Dear Friends,
Hello from the Department of Geography! I write to wish you well and share recent news and highlights.
Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated the graduating class of 2022 at our annual Convocation Ceremony. We also honored our 2020 and 2021 graduates at a special reception on Red Square. It was a joy for students, faculty, staff, family and friends to gather together again!
This year has been full of accomplishments by members of the department! We are proud that Nell Gross, Director of Academic Services, and Yasmin Ahmed, Geography M.A. student and Assistant Director of Student and Community Engagement for the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, were both recognized at the 2022 UW Awards of Excellence Ceremony as winners of the Together We Will Award. Faculty and graduate students won multiple awards at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), including the Rickie Sanders Junior Faculty Award for Anti-Racist Scholarship (Professor Carrie Freshour), the Digital Geographies Graduate Student Paper Award (Ph.D. Candidate Isaac Rivera), the Cultural and Political Ecology Scholar-Activist Award (Professor Sam Kay), the Cultural and Political Ecology Outstanding Publication Award (Adjunct Professor Adam Romero), and the Political Geography Alexander B. Murphy Dissertation Enhancement Award (visiting graduate student Xiaofeng Liu). And thanks to generous donor support, we were able to award 3 Gerald W. Halmo Geography Scholarships to support the outstanding research of undergraduate geography majors Manqi Jiao, Mingao (Johnny) He and Kristina Hsu.
The department is also marking several transitions. In February, we were saddened to learn of the passing of emeritus professor and former chair William "Bill" Beyers. Our memorial text celebrating Bill’s life and career is co-published on the AAG Memorials page, and the Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference held a reception in his honor in May.
Professor Victoria Lawson retired from her regular faculty position in June. She will continue to be part of department life as an emeritus professor. Vicky joined the Department of Geography as an assistant professor in 1986 and has done transformative work in countless leadership roles, including department chair, AAG President, and Director of UW Honors. From start to finish, Vicky’s career has been punctuated with research grants, significant publications, scholarly honors, and extraordinary contributions in teaching and mentoring. She has won three times the department’s Undergraduate Award for Excellence in Teaching and has received the UW Distinguished Teaching Award as well as the Marsha Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, having supervised nearly 50 M.A. and Ph.D. students, along with hundreds of undergraduates. We wish Vicky well for this next chapter of life, which promises more time for mules and mountains!
This week, we are so happy to announce our new staff colleague, Drew Gamboa, who is joining the Geography Advising Office as our Undergraduate Adviser. Welcome, Drew!
As friends and alumni, you play a crucial role in supporting these accomplishments. We are so grateful for your gifts, your involvement in department events and programs, and your efforts to champion geography in your professional and personal communities. Please keep in touch as we are always happy to hear from you!
