Good Monday morning, everyone!

Mark your calendars for Scott MacDonald (Geography BA ’15, Honors), Geography’s A&S Professor for a Day, who will be meeting with us virtually on Wednesday, October 21 at 4:15pm on Zoom. The Zoom invitation is available here. Scott is a product engineer at the geospatial software company Esri in Redlands, California, where he helps governments, companies, and organizations around the world provide geospatial resources using ArcGIS Enterprise software. As Professor for a Day, Scott will share his journey from Mizzou, his experiences in environmental geography, and his perspective on geography and GIS as a career.

Calling all geography students, faculty, and staff: We have a very special MU Geography All-Hallows’ Eve Jack-O’-Lantern Contest for Halloween this year! Carve your own Jack-O-’Lantern, preferably with a geography or MU theme, take a picture of your pumpkin and submit it to Deb Cutler (dac7tb@missouri.edu) by Wednesday October 28 at 5pm. There is a cool prize for first place, and the top three winning pumpkins will be featured on our department’s website! A big thanks to Seth Kannarr for this great idea.

On October 19 at 4pm, Associate Dean for Inclusive Culture Dr. Stephanie Shonekan will be helping us think through our special role as geographers in fostering a culture of inclusive belonging in our department and on campus. This is a required meeting for all faculty, is highly encouraged for staff and graduate students, and is open to any undergraduates who would like to attend. The Zoom link is here.

I thought you all might like to know that the introductory commentary I penned with Michele Lobo (Deakin University) and Avril Maddrell (University of Reading), “Refreshing Methods: Reflections and Provocations,” was just published in Social & Cultural Geography, as part of a special issue on qualitative methods (available here). For those of you interested in contemporary and future directions in methods in social and cultural geography, you might want to check out the special issue, which is part of the celebration of twenty years of the journal Social & Cultural Geography.

M-I-Z!

G-E-O!

Soren