use of large format posters as communication media for student research.

Trevor Birkenholtz (RU 2007-2013)

With a childhood background in Midwestern agriculture, Trevor Birkenholtz (b. 1972-) came to Rutgers shortly after receiving his Ph.D. from Ohio State University.²⁴³ During his seven years in the University he deepened the department’s connection with India through research on grass roots decision making by farmers and other small scale groundwater irrigators in semiarid

²³⁹ “Jasbir K. Puar, “Transnational sexualities and Trinidad: Modern bodies, national queers,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California – Berkeley, 1999.

²⁴⁰ Kevin St. Martin, “From models to maps: The discourse of fisheries and the potential for community management in New England,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Clark University, 1999.

²⁴¹ Laura C. Schneider, “Understanding bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn) invasion in the southern Yucatan peninsular region through integrated land-change science,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Clark University, 2004.

²⁴² “The Amazon, Siberia, Indonesia: A world of fire,” New York Times, August 28, 2019.

²⁴³ Trevor L. Birkenholtz, “The politics of groundwater scarcity: Technology, institutions, and governance in Rajasthani irrigation,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Ohio State University, 2007.

areas of India, employing extended fieldwork in Rajasthan and adjacent states. Later, when he was lured away to a new appointment at the University of Illinois, and subsequently to his present position at Penn State University, he extended his work to include other parts of India (Gujarat, Karnataka) and South Asia (Pakistan).

James DeFilippis (RU 2007-)

James DeFilippis gained his Ph.D. from Rutgers University under the direction of Bob Lake in 2000²⁴⁴, then lectured in Kings College, London and Baruch College, New York, before beginning a position in the Bloustein School back at Rutgers in 2007. He has specialized in the political economy of community development in large urban areas of the United States, especially New York.

Asa Rennermalm (RU 2009-)

Asa (b. 1973) is a physical geographer who specializes in climate change, hydrology and glaciology of polar regions, especially the melting glaciers of Greenland. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University under the direction of Eric Wood.²⁴⁵ She is particularly well known for studies of proglacial meltwater flow and surface hydrology that have attracted media coverage from the New York Times and other national news outlets. Asa has also collaborated with a professional photographer to produce a special art museum exhibit on glacial landscapes and, carrying on a long tradition of Rutgers involvement with the Arctic, has immersed a new generation of Rutgers students in scientific investigations of remote parts of the Arctic.

²⁴⁴ James Defilippis, “Alternatives to “corrective capitalism”: Collective ownership and the possibility of local autonomy in community development,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University, 2000.

²⁴⁵Asa Kristina Rennermalm, “Pan-Arctic surface hydrology: Patterns of change and global implications,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton University, 2008.

1.2.2 Geography at the end of the 2000s

The first decade of the new millennium marked a watershed for Rutgers Geography.

Changes of many kinds were the leitmotif of this period. The world was changing, the university was changing, the discipline of geography was changing, and the Geography community’s personnel in New Brunswick were also changing. Some of the change-forcing events were explicitly addressed by Rutgers investigators.²⁴⁶

Amid these shifts, the work of Rutgers Geography faculty was buoyant. Funded research was booming, the volume of scholarly publications increased, and target audiences broadened well beyond disciplinary boundaries. New faculty hires strengthened expertise on foreign areas, particularly Asia and Latin America, polar regions, and the oceans though there was less emphasis on research that focused primarily on New Jersey and environs. While articles in traditional Geography journals continued to appear²⁴⁷, research topics were increasingly ambitious in scope and methods, frequently applying new theoretical insights and new kinds of data to pressing environmental and societal problems, often with public policy applications.

More of the scholarly output appeared in interdisciplinary journals, addressed broad integrative themes of interest to other researchers, and involved groups of geographers in combination with various mixes of departmental colleagues, partners from other disciplines, and students.²⁴⁸

During the decade a particularly important development was the substantial financial commitment made by an alumnus benefactor, Mark MaGrann to support a variety of geography initiatives. These included the annual MaGrann conferences, that continue to provide provided a platform for collaborative research focused on emerging themes in geographical work. The

246 See, for example: Mitchell, James K., Peter Kabachnik, Robert Donovan, Junko Noguchi and Tom Mitchell. 2001. Field observations of Lower Manhattan in the Aftermath of the World Trade Center Disaster: September 30, 2001, Quick Response Research Project 139. Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2001. <http://www.Colorado.EDU/hazards/qr/qr139/qr139.html>; Mitchell, James

K. 2002. "Building research capacity to address terrorism," in: Julie L. Demuth. Ed. 2002. Countering terrorism: Lessons learned from natural and technological disasters: A Summary to the Natural Disasters Roundtable. National Academy Press. <http://www.nap.edu/books/NI000412/html/R1.html>; R. Leichenko, K. O’Brien, and W. Solecki. 2010. “Climate Change and the Global Financial Crisis: A Case of Double Exposure,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 100(4): 963–972. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2010.497340; M. Greenberg, M. Lahr, and N. Mantell. 2007. “Understanding the economic costs and benefits of catastrophes and their aftermath: a review and suggestions for the US federal government,” Risk Analysis 27 (1), 2007, 83-96.

247 Kathe Newman and Robert W. Lake. 2006. “Democracy, bureaucracy and difference in U.S. community development politics since 1968,” Progress in Human Geography 30: 44-61.

248 For example (Rutgers geographers underlined): Richard Schroeder, Kevin St Martin, Bradley Wilson and

Debarati Sen. 2008. “Third World Environmental Justice,” Society and Natural Resources 31(7): 547-555; T. K. Rudel, L. Schneider, M. Uriarte, B.L. Turner II, R. DeFries, D., Lawrence, J. Geoghegan, S. Hecht, A. Ickowitz, E.

F. Lambin, T. Birkenholtz,, S. Baptista and R. Grau. 2009. “Agricultural Intensification and Changes in Cultivated Areas, 1970-2005”. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106(49): 20675-20680; G. Choi, D.A. Robinson and S. Kang. 2010. “Changing Northern Hemisphere snow seasons,” Journal of Climate, 23, 5305–5310, doi:10.1175/2010JCLI3644.1; James K. Mitchell,. 2006. “The primacy of partnership: Scoping a new national disaster recovery policy,” in “Shelter from The Storm: Repairing the national emergency management system after Katrina.” Ed. William L. Waugh. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 604(1): 228-255; James DeFilippis and Elvin Wyly. 2008. “Running to Stand Still: Through the Looking Glass with Federally Subsidized Housing in New York City,” Urban Affairs Review. 43(6): 777-816.

conferences bring groups of U.S. and international geographers, engaged in path-breaking research, to Rutgers for intensive colloquia.

In the graduate program the production of Ph.Ds. was up by a third over the previous decade, with the majority now going to female students. There were also a wider variety of topics addressed and a diversity of new analytical perspectives, with interpretive “critical” approaches beginning to appear in larger numbers.

For undergraduate students, optimism was also in the air. As the Undergraduate Director, Roger Balm, reported in the 2007 Geography Newsletter: “…another 25 seniors graduated from our undergraduate program this past May. They will be moving on at a time when career prospects have seldom been brighter for geographers as various agencies of government, as well as the private sector, increasingly seek out those with strong spatial data management skills and fluency in GIS and cartographic techniques.”

But there were also unsettling new questions and new demands to be met. Would the department be uprooted and moved to another location, on another campus? The neighboring Sociology department in Lucy Stone Hall, with which there was considerable scholarly and collegial interaction, was relocated to the Douglas campus on the far side of New Brunswick and it was announced that the Kilmer/Livingston campus, that had become Geography’s home base, would henceforth be the University’s preeminent center for Business studies and other professional education activities.

At the same time, changes in the organization and direction of Rutgers University were making themselves felt. For example, university-wide programs were being developed with the intent of showcasing faculty teaching expertise on contemporary topics of public interest and of fostering undergraduate participation in faculty research. Geography faculty and students were quick to lead and participate in these Aresty research projects and Byrne seminars²⁴⁹. Likewise, new teaching and learning systems (e.g. Sakai in 2005, Canvas in 2008) were opening novel possibilities for organizing information and stimulating interactions among faculty and students. As well as creating new forms of outreach to students these initiatives put additional demands on faculty and possibly did less to strengthen existing disciplines than to feed new transdisciplinary initiatives.

Meanwhile a broad range of bureaucratic initiatives was coming into being throughout the university, that - however well intended - added to the burdens of faculty that were already stretched to meet existing obligations. Among these were: new budgeting procedures,²⁵⁰ accountability reports, reviews of performance, “best practice” training sessions, an annual Rutgers Day, mentoring schemes, etiquette rules, guidelines for standardizing and “branding”

²⁴⁹ The “Shantytown Mapping Project” brought a geographer the Aresty “Mentor of the year” award

<https//geography.rutgers.edu/academics/50-undergraduate-program/227-shantytown-mapping-project> , and Byrne seminars, like Joanna Regulsk’s course on “Human Displacement” https://www.rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-everything-including-kitchen-sink and Briavel Holcomb’s “R.U.Happy?” <https://bloustein.rutgers.edu/ru-happy-byrne-seminar-enjoys-new-brunswick-walking-tour/>proved popular to non-majors as well as majors (e.g.

²⁵⁰ E.g. “all funds budgeting” and “performance based budgets”.

publications. Increasingly “cluster hires” (positions shared among different departments and disciplines) were favored in faculty recruitment.

Despite these challenging developments the state of Rutgers Geography seemed robust as reflected not just by criteria like professional publications and student graduation rates but by subtler indicators like healthy participation in colloquia, brown bag sessions, regional and national conferences of the Association of American Geographers, teach-ins, picnics, fieldtrips, and internships.

1.3 The recent era (2010-2024): A continuing story

The period of far-reaching change that was inaugurated by the new millennium did not slacken after its first decade. Instead, it has accelerated during the past 14 years.

At the global scale authoritarian forms of governance have become more popular, international conflicts started or intensified in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the hitherto buoyant economy of China experienced significant setbacks. The USA also entered a period of political polarization, mainly around issues of identity and inequality. To a degree the “world-mindedness” sought by the founding generation of Rutgers geographers and reflected in the recently adopted Rutgers University slogan “Jersey roots, Global reach,” was being challenged by reactions against prevailing societal and environmental trends and a retreat from consensus seeking.

Rutgers University was also undergoing major structural changes that fostered centralized planning and governance as well as what some described as a corporate style of administration.

Indicators of these changes included Rutgers joining the Big Ten organization of major public (research) universities, its acquisition of a large Medical School. and the adoption of a University Strategic Plan within which schools and departments played curricular and recruitment roles that were intended to be consistent with the broader institutional mission.²⁵¹ Meanwhile, there was significant growth in numbers of Non-Tenured Rutgers faculty, who carried much of the instructional load.²⁵² In addition, universities everywhere were being affected by the spillover of political disputes about impartiality, truth, inquiry, access to information, and freedom of expression that brought existing pedagogic practices and fundamental values of education into question. Together with other concerns Non-Tenured Faculty grievances prompted the University’s first faculty strike in 2023.< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Rutgers_University_strike>

During the most recent era, the pace of Geography faculty hires slackened. Thirteen individuals came on board in some capacity as full-time tenure track professors, research professors, cluster hires shared with other programs, teaching professors, lecturers on annual contracts, or courtesy visiting appointees. Four of these later moved to other positions elsewhere. By the end of 2023, a total of 33 faculty were members of the Rutgers Geography community. Fifteen (15) of these were card-carrying geographers, assigned to the Department of Geography. The other 18 participated only in the Graduate Geography program, were trained in non-Geography disciplines, and held majority lines in non-Geography units.

What follows are brief notes on faculty hired since 2000. It will be left to others actively involved in fashioning Geography’s legacy at Rutgers to extend them.

²⁵¹ The planning process had been ongoing in some form for a couple of decades but was formally organized in 2013. Rutgers University Strategic Plan, <https://ucmweb.rutgers.edu/universitystrategy/about-university-strategic-plan.htm>

²⁵² Non-tenure faculty make up about 45% of the teaching staff at Rutgers. Dissatisfaction among non-tenured faculty was perhaps the major reason for a 2023 strike by Rutgers professors and support staff, the first such in the University’s history.

1.3.1 Faculty Appointments

Mazen Labban (RU 2010-)

Mazen is a critical social theorist and student of political economy whose research has focused especially on the international oil industry and other energy-related extractive industries. He was born in Lebanon and received his Ph.D. from Clark University²⁵³ Since 2010 he has held a courtesy visiting appointment in the Rutgers Department of Geography.

Usha Eleswarapu (RU 2010-?)

Usha is an Indian-born geographer who gained her PhD. from the University of Iowa with a dissertation that focused on evaluating the costs of contamination of public water supplies²⁵⁴. She has taught courses in Geographic Information Systems and has served as a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Geography.

Tania del Mar Lopez Marrero (RU 2011-2015)

Tania was first trained at the University of Puerto Rico as a natural scientist and completed her higher geography degrees at Pennsylvania State University under the direction of Brent Yarnal.²⁵⁵ She specializes in the human dimensions of natural hazards and disasters as well as ecosystem change. At Rutgers she held a joint position with the departments of Geography and Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies before returning to the Mayaguez branch of her original alma mater.

Asher Ghertner (RU 2012-)

Asher (b. 1979-) is the latest exponent of South Asian (Indian) geography on the faculty at Rutgers. He studied under Michael J. Watts at the University of California-Berkeley and received his Ph.D. in 2010.²⁵⁶ Asher focuses on the post-colonial transformation of Indian cities, especially the role that cultural aesthetics plays in shaping urban development programs that have been promoted by elite groups amid a society marked by contending ethnic identities.

Nathaniel Gabriel (RU 2014-2016; 2018-)

Nate (b.1978) is a political ecologist with interests in urban public open space who received his Ph.D. from Rutgers under the direction of Kevin St. Martin.²⁵⁷ After an initial

²⁵³ Mazen Labban. “The contradiction of space – oil, imperialism and the accumulation of capital,” Ph. D. dissertation, Clark University, 2005.

²⁵⁴ Usha Natarajan, “Economics of screening for the detection of pesticides in ground water,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Iowa, 1992.

²⁵⁵ Tania de; Mar Lopez Marrero, “Adaptive capacity and resilience to floods in the Caribbean: A case study of two flood-prone communities in Puerto Rico,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 2008.

²⁵⁶ David Asher Ghertner, “Rule by aesthetics: World-class city making in Delhi,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, 2010.

²⁵⁷ Nathaniel Gabriel, “The work that parks do: Urban environmental management and its alternatives,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University, 2012.

appointment as an Instructor in New Jersey and a two-year stint at Mississippi State University he returned to Rutgers and now teaches a broad swathe of undergraduate courses on environmental themes.

Paul O’Keefe (RU 2016-)

Paul is a human geographer and political ecologist who was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, where he attended the University of Leeds and the University of Northumbria. He subsequently came to the United States and completed doctoral studies at the University of West Virginia under the direction of Brent McCusker.²⁵⁸ His recent research focuses on the interaction of climate change discourses with development programs in Africa.

Carrie Mott (RU 2016-2018)

Carrie (b. 1977) is a political-historical geographer who gained a Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky under the direction of Anna Secor and spent two years at Rutgers before taking up a position at the University of Louisville.²⁵⁹ Her research focused on spaces occupied by marginalized people that have been appropriated by others with greater political power, especially as exemplified by Native American tribes of the Columbian Basin.

Kevon Christopher Rhiney (RU 2017-)

Kevon (b. 1982-) is a Caribbean born geographer with interests that span a wide range of broadly environmental topics including global change, environmental justice, postcolonialism and political ecology. He received a Ph.D. from the University of the West Indies and much of his research on problems of small-scale farming has occurred on the island of Jamaica. Kevon works collaboratively with natural and social scientists to uncover links between the vulnerability of farmers and a range of factors including extreme weather events, climatic and economic drivers of global change, agricultural innovations, and legacies of colonialism.

Willie Wright (RU 2019-2021)

Willie is a student of connections between race and place in urban America who received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina.²⁶⁰ After holding an appointment at Florida State University he came to Rutgers in 2019 and remained for two years before relocating to the University of Florida.

²⁵⁸Paul O’Keefe, “Vulnerabilities in a changing climate: Farming opportunity and constraint in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania,” Ph.D. Dissertation, West Virginia University, 2015.

²⁵⁹ Carrie Mott, “Spaces of solidarity: Negotiations of difference and whiteness among activists in the Arizona/Sonora borderlands,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kentucky, 2016.

²⁶⁰ Willie Wright, ““Free the land!”: Exploring the spatial and political legacies of the Republic of New Afrika in Detroit and Jackson,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2017.

Andrea Marston (RU 2019-)

Andrea (b. 1985) received her Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley.²⁶¹ She came to Rutgers and uses the lens of feminist geography to analyze environmental politics and resource extraction, primarily in Latin America.

Daniel Barone (RU 2020-)

Dan is a student of coastal management who gained his Geography Ph.D. at Rutgers under the direction of Karl Nordstrom²⁶². He is a Certified Floodplain Manager who employs geospatial technologies and models of dynamic change, and now serves as a Associate Research Professor attached to the departments of Geography and Marine and Coastal Sciences as well as the Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation.

Priscilla Pinto Ferreira (RU 2021-)

Priscilla specializes in the geographical dimensions of Afro-Latino populations. She was born in Brazil and originally trained in sociology and ethnic relations. After coming to the United States she completed Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Geography at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill under the direction of John Pickles²⁶³ and held a postdoctoral position at the University of Texas-Austin.

Jesse Rodenbiker (RU 2022- )

Jesse is an Asian-oriented scholar with experience in journalism and NGOs whose research focuses on the political ecology of urbanization in China, especially as exemplified through the language discourses that attend contemporary processes of development. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley and teaches in the Rutgers graduate programs in Geography and Planning and Urban Policy.

T. Roane (RU 2022-)

J.T. Roane holds a 2016 Ph.D. in History from Columbia University. After appointments at Arizona State University, the University of Cincinnati, Smith College and New York University he came to Rutgers on a joint position between the departments of Geography and Africana Studies. He holds the Andrew Mellon Chair in the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice and specializes in black ecologies.

²⁶¹ Andrea J. Marston, “Thieves pf Patria: Vertical politics in plurinational Bolivia,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, 2019.

²⁶² Daniel Barone, “Determining human dominance thresholds for barrier islands along the New Jersey coast,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University, 2016.

²⁶³ Priscilla P. Ferreira, “Solidarity economy as a pedagogical praxis of autonomy” MA, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2012; Priscilla P. Ferreira, “City of God(esses): from a place of necessity to a space of politics,” Ph.D. dissertation, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2018.

Teona Williams (RU 2024-)

Teona recently came to Rutgers as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow and is now affiliated with the Department of Geography. She holds a Ph.D. in History and African American Studies from Yale University and specializes in the environmental history of black communities.

1.3.2 Geography in the recent era (2010-2024)

During the period 2010-2017 classes taught by Department of Geography faculty annually enrolled an average of about 2,500 students, of whom 110-150 were graduate students.²⁶⁴ Instruction in these classes was provided by between 9 and 11 Full Time equivalent departmental faculty. Trends in undergraduate participation showed somewhat reduced numbers of Geography majors but a large increase in the number of Geography Minors and Doctorates.

Ph.D. output also increased sharply (to 54 in 2010-2019 with an additional 10 in the period 2020-2023). Doctoral dissertations showed preferences for the use of mixed methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation rather than single-method scientific procedures that had previously dominated. Over half of the dissertations (28) had a foreign area focus, a marked shift away from historic norms. There was also a turning toward issues and problems of people in developing countries and away from concerns of Western metropolitan populations. And in another striking departure, roughly 2/3 of dissertations were written by women, many from outside the USA. (Appendix 19)

Currently (2024), the Undergraduate Program offers degrees in Geography and – collaboratively with other disciplines - in Environmental Studies, as well as Minors in Environmental Studies and in International and Global Studies. Within the Geography major there are three tracks: Global Culture, Economics and Society; Environment; and Geographical Techniques. The emphasis is on acquisition of technical training and theoretical perspectives necessary to equip students with decision-making skills about human relationships with the environment. In the Graduate Program there is a more pointed statement of curricular goals.

This foregrounds concerns about biases that might hinder achievement of social justice within the discipline of Geography and in the world at large. It also includes passages that highlight the importance of critiques of existing epistemologies and the desirability of dismantling practices that foster racism or other biases. < https://geography.rutgers.edu/academics/graduate-program/curriculum-statement>

One important trend of this decade has been the rise, among faculty, of political ecology to a position of dominance in approaches to the study of society-environment interactions used by Rutgers geographers. Of the eight faculty hires that took place between 2010 and 2019 five of the newcomers self-identified as political ecologists – a term that privileges collective political beliefs and interests as the preeminent drivers of decisions that shape the human uses of contemporary environments. These five (Marrero, Ghertner, Gabriel, O’Keefe, Rhiney) joined several existing faculty who also viewed themselves as political ecologists (Schroeder, St.

Martin). By the early years of the most recent era political ecology was listed as a primary research interest of almost half (15) of the 34 currently enrolled graduate students. Themes associated with postmodern approaches to research (i.e. critical geography, social justice, feminism, postcolonialism) accounted for another 13 dissertations with the remainder (8) focusing on more traditional social science or earth science topics and methods.

²⁶⁴ Unpublished data included in School of Arts and Sciences spreadsheet “Key Metrics – Support for Department Strategic Plans” 2017.

Before closing this section on Geography faculty members it is useful to be reminded that although most primarily employed their expertise to address audiences of peers and students, on occasion they also spoke directly to broader publics by means of Opinion articles published in mass media outlets, including Letters to the Editors of newspapers. Sometimes these revealed values that informed their broader worldviews. A selection of these materials is included in Appendix 34.

4: Students

Information about students who studied Geography provides a window into the history of Rutgers Geography different from faculty profiles. Available data allows us to shed light on several questions. What kinds of students were attracted to Geography as a course of study?

Where did they come from? What subfields did they favor? What careers did they subsequently take up? Answers to these questions vary in completeness.

The first Rutgers baccalaureate degrees were awarded in 1950. Thereafter it has been possible to identify approximately 866 BA/BS graduates, although the actual total is likely to be around 950-1000 when years with missing data are taken into account (Appendix 36). The Rutgers Geography Master’s program began in 1956 and has awarded at least 293 degrees. The Doctoral program was added in 1964 and 180 Ph.D.s. have been awarded since then. Most is known about graduate students; undergraduates are less well documented.

Up through the 1980s numbers of Master’s graduates far outpaced numbers of Ph.D’s but since then the production of Master’s degrees has fallen substantially, in large part because the Program has emphasized recruitment (and support) of doctoral applicants.

4.1 Ph.D. graduates

Records for the 180²⁶⁵ Ph.D. graduates are most comprehensive because they worked closely and for a long time with faculty members, who served as mentors, writers of recommendation letters, and often as friends. (Appendix 18) There were also a small number of doctoral candidates who did not undertake, or finish, dissertations (ABDs).

Figure 4-1 shows the number of Ph.D.’s awarded by decade. Between 1971 and 1999 there were about 2-3 Ph.D. graduates per year; thereafter numbers increased to 4-5 per year reaching annual peaks of 8 each in 2000 and 2015. The general increase since 2000 reflects a growing emphasis on the production of doctorates both by the University and the Geography Program. A corresponding de-emphasis on attracting Master’s students began around the same time.

Although most Ph.D. graduates were U.S. citizens or U.S. residents, foreign students always comprised a significant proportion, typically between 20-25% during each decade. Only during the 1980s were there substantially fewer (9%). Among the foreign students South Asian, East Asian, and European origins predominated, followed by modest representations from Latin America, Africa, and Canada.

Gender composition has undergone a significant shift. Although there has always been a mix of genders, males clearly dominated in the period before 2000, whereas females became dominant thereafter.

Fig. 4-1

Distribution of Ph.D. graduates by decade

Decade	Ph.D.s awarded	Place of Origin USA Non-USA		Gender Male Female
1970s	21	15	6	20	1
1980s	22	20	2	15	7
1990s	29	22	7	13	16
2000s	40	31	9	19	21
2010s	54	40	14	23	31
2020-2024*	14	4	10	3	11
Totals	180	132	48	93	87

March 7, 2024

²⁶⁵ Total until March 10, 2024. Appendix 18.

4.1.1 What subfields and topics did Ph.D. graduates embrace?

Dissertations provide clues to the kinds of Geography that were in vogue at Rutgers and how they have changed over the years. An inventory of the 180 works completed by March 1, 2024 suggests a high degree of continuity in the topics of dissertations but also some shifts in emphasis among them. Research within the Society-Environment interaction tradition that can be traced back to Andrew Clark in 1949 has been dominant, with strong ancillary representation in urban geography and certain fields of physical geography. However, there have been distinct shifts in the balance between empiricism and theory with the appearance of new concepts, and even more striking changes in the investigative methods and techniques employed. Appendix 21 provides some clues about these shifts. It records key terms that proliferated in studies completed during the early years (pre-1990) and in the most recent (post-2010) period.

Three general trends are worthwhile noting. First is the vastly increased volume of dissertations that have recently been produced. Sixty percent (60%) of all dissertations appeared since 2000. Whether this pace will continue is an open question; at current rates of productivity the 2020s seem likely to witness fewer completions than either the 2000s or the 2010s but this may be a statistical aberration connected with the negative worldwide impact of Covid-19 on student enrollments and performance.

A parallel second trend is the increasing diversity of topics addressed. For example, hazards tackled in early dissertations included floods, famine, erosion, and subsidence. More recently the list included floods, drought, snowstorms, diseases, saltwater intrusion, air pollution, and maritime safety, as well as cross-cutting topics like evacuation, insurance, and adaptations to climate change risks. Likewise, early dissertations focused on the structure of cities, whereas recent ones have addressed socio-technical and political-economic processes (e.g. energy shifts, migration, gentrification, racial dynamics) that are changing cities and creating new kinds of living arrangements.

The third striking trend has been a recent upsurge in dissertations that focus on areas outside North America. (Fig. 4-2) Whereas there were only a handful of foreign area focused dissertations prior to 2000, there have been 50 since then with the majority completed since 2010. A significant number were conducted by female students who received their undergraduate education in India. This trend may reflect the attractiveness of Central New Jersey to Indian immigrants,²⁶⁶ and it has prompted the reawakening of a Rutgers Geography tradition of India-focused studies.

²⁶⁶ Today Indians represent the second largest U.S. immigration group after Mexicans and ahead of Chinese and Filipinos. Source: “Indian immigrants in the United States,” Migration Policy Institute, December 7, 2022. < https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/indian-immigrants-united-states> Middlesex County, NJ (seat of Rutgers University) is the county with the highest concentration of Asian Indians living in the USA.

Fig. 4-2

Geographic Area of Dissertations Focused outside North America

Decade	Asia	Africa	Latin America & Caribbean	Europe	Total
1970s	2	2	0	0	4
1980s	1	1	0	0	2
1990s	2	0	1	2	5
2000s	2	3	4	2	11
2010s	14	5	6	4	29
2020-24	3	2	4	1	10
Totals	24	13	15	9	61

Many of the more recent dissertations reflect a major shift in geographical thought that is international in scope. New perspectives have recognized multiple and often competing interpretations of evidence that was previously undisputed, and they have challenged the notion of natural systems that exist independent of human interference. These developments owe much to the advent of new information gathering technologies that reveal hitherto unknown aspects of biogeochemical processes, thereby carrying physical geography into new intellectual territory, as well as recognition of the diverse ways in which human geographical knowledge is socially constructed by different groups in different contexts.²⁶⁷

For example, early dissertations tended to construe Geography as a spatial science, especially as expressed by the structure of cities and the distribution of settlements and land uses. Sensitivity to spatial variations also undergirded much of the early work on natural processes and the human use of the biosphere. Insights from Central Place Theory and models of areal functional organization were often employed, and the physical environment was treated as a dynamic system that tended toward equilibrium states. Hypothesis testing and modeling of quantitative “objective” data were common, and a wide range of statistical analytic techniques were employed. Towards the end of the 1980s, the role of perceptions as factors that affected human behavior in ways that are not wholly consistent with assumptions about rational decision making, began to appear, foreshadowing an era of broader challenges to taken-for-granted beliefs and interpretations.

While continuing to show strong interest in many of the same broad fields of study as their predecessors recent Ph.D. students have explored new territory, such as urban forestry and the geography of food production and use, both domestically in the United States and in developing countries. But they have also addressed previously unexamined facets of more familiar topics and broken new ground, using different philosophical and theoretical perspectives, and novel investigative methods that set them apart from earlier peers. Thus, students of physical geography have developed new sample sets and collected original data about

267 For example: Livingstone, D. N. (1992). The geographical tradition: Episodes in the history of a contested enterprise. Chichester, UK: John Wiley and Sons, and Boyle M, Hall T, Sidaway JD. (2019) “Reappraising David Livingstone's The Geographical Tradition: A quarter of a century on” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 44:438–443. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12294

glacial hydrology, snow climatology, storm frequencies and beach dynamics that was not previously available, with a view to improving forecasts and predictions of future events, some of them human forced. Similarly, students of human ecology and political ecology have sought to tease apart the complex dynamics that affect co-produced relationships between people and nature. Among human centered dissertations mixed methodologies were increasingly prevalent during the 2010s. Traditional social science tools like questionnaires, interviews, surveys, official data sets and systematic sampling procedures were joined – and sometimes superseded – by semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation, participatory mapping, text and discourse analysis, diaries, oral histories and other ethnographic study devices that bespoke increased attention to the roles of non-experts and laypersons in the assessment and resolution of issues.

Decade to decade dissertation trends and differences are examined in greater detail in Appendix 19.

4.1.2 Careers of Geography Ph.D. graduates

Information about the known major career employment of Ph.D. graduates is provided in Appendix 20. It reflects the dominant career experience of each. Many of the longer-established graduates held more than one position and a few changed careers entirely. Some are still in the beginning stages of their careers and may well eventually choose other paths. Most graduates (c. 60%) pursued careers in academia; the rest went on to hold jobs in government, NGOs, and the private sector. The career paths of five Ph.Ds. are not known.

4.1.3 Academic Careers

As might be expected, most Rutgers Ph.D. geographers (c.106, 61%) made successful careers in academia. They generally were members of college and university Departments of Geography, but they have also thrived in interdisciplinary settings, finding good matches in departments of Planning, Urban Affairs, Environmental Studies and, to a lesser extent, Area Studies, Anthropology, Geosciences, Marine Science, Biological Science, Business, Economics, Sociology, and Political Science, among others. At least two graduates became Independent Scholars and two more became high school teachers and administrators.

Most graduates occupied permanent teaching and research positions in four-year public universities and colleges throughout North America with the majority located in Northeastern states. Host institutions include major schools like Columbia University and the Universities of Toronto, Southern California, Illinois, Arizona, and Texas as well as many branches of the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY) systems and nearly all New Jersey-based institutions, including their alma mater. Rutgers Ph.Ds. also went abroad to universities and research posts in Canada (3), United Kingdom (2), Sweden (2), Singapore (2), France, India (2), Japan (2), South Korea (2), Philippines (2), Kenya, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia, Venezuela, Bahamas, and Jamaica.

4.1.4 Non-academic careers

Trends in employment reveal the growing importance of non-academic jobs in the most recent decades. For example, since 2000 at least 26 graduates have found employment outside academia.

Overall, the bulk of Ph.D.s who chose non-academic careers worked in government (21).

Eleven (11) held positions in U.S. federal agencies including: U.S. Forest Service (2); National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (2); U.S. Geological Survey; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. Department of Agriculture; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Federal Reserve Bank; U.S. Army; U.S. Navy. Five (5) were employed in State agencies: NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection; NJ Dept. of the Treasury; NJ Office of Legislative Services; Texas Water Development Board; State of Massachusetts GIS. One graduate became the chief administrator of a local government entity in New York state. Four

(4) others worked in international or foreign state organizations: UN Development Program (2); CSIRO (Australia); State Commissioner of Agriculture, Ondo state, Nigeria.

About a dozen (12) careers have been forged in non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The latter included private environmental, social, and educational foundations, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Educational Testing Service, an AIDS support organization, and a community center.

Thirteen (13) graduates set up their own private businesses or worked for existing firms as researchers and/or technical specialists who contracted their services to public and private organizations. Most focused on environmental or geodata matters but others became experts in a range of subjects including law, archaeological surveys, emergency management, editing, cartography, graphic arts, design, photography, and communications. At least two became artists who made use of geographical themes in their creations and exhibited them in public venues.

4.1.5 Vignettes of Ph.D. graduates 268

The following vignettes provide a small chronological sample that highlights the diversity of experiences and achievements among Ph.D. alumni. (Year of graduation in parenthesis.)

The first doctoral graduate, Peter O. Muller (1971) spent most of his career at the University of Miami and made noteworthy scholarly contributions to geographic literature on urbanization. (https://geography.as.miami.edu/_assets/pdf/vita.pom.pdf )

The second Ph.D., Welford C. Robinson, Jr. (1972), an African American, was commissioned in the U.S. Navy and retired with the rank of Commander after a distinguished military career. Thereafter, he served as chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Baltimore. (https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/acfp/id/9462)

Ralph Caprio (1973) developed early expertise in municipal housing policy into a career in higher education administration that saw him hold positions as Chair of the Department of Public Administration, Dean, Provost, Vice President, and distinguished University Professor at Rutgers University.

Christine Drake (1977). First woman Geography doctoral graduate at Rutgers. Came to the USA with BA and MA degrees from Oxford University. Long time (42 years) professor at Old Dominion University, Virginia. Recipient of many awards from State of Virginia, Fulbright, National Council on Geographic Education (NCGE) and other organizations.

Cedric Page (1978). Taught as a commissioned officer at the U.S. Air Force Academy and then at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos. Served in various academic university-wide leadership and administrative capacities. Most recently has been a Regent of the New Mexico Military Institute.

Germany-born Murray Sabrin (1980) became a professor of Finance at Ramapo College and represented the Libertarian Party in the 1997 election for the post of New Jersey Governor, as well as running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2000 and 2008.

William (Bill) Reynolds (1982) became a Colonel in the U.S. Army who specialized in coastal geomorphology and taught at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. He was buried there in 2019.

David Wilson (1985) has served at the University of Illinois since 1990, and now holds four positions as Professor of Geography, Urban Planning, African American Studies, and Criticism and Interpretive Theory. In 2023 he was honored with a Lifetime Association of American Geographers Fellowship.

²⁶⁸ These represent only a fraction of the 180 known holders of RU Geography Ph.D.s. They have been chosen solely to illustrate a diversity of life stories.

Nancy Neumann (1986) founded, and is President of, Sandstone Environmental Associates, Inc., a regional consulting company that specializes in air quality and noise assessments, wetlands delineations and water resource analyses.

Don Mitchell (1992) was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship and served as a Distinguished Professor of Geography at Syracuse University. Best known for his work on cultural theory and the roles of labor, migrants, and homeless people in the development of landscapes, he currently holds an Emeritus appointment at the University of Uppsala, Sweden.

Leyla Vural (1994) founded LV Communications, a firm that specializes in videography and oral history projects, including some featuring Nobel prize winners.

Karen Nichols (1994) is a Humanities teacher in the Upper School of Oakwood Friends School, Poughkeepsie, New York. < https://www.oakwoodfriends.org/faculty-directory/humanities/karen-nbsp-nbsp-nichols-nbsp-knichols-oakwoodfriends.org/>

Sandra Luque (1996) is a remote sensing and biodiversity expert who holds the position of Research Director, at the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment, Paris.

Allan Frei (1997). Professor, Chairperson and Deputy Director, CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities, Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, New York.

Ruth Gilmore (Ph.D. 1998) became a pioneer of research on incarceration and an internationally prominent advocate of prison abolition who has held senior posts at the University of California-Berkeley and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Marla Emery (1998) served as a Research Geographer with the U.S. Forest Service who co-chaired the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, a body that engages scientists from around the world to provide policy makers with expert knowledge about sustainable uses of wild animals, mushrooms, and plants.

Philippines-born Doracie Zoleta-Nantes (1999), a student of natural hazards and disasters, is the second woman President of the 11 campuses of Southern Luzon State University in Quezon, Philippines.

Richard Hunter (1999) is founder and President of Hunter Research Inc., a 30-person firm of historical and archaeological research consultants headquartered in Trenton, NJ.

Michael Craghan (1999) works on coasts, climate change and risk management at the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Anne Bellows (1999) became an international authority on human rights to food and now holds a professorship in Food Studies at Syracuse University.

James Kendra (2000) is Director of the internationally prominent Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware.

Andy Stewart (2001) is the Village Administrator of Nyack, New York, a community on the west bank of the Hudson River.

Barbara Hildebrant (2002) is a Senior Director at the Educational Testing Service, Stewartsville, New Jersey who has been honored by the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) for her services to teachers and teaching.

John Kasbarian (2004) completed a dissertation on ethnic nationalism in Nagorno-Karabakh that led to his appointment as the Research Director of the Tufenkian Foundation, a community service organization designed to combat poverty and assist development projects in Armenia.

Singapore-born Hong Ling Wee (2005) switched careers from NASA geoinformation scientist to award-winning ceramist whose exhibitions on two continents have showcased place-grounded themes that reflect her background in Geography.

Cheryl Gower (2008). Policy and Campaigns Manager for the National AIDs Trust, a charity NGO in the United Kingdom.

Mariana Leckner (2009). Expert in emergencies and disaster responses. Career as a Senior Emergency Management professional in State government, University, and private consulting.

Monalisa Chatterjee (2010). Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Graduate Program Director, Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability, University of Southern California Dornsife, Los Angeles.

Purba Rudra (2011) is a teacher and Treasurer of the Shishur Sevay organization, an NGO based in Kolkata, that cares for lost and abandoned girls throughout India.

James Jeffers (2011). Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Director of the Hazard, Risk and Disaster Research Group, Bath Spa University, Bath, United Kingdom.

Adelle Thomas (2012) is Director, Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience Research Center, University of the Bahamas.

Adam Steinberg (2014) is Managing Editor, Research Publications, Federal Reserve Bank, Philadelphia.

Mark Barnes (2014) is Associate Professor of History and Geography, Morgan State University MD., and Director of American Rivers, the premier national organization that focuses on clean water and river health.

Asher Siebert (2015) is a Senior Staff Associate at the International Institute for Climate and Society, Earth Institute, Columbia University where he works on seasonal climate forecasting in support of agricultural decision-making in Africa.

Peter Vancura (2015) is Program Manager, Science and Resilience Institute, Jamaica Bay, NY

Divya Karnad (2017). Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Ashoka University, Haryana, India. Co-Chair of In Season Fish, a collective that promotes sustainable and safe seafood in India.

Moustafa Samiah (2017). An investigator of the Greenland Ice Cap, currently manages the Student Airborne Science Activation Program at the Ames Research Center of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA), an initiative aimed at assisting underrepresented minorities to follow careers in geoscience.

Alison (Ali) H. Schaeffing (2018). Assistant Professor of Geography, Women’s Studies Department, Russell Sage College, NY

Michael Brady (2018) is a cartographer who coproduced a coastal risk assessment GIS and is a leader of the Arctic Data Collaboration Team at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, U.S. Department of Defense.

Ana Maria Mahecha Groot (2021) is a Senior Director at Transforma, a think tank for climate action and ecological transitions located in Columbia, South America.

4.2 M.A./M.S. graduates

Formal records about students who completed Master’s degrees were not kept until recently, so their numbers are underrepresented, especially for the Program’s early decades. Based on available records, at least 293 Master’s degrees had been awarded by the end of 2023. Forty-five (45) of the Master’s graduates later earned Geography Ph.D.s at Rutgers. Unlike the Ph.D. program, which regularly admitted international students, only a handful of applicants from other countries graduated from the Master’s program.

Career data for Master’s students is limited. Fig. 4-3 provides a breakdown of what is known about approximately one-third of the graduates. This shows that the spread of occupations followed is quite wide with roughly equal numbers following higher education and public sector careers (Government + NGOs) but over one-quarter entering fields in the private sector.

Vignettes of some Master’s graduates are perhaps more instructive of the diversity of jobs represented.

Fig. 4-3

Available career data for 78 (of 230) Master’s graduates

Decade graduated	N	Higher Education	Government	NGOs	Private Industry
1950s	3	3
1960s	2	2
1970s	11	2	3	1	5
1980s	12	2	3		7
1990s	25	9	10	3	3
2000s	11	4	2	4	1
2010s	14	5	2	2	5
	78	27	20	10	21

Vignettes of Master’s graduates269(Year Degree received in parentheses)

Robert J. Sell was awarded one of the first Geography Master’s degrees (1950s). He served three years in the U.S. Marine Corps in Korea. On his return he began a 35-year career as a teacher and guidance counselor in Ewing Township High School. (d. 2006)

<https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/891275/Robert-J-Sell>

John Earl Rickert (1958) wrote the first Rutgers Geography Master’s thesis. He was a

U.S. Marine Corps officer who served in Korea and then went on to become Dean of Management at New Jersey’s Stockton State University. (d. 1981) https://www.newspapers.com/article/verona-cedar-grove-times-obituary-for-jo/120036913/

Maynard Weston Dow (1960) taught in the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) program at Rutgers University and then at the U.S. Air Force Academy, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Much impressed with a course on the history of geographical thought, which he took at Rutgers under Guido Weigend, he later completed a Ph.D. at Syracuse University and established the widely praised “Geographers on Film” program. This is a unique oral history film collection of several hundred interviews with prominent American geographers, between 1970 and the mid-1980s, which is now lodged in the Library of Congress.²⁷⁰ (d. 2011).< https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/concordmonitor/name/maynard-dow-obituary?id=11023601>

Winnifred Varney Fischer (1962) was the first woman to receive a Geography Master’s degree at Rutgers. (Winnie) was born in Montana (1910) and attended the University of California-Berkeley, where she was a co-founder of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers.²⁷¹ Her marriage (1939) to Alfred Fischer, a petroleum geologist²⁷², eventually took her to Peru, where she became familiar with the old city of Lima. When Alfred later assumed an academic post at Princeton University, Winnifred enrolled at Rutgers and channeled her knowledge of Lima into a remarkably detailed MA thesis map of the city’s structure. She then was honored with an invitation to join the prestigious Society of Women Geographers²⁷³ which later awarded several doctoral support Fellowships to female graduate students in the Rutgers Geography program. She died in California just three months short of her 100^th birthday.

Angelo Costa (1963) was born in Sicily and spent most of World War II in Rome. He later immigrated to the USA and joined the US Army before studying geography at Rutgers and taking up a Geography teaching post in South Brunswick High School. There he became famous for pioneering a unique Outdoor Education Program that took students on many adventures including white water rafting in West Virginia and in the Rocky Mountains. His obituary records

²⁶⁹ These represent only a representative fraction of the 232 known holders of RU Geography Masters degreess. They have been chosen solely to illustrate a diversity of life stories.

²⁷⁰ “Geographers on Film,” https://www.aag.org/geographers-on-film/

²⁷¹ Gary Dunbar, 1986. “The fiftieth anniversary banquet: Messages from Charter Members of Pacific Coast Geographers,” Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 48: 169-188.

²⁷² On April 6, 1962, while on the faculty at Princeton University, he gave a lecture to the Rutgers Geography Club entitled “Three paleographic hypotheses – permanence, polar wander, continental drift.

²⁷³ See, SWG membership list http://www.iswg.org/resources/member-files and Appendix 39.

a retirement packed with travel, trumpet playing, public service and tributes from former students, up to his death at age 85.²⁷⁴

David B. Smith (1965) was born into a military family and traveled with them overseas as a child. After gaining his Master’s degree he embarked on a career in the U.S. Army, serving tours in Vietnam in the Transportation Corps and Greece in Military Intelligence during his 28 year tenure in the military. Smith trained at the Defense Language Institute and he and his wife spoke fluent Greek. After retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1993, Smith taught in public schools in Fairfax County, Virginia. His Rutgers oral history interview contains many references to his experiences in the Rutgers Geography program. < https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/alphabetical-index/interviewees/1536-smith-david-b>

Kingsley E. Haynes (1966) obtained a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and had an outstanding academic career, raising more than $40 million in grants and founding several important institutions including the School of Public Policy at George Mason University.

Among the public honors he has received is membership as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. < https://khaynes.gmu.edu/> and < https://ias.hkust.edu.hk/people/ias-members/alumni/prof-kingsley-e-haynes> and < https://napawash.org/fellow/10818> and < https://germanna.edu/about-germanna/leadership-governance/local-college-board/dr-kingsley-haynes>

Susan Bonsall (1973) (now Susan Bonsall Rosenberry) initially was a marketing and communications specialist at Rutgers University. Later she was involved in, and often led, non-profit public education and community service organizations. Among others, these include the Colorado Environmental Coalition, Earth Day USA, and the Stewardship Community. She also plays the flute in three groups, is an oil painter and a Master Gardener with Larimer County, Colorado. < https://groundworkcolorado.org/about/board-of-directors/>

Edgar Brannon (1975). After gaining additional professional qualifications at Harvard and Yale, Ed worked with the National Forest Service, including as Director of the Grey Towers National Historic Site (home to the conservationist Gifford Pinchot). He became a Fellow of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation and serves as President of Brannon and Associates, a landscape architecture and resource management company that designs energy-efficient passive houses and landscapes. < https://www.linkedin.com/in/edgar-brannon-72342813/>

Douglas Sherman (1978) is a coastal geomorphologist who followed his Master’s degree with a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and a post-doctoral appointment at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He subsequently held Full Professorships at the University of Southern California and Texas A and M University, as well a Fulbright Senior Fellowship, and is now associated with the University of Alabama. <https://geography.ua.edu/people/douglas-j-sherman/>

Robert Dahl (MA 1981) is a cartographer who designs, makes, and supplies digitized maps to clients through his company Map Resources in Lambertville, New Jersey.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-dahl-16a5a622

²⁷⁴ Cremation Society of New Hampshire, https://obits.csnh.com>angelo-costa. October 27, 2021.

Gail Carter (1987) has been described as a Renaissance woman. She was employed as a GIS analyst and research scientist at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, but her interests were widespread, including making jewelry, collecting Kachina dolls, reading vampire novels, flamenco dancing, rollerblading and, traveling the world. She also served as President of the New Jersey Academy of Science and was a member of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JCNERR). (d. 2010). < http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/GailCarter/Homepage.aspx>

Louise Cook (1989) is the London-based Director of Operations for KTP International, a Hong Kong firm which administers Kaplan educational Preparation Tests and Admissions programs. <https://rocketreach.co/louise-cook-email_101262311>

Robert T. Pavlowsky (1989). Bob earned a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Ozarks Environmental and Water Resources Institute, at Missouri State University, Springfield Missouri. https://geosciences.missouristate.edu/profile-display.aspx?p=BobPavlowsky

Gregory A. Remaud (1990). CEO of NY/NJ Baykeeper. He is a land preservation advocate for the New York-New Jersey Estuary Region and through this NGO leads or partners in acquisition, preservation, and restoration projects. <https://www.nynjbaykeeper.org/crew>

Hans Almgren (1990) initially became a headmaster at a Swedish secondary school and then joined the Swedish National Agency for Education as a policy expert with the title Director of Education. <https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/events/MaxSkillsJobs2015/speakers >

Matthew Weismantel (1990). Served as Senior Director of Public Relations and Campus Information for Rutgers University and managed the University’s 250^th Anniversary celebrations. Published amateur genealogist. https://progenstudygroups.com/cm-expert-directory/matt-weismantel/

Patricia Heaney (1992). Pat runs innovative environmental education programs at The Watershed Institute, a central New Jersey environmental NGO, and writes novels (e.g. Mean Sea Level) in her spare time. < https://thewatershed.org/staff/>

Sanjay Kharod (1993). Sanjay has planned, developed, and directed farm-to-food organizations in activist and organizer roles. These include Just Food NYC, Propellor, the New Orleans Food and Farm Network and, most recently, The Common Market. Common Market connects wholesale customers to farmers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware by marketing and distributing good food to schools, hospitals, grocers, and workplaces. < https://theorg.com/org/common-market/org-chart/sanjay-kharod>

Darren K. Coffey (1993). Darren is co-founder and owner of the Berkley Group, a 60-person consulting firm that specializes in providing public agencies with expertise in community development and planning, human resources, and safety. <https://www.bgllc.net/team/darren-k.-coffey%2C-aicp>

Stanley Jacobs (1995) After serving as GIS and UNIX systems administrator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Stanley became Executive Director of Information Technology at Experion Therapeutics, Inc. a biopharmaceutical research and development firm that focuses on treatments for patients with elevated LDL-Cholesterol.

<https://www.theladders.com/expert/stanley-jacobs-66b196>

Kerry Claire Gargan (1997) is a Public Health Representative at the New Jersey Department of Public Health. The job involves data collection and analysis in collaboration with health specialists and civic groups to ascertain and meet community health needs.

<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-claire-gargan-3a1459122>

Meg Holden (1998) received a Ph.D. with a focus on health policy from the New School and has been a Professor of Urban Studies, Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. < https://www.linkedin.com/in/meg-holden-45919810/?originalSubdomain=ca>

Jeremy Coangelo-Bryan (1999) is Chief Planner of Capital Planning and Programs at NJ Transit. < https://radaris.com/p/Jeremy/Colangelo/>

Junko Noguchi (now Junko Ota) (2002) is a policy researcher at Kitakyushu Urban Center of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan. She specializes in localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate change. She also lectures in Advanced Environmental Studies at Kyushu Institute of Technology. < https://www.iges.or.jp/en/about/staff/ota-junko>

Jorgelina Hardoy (2003) is a Fellow of the Institute for Environment and Development.

She is a senior research team leader on projects affecting responses by vulnerable populations and local governments to disaster risks and climate adaptation.

<https://independent.academia.edu/JorgelinaHardoy/CurriculumVitae>

James G. Riely (2003) is a much-decorated graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who employed his early experience assisting disaster recovery operations in Central America as a springboard to his Master’s degree. Subsequently he has risen to the rank of Colonel and commander of the Task Force that oversees U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planning, engineering, and environmental activities in support of military operations in Iraq and Syria. < https://www.tad.usace.army.mil/About/Leadership/Bio-Article-View/Article/1775891/colonel-james-g-riely/>

Xiaohang Liu (2003). Geographic Information specialist who gained her Ph.D. from the University of California – Santa Barbara and is a professor at San Francisco State University. < https://environment.sfsu.edu/person/xiaohang>

Margaret (Missy) Holtzer (2004). Ph. D. in Science Education. Highschool science teacher with 30+ years of experience. President of National Earth Science Teachers Association 2012-2014.

Tanya Rohrbach (2005) Community Planning Manager and Certified Floodplain Manager at NJ Future and an adjunct professor at Raritan Community College. She specializes in encouraging climate change adaptation and aging-friendly neighborhoods. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyarohrbach/ and < https://www.njfuture.org/about-njf/staff-contact/>

Gennadi Poberezny (2006) is a Ukrainian-born Associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute who served as principal designer and Chief Cartographer of the Institute’s Great Famine (Holodomor) Project. He has also been a Fulbright Scholar and more recently a visiting professor at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, Germany. < https://gis.huri.harvard.edu/people/gennadi-pobere%C6%B6ny>

Michael Mohammed (2006) has, since graduation, been employed mostly by the Government of Canada in Ottawa. There he has held advising and managerial positions on stakeholder Engagement, Disability Savings and Policy and Legislation.

Danielle Hartman (2008) is a geospatial scientist who coordinates digital, data and geospatial services for the Americas East Region of ARUP, an international engineering, planning, and design company that specializes in sustainable development projects. https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellehartman/>

Colleen Earp (2011)’s experiences studying human impact on vegetation in Mexico led her to teach environmental geography courses and eventually into youth service programs. She is now an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church and Director of the Massanetta Springs (Virginia) camp and retreat center. < https://massanettasprings.org/blogarchive/welcomecolleen>

Scott Salmon (2011) has specialized in energy systems planning and management. He is Senior Permitting Officer at Vineyard Offshore, a civil engineering construction firm in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The company is building the first offshore wind energy generating system in the USA. <https://www.zoominfo.com/p/Scott-Salmon/1855482600>

Sarah Stinard-Kiel (2013) gained a Ph.D. from Temple University and is a social studies teacher at Edgewater High School, Orlando, Florida. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-stinard-kiel-009a8a35/

Joshua Randall (2014) received a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University and is now employed as a water planning analyst at the Central Arizona Project, a federally instigated initiative that oversees the delivery and sustainable management of Colorado River water to three counties in Arizona. <https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-randall-375a3597>

Helen Olsen (2017) is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow who has worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to provide digital tools for community

health workers in Low- and Medium-Income Countries. She is now a senior program manager at the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM). https://www.idmod.org/person/helen-olsen/>

Sean Thatcher (2020). Sean is a Lecturer at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island in the Department of Engineering and Environmental Science. He has specialized in the relationship between remotely sensed sea surface temperatures and the behavior of horseshoe crabs. He has worked with the International Association for Geoscience Diversity and draws on his own experiences as a quadriplegic to developed experiential field learning programs for students. <https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-thatcher-57060488>

4.3 Bachelor’s graduates (B.A./B.S.)

The total number of Rutgers Geography B.A./B.S. degrees is believed to be in the region of 950 or higher. Approximately 866 of these have been identified in Appendix 36.

The racial and ethnic makeup of today’s Geography undergraduate students has seen clear shifts away from the all-male, white, New Jersey-born classes that were prevalent in the 1950s. While it is not possible to complete a precise accounting, recent graduating classes now include substantial numbers of women, together with significant representation of South and East Asian, Hispanic and Black ethnicities.²⁷⁵

Thumbnail sketches of careers followed by 60 of the Bachelor’s graduates are provided below. These data reveal that the single biggest group (13; 22%) took up jobs that made direct use of technical skills in Cartography, Geographic Information Systems and spatial data management. Other careers include: university faculty and teachers (10%); law firms (9%); government agencies (9%); transportation systems (9%); non-governmental organizations (9%); planning agencies (7%); and the U.S. armed forces (5%).

