PGSG members: we look forward to seeing you all at this year’s AAG conference in San Francisco. We are listed as a sponsor on 126 sessions, and we have a jam-packed schedule at the 29th Annual Preconference on Monday.

In addition to these great events, we hope you will also join us for the 2016 Business Meeting on Wednesday (March 30) from 7:10 PM – 8:10 PM in Union Square 13, Hilton Hotel, 4th Floor. We will announce – and congratulate – the winners of our student and non-student awards, and discuss other specialty group business. If you have any agenda items, please contact Natalie by Tuesday night at: nkoch@maxwell.syr.edu

29th Annual PGSG Preconference — San Francisco 2016

Preliminary program is now available here.  Abstracts are here.

Date & time: Monday, 28 March 2016 from 8 AM – 5:45 PM — COME PRE-CAFFEINATED! (due to venue restrictions, we will not have AM coffee)

Location: Nikko Hotel, 222 Mason St, San Francisco, CA 94102

Lodging: This year’s venue is one of the AAG conference hotels, so you should plan to stay wherever you prefer for the main conference.

Registration: As with our past preconferences, there will be a nominal $20 registration fee for non-students. Faculty, please bring cash (or check) on the day of the event.

Inquiries: Contact the organizers individually or at: aag.pgsg@gmail.com

Please remember that there are a number of award deadlines tomorrow (15 March), including:

STUDENT AWARD SUBMISSIONS:

PGSG Student Paper Awards: Masters and PhD categories

Alexander B. Murphy Dissertation Enhancement Award

Details are here.

FACULTY AWARD NOMINATIONS FOR:
Virginie Mamadouh Outstanding Research Award. This award will be given to the author(s) of a journal article or book chapter published in the previous three (3) calendar years (2013, 2014, 2015) that makes an innovative, original contribution to the conceptual and/or methodological embrace of political geography.

Stanley D. Brunn Young Scholar Award.  This award will be given to an individual who has received her/his Ph.D. within the past ten years, in honor of contributions that have generated new interest in the subfield and/or opened up new areas of inquiry for political geographic research.

Richard Morrill Public Outreach Award.  This award will be given to an individual who has used her or his political geographic expertise to affect change (in public thought or public policy) beyond the academy.

Details are here.

The PGSG is currently soliciting nominations for the non-student awards listed below. Please email any nominations directly to Natalie (nkoch@maxwell.syr.edu), specifying the award and accompanied by a 3-4 sentence justification (at minimum) by March 15. 

You will find the past winners here: https://www.politicalgeography.org/past-winners/

NON-STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Virginie Mamadouh Outstanding Research Award. This award will be given to the author(s) of a journal article or book chapter published in the previous three (3) calendar years (2013, 2014, 2015) that makes an innovative, original contribution to the conceptual and/or methodological embrace of political geography.

Stanley D. Brunn Young Scholar Award.  This award will be given to an individual who has received her/his Ph.D. within the past ten years, in honor of contributions that have generated new interest in the subfield and/or opened up new areas of inquiry for political geographic research.

Richard Morrill Public Outreach Award.  This award will be given to an individual who has used her or his political geographic expertise to affect change (in public thought or public policy) beyond the academy.

General Information:

1. All awards will be based on nominations made to the President of the PGSG, with award decisions to be made by the PGSG Board. Nominations should include a paragraph describing the impact of the nominee’s work in political geography and more broadly. The next deadline for nominations is 15 March 2016.

2. For each award category, a maximum of one award will be conferred each year, with the announcement to be made at the PGSG Business Meeting taking place the next Spring (e.g., the announcement for the Outstanding Research Award for 2015 will be made at the Spring 2016 Business Meeting).  For each award category, if there are no nominees whom the Board views as deserving of merit, no award will be made.

3. Decisions regarding who receives awards will be made by the PGSG Board.  The PGSG Board reserves the right to determine whether a nominee (or a nominated publication) falls within the scope of political geography.

4. Nominations by Board members are permitted.

5. Nominations of Board members are permitted. In this case, the board member will be recused from the vote.

6. Awardees need not be PGSG or AAG members, although awardees will be strongly encouraged to join both groups if they are not already members.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the election for the PGSG’s two faculty board representatives, and for your patience as we sorted through the trials of a new e-voting system. We have learned a lot from the process and should have it smoothed out significantly for next year.

But for now, I’m happy to announce the two new reps, whose terms run from after AAG 2016 through AAG 2018:

Orhon Myadar, University of Arizona

Lindsay Naylor, University of Delaware

Congrats to both!
Thanks also to the two reps who are rotating off after AAG 2016, Afton Clarke-Sather and Sapana Doshi.

With the voting system going online, I’m pleased that we were able to solicit such a strong group of candidates, and I hope we’ll see some of their names again in the coming years. Please bear in mind that we have 2 reps rotating off the board every year, so please keep thinking of candidates for future elections.

And please keep an eye out for additional logistical information about the preconference coming soon…