Conference draws geographers to Fairbanks

Submitted by Nancy Tarnai
Phone: 907-474-5042
09/26/08

Nearly 100 geographers will gather in Fairbanks Oct. 8-11 for the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers annual conference at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel. The APCG is the western regional component of the Association of American Geographers with members representing Alaska, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon,and Washington. Researchers will present papers on a broad range of geographic topics, including climate change, geographic information science and technology, natural resource management and indigenous peoples, as well as the physical and built environment.

Conference keynote speakers include:

• University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton
• Terrence Cole, UAF professor of history and author of "Crooked Past: The History of Fairbanks, Alaska, A Frontier Mining Camp"
• John Walsh, director of UAF’s Center for Global Change and Arctic Systems Research
• Mead Treadwell, chairman of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission

The conference is hosted by the UA Geography Program, part of the UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences. It will include an Oct. 9 conference reception and lecture at the UA Museum of the North with UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers and geography program director Mike Sfraga. The conference concludes on Oct. 10 with an awards banquet, APCG presidential address and performance by tribal funk band Pamyua. A field trip on Saturday, Oct. 11 includes stops at the Large Animal Research Station, the trans-Alaska pipeline visitors’ center and Chena Hot Springs Resort.

CONTACT: Katie Kennedy, geography program K-12 outreach coordinator, at 907-474-7494

ON THE WEB: www.geographyua.org/apcg08/apcg08.cfm.