Organizations that employ Bachelor’s graduates include, among others: World Bank; Metropolitan Museum; State Department; NOAA; USGS; Defense Intelligence Agency; Census Bureau; Bureau of Indian Affairs; New York State, New York City and New Jersey Departments of Transportation; New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; The Open Space Institute.

²⁷⁵ For example, non-white/Caucausian ethnicities accounted for approximately 60% of the graduating class of 2020.

4.3.1 Vignettes of Bachelor’s graduates (date of graduation in parentheses)276

Robert B. Mercready (1950) A World War II Navy veteran, he was one of the first cohort of Geography bachelors degree graduates. He subsequently received a Masters degree in geography from the University of Maryland and embarked on a quarter century cartography career with the Defense Intelligence Agency and later as a computer mapping consultant.

In a recent newspaper biographic piece featuring the now 90-year-old Irene Giorloff (1951) said studying geography was “the best choice I ever made.” ²⁷⁷Originally married to another early Geography grad, Walter A. Nibiker, Jr. (1953), she became a high school geography teacher and still operates a historic farm in Rhode Island.

Jay Lynch (1960). Long time Township Planner, Toms River, NJ.

Larry S. Kalkstein (1969). Ph.D. from Louisiana State University (1974) and later served as Professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Expert on heat warning systems and heat related deaths. President of Applied Climatologists, Inc.

Judith Ann Monte (1969). One of several students who accompanied Prof. Robert Muller to Louisiana State University when he left Rutgers to take up a new position there. She received her Ph.D. from LSU in 1974, spent part of her career working for the U.S. State Department and served as a Regional Councilor of the Association of American Geographers.

Ken Bielen (1971). Director of Grants Management, Indiana Wesleyan University.

Author of three books on American Culture and popular music

Arthur J. Eckerson (1975). Held positions at the U.S. Geological Survey and the Defense Mapping Agency.

Phillip G. Hirtes (1976). MA (University of Washington, 1979) and postgraduate studies in Geographic Information Systems science at Pennsylvania State University. Worked as Supervising Cartographer at the National Aeronautic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and subsequently in private industry as a web content editor and information specialist.

Joseph L. Scarpaci (1976). Received MA (Penn State) and Ph.D. (U. of Florida) before taking up a position as Professor at Virginia Tech. Established cultural exchange programs to Chile and Cuba. Led almost 100 group trips to Cuba. (d. 2023)

Thomas Marchwinski (1978). Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning (1980) and began long career at NJ Transit. Director of Forecasting and Research at NJ Transit since 2001.

²⁷⁶ Data on a selection of 1950s Bachelor’s graduates are provided in pages 24-26.

²⁷⁷ “Nature, education and farm like give Nebiker, now 90, a history worth sharing”, North Shore News, Rhode Island October 8, 2020.

Joanna Mossa (1980). Awarded Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Louisiana State University and served as Professor and Geography Department Chair at the University of Florida.

Dina C. Sa (Knight) (1988). Initially worked at Morris County Planning Board and later as a GIS analyst and information manager at the Baton Rouge Water Company and The Nature Conservancy. Secured an M.S. in Engineering Science from Louisiana State University (2011).

Elaine (Butterhof) Frick (1988). Law degree from Widener School of Law in 1993 and is a member of Fria and Frick Law Office in Pleasantville, NJ.

Joy C. Dingle (1992). Became a lawyer in 2003, specializing in race-sensitive college admissions. Currently Program Director, The Appellate Project, Roger Williams School of Law, Washington, DC.

Carl Walp (1992). Mapping technologist at the New York State Department of Transportation.

Richard Harding (1992). Director, Program and Client Manager of Louis Berger Group for 22 years. Marketing Director TRC Companies, Inc., New Providence, NJ since 2015.

Elise Bremer-Nei (1993). Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, New Jersey Department of Transportation. Leader in development of NJ Safe Routes to School Plan and the NJ Bicycle Map.

Hassan Hodges (2000). Managing Editor of The Daily Targum (Rutgers University student newspaper) while an undergraduate. Varied career as a journalist, mapmaker, and photographer. Project Manager at The Archive, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Bert Weg (2001). After graduation joined the Marine Corps Reserve and served in Iraq.

Producer for Shadow Traffic.

Michael Niosi (2001). GIS Specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau in Philadelphia.

Benjamin Hassid (2002). Master’s Certificate in GIS from Pennsylvania State University and serves as GIS Analyst on Israel’s largest mapping project with Kav-Media and Gabriel Lotan Engineering Group.

James van Schoick (2004). MCRP (Rutgers 2009). Project Manager for New York City Transit. Since 2023 Section Manager, Geospatial Integrated Solutions, New York.

Fenni Pan (2005). Grew up in China, after graduation joined the U.S. Navy and worked in Japan and Italy with the rank of Petty Officer. Environmental Services Professional, Oklahoma City, OK.

Kate Lehmert (2005). Teacher, Mercy College, New York City Department of Education.

Mark Siegle (2005). MCRP (Rutgers, 2009). Director of Community Development, Township of Bordentown, NJ.

Charlton Herczegh (2006). Co-founded and operated an organic farm in Duncannon, Pennsylvania.

Kierran Sutherland (2006). Initially served as a GIS specialist with Maryland State government. Professor, Community College of Baltimore County, Dundalk, Maryland. Since 2022 Coordinator, CCBC Land Survey and Geospatial Affairs program.

Aga Semigieoeska (2006). M.Sc. From Oxford University. Head of Sustainability at Oakley Capital, London, UK. Focus on incorporation of environmental, social and governance factors into the investment process.

Cricket O’Neil (2006). M.S. in Supply chain management from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Manager of Vendor Operations, Media Technology and Infrastructure for NBC Universal Media, LLC.

Jehangir Madon (2006). Born and lived in Bombay (Mumbai), India. Senior Database Engineer at HERE Maps, New York and Mumbai.

Natalia Sardo (2007). Chief of Staff, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Hunterdon and Essex Counties, NJ.

Agostinho A. Bennett (2008). Manager, Advisory and Consulting, Diligent. (Governance Software Company).

Daniel Pelic (2008). JD (Rutgers Law School 2015). Served as law clerk to two NJ Superior Court Justices. Joined Townsend, Tomaio and Newmark, LLC 2017.

Elizabeth Koechlein (2010). Master’s degree in Public Policy (Rutgers, 2014).

Operations Officer, Gender Group, The World Bank, Silver Spring, Maryland.

Andre Gharapetian (2010). Customer Support, Service Titan, Yerevan, Armenia.

Matthew Campagna (2010). MA (Hunter College, 2013). Principal Transportation Planner, NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York.

Erik R. Namendorf (2011). Co-Founder, On Time Appraisals LLC, Mountainside, NJ.

James V. Ciccone (2011). MBA (Northeastern University, 2018). Senior Manager, Enterprise Marketing at Zoodoc, Boston.

Victoria Theung (2011). Administrative Coordinator, The Practicing Law Institute, New

York.

Jonas Rugys (2011). Account Manager (Utilities). ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute), New York.

Latoya Jones (2011). MA (Environmental Science and Policy – Clark University, 2013), MA (Global Affairs, Rutgers-Newark, 2021). Program Manager, Glass Girls Uganda, Kampala, Uganda (NGO).

Marion Clement (2012). Initially, Natural Resources Biologist for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Recently, Mexican Spotted Owl Coordinator, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. Fort Collins, Colorado.

Timothy Suto (2012). Program Analyst (GIS Specialist), Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, DC.

Samuel Firmenich (2012). MS in GIS (U. of Maryland, 2023). Geographic Systems Analyst, Mott MacDonald, New York.

Yasmeen Fahmy (2012). MA in Communications, (Rutgers U. 2017). Associate Director of Digital Marketing, NJ Performing Arts Center. Project Manager at O/M.

Aimee Blenner (2013). J.D. degrees from Hofstra (2013) and Rutgers Law Schools (2015). Served as Deputy Attorney General, State of New Jersey. Assistant Counsel, Kean University.

Kae Yamane (2013). Henry Rutgers Scholar. Cartographic designer, The Open Space Institute.

Sonia Szczesna (2013). MCRP (Rutgers, 2018.) Fulbright Scholarship holder, Producer, Writer, and Photographer.

Jennifer Beck (2013). MA in Elementary Education (Rutgers 2014). 5^th Grade teacher, Harding Public Schools, New Vernon, NJ.

Andrew Foltz-Morrison (2018). Fulbright Scholarship holder. Data Scientist, Brooklyn Defender Services, Brooklyn, New York.

Jonathon Malpica (2014). MCRP (Rutgers, 2021). Urban Planner, City of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Sylvia Schmidt (2015). M.Sc, in Integrated Natural Resources Management (Humboldt University, Berlin). Research Associate at Climate Analytics (New York) organization working on issues of climate impacts, diplomacy, and justice.

Steven C. Gryszel (2015). Assistant Manager, Enterprise Asset Management, Long Island Railroad, New York.

Michael P. Endicott (2015). Master’s in GIS, Development and Environment from Clark University (2017) and Ph.D. (U. of Michigan, 2021). Full time Technical Consultant, ESRI Professional Services Division, Vienna, VA.

Julia J. Bordelon (2016). MA (U. of Texas) in 2021. Works as Project Manager, Public Programming and Digital Humanities. The Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Sabrina E. Bazelais (2016). Triple major in Geography, Political Science and French. Received J.D. from Rutgers Law School (2020). Associate Attorney at Segal, McCambridge, Singer and Mahoney, New York with focus on public interest and intellectual property.

Jared A. Schenkel (2017). MA (Ohio State U. 2019) and holds Data Analyst II position at the Capital Insurance Group in Reno, NV.

Mackenzie Heffernan (2018). Americorps Vista volunteer, St. Croix Foundation, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Matthew Kennelly (2018). Environmental Specialist, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Kristina E. Brandt (2018). Studying for Ph.D., U. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Recipient of Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Public Service at UNC-CH.

4.3.2 Similarities and differences in careers followed by the earliest and recent Bachelor’s graduates

A comparison of the first 13 BA graduates (early to mid 1950s), for whom information is available, with the same number of recent (2023) graduates, yields some useful observations.

Public sector employment dominates in both
Information, data analysis and mapping careers are significant in both
National level government organizations dominate in the
Military and Security functions are prominent in the
Law, performing arts, teaching, planning and insurance careers appear in the 2023
Few graduates initially enter careers in the private

Bachelor’s degree graduates 1951-1956	Bachelor’s degree graduates 2023
Defense Mapping Agency²⁷⁸	NJ Performing Arts Center
National Archives	Attorney in private law firm
U.S. Census Bureau	Cartographic designer for NGO
U.S. Air Force	Independent media producer
U.S. Air Force (Support Organization)²⁷⁹	H.S. teacher
Morris Co. Mosquito Extermination Commission	Data scientist at NGO
U.S.A.I.D. Agency for International Development	Urban Planner, Colorado Springs, CO
U.S. Navy	Climate researcher at consulting organization
U.S. Air Force	Long Island Railroad analyst/manager
U.S. Army and U.S. Post Office	ESRI technical consultant
Private Electrical Engineering Company	Metropolitan Museum (NYC)
University Placement Director, U. Maryland	Attorney in private law firm
Central Intelligence Agency	Data analyst in Insurance firm

²⁷⁸ Now National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

²⁷⁹ Aeronautical Chart and Information Center (St. Louis), now known as the Defense Technical Information Center.

5. Geography Support Staff

No university operates successfully without the benefit of energy, expertise, dedication, and friendship provided by support staff. Rutgers’ geographers have been exceptionally well served by a dozen or so individuals who performed administrative, secretarial, computer and cartographic roles across the years. The University’s penchant for periodically introducing new administrative technologies, systems and procedures has often placed complex demands on staff that they have mastered largely out of sight of faculty and students. In addition to extensive formal duties,²⁸⁰ they have also carried out an array of other tasks that often provided the glue that held the various parts of the Geography community together. These included organizing departmental or programmatic social occasions, keeping everyone abreast of domestic news and scuttlebutt, providing sympathy and conversational “therapy” to those who needed it, and serving as the eyes, ears and confidantes of successive Chairs and Graduate Directors. Many were also adept at navigating back channels through the university bureaucracy that facilitated getting things done but were often mysterious to others. The fact that most members of the support staff stayed in place for decades or longer also brought continuity that bridged different student cohorts and faculty generations.

Nadine Kurilchick (1949-1970?)

The first (known) member of staff was Nadine Kurilchick, a loved and respected native of South River, NJ who was always addressed as Miss K. The 1950 U.S. Census identified her as a secretary employed at the State University, so she may have joined the Geography Department at the time of its founding. As recorded in an extract from the South River High School Yearbook of 1941, (and her marginal note therein), Nadine was a singer who placed a high value on being happy and well-organized – qualities that surely came in useful in her later job. A church organist and Sunday School teacher, she was surprised to win $100 for a 1965 letter on grade school dropouts that she submitted to Good Housekeeping magazine. Having no children of her own, she was devoted to her Geography “family”. Soon after I met her in 1970, she took a medical retirement. Nadine died in 1974.

Veronica (Ronnie) Fernandez (1970-1985)

Miss K was succeeded by Veronica M. Fernandez (known as Ronnie) another pillar of the Department who was its secretary for 15 years. This was her second career, the first being a two-year stint in the Women’s Army Corps from 1944-1946.²⁸¹ Perhaps Ronnie learned about the workings of large institutions from her time in the army, or maybe from her postmaster husband, but however it was acquired she was a font of practical knowledge about the arcana of our university – which was even more Byzantine then than now. Her ability to navigate the corridors of power was exemplary. As befit a military veteran, there was steel in Ronnie’s

<https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/starledger/name/veronica-fernandez-obituary?id=8486132>

character, something heavy-handed bureaucrats and interfering outsiders periodically encountered. But for Geography faculty and students she nurtured a warm and supportive environment. This was the woman adored by her family, who referred to her as Mumsey, a name that reflected the caring role she played for them and that carried over into the Department. The faculty were typically made to feel they too were Ronnie’s children - indulged, protected, and wisely counseled.

At the time of Ronnie’s departure, the department was fortunate to already have the services of Mrs. Elizabeth Abbatemarco (Betty Ann) and Mrs. Elaine Gordon, both hired before Ronnie’s retirement and able to assume the expanding duties of a growing department.

Betty Ann Abbatemarco (1984-2011)

Betty Ann had been hired in 1984 in a part-time, temporary position to handle administrative duties for the Undergraduate Program but transitioned to permanent status within a year and subsequently became a full-time manager of both the Undergraduate and Graduate programs, handling course scheduling and graduate admissions. She remained with the department for 27 years, retiring in 2011. Most of this time she worked in conjunction with the senior departmental administrators including Elaine Gordon, Theresa Kirby, and Kelly Bernstein, among others.

Betty Ann’s long tenure allowed her to experience changing working conditions and different departmental administrators. For example, she remembers the early days when professors submitted handwritten exams that were sometimes challenging to read and then had to be typed by the staff and run off on (smudge-prone) mimeograph machines. Thankfully, in the 1990s typewriters gave way to computers, a switch that she approached with some trepidation, but which eventually made the job much easier. With the development of data bases everything was done on the computer; scheduling needs, online submission of final grades instead of hand delivery, and checking on students’ progress, among other tasks.

Betty Ann’s willingness to tackle any challenge and her speed and efficiency in discharging them were legendry among the faculty. A former faculty colleague with experience across several universities put the matter in a nutshell “I could never under any circumstances, imagine hearing from Mrs. Abbatemarco what one hears so often elsewhere “sorry, but that isn’t in my job description.”

Fortunately the job also had other compensations from which she derived great pleasure. On one occasion she got to shake the hand of President Clinton when she was taken to a meeting that he attended on campus by one of the professors (Susan Cutter) who had a seat near the podium. On other occasions she enjoyed the parade of TV crews and reporters who came to interview faculty members, especially David Robinson, the State Climatologist. She also reported being impressed by many of the students, some of whom she continued to be in contact with after her retirement and she had especially warm feelings for professors who made the staff feel at ease. In her own words: “The Department of Geography had a bunch of great people working there, both faculty and students. Hence, that is why I never left and spent 27 years there.”

Elaine Gordon (1985-2006)

Elaine Gordon arrived at Rutgers in February 1985, a couple of months before Ronnie Fernandez retired. She had previously been employed by banking and finance industry corporations in Manhattan and had then taken time out to raise her young son. The far-sightedness and high ethical standards set by company leaders with whom she worked in the city left a lasting impression that carried over into her later years in the university. Under Elaine’s aegis the department’s reputation and the confidentiality of its files were never better protected.

Shortly after reentering the work force Elaine was hired as a replacement during Betty Ann Abbatemarco’s temporary absence. This appointment quickly became permanent, and she subsequently served as the Geography Department’s first official Administrator from 1985 until 2006. This position required extensive involvement with personnel, financing, and budgeting matters as well as a range of facilities management and departmental planning duties. Excelling in those matters she came to the attention of the Faculty of Arts and Science Dean’s office and was plucked away for service there until her retirement in 2010.

Faculty were much in Elaine’s debt for the extent to which she served above and beyond the formal requirements of her position, often working at night and on weekends. One former faculty member who was then at another institution recounted an example of this conscientiousness that made a profound impression on him: “When a new graduate student, arriving from abroad, somehow failed to make contact with the person charged with meeting him at Kennedy Airport, Elaine took control of the situation, working the better part of Sunday afternoon and evening until the student was finally located and billeted in his dormitory room…She also visited the student in his dorm to ensure that his living situation was squared away, and supplied him with personal household goods she noted were lacking.” He went on to describe Elaine in glowing terms as “…a gifted, dedicated and capable woman who embodied the professed ideals of the institution for which she works.”

Elaine’s tenure was also distinguished in a unique way because it prompted a second-generation connection with the Geography Department. Her son developed an interest in physical geography, perhaps helped along by his mother’s exposure to earthquake risks and other hazards studied by departmental faculty members. He subsequently became the first (and so far only) offspring of a Geography staff member to major in the discipline at Rutgers. From there he went on to receive a Geography Ph.D. from Arizona State University and then joined the faculty of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs (1999). Steven is now Director of Geosciences at the USAF Academy.

Theresa Kirby (2006-2012)

By her own account, the six years that Theresa Kirby spent as Administrator of the Department of Geography were the happiest of her lengthy career as a member of the Rutgers University staff. Before coming to Geography, Theresa was a pillar of the National Marriage Project in the Department of Sociology and after leaving Geography she held a succession of appointments at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, culminating in the post of

Associate Dean. Many a faculty member was impressed by her enthusiastic initiative and her acumen for organizing and presenting data gathered by academic researchers. For her part she was impressed by both the diversity of people and specialties represented in the department and the sense of a unified purpose and common commitment that pervaded the entire Geography community. She recalls the lack of a departmental “caste” system that was exemplified by the systematic inclusion of staff in monthly faculty meetings and cocktail parties held in faculty homes, as well as Friday afternoon bull sessions in Charley Browns restaurant. Another high point were daily lunches held in the department lounge where a mixed group of faculty, students and staff often dined on homemade ethnic cuisines from diverse parts of the world, ranging from chicken noodle soup to arepas. Theresa recalls Geography students as immensely helpful to the staff, especially in supporting departmental contributions to annual Rutgers Days and other collective showcases. And her esteem for the students was reciprocated; the photo album that she received from the graduate students and the engraved mug that she received from the Rutgers Under Graduate Geography Society (RUGGS) are her memorable keepsakes.

Kelly Bernstein (2011-2014 and 2018-)

Since 2018, Kelly Bernstein has been the Senior Administrative Supervisor of the Department of Geography and one of its kingpins. This is her second stint as a departmental staff member, the first being three years as Business Specialist from 2011-2014.

Kelly was born and raised in New Brunswick. She graduated from the University of Maryland as a Psychology major but discovered in the process that she was much more interested in working with people in institutions of higher education as a career path. This brought her to the Rutgers Graduate Program in Education where she gained a Masters degree that led, in turn, to a position with the Rutgers Study Abroad program. There she interacted with students and faculty from a range of academic programs including Art History, Landscape Architecture and various language departments. Without (she says) knowing much about Geography she applied for an opening in the department and soon became an ardent fan. She credits her four-year stint in the FAS Deans Office for providing valuable insights into the workings of many different departments, and from which she came away impressed by Geography’s performance in comparison with other units.

Although her position has brought her more closely into contact with Graduate students Kelly has observed that the entire population of Geography students – undergraduate as well as graduate - is distinctive by being generally more self-directed than others and interested in acquiring the blend of knowledge and practical skills that Geography provides. She believes that getting information about Geography as a career path out to the general student population is a crucial task.

Cleo Bartos (Administrative Assistant) (2012-)

Cleo Bartos is the most recent addition to the Geography staff. She arrived in 2012 as an administrative assistant replacement for the recently retired Ms. Abbatemarco. Born in New York, Cleo initially pursued a career as a marketing director. She then took time out to raise her children and the family moved to New Jersey, where she eventually held a full-time research position at Brookdale Community College. When that job ended she interviewed for an opening in the Rutgers Geography department during which she remembers risking a Seinfeld show joke that seemed to catch on. By her own account this brought her into a convivial and collegial department where she has made firm friends among students and staff. Cleo’s involvement with Rutgers has deepened over the years as all four of her sons have attended. Three completed degrees in engineering with a fourth on track to graduate in 2025 as a philosophy/political science major. A fluent speaker of Greek she has also escorted family members to Greece on vacations and hopes to continue these trips in future years.

Michael (Mike) Siegel (Staff Cartographer) (1985-)

The making and use of maps has been a fundamental geographic practice since ancient times, and one that has been carried forward by successive generations of Rutgers personnel. Its most consistent exponent is now Mike Siegel who has been a long-time staff member of the Department of Geography. Initially (1985-1988) a production cartographer who taught part-time and drew maps to illustrate faculty publications, he quickly became a highly valued permanent instructor of introductory and advanced Cartography classes and resident staff Cartographer. His map design and presentation skills have graced a large range of different print and electronic formats. Among others these include public exhibitions, encyclopedias, books, academic journals, and online web pages. For example, his maps have appeared in many Rutgers University Press publications including especially the seminal volume Mapping New Jersey (New Jersey State Atlas) in which he played a central role. They have also provided essential support to textual entries in the Encyclopedia of New Jersey and the Encyclopedia of Great Philadelphia. Mike has also consulted widely on projects across the university and beyond with organizations like the Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture. His “Mapmaker” web page is a treasure trove of New Jersey and New Brunswick-themed maps, especially historical. < http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/> A recent innovation is the “indoor mapping system” that he and a student, Noam Ahron, devised to help Rutgers people navigate the complex innards of buildings like Lucy Stone Hall.²⁸²

Mike’s career has been greatly affected by technological innovations that are continuing to change the way maps are made, interpreted, and applied. This makes cartography a dynamic field that challenges practitioners not just to stay abreast of the latest techniques but also to find creative ways of selecting and displaying spatial data that engage users in ways that machine made products cannot capture or match. Sequential displays of student-produced maps that grace the walls of the Geography department’s quarters in Lucy Stone Hall, and generations of his students who have found positions that employ these skills, testify to the value of his approach.

Finally, for the past couple of decades Mike has organized and produced the annual Geography Newsletters which are valued repositories of otherwise ephemeral information about activities, awards, life-marking events, and esoterica.

²⁸² “Lost inside a Rutgers building? This graduate senior project could help you navigate to your destination,” Rutgers Today, Wednesday, May 31, 2023. < https://sas.rutgers.edu/news-a-events/news/newsroom/student-news/3588-indoor-mapping-feature>

Keeping abreast of changes in computing systems and hardware has become a premier task for faculty and students alike. We have been fortunate to have had the assistance of several very personable and proficient staff colleagues who filled this role in exemplary ways.

Mark Ontkush (1997-1999)

At a time when computers were just becoming essential research and teaching technologies, Mark pioneered a support role for several Rutgers departments, including Geography. During his tenure he created and managed websites, network infrastructure and Windows-based computers as well as teaching an introductory course on Geographic Information Systems that ran an innovative student project to document the impact of Hurricane Floyd (1999) on the Raritan Basin.²⁸³ Subsequently Mark left Rutgers for private sector employment and now designs and operates computer support services for a three-state natural gas network in the Northeastern United States.

Michelle Martel (2000-2012)

Michelle, who was our go-to computer person at a critical time in the development of the technology, recalls her initial contact with the Department of Geography that reminds us of the human and humane workplace atmosphere that geographers seemed able to generate.

“It was spring of 2000 when I entered Lucy Stone Hall for an interview for the position of Unit Computing Specialist. Getting to the interview was a challenge in itself as I was not familiar with Lucy Stone Hall and its disjointed segments and odd/even hallways. The path I took for the interview, wound up being the same way I entered the building for the next several years. On that route, I would hear an audio backdrop of Dave Robinson commenting on climate, no matter what the situation: rainy, snowy, cold, hot, not rainy, not snowy, not cold... At that point, I am passing the 1970's People's Painters murals heading toward a place where I would hear about all sorts of interesting research and perspectives, which was exactly what I had hoped it would be. (With…) the seminars, brown bag lunch talks and random bits of conversation, I learned something about what it means to study Geography. Though there is more to it than making maps, having it happening around me (and a staff Cartographer!) made for a lot to think and talk to my mom about. Most of all, the department, seemingly without thinking about it, was inclusive toward staff. This changed what could have been just a job into just helping people I liked get their computing done. It was a place where people shared lives. Kids of faculty and staff seemed to have grown up while I was there, so did the hallway plants. We made use of the grad lounge for potlucks and memorable lunches, including one interrupted by a earthquake. It was a special time of my life.”

Michelle’s expertise not only served the Geographers but greatly benefitted the office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science for whom she was a Web Developer.

²⁸³ See: <https://oldnewbrunswick.rutgers.edu/GreatRaritanFlood/index.shtml>

Johnny Nunez (2012-)

Johnny succeeded Michelle Martel as Department of Geography Unit Computing Manager and is now the pivot around which all the department’s computer services revolve.

Others

A variety of other support staff played significant roles for briefer periods than those noted above. Among them were two accomplished women - Jayshree Mariwala (January 2015-February 2016) and Liz Laupa (March 2017- mid 2018) – whose career paths took them on to other university positions as Business Manager for the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies and Business Assistant to the University Vice-President respectively.

At various times during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, perhaps later, there were other temporary or short-term secretarial staff. Two names that come to mind are Henrietta Leitner and Jane Welty. Mrs. Leitner was responsible for typing the faculty-produced “Diffusion” newsletter that appeared from 1973 to at least 1989. Few details about both are available at present. It is known that in addition to her secretarial work Mrs. Leitner played an important role in the University’s women’s basketball program. This is indicated by her 1994 induction into the Rutgers Athletic Hall of Fame.< https://scarletknights.com/honors/rutgers-athletics-hall-of-fame/henrietta-leitner/135> The citation that accompanied this honor states that for fourteen years as Team Secretary she provided behind the scenes support to successive groups of students.

Mrs. Welty served as a departmental secretary at the end of the 1960s and occasionally thereafter when she was more closely associated with the University’s Center for Coastal and Environmental Studies. She was a big hit with the graduate students who prepared the department’s Interaction newsletter. In the words of graduate student Steve Frakt, “The biggest bouquet of thanks is reserved for Mrs. Welty, who converted my messy, mis-spelled (sic) and poorly types rough drafts into a handsome finished product in a matter of minutes. (When Mrs. Welty says you may have to wait awhile for material to be typed, what she really means is that it will take her five minutes instead of the usual two.”²⁸⁴

²⁸⁴ Interaction, Vol. 2, No.6, December 10, 1969.

5. The image of Rutgers’ Geography in the wider world

Geographers are often asked questions by members of the public that give clues to public perceptions about the discipline and its practices. For example, we are often seen as possessing special competences about distances, directions, and locations as exemplified by queries such as the direction of Mecca²⁸⁵ or the likely path followed by the message-in-a-bottle that washed up on a nearby shore.²⁸⁶ Unfortunately, records of such inquiries have not been kept at Rutgers so we must utilize other sources.

How academic subjects and academic institutions are perceived by wider publics is important for the health and survival of educational institutions. Reports that appear in mass media provide insights about the degree to which disciplines, departments and programs have been successful in establishing identities that faithfully convey what they are about and provide a measure of how well they are succeeding in their educational tasks.

What follows draws on reports by, and/or about, geographers and geography at Rutgers, that appeared in the newspapers of New Jersey, and to a lesser extent other places, between 1946 and 2022. Primary sources include the website Newspapers.com which permits searches of many different papers, as well as separate archives of the New York Times and the Newark Star Ledger.²⁸⁷ Often the same story was reprinted in many different newspapers. Data counts noted here are for basic stories; they do not include duplicates. Although a dozen or so stories appeared in major national newspapers and foreign publications, most of what is recorded herein is drawn from newspapers that serve the New Jersey-New York-Pennsylvania region. In other words, these data do not tell us much about how the Program may, or may not, have been portrayed by the mass media in distant states and countries.

This section includes only those newspaper reports that specifically identify one of the Rutgers Departments of Geography, or the subject of Geography, as the primary unit or field that is associated with investigators, experts, commentators, or other informants cited in the reports. It is recognized that much excellent work is done by Rutgers geographers affiliated with other university units or disciplines but, without explicit attribution, the intellectual debt owed to Geography would likely not be recognized by readers.

Three hundred and two (302) newspaper articles devoted significant space to Rutgers geographers and/or the Rutgers Geography Program in the seventy-three (73) years between 1949 and 2020. Approximately 40 of these are sufficiently comprehensive to provide readers with an in-depth understanding of Geography’s role at Rutgers.

²⁸⁵ Charles Heatwole, “Which way is Mecca?”, Journal of Geography 92 (6), 1993: 267-269.

²⁸⁶ “Message in a bottle found by boys on Bayshore beach,” The Daily Register, January 1, 1966, p.1.

²⁸⁷ Major sources. Local newspapers and their in-state publishing sites include: The Central New Jersey Home News (New Brunswick); The Courier News (Bridgewater); Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park); The Record (Hackensack); The Herald News (Passaic); The Courier-Post (Camden); The Daily Record (Morristown); The News (Paterson); The Daily Register (Red Bank); The Daily Journal (Vineland) and The Star Ledger (Newark). Regional and national newspapers also sampled include: The New York Times (New York); The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia); Daily News (New York); Hartford Courant (Connecticut); Miami Herald (Miami); and Chicago Tribune (Chicago). Items also appeared in a few other newspapers that are not included on this list.

One faculty member above all others – Professor David Robinson - has disproportionately garnered the attention of newspaper reporters and drawn the longest period of sustained news coverage. He has been described as the “go-to guy for weather in New Jersey”²⁸⁸ and is believed to be the most frequently and widely interviewed individual in the state – well ahead of political leaders and other personalities.²⁸⁹ This has been attributed to his official role as State Climatologist, a position that gives him a privileged platform from which to engage with a population whose curiosity about weather matters seems unbounded. As State Climatologist he dispenses information on past, current, and future climate events and radiates infectious enthusiasm. According to one reporter, who might have been engaging in undeserved, stereotypical journalistic catch-phrasing, without that authoritative distinction Dave would be “an obscure professor of Geography at Rutgers University.” (Star Ledger, January 30, 2000.) Dave’s comments on storms, floods, heat waves, cold spells and, especially, snow are so copious that they deserve far more space than is employed herein. For a sample peek into his media repertoire interested readers are referred to the illuminating report “Earth is warming: his data helped prove it,” which appeared in a regional newspaper in 2019.²⁹⁰

The temporal distribution of reports about Rutgers Geography resembles a Bell-shaped curve with the largest number of mentions during the 1980s and 1990s. Relative declines since the year 2000 are largely attributable to the diminishing importance of newspapers as information outlets vis a vis electronic sources. It has not been possible to make a thorough search of electronic sources like web pages, podcasts and various other media that have come into existence in recent years.

In the early years of Rutgers Geography significant effort was devoted by faculty to creating, presenting, and maintaining the discipline’s identity and image in the wider world beyond the campus. Most engaged, to very significant degrees, in “outreach” or “public service” activities. These had the effect of spreading understanding of what Geography was about and cultivating constituencies that might be called upon for support. Guido Weigend was one who excelled at these tasks. During the 1950s and 60s nearly all the Rutgers College Department of Geography faculty took part in such activities. Most were involved giving talks to organizations outside the academy but rooted in communities throughout Central New Jersey and beyond.

Among others, these included: schools, garden clubs, conservation societies, historic preservation bodies, public affairs interest groups, and the League of Women Voters. Some faculty represented the university as advocates of state education bond issues, speaking at political clubs or to groups seeking to advance the work of the United Nations. Some headed chapters of the AAUP (American Association of University Professors) or were appointed to public boards that administered the governing bodies of public and private schools, boards, or ran for wider public offices in nearby municipalities.

Years in which there were the most mentions of Rutgers Geography included: 1965; 1981; 1988; 1990; and 1999. In each of those years one or two topics attracted most of the media coverage. For example, much of the interest in 1965 was generated by Rutgers’ nationally prominent role in testing and applying innovative learning methods during the Association of

²⁸⁸ The Daily Record (Morrisville), March 28, 2010, p. 19.

²⁸⁹ For example, in 1999 Robinson gave 363 interviews: Star Ledger, January 30, 2000.

²⁹⁰ “Earth is warming; his data helped prove it,” The Hammonton News, January 30, 2019.p.4A.

American Geography-sponsored High School Geography Project,²⁹¹ especially through the work of Arthur Getis and a coterie of like-minded urban scholars that he brought together from other parts of the country and abroad. (Appendix 37) Newspaper articles discussed ideas behind the HSGP project and explored its field testing in local high schools (e. g. New Brunswick, Asbury Park, Indian Hills). These were illustrated with photographs of Getis, his wife and close collaborator Judy, teachers, and students.²⁹² During 1965 there were also stories about the field experiences of Professor Jackie Beyer (Rutgers-Newark) in Africa where she had taught, and been immersed, in multi-racial communities that were experiencing social and environmental stresses.

In 1988, Rutgers participation in pre-college and continuing education of the public again attracted attention, especially around the Gridiron Geography Project promoted by Briavel Holcomb and departmental participation in Geography Awareness Week²⁹³ and Geography Bee activities²⁹⁴. In 1990 faculty involvement in geo-political research and outreach was highlighted, particularly Joanna Regulska’s development of the Local Democracy in Poland project and related activities that blossomed in the wake of the collapse of Communism in the USSR and Eastern Europe. The Rutgers Geography Program received its biggest public exposure at that time.

In 1999 research on the human impacts of wars and disasters took center stage, featuring problems in the post-Soviet Balkans and a major tropical storm (Floyd) that ravaged much of the mid-Atlantic region. The latter event stimulated a collaborative in-house investigation, labelled the Great Raritan Flood Project, that involved several professors (Hordon, Mitchell, Regulska, Robinson, Wyly) and the departmental cartographer (Siegel) as well as graduate students. It was a successful demonstration of Quick Response Research that attracted considerable interest from local populations affected by Floyd.²⁹⁵

What follows is a systematic breakdown of the main types of public reporting. Most reports fall into one of four categories: (1) hazards, disasters, and environmental disruptions; (2) geographic education; (3) urban problems; and (4) the making of landscapes.

The biggest group are items that address geographical research on disruptive environmental extremes and on specific hazards and disasters, especially those that affected New Jersey residents. (Fig. 6-1) Many previous analyses of newspaper content have highlighted the salience of disaster reporting globally, so it is no surprise that Rutgers research by geographers on such topics generally gets frequent coverage by the press. In the early decades the emphasis was on flooding and other water borne hazards but later the broad subject of climate change risks began to dominate.

²⁹¹ “Geography project on trial here,” The Asbury Park Press, November 15, 1965, p.8.

²⁹² The Daily Record (Long Branch), July 9, 1965, p.8

²⁹³ Briavel Holcomb and John Tiefenbacher, “National Geography Awareness Week 1987: An assessment,” Journal of Geography in Higher Education 13 (2) 1989, p. 159 ff.

²⁹⁴ “N.J. champion gets on the map at geography bee,” The Central New Jersey Home News, March 30, 1996, p.2.

²⁹⁵ “Rutgers undertakes study of Raritan’s flood plain,” The Central New Jersey Home News, November 6, p.9.

Fig. 6-1

Hazards, Disasters and Environmental Disruptions

“Rutgers Geography teacher sees flood dangers in Tocks Island Indifference,” The Herald-News, November 9, 1967, p.22. (Beyer) “New Jersey’s ‘hazardous environment’,” Central New Jersey Home News, January 29, 1974. p.5. (Hewitt)

“Chinese ecologists turn harmfuls into benefits,” Central New Jersey Home News, September 18, 1976, p.11. (Boxer) “Full hearing sought in suit by marinas,” The Daily Register (Shrewsbury, NJ), December 28, 1976, p.8. (Nordstrom) “In the way of floodwaters,” New York Times, April 10, 1977. Section R, p.1 (Hordon)

“Three state cancer study gets final revision,” New York Times, June 20, 1978. (Greenberg) “Nation catches up to N.J. cancer rate,” Vineland Times Journal, July 16, 1981, p.10. (Greenberg)

“Chances of surviving catastrophe improving,” Kilgore News Herald, (Texas), November 21, 1982, p. 13. (Mitchell) “Cancer increase found in area miners,” Southern Illinoisan, March 18, 1983, p. 1. (Greenberg)

“Professor studies disaster for scholarly endeavor,” The Item of Millburn and Short Hills, March 1, 1984, p.8. (Mitchell) “Rutgers professor takes different view,” Asbury Park Press, March 18, 1984, p.83. (Mitchell)

“State called ill-prepared for hurricanes,” New York Times, September 16, 1984. (Mitchell)

“Shore is vulnerable target for “major disaster”,” Asbury Park Press, September 27, 1985, p.8. (Mitchell) “Study maps support for a nuclear ban,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 6, 1986, p. 31 (Cutter, Holcomb)

“Greenhouse effect expected to cause climatic problems,” The Central New Jersey Home News, June 7, 1988, p.3. (Mitchell, Psuty) “Seminar focuses on Poland’s pollution woes,” Central New Jersey Home News, June 17, 1990, p.18. (Regulska)

“The cleanup we need,” The Record, August 9, 1993, p.13. (Greenberg, D. Schneider)

“Saving beaches means bucking centuries-old trends,” Press of Atlantic City, November 18, 1995, p. 26. (Psuty, Nordstrom) “Pastor visits Ireland to sow seeds of love” The Daily Journal, February 29, 1996 (Mitchell)

“When it comes to water supply, not everybody is equal,” New York Times, July 20, 1997, p. NJ5. (Robinson) “Rutgers undertakes study of Raritan’s flood plain,” Central New Jersey Home News, November 6, p. 9. (Mitchell)

“Teams of researchers dissect disastrous flood,” New York Times, December 3, 1999, Sec.B, p.6. (Mitchell, Wacker, Wyly, Leichenko) “Floyd’s effect will last for years,” Central New Jersey Home News, December 4, 1999, p.1. (Mitchell, Hordon, Robinson, Wacker) “Passaic merchants felt the wrath of Floyd,” The Record (Hackensack), December 4, 1999, p.3. (Wyly)

“Don’t let fallacies guide policy for fire prevention,” The Santa Fe New Mexican, May 27, 2001, p.43. (Medler) “Professor: Big cities must learn from catastrophes,” The Courier-News, March 11, 2002, p.10. (Mitchell) “DEP head warns task force to prepare for more floods,” The Courier-News, May 22, 2005, p.152. (Mitchell)

“Data is overwhelming even if not 100 percent,” The Central New Jersey Home News, December 16, 2009, p. 17 (Mitchell) “Responsible science,” Letter to the editor, New York Times, December 13, 2009. (Mitchell)

“How TV tilts our perceptions about Haiti,” The Record (Hackensack), February 16, 2010, p.A9. (Mitchell) “Our raging Earth,” Asbury Park Press, August 22, 2010, p.1-2. (Robinson, Mitchell)

“Wintry weather and Global Warming,” New York Times, December 28, 2010. (Robinson)

“Experts: NJ on front line of climate issues,” The Courier-Post (Camden), February 12, 2011, p.5B. (Leichenko)

“Melt: Information could help determine rate of sea rise this century,” The Santa Fe New Mexican, October 28, 2013, p.A004 (Rennermalm) “Flood maps source of angst, confusion for homeowners,” Press of Atlantic City, October 29, 2013, p.6. (Mitchell)

“Greenland is melting away,” The Tribune (San Luis Obispo), November 6, 2015, p. B1. (Rennermalm)

“The Amazon, Siberia and Indonesia: A world of fire,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 1, 2019, p. E1. (Laura Schneider) “Earth is warming; his data helped prove it,” The Hammonton News, January 30, 2019.p.4A. (David Robinson)

“Rethinking building in storm-prone areas,” Letter to the Editor, New York Times, October 8, 2022. p. A23. (Mitchell)

A second group addresses the status of geographic education among students and residents of the United States. Figure 6-2 includes a selection of these kinds of reports including (in parentheses) specific faculty that they featured. Geographical ignorance has been a perennial problem in the United States. Lack of a well-informed citizenry was one of the reasons for creating a Department of Geography and it continues to be a problem that vexes the Geography community and elicits their organized responses.²⁹⁶ Reports in this first group provide information about the nature of Rutgers Geography programs, that counter stereotyped views held by the uninformed. Such reports also explain innovative research and highlight efforts to imbue the public with higher levels of “world sensitivity” across the many locales, scales, and varieties of human experience. Curiously, there have been few regional newspaper reports in the 21^st century about deficiencies in geographic education

²⁹⁶ The 2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress continued to report major deficiencies in high schoolers’ knowledge of place-related facts.

Fig. 6-2

Geographical ignorance and efforts to counter it: Sample news reports

“Woeful ignorance of Geography discovered among students taking subjects at Rutgers,” Central New Jersey Home News, March 16, 1952. p.8. (Weigend, Brush)

“Urban Geography in High School to be taught with new approach,” The Daily Record (Long Branch), July 9, 1965, p.8. “Pilot project hits ‘em where they live,” Central New Jersey Home News, December 19, 1965, p. 14. (Getis)

“Geography re-emerges as an independent subject,” The Record (Hackensack), April 18, 1967, p.36. (Arthur and Judy Getis) “Modern geographers studying much more than place names, terrain, products,” The Coast Star (Manasquan), February 7, 1974, p.4.

“Geography’s becoming a lost science,” Central New Jersey Home News, January 3, 1985, p.2. (Holcomb, Cutter, H. Renwick, B. Renwick, Wacker, Brush)

“Why doesn’t Johnny know where he is?”, Asbury Park Press, February 15, 1987, p.167. (Brush, Holcomb, Siegel) “Geography study is more than just a map,” Central New Jersey Home News, July 6, 1987, p.13. (Holcomb)

“A Geography class for those who teach it,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 5. 1988, p.116. (Holcomb) “Feminists urged to think globally,” The Home News, February 28. 1988 (Regulska)

“Mysteries of maps explored by pupils,” Central New Jersey Home News, November 26, 1988, pp. B1-2. (Mitchell) “Today’s world is a puzzle without Geography,” Newsday, February 5, 1989, p.139. (Smith)

“Broadening Horizons: New Jersey takes the lead in promoting geographic education,” Central New Jersey Home News, January 21, 1990, p.118. “A lesson in geopolitics for Bush,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 1990, p.9. (Smith)

“A changing globe sends geography into a new orbit,” The Courier-News, September 10, 1991, p.12. “Area boy lands honors as Geography king,” Asbury Park Press, April 3, 1993, p. 3. (Cutter)

“Geography awareness rises,” The Daily Record (Morristown), November 22, 1998, p.1. (Holcomb, Balm) “Steady, now. It’s the first anniversary of 1/9/99,” New York Times, January 9, 2000, p.NJ1. (Regulska)

The third group of newspaper reports addresses geographers’ research on urban-demographic, political-economic or sociocultural problems like poverty and racial discrimination. Again, these are unsurprising topics for journalists to focus on in a crowded highly urbanized state with a large population of highly mobile immigrants, ethnic diversity, an aging housing stock, heavy demands on infrastructure, shrinking open space and a variety of other issues that are subject to competition among residents.

Fig. 6-3

Urban problems: Socio-spatial analyses and prescriptions

“N.J. Growth seen doubling,” The Courier-News, March 12, 1956, p. 8 (Brush)

“Professor says New Brunswick is ideal for studying Urban Geography,” Central New Jersey Home News, May 24, 1967, p.10. (Weigend, Getis)

“Bell fears ‘asphalt planet’ future,” The Herald-News, December 7, 1970, p. 2. (Caprio, Brown)

“Survey shows residency patterns,” The Daily Register (Red Bank), March 22, 1972, p.17. (Caprio, Brown) “No bone to pick, researcher says,” The Record (Hackensack), March 26, 1975, p.43. (Lake)

“Black resegregation emerges in the suburbs,” The Item of Millburn and Short Hills, December 11, 1980, p.15. (Clark)

“Ways to ease Blacks’ move to the suburbs offered,” The Bernardsville News-Observer-Tribune-Echoes-Sentinel, January 15, 1981. (Clark, Lake)

“Paying for the infrastructure,” The Record (Hackensack), March 19, 1985, p.64. (Lake)

“Billboards exploit vices of the poor,” Central New Jersey Home News, November 11, 1990, p.17. (Greenberg) “Rutgers student helps coordinate housing project,” The Courier-News, August 6, 1995, p.16. (Laura Liu) “Suburbs generate new patterns of congestion,” The Baltimore Sun, December 28, 1997, p.6. (Wyly) “Renovations put poor in a bind,” The Tampa Bay Times, July 25, 2001, p.174 (Wyly)

“Rutgers’ School of Criminal Justice crime mapping project,” Pascack Valley Community Life, May 16, 2001, p.A66. (Erica Poulsen)

“Is prison necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore might change your mind,” New York Times Magazine, (Feature) April 17, 2019.

The making of landscapes at home and abroad constitutes the fourth and final category.

Fig. 6-4

The making of historic and contemporary landscapes: rural and urban

“He teaches computers to draw,” Central New Jersey Home News, June 28, 1970. P.60. (Schofer)

“Rutgers instructor fights data backlog with computers,” The Courier-News (Bridgewater), July 22, 1970, p.28. (Schofer)

“Geographer maps state development in the 1700s,” The Courier-Post, August 13, 1970, p.47. (Wacker)

“She makes geography come alive for students,” The Courier-News (Bridgewater), March 9, 1974, p.8.(Holcomb, Chatterjee)

“Identity crisis is not new,” Asbury Park Press, November 23, 1975, p.11. (Wacker) “Environment took care of itself,” The Courier-News, July 1, 1976, p.13. (Wacker)

“Dissension in the ranks marks Hiram committee,” Central New Jersey Home News, February 21, 1982. P. 61 ( Wacker)

“Changing landscape shaped geographer’s memories,” Central New Jersey Home News, February 10, 1986. P.11. (Brush)

“New book critiques books on rating quality of life,” The Item of Millburn and Short Hills, May 1, 1986, p.8. (Cutter)

“Props have changed but stage is the same,” The Herald-Sun (Durham, North Carolina), December 22, 1987, p. 2. (Popper, Greenberg, Carey)

“In home rule for the grass roots, Poland leads again,” The Courier-Post (Camden), August 26, 1990, p.19. (Regulska)

“Poles to try U.S. land-protection policies back home,” Central New Jersey Home News, August 5, 1990, p.15. (Regulska)

“RU studies Africa,” Central New Jersey Home News, September 27, 1998, p.3. (Schroeder)

“Commission lauds New Jersey historian,” The Courier-News (Bridgewater), December 6, 2001, p.90. (Wacker) “Hub City redux,” Central New Jersey Home News, May 10, 2002, p.84. (Holcomb, Brush, Siegel)

“Hoping a wider highway can save their livelihoods,” New York Times, December 17, 2006, p.41. (Popper)

“Data is overwhelming even if not 100 percent,” Central New Jersey Home News, December 16, 2009, p.17. (Mitchell)

The reports noted in Figures 6-1 through 6-4 do not include the many comments about historic and contemporary climate events and climate change that emanate from the office of the New Jersey State Climatologist, and which publicize information about an aspect of Physical Geography that most directly affects the daily lives of people living in New Jersey and adjacent

areas. The image that the other reports convey to the reading public is one of an often misunderstood and underappreciated discipline that deserves attention because of its practical contributions to understanding and resolving pressing urban and environmental problems. As such they have rendered a valuable service to the Rutgers Geography community by publicizing some of its strongest claims to public relevance. The decline of local newspapers jeopardizes this service and it is not yet possible to tell whether a combination of national and regional newspapers, social media and other electronic outlets are adequate replacements.

6. Continuity and Change

This history has been written to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of a formal Geography Program at Rutgers University. Seventy-five years is roughly the human life expectancy in the United States or the equivalent of three generations. During this period a wide diversity of forces has helped to shape the evolution of Geography at Rutgers. Individual scholars, and the visions that they fostered, were certainly important but so too were discipline-wide intellectual trends, institutional pressures within the university and the structures of higher education, as well as societal forces of national, international, and global provenance that transcended the personalities and plans of faculty, staff, and administrators. A brief review of the individuals and the more abstract forces that affected the community follows.

Individuals

During the 20^th century, Andrew Clark, Guido Weigend, John Brush, and Peter Wacker were among now-departed personnel who crucially affected the evolution of Geography at Rutgers. Arthur Getis, Fritz Nelson, and Neil Smith also made important shorter-term interventions that helped to push Geography in new directions. Nor can the long-sustained roles of Joanna Regulska, Briavel Holcomb, Karl Nordstrom, Bob Lake, Briavel Holcomb and Mike Siegel be underestimated. Other geographers facilitated interdisciplinary and inter-departmental linkages that have been essential to the community’s survival. Further pivotal figures are still in harness, continuing to develop their careers. So, there is a good case for making this list of outstanding individuals considerably longer.

Systemic forces

However, systemic external factors have also been among important drivers of the geography community. The relative strengths of forces impelled by, respectively, the discipline of Geography, Rutgers University, and socioeconomic or techno-political changes in the wider world, have varied during different decades.

Experiences of World War II, and recovery in its aftermath, had profound effects on the founding, staffing, and operation of the Geography community during the 1940s and 1950s. It was not until the late 1990s that the last faculty member with direct experience of that war departed the University. The goal of fostering “world-mindedness” that was articulated by the founding generation, as a means of forestalling future catastrophic conflicts, continued to be evident thereafter. At least 15 Rutgers professors have been military veterans, several alumni taught at military academies and dozens of others served as officers or other ranks. In the decades that followed very considerable numbers of alumni also chose careers in military and national security organizations, especially during the twentieth century.

In contrast, the 1960s and 1990s were both decades when forces within the discipline of Geography, propelled rapid and radical changes among Rutgers geographers. In the sixties, the Quantitative Revolution brought attention to location analysis and broader aspects of spatial science that emphasized the use of theory as a starting point for research, especially into urban

and economic topics. At Rutgers these changes were reflected in the establishment of a Ph.D. program, the recruitment of mathematically adept students, the output of spatial science-related doctoral dissertations, and the spearheading of urban-focused sections of the High School Geography project.

During the 1990s disciplinary developments were of several types, most notably the embrace of non-traditional forms of “postmodern” inquiry among social science-inclined geographers and the adoption of technologically sophisticated geo-information systems that helped support global scale investigations of climate change and their distributed consequences. It was also a time of increased recognition of globalization as a systematic process that was interconnecting the lives of people everywhere. The latter developments were reflective of changes beyond Geography across a broad swath of disciplines in the social and environmental sciences. At Rutgers all these trends continued into the new millennium where they became integral themes of sub-field specialties like political ecology, and processes of environmental change in cold regions, tropical forests, coasts, and marine areas.

The 1980s began a period of major transformations in the structure and operation of Rutgers University that have had, then and ever since, significant consequences for the Geography community. The changes were intended to raise Rutgers’ public status, especially among the Big Ten universities – a peer group that contains many of the most important public research universities in the country. Among other things to achieve this goal Rutgers developed a wide range of programs aimed at increasing academic quality, added a Medical School, and adopted a corporate-style bureaucracy. In the process professional education, especially in business, health, science, and technology have attracted more resources, whereas the humanities and social sciences (including Geography) have been less well supported. Replacements of departing geographers are now more likely to involve joint-hires with other departments and teaching-only appointments.

Finally, a variety of political, economic, and societal shocks in the new millennium have buffeted taken-for-granted assumptions about ethics, governance, science, and gender and have joined disturbing environmental trends to create a high degree of uncertainty about the future. Geography, no less than other disciplines, is still coming to terms with these changes.

How have individual geographers and the preceding systemic forces affected the Rutgers Geography community?

The centrality of “environment” to research and teaching is perhaps the best example of long-term stability. Rutgers geographers have always been focused on the ambient environment, with and without human-forced modifications or transformation. Components of environment like climate, cold regions, coasts, and cities have been particularly long-lasting study subjects. (Appendix 31 and 32) Different interpretations of human roles have been dominant in different eras. Sometimes Rutgers geographers have addressed the direct effects of humans acting as physical forces. At other times the capacity of humans to adapt to environmental risks, or to secure and manage valued resources, has been of central concern. Other geographers, especially in recent years, have viewed environment mainly as a medium of contestation between people with differing world views, interests, and systems of governance. At all times there has been a

strong interest in improving living conditions. Much research been undertaken with the intent of critiquing and changing public policies in pursuit of human betterment.

