Association of American Geographers
The Association of American Geographers (AAG) is a non-profit scientific and educational society founded in 1904 and aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields. Its headquarters are located at 1710 16th St NW, Washington, D.C.
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History
The organization was founded on 29 December 1904 in Philadelphia, USA, and was amalgamated with the American Society of Professional Geographers on 29 December 1948 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Membership
Currently, the association has more than 10,000 members, from over 60 countries, and represents one of the largest geographical associations in North America. AAG members are geographers and related professionals who work in the public, private, and academic sectors. They work in a wide range of careers, such as university professors, community college instructors, federal, state and local government researchers and analysts, planners, cartographers, scientists, non-profit workers, entrepreneurs, businesspeople, elementary and secondary educators, graduate students, retirees, university administrators, and others from all over the world.
Publications
The Annals of the Association of American Geographers and The Professional Geographer are the association's flagship journals. The AAG also publishes a monthly newsletter that contains reflections on programs and issues of concern in society of a geographic nature, a Jobs in Geography column, and accomplishments and innovations of AAG members. The AAG also publishes the Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas. This guide is a comprehensive description of programs in higher education in North and South America that offer a geography degree, a geography certificate program, and/or geography courses. Therefore, it serves as a guide to students who are seeking a geography program that will meet their career goals, and also aids others by describing what the focus, faculty, and courses offered by universities and community colleges.
Specialty Groups
The AAG has over 60 specialty or affinity groups, voluntary associations of AAG members who share interests in regions or topics, such as those listed below. Specialty groups have long provided a way for geographers with specific interests to collaborate and communicate. The AAG offers Knowledge Communities, a set of online tools for collaboration.
Cultural and Political Ecology
Annual Meetings
For over a century, the AAG has held an annual meeting for the geography community.
These meetings are the largest gathering of geographers on the planet. In recent years, this conference has attracted between 7,000 and 8,000 attendees. The annual meeting offers upwards of 4,000 papers and presentations given by geographers on issues from local to global scale, and on topics as diverse as soil moisture, climate change, population dynamics, political instability, sustainable agriculture, natural hazards, and technologies such as Geographic Information Systems. Hands-on workshops on the latest methods and technological tools are an important part of these meetings.
The Annual Meetings also offer an extensive exhibit hall featuring publishers, technology companies, universities, businesses, and nonprofit organizations.
As geographers believe in the value of fieldwork to experience place, an extensive array of field trips are offered in the diverse locations that these conferences are held.
Thus, the annual meetings are an excellent way to learn geography, to present one's own research, and network with others in the field of geography. These Annual Meetings are held in February, March, or April each year, and the 2013 Annual Meeting will be held in Los Angeles, California. The AAG also sponsors fall meetings, typically in each region that are occupied by regional divisions. These regional divisions typically are groupings of several states in the United States, such as "Great Plains/Rocky Mountain" and "West Lakes".
Partnerships
To effectively advance geography in society requires partnerships. The AAG has a long history of fruitful partnerships with government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private industry. These include the National Council for Geographic Education, the United States Geological Survey, the National Institutes of Health, and many others.