A second hardy perennial is the Rutgers Geography community’s openness to transdisciplinary innovations. In the early days geography faculty co-taught three interdisciplinary courses²⁹⁷ with colleagues from other disciplines. In the 1970s most new geography faculty were hired to staff interdisciplinary units that have prospered thereafter. In the 1990s Rutgers university’s invigorated international studies initiative owed much to leadership provided by geographers. Today’s undergraduate curriculum hosts multidisciplinary majors or minors in Environmental Studies and International and Global Studies (as well as Geography), while geographers have been enthusiastic proponents and partners in programs that address interdisciplinary topics. This orientation probably reflects long-standing disciplinary preferences for the synthesis and integration of different contributions to knowledge. It has also permitted the relatively small body of geographers at Rutgers to “punch above its weight” in terms of contributions to institutional development.²⁹⁸

The undergraduate curriculum has retained a general similarity across time, but the emphases have changed. In was originally designed in the 1950s to serve the general education needs of students in the liberal arts, business, and engineering with opportunities for others who might want to specialize in the discipline itself. The basic building block was a required two-course sequence in physical geography and human geography with additional options in topical and area-focused courses. This structure was broadened by the 1970s into three specialized tracks in cultural, economic, and physical geography with different course requirements and the addition of quantitative skills and techniques related to spatial analysis. Currently, the curriculum still includes three tracks that echo the original Human/Physical dichotomy but with a more explicit commitment to techniques training: Global Culture, Economics and Society; Environment; and Geographical Techniques.

On the other hand, the salience and structure of the Geography graduate program has undergone important changes. One change has been an increasing emphasis on training Doctoral students rather than Master’s students. Production of Master’s graduates peaked in the 1980s at 65 and has declined thereafter with levels during the 2010s (21) lower than those during the 1960s. The decline is largely due to a conscious decision on the part of faculty to emphasize doctoral training, as well as the relative scarcity of support funds for terminal Master’s students. A second change has been the development of a graduate curriculum statement that fosters collaboration between researchers and study populations as well as encourages activism in pursuit of social justice goals. This contrasts with an ostensibly more value-neutral stance adopted in previous eras.

While the total number of Geography-trained faculty has remained in the mid-teens (14-16) since the early 1970s, the composition of faculty has undergone major shifts. What was once

297 Geo-ecology (from 1954), air photo interpretation (from 1957) and modernization of traditional Asian cultures (from 1961).

²⁹⁸ Practitioners in subfields of Geography, that were spun off as contributions to new academic subjects and institutional units, helped to create and nourish University programs on coastal and marine science, urban planning, area studies, human ecology, and cultural analysis.

an almost completely male, white, North American born professorate now has substantial representation of females, other ethnicities, and the foreign born (and often foreign educated). Gone too are faculty with direct personal experience of World War II and other military conflicts. So far as is known, no one on the current faculty has served in the military.

Women now make up about 40% of the core faculty and persons of color or non-US ethnicity also account for about 40%. Although there have been foreign born faculty since the outset, and women have been faculty members since the early 1960s, it took another decade before the first non-white faculty member was hired. However, most of the gender and race shifts did not occur until the 1990s and later.

Changes to the student body have also been striking. First is a major increase in the number of Ph.D. graduates. Between the 1970s and the 2010s, numbers have more than doubled from 21 to 53. The gender composition of doctorates has also undergone dramatic change.

Whereas there was just one woman (5%) among 21 Ph.D.s awarded during the 1970s, almost 60% (30) of the 53 doctorates awarded during the decade 2010-2019 were to females. Absolute numbers of doctoral degrees awarded to foreign born students and students of color have increased though the proportions have not shifted very much.

Changes in the study locations of Ph.D. dissertations have also been marked. Whereas early dissertations were almost completely focused on North America sites, the most recent ones have shown a distinct shift to places in the developing world. Comparing the earliest 20 dissertations and the most recent 20 (2018-2024) brings this into focus. Whereas non-US sites accounted for just 15% of the dissertation study locales in the 1970s, they now comprise 75% - mostly in India and Latin America.

7. What has been achieved?

As the Rutgers Geography community commemorates its 75^th anniversary it is appropriate to take stock of its achievements. Some of these can be measured in numbers – of faculty, students graduated or enrolled, research support levels and other indicators that are typically used in the institutional evaluations of academic units. Others are qualitative, including contributions to ideas, theories, methodologies, information networks, data sets, as reflected in published outputs, discourse among experts, mass media and other venues. The careers, positions held, and awards of Geography alumni represent another important indicator of success. Finally, there are the unheralded achievements of a community of people whose interactions most closely resemble those of an extended human family. Throughout its history faculty, students, and staff have been bound together by shared social and emotional experiences derived from mentoring, friendships, fieldwork, recreational pursuits, rites of passage, holiday events and other activities. Fun has been an important component of life in this community.

While it is not feasible to catalog all aspects of achievement, what follows is a representative summary. Where there are important gaps that can be filled by others, it is hoped that the record will be updated periodically.

The history of Rutgers Geography is liberally sprinkled with the names of people whose academic, professional, or personal achievements were of signal distinction. For example, at least a dozen faculty have been recipients of prestigious foundation fellowships at the highest levels of American academia (e.g. Guggenheim, Fulbright, MacArthur), or been inducted into blue ribbon national scholarly and scientific organizations (e.g. American Academy for the Advancement of Science; National Academy of Public Administration), and/or received similar distinctions awarded by disciplinary associations.²⁹⁹ There are also professors and alumni who originated or pioneered intellectual concepts that have gained widespread recognition both within the discipline and beyond. These include: “carceral geography” (Ruth Gilmore, Ph.D.

1998)³⁰⁰, “therapeutic landscapes” (Wil Gesler, Professor, 1978-81)³⁰¹, “the double exposure framework” (Robin Leichenko, Professor, 1997-)³⁰², “rent gap theory,” (Neil Smith, Professor, 1986-2000)³⁰³, “Lulu – locally unwanted land use” (Frank Popper, Professor)³⁰⁴ and “the Buffalo

²⁹⁹ Guggenheim – Brush, Wacker, Smith; Fulbright – Ghertner, Leichenko; MacArthur – Mitchell, D.; American Association for the Advancement of Science – Mitchell, K., Nordstrom; National Academy of Public Administration – Haynes; American Meteorological Society – Robinson; Association of American Geographers – Leichenko, Solecki.

³⁰⁰ Rachael Kushner, “Is prison necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore might change your mind,” New York Times Magazine, (Feature) April 17, 2019. < https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html?searchResultPosition=1>. Described as “…a category of scholarship she has more or less single-handedly invented, which examines the complex interrelationships among landscapes, natural resources, political economy, infrastructure and the policing, jailing, caging and controlling of populations.”

³⁰¹ Wilbert M. Gesler. 1992. “Therapeutic landscapes: Medical issues in light of the new cultural geography,” Social Science and Medicine 34: 735-46. Wilbert M. Gesler, 2003. Healing Places. Lanham, MD, Rowman and Littlefield. ³⁰² Robin Leichenko and Karen L. O’Brien. 2008. Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures.

New York: Oxford University Press.

³⁰³“Rent-gap theory,” Wikipedia < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-gap_theory> Accesed January 2024

³⁰⁴ Frank J. Popper. 1983. “Siting LULUs: Locally unwanted land uses,” Planning (ASPO), 47(4): 12-15.

Commons” (Frank Popper and Deborah Popper, Ph.D. 1992)³⁰⁵. Other Rutgers geographers have published seminal books,³⁰⁶ created new scholarly institutions³⁰⁷, founded successful new journals³⁰⁸, and undertaken unique projects such as Maynard Dow’s historiography of North American Geography through the lens of filmed interviews with many of its leaders that is now housed in the National Archives³⁰⁹.

Former graduate students have achieved high public profiles that have burnished the reputation of the Geography program and the university on an international public stage. Among others, these include a Time magazine Person of the Year (Ella Watson-Stryker) celebrated for her work with victims of Ebola in Africa³¹⁰, a MacArthur “genius” (Don Mitchell) whose provocative writings have helped redefine the concept of public space³¹¹, and a young woman (Maria Espinosa) who became her country’s UN Representative, then its Foreign Minister and President of the U.N. General Assembly³¹². Contemporary students are following in the footsteps of these pioneers. The recent Fulbright Student award to Leonardo Calzada for graduate research on forest transitions in southern Mexico is a case in point.³¹³

Rutgers geographers have distinguished themselves in high level academic administrative positions, including service as University Presidents, Vice Presidents, Provosts, and Deans.³¹⁴ In addition, three Presidents of the premier discipline organization of Geography in the USA – the Association of American Geographers – were associated with Rutgers for substantial parts of their careers.³¹⁵ We have also supplied a considerable number of the Councilors of the American Geographical Society.³¹⁶

³⁰⁵ Great Plains Restoration Council, “Buffalo Commons,” n.d. < https://gprc.org/research/buffalo-commons/> Accessed January 2024; “The Plains: Water, people and dollars are disappearing from the American prairies,” New York Times, June 24, 1990, SM 24.

³⁰⁶ These include: Andrew Clark The Invasion of New Zealand by People, Plants and Animals: The South Island (1949); William L. Thomas, Man’s Role in changing the face of the earth, (1956); Neil Smith, Uneven Development: Nature, Capital and the Production of Space (1984), and American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization (2003); Maxine N. Laurie, Peter O. Wacker and Michael Siegel, Mapping New Jersey :An Evolving Landscape (2009); Robin L. Leichenko and Karen L. O’Brien, Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures (2008); and Richard Schroeder, Africa after Apartheid: South Africa, Race and Nation in Tanzania (2012).

³⁰⁷ School of Public Policy (George Mason University – Kingsley Haynes), Southern Regional Climate Center (Robert Muller); and at Rutgers University - Center for African Studies (Rick Shroeder), Rutgers Climate Institute (Robin Leichenko); Department of Marine and Coastal Studies.

³⁰⁸ Human Ecology (Andrew Vayda); Global Environmental Change (Ken Mitchell).

³⁰⁹ “Geographers on Film,” Library of Congress, < https://www.loc.gov/collections/geographers-on-film/about-this-collection/>

³¹⁰ “Rutgers Alumna among Ebola Fighters named Time magazine Person of the year,” Rutgers Today, December 15, 2014. < https://www.rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-alumna-among-ebola-fighters-named-time-magazine-person-year>

³¹¹ Donald M. Mitchell, MacArthur Fellow, Class of 1998. < https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-1998/donald-m-mitchell>

³¹² “Maria Fernanda Espinosa,” Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Fernanda_Espinosa and < https://www.un.org/pga/73/about/biography/>

³¹³ Rutgers Today, February 13, 2024.

³¹⁴ John Rickert, Doracie Zoleta-Nantes; Joanna Regulska, Ray Caprio, Charlene Sharpe-Pryce, Guido Weigend, Grant Walton, Mike Greenberg, Dona Schneider, Richard Schroeder, Robin Leichenko.

³¹⁵ Andrew Clark, Melvin Marcus, Susan Cutter.

³¹⁶ Marcus, Mitchell, K., Popper, D., Holcomb, Leichenko.

Faculty and alumni have gained recognition outside of academia in the military, in business and even in politics. For example, Rutgers geography has produced a bevy of Colonels, Captains, Commanders and other military officers in the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force, including several who taught for lengthy spells at the country’s military academies.³¹⁷ (Appendix 20). At least one faculty member was also a U.S. spy. (Weigend)

Many Ph.D. alumni have taken jobs in academia and a large proportion of Master’s and Bachelor’s graduates have been employed in public service, most often in government (at all levels) but also in non-governmental organizations (NGOs).³¹⁸ The latter have varied from private, environmental, social, and educational foundations to the World Bank, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Educational Testing Service, the Metropolitan Museum, the Open Space Institute, an AIDS support organization, and a community center. Secondary school teachers have also been produced, spreading knowledge about Geography into K-12 grades.³¹⁹

Some graduates were political figures including candidates in elections for the U.S. Senate, the Governorship of New Jersey, the mayor of New Brunswick and other local government units (Murray Sabrin,³²⁰ Bruce Newling, Guido Weigend).

Although the bulk of what Rutgers geographers have written is scholarly, scientific, or professional, we have also nurtured some who became published novelists (Patricia Heaney³²¹, Tisha Bender³²²) and others who achieved distinction as creative artists (Hong Lin Wee)³²³, photographers/videographers (Hassan Hodges, Sonia Szczesna, Julie Tuason)³²⁴ and cartographers (Mike Siegel).³²⁵

It is not possible to specify the numbers of students who have graduated with Geography degrees or attended Geography classes. From available data it is known that the program has awarded approximately 180 doctorates, of whom most held positions at major public and private

³¹⁷ John Rickert, Maynard Dow, Frank Keller, William Thomas, Ross Guest, David Blumenstock, Welford Robinson, William Goodwin, Jackie Beyer, Robert Hordon, George Carey, Bonham Richardson, Karl Nordstrom, Lloyd Carmack, Rick Page, Bill Reynolds, James Riely, Steven Gordon, Grant Walton, Mel Marcus, David B. Smith, Ronnie Fernandez, Robert Peltz, Bert Weg, Fenni Pan.

³¹⁸ Susan Bonsall, Barbara Hildebrant, John Kasbarian, Cheryl Gower, Purba Rudra, Peter Vancura, Greg Remaud, Michelle Frumkin-Rosengaus, Sanjay Kharod. Colleen Earp, Elizabeth Koechlein, Julia Bordelon, Kae Yamane, Natalia Sardo.

³¹⁹Some of these teachers include: Karen Nichols, Robert Sell, Michael La Place, Thomas Trabka, Henry Skirbst, Sarah Stinard-Kiel, Tanya Steinberg, Jennifer Beck and Kate Lehmert.

³²⁰ “Once and again a Republican, but always Libertarian,” New York Times, June 1, 2000. P. B6.

³²¹ Pat Heaney, 2013. Mean Sea Level. Riding the Waves Publishing.

³²² Trisha Bender. 2018. And all is always now. Amazon.com. Kindle Direct.

³²³ Velda Wong. “How it all began: an interview with NASA-Scientist-turned-ceramicist Dr. Wee Hong Ling,” Digital Senior, Singapore < https://digitalsenior.sg/dr-wee-hong-ling/>

³²⁴ Julie Tuason, Flickr < https://www.flickr.com/people/jtuason/>

³²⁵ Martin Tsai, 2010. “Rutgers cartographer Michael Siegel canvasses Jersey in new coffee-table book,” < https://www.nj.com/insidejersey/2010/03/rutgers_cartographer_canvasses.html>NJ.com.; also Michael Siegel, Rutgers Cartography. Sample project maps. < https://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/page1projects.html>

colleges, in almost every U.S. state³²⁶ and at least a dozen other countries.³²⁷ There have also been at least 273 Master’s graduates. A majority of these have staffed government agencies and NGOs but healthy numbers have also established private companies, often each employing scores of people³²⁸. Many hundreds of Rutgers Bachelor’s degree alumni now spread across the world.

The foregoing are professional and scholarly achievements. There have also been distinctive events of a more personal kind. The interest of one department staff member’s son was sufficiently peaked by exposure to Geography classes that he chose to major and become a professional geographer.³²⁹ From time-to-time members of RUGS (Rutgers Undergraduate Geography Society) or the Graduate Geography Project (GGP) have organized special events³³⁰, participated with faculty in field trips, or attended conferences, sometimes in national venues well removed from New Brunswick. At the end of each year graduating students and their families now attend a Convocation to celebrate the completion of their studies. This has often been an occasion for the annual departmental photograph. Friday afternoon gatherings in local watering holes (Olde Queens Tavern and Doll’s Place in New Brunswick, Jimmys in Highland Park) were popular venues where faculty, students and visiting speakers would gather to swap experiences, tell stories, and enjoy each other’s company. In the winter an annual Solstice party (once known as the Christmas Party) was celebrated. In Spring there were softball games and picnics in Johnson Park or perhaps a party in the Log Cabin near Helyar Woods or in a faculty home, most often in Highland Park.

Together we have celebrated marriages³³¹, births, birthdays, and career milestones and together we have coped with disruptions like the Covid pandemic and mourned untimely deaths.³³² We shared in periodic evacuations of buildings when fire alarms were pulled during exam time. Other unique memorable events also occurred. A graduate student made an

³²⁶ Including, among private institutions: Columbia University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, University of California-Berkeley, University of Southern California. And among major public institutions: University of Arizona, University of Illinois, University of Texas, as well as most units of the State University of New York and the City University of New York.

³²⁷ The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.

³²⁸ Graduates with strong entrepreneurial credentials include, among others: Nancy Neumann, Tina Cary, Leyla Vural, Richard Hunter, Louise Cook, Darren Coffey, Stanley Jacobs, Scott Salmon, William Kellner, Lawrence Pesesky, Mark MaGrann. Examples include: Richard Hunter’s archaeological survey firm and Mark MaGrann’s eco-conscious building construction company.

³²⁹ Steven Gordon, an undergraduate major and son of the Departmental Administrator Mrs. Elaine Gordon, went on to gain a Ph.D. (Arizona State U) and became a fulltime civilian head of the Geosciences program at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

³³⁰ For example, an innovative fund-raising drive that raised several thousand dollars for a camel-borne library service to nomadic tribes in East Africa whose proceeds were hand-delivered by a Rutgers alumna. See: Geography News 2005-2006, p. 3..

³³¹ Geography graduate students have wedded each other and there have been at least six marriages between Geography faculty and former Geography students.

³³² Deaths among active students or members of faculty families have thankfully been few. The tragic loss in 1998 of Anastasia Mikhailova, a Russian born graduate student who died in an automobile accident was one. The Geography community was also deeply shaken during 2005 by the unexpected death in Tanzania of Toby Schroeder, the young son of a faculty member who was undertaking foreign field research at the time.

unexpected visit to Jordan when his plane was highjacked.³³³ An anonymous “streaker”, rumored to be a geographer, once scandalized the staff of an adjacent department by running through the corridors of Lucy Stone Hall. A different (disgruntled) student contested removal from the Graduate Program in a series of legal actions, up through the federal Court system, eventually having the case dismissed by Judge Mary Ann Trump Barry (the President’s sister). On that occasion the Graduate Director and the Dean of the Graduate School were escorted from the courthouse after authorities received information about a gun being suspected in the courtroom!

The foregoing are just the tip of an iceberg which, unlike real ones, will continue to expand. The 21^st century has already produced many surprises and doubtless there are more ahead. But whatever occurs, the Geography community at Rutgers has a legacy of achievements of which they can be proud and which will provide a worthy basis for successfully navigating future uncertainties.

³³³ Ronald Goodale was in the Geography Master’s program during 1969-1970. He later became a history teacher at Tappan Zee High School in Rockland, NY. See: “He sat and waited for plane blowup,” The (Hackensack) Record, September 16, 1970, p.4.

8. INDEX OF APPENDICES

Appendix	1:	Timeline of significant events in the history of Rutgers Geography	136
Appendix	2:	Geography faculty members (1949-2024)	138
Appendix	3:	Geography Graduate faculty with non-Geography highest degrees	141
Appendix	4:	Rutgers units to which Geography faculty belonged (1949-2024)	142
Appendix	5:	Press announcement of the formation of Rutgers Department of Geography	147
Appendix	6:	Rutgers expands work in Geography (1949)	148
Appendix	7:	Newspaper report of the Department of Geography’s initial personnel (1949)	149
Appendix	8:	Isaiah Bowman’s inaugural address (1949)	152
Appendix	9:	Geography courses 1949-1950	167
Appendix	10:	Geography at Rutgers (1958)	170
Appendix	11:	Rutgers Geography in 1961	174
Appendix	12:	A historical Sketch of the development of Geography at Rutgers University	175
Appendix	13:	The role of Geography in the Livingston Program	181
Appendix	14:	Geographers at Rutgers in 1981	183
Appendix	15:	50 years of Geography at Rutgers (1949-1999)	184
Appendix	16:	Intellectual genealogies of some geography faculty members in 2000	187
Appendix	17:	Faculty Dynamics	195
Appendix	18:	Doctoral dissertations completed	197
Appendix	19:	Doctoral Dissertations: Characteristics and Changing emphases	205
Appendix	20:	Career positions held by Rutgers Geography Ph.D.’s (January 2023)	212
Appendix	21:	Changes in focal subjects, theories, and methods	216
Appendix	22:	Master’s degrees awarded	218
Appendix	23:	Miscellaneous other awards	232
Appendix	24:	A peripatetic history: The search for a permanent home base	233
Appendix	25:	Institutional changes in Rutgers University	238
Appendix	26:	Andrew Hill Clark Prize 1999-	242
Appendix	27:	Geography seminar series speakers 1987-88	244
Appendix	28:	The Status of Geography at Rutgers in 1964	246
Appendix	29:	Visiting Faculty	247
Appendix	30:	Degrees awarded in Geography 2005-2023	249
Appendix	31:	Enduring themes of Geographical Research at Rutgers	249
Appendix	32:	Cold Regions and cold phenomena	251
Appendix	33:	Students enrolled (specific years)	253
Appendix	34:	Faculty opinions: A selection of Letters and Opinion articles	266
Appendix	35:	The Geography Curriculum – A view from the Outside	277
Appendix	36:	Geography Majors – An Interim Accounting	279
Appendix	37:	The High School Geography Project	320
Appendix	38:	Events in celebration of the 50^th anniversary	322
Appendix	39:	Holders of the Society of Woman Geographers Graduate Fellowships	323
Appendix	40:	Geography Newsletters	324
Appendix	41:	International affinities of faculty: A note	326

APPENDIX 1

TIMELINE OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF RUTGERS GEOGRAPHY

1946	Andrew Clark, Geography Department founder hired by Dept. of Geology (later Geography and Geology)
1949	Department of Geography and Undergraduate program founded
1951?	First Bachelor’s degree awarded
1956	Master’s degree program initiated
1956	Rutgers University graduate students replace Columbia University students as Teaching Assistants
1957	Arthur Jorgensen, a geography student, is a weather observer at the South Pole
1958	First Master’s degree awarded (John E. Rickert)
1960	First departmental home at 147 College Ave, New Brunswick razed: new quarters taken up at 5 Senior St.
1961	First woman faculty member hired (Anne E. Larimore)
1962	Peace Corps noted exemplary Rutgers Economic Geography program (re: Asbury Park Press, 2/11/62)
1962	First Master’s degree awarded to a woman (Winnifred V. Fischer)
1964	Doctoral Program founded
1964	First New Jersey born faculty member hired (Peter O. Wacker)
1964	First alumnus of the Rutgers Geography program hired as a faculty member (Robert Muller)
1967	First geographer hired at Livingston College (George Carey)
1967	Geography dept seeks drafting sets, stereoscopes, and desk calculators
1968	Graduate students issue report seeking an increased role in the Geography Program
1968	Conference on the Development of Geography Programs at Rutgers University (May 13), Discusses
	creation of a New Brunswick-wide department.
1969	First Rutgers “Models and Methods in Geography” Conference held
1969	First issue of Geography program newsletter Interaction (May)
1969	Livingston College becomes first co-educational (male/female) unit of Rutgers University
1970	Geography Department, Livingston College established (subsumed into Urban Studies program in 1974)
1970	Geography graduate student Ronald Goodale on Swissair flight from Zurich to New York highjacked to
	Jordan by armed Palestinians
1970	First geographer hired at College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences (James K. Mitchell)
1971	First Ph.D. awarded (Peter O. Miller)
1972	Rutgers College begins to admit female students
1972?	Geography Dept. consolidated in Simeon DeWitt House (College Avenue campus)
1972	First Geographer hired at the Department of Human Ecology, Cook College (Baruch Boxer)
1973	First issue of Diffusion, (Mimeo Departmental newsletter) appears.
1974	First geographer hired at the Center for Urban Policy Research (Robert W. Lake)
1977	First Ph.D. awarded to a woman (Christine Drake)
1978	Blizzard of January 20 prompts the first official closing of Rutgers University.
1980	(December) University plan recommends Geography be placed in a new Faculty of Professional Education
1981	(March) External Review team (John F. Hart, Brian J.L. Berry, John F. Lounsbury) recommends
1981	Geography be placed in proposed professional school Rutgers President Bloustein approves University reorganization plan (mentions “School of Geography”)³³⁴
1981	Geography Dept. vacates Simeon DeWitt House (College Ave.) for Lucy Stone Hall (Livingston campus)
1981	Geography Dept. joins School of Urban & Regional Policy (SURP), Faculty of Professional Studies (FPS)
1984	Last faculty member of the founding generation (John E. Brush) retires
1987	First Student Geography conference (organized by Rutgers Association of Graduate Geography Students –
	RAGGS with participation by students from other Geography programs in the NE USA)
1988	External review recommends returning Geography Dept. to the College of Arts and Sciences (Charles
	Alexander, Susan Hanson, Gregory Knight)
1988	Geography becomes an autonomous department in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

³³⁴ “Bloustein endorses reorganization plan for Rutgers faculty,” The Central New Jersey Home News, January 21, 1981, p.40.

1989	Second Geography Student Conference organized by Rutgers Association of Geography Students (RAGS)
	2/17-19.
1990	March 26, The Society of Women Geographers begins allocating fellowships to Rutgers’ women
1990	April 20, One day conference in celebration of the 40^th anniversary (1989) of the Department of Geography
1990	Plenary address: M. Gordon Wolman (Johns Hopkins U.); “Geography: Some history”, DOG receives commendatory letter (June 7) from U.S. Senator Paul Simon
1991	Rutgers initiates (voluntary) early retirement program for faculty (no geographers availed)
1991	Departmental retreat begins assessment of progress and plans (December).
1992	External review of Geography (Melvin Marcus, Eric Sheppard, Thomas Veblen)
1993	Report of the Committee on Standards and Priorities in Academic Development (CCSPAD)
1995	Bloustein School opens in Civic Square; Geographers associated with Urban Planning/Studies and
	Community Development and CUPR depart from Lucy Stone Hall
1995	RU President Francis L Lawrence acknowledges Geography Ph.D. program’s high ranking by the National Research Council. (December 4, Memo to the Faculty)³³⁵.
1998	Graduate alumnus Don Mitchell receives Macarthur Foundation (“Genius”) Fellowship
1999	50^th Anniversary gathering
2006	100^th Ph.D. awarded (Lena Raberg)
2007	Rutgers Initiative on Climate and Society based in the DOG
2003	MaGrann (annual) conference series initiated supported by major alumnus donor
2007	School of Environmental and Biological Sciences founded on campus of Cook College
2010	Dept. of Sociology vacates Lucy Stone Hall opening space for expansion of the Geography department.
2014	Ella Watson-Stryker (Hons. BA, Geography and Religion) named a Time Magazine Person of the Year.
2016	First Teaching Professor hired
2019	Death of Geography benefactor Mark MaGrann

2020-23 The COVID pandemic impacts a wide swathe of activities in the Geography community and beyond 2023 First General Faculty strike in the history of Rutgers University

2024 75^th Anniversary of DOG founding

³³⁵ “According to National Research Council ratings, two of our doctoral programs, geography and philosophy, rank among the top 15 in faculty quality.”

APPENDIX 2

Geography Faculty Members 1949-2024

This appendix provides a time-sequenced list of faculty members with higher degrees in Geography who are known to have been involved in the Rutgers Geography community since its inception. It is likely an incomplete count because there is no comprehensive repository of previous employment data at Rutgers. For example, among the missing might be people who taught a single course during one semester and resident visitors supported by external sources.

Nonetheless, omissions are unlikely to significantly alter the general picture, though knowledgeable readers are invited to identify any such so that this account may be amended at a future date.

Approximately 97 faculty with Ph. D.s in Geography have been members of the Rutgers geography community at some time since 1949.³³⁶ These include eighteen (18) who have been in place for 25 years or more and generally retired from Rutgers, six (6) of these with more than 40 years of service each.³³⁷ Between them those eighteen faculty accumulated almost 650 person-years of service, whereas all of the rest combined (65) accumulated less than 300 person-years of service. About half of all appointees did not serve past seven years (i. e. the customary period to qualify for the award of tenure) and many of these were not reappointed or chose to leave after just three years. (Table 2)

Sixty-three (63) geographers were affiliated entirely or mainly with the Department of Geography, which has varied in size from four (4) to a dozen (12), and seventeen (17) belonged to non-Geography units. Those who held positions in other university units participated in Geography activities mainly through the Graduate Program. In a burst of hires that took place during the 1970s most of the latter group joined new professional or interdisciplinary departments or research centers that were set up by the University as it redefined its mission.³³⁸ This process culminated in 1981 with the consolidation of different departments of the same discipline that were present in more than one the five Rutgers undergraduate colleges (Rutgers, Douglass, Cook, Livingston, University). Over the years, some personnel originally hired by non-Geography units, or holding partial appointments therein, migrated into the Geography department.³³⁹ There was also a flow of some geographers who had held partial lines in the Department of Geography, into other units.³⁴⁰ Finally, in addition, at least 30 faculty with degrees in other fields also participated in the Graduate Program. (Appendix 4)

³³⁶ Approximately one-third (c. 25) are deceased, most of whom were recruited to Rutgers in the years before 1960. More than a dozen have retired and an additional dozen are still active members of the Rutgers faculty with the remainder attached to other Universities.

³³⁷ Faculty with 25+ years of service include: Weigend, Brush, Wacker, Hordon, Schofer, Psuty, Mitchell, Boxer, Greenberg, Holcomb, Lake, Nordstrom, Roundy, Regulska, Robinson, Schroeder, D. Schneider, Leichenko.

³³⁸ For example, during this era Livingston College was established to foster knowledge about urban issues, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Science was rebranded and reoriented as Cook College, Rutgers College began to admit women, and new Schools of Psychology and Criminal Justice and Performing Arts were founded.

³³⁹ Mitchell, Cutter, St. Martin, Leichenko.

³⁴⁰ Psuty, Nordstrom, Puar. (Others? – Greenberg, Boxer, Holcomb?)

GEOGRAPHERS ON THE RUTGERS FACULTY 1946-2024³⁴¹

1. Andrew Clark	1946----1951
2. William L. Thomas, Jr.	1947--1950
3. Guido Weigend	1949------------------------------------------- 1976
4. Frank L. Keller	1949--1950?
5. Iven V. Bennett	1950------ 1954
6. B. Ross Guest	1950-1951
7. John Brush	1951	1984
8. David I. Blumenstock	1952-55
9. William H. Wallace	1954-56
10. Roberto Lizarralde	1957-58
11. William Goodwin	1957-1960
12. H. Roy Merrens	1960-1961
13. William Warntz	1961-1962
14. Melvin G. Marcus	1961---1964
15. Ann Larimore	1961-64
16. John Kolars	1961-64
17. Arthur Getis	1963---------------------------------- 1977
18. Peter Wacker	1964-------------------------------------------------------------------- 2003
19. Robert Muller	1964-----1968
20. Jacqueline Beyer	1964------ 1969
21. Bruce E. Newling	1965—1967
22. Frank Kelland	1967-1970
23. Robert Hordon	1967--------------------------------------------------------------- 2009
24. Barry J. Garner	1967
25. Osa E. Lindberg	1967 (Fall)
26. George Carey	1967---1974 ….1990s?
27. Harry Margulis	1967---1973 (U-NWK)
28. Neils West	1967-? (U-NWK)
29. Allan Frey	1968 (Spring)
30. Jerry P. Schofer	1969----1974…………………………………2001
31. Robert Brown	1969---------------------- 1977
32. Norbert Psuty	1969------------------------------------------------------- 2002
33. Howard L.Gautier	1960s?(one year)
34. James K. Mitchell	1970------------------------------------------------------------------- 2016
35. Baruch Boxer	1970--------------------------------------------------- 1999
36. Robert A. Obudho	1970------------------------------ 1982
37. Ralph J. Caprio	1970---------------------------------------------------------------------
38. Michael Greenberg	1971-------------------------------------------------------------------- 2018
39. Briavel Holcomb	1972------------------------------------------------------------------ 2017
40. William Ross	1973-1974
41. Lata Chatterjee	1973---1975
42. Ken Hewitt	1973-----1976
43. Robert Lake	1974----------------------------------------------------------------- 2020
44. Bonham Richardson	1974-----1977
45. Janet Schuh (Crane)	1974----------- 1979
46. Charles Ogrosky	1975-------- 1979
47. Karl Nordstrom	1975------------------------------------------------------------- 2020
48. Tom Clark	1976--------- 1982

³⁴¹ Most of the people on this list held Ph.D. degrees in Geography; a few held terminal Masters degrees in Geography.

49. Susan Cutter	1977------------------------ 1993
50. Glen Miller	1978-1983
51. William Renwick	1978------------- 1985
52. Wilbert Gesler	1978--1981
53. Robert Roundy	1979----------------------------- 2005
54. Quentin Gillard	1979---1982
55. Robin Flowerdew	1980-1981
56. Gerard Fish	1980-1982
57. Bill Hamilton	1980---1983
58. Damaris Rose	1981-1982
59. Joanna Regulska	1982--------------------------- 2015
60. Ben Wisner	1983-1985
61. Susan Macey	1983-----1988
62. Ernestine K. Cary	1985-1986
63. Frederick Nelson	1986------ 1994
64. Neil Smith	1986------------- 2000
65. David Robinson	1988-----------------------------
66. Dona Schneider	1990--------------- 2022
67. Ramsamay, Ed.	1991------------------------
68. Richard Schroeder	1993------------- 2018
69. Kirstin Dow	1995-1996
70. Elvin Wyly	1995-----2002
71. Sean DiGiovanna	1996------- ?
72. Robin Leichenko	1997--------------------
73. Roger Balm	1997------- 2012
74. Michael Medler	1998--2001
75. Michelle Goman	1998--2001
76. Marjorie Clarke	1999-00
77. Kevin St Martin	2001--------------
78. Laura Schneider	2005------------
79. Jasbir K. Puar	2007-2010?
80. Trevor Birkenholtz	2007-2013
81. James DeFilippis	2007-----------
82. Asa Rennermalm	2009---------
83. Mazen Labban	2010-?
84. Usha Eleswarapu	2010-?
85. Tania del Mar Lopez Marrero	2011-15
86. Asher Ghertner	2012-------
87. Nate Gabriel	2014-17+
88. Paul O’Keefe	2016-----
89. Carrie Mott	2016-18
90. Kevon Rhiney	2017-----
91. Willie Wright	2019-21
92. Andrea Marston	2019----
93. Daniel Barone	2020---
94. Priscilla Ferreira	2021--
95. Jesse G. Rodenbiker	2022-
96. J.T. Roane	2022-
97. Teona Williams	2024-

APPENDIX 3

Present and former members of the Graduate Geography faculty with non-Geography highest degrees. (As of September 2023). A majority of these faculty were members of the departments/programs in Human Ecology, and Planning and Public Policy.

Active members

NAMES PRIMARY RUTGERS UNIT AFFILIATIONS

Haque, Ubydul (Epidemiology/Public Health) Hoefer, William (Landscape Architecture) Hughes, David. (Human Ecology/Anthropology)

Lathrop, Richard (Landscape Ecology/Environmental Monitoring)

McDermott, Melanie (Human Ecology)

McElwee, Pam (Human Ecology)

Newman. Kathe (Planning and Public Policy)

O’Neill, Karen (Sociology/Planning and Public Policy) Payne, Will (Planning and Public Policy) Schoolman, Ethan (Human Ecology/Sociology)

Shih, Mi (Planning and Public Policy) Sodikoff, Genese (Sociology/Anthropology) Tulloch, David (Landscape Architecture)

Former members

Airola, Teuvo* (Natural Resources/Forest Ecology) Ashley, Gail (Geology)

Goldfarb, William (Environmental Resources) Hausermann, Heidi (Human Ecology)

Lapping, Mark B. (Planning and Policy Development) Madry, Scott (Anthropology/Natural Resources) Markusen, Ann (Planning and Public Policy) McCay, Bonnie (Human Ecology)

Nieswand, George (Environmental Resources) Pleasant, Andrew (Human Ecology)

Popper, Frank (Planning and Public Policy) Rico, Trinidad (Art History/Anthropology) Rudel, Tom (Human Ecology/Sociology) Vayda, Pete * (Human Ecology/Anthropology) Walton, Grant F.* (Environmental Resources)

Wiggins, Lyna (Planning and Policy Development)

Xu, Ming (Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources)

*Deceased

APPENDIX 4

Rutgers Units to which Geography faculty belonged

Rutgers-New Brunswick

Rutgers College (later RU-Faculty of Arts and Sciences)

Department of Geology (later Dept. of Geography and Geology) Clark, A

Department of Geography Clark, A

Thomas Kelland Weigend Bennett Guest Brush

Blumenstock Wallace Lizzarde Goodwin Merrens Marcus Larimore Kolars

Getis Wacker Muller Newling Kelland Hordon Garner Lindberg Frey Richardson Ogrosky Miller Cutter Mitchell Renwick Gesler Gillard

Flowerdew Fish Hamilton Rose Regulska Wisner Macey Nelson Smith Robinson Schroeder Dow

Wyly Leichenko Balm Medler Goman Clark

St. Martin Schneider St. Martin Birkenholtz Rennermalm Marrero Ghertner Gabriel O’Keefe Mott

Rhiney Wright Marston Barone Ferreria Rodenbiker Obudho

Dept. of Africana Studies

Ramsamy

Women’s Studies Puar

Livingston College

Department of Geography (later Dept. of Urban Studies) Boxer

Carey Greenberg Holcomb DiGiovanna

Center for Urban Policy Research (CUPR) Chatterjee

Lake Cook College

Department of Environmental Resources Cutter

Mitchell

Department of Human Ecology Boxer

Schuh Hewitt Ross Roundy Wisner

Center for Coastal and Environmental Research Nordstrom

Psuty

Walton Center Cary

Faculty of Professional Studies (later Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy) Clark, T

Schneider

Greenberg Holcomb

Rutgers-Newark

Department of Geography (later Dept. of Urban Studies and then Dept. of Public Administration)

Brown Beyer Caprio Carey Margulis Schofer West

APPENDIX 5

Press Announcement of the formation of the Rutgers Department of Geography³⁴²

“Rutgers to get Geography Bureau

New Department planned in recognition of its importance

New Brunswick, March 22.

Rutgers University will establish a department of geography in its College of Arts and Sciences in recognition of the increasing importance of this subject in a college education, Dr. Robert C. Clothier, president of the University said today.

The new department is an outgrowth of instruction in geography, which the State University has been offering within the Department of Geology and Geography. It will be activated July 1.

It will be the only department of its kind in New Jersey offering University courses to students in the liberal arts, business administration, and engineering and one of the few university departments of geography in the northeast.

Dr. Clothier also announced that Dr. Andrew H. Clark, associate professor of geography, will be the chairman of the new department. Dr. Clark, a member of the Rutgers faculty since 1946, is a graduate of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont., the University of Toronto and the University of California. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the latter in 1940.”

³⁴² Taken from “Rutgers to get Geography bureau,” The Record, March 22, 1949, p.3

APPENDIX 6

“Rutgers Expands work in geography

New York Times, June 5, 1949

Rutgers University will establish on July 1 a new Department of Geography, one of the few such departments in the northeastern United States and the only one in New Jersey offering geography courses to students of liberal arts, business administration and engineering.

In announcing the establishment of the new academic department, Dr. Robert C. Clothier, president of the university, asserted that geography, while one of the “oldest, most respected and in some ways most difficult of the academic disciplines of Western culture,” had suffered from neglect in the United States. Teaching of the subject is generally limited to elementary and secondary schools.

Warning against Neglect

“In the early days of our country,” he observed, “when our resources were apparently unlimited and we often had little interest in the rest of the world, it was perhaps natural that we failed to give geography its proper place in our curricula. We can continue to neglect it only at grave peril to the effective and intelligent participation of our people in the affairs of our state, our nation and the world.”

Three years ago, Rutgers introduced geography courses through a newly formed joint Department of Geography and Geology. The university gradually expanded its courses in geography, Dr. Clothier said, to the point where a separate department became necessary.

Rounded Education

“Although the new department will help meet the growing need for professional geographers in research, teaching and government,” Dr. Clothier declared ,“it will perform perhaps its greatest service in rounding out the education of our students who are preparing for careers in such fields as economics, history, international affairs, journalism, law and teaching.

“Indeed, it would be ideal if every American could have a fuller understanding of our geographic foundations.”

The new department will offer service courses and a full four-year program for students who plan careers as geographers, a field in which there is a steady demand for college-trained men.

Dr. Andrew Hill Clark will be chairman of the department. He served with the Office of Strategic Services in India and China and helped set up the Department of Geography at Johns Hopkins University.

Leonard Buder”

APPENDIX 7

Newspaper report on the Department of Geography’s initial (1949) personnel³⁴³

“Rutgers New Bureau Staff Knows Whereof it Speaks

New Brunswick – When staff members of Rutgers new department of geography, tell their students about Algeria, New Zealand, Nicaragua or Manitoba, it won’t be heresay.

They’ve been there – and Bolivia, Tunisia, Quebec, Italy, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Wales, China, Japan, the Sahara, Costa Rica and British Honduras too. And that list could go on almost as far as the geography books cover.

The department staff of Associate Professor Andrew H. Clark, chief of the new unit, Dr. Frank L. Keller, assistant professor, and William L. Thomas, Jr., instructor, has done first-hand work on four continents, more islands than most of us ever knew existed, and so many countries that they’ve lost count.

The new department will be formally announced at a meeting Wednesday night in Kirkpatrick chapel. Dr. Isaiah Bowman, president-emeritus of John Hopkins and one of the world’s outstanding geographers, will be the principal speaker. The department will officially begin its work as a separate entity on July 1.

The new department, according to Canadian-born Dr. Clark, will provide full training for professional geographers, and as its facilities increase, will accept graduate students. But its major purpose Dr. Clark said, in the educational structure of the university will be “to provide a clear and reasoned understanding of the earth’s surface so as to broaden and deepen the education of our general student body.” This will be particularly important to those who may be planning careers in international affairs, journalism, government service or teaching.

New Jersey upon which enormous work remains to be done, according to Dr. Clark, will be an early project of the new department. “The study of the great

³⁴³ Source: ³⁴³ Asbury Park Press, April 3, 1949, p.16.

complexity which is New Jersey will not be easy,” he pointed out. “But the investigations will be made and should prove here, as they have elsewhere, of great value to the agriculture, transportation enterprises, and manufacturing and resort industries, as well as providing an objective and factual analysis for those concerned with planning the urban and rural patterns of New Jersey’s future.”

Dr. Clark was born on the Fairford Indian reservation in Manitoba, Can., the son of a government physician. After a series of depression jobs ranging from surveyor’s assistant to laborer, he took graduate work at the University of Manitoba. Before joining the staff of the University of Toronto in 1935, Dr. Clark spent a three-year period as an insurance statistician, combining the work with reporting for the Toronto “Star”. Three years at the university, which included extensive field trips thru the deep Canadian bush country, a jaunt into the Sahara desert in 130 degree July heat, and field trips to France, Italy, the British Isles, Switzerland and the Rhine valley, and the Netherlands, ended in 1939, when Dr.

Clark became a graduate teaching fellow at the University of California, completing work for an advanced doctoral degree and squeezing in a field trip to Prince Edward island.

Two years of work and study as a visiting lecturer at Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand, ended with the coming of war in the Pacific. Dr.

Clark’s talents were put to work teaching New Zealanders map-making and map-reading.

The geographer and his wife returned to the United States on a hospital ship evacuating wounded from Guadalcanal, and he spent most of the next year teaching meteorological cadets at the University of California. By late 1943 he was back across the continent at Johns Hopkins, helping establish that university’s geography department and teaching army intelligence courses. He joined the Office of Strategic Services in 1944 and saw service on assignments in China, India, and the Southwest Pacific, finishing in charge of the Chungking office.

Dr. Clark was with the State department, negotiating lend-lease agreements with Australia and New Zealand. He resigned to join the Rutgers faculty. Since coming to New Brunswick he has readied for publication by Rutgers University Press a research volume, “The Invasion of New Zealand by Exotic Pants and Animals.” Several summers during the course of seven years have been devoted to study of the Maritime Provinces of Canada which will lead to a similar volume.

One of a small group of historical geographers, Dr. Clark is committee chairman of that specialty for the Association of American Geographers and also the division of geology and geography of the National Research Council.

Mr. Thomas is California-born with a lifelong interest in outdoor pursuits which eventually led to his concentration upon geography. He is a 1941 graduate of the University of California and divided his time between a swing-shift aircraft plant job and graduate study at the university before entering military service in 1942.

He was commissioned in the coast artillery after graduating first in a class of 800 officer candidates. When the Pacific war changed from defense to offense, he was shifted to the Engineers and became photo-mapping officer based at Finschhafen, Hollandia, and New Guinea. His last major military assignment was on research preparation for the invasion of Japan. He won his master’s degree at

U.C.L.A. in 1947 and has been on the staff at Rutgers since then. His special interests are in cartography, physical geography, and the study of southern and eastern Asia.

Dr. Keller, who will join the staff on July 1, is a University of Illinois graduate now at the University of Maryland. He has taken advanced work at Northwestern university and at the University of San Andreas, LaPaz, Bolivia. He received his doctorate from Maryland this year.

Between 1941 and 1946, Dr. Keller served with the army intelligence department, specializing in Central American countries. He entered service as a second lieutenant and was discharged a lieutenant-colonel. His travels in Central America have covered the entire area and he has published book-length geographic surveys of British Honduras, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Soon to be published is a new work “Finca Ingavil – A Medieval Survival on the Bolivian Antiplano.” Other publications written for the army remain confidential.”

APPENDIX 8

INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE (FIRST) RUTGERS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, APRIL 6, 1949

Below is reproduced a slightly reformatted and unpaginated version of the address given by Isaiah Bowman. The original text was published in the Geographical Review, Vol. 39, No.3 (July 1949): 355-370. It may perhaps assist the reader to provide some historical context to this paper.

First, although the title “Geographical Interpretation” might suggest a focus on the methods used by geographers to explain problems, the speech is mainly a discourse about broad forces that are thought likely to affect policy decision making by governments. Especially policies about land use and resource use that emerge from formal planning procedures managed by experts – including some geographers. Here Bowman is careful to distinguish between the realm of expertise that informs planning and the full span of human experience, which also needs to be considered. Even after applying systematic analysis, the possibility of encountering unexpected events introduces a degree of mystery into the process. For Bowman, direct field observation and mapping are building blocks of geographical research.

Second, the speech reflects Bowman’s thoughts about the highly uncertain circumstances of the post-World War II era when American leaders (and many academics) were anxious about totalizing sociopolitical movements, especially considering recent experiences with Fascism and, even more so, ongoing challenges posed by Communism and de-colonialization. In contrast to “neat social philosophies devised in (ivory) towers” Bowman favors notions of policies based on experimentation and pragmatic rationality. Utopian thinking is unhelpful, except perhaps as an aspiration that motivates positive behavior.

Third, Bowman often uses language that would today be regarded, by many, as a paternalistic, white male, mode of expression. This tends to divert attention away from his central message which seems to be a call for greater attention to the direct experience of ordinary people in finding ways to successfully manage problems that arise from the unequal spatial distribution of risks and rewards in the material and social worlds.

We do not know how this speech was received by the audience at Rutgers. There is little evidence that it elicited great comment either among the academics or in newspapers of the day. The published works of Andrew Clark, William Thomas and Frank Keller, the Department of Geography’s initial staff, offer few clues either way but were not especially concerned with problems of planning policy and bureaucratic decision making.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTERPRETATION³⁴⁴

ISAIAH BOWMAN

At London, in June, 1948, I had the opportunity of talking with officers of the Ministry of Town and Country Planning about the work of the geographers who are employed to the number of forty or fifty as part of the staff of the Ministry. I heard only enthusiastic praise of this interesting new breed of scholars who had been trained in English universities. There are three kinds of things the geographers can do that have made them conspicuously useful. First, they can apply the wide-ranging data of geography expertly. This is especially true of cartographic material, a significant part of the work of the Ministry consisting of map synthesis and interpretation in the field and laboratory. Second, they have a singular capacity to put things together in regional frameworks appropriate to the decentralization of authority within the Ministry. Land use cannot be wisely determined if its consideration is limited to a desk in London. County councils make the primary decisions that affect the land, neighbor thus dealing with neighbor, as it were; and the first requirement in making a decision is an intimate knowledge of the local terrain and its possibilities. A geographer's advice to the local or regional authority broadens decisions; for the geographer is trained to look at the general principle as well as at the particular instance, to see the far as well as the near. Third, at least a few of the geographers have the capacity to go beyond the limits of their formal training and think creatively on the higher levels of land-use policy.

The good name that the geographers have acquired is the result of a long period of thinking and experimentation within the older universities about the points of view, the philosophy, and the validity of the specialized techniques of geography. For fifty years geography has been maturing and winning a place in higher education, until today schools and departments of geography are an established feature, whether one thinks of Oxford and Cambridge with their long traditions and prestige or of the newer universities that have been created or rapidly developed in the past 25 years in almost all the metropolitan centers of Great Britain.

THE LIMITATIONS OF PLANNING

Since I have chosen to identify one group of British geographers with local and national planning in the use of resources, a word of caution about planning in general should preface my further remarks on its inexorability in Britain under the conditions of today.

³⁴⁴ From an address given at the inauguration of a Department of Geography at Rutgers University, April 6, 1949.

In planning public policy "it is easier to cry 'Onward!' than to say whither." Or if the goal of action seems clear, the aim exceeds the grasp, and we are not sure of the means that always and everywhere tend to redefine or becloud the goal. To build a bridge between logic and time, that is, between a rational idea and its application here and now, calls for more than a neat social philosophy devised in a tower. Every proposal to improve the lot of man by taking heed of rationality or science has in it an element of mystery that science cannot eradicate - the mystery of the contingent human event. By this I mean the event that is also reshaped by unforeseen or accidental causes or that reflects human stupidity or caprice or honest differences of judgment among capable men as to the probable outcome of a proposed line of action. Every policy proposal must therefore begin with an assumption and end with an if. On the loom of life the emerging pattern is never regular.

Recently, in a company of men who had just heard an eminent sanitary engineer review the conditions of a sound public-health policy, one listener asked what would happen if all the public-health measures now in force should be suddenly discontinued. The answer was: "Half the men in this room would probably be dead in one year." Hearing this answer, one became less skeptical about some scientific planning, at least in the field of public health. Like much other social planning, sanitary planning is made more and more exigent by urban growth. Cities are in conflict on remote watersheds for water sources now become a bottleneck in industrial and population growth almost everywhere. Recreation, timber production, broader highways, slum clearance, river pollution, are a few among many additional sources of unending conflict in land and water use that require choices to be made and priorities to be established, and this in turn calls for a high degree of conscious planning and compromise among both plans and interests. The conflict between the ship and the mill on English rivers is one of the oldest that have called for continuing compromise on grounds of public welfare.

Great Britain was in a dangerous state at the close of World War II. In at least one vital respect she was still normal: character and staying power remained unweakened.

She had to plan promptly in the way that a family must plan when the neighbor's children have whooping cough. Ninety-eight per cent of her merchantable timber had been cut, her land had been over-cropped in an effort to avert starvation -the goal of the Nazi submarine campaign - and recovery would have become chaos if access to the materials of industry that were in short supply had been left to a mad scramble. The Board of Trade faced an almost impossible task, and no miracles could be expected from overseas colonial exertions. At home there were some things that could be done at once about forests, land use, fisheries, luxury consumption, and the rationing of food and clothing.

Among these, land use stood high, and thoroughgoing geographical interpretation was required before a choice of uses could be made in the public interest.

By "geographical interpretation" I mean the interpretation of the elements of the environment by scientists who understand the origin and variability of those elements, the

identification of crop and land-use achievements and possibilities which laboratory and field experimentation makes possible, and the play of related social processes which is involved in production and use by a rational society. Only in such an assemblage of interpreted facts, applied under agreed conditions by a dynamic society, can national policies avoid the hit-and-miss use that brings waste and destruction. Such an interpretation is old in concept but new in method. Thus the Inca rulers and their counselors were among the best empirical geographers the world has ever known. They recognized the broad regional differences of their severe environment, adapted crop levies to climatic possibilities, and even managed their forced migrations of settlers on the principle of acclimatization. They did not require the low-altitude man and the high-altitude man to change places. They learned the value of fallowing and of guano as a fertilizer. They experimented with new crops in likely situations. Their cosmography was feeble: they used the land and the sea without a systematic knowledge of the larger world outside. Their knowledge of landforms, hydraulics, and soil chemistry was empirical, whereas many of their social processes were experimental and rational. For us today the possibilities are greater than ever before, because of a diversified and powerful equipment of scientific principles, materials, and tools, and a scientific understanding of cause and effect in the play of forces only recently discovered.

The general need for a rational domestic land-use policy had become apparent to all classes of society in Britain after the First World War, and all political parties sought a long-range solution. By the close of the Second World War the situation had reached the point of crisis. A growing population, underfed by 20 per cent, raising but 40 per cent of its food, its land used for military purposes to the extent of 5 per cent in peacetime and 20 per cent in the late war, living in a time of uneasy peace, mining waste in some districts adding a local problem to the general one, a pervasive anxiety about the preservation of restricted amenities - such large and varied perplexities required painstaking attention to every growing tree, every brook, and every productive acre. A Conservative government had initiated the study of such a policy, a National government had advanced it, and under a Labor government the final plan became fully operative (Act of 1947).³⁴⁵ The authorizations given to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning represent the desire of the whole British public to strengthen the life of Britain by fitting the parts together so as to avoid waste of vital resources while increasing land production and public security by putting each plot and pightle to the highest use. Conscious of acute public danger, all parties supported the experiment of thoroughgoing control after intensive study of the local and national environment. The public knew that it could no longer "wait and see" but must try to foresee and forfend.

Land-use officials frankly recognize" the danger of crystallization of immature dogma" in carrying out the provisions of the Act. I had from one of them an astute

³⁴⁵ See "Post-war Britain, 1948-49," Central Office of Information, London, pp. 33-34. (Distributed by British Information Services, New York City.)

observation upon professional institutes of planning: he felt that the most useful staff men are those without preclusive indoctrination regarding social program. Sound training in a group of related disciplines, with specialization in one, provides more depth and flexibility of thought than aggressive emphasis on social theory. When the state, being keeper at every field gate and wood lot as well as at every port entrance and exit, may change its mind frequently and even suddenly, Parliament, representing the people, must also protect its citizens from the consequences of its own acts when, as often happens, plan and plan conflict. Or should one say when dogma fights dogma? Organizational complexity in Britain seems to have reached the limit of human capacity to operate rationally, yet no one seems able to simplify what danger and crowding have made disturbingly complex. The inner contradictions of planning represent its chief limitation, the complexity its chief danger. The more complex a plan, the further it goes beyond the interest and competence of the everyday citizen. This is a weakness that a Communist government has fully exploited in the Soviet Union. We are fortunate to have been able to keep in our younger and more spacious land more room for individual choice and enterprise, a condition that irks only the amateur planner, who, wishing to hustle social evolution, is likely to think in the barren terms of mere logic and control. Therefore too large a conclusion for our present economy and social structure should not be drawn from current British experience.

GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL VALUE

In the United States, in the past 50 years, geography has had a development similar to that in Great Britain, until hardly a major university is without a separate department of geography, so insistent is the demand for it on the part of policy makers, educational experts, scholars in other fields of learning that make use of geographical principles and data, and students themselves who seek careers in geography, some of them in academic work and perhaps a larger number (now several hundred) in public service. To an increasing degree it is recognized that training in geography has a scientific disciplinary value as definite and substantial, if not as austere, as training in physics, chemistry, or biology. What the laboratory is to the physicist, the field is to the geographer. Men who live on the land have made a wide variety of experiments at all stages of cultural advancement and in a wide range of environments. Their results are open to observation and critical analysis and comparison. In addition, planned experiments in resource development have required the use of scientific controls and thus have quickened the pace of sound experimentation. To a corresponding degree the field of geographical interpretation has widened and deepened. A regional synthesis of social life requires an investigator to think all around his subject.

I need not review the place of geography elsewhere, further to illustrate my point that in the highest centers of culture, and in the most advanced countries of the world, geographical science is now regarded as an essential element of a well-rounded education. What is not so clearly perceived is the nature of geography and the points of

view of geography - only a few of which are indicated here - that make its study indispensable if we seek the depth of understanding required in thinking, planning, and executing policies that affect our national welfare and, to a high degree, the peace and security of the world.

The last point is a crucial one. For while we go about our daily business as if the world were inevitably to continue in one way or another with its highly organized and precariously balanced social and industrial life, we must realize that unless we have peace and security under conditions of liberty, with room for personal dignity, initiative, and enterprise, our standard of living will fall and our whole social structure may be fatally weakened. The cost of our recent wars must be paid, and a better use of resources and higher productivity will help to prevent its payment under conditions of misery and disorder. This is another way of saying that we cannot afford to neglect any subject of study or any point of view that gives us a better understanding of the world, its resources, diversities, and potentialities. All the fundamental things that affect our capacity to produce and to work together for mutual benefit in a peaceful world must be brought to bear upon the problem of sustaining the structure of our diverse and flexible Western civilization.

MEASUREMENT AND POLICY

What is the nature of geographical thinking? In part it is like all thinking; for although it may begin with accidental or systematic elements, or even the notional elements of reverie, it becomes critical in the end. This means that it sorts out importances and apparent relationships, answers the skepticisms that should arise in every trained mind, and searches relentlessly for cause-and-effect relations. Once we know what causes a thing, we can more rationally and quickly plan its control. Speed and sureness of control of agreed critical elements, such as public health, are more and more urgent as population density and complexity increase. Geographical thinking starts with an observation or an idea. All geographers recognize the indispensability of field observation. With his own specific training and a body of individual ideas every geographer is surprised on reaching what is to him new territory to find how much has gone unobserved and unrecorded. It may be a bit of local climatology that blazes with meaning, or a food source, or a social idea confirmed by centuries of experience in a specific environment. Questions begin. How much and where and why and what else could be are the whirling electrons of the curiosity atom in man? We single out how much for further comment.

Measurement, and if possible exact measurement, is one of the basic elements of most scientific research. In geography, maps are the commonest records of field measurements, reduced to conventional symbolism as a condition of comparative use. To the layman all maps look pretty much alike except as to color, but to the geographer original surveys, projection, scale, technique of construction, symbolism, and relative

reliability are the first objects of study if the map is to be used as an instrument of interpretation. One of the conditions of Napoleon's military genius was its support by extraordinarily good maps. From a limited topographic point of view one would find the maps of his time still useful. He was a quick and skillful student of maps, and his geographical epigrams still have wide currency. He had what some would call today a "geopolitical" sense, but I dislike that pretentious word extremely and prefer the simple and customary phrase "geographical sense."

At one point Napoleon made a serious mistake in exercising his geo-graphical sense. He had persuaded himself, perhaps by the brilliance of his victories and his almost uniform success whatever the terrain, that he could invade and conquer England. Like Hitler, he had to give up the scheme. He learned, as Hitler did, that even a narrow belt of water (it is little more than 20 miles wide at its narrowest) has a high strategic value. A narrow belt of salt water is a terrific obstacle, because one can neither wade through it nor improvise a bridge over it. One must counter its tidal vagaries and the caprice of wind and wave and cross it in full military panoply against resistance that has room for naval maneuver and fleets within call, as the captains of the Spanish Armada discovered. Hitler thought that his airplanes in our Air Age had overturned that centuries-old doctrine and diminished the value of the Channel so greatly that he could venture to ferry troops across it under an air umbrella. He thought that he could gain maneuverability in the air, knowing that he could not win it on the sea. Other factors also played upon the scene, such as the will of the British, the gallantry and self-sacrifice of the Royal Air Force, the overwhelming power of the British Navy to destroy the surface craft of an invading force, and the limited range of the mass of aircraft available at the time, which worked in favor of the island defenders. Skill and an inspiring tradition also had their place: "What-ever our shortcomings, we understood the sea affair very thoroughly."³⁴⁶ Yet the basic factor in the whole invasion strategy was that narrow strip of water, the salt-water girdle of Britain. Once armed on the one side with modern industry and on the other side with a fleet commanded by superior sea-fighters, Britain was advantaged by its geography to a degree that has enabled it to remain if not inviolate at least independent.

Geographical elements of strategy about which a Napoleon may be mistaken are obviously not measurable by a laboratory balance or disposed of by a mathematical formula. Behind their employment must be human judgments about humans. No one can measure a geographical fact, however physical and concrete, and say: "There you are.

Feed this precise fact into a calculating machine or a general-staff evaluation, and it will tell you what to do with a given military component or instrument at a designated moment of time." Always there must be something more than an array of facts and figures; there must be a judgment upon and about the humans who are involved, as to what they can do, or may do, or may be persuaded to do. And judgment lies in the realm of the imponderable. No man can claim to be infallible or purely "scientific" as he

³⁴⁶ Winston Churchill: Their Finest Hour, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1949, p. 314.

navigates around the misty headlands of human behavior." In the greater matters of life the mind must fling itself forward beyond its data."³⁴⁷

Yet measurement is an essential precursor of most human judgments affecting either broad or parochial questions of policy, military or civilian. Many of the problems of land use, water use, forest use, resource use in general, can be solved only if we have fairly reliable measurements of their elements. Before we can determine the rate of forest cutting on a given tract of land, we must know the growth rate of trees throughout their life cycle. What to cut and when to cut it are questions that can be answered only after careful measurement and scientific understanding of the biology of the tree in relation to its geographical environment. Measurement offers a further advantage. If the imponderables of both good and bad human behavior limit the application of science in human society, it is also true that the area of the imponderables is narrowed by science.

Scientific measurement reduces the scope of guesswork and sets narrower bounds to uncertainty. We all have to be reminded how wide is the sea where submarines may hide in wartime, while each new discovery in the field of matter and power and speed requires oceanographic remeasurement for the opposite reason. Ruler and protractor have now to be flexible, not rigid, and an index of flexibility is as important in geographical interpretation as a scale of miles.

GEOGRAPHY A CHANGING SUBJECT

From the standpoint of social application and use the world of intellect and materials is a vast interpenetrating complex of forces. We cannot carry all of it in our heads all the time or at any time. For some kinds of scientific discovery we must narrow the view in order to deepen the understanding through intensive concentration up on a given line of thought. Seen in this light, specialization is indispensable. The world has never known a thinker who was not exceptionally expert in some field. His expertness is his ticket of admission to the main tent. Once a discovery is made, one must then look at the framework or mosaic within which the newly acquired knowledge has its place, whether in science or life. Thus every scientist becomes in time a social instrument, in thought or at all events in effect. Through him forces are generated that impinge on life and may change life, here to its improvement, there to its loss.

Geography happens to be a science that is more largely and directly social than almost any other. That is why it has proved so useful to departments of history, international affairs, biology, government, and social structures and process. That is also why geography is a changing subject. How often we have heard otherwise intelligent men say, "The geography of the earth is fixed, but the history of the earth changes." The contrast is invalid. The geography of the earth changes, and at times and places it changes

³⁴⁷ John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir): The Pilgrim's Way, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, I940, p. 209 (in commenting upon F. S. Oliver, M. P.).

profoundly. One could illustrate the fact from the climatic changes that have taken place since the time of the cave man, or the change that has come over man's earth through soil erosion and deforestation, some of it by natural processes, other parts by the influence of man.

But it is not on the physical side that geography changes most. The geographer is concerned with relationships as well as with the things related. The social evolution of human societies has been speeded by modern science and engineering and by the spread of technically equipped migrants over most of the habitable lands. A changing society has thus encountered in its pioneering advance a series of diversified environments, where the climate is too hot or too cold, or the land too wet or too dry. The pioneer fringe has been a laboratory, priceless to historian and geographer alike, in which young and experimental societies adapt themselves to new conditions and new cultural practices and techniques, with a minimum of city influence. How-ever, in this century, to a higher degree than ever before, the pioneer depends upon crop experimentation to tell him how to counter the physical conditions of his marginal environment, and upon government to give him schools, community houses, telephones, library facilities, medical service, and highway or railway right from the start. He is aware of his marginal position as to crops and climate but equally aware of the power of his government to make up the chief environmental and social deficiencies. The modern pioneer asks government to assume many of the risks of his venture.

In those parts of Africa where white settlement is possible and where there is a substantial native population to be considered, all sorts of collateral questions confront the pioneer. Shall the device of native reserves be extended? What wages are fair and right? Even the diet of the native worker is supervised to see that calories and work are in balance. This is pioneer settlement by contract, the white man setting the standards of his own behavior. The geographer is no less in evidence as the bounds of native reserves are established in relation to native culture and subsistence requirements, and as the productive white man's acres are related to mine, forest, transport and labor supply. The African sector of British imperial defense is based largely upon a new interpretation of the map of Africa with machine and mileage linked to each other and to the terrain and climate. The remote pioneer of today may be at the center of howling activity tomorrow, wide-winged technology descending upon him from the sky. To a larger degree than ever, the economic life of the pioneer land settler in Africa and elsewhere is a thread in a web, not a completed garment. He does not keep the account books of the world. He must buy and sell on terms that others set for him. The arithmetic of pioneering is growing more complex everywhere.

Underdeveloped countries depend as a rule upon outside sources of capital, which comes in under its own conditions and rules. Suddenly, in Arabia, capital is no longer a product of long and slow accumulation but springs from the ground overnight, and a royalty share of it, gained without effort, is applied to engineering works that conserve

water and permit control of its use and the growth of population and production in a land of niggardly endowment. Scientific oil exploration, unlocking one resource, had the indirect effect of unlocking another. An uninhabited earth has a physical geography that changes constantly but slowly. To a revolutionary degree man changes his geography as he goes along. When mind is introduced, the earth's meaning changes rapidly and constantly. A "calculus of variations" is one of the essential tools of pioneer-settlement research today. Modern biochemistry has introduced a new dynamic in geographical interpretation. Every productive region, old as well as new, must be reappraised in terms of what science can do to change either soils or plants, sometimes to fit the thing produced and sometimes to change the environment to suit the demands of production.

When the first black soils of the swampy Everglades were cleared in the expectation of bountiful harvests of garden truck, it was found that the first mature celery to be grown was green, soft, and watery. Lacking firmness and taste, it was unsaleable. It was found by experiment that the addition of almost infinitesimal amounts of copper supplied the missing qualities. It was also found, on soils elsewhere - some new, some partly exhausted by I00 to 200 years of cultivation - that one or more of a number of elements, among them boron, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc, might be required for healthy crops and were absent or deficient in many cases. The study of these so-called "trace elements" or "micronutrients" has disclosed that they play a critical role in the physiology of plants, animals, and men. Today, in a score of places in England, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Canada, and the United States, the study of trace elements has been intensified in the attempt to learn their role in plant biology and economy. Here is a definite area in which man can change his environment. The evidence is clear and convincing. What is not so clear is how the effects of trace elements are achieved and what balance there is between them and the other biochemical processes that affect the welfare and growth of plants, animals, and men. In Delamere's grant in Kenya the effects of trace-element deficiencies made their appearance 40 years ago on comparatively new soil. The disease known as "Nakuruitis" swept away cattle and sheep wholesale. Today the land carries livestock that is in excellent condition owing to a weekly ration of cobalt. A chemist from New Zealand, where similar difficulties had arisen, had found the cure and brought into production again a soil so light and thin and poorly endowed as to be worn out otherwise in a few years.³⁴⁸ The story is the same in Australia, where a revolution in the livestock industry of the Ninety Mile Desert of South Australia is under way, with two million acres of "waste land" reclaimed by the application of extremely small amounts of copper sulphate and zinc sulphate used in conjunction with superphosphate. In many parts of the United States and Canada "deficiency diseases" in cattle have been cured by the same means, principally in areas where long cropping has used up the small original amounts of micronutrients whose existence and role went unnoticed until recent years.

DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

³⁴⁸ Elspeth Huxley: The Sorcerer's Apprentice: A Journey through East Africa, London, 1948, pp. 326-329.

When the Foreign Assistance Act of I948 came into effect, it opened up a vista of public benefits not confined to the United States or Western Europe; for "dependent territories" then became a part of the general problem of world recovery. Production is everywhere the great need of the hour.³⁴⁹ Unless we increase production, we can neither pay our war debts nor maintain the standard of living, much less raise it. A higher standard of living for the depressed areas must be one goal of united endeavor if we are to counter the menace of Communism. Long before World War II it was clear that the Soviet leaders had their eyes fixed upon dependent territories as a rich field of doctrinal exploitation. Outspokenly determined to destroy the non- Communist world, they found in colonies and other dependent territories the means to cultivate that disorder, division, and confusion of thought in which Communist doctrine flourishes and to reduce, if not entirely cut off, the sources of certain raw materials essential to industry in Western Europe and the United States. Communism fed discontent among the dependent peoples of the world by asserting" capitalistic exploitation" as the beginning and end of the story of trade and of primary and industrial production. It would be easy to document the shortcomings of the colonial powers. It is equally easy to slight their record of beneficent achievements. We no longer think of the abolition of slavery in the world - or most of the world. That is an old story, but it was precisely the "capitalist" powers that brought human purchase and sale to an end. It is seldom realized to what an extent slavery was prevalent in territories outside the reach of the colonial powers. It is said that colonials should have more benefit than they now receive from their production. This is undeniably true in some cases where a runaway population increase (because of better production and health measures) keeps the standard of living at subsistence level while development possibilities are neglected. Yet in most colonies there would be no production for export if it were not for the industrial demands, the ships, the aggregates of investment capital, the commercial organization and experience, the creative and practical business minds, the identification of sources of coal and electric and water power that depend upon the scientific discoveries, technical skills, and commercial enterprise of the so-called "exploiters." As important as the question of the division of benefits between colony and metropole is the paradox of population increase that keeps the standard of living down while the white man's own standards of health and public order, exported to the colonies, aid that population increase. Plan meets plan head on, and logic and time remain unbridged. Policy is thus impaled on the horns of a dilemma. Most criticisms of colonialism have been built around key words employed carelessly. "Nationalism" and "imperialism" have become dirty names. We have only to hurl them at any great power, and we think we have argued a point. Can the primitive mind resist the deceptive influence of the iteration of half-truths? The Kremlin leaders saw the value of this blunt

³⁴⁹ However, when production is forced, problems of overproduction and price control inevitably appear. Already following the period of high production to meet the world's need during and since the war a world wheat conference has convened (1949) to deal with the basic issues of price, duration of agreement, and quantities exported and imported. We are at the stage where international agreement on production must be followed by agreement to control, and price and quantities are the two chief variables for negotiation.

instrument applied to simple minds. Even during the most critical days of the war, plans for postwar extension of Communism moved forward with little reduction in speed. This was the dark reality that lay behind so-called "Allied cooperation," the skeleton in the closet while the war was on. The toasts of the Allied leaders at their several conferences were in sharp contrast with the vast force of demoralization that the Politburo was already turning loose upon the world.

At the close of World War I the political force of international conscience entered the scene when it was recognized that the politically, socially, and industrially immature peoples of the surrendered German colonies could not survive "under the strenuous conditions of the modern world" if turned loose to shift for themselves. The mandate system was set up, responsibility for fair dealing on the part of the colonial powers being lodged in the League of Nations. In 1945, with the creation of the United Nations, this responsibility was vested in one of its organs, the Trusteeship Council. Here the peoples of former German colonies have a forum, and so too have any other groups placed voluntarily under Trusteeship Council guidance by the colonial powers. Yet the fatal ratio persists between production and native population, no matter what the forms of political amelioration. No doctrine is sweet to the man whose standard of living is at the lowest possible level, unless it yields bread today. The display of the white man's higher standards is a constant reminder to the native that someone is receiving, somehow, goods on a scale higher than his own. The creation of the means of production by outside capital brings men who enjoy the highest standards of material welfare into primitive societies where the contrast is most provocative. Production on a significant commercial scale is not possible without joining the interests of a colonial group to the larger aggregates and structures of industrial life in the countries where venture capital has accumulated.

Behind that accumulation is a long history that cannot be revoked and a fact of life that no human device can suppress. To understand that history and that fact requires a brief digression respecting time and place.

A SENSE OF TIME AND PLACE

A man is not educated who lacks a sense of time and place. Where are we in time, where do we live? It was not given to thinking men to change the world overnight - it takes time to change even in small degree at one place." Place" conditions and therefore limits endeavor whether the place is large or small. Emerson reminds us that we have not been invited to run the universe. Nor did we make the earth or the fullness and diversities thereof. All life on the earth has been unequal in its parts throughout time, from the beginning. Some streams of migration early and late moved into favorable sites, others into rigorous environments. Cultures arose as the mind of man conceived ideas, codes, language, tools, foods, adornments, and beliefs. Endless creative interplay between mind and matter ensued, between culture and environment, wherever men were free to choose, reject, or modify. When a new idea about the environment was adopted, it was as if the environment itself had been changed. What had been neglected was found to have use.

Primitive man did not mine coal and start mills and factories. All this is a result of slow growth as progressive discovery and development changed both the meaning and use of the earth and changed them unevenly from place to place. At no time in the world have things been equal, nor could anyone stop the processes of idea making, invention, and unequal distribution of benefits and make all societies alike in a world where men are still in general living close to their different environments. Some people have been advantaged by their environment, others have pursued the same low cultural pattern in the same forbidding sites over endless generations. The great force of literacy came upon the scene with revolutionary effects. Through it men learned about each other, so that all men are becoming more and more conscious of their condition. They are comparing themselves with others. This is as true of you and me as it is of native and plantation owner, the peasant grower of peanuts in the Gambia and the captain of the port through which the peanuts are transported on their way to the white man's market.

Nor may one consider turning back the clock and stopping the growth of literacy. If immature peoples are to become self-governing because of the pricks of conscience of their present rulers, they will fail in the end unless they are informed as to the possibilities and penalties of acts that history spreads before them. If we mean to improve colonial societies through a greater measure of freedom, we must first show them how to educate themselves in the better use of their resources. In implementing the Foreign Assistance Act the endeavor is to raise production by a vigorous sustained attack upon possibilities, in both metropole and colony. The widely varied technical aspects we need not consider in this place. The lift thus afforded, timed to agree with practical measures of partnership between colony and metropole as already announced by most colonial powers, may reduce the contrasts in standards that now help bedevil world politics. The complex and delicate structures of the modern industrial world, if wrecked, would only bring all peoples down in ruin. Conscience, as expressed in signed trusteeship declarations, demands that we explore every avenue that promises to lead to a rise in the standard of living of those now lost in a maze of changes both in their own environments and cultures and in their relations to the outside world. Material and cultural improvements must come first, or self-government will be an empty shell.

No person and no government has been able to invoke any form of magic that would equalize things in this diverse world. Without a sense of time and place one can irresponsibly argue that things should be equal. Such argument is sometimes called idealistic because it is cast in terms of equal good. I should call it foolishness because it disregards the necessities of the next step. It is easy to picture Utopia; it is difficult to point in its direction - and to describe a path to it. World government is the latest of the utopias. Let every country subject itself to the overlordship of a central committee.

Whose committee? What is to be the philosophy of the committee: Communism or democracy? When someone suggested to Gromyko a great series of classics to help unify the world, he said: "Three questions: whose classics, what language, who pays?" No one has yet been able to show how we can have world government without force, and force

means war. What the advocates of world government are really saying is that they want war in order to get one government. They will not face this inescapable argument and conclusion. They will not tell us what the first, second, third, and fourth steps are, today and tomorrow. In discussing the question of dependent territories in these terms, I have tried to lead you from mainly geographical considerations to the point where the complexity of events and the interpenetration of disciplines and the community of interests of scientists, social scientists, and statesmen are apparent. In the larger context of life one cannot provide a neat and narrow definition of geography. Each" subject" is an assembly of expert knowledge that fulfills its social purpose when it is merged with other pieces of knowledge, to arrive at broad understandings of practical value that bear on society and that can be built into public policy. Who cares to measure the quantity of each ingredient - economic, political, or scientific – that policy contains from moment to moment? New powers of analysis are not derived from pedantic definitions of subject matter. The essence of a thing is not in its definition. Obviously, to gain the advantages that specialization brings, we need to name our disciplines and define our departments and provide a structure within which investigation and training take place. But this is merely administrative order in school and university; it is not life.

DEFENSE IN DEPTH

What I have said about geography is no less true of subjects marginal to it. Those who have worked under the philosophy of mutuality of scholarly interest can appreciate the service that scientific geography renders in deepening historical and economic interpretations, in enlarging our knowledge of the diversities of environments and cultures and uneven timing of development that lie at the root of so many of our international difficulties. These diversities need not be an ineradicable curse. They can be an advantage, as one of the greatest of the geographers, Alexander von Humboldt, pointed out 150 years ago when he asserted that if all the rich resources of the earth were available to all the people on the earth (we would now add: "who had the wit and enterprise to develop or secure them"), then would enjoyment of those resources be commensurate with the opportunities. Geography as a discipline has its fascinating aspects. I like the life and landscapes of deserts, but I have never been able to say adequately why I like them. They make a powerful esthetic and emotional appeal to me. Other geographers find beauties and satisfactions in other societies and environments.

Professor Fleure has a unique definition: "Geography is what I like." You see a large element of his philosophy in my wandering discourse tonight. There is a core of geographical knowledge, some of it scientific, some of it systematically ordered and arranged, and much of it capable of assisting the scholar, the statesman, the manager of industry, to understand the earth better, which can mean to use it in a better way for mutual benefit. Today this can also mean the achievement of a humane "defense in depth," to resist the forces of Communism that derive their strength from degradation of manliness and character, from an exclusive materialism, from confusion among nations and societies, our own no less than those of dependent peoples, and from forms of slavery

of thought and person for which death is a welcome alternative to hundreds of millions of men and women who are still free to choose.

APPENDIX 9

GEOGRAPHY COURSES 1949-50

Bulletin of Rutgers University, College of Arts and Sciences, Courses of Study for 1949-1950.

pp. 68-70

Geography

Associate Professor: A. H. Clark (Chairman) Assistant Professor: Keller

Instructor: Thomas

Part-time Teaching Assistant: Highley

Major: Geography 101-102; 202; 203; 221; 412; and two of 321; 322; 331; 422; and 424. Note: A year-course Science requirement may be met by completing Geography 101-102. A year-course Social Studies requirement may be met by completing Geography 201 and either Geography 202 or Geography 203, or by the sequence 221-222. Students may not elect both Geography 101-102 and Geography 201 for credit.

FOR UNDERGRADUATES

101-102. INTRODUCTION TO GEOGRAPHY (PHYSICAL). (Cr. 4,4.). Lec. 3 hours. Lab. 3

Hours. Staff.

The physical environment in which we live; a study of the differentiation of the earth’s surface in terms of climate, composition, relief, water, vegetation, soils, and of the representation of geographical distributions on maps.

INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL (Cr. 3.) Lec. 3 hours. Staff.

An elementary approach to the basic principles of geography; a study of differences in natural environments which contribute to differences in cultural expressions over the surface of the earth.

ECONOMIC (Cr.3.) Lec. 3 Hours. Staff.

World distributions of natural resources and regional differentiation of economies. Particular attention will be paid to varying densities of population.

HUMAN (Cr.3.) Lec. 3 hours. Staff.

Man in nature: a geographic study of the beginnings and growth of human culture with an emphasis on man’s utilization of the land and his domestication of plants and animals. The relative roles of cultural habit and natural habitat in shaping the development of simple economies will be contrasted.

221. CULTURAL AREAS OF NORTH AMERICA. (Cr.3.) Lec. 3 hours. Staff.

An introduction to regional geography; the relative contributions of accident, the habits and ingenuity of a multitude of peoples, and variation in physical environments to regional

differences. Special emphasis will be placed on regional specializations in agriculture and industry in the United States and Canada.

222. CULTURAL AREAS OF LATIN AMERICA. (Cr.3.) Lec. 3 hours. Staff.

A geographic study of the contrasts in regional character from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego. The geographic basis of economic and political relationships with the United States and Europe will be discussed.

232. THE GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. (Cr. 3.) Lec. 3 hours. Staff.

A comparative regional study of the continent emphasizing natural and cultural contrasts between the eastern and western areas.

FOR UNDERGRADUATES AND GRADUATES

301. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. (Cr. 3.) Lec. 2 hours; Lab. 2 hours. (Offered alternate years.) Professor Clark.

Geographic problems in the field of natural science; special problems in geomorphology, climatology, soil science and plant geography will be discussed from the viewpoints of both pure and applied science. Prerequisite: Geography 101 or Meteorology 301.

321. GEOGRAPHY OF MIDDLE AMERICA. (Cr.3.) Lec. 3 hours. Professor Keller. A regional study of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean Islands.

322. GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH AMERICA. (Cr.3.) Lec. 3 hours. Professor Keller. A regional study of the continent of South America.

331. EASTERN EUROPE. (Cr. 3.) Lec. 3 hours. Staff.

A n analysis of the environmental and cultural characteristics of the U.S.S.R. and its European borderlands.

412. GEOGRAPHIC METHODS. (Cr. 3.) Lec. 3 hours. (Offered in alternate years.) Professor Clark.

Sources and methods: an examination of the techniques by which a geographer his analyses with special emphasis on maps, aerial photographs, field observations, statistics, and published research material in both geography and related fields. Prerequisite: geography 101 or 201.

422. WESTERN PACIFIC BORDERLANDS. (Cr. 3.) Lec. 3 hours. (Offered alternate years.) Professor Clark.

A study in comparative regional geography; human occupance of Australia and New Zealand will be contrasted with that of China and Japan, and differences in the impact of Western culture on land use in Indonesia and the Philippines will be emphasized.

424. MEDITERRANEAN BORDERLANDS. (Cr. 3.) Lec. 3 hours. Professor Clark. (Offered alternate years).

A study in historical geography; after a careful examination of changing geographic patterns through time, the significance of these changes to contemporary political and economic problems of the region will be discussed.

FOR GRADUATES

601. SEMINAR IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY. (Cr. 3.) Lec. and Sem. 2 hours. Professor Clark.

602. SEMINAR IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY. (Cr. 3.) Lec. and Sem. 2 hours. Professor Clark.

APPENDIX 10

Geography at Rutgers

By Guido G. Weigend, Chairman Department of Geography

“There are few parts of the world in which American men, money, or vital interests are not involved. We are in age when the United States has assumed the role of leadership in much of the non-Communist world, and when we have taken on a myriad of widely-ranging economic, political and strategic commitments. It is evident that if we are to live up to our responsibilities in an effective and wise manner, Americans must have a basic knowledge and understanding of places, countries and regions in all parts of the world.

When Dr. Benjamin Fine, formerly of the New York Times, made a nationwide survey of geographic “literacy” of our college youth, the ignorance which came to light was appalling, and even though eight years have elapsed since then, there is no reason to believe that the situation has changed. Here at Rutgers we participated in the project, and the results were equally discouraging; for example, some of our students said that the population of the United States was 500 million, that the population of the world was thirty trillion! At Rutgers, as elsewhere, there was a general illiteracy of basic geographic knowledge, that is, even of the basic “vocabulary,” such as knowledge of location of cities, rivers, mountains, and so on. This should be taught in fifth and sixth grades and is a necessary background for further geographic study.

What, then, is geography? To some it may mean ways of life and customs of people in distant lands; to others, maps and charts of oceans and continents. To the geographer, it is the study of people, man-made features, and natural elements, as they exist together in any given area. Thus, by analyzing the interrelationship of these factors for an area he is attempting to discover and interpret the character and personality of that area. Moreover, it is clear that all the factors are variables, and if any one changes from place to place, the character changes as well. Therefore, people with different types of culture, living in the same or very similar natural landscapes, from the climatic and physiographic standpoint, may utilize these environments very differently. For example, long ago parts of the desert and steppe areas of North Africa were converted into granaries for the Roman Empire with the aid of skilled engineers who knew how to tap subterranean supplies of fresh water. These areas became deserts and steppes again after the fall of the Roman Empire with the ascendancy to power of Arabs who preferred a nomadic or seminomadic mode of life. Even more striking are the contrasts in the landscape of Africa today where European and indigenous cultures are living side by side in identical environments.

Perhaps we can agree that Americans must become more intellectually world-minded and that we must attain a better understanding of the free world as well as areas under Communist dictatorship. It can be seen readily that geography has much to contribute towards such world-mindedness and understanding. For decades in the various European systems of public education geography has been an integral part of high school education on the same level with physics, chemistry, mathematics, history, and other subjects. In the United States, effective understanding certainly can be better achieved by the youth who has not just a passing grade-school

acquaintance with geography but who instead has had the subject integrated into his high school curriculum in an introductory form. Then at the college level we could dispense with elementary teaching and plunge straight into the heart of the subject matter.

Well, what are we doing about geography at Rutgers? First, our majors are given a thorough elementary background in physical and cultural geography. The former, a one-year laboratory course, provides an understanding of the nature of our physical world such as distribution and significance of weather, types of climate, and landforms. The basic cultural geography sequence emphasizes the distribution, ethnic character and livelihood of the inhabitants of major cultural areas of the world as, for example, the “Oriental World,” the “Dry World,” or the “Anglo-American World.” These two sequences are taken by many students from other departments. In this connection, it has been our objective to familiarize the students with the world geographic patterns sufficiently so as to enable them to interpret intelligently certain aspects of national and international affairs.

The academic work of our majors beyond the basic courses includes specialized systematic and regional geography courses, as well as work in the social studies and sciences. “Systematic” courses are those in which the areal differentiation of the earth’s surface is studied in a number of different contexts: economic activities, political organization, settlement, transportation, and so on. “Regional” courses concentrate the student’s attention on particular segments of the earth’s surface as, for example, Anglo-America, the Soviet Union, and South Asia. In all these courses, our students are building a background for what we have been calling world-mindedness. Finally, in order to give them as solid a grounding as possible, the students are also required to take a year of social study over and above the two years required by the College or Arts and Sciences, one year of meteorology, and one year of geology. For those who wish to narrow their specialization, we have worked out a joint program with the City and Regional Planning Department of the College of Engineering.

Throughout the years, the Department of Geography has encouraged independent thinking, reading and research on the part of our undergraduates through participation in the Henry Rutgers Honors Program and, this year, also by means of reading periods. For outstanding juniors we also have an annual award, the Elsie M. B. Naumburg Memorial Award in Geography. This award was established in honor of the achievements of Mrs. Walter Naumburg in furthering the cause of geographic education in the public school system of New York City.

Although Mrs. Naumburg was an ornithologist, her interests and activities ranged widely. This writer was fortunate in having known her; he worked with her as “corresponding member” of a geography committee, of which she was chairman, and through which she worked with perseverance to introduce more geography into public schools.

Since last year we have also entered the field of professional education in geography. We started a Master’s program, quite modestly, with two graduate students. This year we have five students, and several more have applied for admission in September 1958. As soon as the Department is strengthened with additional staff, we hope that we can expand our graduate offerings with work leading toward the Ph.D. Also the Department is going to begin this year a graduate program in the summer session initiating an “Earth Science Institute.” This is the first time that such a program is to be offered in this section of the United States. We are hoping that

it will provide not only an advanced and up-to-date treatment of physical geography, but also that it will stimulate interest in earth science as a pre-college subject.

Geography was first taught at Rutgers in 1946 and, in 1949, an independent Department of Geography was established in the College of Arts and Sciences in New Brunswick. The background of the present staff members represents a great range of specialization. Professor John Brush (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin), who has been with us since 1951, has been concerned in his scholarly endeavors with the geography of population and settlement. His regional specialization on Asia has its roots in his childhood when he grew up in India as the son of a missionary. This year Dr. Brush is on leave as a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. In his place we were fortunate to obtain the services of Mr. Roberto Lizarralde, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin. Mr. Lizarralde has just completed several years of research and field work in the Andes; thus, we were in a position to offer the Latin America sequence under his expert guidance.

Professor William Goodwin (Ph.D., Columbia University, joined the Department this year as our physical and economic geographer, and the specialist in charge of regional work on Anglo-America.

The writer (Ph.D., University of Chicago), has been with the department since its inception in 1949, and his research and publication have been in the fields of political geography and ocean transport. Having been raised in Europe, his regional interests are Europe, Mediterranean Lands, and the Soviet Union. In addition, we have two graduate teaching assistants, each of whom conducts laboratories in physical geography. When additional staff is needed we shall attempt to appoint someone whose regional specialization is Latin America or Africa south of the Sahara, to strengthen our regional offerings.

It might well be asked what our majors have done upon graduation. About one-third of our graduates, have become so interested in this field that they have continued in graduate schools of other universities. Several have obtained Master’s degrees, and two are at the point of obtaining the Ph.D. in geography (from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan). With a graduate degree the geographer has a considerable choice of employment, ranging from college or university teaching to government service to corporation research, industrial development and planning.

Even without a higher degree, nearly half of the remaining graduates have made a career of geography by working in such private industries as map companies and textbook publishing houses or in various branches of the United states Government. One student, Arthur E. Jorgensen, interrupted his studies at the end of his junior year last spring in order to join the group of scientists at the South Pole as a weather observer. He has been at the South Pole since last fall and has been in frequent communication with his family here in New Brunswick through a radio ham operator in Clark Township. The short waves are his only contact with the outside world from the end of February to early October, because no one can enter or leave the South Pole area during that period. He plans to return to Rutgers for his senior year in the fall of 1959.

The rest of graduating seniors who did not make geography their career found that their geography background has been most useful in their work in business and banking, and in broadening their perspectives as citizens of a wide world.”

From: Rutgers Alumni Monthly, May, 1958.

APPENDIX 11 RUTGERS GEOGRAPHY IN 1961

The Professional Geographer 14(1): 78-81, January 1962 contained a description of the RU geography community as it appeared in 1961.

p. 78: “Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey now has five geographers on its faculties. John E. Brush and Guido G. Weigend are at the New Brunswick campus. Recently two new members joined them, Melvin C. Marcus, a physical geographer, and John F. Kolars, an economic geographer, both in process of completing their Ph.D. dissertations at the University of Chicago. At Rutgers in Newark, geography has been introduced for the first time by Ann L. Kolars, wife of John. She has a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Chicago.

The Kolars have just returned from more than two years of field work in East Africa and Turkey, and Guido Weigend has returned from Spain where he was Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Barcelona during 1960-1961.

Last year, Rutgers inaugurated an Urban Studies Center with the financial aid of the Ford Foundation. During the current academic year, John Brush, in cooperation with the Center, is embarking on an urban research project, in Burlington County, concerned with the relationships between small urban centers and their tributary areas in the Delaware Valley Metropolitan Region. In connection with that project, and with the anticipated expansion of urban geography offerings, it is anticipated that another staff member will soon be added for research and teaching.

In addition to the regular staff, the Department has several graduate teaching assistantships. “

APPENDIX 12

A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY³⁵⁰

The first geographer at Rutgers University was Andrew H. Clark who joined the faculty in 1946 as Associate Professor of Geography in the Geology Department, although geography had been taught previously.³⁵¹ A second staff member joined in 1949 as an instructor: William L. Thomas, Jr., who went on leave in 1948-49 to complete his Ph.D. in Geography and South East Asia Studies at Yale University; he resigned during that year from Rutgers and later became Assistant Director of Research of the Viking Fund in New York City.

The Department of Geography was inaugurated on April 6, 1949. A public address, delivered by Isaiah Bowman, was entitled “Geographical Interpretation.” It was subsequently published in The Geographical Review, Vol. 39 (1949), pp.355-370.

On July 1, 1949 the Department began to function officially. Andrew Clark was promoted to Professor, Miss Nadine Kurilchick joined the Department as secretary and two new appointments became effective – Frank L. Keller and Guido G. Weigend. Keller stayed only one year; he moved on to Tulane University where he became Associate Professor of Geography.

From the very beginning the Department experienced housing problems. Our first home was the former Kilmer House at 147 College Avenue, where the Commons now stands. All classes and laboratories were conducted on the first floor of that building, while offices were upstairs. Initial offerings were a year course in physical geography with 120 students divided among three lectures and six laboratories; one semester of cultural geography (120 students and three lecture sections); one section of economic geography (30 students), a course on the history and philosophy of geography, and some regional courses. The three faculty members handled the entire load without the aid of laboratory assistants. In this first year the Department had 11 majors, an undergraduate Geography Club with more than 20 members and bi-weekly meetings which were attended by as many as 65 students.

In 1950 the laboratory sections were moved into temporary buildings located on the bluff overlooking the Raritan River, where the three high-rise dormitories now stand. The cultural and economic geography courses were expanded to full year courses, and cultural geography was offered at Douglass College. Space problems remained serious. A quotation from Clark’s 1950 annual report expresses one of our principal problems then, as it does still today. “Nothing more helpful to improvement of morale in the department, beyond the improvement of compensation,

³⁵⁰ A slightly modified version of a document originally prepared by John Brush and Guido Weigend in 1969, re-edited by James K. Mitchell in April 2022. The original version included a graph of trends in faculty numbers (compiled in 1982) and a hand-written page showing 1970-1980 staffing of geographers by year and unit of (majority) appointment.

³⁵¹ Geography had been included in the course of instruction from the beginning of Rutgers, which was founded in 1766 as Queen’s College. One of the first graduates, Simeon DeWitt, became a geographer, i.e., surveyor and map maker, for the Revolutionary Army and subsequently for the State of New York. The content of geography in the late 18^th century probably comprised earth-sun relationships, mapping and the general description of the earth.

During the 19^th century geography of the gazetteer sort was taught intermittently by non-geographers. See Richard

P. McCormick, Rutgers, A Bicentennial History, Rutgers University Press, 1965.

could be done than to find a more permanent and more adequate solution to the housing problem.” Also in that year the number of faculty members was raised to four with the appointment of Iven V. Bennett and B. Ross Guest.

In 1951 Clark resigned to take a position at the University of Wisconsin, Weigend became Acting Chairman and John E. Brush, who was finishing his Ph.D. at Wisconsin, was appointed. Ross Guest did not continue on the staff in 1951 and the department was reduced to three full-time members. Only one advanced undergraduate course was given each semester.

However, the department had two Henry Rutgers Scholars in that year.

In the 1950s the university experienced a period of declining enrollment, reaching a low point in 1954-55, and during the early part of the decade there was retrenchment in the college faculty. However, the department was able to maintain three full-time positions from 1951 to 1961. Changes in the staff during the decade came about through replacement due to resignations or leaves of absence. David I. Blumenstock, who subsequently served as a climatologist in the

U.S. Weather Bureau, was Acting Chairman in 1952-53 during Weigend’s leave of absence on an Office of Naval Research grant to study the port of Bordeaux and, incidentally, the wine industry of southwestern France. William H. Wallace, now Chairman of the Geography Department at the University of New Hampshire, taught here from 1954 to 1957 and William Goodwin, now at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, from 1957 to 1960. Roberto Lizarralde, a Uruguayan citizen of French birth, taught in 1957-58 during Brush’s leave of absence on a Guggenheim Fellowship to study Old Piscataway Township.

The course offerings gradually increased during the decade, graduate teaching and research began, and additional facilities were assigned to the department at various locations on or near College Avenue. The regional New Jersey course and cartography were taught in alternate years from 1952 on. In 1953 the field course and conservation were offered for the first time. In 1955-56 the Master’s degree program was approved by the Graduate School and the following year the first graduate course was offered in settlement geography with six students enrolled. Before 1956 our graduate teaching and research assistants had to be “borrowed” from the Rutgers Geology Department and Columbia University, but from this date on the department was able to employ assistants from among its own graduate student body. The first Master’s degree was awarded in 1958 to John E. Rickert, who subsequently completed his doctorate at Clark University. The graduate course offerings were increased to two per semester in 1960-61 and the number of graduate students reached twelve with five receiving degrees at the end of that academic year. The undergraduate program continued to flourish, particularly after the establishment of the city planning option. There were several Henry Rutgers Scholars in Geography, as for example Robert A. Muller in the class of ’58. Arthur Jorgensen, a junior, was at the South Polar Scientific Camp as a civilian weather observer during 1957-58.

The department continued to be based at 147 College Avenue and in the World War II temporary buildings, located at Neilson Field, where the parking lot is now between the bookstore and the heating plant. We had partial use of two other frame buildings on College Avenue, both of which were subsequently demolished to make way for the University Library and the Commons. In the spring of 1960 the departmental office was moved to 5 Senior Street after which a wrecking crew removed all evidence of the Kilmer House. In 1960-61 Melvin G.

Marcus and H. Roy Merrens were appointed to the staff and Brush served as Acting Chairman during Weigend’s leave of absence on a Fulbright Lectureship at the University of Barcelona, Spain. Merrens, who left for San Fernando Valley State College when Weigend returned from Europe, was responsible for the formation of the Graduate Geographical Society.

During the 1960’s the geography staff, number of students, and the program of instruction, both graduate and undergraduate, expanded as rapid growth of student enrollment occurred in the university. At the beginning of the decade there were only three full-time staff members and four teaching assistants, all in Rutgers College, then known as the College of Arts and Sciences. By the end of the decade in 1969-70 the geography staff had grown to nine at the New Brunswick campus, seven in Rutgers College, one in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Science, and one in Livingston College. Ten teaching assistants are now employed at the New Brunswick campuses, including one in Livingston College, and there are two federally-supported NDEA Fellows and one NSF Trainee in the department. In 1960-61no geographer was employed in Rutgers at Newark, where now there are three full-time positions and an undergraduate geography major program. Some twenty graduate students are in residence and total enrollment is about 45, including part-time students. In any one year during the 1960s the department has conferred as few as seven to as many as twenty-one bachelor’s degrees and three to nine master’s degrees. As yet, no doctorates have been conferred, although the Graduate School approved offering of the Ph.D. in geography beginning in 1964. Six candidates had fulfilled all requirements but the dissertation by the spring term of 1969.

Growth of the geography faculty during the 1960’s has been accompanied by many personnel changes. In 1961 John F. Kolars, who had just returned from field work in Turkey, joined the department at New Brunswick. His wife, Ann Larimore, was appointed to the College of Arts and Sciences at Newark where she inaugurated the undergraduate curriculum in geography in the Division of Social Sciences. In 1961-62 Brush undertook study of service centers on the Philadelphia metropolitan fringe with financial support from the Urban Studies Center and Penjerdel and William Warntz, then of the American Geographical Society, taught one course in the department. In 1962-63 Howard L. Gauthier Jr. was Brush’s collaborator in the same study. In 1963 Arthur Getis came to Rutgers from Michigan State University. His appointment was supported in part by the Rutgers Urban Studies Center to stimulate development of research and teaching along the lines of systematic human geography and quantitative methods.

In 1964 the department was decimated suddenly when Marcus and Kolars accepted offers from the University of Michigan. They were replaced by Robert A. Muller, then working for the

U.S. Forest Service at Berkeley, California, who took over instruction in physical geography, and Peter O. Wacker, then completing his doctorate at Louisiana State University, who was appointed to teach cultural geography. In the same year Jacquelyn Beyer returned from South Africa and was appointed to replace Ann Larimore at Newark with the understanding that she would teach a course also in New Brunswick each term. In 1966 a second full-time geographer was appointed at Newark and it was possible to major in geography for the first time. From 1965 to 1967 Bruce E. Newling taught economic and urban geography at New Brunswick. In 1966-67 Barry J. Garner came to Rutgers from Bristol, England, in exchange for Getis, who was a visiting lecturer at Bristol University the same year. In 1967-68 Allan E. Frey, a member of the Bristol

University Geography Department, taught here for one semester. Additional offices were provided in 1963 at 30 Morrell Street and in 1967 at 16 Morrell. Laboratory space has been assigned to us since 1966 in the Kilmer area, far removed from the main campus.

Brush, who went on leave to study population growth in Indian cities for six months in 1965-66, was elected Chairman in 1967, thus relieving Weigend who had administered the department for thirteen of the seventeen years of its existence. In 1967 Robert M. Hordon, a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, was appointed to help in the basic physical geography course, which had enrollment of some three to four hundred undergraduates each term and required the services of nine teaching assistants. In 1968 George W. Carey of Columbia Teachers College joined Livingston College as Professor of Geography and Urban Planning and began to participate in the graduate program of this department. At this time Jacquelyn Beyer moved from Newark to New Brunswick under a joint appointment by Rutgers College and the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences to teach in the department and to help in initiating the Agricultural and Environmental Science resource management program. Robert Brown was appointed to replace Beyer and in 1969 he became Acting Chairman of the Newark Department of Geography with two full-time instructors, Harry Margulis and Niels West. In 1968-69 Michael R. Greenberg taught here one term and received the Ph.D. degree from Columbia the same year. Muller resigned in mid 1968-69 to accept appointment at Louisiana State University. In 1969 Norbert P. Psuty, who received his doctorate in physical geography from Louisiana State University, came to Rutgers from the University of Wisconsin and Jerry P. Schofer, who is completing his doctorate in systematic human geography at the Pennsylvania State University, was appointed. During the twenty-year period from 1949 to 1969 twenty-five geographers have held full-time appointments of at least one term’s duration at Rutgers University. However, since 1964 there has been a stabilization of full-time staff with a total of six geographers now on tenure appointments.

The department’s role in undergraduate teaching has been not only to provide the major program in geography, but also to offer elementary instruction in physical and cultural geography to students majoring in other fields. We have also collaborated in three interdisciplinary courses, geo-ecology (from 1954), air photo interpretation (from 1957) and modernization of traditional Asian cultures (from 1961). Largely due to the efforts of Weigend during the post-Sputnik era of federal educational grants, the department has conducted ten special training programs for elementary and secondary school teachers. As follows:

Academic Year (In-service)

1958-59: Guido G. Weigend – NSF Institute for Elementary School Teachers.

1959-60: William Goodwin – NSF Earth Science Institute for High School Teachers Guido G. Weigend – NSF Earth Science Institute for Elementary School Personnel

Summer Session

1960: Guido G. Weigend and Melvin G. Marcus – NSF Summer Institute in Earth Sciences 1962, 1963, 1964: Guido G. Weigend and Erwin R. Biel – NSF Summer Institute in Earth

Sciences

1965, 1966, 1967: Guido G. Weigend, Arthur Getis, and others – NDEA Summer Institute in Urban Geography.

Various staff members have been active in the preparation of textbooks and instructional materials. Brush contributed chapters on India and adjacent countries to The Pattern of Asia, edited by Norton S. Ginsburg and published by Prentice Hall, 1958. Weigend has contributed chapters on France and Benelux to the 2^nd (1961) and 3^rd (1969) editions of A Geography of Europe, edited by George W. Hoffman and published by Ronald Press. Arthur and Judy Getis are the authors of the highly successful teaching unit on urban geography sponsored in 1961-66 by the High School Geography Project which has been available through the Project office in Boulder, Colorado and after modifications is now published commercially under the title Geography in an Urban Age, Macmillan, 1969. Weigend and Brush participated in the preparation of the Odyssey World Atlas, 1966. Muller is the last of a long series of editors who prepared the departmental Laboratory Manual for Physical Geography, published in 1968 by the

W. C. Brown Company.

It seems inappropriate to list here the numerous journal papers and other publications of the faculty members which are identified in successive issues of Research at Rutgers but it is of interest to note books and monographs by Rutgers geographers published by Rutgers University.

1949.	Andrew H. Clark. The Invasion of New Zealand by People, Plants and Animals. Rutgers University Press.
1950.	Guido G. Weigend. Rutgers and the U.N. Program, Rutgers University Bulletin.
1956.	John E. Brush. The Population of New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 2^nd edition, 1958.
1959.	David I. Blumenstock. The Ocean of Air, Rutgers University Press.
1967.	Guido G. Weigend. Urban Planning and Development Centers in Latin America, with James H. Street, co-author, Rutgers University Bulletin.
1968.	Peter O. Wacker. The Musconetcong Valley of New Jersey: A Historical Geography, Rutgers University Press.

The departmental curriculum and course structure has been modified and expanded during the past decade, reflecting the establishment of the Ph.D. program in 1964. In the late1960’s there has been increasing emphasis on urban phenomena, on certain aspects of physical geography and scope for training in statistical methods. The new undergraduate course on systems in human geography was conceived and inaugurated by Getis and Beyer in 1968. The first effect of changes in the Rutgers College general education requirements was felt in the fall of 1969, when the enrollment in introductory physical geography dropped to about one third of the previous level. However, enrollment in introductory cultural geography under Wacker’s

tutelage has grown to well over two hundred and Getis’ human geography has attracted a larger enrollment in 1969. The introductory conservation course, taught by Beyer in 1969, attracts students from many curricula. Further consideration of course structure and of educational policies within the department will be determined by the joint faculty-graduate student council created in November-December 1969, in which all full-time staff members at the New Brunswick campuses and three elected representatives of the currently registered graduate students participate.

Imponderable elements in the immediate future of geography at Rutgers are 1) effective integration of additional staff members to be appointed at Livingston College and “College No. 4” in the Federated College Plan, and 2) finding the best ways to train geographers to be competent generalists and able to contribute to the increasingly specialized branches of the field. It seems that there are unique opportunities for development of undergraduate curricula relating geography to urbanism, African and Chinese studies at Livingston College, and possibly for resource management and coastal studies at the College of Agriculture and Environmental Science or in the new college which is expected to provide a focus on environmental problems. Whatever may be in the future of geography at the university, we hope that the Rutgers College department will be housed in adequate modern facilities, either on the College Avenue campus, where a new Social Science Building is projected, or at University Heights, where an Earth Science Building is projected; and that coordinated departments will emerge at Livingston and “College No.4.”

December 8, 1969

Guido G. Weigend John E. Brush

APPENDIX 13

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY – THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY LIVINGSTON COLLEGE

Division of Urban Studies and Community Development DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

The Role of Geography in the Livingston Program³⁵²

The mission of the Geography program within the college is three-fold, embracing the following:

A comparative urbanization interest directed towards exploring the variation of land uses and resource allocation in non-Western cities, as a function of cultural and demographic variation.
A methodological interest. Geography, by its nature, is concerned with questions involving the development of rigorous techniques for analyzing the nature, evolution and efficiency of the spatial configurations

and patternings associated with human culture. As such, it has important contributions to make to planners, who must deal with these problems.

A multidisciplinary interest. No aspect of man’s relationship with his environment –whether urban or not –many be fully explored by any one discipline. We would hope to be able to develop problem oriented courses in cooperation with other academic departments, to bring to bear a variety of perspectives on matters of social concern.

It is our belief that such a department will enrich Livingston’s program, and will fit in well with offerings of Urban Studies, especially since progress has been made towards the realization of these goals.

³⁵² Reformatted from the original.

The present faculty in the department, offer, or will shortly offer, the following courses:

Urban Ecology
China and the Third World
Urban Geography
Geographical Analysis of the Human Environment
Urban Development and Planning in the Caribbean

The first goal relates to courses 2 and 5, with courses 3 and 4 contributing to the second. The majority of them are multidisciplinary and urban oriented.

We expect that further development of the department will proceed with a view to serving the same three goals in a balanced manner.

To that end we are interested in an immediate extension into the area of African urban geography and demography as one immediate area of need, and environmental perception as another.

George W. Carey

Chairman October 15, 1970

APPENDIX 14

GEOGRAPHERS AT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

New Brunswick

(On budgeted positions as of 2 FEBRUARY, 1981)

COOK COLLEGE	RUTGERS COLLEGE	LIVINGSTON COLLEGE
Dept. of Environmental Resources	Dept. of Geography	Dept. of Community Development
J. K. Mitchell*	John E. Brush*	M. R. Greenberg*
S.C. Cutter	Robin Flowerdew	H. B. Holcomb*
Dept. of Human Ecology	W. M. Gesler	Dept. of Urban Planning & Policy Development
B. Boxer*	W. L. Hamilton	T. A. Clark
R. Roundy	R. M. Hordon*	Center for Urban Policy Research
	W. H. Renwick	R. W. Lake (Research Appointment)
	P.O. Wacker*
	Center for Coastal & Environmental Studies
	N. P. Psuty*#
	K. F. Nordstrom*#

*Tenured appointments

# Research position with fractional (1 course per year) teaching appointment in Rutgers College

APPENDIX 15

50 YEARS OF GEOGRAPHY AT RUTGERS 1949-1999

Geography has been a part of Rutgers University from its earliest colonial era years as Queens College. After the Revolutionary War, geographer Simeon DeWitt, class of 1776, was employed by the Continental Army to survey much of central and western New York State. Surveying and map-making continued to be taught at various periods during the 18th and 19th centuries because they were particularly important skills for a young country undergoing territorial expansion.

The Rutgers Department of Geography formally came into existence as a separate academic unit after World War Il (1949). Isaiah Bowman, recently retired President of Johns Hopkins University and "master of the art of seeing things whole", gave the inaugural address (“Geographical Interpretation,” Geographical Review, Vol. 39, pp.

355-370). New geography departments were very much in vogue at that time since geographers in war-time public service had demonstrated the practical value of their knowledge about peoples and places and their skills as analysts of environmental processes.

The first geographer appointed at Rutgers and the founder of the department was Andrew Hill Clark. Clark subsequently became the dean of American historical geographers, and his legacy is memorialized in our Andrew Clark Prize for outstanding undergraduate students. Initially, there were I I majors and an undergraduate Geography Club that held bi-weekly meetings attended by up to 65 students. Majors were expected to complete a yearlong course in physical geography, a semester of cultural geography, a course on the discipline's history and philosophy, and a selection of courses about foreign regions. Photographs from that era also show students and faculty "roughing it" in winter field camps under canvas.

By 1951 the faculty had grown to four and Guido G. Weigend was appointed as department head. Professor Weigend, a native of Austria who could look debonair while striding down the corridor in hob-nail boots, was a marvelous administrator and talented scholar who is currently our longest surviving faculty member. During his first year, Weigend also hired Professor Emeritus John Brush, who now holds the record for length of service as a department faculty colleague (35 years). The John E. Brush Map Library is named in his honor, and he continues to serve as an unofficial department historian, most recently in a videotaped interview that is a valuable part of the department's archives.

Graduate studies in Geography at Rutgers began in 1956 and the first Master’s degree was awarded in 1958. Course offerings and student enrollments expanded throughout the 1960s. Each year between 7 and 21 Bachelor’s degrees and 3 to 9 Master’s degrees were conferred. A Ph.D. program was approved in 1964 and the first doctoral graduate (Peter O. Muller) received his degree in 1970. Thereafter, there was a significant growth in geographers on the university faculty with the total eventually numbering between 20 and 25. Not all of these were affiliated with the Department of Geography but all participated in the university-wide Graduate Program.

Today, there are 10 faculty in the Geography Department and another 15 in the Graduate Program. We teach several thousand undergraduate students each year and typically have between 70 and 75 majors. Approximately 60 outstanding graduate students from all over the world are enrolled in graduate studies. Two thirds of these are Ph.D. students and there are equal numbers of men and women in the graduate program. Although most graduate students come from the United States we also educate nationals from 15 foreign countries. These include: Argentina, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The department's main research and teaching strengths are concentrated in three substantive areas: nature and society interactions, urban geography and geo-spatial mapping and analysis. We also provide strong support to the university's African and Central and East European area studies programs. At the graduate level we are co-founding members of interdisciplinary certificates in: Quaternary Studies and Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change as well as the pending Geo-Spatial Analysis Certificate.

The Geography faculty is internationally renowned and publishes a large number of books and articles every year. Faculty serve on the editorial boards of top professional journals and have also founded several (e.g. Global Environmental Change; Environmental Hazards). They have won prestigious awards for research and public service, ranging from three Guggenheim Fellowships to the President of Poland's Order of Merit and the New Jersey Historical Commissions Award of Recognition. Faculty also serve as advisors to key federal and state agencies, as well as the National Research Council and the National Science Foundation.

Although the Rutgers Department of Geography's primary mission is research and teaching on topics of national and global significance our members are also intimately involved in matters of vital concern to the welfare of New Jersey. Among others these include: economic development, urban rejuvenation, water supply, natural hazards and coastal management. For example, the New Jersey State Climatologist is a member of our faculty whose work serves a variety of public and private user groups throughout the state. A continuing commitment to outreach and public service is also reflected in the

new collaborative faculty-student project on the Great Raritan Flood which focuses on the regional impacts and consequences of New Jersey's most costly natural hazard to date (Tropical Storm Floyd, September 1999).

The department of Geography can be justifiably proud of its accomplishments during the first fifty years. Today it attracts the best students from throughout the country and abroad and has an outstanding track record in geographical education and training.

Several of our students have won Fulbright Fellowships and a recent Ph.D. graduate has received a MacArthur genius award. More than 50 alumni now serve on the faculty of universities throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other parts of the world. As we enter our second half-century the department's goals are to reinforce and enhance its status as a center of excellence for research and education in existing areas of strength and to take the lead in tackling new intellectual issues of societal importance such as those that attend the fast-developing field of geographical information. We invite you to join and support us in these exciting endeavors.

(Assembled by Prof. James Kenneth Mitchell, 1999)

APPENDIX 16

Intellectual genealogies of some geography faculty members in 2000

These condensed genealogies are based on interviews conducted by students enrolled in a “Field and Research Methods” course during the Fall of 2000³⁵³. They report the self-reflections of a subset of the contemporaneous Graduate Geography Program faculty, including seven trained in Geography and three trained in other disciplines. What follows is a snapshot in time. Doubtless, the views of all interviewees continued to evolve and mature since 2000. Some subsequently remained at Rutgers and others left for positions at different institutions. Despite their limitations these commentaries offer useful insights into the Geography program five decades after it began. Among other features they illustrate that the vitality of the Geography community owes much to the varied backgrounds from which geographers came as well as the diversity of experiences and outlooks they brought to their careers.

Robert Hordon (1967-2009)

During high school, Bob Hordon developed an interest in maps, precipitation, and weather. As a graduate student at Columbia University, he found mentors, colleagues and a research endeavor that sustained these interests into his subsequent academic life. The three most influential people that he met there were: Arthur Strahler, an eminent geomorphologist with a specialty in fluvial geology; Leonard Zobler, a soil scientist curious about soils and hydrology; and George Carey, the chair of his committee who introduced him to quantitative methods and data analysis as they applied to water issues. Together these professors nurtured his interests and imparted a demanding work ethic as well as the importance of discipline and humility. During this period, he also encountered Michael Greenberg, another Columbia student, who later joined him at Rutgers as a friend and fellow faculty member.

Bob’s dissertation focused on the topological networks of water supply systems in northeastern New Jersey. He found the “bewildering maze” of these systems to be so complex and interesting that they became the enduring setting for his research. He used graph theory, an abstract tool of analysis, to explain the connectivity of the water supply network. He found the combination of data acquisition and applied research to be congenial, especially in the company of other researchers, though he also enjoyed working alone, entering data on spreadsheets while listening to classical music but requiring silence for writing.

Hordon interacted with people from varied disciplinary and institutional backgrounds, both in academic and non-academic organizations, including engineers, planners, environmentalists, geologists, and government employees. These affiliations energized him and raised a variety of theoretical, practical, and policy questions that benefitted his work. They also

³⁵³ These included: Tom Mitchell, Louise Stanton, Peter Kabachnik, Kelly Sponberg, Jason Goldberg, Abdou Jeng, Chin-fan Chang, Junko Noguchi, Jason Halofsky and Tehmina Zaidi. Each student chose one faculty member as a case study. Given the small size of the class relative to the size of the Geography faculty, a dozen or so professors were not canvassed.

informed him about two overarching issues: (1) how can geographers become part of the public policy making process; and (2) what does it mean to be a geographer?

With respect to the first question, he viewed the participation of government personnel in collaborative projects as providing a valuable avenue for geographers to affect policy making but he also observed that working with government agencies could be frustrating because of sudden changes occasioned by the political context within which government personnel often work. He found that physical geographers are particularly well placed to contribute to policy actions and was a strong advocate of making physical geography a prominent part of geography curricula.

With respect to the second question, Bob was not comfortable with using the title “geographer” and preferred “water resource specialist” or “hydrologist” instead. Being identified as a geographer in the wider world was troublesome for him because he thought the discipline was confused about its identity. He saw a need to balance knowledge of physical geography with knowledge of cultural geography, as exemplified by the stance adopted by his colleague John Brush but admitted to not having achieved such balance. Moreover, he perceived an increasing proliferation of human/social/cultural courses in Geography curricula, some of which he believed were not essential or relevant to the discipline, and a diminution in the contributions of physical geography. Likewise, he gave primacy to applied research over theoretical approaches and valued his professional credentials over his academic ones.

Above all, Bob found pleasure and satisfaction in sharing knowledge with his students and remained humble about his own contributions.

Bria Holcomb (1972-2017)

When interviewed, British-born Briavel Holcomb disavowed the notion that she had a coherent intellectual genealogy and expressed a strong dislike of theory, favoring instead the direct experience of humans. The initial impetus for her ambitions came from her mother who was widowed at an early age and determined to give her daughters equal educational opportunities with those afforded to their brothers. Bria’s love of geography and her interests have been eclectic and situational, often owing more to chance and circumstances than a planned strategy. Her involvement with the field began with exposure to inspiring teachers in high school coupled with cherished opportunities to conduct fieldwork. Later, at Nottingham University, she was influenced by Cuchlaine King, a strong female role model who was a coastal and glacial geomorphologist, and by K.C. Edwards, an urban geographer. The next stage of her career occurred in the United States where she had gone anticipating the possibility of marriage with a fellow Brit whom she had known in England. When that did not occur, she enrolled in the Geography graduate program at the University of Colorado and discovered an affinity for socially informed research and teaching that marked her subsequent career.

Upon becoming a U.S. citizen, marrying a new partner, and graduating from Colorado, Bria and her husband both chose to accept academic positions at Rutgers University because they felt a strong affinity with its recently established socially progressive, liberal Livingston College. However, by 2000 Bria had come to dislike what she saw as the increasing corporatization of Rutgers University and the blunting of these sentiments.

Initially at Rutgers Bria was particularly influenced by the urban-focused writings of David Harvey as well as The Making of the English Landscape by the historian W. G. Hoskins, and Clarence Glacken’s Traces on the Rhodian Shore. But her career has been varied, with many interests intermingling to produce a multitude of associations that usually revolve around urbanism and education focused topics like environmental perception, gentrification, and heritage tourism, often embedded in innovative outreach to wider publics such as the Gridiron Geography Project and the Semester at Sea program. Although mainly housed in the Urban Studies department, she was also a mainstay of the Geography Graduate Program through her teaching, advising, and fostering of social events. As exemplified by stints as Director of the Women’s Studies Program and as a fellow of the Center for the Analysis of Contemporary Culture Bria Holcomb performed a bridging role between Geography and other disciplines.

Richard Schroeder (1993-2018)

Rick Schroeder was initially a student of religion and Germanics at Macalester College interested in the ways that two monotheistic religions (Christianity and Islam) took on characteristics of cultures that were present in places where they developed. He followed his degree with a stint in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps volunteer working in agricultural extension among irrigation farmers. There he was influenced by a role model who fostered practices of progressive grassroots organization and by the Women in Development debate that was emerging at that time. Returning to the USA, Rick worked as a consultant and then returned to Africa as a project director of a Peace Corps project on Health and Rural Extension Training in the Gambia.

With these experiences in hand, Rick entered graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and met Ann Stoler, a young anthropology professor who helped to formalize his ideas on gender and development that culminated in a Master’s thesis on vulnerability to drought among the Hausa women of Nigeria. Then it was time to return to the realm of praxis, first as a program analyst at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington DC and later as a Program Manager for Save the Children in The Gambia. The cycle of exchange between practical and scholarly work continued thereafter when Rick embarked on a Geography Ph.D. at the University of California-Berkeley under the direction of Michael Watts. Watts had also done estimable research on Nigeria and the Gambia and fashioned a career as a geographer who interpreted human-environment relations through the lens of political ecology.

Schroeder’s career has been built around certain enduring themes, most notably environment, gender, development, and conservation politics - usually in the context of African settings. As well as writing books and articles on these themes he has actively debated controversies in political ecology and advises young scholars to gain as much experience of the “real world” as possible before embarking on a Ph.D. so that they can strike a necessary balance between theory and practice.

Elvin K. Wyly (1995-2002)

Elvin earned geography degrees from Pennsylvania State University (BA) and the University of Minnesota (MA, Ph.D.) and entered Rutgers with a joint appointment to the Center for Urban Policy Research and the Department of Geography. His career has drawn on methods, ideas and findings produced by a variety of geographers situated in different philosophical traditions including classical spatial analysis, as well as Marxist and feminist approaches. At PSU he was influenced by Peter Gould’s work on spatial analysis and in Minnesota by John Adams, Fred Lukermann, and John Borchert on regional economic analysis, historical geography, and metropolitan dynamics. He also drew on the work of radical geographers like David Harvey and Neil Smith, especially their critiques of liberal political philosophies and their adherence to theoretical Marxian analysis. Among feminist influencers he has counted Susan Hanson, Geraldine Pratt, Katherine Gibson, Julie Graham, Delores Hayden, and Sara McLafferty.

Elvin’s research has focused on the social and spatial dimensions of urban housing and labor market processes. Three important problems are at the center of this work – labor market inequalities, trajectories of neighborhood change, and the role of scale in urban policy.

Robin Leichenko (1997-)

Robin holds graduate degrees in economics and economic geography. She first encountered geography while taking an undergraduate course from Diana Liverman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Later, Liverman moved to Pennsylvania State University, where Robin joined her as a Master’s and Ph.D. student. At PSU Robin developed an interest in climate change risks and worked on various publications involving drought in Mexico and water in Karachi. Her attention then shifted away from climate to economic development, specifically the influence of changing international trade patterns on regional economies. A series of economy focused projects followed, including the effects of preservation efforts on property values, determinants of employment and population growth in U.S. cities, variation in income levels on native American tribal lands, and patterns of regional distress.

Robin came to Rutgers in 1997, and like Elvin Wyly, held a joint appointment between the Department of Geography and the Center for Urban Policy Research. At the time of her interview for this student project she was engaged in a joint investigation with Dr. Katherine O’Brien, a physical geographer, that brought together the two strands of her previous research. This addressed the dual impact of climate change and globalization on communities and held the potential to have broad impact across field of global change studies.

Robin believes her work falls within the positivist philosophical tradition insofar as she conducts rigorous tests of economic theory through the application of advanced quantitative models. She emphasizes the need for collaboration between human geographers and physical geographers and she encourages students to reach beyond their sub-fields of specialization and the discipline. For Robin, Geography addresses questions that are vital to the future of humanity and it is important to ensure the discipline has a healthy future. In her own words “Someone will always do Geography, even if it is not geographers.”

Roger Balm (1997-2012)

Roger grew up in southern England and developed an early facility for landscape painting that also fueled a desire to travel and served as the bedrock interest of his career. Trained as a teacher at the University of Nottingham, he moved to the United States and became an art dealer and painter in Boston. Seeking greater financial security, he eventually worked as manager of public information services at Harvard University. There he took advantage of free access to courses in ecology, art, geology, and geomorphology. With Harvard credits in hand, he sought to further his education at the Geography program of the University of Massachusetts – the only institution to which he applied. In Amherst he came under the influence of Rutherford Platt, a prominent scholar of land use, and David Alexander, a leading exponent of hazards research.

From there he was accepted into the Ph.D. program at Rutgers, again the only program to which he applied. Under the supervision of Ken Mitchell, he was able to sample many unique perspectives that combined and extended the diverse parts of his experience and honed his own distinctive approach to the discipline. This has reflected not just his training by geographers educated at the University of Chicago (Platt, Mitchell) but also contacts with British academics then resident in the USA, namely Alexander, Mitchell and Roger’s marriage partner, the Rutgers geography professor, Briavel Holcomb.

Roger’s dissertation on human appraisal and adaptation to conditions of scarcity in the island of Malta began to bring artistic vision to bear on geographic inquiry. Among other contributions it was noteworthy for employing the archaeological concept of palimpsest as an analytic tool. Subsequently, he extended these ideas while exploring the uses of art as geographic evidence. Revisiting the sites of classic archaeological “discoveries” he has revealed the degree to which expeditionary art of the 19^th century selectively shaped certain interpretations of landscape that now undergird contemporary attitudes and tastes, at the expense of others that might have been chosen.

Due to his late start into the career of a professional academic, and desirous of following his artistic muse, Roger opted to remain as a non-tenured professor because that gave him maximum freedom to pioneer the largely unexplored overlap between geography and art without the strictures imposed by a conventional tenure path. In the process he has avoided compromising his values and retained a high degree of independence. In short, Roger self-consciously stands apart from the theoretical frameworks that define many geographers (e.g. structuralism, postmodernism, positivism etc.) and occupies unique intellectual territory that fuses geography and art.

Michael Medler (1998-2001)

Mike Medlar was first introduced to academia as a high school student by enrolling in interdisciplinary classes at Oregon State University when his father, a political science professor, was teaching there. After graduating from OSU with a degree in Philosophy Mike became interested in land management during a summer working in the Grand Canyon. This led to a job with the U.S. Forest Service on a fire crew that fought the major Yellowstone fire of 1988. These experiences brought him face to face with the complexities of preserving wilderness while also

accommodating tourism. Realizing that improper management of old growth forests was a major problem, and that flawed environmental ethics were partly to blame, Mike enrolled in a Philosophy Master’s program. But he switched to Geography after taking a course taught by Alvin Urquehart, a student of Carl Sauer, the UC-Berkeley geographer who pioneered the study of human impacts on the landscape. Mike secured the Master’s degree in 1990 and then traveled throughout Europe observing land use management practices before returning to work for the National Park Service. His duties in the Rocky Mountains permitted him to observe inconsistencies and contradictions in the policies applied by the Park Service and the Forest Service to interpreting the Wilderness Act (1964). This was the spur that propelled him to enter the Geography Ph.D. program at the University of Arizona where, under the direction of Steven Yool, he specialized in applying remote sensing-based geospatial techniques to the mapping of wildfires and, with the aid of a dendrochronologist, Tom Swetnum, gained skills in the analysis of tree rings.

As a result of his varied experiences working with land managers and environmental scientists Mike formed the view that these two groups often adopt mutually confrontational or exclusionary positions on management decisions, and he sought to foster improved arrangements that would benefit both. Reflecting on such situations, he encouraged students to be less accepting of received orthodoxy and to be more willing to dig deeper in pursuit of better outcomes. Excellence is achievable and he has cautioned them not to strive for mediocrity or they may succeed!

The remaining three professors were non-geographers who became members of the Graduate Geography Faculty by virtue of their interest in the discipline and their contributions to cognate fields.

Frank Popper

Frank Popper was trained at Harvard University in the fields of Public Administration and Political Science (Ph.D. 1972). After graduation he held a series of positions with national organizations involved in public administration, grant-making, planning, and environmental law – experiences that disillusioned him about working in government agencies - followed by an eye-opening field trip to the American West and the award of a Gilbert White fellowship sponsored by Resources for the Future. (White was an eminent geographer who was long associated with that Washington-based think tank and served as a mentor to many environmental geographers, including Ken Mitchell.) Thereafter, Frank came to Rutgers University and began working with planners and geographers to develop ideas about more appropriate uses of lands on the Great Plains that now offered only a precarious basis for agriculture, ranching and other contemporary uses. This became the nationally recognized “Buffalo Commons” project, a term that he and his wife, the Rutgers Ph.D. geography Deborah Popper, coined in reference to economically and environmentally challenged parts of the western USA that constitute a modern version of the 19^th century settlement frontier.

Although thoroughly “academic” in orientation and activities Frank has preferred learning and developing outside of formal settings. For example, he has directed many of his publications to wider public audiences in non-refereed journals and other mainstream outlets. He has also interacted in public meetings with opponents as well as supporters of his prescriptions for communities facing difficulty in the American West, eliciting widespread praise as well as condemnation and including a community parody of his work performed by some residents of the Commons.

Lyna L. Wiggins

Lyna showed a keen interest in architecture from an early age, combining an affinity for math and science, perhaps inherited from her father, with an artistic flair that was influenced by her mother’s creative craft work. This led her to take courses in drafting and to enter the architecture program at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. There she was the only female major in a heavily male department and encountered difficulties scheduling frequent late night study sessions with her peers, who were not subject to the same curfews as those of women’s dorms. She then enrolled in the Master’s program in mathematics at Stanford University and developed an interest in modeling. This was followed by a return to Cal Poly to teach statistics and to finish a degree in city planning. From there she entered the city planning Ph.D. program at University of California-Berkeley, where she had to make up deficiencies in her social science knowledge. When her advisor left the university, she experienced a loss of direction and dropped out to run a consulting firm with a partner whose expertise in environmental planning and law helped shape her subsequent direction. Returning to the Berkeley planning Ph.D. program, she wrote a doctoral thesis on energy use forecasting (1981).

With the Ph.D. secured Lyna sought to chart a path that would provide ample opportunities for teaching as well as research. This was not easily achieved in part because the institutions that employed her (Stanford University and later the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) were heavily committed to grant-funded research and engaged in administrative reorganizations that jeopardized the units to which she belonged. While achieving success in nurturing Ph.D.s at Stanford and establishing a Geographic Information Systems program at MIT, in 1992 Lyna transferred to a senior level position at Rutgers under the direction of Norman Glickman. There she discovered an environment that not only supported her strong commitment to teaching but was markedly receptive to the creation of specialized labs and specialized programs that were essential to GIS education. Here the enduring themes of her life – completion of tasks undertaken, adherence to high professional standards, and balancing science with art – have been able to find fertile ground for growth and development.

Andrew P. Vayda

Pete Vayda is a distinguished anthropologist who immigrated to the USA from Budapest at the age of seven, received a Ph.D. from Columbia University and subsequently taught at universities in Indonesia, Hawaii, Zurich, British Columbia, and the Netherlands before coming to Rutgers in 1972. Since then, he has had simultaneous affiliations with Rutgers departments of Anthropology, Geography and Ecology. Most of his work has focused on relationships between people and environments, mainly in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. The role of warfare as

a cultural phenomenon that mediates between human populations and resources has been a particular concern.

Pete’s experiences have caused him to draw away from studies based on stability-seeking or equilibrium theories to recognize real world complexities and contingent explanations that are context dependent. Through time his research purview has widened to include large modern societies as well as small, isolated ones. He has also come to question reliance on such predefined concepts as cultures, societies, communities, and ecosystems as units of analysis in the social and ecological sciences. These ideas are reflected in Human Ecology, the interdisciplinary journal that he founded and edited.

“Why” questions take priority over “how” questions in Vayda’s work and he places great importance on close observation of phenomena. He has been critical of “self-styled political ecologists” who focus their research on environmental or natural resource politics and miss or dismiss the complex interactions of factors that produce environmental changes. His advice to young scholars is simple – know what you are doing, be clear about your question, and be able to state the significance of that question for the discipline in which you are receiving your degree.

APPENDIX 17

Faculty dynamics

Table 17-1 and Table 17-2 show two measures of the stability and professional longevity of Rutgers Geography faculty.

Table 17-1 illustrates the extent to which Geography faculty remained at Rutgers or departed for other positions (and, sometimes, other careers) elsewhere or into retirement. It does not include data for 10 faculty whose lengths of service are not accurately known. (Initial appointments of beginning faculty are generally for three years, renewable for three more years with tenure awarded or denied by the seventh year.)

These data are indicative rather than precise because of gaps in the information record.

Available data reveal that many faculty made long-term commitments of their time and expertise to Rutgers University including at least a dozen who spent three, four or more decades in service. This provided a stable base for the development of geographical research and teaching.

Revitalization was supplied by up to one-third of faculty who either chose to leave after their initial three-year terms or were not reappointed, as well as a further sixth who chose to leave after completing a second three-year term.

Table 17-1

Faculty Length of Service³⁵⁴

Number of years	Number of faculty (66)
3 or less	26
4-7	13
8-10	3
10-19	7
20-29	5
30-39	6
40-49	6

354 This table does not include at least 10 faculty whose lengths of service are not accurately known. Initial appointments of beginning faculty are generally for three years, renewable for three more years with tenure awarded or denied by the seventh year.

Table 17-2 shows the quantitative inflow and outflow of faculty by decade. It reveals that that the decades of the 1940s and 1950s saw limited growth of the small Rutgers College Department of Geography. The picture then changed due to rapid major additions of faculty during the 1960s and especially the 1970s. Most of this intake was hired by interdisciplinary or professional units of the University rather than the Department of Geography. Stability of numbers characterized the 1980s and 1990s whereas there has been a net outflow of Geographers during the 2000a and 2010s, much of it due to retirement of people who were hired in the 1960s-1970s intake.

Table 17-2

Faculty Dynamics: New hires and departures

Years	Incoming	Departing
1940-1949	4	0
1950-1959	7	9
1960-1969	12	7
1970-1979	19	7
1980-1989	9	9
1990-1999	9	3
2000-2010	5	8
2011-2020	8	13
2020-	2	1
Total	75	57*

*In addition, 14 still in service; status of 4 others unclear.

We have reached an era where the Geography faculty who arrived at Rutgers during the 1940s and 1950s are now deceased, as are an increasing number of those from the 1960s. At this point it is estimated that there are approximately 55 serving faculty and faculty alumni.

Changes in the gender and ethnic composition of the faculty are also of interest. In particular, the proportion of women has grown substantially. The first woman was hired in 1961 when she joined four male geographers. In every decade thereafter the proportion of woman has increased. Depending on the base reference population [i.e. faculty with terminal degrees in Geography (13), Department of Geography “core” members (16), Geography Graduate faculty (29)] it now (1/2024) stands between 40% and 45% of the faculty. All four of the founding members of the department of Geography in 1949 were white, North American males. Today around 30% of the geography faculty are from other ethno-national groups (Black, Latin American, Caribbean, East Asian).

APPENDIX 18

Doctoral dissertations completed

Date	Author	Title	Advisor(s)
1971	Muller, P. O.	Thunenian Analysis at the Macro-Scale: A Trend-Surface Analysis of the Spatial Organization of American Agriculture	Getis
1972	Robinson, W.C.	Race and Spatial Interaction Patterns in Baltimore City
1972	Margulis, H. L.	Consumer Perception and the Intraurban Journey-to-Shop: A Case Study in Newark, New Jersey	Getis
1973	Robertson, D. K.	Groundwater Availability in Southern New Jersey: A Model Approach to Estimation
1973	Boots, B.	The Study of Cellular nets	Getis
1973	West, C. N.	An Analysis of Factors Influencing Beach Activities in the New York-New Jersey Metropolitan Estuarial Region
1973	Singh, H.	An Analysis of the Spatial Structure of Indian Cities	Brush
1973	Scipione, P. A .	Human Attitudes About the Macro-Proximal Environment	Boxer
1973	Caprio, R. J.	Housing Preferences: A Multivariate Analysis	Carey
1973	Allen, J. R.	Beach Dynamics Along Sandy Hook Spit, New Jersey	Psuty
1974	Obudho, R. A.	Development of urbanization in Kenya: A Spatial Analysis and Implications for Regional Development Strategy	Carey
1974	Akintuyi, A.E.	Economic Integration, Development and Growth in Africa: An Overlapping Regional Grouping Approach	Getis
1975	O’Brien, R. J.	The Role of Highland Aesthetics in the Creation of an Interstate Park: Geographic Conception in the Lower Hudson Valley (1783-1909) and the Evolution of a Regional Recreational Landscape	Wacker
1975	Nordstrom, Karl F.	Beach Response Rates to Cyclic Wave Regimes at Sandy hook, New Jersey	Psuty
1975	Fitzpatrick, E. A.	The Utilization of Water Balance Accounting Models for Improved Agroclimatic Assessments	Muller
1976	Dunlap, D. V.	The Influence of Precipitation on Biochemical Oxygen Demand in Nine Streams in New Jersey	Whipple
1977	Page, C. D.	Social Class and Ethnic Differences in Aesthetic Response to the Visual Urban Environment
1977	Lenz, R. D.	Applications of Information Theory in Point Pattern Analysis
1977	Drake, Christine	The Geography of National integration: A Case Study of Indonesia	Getis
1978	Lewis, T. R. Jr.	From Suffield to Saybrook: An Historical Geography of the Connecticut River Valley in Connecticut Before 1800	Wacker
1979	Foresta, R.	Making Open Space Policy: The Politics and Dynamics of New Jersey's Green Acres Program	Fainstein
1980	Ziegenfus, R. C.	Municipal Natural Resource Inventories: An Analysis and Suggested Methodology
1980	Sabrin, M.	The Spatial Incidence of Inflation in the United States 1967-1971: An Economic-Geographic Perspective	Greenberg
1981	Maloney, Sharon	Periodic Markets: Their Functions and Spatial Patterns in Tamil Nadu, South India	Brush
1981	Hinshalwood, Sophia G.	The Dutch Culture Area of the mid-Hudson Valley	Wacker
1982	Weil, R. H.	The Distribution of Police Services in North and South Dakota	Brush

1982	Reynolds, W. J.	Beach Dynamics and the Societal Response to Beach Erosion at Macro Island, Florida	Psuty
1983	Waterstone, M.	Toxic Materials and Groundwater Contamination in Southern New Jersey: The Concept of net Risk Analysis	Mitchell
1983	Nakashima, L.	Spatial and Temporal Variations in Barred and Non-Barred Topographies, Sandy Hook, New Jersey	Psuty
1984	McVicker, Catherine H.	The Changing Spatial Distribution of Electric Generation in New Jersey	Greenberg
1984	Barnes, K. B.	Hazard Recognition and Adjustment in Northern Appalachia: Examples of Coal Mine Subsidence in Small Communities	Mitchell
1985	Wilson, David	Institutions and urban Revitalization: The Case of Manhattan	Lake
1985	Phillips, Jonathan	A Spatial Analysis of Shoreline Erosion, Delaware Bay, New Jersey	Nordstrom
1986	Warner, Langdon S.	Delineation of Marine Habitat: A Study of Spatial Error	Psuty
1986	Neumann, Nancy	A Numerical Model for Traffic Volume and Weekly Cycles of Total Suspended Particulates	Greenberg
1986	Mason, Robert J.	Environmental Conflict and Accommodations: an Evaluation of Regional Land Use Management in the New Jersey Pinelands	Mitchell
1986	Bolen, W.	The Changing Geography of Italian Immigrants in the United States: A Case Study of the Ironbound Colony Newark, New Jersey	Wacker
1987	McCluskey, James	The Role and Magnitude of Eolian Processes in the Barrier Island Environment	Nordstrom
1987	Gares, Paul A.	Eolian Sediment Transport and Dune Formation on Undeveloped and Developed Shorelines	Psuty
1987	Frumkin- Rosengaus, Michelle	Increasing Transit Ridership Through a Targeted Transit Marketing Approach	Nieswand
1988	Schneider, D.	The Effects of Tourism on Emergency Health Services: The New Jersey Shore	Greenberg
1988	Nyamwange, M	American Voluntary Agencies and Famine Mitigation in Africa with Special Attention to Ethiopia	Mitchell
1989	Mason, Antony B.	Risk Perception in Communities on the Industrial Margin	Greenberg
1990	Solecki, William Duncan	Acute Chemical Disasters and Rural United States Hazardscape	Cutter
1990	Lotstein, Enid	Recreational Behavior on a Barrier Island Park	Cutter
1991	Wiley, James	The Relief versus Development Dichotomy: C.I.R.E.F.C.A. and Issues of Refugee Policy in Costa Rica	Regulska
1992	Tiefenbacher, John Paul	Pesticide Drift and the Hazards of Place in San Joaquin County, California	Cutter
1992	Popper, Deborah Epstein	Holding Steady on the Great Plains: An Exploration of the Characteristics of the Region's Population-Stable Counties	Holcomb
1992	Mitchell, Donald M.	Land and Labor: Worker Resistance and the Production of Landscape in Agricultural California before World War II	Smith
1992	Jackson, Nancy L.	The Effect of Wind Speed and Direction on Nearshore Processes and Cross-Shore Sediment Mobility on an Estuarine Beach, Delaware Bay, New Jersey	Nordstrom
1992	Herod, Andrew John	Towards a Labor Geography: The Production of Space and the Politics of Scale in the East Coast Longshore Industry, 1953-1990	Smith
1992	Brodeur, Brian Robert	A GIS-Based Water Resource Assessment Tool.	Hordon

1993	Steinberg, Tanya	Competition, Competitive Strategy and the Capitalist Process: The Restructuring of the Global Telecommunications Industry and the AT&T Monopoly	Lake
1994	Xu, Jianping	Estimating the Spread of Large Fires Using Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing	Lathrop
1994	Vural, Leyla	Unionism as a Way of Life; The Community Orientation of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America	Lake
1994	Johns, Rebecca	International Solidarity: Space and Class in the U.S. Labor Movement	Lake
1994	Hughes, Marilyn G.	Historical Snow Cover in the Great Plains, United States: Implications for its Use as an Indicator of Natural and Anthropogenic Climate Change	Robinson
1995	Millar, Susan	Clast Fabric In Periglacial Mass-Movement Deposits	Nelson
1996	Tuason, Julie	Gendered Landscapes: Women, Men, and the Spatial Transformation of Urban Parks in the United States, 1850-1920	Holcomb
1996	Luque, Sandra	Structure and Dynamics of the New Jersey Pine Barrens Landscape	Lathrop
1996	Harrington, Keith	Climate Change and Urban Drought in Northern New Jersey	Mitchell
1996	Caris, Paul	Declining Suburbs: Disinvestment in the Inner Suburbs of Camden County, New Jersey	Smith
1996	Balm, Roger	Resilience, Resourcefulness, and the Necessity of Scarcity: The Case of Malta (Mediterranean Sea)	Mitchell
1997	Frei, Alan	Towards A Snow Cover Fingerprint for Climate Change Protection	Robinson
1998	Gilmore, Ruth Wilson	From Military Keynesianism to Post Keynesian Militarism Finance Capital, Land, Labor, and Opposition in the Rising California Prison State	Smith
1998	Emery, Marla	Invisible Livelihoods: Non-Timber Forests Products in Michigan's Upper Peninsula	Mitchell
1998	Rothenberg, Tamar Yosefa	"National Geographic"'s world: Politics of popular geography, 1888-1945	Smith
1999	Zoleta-Nantes, Doracie	Differential Vulnerability to Flooding in Metro Manila: Perspectives of Street Children, the Urban Poor and Residents of Wealthy Neighborhood	Mitchell
1999	Oza, Rupal	Contentious Bodies: Globalization, Sexuality and Politics of Culture in India	Holcomb
1999	Hunter, Richard	Patterns of Mill Siting and Materials Processing: A Historical Geography of Water-powered Industry in Rural Central New Jersey	Wacker
1999	Craghan, Michael	An investigation of sediment delivery and accumulation on a developed estuarine shore: Manasquan, New Jersey	Psuty
1999	Bellows, Anne	The Praxis and Production of Food Security: Urban Agriculture in Silesia, Poland	Regulska
2000	Vandemark, Lisa	Understanding Opposition to Dune Restoration: Attitudes and Perceptions of Beaches and Dunes as Natural Coastal Landforms	Nordstrom
2000	Nichols, Karen	Development Crisis Revisited: Cycles of Resource Regulation, Disenfranchisement, and Resistance in Sri Lanka	Schroeder
2000	Maantay, Juliana	Industrial Zoning Changes and Environmental Justice in New York City: An Historical Geographical and Cultural Analysis	Lake

2000	Kilian, James Ted	Public, Private, Power and Space: The Production of Space in Prague	Regulska
2000	Kendra, James M.	Looking Out the Window: Risk Work and Technological Change in U.S. Merchant Shipping	Mitchell
2000	Hackworth, Jason	Third Wave Gentrification	Smith
2000	Engle-DiMauro, Salvatore	Soil Use, Soil Science, and Gender Relations	Regulska
2000	DeFilippis, James	Alternatives to 'Corrective Capitalism': Collective Ownership and the Possibility of Local Autonomy in Community Development	Lake
2001	DePlaen, Renaud	Contracting Malaria in the Paddies: A Farming Systems Approach to Malaria in Northern Cote d'Ivoire	Schroeder
2002	Patterson, Melina	Community Schools in Community Development Democracy, Education and Social Change	Robinson
2002	Ishiyama, Noriko	Environmental Justice and American Indian Sovereignty: Political, Economic, and Ethnic Struggles Regarding the Storage of Radioactive Waste	Lake
2002	Hildebrant, Barbara	The Transformation of the Dairy Industry in the Metropolitan New York Milkshed: Sussex County, New Jersey A Study in Historical Geography 1850-1870	Wacker
2002	Hasse, John	Geospatial Indices of Urban Sprawl in New Jersey	Lathrop
2003	Sangbum, Lee	Remotely Sensed Indicators of Urban Land Use intensity: Comparison of Sub-pixel Analysis Techniques	Lathrop
2003	Liu, Laura	Placing Identity: Chinese Immigrant Workers and the Politics of Community Organizing in New York City	Lake
2003	Dobosowicz. John	An Assessment of Spatial Variability Y in Water level Observations and Susceptibility to Inundation from Coastal Storms in a Developed Estuary, Raritan Bay, NJ	Nordstrom
2004	Kasbarian, John A.	We are our mountains: Geographies of Nationalism in the Armenian self-determination movement, Nagorno-Karabakh	Smith
2004	Poulsen, Erika	Spatial Analysis of Robbery: Looking at Urban Dimensions in Mid-Sized Cities	Wiggins
2004	Conway, Tenley	Ecological Impact of Future Land Use in Southeastern New Jersey	Lathrop
2004	Cieri, Marie	Irresolvable Geographies	Smith
2005	Wee, Hong-Ling	No Neighborhood Is An Island: Public Participation as Dialogue in Community Redevelopment	Greenberg
2005	Silva, Julie	Neoliberalization and Inequality: Examining Regional Patterns, Household Dynamics, and Lived Experiences in Mozambique	Leichenko
2005	Pendras, Jerome Mark	Laws of Motion: Urban Politics and the Production of Capital Mobility in the United States	Lake
2005	Mitteager, Wendy	Understanding the Relationship Between Landscape Features on Municipally-Managed Lots and Adjacent Residential Lots on an Urban Shoreline: NJ	Nordstrom
2005	Kim, Seongin	Rethinking Environmental Justice: Distribution of Hazardous Air Pollutants in Urban and Suburban areas in New Jersey	Wiggins
2005	Craig, Verdie A.	Growing the Golden Leaf: Tobacco Grower Livelihoods And Change	Leichenko
2005	Boyd, Paul	Settlers along the Shores: Lenape Spatial Patterns in Coastal Monmouth County 1600-1750	Wacker
2006	Raberg, Lena	NGOs and environmental intervention: Geographies of sustainable forestry by Ecuadorian NGOs	Rudel

2006	Falvo, Daniel	A Study in Signaling Biogeography on Rice Blast Control and Polymixture Planting in the Philippines	Nieswand
2006	Standish, Alex	Geographic Education, Globalization, and Changing Concepts of Citizenship in American Schools: 1950-2005	Holcomb
2006	Diamond, Adam	Transformation and Reproduction: Constructing the Organic Milk Commodity Chain in the Northeast United States	Rudel
2007	Fair, Linda	Impact of The Spatial Dispersal Policy on Refugees in Denmark	Holcomb
2007	Choi, Gwanhyong	Climatology and variability of Northern Hemisphere seasons	Robinson
2008	Baptista, Sandra	Forest recovery and just sustainability in the Florianopolis city-region	Rudel
2008	Villegas, Claudia	Producing a 'space of dignity'. Knitting together space and dignity in the EZLN rebellion in Mexico	Smith
2008	Hanes, Samuel	The high modernist moment: Oysters, knowledge production, and conservation in the Progressive era, 1878--1917	McCay
2008	Gower, Cheryl	Globalization and the transformation of citizenship	Lake
2009	Neimark, Benjamin	Industrial heartlands of nature: The political economy of biological prospecting in Madagascar	Schroeder
2009	Leckner, Mariana	From standardized templates to context-appropriate plans: Barriers to the adoption of locally sustainable coastal evacuation programs	Mitchell
2009	Kelly, Jessica	Reassessing forest transition theory: Gender, land tenure insecurity and forest cover change in rural El Salvador	Rudel
2010	Wilson, Bradley	Between market and movement: The Fair Trade coffee 'buycott' in the United States and Nicaragua	Schroeder
2010	Guidry, Marilyn	A spatial analysis of healthy food availability in urban neighborhoods	Wiggins
2010	Grafals-soto, Rosana	Understanding the effects of sand fence usage and the resulting landscape, landforms and vegetation patterns: A New Jersey example	Nordstrom
2010	Fernando, Dinali	Predicting and monitoring drought in the humid tropics: A case study on Sri Lanka	Robinson
2010	Davi, Nicole	Reconstructed drought variability across Mongolia based on tree-ring records	Robinson
2010	Chatterjee, Monaslisa	Resilient Flood Loss Response Systems for Vulnerable Populations in Mumbai: A Neglected Alternative	Mitchell
2010	Barron, Elizabeth	Situated knowledge and fungal conservation: Morel mushroom management in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States	Schroeder
2011	Rudra, Purba	Impacts of medical and wellness tourism centers on the communities around them: Case studies in Delhi and Kerala	Holcomb
2011	McGlynn, Charles	An island environment: Saltwater intrusion, groundwater management and water privatization in Cebu	Hordon
2011	Jeffers, James	Confronting climate: Linking knowledge, values and decision-making to vulnerability and adaptation in Ireland's coastal cities	Mitchell
2012	Gabriel, Nathaniel	The work that parks do: Urban environmental management and its alternatives	St. Martin
2012	Myers, James	Exploring interactions between landscape change and land preservation	Tulloch
2012	Thomas, Adelle	An integrated view: Multiple stressors and small tourism enterprises in the Bahamas	Leichenko

2012	Ledermann, Samuel	Organic revolution: Cotton and its impact on poverty, inequality and sustainability in Tanzania	Leichenko
2012	Graziosi, Giovani	Urban Geospatial Digital Neighborhood Areas: Urban Geodna	Wiggins
2012	Burnett, Kari	Integration of refugees in the Czech Republic	Regulska
2013	Nisa, Richard	Between capture and the camp: Apprehending prisoners in America's wars 1949--2011	Lake
2013	Capoccia, Stella	The Impact of Animal Rights on Wildlife Conservation and Management in Kenya	Hughes and Schroeder
2013	Campbell, Lindsay	City of forests, city of farms	Lake
2013	Applegate, Toby	Becoming Erased: State Power and Human Rights in Slovenia	Regulska
2013	Ramsamy, Kavitha	South Asians and the problem of the color line: Migration, race, and identity in South Africa and the United States	Holcomb
2014	Steinberg, Adam	Preserving, planning, and promoting the Lower East Side	Lake
2014	Pangalozzi, Laura	Social Mix in US Suburbs: Organized and Informal Interventions in Response to Black Settlement	Lake
2014	Barnes, Mark	The management and adaptation of a legacy transit system for weather extremes in the Philadelphia metropolitan region	Leichenko
2014	Zager, Irene	Analyzing the relationship between forest fragmentation and post-hurricane damage and recovery: The case of hurricane Dean in the Calakmul-Sian Ka'an biological corridor, Yucatán, Mexico	Schneider, L.
2014	Andrews, Marguerite, L.	Contested conservation of the snowmobile commons: Private land, public rights, and rural livelihoods in Maine's social wilderness	Schroeder and Hughes
2014	Setyowati, Abidah Billah	Governing forest carbon: The political ecology of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in Aceh, Indonesia	Schroeder
2014	Tung. Irene	Financializing urban governance: Cities, capital markets and property tax liens	Newman
2015	Drake, Luke P.	The Dynamics of an Expanding Community Economy: Community Garden Networks and Clusters in New Jersey	St. Martin
2015	Greenwood, Deborah L.	Understanding Agricultural Transformation: The Urbanization and Feminization of Agriculture in the United States	Rudel

2015	Vancura, Peter A.	Making Sense of Energy Transitions Locally: A Study of the Shifting Shale Gas Landscape in Northeastern Pennsylvania	Leichenko
2015	Thomas, Kimberley A.	The River-Border Complex: Governing Flows in South Asia	Birkenholtz and McCay
2015	Sarmiento, Eric Ryan	The Local Food Movement and Urban Redevelopment in Oklahoma City: Territory, Power and Possibility	St. Martin
2015	Scott, Deborah A.	Co-Producing Soft Law and Uncertain Knowledge: Biofuels and Synthetic Biology at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity	Schroeder
2015	Siebert, Asher B.	Assessing the Viability of Index Insurance as an Adaptation Tool in a Changing Climate Context: Case Study in the West African Sahel	Robinson
2015	Mioduszewski, John R.	Attribution of Snow Melt Onset and Linkages Across the Northern Hemisphere Cryosphere	Robinson
2016	Barone, Daniel A.	Determining Human Dominance Thresholds for Barrier Islands Along the New Jersey Coast	Nordstrom
2016	Venkatasubrama nian, Kalpana	Examining the Politics of Climate Change: Narratives, Actions and Adaptations in Guajarat, India	Birkenholtz
2017	Sharpe, Charlene L.	Food System, Climate Change and Natural Disasters in a Small Island Developing State	Mitchell
2017	Martinez Kruger, Raysa	Garbage Governmentalities and Environmental Justice in New Jersey	Lake
2017	Karnad, Divya	Locating Effective Commons and Community in Maharashtra State's Fisheries, India	St. Martin
2017	Gerlofs. Ben A.	A Right to Leviathan: Grassroots Politics in the City of Palaces	Lake and Ghertner
2017	Moustafa, Samiah E.	Assessing Greenland Ice Sheet Meltwater Losses at the Pixel and Drainage Basin Scale	Rennermalm
2017	Duffy-Tumasz, Amelia L.	Gendered Seascapes in Senegal	Schroeder
2018	Ansharyani, Ida	Barriers to Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Livelihoods	McElwee
2018	Woodhouse, Kathleen D.	Contesting Identities Within Cultural Insecurity: The Case of Muslim Women in Contemporary France	Ramsamy
2018	Whytlaw, Jennifer L.	Great Expectations: Environmental Hazard Incident Prevention at New Jersey Facilities that Serve Seniors	Greenberg
2018	Schaeffing, Alison H.	From Girls to the Poor: Understanding Changes in a Conditional Cash Transfer Education Stipend Project in Bangladesh	Ghertner
2018	Paul, Diya	Forests, Wildlife & People on the Margins: Permeable Landscapes in the Eastern Ghats, India	Hausermann and Schneider, L.
2018	Fenn, Katherine H.	Protected Area Networks in an Urbanizing Landscape: Spatial Characteristics and Land Acquisition Strategies	Schneider. L.
2018	Brady. Michael B.	Mapping Coastal Exposure to Climate Risks in Alaska’s North Slope	Leichenko
2019	Narayan, Priti	Terrains of Negotiation: Local Politics, Bureaucracy, and Urban Residents in Contemporary Chennai	Ghertner
2019	Eisenhauer, David	Up in the Air: Informing and Imagining Climate Adaptation Along the New Jersey Shore	Leichenko
2019	Otruba, Ariel	The Violent Geography of Borderization	Schroeder
2020	Teale, Natalie	Investigating the relationship between atmospheric moisture transport and precipitation in the eastern United States	Robinson

2020	Hernandez Ospina, Monica Patricia	Afro Colombian communities, conflict, and collective land titling	Rudel
2021	Mahecha Groot, Ana Maria	Sowing the seeds of transformation in the Colombian Andes: from huerta (home garden) to heart	Leichenko
2021	Walters, Jonah	The Popular Economy and Its Protagonists: Community, Cooperation, and Development in Nicaragua	St. Martin
2021	Isaacs, Jenny Rebecca	The Bander's Grip: A Techno-Political Ecology of Western Atlantic Shorebird Conservation	Schroeder
2021	Banerji, Sangeeta	Fixing Mumbai: Broker-Life, Expertise, and Technology in the Urban Bureaucracy	Ghertner
2022	Rader, Alana Marie	Forests of the Future: Socio-Ecological Dynamics of Tropical Forest Regeneration in the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, Mexico	Schneider
2023	Mullikin, Justin Dodd	"Can the Machines Dance?": Ambivalence and Agrarian Change in Eastern Rwanda	Hauserman and Rhiney
2023	Nguyen, Khai Hoan	Urban Adaptation and Resilience Planning for a Changing Climate: A Study of New York City	Leichenko
2023	Akbari, Samantha Bowden	“Symbols and Systems!”: Exploring the politics of Urban Fallism in the U.S. South	Ghertner and Lake
2023	Thach, Hoang Mai	Rewilding Vietnam: Conservation value and the production of Nature(s) in the Anthropocene	McElwee
2023	Muthyala, Rohi	Understanding the processes influencing supraglacial stream discharge on the Greenland ice sheet	Rennemalm
2023	Adomako, Janet Afua Abrafi	Extractive landscapes: Complex ontologies, political ecology and gendered health geographies of Ghana’s gold mining industry	Hausermann and McElwee
2024	McFann, Hudson Allen	Khao I Dang: Historical geographies of the UN Refugee Agency	Ghertner

APPENDIX 19

Doctoral Dissertations: Characteristics and Changing Emphases

Dissertations offer a window into the kinds of problems that Rutgers geographers have studied, the places those studies investigated, and the analytic approaches that guided them. The documents are also of varying lengths and employ different degrees of quantification and information representation that reflect contrasting methodologies favored in different disciplinary subfields. For example, the length of most dissertations ranges between 200 and 400 pages. Generally, physical geography dissertations contain more quantification but are shorter than human-centered ones. The longest dissertation, at 1,269 pages, was written in 1999 by Richard Hunter, a cultural-historical scholar. Other lengthy dissertations include: Paul Boyd’s cultural-historical analysis of Lenape spatial patterns - 877 pages (2005); Christine Drake’s political geography study of national integration in Indonesia - 778 pages (1977); Juliana Maantay’s historical analysis of zoning changes in New York city - 624 pages (2000); and Anne Bellows’ socio-political geography investigation of urban agriculture in Poland - 622 pages (1999). The shortest dissertation (109 pages) was written in 2016 by Daniel Barone, a student of coastal geomorphic processes.

Earlier dissertations investigated sites in the United States, mostly in New Jersey. More recently (post-2000) they have disproportionately focused on locations outside the United States, especially in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Some kinds of dissertation remain focused within the state; these include geomorphological studies (e.g. coastal sediment dynamics) and remote sensing/GIS studies. Dissertations that examined aspects of cultural historical geography also were strongly centered in locations within New Jersey or nearby. However, since Professor Peter Wacker’s retirement in 2003 these kinds of studies have largely ceased. The accompanying table provides further details. (Table 1)

Table 1

DECADE	N	NJ	%	REST OF USA N %		OUTSIDE USA N %		NO SPECIFIC LOCATION N %		TOTALS N %
1970s	10	48		4	19	4	19	3	14	21	100
1980s	11	50		8	36	2	9	1	5	22	100
1990s	9	31		13	45	5	17	2	7	29	100
2000s	12	30		11	28	12	30	5	13	40	101
2010s	10	19		13	24	29	54	2	4	54	101
2020s*	0	0		4	29	11	71	0	0	15	100
1970-2024	52	29		53	29	62	34	13	7	181	99

*2020-March 2024

The balance has markedly shifted among dissertations that address: biophysical processes (i.e. physical geography); analytic techniques (e.g. quantitative/GIS); and other (social/economic/political) issues (i.e. human geography). There has been a progressive decline in the first two categories and a marked increase in doctoral research on human geography topics. (Table 2)

Table 2

DECADE	PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY N %		TECHNIQUES N %		HUMAN GEOGRAPHY N %
1970s	5	24	4	19	12	57
1980s	6	27	2	9	14	64
1990s	5	17	3	10	21	72
2000s	5	13	6	15	29	73
2010s	9	17	1	2	45	81
2020s*	2	14	0	0	12	86
1970-2024	32	18	16	9	133	73

*2020-March 2024

The topics and approaches of dissertations have varied. In succeeding paragraphs these matters are addressed on a decade-by-decade basis.

Dissertations of the 1970s

Twenty-one doctoral dissertations were completed during the 1970s. Their authors were overwhelming American born, white males³⁵⁵. These alumni are now at or near retirement age and some have passed away.³⁵⁶

The single largest group of these “first generation” dissertations were firmly in the “spatial” tradition of quantitative geography popularized by urban and transportation geographers in the 1960s.³⁵⁷ The use of computers and statistics to analyze “hard” quantitative data, as part of spatially sensitive methodologies like location analysis and social area analysis, was characteristic. Concepts such as point patterns, trend surfaces, factor scores and cellular nets were introduced, and graphic mathematical modeling came to the fore, especially in relation to the spatial structure of urban areas. Eleven dissertations (Muller, Robinson, Margulis, Boots, West, Singh, Caprio, Obudho, Akintuyi, Lenz, Drake) were written under the direction of Arthur

³⁵⁵ Nineteen (19) of the 20 were males, 17 were White and 15 were American born.

³⁵⁶ Known deceased include: Welford Robinson, Neils West, James Allen, Don Dunlap, Tom Lewis.

³⁵⁷ As summarized by one senior analyst, “The emergence of geography as an abstract, theoretical science appears to have been the most overriding development in geographic research during the 1960s.” This included especially the building of models that focused on spatial aspects of social processes and employed computers and remotely sensed data. See: Clyde F. Kohn. 1970. “The 1960s: A decade of progress in geographical research and instruction,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 60 (2): 211-219.

Getis, George Carey or John Brush, all leading exponents of the spatial approach³⁵⁸. They focused mainly on urban areas in the United States (e.g., Newark, Baltimore), and sometimes on urban structure and regional development patterns in distant countries (e.g., India, Kenya).

Others were mostly theoretical and abstract, lacking any specific locational focus.

The second most common set of dissertations exemplified the “earth studies” tradition of Geography. Five focused on hydrology and coastal dynamics: (Fitzpatrick, Dunlap, Robertson, Allen, Nordstrom) and were conducted under the direction of faculty like Norbert Psuty and William Whipple who were closely affiliated with interdisciplinary units of the University (e.g. Center for Coastal and Environmental Studies; Water Resources Research Institute).

The remaining five dissertations had other, varied, foci. Three studies, conducted by Scipione, Page and Foresta, extended research on society-environment interactions by adding perceptual and behavioral science methodologies to empirical field observations and statistical data. Finally, two dissertations were cultural-historical studies of sites in the Hudson and Connecticut river valleys (O’Brien, Lewis). Directed by Peter Wacker, these were also society-environment oriented research that harked back to the work of the department’s founder Andy Clark.

In summary, taken together, this cohort of Rutgers graduate students were trained in one or another of the four longstanding geographical research traditions identified by Pattison (1964)³⁵⁹. Perhaps reflecting insurgent notions of “scientific geography” that had captured attention at the time, research in the spatial tradition was most prevalent, followed by roughly equal efforts devoted to the Man-Land and Earth Sciences traditions and a few studies centered in the discipline’s (formerly dominant) Area Studies tradition.

Dissertations of the 1980s

Twenty-two (22) dissertations were produced during this decade. As in the 1970s the authors were predominantly white American males, but – in a new departure - almost one third were written by women (Maloney, Hinshalwood, McVicker, Neumann, Frumkin-Rosengaus, Schneider, Nyamwange). Two were also authored by students born outside the United States (Sabrin, Nywamwange).

Topics broadly continued the mix of 1970s themes but with a definite shift towards problems stemming from the use and misuse of the human environment. Perhaps this was a lagging consequence of the general upsurge of interest by the North American public in human-generated stresses on the physical world that marked the preceding decade. Topics that exemplify the spatial tradition still topped the list (8) with areal patterns of infrastructure provision and use being particularly prominent (e.g., road traffic, electricity networks, transportation ridership, urban revitalization projects) (Sabrin, Maloney, McVicker, Wilson,

³⁵⁸ Boots was later to be described as “the leading quantitative geographer in Canada,” < https://regionalscience.org/index.php/publications/newsletter/item/2241-arthur-getis.html>

³⁵⁹ W. D. Pattison. 1964. “The four traditions of geography,” Journal of Geography 63(5): 211-216. See also < http://employees.oneonta.edu/allenth/IntroductoryGeographyTracyAllen/THE%20FOUR%20TRADITIONS%20OF

%20GEOGRAPHY.pdf>

Neumann, Frumkin-Rosengaus, A. Mason). Some of these spatial analytic studies were also influenced by concerns about pollution and land use conflicts. However, Society-Environment interactions were the explicit focus of at least six other dissertations (Ziegenfus, Waterstone, Barnes, R. Mason, Schneider, Nyamwange). To a significant extent even the half-dozen dissertations that focused on Earth Science processes (Reynolds, Nakashima, Phillips, Warner, McCluskey, Gares), also were inflected with concerns about management problems that stemmed from human use and misuse of coastal landforms. The remaining two dissertations (Hinshalwood, Bolen) continued work on cultural-historical topics associated with areas of historical settlement in New Jersey and nearby.

Dissertations of the 1990s

Twenty-nine (29) dissertations were completed during this decade. Many still fit comfortably within one or another of Pattison’s “four traditions”. For example, between 1990 and 1999, 9 dissertations dealt with human-environment interactions in the context of natural resources and environmental constraints (Solecki, Lotstein, Tiefenbacher, Popper, Harrington, Balm, Emery, Zoleta-Nantes, Bellows). A further 8 dissertations addressed Earth Science topics (Jackson, Brodeur, Xu, Hughes, Miller, Luque, Frei, Craghan) with coastal and hydrological processes again prominent, as well as biophysical studies of snow, periglacial deposits, wildfire, and forests. However, there were only two studies in the spatial tradition (Herod, Caris) and just a single cultural-historical themed dissertation (Hunter).

Strikingly, new topics and approaches began to appear during the 1990s that are difficult to accommodate in the Pattison framework. The remaining ten dissertations employed various kinds of “critical” inquiry³⁶⁰ applied to societal problems like incarcerations and refugees, as well as political-economic inequities fostered by uneven development and globalization, sexual discrimination, disenfranchisement, media representations, and labor politics. (Wiley, Mitchell, Herod, Steinberg, Vural, Johns, Tuason, Gilmore, Rothenberg, Oza) Therein, theories that emphasized perspectives of class, gender, or race and ethnicity were prominent. These works often reflected the research orientations of supervising faculty members like Neil Smith, Robert Lake and Briavel Holcomb.

Dissertations of the 2000s

This is a large and varied set comprising 40 dissertations. Human-environment interaction themes were again well represented (15). Some of these adopted a human ecology approach that typically employed behavioral science methods to study individual and group actions and others used a political ecology approach that emphasized the forcing role of sociopolitical structures. Study topics included: coastal evacuation, attitudes to dune restoration, risk reduction technology, malaria, biological prospecting, forest recovery, sustainable forestry, cycles of development and resistance, public participation, neoliberal resource policies, soil science “ideology”, land tenure, food production chains, tobacco farming, and the historical

³⁶⁰ Critical geography emphasizes the importance of power and domination in human affairs and often seeks radical transformation of existing relations through the activism of people who subscribe to postmodern, feminist, Marxist, and other insurgent interpretations of society.

oyster industry. Similar in number (14) were a group of spatially informed critical geography investigations of topics like citizenship, dignity, community organizing, gentrification, revolutionary environmentalism, the production of socialist space, constructions of the “local”, refugee resettlement, nationalism, justice, identity, and strategies of geographical education.

Empirical research on physical geography and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) comprised a third group of studies (9). Coastal processes were again popular subjects in this group, as well as methods of refining GIS measurement tools and their applications both for natural processes and urban land uses. Finally, two (2) dissertations fell within the remit of historical-cultural geography of settlement and folkways.

In summary the first decade of the 21^st century witnessed the continuing ascendance of critical geography approaches. These depended less on systematic gathering of “objective” field data and more on various agent centered interpretive methods. But older approaches, based on empirical investigation of physical processes that are increasingly affected by human forcing, and on collection of information about perceptions, attitudes and actions associated with individual actors, still commanded a major share of student dissertations.

Dissertations of the 2010s

During the 2010s fifty-five (55) dissertations were completed, more than in any previous decade. For the first time more than half (30) focused on regions outside North America. The Pattison and AAG classification criteria mentioned above can be employed to illustrate preferred topics and characteristics. However, these criteria should not be regarded as hard and fast; overlaps, borrowing and blending of different philosophical and methodological perspectives were increasingly common during this decade.

Approximately 27 dissertations focused on human-environment interactions. Among these, human engagement with environmental risks was often featured (e.g. hazards of warming in the Arctic, responses to flooding in poor Mumbai neighborhoods, resilience to climate shocks in Jamaican smallholdings, weather disruptions in Philadelphia’s urban transit system, index insurance against Sahelian drought, collective decision making about urban floods in Ireland, problems of American senior citizens during emergencies, the imagining of future climates, snowmobile conflicts, deforestation in Indonesia). The dynamics of food systems were also investigated (mid-Atlantic state mushroom gathering, Nicaraguan coffee production, healthy food availability in Philadelphia). Additional studies focused on initiatives in urban forestry, community gardens, shale gas cracking, biofuels, wildlife management, protected area networks, biological prospecting, as well as on gender dimensions of fishing and agriculture.

Environmental issues were also addressed in dissertations that employed a critical lens to subjects like urban parks, animal rights, tourism dependent island economies, local food movements and municipal garbage disposal.

A further 11 dissertations involved physical geography and/or GIS research. Topics of natural science driven investigations included: hemispheric snowmelt onset dates, icesheet runoff depletion in Greenland, reconstruction of the drought record in Mongolia and prediction of droughts in Sri Lanka, post-storm forest recovery in Mexico, saltwater intrusions in the Philippines, and – in New Jersey - sand dune fencing, and thresholds of change in coastal systems. In addition, the problems and utility of GIS systems and data analysis tools were

explored in relation to landscape change in New Jersey and elsewhere. Beyond the dissertations that explicitly focused on GIS and spatial data, many other studies integrated GIS techniques and methods into their investigations.

Critical political economic perspectives were applied to the analysis of non-environmental topics in seven (7) studies: a novel program for alleviating poverty in Bangladesh, Muslim women’s identities in France, race and identity in South Africa, the definition of “borders” in contested regions of (European) Georgia and in river frontiers of Asia, New York City’s Tenement Museum, and public rights to the city. Finally, sociopolitical upheavals in Central and Eastern Europe attracted the attention of students who studied problems of citizenship and refugees as byproducts of globalization and geopolitics.

The remaining 10 studies were also human focused topics that foregrounded social theory and critical geography perspectives.

Among human centered dissertations mixed methodologies were increasingly prevalent during the 2010s. Traditional social science tools like questionnaires, interviews, surveys, official data sets and systematic sampling procedures were joined – and sometimes superseded – by semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation, participatory mapping, text and discourse analysis, diaries, oral histories and other ethnographic study devices that bespoke increased attention to the roles of non-experts and laypersons in the assessment and resolution of issues.

A majority of the 2010s dissertations focused on foreign areas (28), particularly in developing countries of South and South-East Asia (13). For example, five studies addressed environmental health concerns in India. Issues that disproportionately affect non-urban communities were also prominent. Climate change risks claimed a large slice of attention either via investigations of climate forced physical processes or human responses to such changes; fully one-third of dissertations (18) focused on climate change themes.

Dissertations of the 2020s

As of March 10, 2024, 14 dissertations have been completed since the beginning of 2020.

While continuing trends that were already evident during the previous decade, contrasts with earlier dissertations are often sharp.

Among the more striking features is that 70% have been written by women and most investigators have been born overseas. Almost eighty percent (78.2%) have also been conducted on field study sites outside the United States. Most of these places are in economically developing parts of countries like Colombia (2), Ghana, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Thailand, and Vietnam. Three dissertations focus on USA locations with one other on Greenland. Rural places predominate; only two dissertations focus on large cities (Mumbai, New York).

Dissertations have addressed a wide variety of topics, ranging from tensions between tourism and the coal industry in Kentucky, through refugee issues in Thailand, to glacial runoff on the Greenland ice sheet. Many studies have employed explicitly “critical”, political economy or postmodern approaches to the human dimensions of environmental problems. Key words

often reflect these orientations through terms like indigenous geographies, contradictions of modernity, marginalization, positionality, justice, and alternative food networks. The perspectives of local grass roots populations are frequently interrogated. A couple of dissertations address non-human biophysical processes that shape landscapes and atmospheric dynamics, and one examines climate adaptive planning efforts in New York City.

APPENDIX 20

Career positions held by Rutgers Geography Ph.D.s as of January 2023 (Chronological order of year Ph.D. received, in parentheses; deceased in italics)

1970-1979

Muller, Peter (1971) Emeritus Professor of Geography and Regional Studies, U. of Miami.

Robinson, Welford (1972) Deceased 1994. Former Commander, U.S. Navy.

Margulis, Harry (1972) Deceased 2023. Associate Professor of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State U., Robertson, David K. (1973) Deceased 2015. Former Professor of Geography, Montclair State University Boots, Barry (1972) Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfred Laurier U.

West, Neils (1973) Deceased 2014. Former Professor, Dept. of Marine Affairs, U. of Rhode Island. Singh, Harbans (1973) Emeritus Professor, Earth and Environmental Studies, Montclair State U. Scipione, Paul (1973) Emeritus Professor of Business, State U. of New York–Geneseo.

Caprio, Ralph (1973) University Professor, Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy, Rutgers U.

Allen, James (1973) Deceased 2002. Former Coastal Geomorphologist, U.S. Geological Survey.

Obudho, Robert (1974) Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, U. of Nairobi. Akintuyi, A. E. (1974) Former Commissioner of Agriculture, Ondo State, Nigeria. O’Brien, Ray (1975) Retired professor, formerly taught at City College of New York. Nordstrom, Karl (1975) Emeritus Professor of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers U.

Fitzpatrick, Eugene (1975) Deceased (Australia) 2012. Former scientific researcher CSIRO, Australia Dunlap, Don (1976) Deceased 2000. Former New Jersey State Climatologist, Rutgers U.

Page, Cedric (Rick) (1977) Emeritus Professor of Geography, U. of New Mexico – Los Alamos Lenz, Ralph (1977) Emeritus Professor of Geography, Wittenberg U.

Drake, Christine (1977) Emeritus Professor, Old Dominion U.

Lewis, Tom (1978) Deceased 2017. Former Professor of Geography, U. of Connecticut.

Foresta, Ron (1979) Emeritus Professor of Geography, U. of Tennessee.

1980-1989

Ziegenfus, Robert C. (1980) Emeritus Professor of Geography, Kutztown University. Sabrin, Murray (1980) Emeritus Professor of Finance, Ramapo College.

Maloney, Sharon (1981) Deceased 2021. Former lawyer in NJ.

Hinshalwood, Sophia (1981) Former faculty member, Dept. of Geography, Montclair State U. Weil, Richard H. (1982) Geography Instructor, Southern New Hampshire U.

Reynolds, William J. (1982) Deceased 2019. Former Colonel, U.S. Army. Waterstone, Marvin (1983) Emeritus Professor of Geography, U. of Arizona. Nakashima, Lindsay (1983) Geomorphologist and GIS Analyst, Audubon Louisiana. McVicker, Catherine (1984) Deceased 2018.

Barnes, Kent B. (1984) Professor of Geography, Towson U.

Wilson, David (1985) Professor, Dept. of Geography & Geographic Information Sciences, U. Illinois. Philipps, Jonathan (1985) Emeritus Professor of Earth Surface Systems, University of Kentucky.

Warner, Langdon S. (1986) Research Consultant, Columbia, SC.

Neumann, Nancy (1986) President, Sandstone Environmental Associates, Metuchen, NJ

Mason, Robert J. (Rob) (1986) Deceased 2017. Former Assoc. Prof., Geography & Urban Studies, Temple U.

Bolen, W. (1986) Former Head of Real Property, NJ Dept. of the Treasury. McCluskey, James (1987) Emeritus Professor of Geography, U. Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Gares, Paul (1987) Retired faculty, Dept. of Geography, Planning & Environment, East Carolina U. Frumkin-Rosengaus, M (1987) Manager, Oshman Family Jewish Community Center, Palo Alto, CA. Schneider, D. (1988) Emeritus Professor, Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers U. Nyamwange, M. (1988) Professor of Geography and Urban Studies, William Paterson U.

Mason, Anthony B. (1988) Unknown.

1990-1999

Solecki, William (Bill) (1990) Professor, Department of Geography, City U. of New York–Hunter College Lotstein, Enid. L. (1990) Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, Bronx Community College, NY Wiley, James (1991) Emeritus Professor of Global Studies and Geography, Hofstra U., NY Tiefenbacher, John P. (1992) Professor, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Studies, Texas State U. Popper, Deborah E. (1992) Retired, Professor of Geography, CUNY-Staten Island, NY

Mitchell, Donald M. (1992) Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Syracuse U. & Prof. Uppsala University. Jackson, Nancy L. (1992) Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Science, NJIT

Herod, Andrew J. (1992) Distinguished Research Professor, Dept. of Geography, U. of Georgia

Brodeur, Brian R. (1992) Director, Geographic Information Systems, State of Massachusetts (as of 2018) Steinberg, Tanya (1993) High school teacher, Montreal, Canada. (2019 MA in history, Concordia U.) Xu, Jianping (1994) Unknown.

Vural, Leyla (1994) Founder, LV Communications: Life Stories that make a difference, New York . Johns, Rebecca (1994) Assoc. Prof. of Geography, U. of South Florida.

Hughes, Marilyn G. (1994) Coop extension service RU? (DR)

Millar, Susan (1995) Emeritus Assoc. Prof. Syracuse U. (Com. Director, JUSTNORTH, Uppsala U.) Tuason, Julie (1996) Independent artist and graphic designer, Austin, Texas.

Luque, Sandra (1996) Res. Director/Landscape Ecologist, French Nat. Inst. Ag., Food & Envt., Paris Harrington, Keith (1996) Senior Planner at Planning & Management Consultants, Carbondale, IL (2003) Caris, Paul (1996) Retired NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection GIS Specialist 2017.

Balm, Roger (1996) Independent Scholar, Tonbridge, England.

Frei, Alan (1997) Professor, Dept. of Geog. & Environmental Sci., Hunter College, New York Gilmore, Ruth W. (1998) Director, Center for Place, Culture & Politics, CUNY-Grad. Center, New York Emery, Marla (1998) Research Geographer, U.S. Forest Service, Burlington, VT.

Rothenberg, Tamar Yosefa (1998) Chair, Department of History, Bronx Community College, New York Zoleta-Nantes, Doracie (1999) President, Southern Luzon State University, Philippines.

Oza, Rupal (1999) Assoc. Prof. Dept. of Women and Gender Studies, Hunter College, New York Hunter, Richard (1999) President, Hunter Research, Trenton, NJ

Craghan, Michael (1999) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington D C. Bellows, Anne (1999) Professor of Food Studies, Syracuse U., New York

2000-2009

Vandemark, Lisa (2000) Senior Program Officer, National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC Nichols, Karen (2000) Upper School Humanities teacher, Oakwood Friends School, Poughkeepsie, NY Maantay, Juliana (2000) Professor of Earth, Environmental & Geospatial Sciences, CUNY-Lehman Kilian, James Ted (2000) Group Director, Fjord S.E. Asia (Design & Innovation Consultancy), Singapore Kendra, James A. (2000) Professor and Director, Disaster Research Center, U. of Delaware

Hackworth, Jason (2000) Professor of Geography and Planning, U. of Toronto Engel-DiMauro, Salvatore (2000) Professor of Geography, SUNY-New Paltz.

DeFilippis, James (2000) Professor, Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers U. Stewart, Andrew Y. (2001) Village Administrator, Nyack, New York.

DePlaen, Renaud (2001) CultiAF Programme leader for IDRC, Ottawa, Canada.

Patterson, Melina (2002) Associate Professor of Geography and Chair, U. of Mary Washington, Ishiyama, Noriko (2002) Professor, School of Political Science and Economics, Meiji U., Japan. Hildebrant, Barbara (2002) Senior Director, Educational Testing Service, Stewartsville, NJ

Hasse, John (2002) Professor of Geography and Director Geospatial Research Lab, Rowan U., NJ Sangbum, Lee (2003) Chief Research Fellow, Div. of Land Policy Assessment, Korea Envt. Institute Liu, Laura (2003) Assoc. Professor of Global Studies and Geography, The New School, NY Dobosowicz, John (2003) Deceased 2013. Former Exec. Dir. School of General Studies, Kean U. Kasbarian, John A. (2004) Director of Development, The Tufenkian Foundation. Moonachie, NJ Poulsen, Erika (2004) Director of GIS, Dept. of Mental Health and Mental Hygiene, NYC

Conway, Tenley (2004) Professor, Dept. of Geography, Geomatics & Envt., U. Toronto-Mississauga Cieri, Marie (2004) Freelance Consultant in Geography, Cartography and Art. Cambridge, MA.

Wee, Hong-Ling (2005) Professional ceramic artist, New York and Singapore. Silva, Julie (2005) Assoc. Prof. Dept. of Geographical Sciences, U. Maryland.

Pendras, Jerome Mark (2005) Assoc. Prof. School of Urban Studies, U. of Washington-Tacoma. Mitteager (Lascell), Wendy (2005) Associate Professor of Geography and Sustainability, SUNY-Oneonta Kim, Seongin (2005) President, Geoplant, Seoul, Korea.

Craig, Verdie A. (2005) Assoc. Prof. of Geography, Morhead State U. KY

Boyd, Paul (2005) Deceased 2011. Former Dep. Director, Information Division, UNDP, New York

Standish, Alex (2006) Assoc. Prof. of Geography Education, University College London. Raberg, Lena (2006) Senior Bibliographic Specialist, Princeton University Library.

Falvo, Daniel (2006) Works in the Philippines (2018)

Diamond, Adam (2006) Agricultural Marketing Specialist, Packers & Stockyards, USDA, Wash. DC Fair, Linda (2007) Retired Professor of Geography, U. of Arkansas-Fort Smith

Choi, Gwangyong (2007) Professor of Geography Education, Jeju University, Republic of Korea Baptista, Sandra (2008) Senior Research Associate, CIESIN, Columbia U. NY

Villegas, Claudia (2008) Landscapes of Contestation project, Public Space Research Group, New York Hanes, Samuel (2008) Assoc. Professor of Anthropology, U. of Maine.

Gower, Cheryl (2008) Works for the National AIDS Trust (U.K.)

Neimark, Benjamin (2009) Senior Lecturer, Environment Centre, Lancaster U. UK Leckner, Mariana (2009) Director, Leckner Consulting, PA.

Kelly, Jessica (2009) Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Geography, Millersville U., PA 2010-2019

Wilson, Bradley (2010) Associate Professor, Director Center for Resilient Communities, U. W.Va. Guidry, Marilyn (2010) Assistant Director, Center for Resiliency, Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas Grafals-soto, Rosana (2010) Instructor, U. of Puerto Rico, San Juan, P.R.

Fernando, Dinali (2010) Manager, Texas Water Development Board, Austin.

Davi, Nicole (2010) Professor, Dept. of Environmental Science, William Paterson U. Chatterjee, Monalisa (2010) Lecturer, Environmental Studies Program, U. of Southern California

Barron, Elizabeth (2010) Associate Prof. of Geography & Environmental Studies, U. Wisconsin-Oshkosh Rudra, Purba (2011) Treasurer, Shishur Sevay, Kolkata, India

McGlynn, Charles (2011) Assistant Professor, Geography, Rowan U. Jeffers, James (2011) Senior Lecturer, Bath Spa U. England.

Gabriel, Nathaniel (2012) Assistant Teaching Professor, Dept. of Geography, Rutgers U.

Myers, James (2012) Assistant Professor, American Public University System, Pennington NJ Thomas, Adelle (2012) Senior Director, Climate Adaptation, Natural Resources Defense Council, DC Ledermann, Samuel (2012) Assistant Professor, School of International Affairs, George Washington U. Graziosi, Giovani (2012) Columbia U. GIS User Group, NY

Burnett, Kari (2012) Instructor, Geography and Environmental Studies, Northeastern Illinois U. Nisa, Richard (2013) Associate Dean, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

Capoccia, Stella (2013) Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Montana Technological U. Campbell, Lindsay (2013) Research Social Scientist, Northern Research Station, US Forest Service, NY Applegate, Tony (2013) Lecturer, Dept. of Geosciences, U. Massachusetts

Ramsamy, Kavitha (2013) Assistant Professor, Dept. of Africana Studies, Rutgers University

Steinberg, Adam (2014) Managing Editor, Research Publications, Federal Reserve Bank, Philadelphia Pangalozzi, Laura (2014) Instructor, Geography, SUNY- Binghamton

Barnes, Mark (2014) Assistant Professor of History and Geography, Morgan State U. MD. Zager, Irene (2014) Director of Research, PROVITA, Venezuela

Andrews, Marguerite L. (2014) Unknown

Setyowati, Abidah Billah (2014) Visiting Fellow, Australian National University, Canberra.

Tung, Irene (2014) Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst, National Employment Law Project, NY Drake, Luke P. (2015) Associate Professor of Geography & Envt. Studies., Cal. State – Northridge.

Greenwood, Deborah L. (2015) Assistant Teaching Professor, Dept. of Human Ecology, Rutgers U. Vancura, Peter A. (2015) Program Manager, Science and Resilience Institute, Jamaica Bay, NY Thomas, Kimberley A. (2015) Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geography and Urban Studies, Temple U.

Sarmiento, Eric Ryan (2015) Assistant Prof., Dept. of Geography & Environmental Studies, Texas State U.

Scott, Deborah A. (2015) Freelance Editor, Albuquerque, NM

Siebert, Asher B. (2015) Senior Staff Associate, IRICS, Columbia U. NY

Mioduszewski, John R. (2015) Data Scientist, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, St. Louis, MO Barone, Daniel A. (2016) Assoc. Teaching Professor, Dept. of Marine and Coastal Science, Rutgers U. Venkatasubramanian, Kal. (2016) Assistant Prof., Dept. of Geography, U. of Louisville, KY

Sharpe-Pryce, Charlene L (2017) Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Northern Caribbean U. Jamaica. Martinez Kruger, Raysa (2017) Section Chief, NJ Office of Legislative Services, Trenton.

Karnad, Divya (2017) Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Ashoka U. India. Gerlofs, Ben A. (2017) Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geography, U. of Hong Kong.

Moustafa, Samiah E. (2017) Program Scientist, NASA, Ames Research Center, CA

Duffy-Tumasz, Amelia L (2017) Assistant Professor, Geography and Urban Studies, Temple U. PA Ansharyani, Ida (2018) Faculty of Agriculture, University of Samawa, Sumbawa, Indonesia Woodhouse, Kathleen D (2018) Unknown.

Whytlaw, Jennifer L (2018) Assistant Professor, Dept. of Polit. Science & Geography, Old Dominion U. VA Schaeffing, Alison H (2018) Assistant Professor of Geography, Russell Sage College, NY

Paul, Diya (2018) Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Cottey College, MO. Fenn, Katherine H (2018) Unknown.

Brady, Michael B (2018) Environmental geographer, Nat. Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, VA Eisenhauer, David (2019) Visiting Faculty, Bennington College, VT

Otruba, Ariel (2019) Adjunct Professor, Moravian College, PA

Narayan, Priti (2019) Asst. Prof. of Geography, U. of British Columbia, Canada 2020-2024

Teale, Natalie (2020) Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Geography, Dartmouth College Hernandez-Ospina, Monica (2020) Staff member of the Humboldt Institute, Bogota, Colombia. Mahecha Groot, Ana Maria (2021) Biodiversity and Water Resources Adviser, UNDP, Colombia

Walters, Jonah (2021) Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Society and Genetics, UCLA, California Isaacs, Jenny Rebecca (2021) Unknown

Banerji, Sangeeta (2021) Postdoc. Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown U. Rader, Alana Marie (2022) Asst. Prof., Geography & Environmental Studies, California State U. Northridge Mullikin, Justin Dodd (2023) Visiting Asst. Prof. of Environmental Studies, Lafayette College, Easton, PA Nguyen,Khai Hoan (2023) Unknown

Akbari, Samantha Bowden (2023) Writer, Producer and Manager, Deloitte, New York, NY Thach, Hoang Mai (2023) Anthropologist, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam Muthyala, Rohi (2023) Atmospheric Scientist, Kepler51 Analytics, Chantilly, Virginia Adomako, Janet A, Abrafi (2003) Unknown

McFann, Hudson Allen (2024) Researcher, writer and editor, New York, NY

APPENDIX 21

CHANGES IN FOCAL SUBJECTS, THEORIES AND METHODS

Pre-1990	Post-2010
SUBJECTS	SUBJECTS
Cities Development Revitalization Periodic markets Settlement patterns Water Accounting Groundwater contamination Saltwater intrusion Coastal processes Beaches, dunes, nearshore Environmental/risk perception Material culture	Climate change risks and hazards Food Alternative farming Local food movement Community gardens Fisheries Urban forestry Animal rights Snow Drought Water use Transboundary issues Social and environmental transitions Energy Gentrification Racial Refugees
THEORIES AND CONCEPTS	THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Central Place theory Spatial structure Point patterns Cellular nets Beach cycles Sediment budgets Cultural landscape/area Risk assessment	Risk adaptation in complex systems Sustainability and Resilience Double exposure Discourses about environmental change Imagined futures Prediction Food in/security Situated knowledge Co-production of knowledge Vernacular decision perspectives Gendered landscapes/seascapes State power Subaltern perspectives Social capital Equity and environmental justice Governance Right to the city Land cover/land use dynamics Thresholds/feedbacks in geosystems

Networks of finance and trade

METHODS AND TECHNIQUES

Hypothesis testing Modeling Location analysis

Social Area analysis Quantitative data analysis Factor analysis

Trend surface analysis Statistical procedures Questionnaires Surveys

Interviews

Water balance accounting Natural resource inventories

Geographic Information Systems Exposure mapping

Participatory mapping Qualitative techniques Focus groups Participant observation Household surveys Oral histories Visualizations Contextual analysis Mixed methods

APPENDIX 22

Master’s Degrees Awarded (incomplete list)

Master of Arts and Master of Science degrees were available to students from 1956 onwards. They could be completed either by writing a research-based thesis or taking a comprehensive examination. At least 293 Master’s degrees have been awarded (at least 96 thesis). Known titles of written theses are in parenthesis.

1958	John Earl Rickert “Urbanization in Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey”
1958	Richard C. Hewitt
1959	William Bolen
1959	John Veldof
1960	Michael J. La Place
1960	Maynard Weston Dow
1960	Donald A. Madelung
1961	Daniel Horodysky
1961	Robert F. Ensminger
1961	John McNamara
1961	Robert J. Sell
1961	Carl L. Hansen
1962	Winifred V. Fischer “The Geographical Structure of Lima, Peru”
1962	Hermann P. Hilse
1962	Robert Simko
1963	Bernard P. Geizer
1963	Larry Plosker
1963	David B. Smith
1963	Angelo R. Costa
1964	Morton Farrah
1964	James Allan Perry
1964	Stuart Irwin Brown

1965	Bruce Ernest Marich
1965	Michael L.Thaller
1965	Anthony Brazel
1965	David B. Smith
1966	Kingsley Haynes
	"An Analysis of Inter-Metropolitan Migration: Tests on the Distance and Intervening-Opportunity
	Hypotheses"
1966	Peter Oliver Muller
	“A Critical Analysis of Three Gaming-Simulation Models and their Significance for an Understanding of
	the Field of Urban Geography”
1966	Toivo Lamminen Jr.
1967	John R. Gibson
1967	Werner Helmut Graef
1967	Thomas J. Karwoski
1968	M. Stanley Dart
1968	Carol M. O’Donnell
1968	Michael H. Gordon
1968	Steven Frakt (also M Phil 1972)
1968	Edward M. O’Donnell
1968	Gerhart H. Kellner
1968	Edward W. Roberts
1968	Thomas S. Sobieszczyk
1968	Richard R. Lloyd
1969	Raphael J. Caprio
	“A Geostatistical Analysis of Populations and Housing Distributions: Newark, N.J. 1940-1960”
1969	Barat L. Bhatt
1969	Elena Knox
	“A simulation model of urban residential location based upon the location of workplaces”
1969	Cedric Page “A game theory application for planning decisions”
1969	Jeffrey Milne
	“A heuristic model of path generation”

1969	Richard C. Steffan Jr.
1969	Hermann Paul Hilse
1969	Harbans Singh
1970	Christine Drake
	“Towards a Model of Political Cohesion. Including an Initial Study of the Integration of African States”
1970	James Chalfant
1970	Barry Boots
1970	Laurie A. McGaw
1970	Richard Alan Hanson
1970	Richard Alan Hochman
1970	Paul Prusinski
1970	Mark Shimshak
1971	Gebhard, H. Dieter
1972	Graham G. Merk
1972	Toivo A. Lamminen Jr.
1972	Steven Berk Frakt
	“Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Response to Anti-Water Pollution Orders in New York”
1973	Alemaychu Makonnen,
	“The Economic Factors and the Political Aspects of Land Reform with a Special Emphasis on the case of
	Ethiopia”
1973	Dale Owen Bairstow
	“Spatial Patterns of Demographic Change in New Jersey: Implications for Housing and Education”
1973	Susan Bonsall “Outdoor urban recreation: An empirical study of play behavior in a selected sample of designed
	recreational environments in Manhattan”
1973	Fred Levine
1973	Marvin Edward Lewis
1973	George Murnyak
1973	William Henry Feldman
1973	Paul A. Prusinski
1974	Celeste Ann Tracey
	“Migration, acculturation and the culture of poverty: Puerto Rican migration to the mainland”

1974	Edwards, Francis C.
1975	Dan K. Richardson
	“Cost of environmental protection: Regulating housing in the coastal zone”
1975	Edgar Brannon
1975	Lois Johnson
1976	Carol Arthur
1976	James Peter Simons
1976	Howard Finkelstein
1976	Donald Vern Dunlap
	“The Influence of Precipitation on Biochemical Oxygen Demand on Nine Streams in N.J.”
1976	Theodore Pytlar
	“Characteristics of northern New Jersey lakes: An assessment and ranking of lakes in Bryan Township,
	New Jersey”
1977	Michael Bolan
1977	William S. Petti
1977	William Kellner (1978?)
1977	Ralph D. Lenz
1977	Peter Lee
1978	Steven Rizick
1978	Cynthia Margaret Scott
	“A harmonic analysis of precipitation in the Northeastern United States”
1978	William Staehle
1978	Hedy Goller
1978	Dimitri Levitsky
1978	Daniel J. Prisco
1978	Douglas Joel Sherman
	“Swash zone dynamics at Sandy Hook, New Jersey”
1979	David Wunker
1980	Michelle Elena Frumkin-Rosengaus “The Siting of Sewage Sludge Composting Facilities: An Approach to the Location-Allocation problem”
1980	Anthony Forlini
1981	Aletha Spang

	“Motivational Factors Influencing Recycling Behavior, Monmouth County, New Jersey”
1981	Sharon Purdy Maloney “Periodic Markets: Their Functions and Spatial Patterns in Tamil Nadu, South India”
1981	Robert M. McCarthy “Mandatory recycling as a technique for solid waste management in New Jersey”
1981	Richard Harry Weil (also Ph.D. 1983)
1981	Daniel R. Smith
1981	Patrice G. Sikora
1981	James Brosius
1981	Susan McLaren (Fisher)
1981	Robert F. Dahl (1983?)
1981	John P. Perykasz
1981	Gail Ann Kucma-Kenny (1982?)
1981	Randall Lenhart E. (1982?)
1981	Nancy Nocitra (PARISIO)
1982	Thomas E. Phillips
1982	Steven E. Posten
1982	Morris, David W. Jr.
1983	David Marlinski (1984?)
1983	Jean Ann Hays-Bowman
1983	Dona Schneider (also Ph.D. 1988)
1983	Anthony Mason (also Ph.D. 1989)
1983	Gregory C. Kachagian
1983	Ralph Urrico
1984	Donna L. Day
1984	Kathy M. Buono
1984	Alexander F. Schwartz
1984	Lenore A. Slothower
1984	Joanne Vogel (REMBISH), “Landsat analysis of wetlands in the New Jersey Pinelands”

1984	Kathy May Sams
1984	Shirley Ann Snyder
1984	Joanne Vogel
1984	Peter L Ylvisaker, “Current Planning Capacity: A case study application to Cranbury Township, Middlesex
	County, New Jersey.” (1985?)
1985	Wayne Douglas
1985	Debbie Alaimo
1985	Maude Backes, “Mid-Atlantic Petroleum Refining Expansion: Analysis of Sting Constraints”
1985	Nancy Humiston-Greeley
1985	Enid Lotstein-Ringer (also Ph.D. 1990)
1986	Helen Hendrickson Heinrich
	“Residential Landscape Improvement by Home-Owners: A Cross-Cultural Study in Suburban New Jersey”
1986	Paul Cabelli
1986	Lloyd Carmack
1986	Edward A. Philipps
1986	Cindy Popolillo
1986	Lawrence Pesesky
1986	James Wiley (also Ph.D. 1991)
1986	John Mark Califf
1986	Robert C. Cottrell
1986	Joanne K. Harris
1987	Laura Reid
1987	Ann E. Bonner
	“Pedestrian Impact on the Geomorphology of Sand Dunes at Fire Island, New York”
1987	Patricia Cane
	“A Geographic Assessment of Emerging Technologies in hazardous Waste Management, Focusing on New
	Jersey”
1987	Deborah E. Popper
	“The Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980: Its Consequences for the Passamaquoddies and Penobscots” (October) (also P.D. 1992)
1987	Carol N. Hansen
1987	Dianne Shatin (1988?)

	“The Spatial Support for the Nuclear Weapons Freeze in the United States”
1987	Charles Kelly “Use of disaster data in the planning of development projects: Vulnerability assessment for the Dominican Republic”
1987	Jeff Callahan
1987	Leyla Vural (also Ph.D . 1994)
1987	Deborah Greenwood
1987	Patricia Donahue
1987	Gail Carter
1987	Carol Nilson (HANSEN)
1987	Shelby P. Jessup
1987	William Solecki (also Ph.D. 1990)
1987	Tanya Steinberg (also Ph.D. 1993)
1988	Jill Rachel Yesko (also BA 1980)
1988	Steven D. Jaffe
1988	Jean Dieter Buhr “The Meaning of Levittown”
1989	William K. Bishop “Coastal Salt-Making Along the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica: A Historical-Cultural Geography”
1989	Louise Cook “Workplace Health Promotion Programs: Individual Behavior, Cost-Containment and Workplace Dynamics”
1989	Robert T. Pavlowsky “Trace Metal Yields and Sources in the Raritan Basin, N.J.”
1989	Kathleen Jagger “Cell Morphodynamics, Perdito Key, Florida”
1989	Michelle Pronio
1990	Olivia Mitchell-Morris “Marketing cigarettes to African American consumers through the use of billboard advertisements”
1990	Matthew Weismantel
1990	Hans Almgren
1990	Kenneth D. Klingerman
1991	Gregory Remaud

	“Conservation land trusts: The distribution of costs and benefits of private land conservation (in the 1990s)”
1991	Therese Spies (also BA 1989) “Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of Snow Cover in Western China”
1991	Steven L. Namikas (1992? “An Investigation of Nourished Beach Performance at South Beach, Sandy Hook Unit, Gateway National Recreation Area”
1991	Shira Birnbaum “A Critique of Environmental reform: remaking New Jersey’s Pine Barrens”
1991	Victor Frankenthaler
1991	Keith W. Harrington
1991	Edward Samanns “An analysis of nonpoint source pollution within an agricultural watershed receiving BMP treatment”
1992	Linda Jarema Brennen “Variations in Wetland Delineation Methodologies Used in New Jersey: 1970-1991”
1992	Sandra S. Luque “Natural and Human Processes Interacting to Cause Landscape Change in the New Jersey Pinelands”
1992	Neal P. Devine “Urban vulnerability to sea-level rise in the Third World”
1992	Veronica Pillsbury
1992	Patricia A. Heaney
1992	Tamar Rothenberg
1992	Julie Tuason
1992	Dennis Jones
1992	Panas, Richard
1992	Posten, Stephen
1993	Darren K. Coffey “Environmental Discrimination: Theory or Fact? A Case Study of Virginia”
1993	Sanjay Kharod
1993	Stephen Norville
1993	Thomas Trabka
1993	Michael F. Crowley “Monitoring the Gulf Stream: An Application of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems”
1993	Merlyn F. Liberty

	“Accidents Will Happen: A Case Study of the January 1-2, 1990 Exxon Bayway Inter Refinery Pipeline Leak into the Arthur Kill River”
1994	Jeffrey Cusano
	“An examination of Geographic Information System technology for open space planning: A case study of Passaic County, NJ”
1994	James Lee Gasprich
	“The comparison and integration of LANDSAT thematic mapper and census data to detect developed and
	vacant land”
1994	Dennis Masinde
	“Geographic Information System conceptual adaptations and database design for Kenya Wildlife Service”
1994	Karen Nichols
1994	Andrew Stewart
1995	Janine MacGregor
1995	John Fagan
	“Sampling designs for the measurement of Active-layer thickness”
1995	Stanley Jacobs
	“A comparison of results from a revised GIS-Based water resources assessment tool and biological
	monitoring data in the Great Swamp watershed”
1995	Henry Merald Skirbst “The sustainability and effectiveness of an interpretive guide for the Delaware River”
1995	Lisamarie Windham
	“Effect of Phragmites Australis invasion of aboveground biomass and soil properties in brackish tidal
	marsh of the Mullica River, New Jersey”
1995	Pingan Xiang
	“Analysis of ERS-1 SRR data in combination with Landsat-TM data for estimation of forest structure and
	forest type discrimination”
1995	Michael Craghan
	“Topographic changes and sediment characteristics at a shoreface sand ridge – Beach Haven Ridge, New Jersey”
1995	Curtis Freitag
1995	Ann G. Zeidman
1996	James DeFilippis
1997	Claire Gargan
	“Infant sleep position and SIDS: The New Jersey response”
1997	Laura Liu
1997	Charles McGlynn
1997	Steven Kurt Neumiller

	“HSPA: Hydrological Simulation Project – ARC”
1997	Melina Annie Patterson
	“Schools and the construction of the local: Place, race and politics in Bergen County”
1997	Hong-Ling Wee
1998	Lena Raberg
1998	Charles R. Colvard Jr.
	“Jamming in Yellowstone: Mapping Large Woody debris in America’s first National Park”
1998	John E. Hasse
	“A sprawl accentuation model for updating Geographic Information System land use/land cover maps with
	satellite imagery in Gloucester County, New Jersey”
1998	Meg Holden “Galiano Island, GIS, and a demographic means to sustainability”
1998	Peter M. Maina
1998	Xiaohang Liu
1999	Ralph Asplen
1999	Susanne Hess
1999	Karen Mitchell
1999	Bansuri Taneja
	“Restoring watersheds and streams: Environmental recovery in Northwest India”
2000	Jeremy Colangelo-Bryan
	“Theory, policy, and practice in the development of anti-poverty transportation strategies”
2000	Christine Henges
2000	Mark Pendras
2000	Sandra Baptista
2000	Kenneth Corti
2000	Verdie Robinson
2001	Katherine Albert
2001	Tenley Conway
2001	Thomas Estilow
2001	Daniel Falvo
2002	Kavitha Ramsamy
2002	Seongin Kim

2002 Jun Ren

2002 Courtney Wald 2002 Tehmina Khan Zaidi

2002 Junko Noguchi

“The Kyoto Protocol: Struggle to reconcile “equity” and “efficiency” through involvement of developing countries”

2002 Thomas Mitchell

“A new method for evaluating community sensitivity to risk information combining creative expressions with a rapid evaluation approach”

2002 Nicole Davi

“Boreal temperature variability inferred from maximum latewood density and ring width data from the Wrangell Mountain region, Alaska”

2002 Samuel Hanes

“A monument in the making: An environmental history of the Fresh Kills landfill”

2002 Peter Kabachnik

“An Earth without maps: The alternative geographies of The English Patient”

2003 Jorgelina Hardoy

“Hazards research: Towards an integrated discourse or new labels for old ideas?”

2003 Robert Donovan

“Harrie Cane: A fifth rubric?”

2003 Joshua Halofsky

“The implications of scale in managing and modeling wildfires”

2003 Aziz Jeng

“The evolution of tourism in The Gambia”

2003 Bradley Wilson

“Perplexed geographies: Discipline, power and consumption”

2003 Raysa Martinez

“United States military presence in Vieques, Puerto Rico: Colonialism, citizenship and geopolitical discourse”

2004 Kelly Sponberg

“Hazards within and without: Meteorological services, communications technology, and development.”

2004 Margaret Holzer

“Synoptic and diurnal characteristics of the Northern New Jersey heat island”

2004 James Myers

“Does farmland preservation support general open space preservation goals in Hunterdon County, NJ?”

2004 John Wing

“Laggards or innovators? A retrospective of GIS late adopters”

2005	Wai Ling
2005	Rosana Grafals
2005	Jeanine Marcella Kopec
2005	Michael J. Davenport
2005	Tanya Rohrbach
	“Spatial analysis of human-black bear conflicts in Northwestern New Jersey”
2006	Ying-Chih Chen
2006	Gennadi Poberezny
2006	Hyun Shin Yoon
2006	Michael Mohamed
2007	Richard Nisa
	“Demons, phantoms, monsters: Law, bodies, and detention in the War on Terror”
2007	Gregory Mitterman
2007	Adam Steinberg
2007	Maeve Pinto
2007	Bruce Ramsay (MS)
2008	Marguerite L. Andrews
2008	Danielle Hartman
	“A geographic approach to modeling the impact of green roofs on combined sewer outflows in the Bronx”
2009	Carolin Ferwerda
	“Characterizing the relationship between Asian tiger mosquito abundance and habitat in urban New Jersey”
2009	Sheila Shukla
	“Common terns (Sterna hirundo) as indicators of ecosystem response to urbanization in the Barnegat Bay watershed region of New Jersey: 1982–2007”
2009	Brian Robert Stromberg
	“Properties or homes? Alternatives to traditional market processes”
2009	James G. Riely
2009	Christopher Mikolajczyk
2010	Carl Figueiredo
2010	Peter Vancura
2010	Irene Zager
2011	Colleen Earp

	“Characterizing invasive species: The case of bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) in the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor Sian Ka'an-Calakmul, Mexico”
2011	Rachel L. Sutton
	“No more canaries in the coal mine!”: Reimagining the lead-poisoning risk-subject and possibilities for change”
2011	Scott Salmon
2012	Jennifer Bjerke
2012	Lindsay Campbell
2012	Weizhi Cheng
2012	Daniel Danza
2012	Kyle Loewen
	“From problems of citizenship to questions of action”
2013	Jacob Gable
2013	Sarah Stinard-Kiel
	“Radical childcare collectives: Putting care to work for political resistance”
2013	Ekaterina Bezborodko
	“American blood banks: Navigating gift and commodity exchange”
2014	Joshua Randall
	“Understanding water use in Phoenix, AZ”
2015	Katherine Olympia
	“Success and failure of statehood claims in Northeast Africa: A comparison between South Sudan and
	Somaliland”
2016	Richard Kruger
	“Green infrastructure politics in Philadelphia”
2017	Helen Olsen
2018	Gabriela Ulloa
	“The Stakeholders' Relationships and the Formation of Environmental Inequalities in the Valdivia Plant,
	Los Rios Region, Chile: A Case Study of Environmental Inequality”
2019	Jessica Michelle August
	“Climatological Factors Impacting Summer Air Pollution in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area”
2019	Zoe Alexander
2020	Logan Soldo
	“Snow Extent and Depth over Central North America: 1966-2018”
2020	Sean Thatcher
	“Horseshoe Crab Spawning in the Delaware Bay: A Potential Response to Sea Surface Temperature”
2020	Christopher Butrico

2021 Steven R. King

“S.M.Ar.T. Ecosystems: A Geographic Perspective of Non-Government Organizations in Belize”

APPENDIX 23

Miscellaneous Other Awards

Henry Rutgers Scholars

B.S. May 1952

Freese, Robert

“Development of Geographic Patterns in Metuchen, N.J.: An Analysis of the Anatomy of a Large Town”

May 1952

Lutts, Ralph C.

“Historic and Economic Geography of the Raritan Valley in the 18^th Century”

B.A. May 1975

Llewellyn, James D.

“The Impact of Interstate Highway 287 on the Location of Industry in Northern Middlesex County”

General B.A. Theses

May 1957

Ungemah, Douglas

“The Industrial Geography of Clifton, N.J.”

May 1975

Eckerson, Arthur J.

“The Application of Factor Analysis to Water Quality Data: A Case Study of the Passaic River Basin in New Jersey”

Honors Geography Project

April 1978 Marchwinski, Thomas

“Rutgers in New Brunswick: Physical Growth, Campus Dispersion and Their Effect on the University in 1978”

APPENDIX 24

A Peripatetic History: The search for a permanent home base

Mobility is characteristic of geographers. As members of a discipline that studies different places, we are often in the field at some remove from our offices and labs. At Rutgers those “home” offices, labs and classrooms have also been in different places at different times. One of the earliest and most durable complaints by Department of Geography (DOG) faculty, recorded in minutes and memos forwarded to Deans and other administrators, was the lack of adequate housing and research facilities for the department and the indifferent quality of those that were available.³⁶¹ It took more than three decades of shifting between buildings before the department settled into adequate and stable quarters. Even then other units that occupied adjacent spaces, and with which we often collaborated, were also subject to relocations. This kind of dynamism can be stimulating but it can also consume time better spent in more productive activities and it can inhibit the development of strong relations with neighboring groups. To a lesser degree, the geographers who were affiliated with other departments and centers have also had to cope with physical relocations³⁶².

Faculty, staff and administrative offices of the Department of Geography have been in at least 6 different buildings since 1949.³⁶³ In addition, labs for physical geography and cartography were, for varying lengths of time, separately housed in temporary buildings on the College Avenue (1950-1966) and Kilmer (after 1966) campuses.

Initially the department took over a former private house at 147 College Avenue in the Rutgers College campus, that was reputed to be the boyhood home of Joyce Kilmer – New Brunswick’s iconic poet. That building no longer exists because it was demolished to make room for the University Commons. This necessitated a move in 1960 into another converted house at 5 Senior Street with additional quarters for some faculty and graduate students, as well as small classrooms at numbers 16 and 30 Morrell Street (later demolished).³⁶⁴ A row house on Sicard Street served less senior faculty, willing to live with the risk of a building that leaned to one side. It too has been demolished and the land converted into a parking lot. The Senior Street building functioned as the headquarters for Geography for many years, including some when its boiler room provided a temporary home for one faculty member and his cat. A new faculty member who taught a Geography graduate seminar in the basement of Senior Street remembers opening a closet door to a set of rickety wooden stairs that bowed under his weight. Others reported leaking roofs and the perilous state of a rear porch as well as winter classes taken by students wearing heavy coats to combat the lack of heating. The house on Senior Street subsequently served as the Air Force ROTC center after Geography moved out and before it too was torn down to make way for new buildings, including the Chabad House at 165 College Avenue.

361 See, for example, the following quotation from Andrew Clark’s 1950 annual report: ““Nothing more helpful to improvement of morale in the department, beyond the improvement of compensation, could be done than to find a more permanent and more adequate solution to the housing problem.” A later 1969 report by Guido Weigend and John Brush continued in similar vein: “Whatever may be in the future of geography at the university, we hope that the Rutgers College department will be housed in adequate modern facilities, either on the College Avenue campus, where a new Social Science Building is projected, or at University Heights, where an Earth Science Building is projected; and that coordinated departments will emerge at Livingston and “College No.4.”

³⁶² The Department of Environmental Resources was originally quartered in a prefabricated building near the present Helyar House on the Cook campus. Its members were subsequently incorporated into a newly formed Department of Natural Resources (later Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources) and housed in a new building on College Farm Road, closer to the center of the Cook campus. By then its card-carrying geographers had departed, although several other faculty members continued to participate in the geography Graduate Program. In 2010 the Urban Studies, Urban Planning and Center for Urban Policy Research units were transferred from the Kilmer campus to a new building at Civic Square in downtown New Brunswick. The Department of Human Ecology did not move from its initial quarters in the Cook College Office Building.

³⁶³ Four of these are recorded in Roger Balm’s painting (image below) that hangs in the current department in Lucy Stone Hall. Early physical geography and cartography labs were also located in temporary buildings on the bluff that overlooks the Raritan River.

DoG houses Balm

Top left: Current (2024) departmental quarters, Lucy Stone Hall, Kilmer campus. Top right: Simeon De Witt house, College Avenue campus. Bottom left: 5 Senior Street, College Avenue campus. Bottom right: 147 College Avenue.

³⁶⁴ The Morrell Street houses were originally built by the Johnson and Johnson Company as subsidized accommodation for its workers in the nineteenth century. Source: David Listokin, Dorothea Berkhout and James W. Hughes, 2016. New Brunswick, New Jersey: The decline and revitalization of urban America. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, p. 19.

Matters improved greatly when, around 1970, new quarters were secured at 185 College Avenue, an imposing three story house with a formal portico, stylish tiled floors, fine wood, and a sweeping staircase.³⁶⁵ Originally the family home of its builder, Dr. John Howard Raven, it was later (1921-1930) owned and lived in by Jules Michelin, head of the Michelin Tire Company business in the United States. It was subsequently acquired by Rutgers University as a residence for President Clothier and then renamed in honor of Simeon DeWitt, George Washington’s geographer. The connection between the house name and its occupation by Geography was thus highly appropriate. Although the DOG faculty could now be together in one location, the situation was not perfect for classrooms and labs were elsewhere, including across the river in Piscataway. Nonetheless, the location next to the main university library (Alexander Library), within a few paces of the Commons Dining rooms, the Rutgers Faculty Club, the Gym, university bus lines, and many classrooms, was an advantageous spot from which to operate and those of us who were quartered there have fond memories of it.

In 1980, during a period when the university was undergoing reorganization, the most recent move took place. The entire department was relocated to space on the second floor of the B-wing of Lucy Stone Hall on the Livingston campus, adjacent the Urban Studies and Urban Planning Departments. Since there were already several geographers in those units and the nearby Center for Urban Policy Research (i.e. Carey, Greenberg, Holcomb, Clark, Lake), the move created a physically contiguous group of about 15 geographers, larger than in any previous era. As a result, there was a significant degree of heightened interaction among these faculty.

This situation persisted until 2010 when the Urban Studies and Planning departments acquired purpose built new facilities in the landmark Civic Square building located in downtown New Brunswick. There was a discussion about the possibility of Geography moving with those units as part of the emerging Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, but this was rejected by the Geography Department, mostly because it would likely have meant becoming part of a professional unit rather than remaining in the Arts and Sciences faculty.

Lucy Stone Hall had (and has) many advantages. On a single floor, it provided the Geography Department with office spaces for faculty and support staff, a mail room, a seminar room, a graduate student computer research lab, an undergraduate computer teaching lab, a cartography lab, a map library, shared offices for graduate students and storage facilities. There was also preferential access to classrooms that were large, airy, and stocked with modern AV equipment. Additional space was acquired piecemeal as the adjacent departments (Urban Planning, Urban Studies, Sociology) moved to locations on other campuses and smaller academic units replaced them. Furthermore, there was an ample supply of wall display boards

365 As described by a contemporary observer, “It was a large three-story building with an imported brick and tile roof, following the model of French or Dutch manor architecture. There was no other house like it in town. On the ground floor there were spacious rooms such as two large salons to receive visitors, a library, dining room, kitchen and pantry and other spaces. The upper two floors housed eight bedrooms and three bathrooms. As for the terrain surrounding the house, which had a side porch, according to a news item of the time: “(...) The house is of imported brick with tiled roof and stands in grounds with a setting of graceful Lombardy poplars. There is a wonderful and picturesque French garden on the side and in the rear of the dwelling, the Michelins having expended thousands of dollars in landscape work.” See: Pau Medrano-Bigas. 2015. “The forgotten years of Bibendum. Michelin’s American Period in Milltown: Design, Illustration and Advertising by pioneer tire companies (1900-1930).” Doctoral dissertation, University of Barcelona. (English translation 2018). pp.488-489.

and cabinets where maps, posters, field sketches, photographs and other educational materials created by the Geography community could be displayed; these frequently attracted the attention of passing students and piqued their interest in exploring the discipline. On the other hand, Lucy Stone Hall’s peripheral location among the New Brunswick campuses, its labyrinthine internal layout,³⁶⁶ and the presence of large wall murals created to celebrate themes that were important to previous occupants of space now occupied by Geography, raised some problems. The Livingston campus was far removed from most other liberal arts units with which geographers had intellectual affinities. Visitors intent on reaching our quarters often couldn’t find them without knowledgeable guides and when they arrived, they were unsure if they had found Geography and not Puerto Rican Studies. However, none of these posed insurmountable difficulties.

It is not possible to provide detailed accounts of the physical locations and moves of other university units that housed geography faculty. Suffice it to say that most of these benefitted from greater locational stability than the Geography department. For example, the Department of Human Ecology has always occupied the Cook College Office Building. The Marine Science Department and the Department of Environmental Resources eventually all acquired purpose-built facilities, also on the Cook campus where they were joined by the Remote Sensing Center, that had been originally housed in a converted chicken coop. Urban and economic geographers associated with Planning and Urban Studies units were particularly well housed in another purpose-built facility at the Civic Square campus.

One final point that bears on issues about space and facilities is the impact of the Covid pandemic that occurred from 2019-2023. During this event many classes, colloquia and faculty meetings shifted from physical facilities to online electronic forums. As a result, buildings that had previously been alive with people remained sparsely occupied and many faculty worked remotely from home. The extent to which there will be a return to the status quo ante is open to question. Clearly this situation is unprecedented, and it may well have consequences that go well beyond space allocation arrangements. The long-term effects are impossible to predict but could be profound.

A Note on the Kilmer Campus

Since two Geography departments (Rutgers College, Livingston College) and many individual geographers have been lodged in quarters on the Kilmer campus it is useful to provide additional background on that location. Like the Busch campus, it is situated in Piscataway, across the Raritan from New Brunswick. Its history prior to becoming part of Rutgers was as a

U.S. military base. The following report by the Associated Press, appeared in The Christian Science Monitor on February 18, 1969, p. 14:

“Part of Camp Kilmer becomes Rutgers Branch

A section of Camp Kilmer, a remnant of the “brown boot” Army that fought in World War II, is being converted into Livingston College, a branch of Rutgers University.

³⁶⁶ “Places and spaces: Lucy Stone Hall or Lucy Stone Hell?,” https://muckgers.com/places-and-spaces-lucy-stone-hall-or-lucy-stone-hell-d01fe4d405af. February 18, 2014.

For thousands of World War II veterans, Camp Kilmer evokes memories of camouflaged barracks, overloaded troop carriers, tough-as-nails sergeants, rain and mud. In its heyday, Camp Kilmer housed millions of men for a few days before they were shipped to World War II combat zones in Europe.

Today, the bulk of the camp is a ghost town except for a section used as a Job Corps center.”

APPENDIX 25

Institutional changes in Rutgers University

No history of Geography at Rutgers can ignore the effect of changes to the structure and function of the University as an institution. Often such changes were the catalysts that promoted, or in some cases retarded, the development of the discipline. Although Rutgers’ origins are in the mid-eighteenth century, we are here concerned mainly with the period since World War II, when the first geographers were hired, and the first department of Geography came into being.

A detailed analysis of institutional changes is beyond the scope of this document. For those interested in such matters, good sources of information about the evolution of the entire University and its constituent parts, albeit from a “top-down” perspective, are available.³⁶⁷ None of these have much to say about Geography, or for that matter about most individual disciplines and departments, but they provide strategic guidance about issues that were foremost in the minds of Presidents, Provosts, Deans, and some influential faulty members, at different times during the past 75 years.

For our purposes it is convenient to think of three or four stages in the post-war evolution of Rutgers University and its effects on the Geography community.

Stage 1 lasted approximately two decades (1945-1965) during which the University was a somewhat disparate collection of semi-independent liberal arts colleges (Rutgers College, New Jersey College for Women) and professional schools (College of Engineering, College of Agriculture) that had been loosely brought together under one umbrella (Rutgers-The State University) by acts of the New Jersey legislature in 1948 and 1956. Rutgers was centered in a group of New Brunswick-Piscataway campuses, but the University created an additional campus in Newark and took over another campus in Camden. During this period the Department of Geography was formed as a unit of Rutgers College in New Brunswick.

Stage 2 (approximately 1965-1980) was the era of “federated colleges”, partly modeled after the groups of separate liberal arts colleges that made up Oxford University and Yale University. Though subject to some centralized control, these units (Rutgers College, Douglass College, Livingston College, Cook College, University College) still exercised a significant degree of autonomy in most matters of governance, instruction, and student life. Two additional – but short-lived - Geography departments were created in Livingston College-Piscataway and in Rutgers-Newark.

Stage 3 (1980-1995) was dominated by widespread reorganization of the University that centralized decision making and whittled down the independence of the colleges, while also

367 Paul G. E. Clemens. 2015. Rutgers since 1945: A history of the State University of New Jersey. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press; Paul G. E. Clemens and Carla Yanni. 1987. “The early years of Livingston College 1964-1973: Revisiting the ‘College of Good Intentions’”, The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 6 (2): 71-114. < https://jrul.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/jrul/article/download/1987/3393>; Charles E. Hess. 2003. “Cook College – The Early Years.” http://humanecology.rutgers.edu/cookhistory/earlyyears.html

laying the groundwork for creating a major research university. From 1981-1987, as part of this process, the Geography department was administratively located within the School of Urban and Regional Policy, in the Faculty of Professional Studies, before being repositioned in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In many respects, Stage 3 is still working itself out, but it is also useful to visualize a further most recent stage.

Stage 4 (1995-present) has been marked by a major “rebranding” campaign designed to create a widely recognized identity for Rutgers as a comprehensive, socially, and racially diverse, world class, research and teaching institution that is also responsive to the special circumstances of New Jersey. Major new buildings and institutions were added throughout New Brunswick. During this period the University acquired most divisions of the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and incorporated them into an umbrella organization known as Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences – in effect a de facto Medical School.

The Geography community evolved in somewhat different ways during each of these stages. In Stage 1 geographers were recruited to a newly created department in Rutgers College and defined their role in relation to challenges that faced Americans as they sought to understand the country’s post-war relationships to the rest of a world. It was a time when Rutgers geographers sought to equip students with what they described as “world consciousness”.

With the advent of the “federated colleges” in Stage 2 the way was open to replicate the liberal education model beyond Rutgers College, so a second Department of Geography was created in Livingston College and a third at Rutgers-Newark. Both units were mainly staffed by people who had been trained in the new “scientific” and socially conscious urban-economic geography that came into vogue across the discipline during this era. However, in a sense, the new units outside of Rutgers College, fell victim to their own success because, within a few years, they were incorporated into urban studies and urban planning departments that university administrators set up, partly in response to demands for education that more clearly addressed the issues and needs of an increasingly urbanized population. As a result, there were now as many geographers outside formal Geography departments as within and, during the 1970s, more continued to be hired by new interdisciplinary departments and research centers. This was the period that I have dubbed “The Great Recruitment”. It was also the era during which the Geography Graduate Program was the chief vehicle for bringing institutionally scattered geographers together because it was open to faculty from all units, not just those in the undergraduate Rutgers College Department of Geography.

University reorganization (Stage 3) added further twists to Geography’s evolution with far-reaching consequences. One result was a physical relocation of the Geography department. The overarching goal of University leaders was to merge separate departments of the same discipline and relocate these larger groupings together on one or other of the four New Brunswick campuses (College Avenue, Douglass, Cook, Kilmer). Since there was only one Geography department this offered no obvious advantages to the geographers although it did enable some individuals (Mitchell, Cutter) to transfer their lines out of the Environmental Resources department into the Geography Department. Because faculty were moved around the campuses during the reorganization, the process also opened more space for the Geography

department. Its members vacated the DeWitt House on College Avenue and moved across the Raritan to Lucy Stone Hall on the Kilmer campus. This was a building that also housed other geographers in the Urban Planning and Urban Studies departments, (Carey, Greenberg, Holcomb, Clark) so it had the effect of initially consolidating more of the Geography community in one location.

The relocation of geographers and the redevelopment of the New Brunswick campuses had other effects on teaching and on the social life of faculty and students. Gradually more and more classes were scheduled for the Livingston campus and fewer were offered elsewhere.

Whether that influenced the numbers of potential majors is impossible to say. Relocation tended to disrupt patterns of socialization formed around mealtimes. Access to eating establishments varied among the different departmental homes. When geographers were located on College Avenue in the DeWitt House it was customary upon exiting the front door to turn left and walk down the street to grab a sandwich at the Rathskeller in the basement of Brower Commons or a cooked meal in the Faculty Dining Room one floor above. If slightly more upscale food and a more genteel setting were desired, one turned right and sauntered a few dozen paces to the Faculty Club opposite the entrance to Buccleaugh Park. Alternatively, there were several pubs in the streets behind the gym that could be patronized. After geographers moved across the river to the Kilmer/Livingston campus, faculty could resort to their own small dining room on the second floor of Tillett Hall that could hold, at most, twenty people and rarely was occupied by more than a dozen. Looking out over the courtyard in front of Lucy Stone it was an intimate space that contrasted with the more utilitarian student dining room next door. Here it was possible to get to know the cook and the servers on a personal level, to the point where they could anticipate food choices before being asked for them. Neither the Rathskeller nor the old Livingston faculty dining room exist today. When the University began to reimagine Livingston as a (mainly) professional campus, with a Business School clientele of external visitors, the new faculty eating space, located on the second floor of the Livingston Dining Commons was quickly displaced by the relocated Rutgers Club. Most faculty then found themselves eating at the Livingston Student Center or Henry’s Diner, elbow to elbow with the students. Or, more likely, and further encouraged by the Covid pandemic, bringing home made packed lunches to be consumed in their offices.

A second consequence of University reorganization was a debate about distinguishing liberal arts education from professional education. At the beginning of the 1980s the University had created both a Faculty of Arts and Sciences and a Faculty of Professional Studies. Geography, with its bifurcated interests in both the human and natural worlds already posed a problem for some administrators who sought to distinguish clearly between the sciences and the arts/humanities. There were also other complicating factors. Geography had affinities with Planning; British and American geographers had been among the early advocates of Planning as a necessary field of study (see Isaiah Bowman’s inaugural address 1949). Faculty trained in geography already formed part of the Urban Planning and Community Development programs at Rutgers, and non-geographers in those programs also participated in the Geography Graduate Program. Finally, the Geography Department now occupied adjacent space in the same building as the Planning and Development programs. Recognizing these factors, University administrators decided to place Geography in the Faculty of Professional Studies as part of a newly created School of Urban and Regional Policy (SURP). However, as the decade proceeded the planning

faculty were able to gain support for the creation of what became the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, a separate administrative entity in a purpose-built downtown facility. Members of the planning and urban studies programs moved there in 1995 and members of the Geography department were offered an opportunity to join them but chose to remain where they were.

A third consequence of University reorganization was the decision to partly exempt the College of Agriculture and Environmental Science (successor to the College of Agriculture and forerunner of Cook College) from administrative consolidation with the other Rutgers colleges and allow it to develop as a professional school with some elements of interdisciplinary liberal arts education. This triggered the creation of the Department of Human Ecology, a unit that appeared to share many of the same characteristics as a Geography department and included academic geography faculty among its early members (Boxer, Schuh, Roundy, Hewitt).

Differences between Human Ecology and Geography can be debated and at least one prominent earlier geographer (Harlan Barrows) gave a major address titled “Geography as Human Ecology”.³⁶⁸ Both fields share a keen interest in the relations between society and environment, a focus that has was present at the founding of the Rutgers Geography community and continues to be a vital organizing principle. In practice, the Department of Human Ecology took on a somewhat closer identification with anthropology than geography, largely owing to the influence of Andrew P. Vaya and his students among the faculty, though “Pete” was also a member of the Geography Graduate Program. However, conversations about the possibility of formally linking the departments of Geography and Human Ecology, within a single administrative unit, though pursued at some length during the 1980s and 90s, ultimately ended with the two departments remaining separate.

Stage 4 has brought two further developments of note. The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) was formally created in 2007 and it now includes units in which geographers are, or have been, faculty – departments of Human Ecology and Marine Sciences as well as the Remote Sensing Center. In addition, geographers from the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy who helped staff the Public Health program became affiliated with the Medical School when it was created in 2013. Together with the changes of the 1980s and 90s the net result has been a reduction in the number of geographers that are members of non-Geography units. Those who were recruited in the 1970s have now retired and most have not been replaced. Whereas the Graduate Program used to include many trained geographers from the non-Geography units, representation from those units is now mostly comprised of faculty whose primary training has been in other disciplines. Today, the (undergraduate) Geography department includes 16 “core” professors who hold whole or partial lines therein; ten of these are housed together in Lucy Stone Hall. In addition to these 16 the Geography Graduate Faculty also includes 13 other professors, of whom four or five were trained in the discipline.

³⁶⁸ Harlan H. Barrows, “Geography as Human Ecology,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 13 (1), March 1923, 1-14.

APPENDIX 26

Andrew Hill Clark Award 1999-

Awarded each year to the outstanding graduating senior in Geography.

1999	Colleen Davy
2000	Missing
2001	Missing
2002	Ellen Watson-Stryker Peter Stanton
2003	Edward Remmers Elizabeth Fiore
2004	Syrion Jack Yosef Robinson Kenneth Sicknick
2005	Weihan Chan Kate Lehmert John Pabish
2006	Alyssa Chestnut Lorilynn O’Neil Aga Siemiginowska
2007	Natalia Sardo
2008	Catherine Dusault Barbara Havrillay
2009	Alicia C. Clarke Edith Hannigan
2010
2011	James V. Ciccone Scott F. Jablonski Latoya A. Jones

2012	Marion Clement
2013	Andrew Foltz-Morrison Kae Yamane
2014	Derek Baquero
2015	Michael P. Endicott
2016	Julia J. Bordelon
2017	Jared A. Schenkel Andrew J. Sutphen
2018	Anjanette N. Vaidya
2019	Alina Schulz
2020	Arden Benner Anushka Srivastava
2021	Frances Caceres Francis Silvestrini Bridget Van Voorst
2022	Madison A. Roveda
2023	Noam Y. Aharon

APPENDIX 27

Geography Seminar Series speakers 1987-1988

9/11/87: Karl Nordstrom (Rutgers U.)

“Models of beach change at tidal inlets on a developed coast”

9/18/87: Keith Clark (Hunter College)

“Scale-based simulation of topographic relief”

10/2/87: Douglas McManis (Editor, Geographical Review) “Communicating Geography”

10/16/87: Avijit Ghosh (New York U., Dept. of Marketing) “An approach to designing new service offerings”

10/23/87: Saul Cohen (Hunter College; President Emeritus Queens College) “Postscript to Smith’s study on Harvard”

10/30/87: Mark Hughes (Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton U. Program in Public Affairs, Geography and Planning)

“What’s an underclass?”

11/6/87: Valerie Preston (Columbia U., Geography Program) “Income disparities and employment change in New York”

11/13/87: David A. Robinson (Columbia U., Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory) “Snow and snow-climate interaction”

12/11/87: Basil Gomez (U.S. Geological Survey)

“Temporal variations in bedload transport rates: Implications for the sampling and measurement of bedload”

12/14/87: David Legates (University of Delaware) “A climatology for global precipitation”

2/12/88: Curt Sorenson (US Military Academy (Visiting) and U. of Kansas) “Soils and glacial sediments in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming”

2/26/88: Deborah Popper (Ph.D. candidate, Rutgers U.) and Frank Popper (Rutgers University) “The Great Plains: From dust to dust”

3/4/88: Tanya Steinberg (Ph.D. candidate, Rutgers University) “Disinvestment, reinvestment and the gentrification of Hoboken”

3/11/88: J.K. Mitchell (Rutgers U.)

“Alternative perspectives on global environmental risks”

4/15/88: Andy Mair (Ohio State U.)

“The Japanese automobile industry in the United States”

4/22/88: Berth Danermark (U. of Orebro, Sweden) “Urban and regional development in socialist Albania”

4/27/88: David Alexander (U. of Massachusetts) “Urban landslides”

4/29/88: Marshall Berman (CUNY-Graduate Center) “Socialist visions of the city”

5/3/88: Harold M. Wesso (U. of Western Cape, South Africa, Visiting fellow Rutgers DOG) “The underdevelopment of rural communities in South Africa: A case study”

5/6/88: Roland Paskoff (U. of Lyon, France and visiting scholar, CCES, Rutgers U) “Coastal investigations”

APPENDIX 28

The Status of Geography at Rutgers in 1964

The Professional Geographer, 16(2), March 1964: p. 51.

Under the heading “News from Geographic Centers”, the following report appeared.

ProGeog article

APPENDIX 29

VISITING FACULTY³⁶⁹

Geographers not employed by Rutgers, but in temporary residence on one of the New Brunswick campuses, have variously contributed to the work of the community. These were often individuals on sabbatical leaves from other institutions or holding portable fellowships. Sometimes they participated intensively by offering courses, giving lectures, advising students and the like and sometimes they had looser associations without formal duties. There is no comprehensive record of these visitors. Those that are known to the writer include (in alphabetical order):

Josh Cohen (Hebrew U., Jerusalem, Israel) Michael Curry (UCLA)

Anthony Dura (U. of Barcelona, Spain) 2001 Summer Usha Eleswarapu

Robin Flowerdew (Lancaster U., United Kingdom) Allan Frey (Bristol U., United Kingdom)

Barry Garner (Bristol U., United Kingdom) Howard Gautier (Ohio State U.)

Giorgi Gogsadre (Tbilisi State U, Georgia) Miroslaw Grochowski (U. of Warsaw, Poland) Meera Kosambi (India)

Sergiy Kostrikov (Karkiv National University, Ukraine) Mazen Labban

Rita Nerland (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Sorina Voiculescu (University of the West, Timisoara, Romania) Wojciech Widacki (Jagiellonican University, Krakow, Poland 1989)

³⁶⁹ From time-to-time parties of university students touring the USA on Geography field trips also visited. For example in 2000 a group of about 20 students from Nottingham Trent University in the UK were hosted by several Geography graduate students with the assistance of faculty members Roger Balm and Mike Siegel and on tours led by faculty members Bob lake and Bria Holcomb aided by graduate student Tom Mitchell.

APPENDIX 30

Degrees awarded in Geography, 2005-2023

YEAR	B.A.	M.A./M.S.	Ph.D.*
2005	26	4	7
2006	29	2	4
2007	24	3	2
2008	16	3	4
2009	Missing	Missing	2
2010	20	3	7
2011	27	5 4	3
2012	24	5 6	6
2013	20	Missing	5
2014	12	1	7
2015	23	1	8
2016	15	1	2
2017	11	1	6
2018	20	1	7
2019	14	2	3
2020	17	3	2
2021	17	Missing	4
2022	19	Missing	1
2023	16	Missing	6

D. by dissertation date

APPENDIX 31

Enduring themes of Geographical Research at Rutgers

This page highlights research themes that have been most prominent and longest lasting.

It is an incomplete list. Recently developed fields of study are not included; for information about those readers are referred to the current online Geography page. Topics studied by the largest number of faculty are privileged over those addressed by a single professor. Such choices may leave out some distinguished contributions made by outstanding individuals. Each theme is followed by the names of faculty with which it is associated.

Climate and cold regions³⁷⁰

Bennett, Blumenstock, Guest, Marcus, R. Muller, Nelson, O’Keefe, Rennermalm, Robinson

Coasts and Marine Areas

Barone, Mitchell, Nordstrom, Psuty, St. Martin

Economic Geography

T. Clark, DeFillipis, Goodwin, Keller, Leichenko, Miller, Newling, Smith, Wallace, Weigend, Wyly

Environmental Risks, Hazards, and Disasters

Blumenstock, Boxer, Cutter, Greenberg, Hewitt, Marrero, Mitchell, Roundy, Schneider, Wisner

Historical-Cultural Geography

A. Clark, Thomas, Smith, Wacker

Natural Resource Management

Bayer, Hordon, Kolars, Ross, Schuh, Schroeder, St. Martin

Urban Problems and Processes

Boxer, Brown, Brush, Caprio, Carey, Chatterjee, T. Clark, Cutter, De Fillipis, Ferreira, Garner, Ghertner, Gillard, Holcomb, Lake, Margulis, Miller, Mitchell, Rodenbiker, Rose, Schofer, Wright, Wyly

This is a big heterogeneous group. More than half of these researchers focused attention on contemporary metropolitan USA cities, and often on specific topics like housing and issues of unequal access to public services. Several also developed expertise on cities of developing countries, especially India and China. A significant proportion (10) held positions in urban studies, planning and policy units of the university rather than the Department of Geography.

³⁷⁰ An expanded treatment of this theme is included in Appendix 33

Regional foci

Most field research has been carried out in North American locations, from non-urban areas between the Arctic and Mexico but predominantly in urban or suburban settings in the United States. Rutgers geographers have also developed regional expertise in other parts of the world including: Africa (Bayer, Obudho, O’Keefe, Ramsamy, Roundy, Schroeder, Wisner); India (Birkenholtz, Brush, Ghertner), China (Boxer, Rodenbiker), and the Caribbean (Marrero, Richardson, Rhiney).

Geographical data, methods, and techniques

Cary, Getis, Hamilton, Macey, Medler, Ogrosky, Robinson, Siegel

The importance of cartography in the development of the Rutgers Geography community cannot be underestimated. Together with remote sensing it was one of the building blocks of the original program. It is still an essential part of the curriculum, where it has been joined with geospatial data collection, analysis and presentation techniques that are often referred to as Geographical Information Science (GIS).

APPENDIX 32

Cold regions and cold phenomena

From the 1950s onwards a significant number of Rutgers geographers have studied the Arctic, the cryosphere, and associated topics of cold regions geography. Among the earliest was a student, Arthur E. Jorgensen, who spent much of 1957 as a weather observer at the South Pole taking part in the International Geophysical Year’s landmark program of work.³⁷¹ Thereafter the thread of continuing interest runs from Melvin Marcus, who conducted detailed studies of glacial geomorphology in Alaska and high altitude cold regions elsewhere, through Fritz Nelson’s work on monitoring changes in frozen zones³⁷² and David Robinson’s signal research on snow climatology³⁷³, up to Asa Rennermalm’s continuing studies of hydroclimatology in Greenland³⁷⁴.

cold weather fieldwork cold weather caption

These faculty have ensured that succeeding generations of Rutgers students are exposed to field work in cold weather environments³⁷⁵ and have reached out to involve departmental colleagues who are not cold region specialists. For example, Nelson introduced Neil Smith to

³⁷¹ Guido G, Weigend. 1958. “Geography at Rutgers,” Rutgers Alumni Monthly, May.

372 Elise Mazur. 2015. “Getting to know Dr. Fritz Nelson: A cryospheric scientist,” Ubique, July 14. https://ubique.americangeo.org/society-news/get-to-know-dr-fritz-nelson-a-cryospheric-scientist-2/

³⁷³ “Earth is warming: His data helped prove it,” The Hammonton News, January 13, 2019, p.4A.

³⁷⁴ Faculty Survey of Asa Rennermalm at < https://oirap.rutgers.edu/Facsurv/html/Asa_K._Rennermalm.html>

375 Leidman, S. Z., Rennermalm, Å. K., Muthyala, R., Guo, Q., & Overeem, I. 2021. “The presence and widespread distribution of dark sediment in Greenland ice sheet supraglacial streams implies substantial impact of microbial communities on sediment deposition and albedo,” Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2020GL088444. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088444; Michael B. Brady. “Mapping coastal exposure to climate risks in Alaska’s North Slope,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University, 2018; Samiah E. Moustafa. “Assessing Greenland ice sheet meltwater losses at the pixel and drainage basin scale,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University, 2017; John R. Mioduszewski, “Attribution of snow melt onset and linkages across the northern hemisphere cryosphere,” Ph. D. dissertation, Rutgers University, 2015.

Alaska on an extended summer field trip during which that quintessential urban scholar became acquainted with guns and grizzlies in the wild. Asa Rennermalm has collaborated with the noted photographer Diane Burko to mount museum exhibits about the Arctic that link science and art.³⁷⁶ Ken Mitchell also developed an interest in the Arctic through his experience as Chair of the U.S. Scientific Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf, a body that advised the US Secretary of the Interior about oil and gas developments on the North Slope of Alaska, among other places.³⁷⁷ In recent years accelerated glacial melting in Greenland and other cold regions has featured prominently in departmental research projects, colloquia³⁷⁸, and visiting lectures, and Rutgers students have served as field assistants in Arctic locations.

All these connections underline the extent to which geographers have been prominent exponents of a lengthy Rutgers tradition of Arctic research that includes participation by other specialists as well as the naming of a Rutgers glacier and a Queens College Lake.³⁷⁹

³⁷⁶ Elizabeth Perez-Luna, “Documenting climate change through art,” The Pulse, WHYY, Philadelphia, March 20, 2014.

377 Mitchell, James K. 1987. “Coastal and marine area management in the Arctic” in Arctic Heritage: Proceedings of a symposium. Edited by J. G. Nelson, Roger Needham and Linda Norton. Ottawa: Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies: 446-469.

³⁷⁸ Representative colloquia: Luke Trusel, “Surface melting on Earth’s ice sheets: linking the past, present, and future,” Rutgers Geography colloquium, November 10, 2017; Tony Broccoli, “Ice age storms: Synoptic-scale variability over North America in a Climate Model Simulation of the Last Glacial Maximum,” November 3, 2017; Ellen Mosley-Thompson, “Past and contemporary Climate change: Evidence from Earth’s cryosphere,” January 26, 2018; Laura Stevens, “Rapid supraglacial drainages on the Greenland ice sheet: Drainage mechanisms and annual ice-sheet flow,” April 6, 2018; Richard Forster, “Discovery and exploration of a new meltwater reservoir within the Greenland ice sheet,” February 22, 2019.

³⁷⁹ Michael Brady et al., “Putting New Jersey on the Arctic map: Rutgers University and the Garden State’s Arctic connections,” US Arctic (U.S. Department of State’s official Arctic Twitter account), February 19, 2016. https://medium.com/our-arctic-nation/week-7-new-jersey-1f2176132b91

APPENDIX 33

Students enrolled (specific years)

It is impractical to provide an exhaustive listing of all students who enrolled in the Undergraduate and Graduate programs over the years. The following tables list known enrollees in a sample of years. They include: 1967-68, 1969-70, 1977-78, 1983 (May), 1983 (October), 1997-98, 1998-1999, 1999-2000 for students enrolled in the Geography Graduate Program and 1990 (October) for Undergraduate majors. It is hoped to add rosters for additional years.

Graduate Students enrolled (1967-68)

Bhatt, Barat L.

Bott, Miss Nancy A.

Colpini, Major Frank F. (Army ROTC) Crumlish, Paul W.

Dart, M. Stanley Drake, Mrs. Christine Fitzpatrick, Eugene Frakt, Steven Gordon, Michael H. Granzow, Noel P. Guibert, John E. Hewitt, Richard C. Imfeld, Mrs. Lois E. Karwoski, Thomas J. Kellner, Gary

Knox, Mrs. Elena A. Koscielski, Robert F. Lamminen, Toivo L. Margulis, Harry Mattek, Miss Carol Milne, Jeffrey Moore, Miss Ruth E. Morey, Donald Muller, Peter O. Page, Cedric D. Plavin, Joel

Polizzi, Gerald E. Prusinski, Paul Roberts, Edward Robertson, David K. Rutins, Gunars J. Seestedt, Donald L. Singh, Harbans Smith, Nathaniel W.

Sobieszczyk, Thomas S. Steffan, Richard Thompson, Andrew R. Veit, Richard F. Walnut, Aylward J. West, Niels

Graduate Students enrolled (1969-70)

Adviser

Allen, James R. Hordon

Bird, Richard R. Brush

Boots. Barry N. Getis

Caprio, Raphael J. Carey

Chalfant, James S. Getis

Dixon, Lyle A. Brush

Dobrowolski, Alex Schofer

Dunlap, Donald V. Brush

Duttenhofer, Stanley A. Schofer

Farran, Arthur W. Brush

Fitzpatrick, Eugene Brush

Frakt, Steven Carey

Gebhard, Hans Dieter Getis

Goodale, Ronald J. Hordon

Hanson, Richard A Wacker

Hinshalwood, Sophia A. Brush

Hochman, Richard A. Wacker

Karwoski, Thomas J. Wacker

Lamminen, Toivo L. Getis

Lenz, Ralph D. Getis

Lewis, Thomas R. Brush

Longacre, David W. Brush

Margulis, Harry Getis

Martin, Theodore F. Wacker

McCracken, Henry E. Jr. Weigend

McGaw, Laurie A. Schofer

Merk, Graham Carey

Muller, Peter O. Getis

Nordstrom, Karl F. Psuty

O’Brien, Raymond J. Wacker

Obudho, Robert A. Carey

Prothero, Michael B. Psuty

Prusinski, Paul Weigend

Robertson, David K. Psuty

Rockman, Paul L. Psuty

Seestedt, Donald L. Brush

Shimshak, Mark J. Weigend

Singh, Harbans Brush

Sobieszczyk, Thomas S. Weigend

Thompson, Andrew R. Wacker

Walnut, Aylward J. Brush

Weitz, Richard Schofer

West, Niels Carey

Wicker, Barbara W. Weigend

Ziegenfus, Robert C. Hordon

Graduate Students enrolled (1977-78)

Basso, Raymond J. Byers, Henry David Dischner

Dresslove, Myles R. Esser, Anthony J. Feldman, William H. Fisher, Susan Foresta, Ronald A. Forlini, Tony

Gares, Paul Gifford, Philip Goller, Hedy

Hinshalwood, Sophia A.

Hintz, Carl

Horvath, Mark L. Horzepa, George Jones, Walter Kecskes, Robert A. Kellner, William D. Kennedy, Annye C. Koch, Joyce

Kun-Szabo, Steve Lamoureux, Lucien Levitsky, Dimitry Lewis, Thomas R. Jr. Maloney, Sharon L. Marlinski, David McCarthy, Robert McVicker, Catherine M. Miernik, Michael Miller, Gurdon

Morris, David W. Jr. Nakashima, Lindsay Neuman, Nancy Novick, Barbara O’Neill, Ted Perykasz, John P. Peterson, Albert S. Plumly, Francis L. Posten, Stephen E. Rizick, Steven L. Rogers, William H. Sabrin, Murray Salit, Leslie

Schwartz, Lawrence C. Seligman, Ralph B. Sherman, Douglas Smith, Daniel R. Smith, Thomas

Spang, Aletha A. Staehle, William J. Tracy, Celeste A. Urrico, Ralph Wasserman, Lary P.

Weil, Richard Wunker, David Ylvisaker, Peter Ziegenfus, Robert

Graduate Students enrolled (May 1983)

Alaimo, Deborah Ann Barnes, Kent Brian Bolen, William John Cabelli, Paul Andre Callahan, Jeffrey S. Dahl, Robert F.

Day, Donna L. Davidoff, Barbara J. Dischner, David M. Douglas, Wayne Goss Frankenthaler, Victor Frumkin-Rosengaus, M. Gares, Paul Andre Greenwood, Deborah Hays, Jean Ann Hendrickson, Helen H. Hintz, Carl Edward Holst, Robert Fred Hooja, Geeta Puri Humiston, Nancy H. Iverson, Eve Helene Kelly, Charles J. Kennedy, Annye Carol Kun-Szabo, Steve M. J Lipman, Edward V. Jr. Mason, Antony Burgess Mason, Robert J. McCluskey, James M. McVicker, Catherine Nakashima, Lindsay D. Neuman, Nancy Carol Phillips, Edward A. Phillips, Jonathan D. Rembish, Joanne

Salit, Leslie S. Sams, Kathy May Schneider, Dona F. Shatin, Dianne Siskind, Amy Beth

Slothower, Lenore A. Smith, Lester B. Jr. Smith, Thomas Patrick Snyder, Shirley Ann Urrico, Ralph Louis Warner, Langdon Sizer Wasserman, Larry Paul Waterstone, Marvin Weil, Richard Harry Wiley, James E. Wilson, David

Yesko, Jill Rachel

Geography Graduate students enrolled October 1983

Alaimo, Deborah Ann Barnes, Kent Brian Bolen, William John Brosius, James E. Cabelli, Paul Andre Callahan, Jeffrey S. Cane, Patricia Davidoff, Barbara J. Day, Donna L. Douglas, Wayne Goss Dudar, Helen F. Frankenthaler, Victor

Frumkin-Rosengaus, M. Gares, Paul Andre Greenwood, Deborah Hendrickson, Helen H. Hintz, Carl Edward Holst, Robert Fred Hooja, Geeta Puri Humiston, Nancy H. Keoughan, Sidney F. Lipman, Edward V. Jr. Mason, Antony Burgess Mason, Robert J. McCluskey, James M. McVicker, Catherine Nakashima, Lindsay D. Neuman, Nancy Carol Phillips, Edward A. Phillips, Jonathan D. Salit, Leslie S.

Sams, Kathy May Schulte, Karen N. Schwartz, Alex F. Shatin, Dianne Slothower, Lenore A. Smith, Lester B. Jr. Smith, Thomas Patrick Snyder, Shirley Ann Twine, Kevin Peter Vogel, Joanne

Warner, Langdon Sizer Wasserman, Larry Paul Wiley, James E. Wilson, David

Yesko, Jill Rachel Zripko, Nicholas P.

Geography Graduate students enrolled October 1997-98

Name	Degree sought	Adviser
Asplen, Ralph	MA
Baptista, Sandra	MA	Rudel
Bellows, Anne	Ph.D.	Regulska
Boyd, Paul	Ph.D.	Wacker
Bradford, Alexandre	MA	Popper, Frank
Brocco, Michelle	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Center, Joseph	Ph.D.	Lake
Colvard, Charles R. (Chuck)	MS	Lathrop
Corti, Kenneth	MA	Nordstrom
Craghan, Michael	Ph.D.	Psuty
De Filippis, James	Ph.D.	Lake
De Plaen, Renaud	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Devine, Neal	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Dobosiewicz, John	Ph.D.	Nordstrom
Dye, George W.	MS	Robinson
Donovan, Robert Emery, Marla	MS Ph.D.	Mitchell
Engel-DiMauro, Salvatore	Ph.D.	Regulska
Espinosa, Maria Fernanda	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson	Ph.D.	Smith
Goff, Max	MS	Robinson
Golojuch, Carolyn	MA	Hordon
Gowar, Cheryl	Ph.D.	Smith
Hackworth, Jason	Ph.D.	Smith
Hardoy, Jorgelina	MA	Mitchell
Hasse, John	MA
Henges, Christine	MA
Hess, Susanne	MS	Robinson
Hildebrant, Barbara	Ph.D.	Wacker
Holden, Meg	MA
Holzer, Margaret	MA
Hunter, Richard W.	Ph.D.	Wacker
Ishiyama, Noriko	Ph.D.	Smith
Jankov, Linda	MA
Kasbarian, John	Ph.D.	Smith
Kendra, James	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Kilian, James (Ted)	Ph.D.	Regulska
Kim, Seongin Liu, Laura	Ph.D. Ph.D.	Smith
Liu, Xiaohang	Ph.D.
Maantay, Juliana	Ph.D.	Smith
Maina, Peter	MA	Lathrop
Matthews, Elaine	Ph.D.	Robinson
Mikhailova, Anastasia	Ph.D.	Robinson
Mitchell, Karen	MS	Popper, Frank
Mossler, Mariana	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Nichols, Karen	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Oza, Rupal	Ph.D.	Holcomb
Patterson, Karen	Ph.D.	Lake
Patterson, Melina	MA	Holcomb
Raberg, Lena	MA.	Mitchell
Ramsay, Bruce	Ph.D.	Robinson

Reid, Laura
Ren, Jun	Ph.D.	Psuty
Rothenberg, Tamar Y.	Ph.D.	Smith
Schreyer, John	MS
Stewart, Andrew	Ph.D.	Smith
Taneja, Bansuri	MA	Mitchell
Vandemark, Lisa	Ph.D.	Nordstrom
Wee, Hong-Ling	Ph.D.	Lathrop
Whitelaw, Mary Jean	Ph.D.	Wacker
Zoleta-Nantes, Doracie	Ph.D.	Mitchell

Geography Graduate students enrolled 1998-99

Name	Degree sought	Adviser
Baptista, Sandra	MA	Rudel
Bertolatus, Robert	MA	Lathrop
Boyd, Paul	Ph.D.	Wacker
Bradford, Alexandre	MA	Popper, Frank
Brocco, Michelle	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Center, Joseph	Ph.D.	Lake
Cieri, Marie	Ph.D.	Smith
Colangelo-Bryan, Jeremy	Ph.D.
Colvard, Charles R. (Chuck)	Ph.D.	Lathrop
Corti, Kenneth	MA	Nordstrom
Craghan, Michael	Ph.D.	Psuty
De Filippis, James	Ph.D.	Lake
De Plaen, Renaud	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Devine, Neal	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Dobosiewicz, John	Ph.D.	Nordstrom
Dye, George W.	MS	Robinson
Engel-DiMauro, Salvatore	Ph.D.	Regulska
Espinosa, Maria Fernanda	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Golojuch, Carolyn	MA	Hordon
Gowar, Cheryl	Ph.D.	Smith
Hackworth, Jason	Ph.D.	Smith
Hardoy, Jorgelina	MA	Mitchell
Hasse, John	Ph.D.
Henges, Christine	MA
Hess, Susanne	MS	Lathrop
Hildebrant, Barbara	Ph.D.	Wacker
Holzer, Margaret	MA	Robinson
Hunter, Richard W.	Ph.D.	Wacker
Ishiyama, Noriko	Ph.D.	Lake
Jankov, Linda K.	MA
Kasbarian, John	Ph.D.	Smith
Kendra, James	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Kilian, James (Ted) Kim, Seongin	Ph.D. Ph.D.	Regulska
Lee, Sangbum	Ph.D.
Liu, Laura	Ph.D.	Lake
Liu, Xiaohang	MA
Maantay, Juliana	Ph.D.	Smith
Matthews, Elaine	Ph.D.	Robinson
Mossler, Mariana	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Nichols, Karen	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Oza, Rupal	Ph.D.	Holcomb
Patterson, Karen	Ph.D.	Lake
Patterson, Melina Pendras, Jerome	Ph.D.	Holcomb
Raberg, Lena	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Ramsay, Bruce	Ph.D.	Robinson
Ren, Jun	Ph.D.	Psuty
Robinson, Verdie	MA
Schreyer, John	MS
Stewart, Andrew	Ph.D.	Smith

Taneja, Bansuri	MA	Schroeder
Vandemark, Lisa	Ph.D.	Nordstrom
Wee, Hong-Ling	Ph.D.	Andrews
Whitelaw, Mary Jean	Ph.D.	Wacker
Zoleta-Nantes, Doracie	Ph.D.	Mitchell

Geography Graduate students enrolled 1999-2000³⁸⁰

Name	Degree sought	Adviser
Albert, Katherine E.	MA	Schroeder
Baptista, Sandra	MA	Rudel
Bertolatus, Robert	MA	Lathrop
Boyd, Paul	Ph.D.	Wacker
Brocco, Michelle	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Center, Joseph	Ph.D.	Lake
Cieri, Marie	Ph.D.	Smith
Colangelo-Bryan, Jeremy	Ph.D.
Colvard, Charles R. (Chuck)	Ph.D.	Lathrop
Conway, Tenley	MS
Corti, Kenneth	MA	Nordstrom
Craghan, Michael	Ph.D.	Psuty
De Filippis, James	Ph.D.	Lake
De Plaen, Renaud	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Devine, Neal	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Dobosiewicz, John	Ph.D.	Nordstrom
Donovan, Robert	MS
Engel-DiMauro, Salvatore	Ph.D.	Regulska
Espinosa, Maria Fernanda	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Estilow, Thomas	MS
Falvo, Daniel	Ph.D.	Vayda
Fujita, Tetsushi	Ph.D.	Smith
Golojuch, Carolyn	MA	Hordon
Gowar, Cheryl	Ph.D.	Smith
Hackworth, Jason	Ph.D.	Smith
Hardoy, Jorgelina	MA	Mitchell
Hasse, John	Ph.D.
Henges, Christine	MA
Hess, Susanne	MS	Lathrop
Hildebrant, Barbara	Ph.D.	Wacker
Holzer, Margaret	MA	Robinson
Hunter, Richard W.	Ph.D.	Wacker
Ilal, Banu	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Ishiyama, Noriko	Ph.D.	Lake
Kasbarian, John	Ph.D.	Smith
Kendra, James	Ph.D.	Mitchell
Kilian, James (Ted)	Ph.D.	Regulska
Kim, Seongin	Ph.D.
Lee, Sangbum	Ph.D.
Levecchia, Andrew	MA	Nordstrom
Liu, Laura	Ph.D.	Lake
Maantay, Juliana	Ph.D.	Smith
Martinez, Raysa	MA
Matthews, Elaine	Ph.D.	Robinson
Mitteager, Wendy	Ph.D.	Nordstrom
Mossler, Mariana	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Nichols, Karen	Ph.D.	Schroeder
Oza, Rupal	Ph.D.	Holcomb

³⁸⁰ Degrees sought and Advisers may change before graduation. For example, Brocco and Ilal were not Mitchell’s students and did not complete Ph.Ds. Raberg completed a dissertation under the direction of Tom Rudel.

Patterson, Melina	Ph.D.	Holcomb
Pendras, Jerome
Poberezny, Gennadi	Ph.D.
Poulsen, Erika	Ph.D.
Raberg, Lena Ramsamy, Kavitha	Ph.D.	Mitchell Holcomb
Ramsay, Bruce	Ph.D.	Robinson
Ren, Jun	Ph.D.	Psuty
Robinson, Verdie	MA
Schreyer, John	MS
Stewart, Andrew	Ph.D.	Smith
Taneja, Bansuri	MA	Schroeder
Vandemark, Lisa	Ph.D.	Nordstrom
Villegas, Claudia
Wee, Hong-Ling	Ph.D.	Andrews
Whitelaw, Mary Jean	Ph.D.	Wacker
Zoleta-Nantes, Doracie	Ph.D.	Mitchell

Students enrolled in Geography Graduate Program³⁸¹

YEAR	STUDENTS ENROLLED
1967-68	40
1969-70	45
1972-73	41
1973-74	57
1974-75	64
1975-76	52
1976-77	49
1977-78	63
1978-79	68
1979-80	55
1980-81	62
1982-83	49
1997-98	62
1998-99	56
1999-20	65

³⁸¹ Data from two different sources that are incomplete and do not always agree: (1) Enrollment Reports from The Graduate School and (2) Annual Program membership compiled by the Department of Geography.

Appendix 34 Faculty Opinions:

A selection of Letters to the Editor and Opinion articles in Newspapers

Rutgers Geography faculty have sometimes directed their knowledge and expertise towards audiences outside of academic settings by making public statements about policy issues in letters or opinion articles that are carried by mass media outlets. A selection of these follows. The eight pieces by eight faculty members appeared at various times between 1971 and 2022.

Despite differences in subject matter and timing they demonstrate a high degree of consistency in the worldviews that informed them and the prescriptions they offered.

Whether articulated by social, economic, and political geographers concerned about urban issues, or by ecological minded geographers who focused on matters of environmental hazard, they share a concern to secure fair and just outcomes for residents of local communities well before such goals became preeminent in contemporary American political discourse.

Moreover, they look to government as a vehicle for securing such goals, in partnership with scientists and other experts whose role is to help equalize the scales by weighing in on the side of less privileged and less powerful local populations. They also lean toward holistic conceptions of problems as distinct from the specialized viewpoints of bureaucratic agencies and large organizations. In other words, they have a high degree of confidence in laypersons to reach their own conclusions and act in their own interests but stand ready to provide more specialized assistance to help negotiate shortcomings and biases in information that is pertinent to decision making.

These orientations have been common in academia during past eras though they have recently come under pressure from critics who espouse more directive roles and call for deeper seated or fundamental changes in arrangements of governance.

Letter to the Editor of the New York Times, from Arthur Getis, Professor of Geography, Rutgers University, July 2, 1971.

“Social justice may ultimately be a result of spatial justice, that is, the equitable location of sites for residential, commercial and industrial activities may be the organizing theme around which social justice evolves. I am moved to adopt this thesis after reading a number of articles in your newspaper on industries' flight to the suburbs, sometimes in the direction of a top executive's home. The potential injustice to our society of many of these moves is so large that it seems incomprehensible that government stands idly by while a handful (or fewer) of corporate decision-makers directly affect the well-being and familial stability of thousands of people who have no voice in the decision to relocate.

To make the paint clear, let me briefly suggest what effect a suburban move might have on a low-income inner-city resident. Faced with greatly increased commuting costs (in that he must remain in the city because he is unable to afford suburban housing or is excluded by the not-so-subtle racial exclusionary practices well-known in the suburbs), he is forced to find a new job in the city or go on welfare. Of course, many inner-city entrepreneurs are indirectly affected as they lose their reliable accounts.

It is time for government to develop inducements to industry to stay in the city. Controls on their movements must be in line with the realities of transportation and housing opportunities of all potential workers. My own preference is to use newly cleared land in the inner city for the development of subsidized industrial structures. In this way unrelenting sprawl may be harnessed and inner-city residents might have the job opportunities which would allow them to enter the housing market from a stronger position.”

Editorial about Bruce Newling in The Central New Jersey Home News, November 4, 1974, p.40. “Newling – for an independent mayor

On November 5, the voters of New Brunswick will go to the polls and elect one of three candidates as their mayor for the next two years. While the position of mayor in New Brunswick is not an individually powerful position, the major should be able to take an active and impartial stance in the search for feasible solutions to the city’s many pressing problems. In our view, the only candidate who can do this is Bruce Newling.

In the first place, Newling is the sole contender whose independence is unquestionable; thus, he is more likely to be impartial in studying and recommending various policy alternatives. He is a college professor who is not afraid to express his feelings that the university is encroaching upon the city. He is an expert on urban affairs who is not afraid to admit that the major industry in this city is too powerful. He is liberal who is no afraid to say that all change is not progress.

We are not suggesting that a major interest group such as Johnson and Johnson is merely looking out for its own selfish ends; rather, we disapprove of the totally blind faith that people seem to have in their enterprise. Business and government can work together; but in principle, neither should be allowed to totally influence the other, whether for the city’s good or not. Thus, we see in Bruce Newling a watchdog mayor who will help to perpetuate our traditional system of checks and balances.

Finally, Newling has come out strongly against Route 18 and has come up with valid alternatives, such as staggering work hours, widening Landing Lane Bridge and developing more mass transit. He recognizes the significance of New Brunswick’s residential community in a city where business concerns take precedence over adequate housing, recreational facilities and individual needs. Bruce Newling will watch out for the needs of residents to whom New Brunswick is their only source of work, education, recreation and homelife.”

Letter to the Editor of The Rutgers Daily Targum from Associate Professor Briavel Holcomb, Department of Community Development, Rutgers University, January 30, 1980, p. 4:

“Since I am misquoted in the January 18^th article on New Brunswick’s revitalization next to an exhortation to correct you when you are wrong, I will! The gist of my comments were accurately reported – I think it will be increasingly difficulty for low income people to find housing in New Brunswick as revitalization proceeds, and while relatively few residents are directly displaced by new construction, increasing rents and low vacancy rates exacerbate the housing shortage.

I did not say that “the middle class is leaving the city for Woodbridge and East Brunswick.” I said that in the ‘Fifties and ‘Sixties many commercial and retail establishments left as malls and other retail developments were built in those suburban townships. The middle class isn’t leaving New Brunswick today, in fact the beginnings of a return are evident. The Eighties will probably see the gentrification of at least some city neighborhoods.

I did not attribute the failure to attract business in the Sixties to the elimination of housing units. Urban Renewal was a program to clear slums and attract businesses. The “slums” of New Brunswick were cleared, some residents relocated in public housing but others were displaced to other neighborhoods and cities. However, as in many other cities with Urban Renewal, subsequent commercial expansion did not occur and much of the cleared land has remained vacant ever since.

I do not oppose revitalization. I would strongly support a plan for revitalization which provided jobs with futures (not hotel chambermaids and bell hops), decent housing at affordable costs (not $100,000 townhouses with two bedrooms), and effective education for those 5,000 citizens of New Brunswick too young to vote.”

Letter from William H. Renwick and Hiliary Lambert Renwick to the Editor of The Central New Jersey Home News, July 7, 1983, p. 27.

“Why try to make the city look like a shopping mall?

The city fathers’ vision of the new New Brunswick has long been clear to readers of The Home News. For the visitor, the fountain at the corner of George Street and Livingston Avenue provides a clear display of their philosophy.

Fountains in cities around the world serve as places for people, especially children, to enjoy the water, splash and play in its coolness on a summer day.

But in New Brunswick such activity is prohibited.

Even taking off one’s shoes and cooling one’s feet in the water is grounds for a stern rebuke from passing police officers. Why are these things not allowed on a hot summer day?

New Brunswick is competing with the suburban malls for shoppers’ dollars. That is why they remade George Street in the image of a mall – recorded music, bricks and all. Shoppers certainly don’t play in fountains in malls, and no such behavior is permitted at New Brunswick’s fountain.

Cities, or neighborhoods, are deemed attractive because they have distinctive characteristics. Certain sections of Chicago, Washington, Boston, New York and other cities have special appeal stemming from their architecture, culture and/or daily routines.

If they all looked like shopping malls, with shopping mall people doing shopping mall things, then why not go to a shopping mall?

After all, shopping malls are air conditioned and the parking is free.”

Opinion piece by Michael Greenberg and Dona Schneider on “The cleanup we need”, Bergen Record. August 9. 1993, A–13.

“The United States is expected to spend $750 billion, and potentially more than a trillion dollars, over the next 30 years cleaning up hazardous waste sites around the nation that pose the most serious environmental and health threats. This far exceeds the $1.6 billion allocated in 1980 when Congress mandated the cleanup effort. Not surprisingly, given the skyrocketing costs, the program had come increasingly under attack, and many of the objections are not easily ignored.

One particularly effective attack has been mounted by those who believe that waste cleanup is competing with other public health programs for support. Such opponents say the expected health effects of so-called “toxic time bombs” have been difficult to find. Moreover, they’re quick to argue that the billions spent on cleaning up hazardous waste sites would more effectively prevent disease and injury if redirected to programs that reduce the use of addictive products, increase the use of seat belts, or prevent worker exposures.

Others question the environmental benefit. After a cleanup, sites in rural and suburban areas often look like well-groomed golf courses, but urban sites show little improvement. In urban areas, the fenced-off sites typically sit in deteriorated neighborhoods or are surrounded by so many other industrial and commercial buildings that it is difficult to believe cleaning up the hazardous waste site will attract new investments.

Indeed, when we asked New Jersey residents living near hazardous waste sites to rate their neighborhoods, we were surprised to find neighborhoods with the most dangerous toxic waste sites got the highest quality rating.

This unexpected result can only be explained by looking at other factors that affect neighborhood life. Factories and sewage treatment plants and the odors both produce, run-down housing, trash in the streets, noise from trains or airplanes, and traffic congestion were more bothersome to residents than the hazardous waste site.

The solution, however, is not to totally abandon the hazardous waste program. There’s little doubt that some sites pose a serious health and environmental problem we’d be foolish to ignore. Rather, cleanup efforts should be linked to programs that improve the quality of life for the whole community.

Where will the additional funds for this neighborhood redevelopment program come from? One possibility is to find projects that appeal to several government agencies, which will then independently fund portions of it. A second option is for Congress to set aside special funds. A third possibility is for the Environmental Protection Agency to divert cleanup funds to neighborhood development.

Each of these possibilities requires Congress and the EPA to set priorities based on total neighborhood needs rather than the more narrow concerns of health and environmental threats.

We urge the EPA to join its remediation efforts with the neighborhood redevelopment interests of other government and private organizations. It will do much to increase the cot-effectiveness and political acceptability of the hazardous waste program.”

Letter to the editor from James K. Mitchell, about “Responsible Science,” New York Times, December 13, 2009. < https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/opinion/14iht-edlet.html?searchResultPosition=70>

“The recent controversy over leaked e-mails among some climate-change scientists should be no more than a momentary diversion for the public. No matter their content, there remains the fact that almost all scientific measurements suggest the world is experiencing accelerated trends in temperature, precipitation and sea level rise that are truly exceptional for their speed and comprehensiveness.

Citizens do not need a Ph.D. to understand there is a problem that ultimately will affect everyone.

Individuals must decide if the evidence warrants action to solve the problem. My guess is that most people would find the scientific community irresponsible if we did not publicize science showing these trends. Most people would hold our scientific leaders accountable if they did nothing but wait for all the data to agree.

If we were 100 percent certain we would be God. It would be the rare scientist who claims that degree of omniscience.”

Opinion piece by James K. Mitchell printed in The Record (Hackensack), February 16, 2010, p. A9.

“How TV tilts our perceptions about Haiti

How should viewers of television and video images become more discriminating consumers of news about disasters in places of which they have little direct knowledge? Such careful evaluation will give distant viewers a better sense of what they would experience if actually on site, and will help to foster a sense of perspective about events.

For instance, heart-rending images of human suffering might drive people to donate more than is needed for first-aid and medical care while short-changing recovery work that, if not as urgently pursued, could result in broader long-term suffering. A more careful evaluation of what we see will help us better channel our donations to the most relevant humanitarian organizations and to support the most appropriate programs for relief and recovery.

The following suggested guidelines may help audiences navigate this sometimes-confusing world of news reporting. We might begin by querying the TV and video pictures themselves.

First, let’s remind ourselves that such images are neither comprehensive, impartial nor objective, however well-intentioned their producers might be. Most natural disasters are not totalizing phenomena; their effects are neither uniform nor all encompassing. Whoever wields a camera selects, frames and focuses the shots, usually to highlight a particular subject. For example, in the backgrounds of many videos taken in Port-au-Prince there are streets where a majority of buildings still stand even though one in the foreground has collapsed. In other videos there are lines of steadily moving automobiles and people proceeding independently and purposefully; these too are part of post-earthquake Port-au-Prince and need to be considered alongside focal scenes of crushed vehicles and felled victims.

Consistency

Second, it is important to check for consistency between visual images and oral commentary. CNN broadcast a panoramic video of the city taken by distraught residents of a more affluent neighborhood in the hills above Port-au-Prince, moments after the first shocks. An authentically breathless voice told us “the world is coming to an end.” Yet no one remarked on the fact that the dust cloud raised by collapsing buildings did not blanket the entire city.

In a separate oral report carried on National Public Radio, a bureau chief for Time magazine described flying into the city from a U.S. Navy ship and realizing that the abjectly poor slums of Cite Soleil were largely intact. He contrasted this with the concrete block homes and businesses of upward aspiring Haitians, lying in ruins on hillsides and in areas near the city center. This skilled observer’s summation of his citywide view was more informative than images of specific, local sites.

Third, information from people grounded in the stricken area can be a corrective to flawed observations by recent arrivals. One news clip from Haiti featured a North American doctor who had worked in Port-au-Prince for more than a decade before the quake. He underscored the resilience of people there and suggested that widespread reports of cooperative behavior among victims were no surprise.

Meanwhile, others, perhaps less familiar with the city, suggested that impulses toward violence and looting were seething under the surface, just waiting to burst forth if “security” was not maintained. The history of disaster reporting has many examples of stereotypical expectations on the part of the incoming reporters or editors, that vary from actual conditions.

Different perspective

Fourth, professional reporters and video technicians usually operate from safer and more privileged locations than those of disaster victims. Scenes of disaster impacts taken near these bases are more likely to appear on the evening news than are those shot from elsewhere. In Haiti a disproportionate number of reports were filed from Petionville, the well provisioned home of Port-au-Prince’s elite, and from the city’s international airport, a primary access point for relief supplies, newsworthy visitors and emergency managers. As a result, patterns of damage and reporting are uneven and not necessarily coincident.

In a world where the overseas reporting staffs of many broadcast media outlets are shrinking and there is a greater reliance on information volunteered by laypeople armed with their own visual telecommunications devices, the news-viewing population needs to beef up its skills for evaluating the uneven quality of what we will be seeing.”

Letter to the editor from J. Kenneth Mitchell, about “Rethinking building in storm-prone areas,”

New York Times, October 8, 2022, p. A23.

<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/opinion/letters/hurricane-ian-rebuilding.html>

Re “Former C.I.A. Director Worries for the Sanibel He Helped Shape” (On Washington column, Oct. 5):

“Porter Goss’s efforts at Sanibel Island represent one experiment that tried to balance environmental protection with economic viability. It may not have been to everyone’s taste but it produced an outcome that contrasts with the overbuilt state of most Florida shorefront communities. It would be unfair to fault Mr. Goss for not anticipating the degree to which climate change and sea level rise would jeopardize even eco-friendly development projects.

But one lesson that emerges from the Sanibel experience is that what was visionary in the past may not be acceptable in the future. Post-Ian redevelopment needs to take account of social justice considerations, including the responsibilities of the privileged elite toward others who are less fortunate.

Such matters did not loom large in public decision-making when Mr. Goss began his work.”

APPENDIX 35

This set of suggestions was penned by a visiting faculty member from the United Kingdom at some point during the academic year 1980-81.

Rutgers College Geography Curriculum – a view from outside Submitted by Robin Flowerdew

These comments are based on only partial knowledge of the Rutgers system and on my own conceptions of what geography courses should be about, which may not be entirely relevant here.

There seems to me to be far too much rigidity, too many courses required, and too little freedom of choice for geography Why physical geographers should be compelled to take Location of Economic Activity, or cultural geographers to take Spatial Data Management and Analysis, is beyond me. There is a good case for getting everybody to do at least one semester of physical geography and one of human geography, and a reasonable case for making Quantitative Methods and perhaps Principles of Cartography compulsory. Beyond that, why not just let geographers take any five geography courses? All our courses are (or should be) worth doing, and most students, with advice, will choose sensibly.

It seems unbalanced to have two semesters of physical geography at the 100 level and an Introduction to Geography course which is supposed to include both Physical and Human. Human geography deserves equal treatment! I would suggest a) Introduction to Geography at the 100 level, leading into 200 level courses in Physical and Human (two semesters of each, perhaps,) or, better, b) one semester 100 level courses, Introduction to Physical Geography and Introduction to Human Geography, followed by appropriate 200 level courses.

The World Cultural Regions concept seems outdated in concept to me. With the rather similar Culture and Environment course, this approach dominates the 200 level. I would suggest a 200 level course on The Geography of World Problems or something similar, combining features of World Cultural Regions and The Geographical Background of World Affairs, and a 300 level Cultural Geography course, to pick up themes like cultural ecology and diffusion.
The Location of Economic Activity course at present is an abstract location theory course, and should be 400 level. There should be a 200 level course in Economic Geography or Social Geography or (This is the first university I’ve experienced where neither is taught.)

Several new courses have been suggested, many of which could be viable if faculty interest These include Historical Geography, Political Geography, Literature and Geography, Geography of the Future.

Student advising could be shared by some other faculty members, to reduce John Brush’s load.

Other courses taught by geographers in Human Ecology, Environmental Resources, Urban Studies and Community Development should be cross-listed and accepted as part of the major scheme.

Urban Geography should be a 300-level course and should feed into Urban Planning courses offered at Livingston.
Students should be encouraged to take Quantitative Methods by their third year, so that senior level courses can build on material taught there.

Suggested restructuring:

100 level – *Intro to Physical G.,*Intro to Human G.

200 level - *Conservation, Econ./Social Geog., Geog. Of World Problems, Second-year Physical G., New Ideas in Geog.

300 level - *New Jersey, Population G., Cultural G., Principles of Cartography, Medical G., Quantitative Methods, Urban Geog., Africa, South Asia.

400 level – Political G., Remote Sensing, Advanced Cartography (including Computer Cartography), Coastal Geomorphology, Transportation G., Fluvial Processes, Cult. Geog. of the US, Economic Location Theory,

Historical G., Geog. Problems.

NOTE: New courses underlined; substantially modified ones with dashed line.

*Asterisks indicate courses to be taught every semester.

APPENDIX 36

Geography Majors – An Interim Accounting

The accompanying lists contain names of 866 students who graduated with baccalaureate degrees (B.A. or B.S.) in Geography between 1950 and 2021. It is an incomplete compilation because data for certain years are missing (1999-2001, 2004, 2010, 2022-present). Information comes mainly from Rutgers College Yearbooks (The Scarlet Letter) and “Degrees Granted Department of Geography” – an in-house compilation produced during the 1990s, and an Alumni Relations/Rutgers Foundation list of Alumni Geography majors dated 11/24/98, which provides names of Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral graduates from 1950 to mid-1994. Information for the years 2005-2021 comes mainly from Convocation pamphlets produced during those years.

Assuming that missing year data can be extrapolated from existing records it is likely that at least 100 more students graduated during the missing years. This gives an estimated total of c. 950-1000 baccalaureate students graduated since the Geography program began at Rutgers in 1949.

Typically, the Geography program included around 60 undergraduate majors during the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1990s and throughout most of the 2000s and 2010s there were approximately 20 graduating seniors each year.

1950

Davidoski, Lawrence L. Mercready, Robert B. Muntz, Alfred Philip

1951

Giorloff, Irene (NEBIKER) Smith, Patricia (nee Knapp) Devaney, Francis John McCoy, Robert N.

1952

Freese, Robert T. Lutes, Ralph C. Reed, William E.

Woolfson, Irving (Ira) Pincus

1953

Latourette, J. McLaren, James Nebiker, Walter A. Jr.

1954

Peltz, Robert Honda, Raymond S.

1955 (missing)

1956

Hipko, Gordon W. Laucius, Bernard R. Ritter, Russell Bruce Daniel Horodysky

1957

Ungemah, Douglas F. Fish, Wayne T. Kirkwood, Donald A. Tahl, Richard M.

1958

Ververides, George M. Battafarano, Ronald G. Bolen, William J. E. Higgins, Thomas F. Jr. Muller, Robert A. Roberts, Edward W.

1959

Veldof, John J.

1960

DeLucia, Alan A. Buckley, Steven F. Farrah, Morton Jorgensen, Arthur Edward Lynch, John J.

Simko, Robert A.

1961

Ginman, Richard A.

1962

Crane, Donald Arthur Rannells, Edward W.

1963

Brazel, Anthony J. Finkelson, Howard Marich, Bruce E. Nordstrom, Karl F.

1964

Arnold, William J. Kirschberger, Reid P. McLin, Russell C. (AB)

1965

Bruch, Nancy Chadwck, John T. Dhliwayo, Daniel M. Lapinski, Richard E. Lizanetz, Roderic N. Osworth, Richard Z. Siame, Simeo Benson

Steffan, Richard Charles, Jr. Stolarick, Michael A.

1966

Bird, Richard Raymond Dettmen, Herman W. Finkelstein, Howard K. Frakt, Steven B.

Futey, Andrew J. Kover, William S . Lougeay, Ray (AB) Parke, John R. Volk, Herman

1967

Brown, Alan G. Caprio, Raphael J. Caselli, Philip F. Crist, Gary E. Cymore, James R. Filipski, Edward R. Jr. Jones, Edmund Robert

Kaplan, Michael Lewis Lawshe, Robert W. Mardo, Richard Joseph May, Alfred Michael Moschel, Richard S. Murphy, Robert J. Sedlmeyer, Erich J. Szablewski, Steven J.

1968

Cursay, Frank George Gunckel, Fred James Layton, Joseph J. Loper, James R. Montgomery, Russell E. Ott, Edgar A. Shimshak, Mark J.

1969

Danner, Brent L. Dering, Ronald A. Efsen, Jakob Fedeyko, Joseph K. Higgins, Joseph T. Jones, Walter Julian, James F. Kalkstein, Laurence Miller, George Monte, Judith A. Peake, Jeffrey S.

1970

Brannon, Edgard B. Jr.

Berry, Douglas K.

Cornwell, Mark E.

Ewen, Charles B.

Gerdes, Robert S.

Matreyek, George M.

Toniolo, Joseph M.

Wiley, James E.

1971

Barlow, John Frederic Bauer, John R. Bielen, Kenneth G.

Brown, Marilyn (Pol Sci) (AB) Daiker, Carl D.

Devine, Kevin A. Erikson, Robert D. Helming, David S. Malcolm, Bruce A. Pizzano, Arthur E. Jr. Spiro, Louis M. Stockwell, William F. Yacenda, Francis J.

1972

Auermuller, F. Jr. Bartner, Jay Bruce Burton, Randall J. Esq. DeCourt, Paul S. Farrell, Timothy J. Frederick, Carl Hochman, Steven H. Jankel, Eric R. MaGrann, Mark McNally, Craig J. Meiswinkle, David R.

Moskowitz, Barry T. Esq.

Schrieks, VWilliam J.

1973

Anderson, Scott W. Bonnano, John J. Cashman, Dale O. Conte, Nicholas J. Imbemba, Gabriel A. Petrics, C. William

1974

Brown, Timothy H. (AB) Donhauser, Kenneth P. Ferraro, Pasquale V. Filippelli, John N. Forlini, Anthony V. Horzepa, George

Perry, Steven R. Pytler, Theodore S. Jr. Sikora, Patrice J. Strip, Michael Paul Ucci, Louis A.

1975

Anderson, Bruce F. Bernstein, David Bianchi, Leonard Gary Cahill, Paul J. Gascard, Deborah A. Hill, George G. Jr.

Jones, Edward S.

Milewski. Anne (MURPHY) Rack, Thomas P.

Sievert, Robert E. Strip, Michael

1976

Brush, Steven Guest, Brian W. Hirtes, Philip G.

Parisio, Nancy Nocitra Peters, Philip A. Pillsbury, Martin K. III Reinhardt, John R. Staehle, William J. Jr. Stahl, Monte H.

1977

Behnke, George Cucknell, Robert Cringoli, Michael Fuller, Lewis M. Grimaldi, Gianni John J. Hernandez, Carlos E. Rayner, Thomas O. Sobol, Martin

1978

Bianowski, Edward James Heinrich, Helen H. Marchwinski, Thomas W. Stevens, Gary E.

Wilusz, Daniel A. Wong, Peggy Cheung

1979

Bongard, Robert Bonner, Anne E. Braco, Marcy Weitz Braun, Olivia L. Coyne, Jeffrey Davidson, Pamela A. Diamond, Joshua R. Eller, Kalman Gilbert, Jonathan S. Grant, Ludmila Jerothe, Douglas J. Kuzma, Ronald J. Lung, Olivia

Peter, Philip A. Picot, David Philip Schlingman, John W. Siegel, Michael

1980

Cass, Gene L. Desilets. Julie A.

Fiumara, Michael A. Esq.

Johnson, Diane M.

Kaplan, David S.

Lawlor, Deborah Ann Mossa, Joann

Shatin, Dianne Trachtenberg, Michael H. VanFleet, Paul Earl, Jr.

Weimers, Patricia Lloyd Yesko, Jill Rachael E.

1981

Agrifolio, Joseph V. Allan, Glen W. Barrett, James

Buhler, Susan Elizabeth Diaz, William E. Douglas, Wayne D. Feeney, Thomas F.

Foyil-Goodwin, Sandra L. Frankenthaler, Victor P. Harrison, Peter A. Hendricks, Sandra L. Koft, Daniel B.

Kurek, Joseph C. Soules, Suzanne W. Spillman, Alicia Jean Timony, Mary B. Vaughan, Deon Zalinsky, Mary B.

1982

Cuccia, Michael I. DeLoretto, Carol J. Gangemi, Edward M. Gilbert, Jonathan S. Greenwood, Deborah L. Hollan, Mark C. Kerwien, Craig J. Moritz, Maureen Oesman, John W. Plunkett, Barbara E. Presley, Patrice

Reed, Leonard J. Regan, Francis X. Soika, Michael D. Trelease, Timothy J. Zrybko, Raymond J.

1983

Convery, Joseph P. Dumas, Denise Grande, Charles G. Hidu, Gary R. Hutton, Peter A. Lee, John C. McDermott, Carol J.

McMullen, William S. Miller, Steven Ray Moran, Gary M.

Roth, David Adam Schreyer, Craig N. Van Fleet, Paul E. Van Olden, Glen L.

1984

Bedoya, Gina A. Cannon, Barbara A. Donchez, Stephen

Giouvanis, Thephrastos I. Landry, Todd A. Lombardo, Lisa C. Marshall, David Noel Noone, Gary J.

Popolillo, Cynthia L. Pronio, Michelle A. Vassar, John M. Weber, Jacob F. Woody, Raymond J. Jr.

1985

Beaugard, Lily Ann Belli, Eugene

Fox, Ellen Gutzat, William Horn, Thomas J.

Matley, Theodore M. McShane-Fox, Ellen Nevins, Ira J. Schooley, John C. Shakir, Monteil Shaliha

Weismantel, Matthew J.

1986

Anderson, Michael H. Arancio, Alexander S. Behroozi, Cyrus

Burnett, Anthony J. 1988 Baboghlian, Vigen Debenedette, Mark A. Francis, Michael L. Jr.

Gutzat, William Frederick Lawryk, Nicholas J. Nudelmann, Karl Henry O’Donnell, Eileen E. Pfeiffer, John F.

Resh, Michael Stephen Warren, Thomas Apiluck Zain, Robert

1987

Auriemma, John Cane, Patricia D. Garcia, Gerson M.

Gasprich, James (and MS 1994) Glantzman, Adam Michael Grennen, Kevin John

Logan, James J. Markle, John M. Moore, Clifford E. Nevius, David Edward

Powollik (Doel), Barbara M. Rakow, Gary Steven Rumpp, James H. Jr.

Ryan, Kathleen Sills, Robert W.

Travers, William Robert Weiner, Jay

1988

Baboghlian, Vigen O. Butterhof, Elaine Renee Dansby, David

Dawn, Anna K. Ege, Todd P. Hulik, Janice L.

Jakubovic, Deborah S. Jaskula, Brian W. Kalbach, Janice Kresnowsky, William J. Louie, Benson Kuey Muen Lugo, Lewis A. Jr.

Millan, Lewis Mogil, Mark A. Muldrow, Robert Murphy, Robert S.

Nelson, William Allen Rogers, Carmela Dalia Rothman, Thomas M. Sa, Dina C.

Szeglin, Christopher Wulff, Thomas David

1989

Chandler, Phoebe H. Drollinger, Michael T. Garcia, Ana Isel

High, Vernon D. Hoadley, Darah L. Kapp, Joseph P. Klingerman, Kenneth D. Majorossy, Carole M.

Spies, Theresa E. (also MA 1991) Svevar, John C.

Thomas, Todd A. Morrow, Jill L.

1990

Grieco, Glenn J. McNair, Naomi Ramirez, Gervasio, T. Reilly, David Reynolds, James P. Sanders, Jill L.

Sun, Denis K. Tate, Kristine A. Vliet, Naomi M. Wilson, Mark T.

1991

Barrios, Alice M. Bognar, John A. Bugge, Russell Crowley, Michael F.

Cusano, Jeffrey (also MA 1994) DeLuca, Anthony M.

Frendak, Diane K. Friend, Biffin K. Harrison, Peter A. Hary, Thomas E. Janos, John A . Jones, Ann T. Kao, Rita Y.

Keehbler, Donna K. Kirschner, Kim E. Lange, Darren F. LaShell, David L. Niesz, Karen Ponasse, Philippe P. Rothauser, Kevin C. Taylor, Felicity M.

Yarson, Lawrence M. III

1992

Bearison, Brad E. Chaudhary, Shazia A. Cioffi, Michelle N. Delosa, Michael Dette, Gregory J. Dingle, Joy C.

Flynn, Bonnie Fragiacomo, Laura Gilbert, Eileen P. Harding, Richard A . Jacobs, Stanley G. Kokoska, Stephen M. Panas, Richard C. Presley, Patrice Rubin, Nancy F. Sacks, Douglas G. Scrivens, Chris Sprigle, Michael I. Strotz, Elaine P. Volkmer, Paul E. Walp, Carl E. Jr.

Ward, Christophe P. Wilson, Mark T.

1993

Berger, Mark K. Bremer, Elise M. Carlos, Veronica J. Dette, Gregory

Gaiszewski-Klenk, Karen Gordon, Steven J.

Harris, David C. Hong, Hyunki Jay Hopson, Susan Jayasuriya, Don R. Jenkins, Brian A . Knopp, Vera M. Manning, Robert J. Marzano, Jane Patel, Nikita R. Pergolizzi, Laura J. Rooth, Jennifer Santini, Alexandro Whitesell, Wendi J.

1994

Bayer, Greg S. Choudhury, Zabed Cortes, Erik E. Davenport, Michael J. Devlin, Sean P. Edwards, James J. Gacser, David E. Greene, Michael R. Heacock, James C. O’Neil, Sharon M. Persson, Susan L. Pew, Kelly L. Piepszak, Ellen C. Poli, Brandon M. (see:

https://www.newspapers.com/image/144354352/?terms=Brandon%20Poli&match=1) Pruess, Douglas R.

Ritchie, Ryan P. Robertson, George Schleifer, Douglas M. Schwass, Danielle C. Vaughan, Peter M. Williamson, Douglas A.

1995

Bavuso, Donald S. Bayruns, Edmund B. Bottari, Danielle Bradley, Daniel R. Capko, Christopher Castello, Thomas J Cheeseman, Alison L. Cleere, Mark R. Glamkowski, Edward J. Gordon, Sharon Heacock, James Kotkin, Jeremy S. Lane, Barry T. Lehmann, Peter C. Limongello. Carmen J. Marzano, Jane C. McNulty, David J. Moraller, Barry A. Nikolic, Nicola Richardson, Peter C. Roberts, Terence P. Souza, Suzanne C. Vaughan, Peter M. Westover, Dana

Wohr, Robert K.

1996

Ahmed, Narjis Aquino, Patricia B. Barrett, Joseph J. Brewer, Kristen M. Buell, Honor M. Bulmer, Keith R. Cha, Soomee

Corradino, Christophe B. Davies, Steven Deangelis, Michael J. Lager, Leigh E. Marshall, Timothy J. Minott, Edith L.

Scotti, Jason M. Simak, John D. Tamburro, Linda A. Tillou, Karen B.

1997

Alosio, Kenneth L. Califano Paul P. Caputi, Carolyn M. Egan, Erin P. Fleming, Jane C. Karas, Linda M. Kaufman, Ruth Lawson, Tracie D. Marzulli, Robert C. Niosi, Michael E. Shalaby, Miran Villalva, Lisa G.

1998

Carney, Darren J. Denbleyker, Mark R. Edwards, Heather E. Estilow, Thomas W. Miller, Jeffrey A. Paxinos, Kim M. Vigh, Ildiko M. Widdowson, Steven

1999 (missing)

2000 (missing)

2001 (missing)

2002 (N=20)

Mathew Anonsen Andrew Carson Robert Dare (thesis) Michael DeBlasio Brian Delehanty Michael Dunzello Kulsum Farooqui Jason Friedman Seth Hackman Benjamin Hassid Christopher Khan John Martosella

Christopher Mikolajczyk Patrick Pepe

Khalid Rana

John Paul Sienicki John Slovik

Peter Stanton Meghan Verriest

Ella Watson-Stryker (thesis) 2003 (N=26)

Cook College

Christopher Reier

Livingston College

Eric Benson Gregory Cutrera Aaron Edelman Elizabeth Fiore Brett Iwicki Jack Reynolds Dmitry Sharlot

Rutgers College

Michael Barr Nancy Billyer Delrico Fletcher Ankhi Ganguly Philip Gordon Danielle Hobson Matteo Jannicelli Holly Kaplan

Suzanne Shaw William Tulloch Steve Vo

University College

Trevor Carter Tracie Farina Sandeep Jani

Alyson Mihalenko (thesis) Edward Remmers

Nelson Santiago Allison Speiser

2004 (missing)

2005 (N=26)

Cook College: Janet Adams Weihan Chan Katherine J. Kesely Peter J. Kovac Maria Melachrinos

Livingston College: Gaetano Barbuto (10/04)

Joseph Battinelli Paul Exter David Lucas Phillip Miarmi Mark Siegle

Rutgers College: Philip Bakelaar

Jonathan Groom Kate Lehmert Gregory V. Leonow Jehangir R. Madon Kathleen Schlueter Christine Stamaria David Tuber (1/05)

University College: Joshua Gittleman (1/05)

Christopher Gross Sandeep H. Jani Ryan Kocsis (1/05) John Pabish (1/05) Fenni Pan

Muhammad Ali Yousaf

2006 (N = 29)

Cook College:

Scott Graber Jeremy Pearson

Douglass College:

Andrea Bingham Lorilynn O'Neil Heidi Pedde

Livingston College:

Randy Clarke Arthur Hausker Matthew Mordecai Michael Schower Robert Searwar Mark Siegle (1/06)

Rutgers College:

Alyssa Chesnut Christopher Falcicchio Anton Getz

Jonathan Groom (10/05) Charlton Herczegh Jehangir Madon

Daniel McGhee David Million Katherine Reichling

Agnieszka Siemiginowska Kierran Sutherland

Perry Tsay

University College:

Philip Bakelaar Jerry Derillo Michael Irizarry Thomas McElroy Kevin Nagy Thomas Rubino

2007 (N = 24)

Livingston College:

Gargi Adhikari (10/06) Nicholas DeStefano-Blum Judge Ellis

Marlon MacPherson (1/07) Matthew Richardson Natalia Sardo (01/07) Joseph Smalley

Rutgers College:

Christopher Falcicchio Bart Koffeman

Kevin Kozak Robert Kriskowski Kristyn Morrison Marie Simon Shawn Tucker Gavriel Vigneri Brian Wolf

University College:

Ivan Begonja (01/07) Jerry Derillo (10/06) Steven Holzinger Michael Irizarry (10/06) Jaime Nedza (01/07) Jon Nielsen (01/07) Sarah Pierro (10/06)

Yaroslav Zaitsev (01/07)

2008 (N = 16)

Livingston College:

Alex Hellwig Marta Kolakowska Je Park

Rutgers College:

Joshua Ashcraft (1/08) Ines Czechowski Catherine Dusault Samantha Fisher Justin Greczyn

Jamie Hampson Katie Murphy Katelyn Peloquin Robert Wieczorek

University College:

Steven Barbetti Agostinho Bennett Daniel Pelic

Douglass College:

Barbara Havrillay 2009 (Missing)

2010 (N=20)

Livingston College:

Matthew Campagna Shayna M. Cruz Minnie Kang

Alvin Obleada David J. Sparvero

Rutgers College:

Jayram V. Sataluri Michaela V. Voos Anthony J. Wargo Ashley White

SAS:

Alicia C. Clarke Germaine J. Gibson Andre Gharapetian (1/10) Krista Szeliga

Kharra C. Valmond Benjamin A. Weinberg

University College:

Daniel G. Birnbohm James Buckley Parrish D. Brown Elizabeth Koechlein Samuel Obeng

2011 (N =27)

RUTGERS COLLEGE:

Jacob Lewandowski Nicholas E. Maxfield (10/10) Kyle Powers (1/11)

SAS:

William S. Bell Stephen R. Carr (1/11) Lauren Cohen

Kelley A. Cushman Benjamin Friedman Michael A. Hawkins

Scott F. Jablonski Honors

Latoya Jones Honors

Zachary R. Krug (1/11) Mark P. Kuhn

Alexander D. Paola (1/11) Ananya Rachabattuni

Jonas Rugys Honors

James Scott Honors

Krista Szeliga Honors

Victoria Theung Honors

Zachary E. Vajda Honors Bryan Wasyluk

SEBS:

Elizabeth A. Baguchinsky Danielle E. Bertagna

James V. Ciccone Honors

Erik R. Namendorf Honors

LIVINGSTON COLLEGE:

Thomas Monaco Honors

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE:

Timothy M. Burke

2012 (N = 24)

School of Ats and Sciences Miguel A. Acevedo

James Bentley Aimee Blenner Marion Clement Yesenia Collado Yasmeen Fahmy Samuel Firmenich Amanda Hoffman Andrew Kilduff Valerie Koppell Bogdan Lazariciu Monica Napolitano Christopher Ruhlin Justin Smith Donald Spadel Michael Stagnitta Timothy Stone Ruby Tumasz Douglas Yurkow Megan Zaccaro

School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Henry Arevalo

Gregory Krissak Kevin Romero Timothy Suto

2013 (N = 20)

Mercy Aifuwa Jennifer Beck Zachary Dorf Richard Davis

Andrew Foltz-Morrison Kelly Holeman Kimberly Magaraci Stephen Moritz

Robert Osowski Richard Petrocelli Cristian Puerta Arpeet Ravalji Katie Rettinger Britta Rotermund Joel Salvino Sonia Szczesna Daniel Williams Yae Tamane

School of Environmental and Biological Sciences John Lilly

Samantha Motley

2014 (N = 12)

School of Arts and Sciences Edgar Amaya

Derek Baquero Jamie Donatiello Donna Gomulka Michael Kahrer Naomi Kaplan Lorenzo Majied Jonathan Malpica

William Randall-Goodwin Yasmin Ulloa

School of Environmental and Biological Sciences John Lilly

Raymond Soto

2015 (N = 23)

Jessica Lynne F. Bagtas Alexey Bakhtin

Victor Bhattacharya Michael J. Borsellino Scott A. Cianfarano Michael P. Endicott Christopher B. Gonzalez Daria A. Gonzalez Christopher T. Gotz Brian K. Grohgans Steven C. Gryszel Michael Harrington Nora Holland

Richard W. Hunt Namrita Jogi Kathleen M. Petrone Vincent J. Quinton Rudy J. Rella

Luis M. Rivera Max Santana Sylvia M. Schmidt

School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Saley Duncan

David A. Ferraro

2016 (N = 15)

School of Arts and Sciences Holly Barszcz

Sabrina E. Bazelais Annie N. Blalock Julia J. Bordelon Luz Maria I. Diaz

Jonathan S. Eisenstein Sheila L. Kelly

Daria A. Levitsky Yunpeng Lyu Erin M. Nigro

Christopher J. Reutlinger Jason T. Ricciardi Joshua Rozenberg

David D. Sagastume Jack M. Stabile

2017 (N = 11)

School of Arts and Sciences Samuel Ferrara

Mary King Qianyi Liu

Maria P. Paccha-Quinde Zachary A. Polokoff Jared A. Schenkel Andrew J. Sutphen

Leo C. Szalkowski Jennifer Villafuerte Jessica Willoughby

School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Ryan A. Buttone

2018 (N = 20)

School of Arts and Sciences

Adam J. Baczkowski Katerina E. Brandt Christian M. Braun Brian Eitel

Mackenzie L.Heffernan Jennifer M. Helminski Joseph Katsikiotis Matthew Kennelly Ryan C. Knaup

David Quy Le Amanda L. Marshalek Matthew Massey Brian McCrystal Conor A. O’Brien Ryan C. Olsen

Joseph R. Tepfenhart Anjanette N. Vaidya Isabelle A. Vega Stephen Zuckerman

School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Anthony Adams

2019 (N= 14)

Sean G. Halpin Joseph Katsikiotis Amanda R. Lowell Ryan C. Olsen Daniel J. Schachter Alina Schulz Aparna Seshadri Rimond A. Siddique

Samantha M. Stefanoni Sabrina F. Tibbetts Jesse N. Trombitas Matthew S. Turner

Li Xu Hongjie Yang

OTHER (likely graduated but years unknown) McGrath, Lily Ann

Pasquini, Anthony A. Samanns, Edward

2020 (N= 17)

Arden Benner Daniel Brandt Eliot Choe Peter Conroy Urav Desai Sandy Giacobbe Saif Khan

Ka Hei Lau Yujia Liu Sonia Lucas Michael Moon

Anushka Srivastava Yuzhe Tang Chujun Yang Noach Young Xiwen Zhang Wenrui Zhao

2021 (N = 17)

Anthony Agricano Daniel Baker Samuel Beson Francis Caceres Eli Danto

Marli Dinovitzer Joshua Gannon Catherine Graham Ryan Hutton

Tae Lee

Esteban Mendoza Virginia Rockey Kento Sakata Francis Silvestrini Anthony Tullio Sabrina Ventriglia Bridget van Voorst

1986-87 Undergraduate Majors (N=64) Name College Expected graduation Option

Auriemma, John T.	Rutgers	87	Cartography
Baboghlian, Vigen	Livingston	87	Environment
Bayruns, Edmund B.	Rutgers	87	Cartography
Boyd, Edward	Livingston	87	Environment
Butterhof, Elaine	Rutgers	88	Cartography/Environment
Cohen, Evan	Livingston	86	?
Commandatore, Angelo	Cook	87	Environment
Cusano, Jeffrey	University	?	Global
Dansby, David	Livingston	88	Environment/Physical
Dawn, Anna K.	Douglas	87	Environment
Doel, Barbra	Livingston	87	Community/Regional
Ege, Todd P.	Rutgers	88	?
Eiva, Stephanie	University		Environment
Fallace, Nancy S.	Rutgers	88	?
Franey, Matthew E.	Rutgers	87	Cartography/Remote Sensing
Garcia, Ana	Douglas	89	?
Garcia, Gerson	Rutgers	87	Environment
Gasprich, James	Rutgers	87	Cartography/Remote Sensing
Glantzman, Adam	Rutgers	87	Cartography
Grennen, Kevin J.	Rutgers	87	Environment/Cartography Cert.
Grieco, Glenn	Cook	89	?
Harms, Bruce E.	Rutgers	88	?
High, Vernon	University	87	Cartography
Headley, Sarah L.	Rutgers	87	Environment
Jakubovic, Deborah S.	Douglas	87	Cartography
Jaskula, Brian	Cook	88	Cartography Cert.
Kalbach, Janice	Douglas	88	Environmental
Kapp, Joseph	University		Community/Regional
Klingerman, Kenneth D.	Rutgers	88	Cartography
Krause, Clifford R.	Rutgers	87	?
Kresnosky, William J.	Cook	87	Environment
Kandolfi, Patrick	Rutgers	87	?
Livoti, Philip	Rutgers	88	?
Logan, James J.	Rutgers	87	Global
Markle, John M.	Livingston	87	Cartography/Remote Sensing
Melzer, Roman	Livingston	89	Cartography/Remote Sensing
Millan, Louis	Rutgers	87	Community/Regional
Mogil, Mark A.	Rutgers	88	Cartography/Remote Sensing
Moore, Clifford E.	Rutgers	87	Cartography/Remote Sensing
Muldrow, Robert	Cook	87	Community/Regional
Murphy, Robert S.	Rutgers	87	Environment
Nelson, William	Rutgers	87	Global
Nevins, David E.	Rutgers	87	Cartography/Remote Sensing
O’Brian, Kathy	Rutgers	87	Community/Regional
Parisi, Frank	Livingston	86	Cartography/Remote Sensing
Pasternak, Susan J.	Rutgers	88	?
Ponasse, Phil	Cook	87	Community/Regional
Rakow?,Gary S.	Rutgers	87	Urban/Social
Rogers, Carmella	Douglas	88	Cartography/Remote Sensing
Rothman, Tom	BPO	88	Environment/Global
Rump, James H. Jr.	Rutgers	87	Cartography/Remote Sensing

Ryan, Kathleen	Douglas	87	Environment
Sa, Dina	Douglas	88	Community/Regional
Shible, David	Livingston	87	Cartography
Sills, Robert W.	Rutgers	87	Environment
Simonds, Raymond E. Jr. Skamarak, Wayne Jr.	University Livingston	87	Environment Environment
Smeraldo, Jeffrey A.	Cook	89	?
Szeglin, Christopher B.	BPO	88	?
Thomas, Todd	Rutgers	88	Environment/Engineering
Travers, William	Rutgers	87	Urban/Social
Weiner, Jay	University		Cartography/Remote Sensing
Wulff, Thomas	Rutgers	87	?
Zarro, Frederick M.	University		?

October 1990 Undergraduate majors with expected year graduating

Arango, Clifford	92
Bailey, Mary A.	94
Barrios, Alice M.	91
Bayruns, Edmund B.	91
Bearison, Brad E.	92
Berger, Mark K.	93
Bognar, John A.	91
Bremer, Elise M.	93
Bugge, Russell E.	91
Carter, John D. jr.	91
Cioffi, Michele N.	92
Crowley, Michael F.	91
Cusano, Jeffrey M.	91
Delosa, Michael A.	91
Deluca, Anthony M.	91
Dingle, Joy C.	92
Fragiacoma, Laura	92
Frendak, Diane K.	91
Friend, Biffen K.	91
Gilbert, Eileen P.	92
Greene, Michael R.	91
Harding, Richard A.	92
Hary, Thomas E.	91
Herring, Ronald C.	91
Hiple, Janice C.	93
Janos, John A.	91
Jenkins, Brian A.	92
Jones, Ann T.	91
Kao, Rita Y.	91
Keehbler, Donna K.	91
Kirschner, Kim E.	91
Kokoska, Stephen M.	92
Lange, Darren F.	91
Lascarides, Michael S.	93
Lashell, David L.	91
Nemecek, Jim P.	94
Niesz, Karen L.	91
Panas, Richard C.	92
Presley, Patrice	92
Rassweiler, Michael S.	92
Reilly, Chris M.	91
Rothauser, Kevin C.	91
Rubin, Nancy F.	92
Sacks, Douglas G.	92
Sprigle, Michael I.	92
Strotz, Elaine P.	91
Taylor, Felicity M.	91
Truong, Thanh T.	91
Vaughan, Peter M.	92
Volkmer, Paul E.	92
Walp, Carl R. Jr.	92
Weiner, Jay D.	01
Yarson, Lawrence M. II	91	N=53

1995-96 Geography Undergraduate Majors (N=58)

Name	College	Year
Ahmed, Narjis	Livingston	96
Alosio, Kenneth	Livingston	97
Aquinto, Patricia	University	96
Barrett, Joseph	Cook
Belicose, Barbara	University	96
Buell, Honor	Rutgers	96
Bulmer. Keith	Livingston	96
Califano, Paul	Cook	97
Caputi, Carolyn	Douglas	97
Cha, Soomee	Rutgers	96
Cheung, Terry Y.	Rutgers	97
Corradino, Chris	Rutgers	96
Cost, Sharon	University	96
Cunningham, Brian	Cook	98
Custodio, Felwin	Livingston	96
Davies, Steven	University	96
DeAngelis, Eric	Rutgers	97
Denbleyker, Mark	Rutgers	97
Egan, Erin	University	96
Engle, Richard	University	96
Estilow, Thomas W.	Rutgers	97
Fleming, Jane	Rutgers	97
Gerard, Michael	Cook	97
Govindaraju, Sudha	University	97
Handerhan, Erin	Douglas	97
Johnson, Gracie	University	97
Johnson, Kristie	Douglas	97
Karas, Linda	Douglas	97
Kaufman, Ruth	Rutgers	97
Kaur, Rajvinder	University	97
Lager, Leigh	Rutgers	96
Lawson, Tracie	Rutgers	98
LePiane, Peter	University	97
Lewis, Krista	Livingston	96
Madison, Scott	Rutgers	96
Marshall, Timothy	University	96
Marzulli, Robert	Rutgers	97
McGinn, Alan	University
Mikolajczyk, Chris	University	96
Miller, Jeffrey	Livinhston	98
Minot, Edith	University	96
Mojica, Robert J.	Rutgers	97
Niosi, Michael	Rutgers	97
Owen, Mickey	University	98
Panergo, Erwin	Rutgers	97
Patel, Shrujal	Rutgers	96
Scott, Jason	Cook	96
Seth, Ritu	Rutgers	95
Stables, Joseph	Cook	97

Stanton, Peter	University	97
Tamburio, Linda	University	96
Tillou, Karen	Rutgers	96
Tsakalakos, Chris	Rutgers	98
Vigh, Ildiko	Douglas	98
Villalva, Lisa	University	96
Widdowson, Steven	Cook	98

September 1996 Undergraduate majors with expected year graduating

Aloisio, Kenneth	97
Belicose, Barbara	98
Bell, Deanna	98
Bhavsar, Sangita
Califano, Paul	97
Caputi, Carolyn	97
Carney, Darren	98
Cheung, Terry Y.	97
Cunningham, Brian	98
Custodio, Felwin	96
Davy, Colleen	97
DeAngelis, Eric	97
Denbleyker, Mark	97
Edwards, Heather	98
Estilow, Thomas W.	97
Fleming, Jane	97
Frias, Eric
Gerard, Michael	97
Gollin, Seth	98
Govindaraju, Sudha	97
Handerhan, Erin	97
Johnson, Kristie	97
Karas, Linda	97
Kaufman, Ruth	97
Kaur, Rajvinder	97
Lawson, Tracie	98
LePiane, Peter	97
Levin, Shanan	99
Love, Samyan	98
Madison, Scott	96
Marzulli, Robert	97
Mikolajczyk, Chris	96
Niosi, Michael Nugent, Valerie	97
Panergo, Erwin	97
Paxinos, Kim	98
Remmers, Edward
Rousey, Gloria J.
Schmidt, Christopher	97
Seth, Ritu	95
Shaw, Maya
Smith, Eileen	97
Stables, Joseph	98
Tsakalakos, Chris	98
Vigh, Ildiko	98
Villalva, Lisa	96
Widdowson, Stevn	98
Zoleski, Lawrence
		N=48

September 1996 Declared Minors in Geography

	Major field	Year
Appelbaum, Jessica		97
Balogh. Michael	Economics	97
Barrett, Kenneth	Economics	97
Chhedi, Ravi	Computer Science	98
Coursen, Catherine	Pre-Business	97
Fraiture, Sacha	History	97
Greschler, Jason	Computer Science	97
Kailasam, Ajit	Mathematics	96
Lynn, Christopher	History	98
Patel, Mihir	Bio Science	96
Moscinski, Julie A.	History	97
Phillipuk, Caroline R.	Urban Studies	97
Policastro, Matthew R.	Communications	97
Purdue, Matthew S.	History/Pol.Sci	98
Samuels, Aleeza, H.	Geology	97
Scanlon, Brian	History	97
Stonecypher, Becky	Geology	98
Yeboah, Asuama	Chem. Engineering	96
			N=18

APPENDIX 37

THE HIGH SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY PROJECT

“The High School Geography Project was begun in 1961 with financing from the Ford Foundation. With University geographers and educators working together, the nature and purposes of high school geography were clarified. Everyone associated with the project hoped to close the gap between ideas newly developed in the research laboratories or the graduate schools and what is taught in high school. The usual lag of 40 to 50 years could perhaps be reduced to five or ten years.

Faced with the many ways in which geography instruction might be improved, the HSGP chose to focus its initial effort on the development of new curricular materials to be used directly by the teacher with the students. In 1964, with support from the National Science Foundation, the project began to develop a year-long course at the tenth-grade level. That the materials are up to date and representative of the best the field has to offer is shown by the roster of geographers in charge of the units of the course.

UNIT	UNDER THE DIRECTION OF	LOCATION
1. Introduction	Project staff at Boulder	Boulder, Colorado
2. Inside the city	Arthur Getis	Rutgers – The State
		University, NJ
3. Networks of cities 4. Manufacturing	Edward J. Taaffe & Leslie J. King Howard A. Stafford	Ohio State U, Columbus U. of Cincinnati, Ohio
5. Agriculture	Duane Knox with Dept. of Geog. Staff	U. of Kansas, Lawrence
6. Culture Change	Max C. Kirkeberg & Richard F. Hough	San Francisco State
		College, California
7. The Habitat	Melvin G. Marcus	U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor
8. Fresh Water Resources	Douglas B. Carter	Southern Illinois U.,
		Carbondale
9. Political Resources	Roger E. Kasperson with Clark U. staff	U. of Connecticut, Storrs
10. Japan	Elmer A. Keen	U. of Victoria, British Columbia

Each of these unit officers has gathered around him teachers and educational psychologists and other geographers to help with the preparation of the unit. After initial development, each author’s efforts are tested in actual classrooms. The author observes how the materials work and then revises. The Project Office at Boulder then supervises Limited School Trials of the materials in various parts of the country. Such limited trials were held in 1965-66 on parts of the course. Further trials over more units are in progress this year. National School Trials will be held in 1967-68 over the complete course. There is hope that the course will be ready for commercial production and widespread adoption by 1969.”³⁸²

“In a letter to Gilbert F. White, Chairman of the High School Geography Project Steering Committee, J. Ross Mackay of the Association of American Geographers stated, “At the beginning of the 20th Century, geography was a significant component in the curriculum of American high schools. During the next 50 years it declined steadily, until by the middle of this century it had largely disappeared from the American high school, or held a marginal or insignificant position.” The High School Geography Project was started to invigorate this waning interest in a subject that a lot of people saw as imperative in high school curriculum. Mackay goes on in the letter, dated September 2, 1970, to say “As the project comes to an end and its completed products have become available for scrutiny, it has become increasingly apparent to the geographic profession that the

³⁸² Extract from Nicholas Helburn, “High School Geography and what is being done about it,” Social Education, 30(8), 1966: 631-645.

project’s results have been innovative and of the highest quality. The Association’s Council both commends and felicitates the project personnel. To all members of the Steering Committee throughout its history, to the authors of the project materials, to the project staff members, and to the project directors, a hearty thanks for an effective and productive performance.”³⁸³

³⁸³ Extract from High School Geography Project Papers Collection, University of Colorado. https://archives.colorado.edu/repositories/2/resources/1086.

APPENDIX 38

Events held in celebration of the 50^th anniversary³⁸⁴

During the academic year 1999-2000, special events to mark the anniversary were held on 8 different days. These included two Open Houses and an Alumni Day as well as panels and lectures delivered by Rutgers faculty and other invited speakers.

November 19, 1999

GIS Open House and Reception organized by the Rutgers Undergraduate Geography Society (RUGS) and featuring a presentation by Dr. Joseph Watts (US Army Corps of Engineers Topographic Engineering Center).

December 3, 1999

“The Great Raritan Flood of 1999”. Panel discussion led by Rutgers geographers

January 28, 2000

Introduction to the International Honor Society in Geography (GTU) followed by a lecture by Professor Don Mitchell (alumnus) on “Postmodern geographical praxis? Postmodern urban theory and the evolving war against homeless people in the “post-justice” city.”

February 17, 2000

“Women and Geography,” a panel discussion honoring the Society of Women Geographers (SWG). Panelists: Emeritus Professor Jacquelyn Beyer, University of Colorado (former Rutgers faculty member); Professor Christine Drake, Old Dominion University (Ph.D. alumna); Dr. Maria Lambasa, SWG; and Professor Susan Millar, Syracuse University (Ph.D. alumna and SWG Fellowship holder.)

March 10

“Scale and Sustainability,” lecture by Dr. Thomas Wilbanks, Corporate Research Fellow, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

March 20

“Gender, Identity, and Place: Understanding Feminist Geographies,” lecture by Professor Linda Mc Dowell, London School of Economics.

April 1

“Getting a view of New Jersey,” Open house at the Geography Department.

April 21

Alumni Day

³⁸⁴ Information derived from “50 years of Geography at Rutgers”, an anniversary pamphlet prepared by members of the Rutgers Geography community.

APPENDIX 39

Holders of the Society of Woman Geographers Graduate Fellowships in Geography

The Society of Woman Geographers (SWG) is a global community that fosters research and education among women scientists, artists, explorers and change-makers about the stewardship, study and exploration of human culture and the natural world. Membership is highly selective and is by election only.

The SWG awards annually fellowships for graduate study and research (16 in 2022-23).

During the years 1990-2002 the following Rutgers graduate students received support.

1990-1991: Susan W.S. Millar 1991-1992: Karen Nichols

1992-1993: Mariana Mossler

1993-1994: Barbara Hildebrant

1994-1995: Ann Ziedman 1995-1996: Anne C. Bellows 1996-1997: Rupal Oza

1997-1998: Tamar Rothenberg

1998-1199: Laura Liu

1999-2000: Maria Espinosa 2000-2001: Cheryl A. Gowar 2001-2002: Noriko Ishiyama

APPENDIX 40

Geography Newsletters³⁸⁵

The geography community at Rutgers has maintained a tradition of publishing periodic newsletters for almost 60 years. They have appeared under various titles including: Interaction, Diffusion and Geography Department News. Most have reflected the interests of faculty and graduate students although items relevant to undergraduates have become more prevalent in recent decades.

Interaction (1969-1970)

Interaction was a graduate student publication aimed at improving communication among students and between students and faculty. It was in existence for less than a year (May 1969-March 1970) and produced at least 10 issues. These were comprised of purple inked mimeographed sheets, edited by three graduate students: initially, Barry Boots, Jeffrey Milne and Cedric Page.

As detailed in Interaction Vol.1, No.1 (May 1969) communications problems “…have been exacerbated by the existence of many part-time students who are often only able to attend classes held in the evenings, thus missing any contact with some staff and many full-time students. Such a situation can only be detrimental to the pursuance of true academic goals as interaction and discussion with fellow geographers are essential parts of a true university education. Clearly, this is not physically possible at Rutgers, and to attempt to eradicate this shortcoming, the birth of a newsletter was conceived as one possible solution.”

Interaction’s goals were three-fold: (1) to provide a means of discussion and contact by way of a “letters and opinions” section, where mutual problems and points of view could be aired; (2) to provide a “notice board” for both Departmental and (Geographical) Society announcements; and (3) to present research abstracts, and attendant requests for help on material sources.

A selection of items addressed in Interaction follows:

The initial issue included, among other items: Proficiency Examinations; a brief review of events in the 1968-69 academic year; summaries of graduate and undergraduate geography degrees conferred; faculty appointments and promotions; best wishes for departing faculty members; and plans announced by graduating students.

Volume 2, No.4 (November 4, 1969) provided information about three geography faculty (Harry Margulis, Neils West, Robert Brown) at Rutgers-Newark and courses included in an undergraduate Geography major there that focused on urban aspects of the discipline. It also announced a December 17 Geography Christmas Party scheduled for Sally’s restaurant in

³⁸⁵ This section is based on a review of all available copies of newsletters. The records of others have been lost.

Highland Park with a cash bar and a $6 food menu featuring top sirloin, Swedish meatballs, and Homemade apple pie.

Volume 2, No.5 (November 17, 1969) noted faculty approval of three graduate student representatives with voting rights in the Geography department’s policy-making body.

Volume 2, No.8 (March 12, 1970) reported the creation of a third Department of Geography within the Rutgers system. The Livingston College department would include George Carey, Baruch Boxer and possibly one other faculty member.

Diffusion (1970-1990?)

Diffusion was the successor to Interaction. It came into existence with the publication of Volume 1, No.1 on August 11, 1970 and seems to have ceased with the release of Volume 8, No.1 (September 25, 1981). In the interim at least 78 issues appeared, usually on a weekly basis during term time.

Diffusion was a faculty edited publication generally falling under the responsibilities of successive department chairs or Graduate Directors (Arthur Getis, John Brush, Ken Mitchell, Peter Wacker), but with contributions from a wide range of students and faculty.

The content of Diffusion diversified throughout the 1970s. In the early years of the decade, it was mostly devoted to “housekeeping” Graduate Program matters like schedule deadlines and regulations. Announcements about social engagements were later added (e.g. parties in faculty homes, basketball games with other graduate programs at Rutgers). There was also information about upcoming national and regional conferences, and plans for symposia offered by Rutgers geographers under the department’s aegis but also organized by other units with which we shared affinities such as the Planning School, the Marine Science Center, and the Sociology program. By the late 1970s lists of recent faculty publications were also included as well as longer invited pieces by individual faculty who discussed topics like academic books that influenced their work, published reports on the state of public geographic knowledge, new popularized treatments of geographical themes by non-geographers, and fictional novels about contemporary academic life.

APPENDIX 41

International Affinities of Faculty: A Note

Geographers study the roles of space, place, location and environment in human affairs.

Such a perspective encourages travel and nurtures curiosity about the diverse settings that humans inhabit. Unsurprisingly, most American Geography departments contain substantial numbers of faculty who were born outside the United States. Many of the American born faculty also carry out research overseas.

Countries of Birth

Almost one-third (31) of all Geography faculty were born outside the United States with the single largest number (13) coming from the United Kingdom.³⁸⁶ Four (4) originated in other countries of Europe (Denmark, Austria, Poland). Five (5) came from the Caribbean and Latin America (Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay). Three (3) were born in India and two (2) in Canada, with one (1) each from Australia, South Africa, Kenya and Lebanon.

Recruitment of non-US born faculty peaked during the 1970s and 1980s, with a smaller and more diverse set arriving in the 2010s. Most have been native English language speakers, although there has recently been increasing representation of Hispanic languages. Until the 1970s only men were recruited from abroad, but more recent years have brought the numbers of females up to about one-third of all faculty born outside the USA.

Foreign study areas

As detailed in section 4.1.1 pp.86-88 (“What subfields and topics did Ph.D. graduates embrace?”), doctoral students are increasingly focusing their dissertations on areas outside North America. This is in part a reflection of their birthplaces abroad and of the study regions of their teachers and advisors. Today, more than half (8) of faculty in the Department of Geography are primarily engaged in foreign area research³⁸⁷, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean but also in India, China and the Arctic.

³⁸⁶ Mostly England but one each from Scotland (Smith) and Northern Ireland (Mitchell).

³⁸⁷ Latin America – Marston, Ferreira, Schneider; Caribbean – Rhiney; India – Ghertner; Africa – O’Keefe; China – Rodenbiker; Arctic – Rennermalm.

Department of Geography Through Time