From AAG.org

Geography Awareness Week 2023

August 2, 2023

Bowie State geography students tour one of several national parks. Credit: Sumanth Reddy

What we mean by ‘place’ is a crossroads, a particular point of intersections of forces coming from many directions and distances.”

—Rebecca Solnit, 2023 AAG Honorary Geographer

 

NOVEMBER 13-17

The Power of Place

To geographers, place is defined as a space that has been made meaningful by people and connections. Places can be sites of belonging or exclusion; safety or danger; commerce and activity or repose and reflection. Certainly, places imply witness: can a place even be a place if no one at all is there or knows it?

The work of seeing, understanding, and knowing places is the work of geographers. Our work, by necessity, is wide-ranging but always situated in relation to place. As this year’s AAG Honorary Geographer Rebecca Solnit put it in her talk at the AAG annual meeting, “If a field of expertise can be imagined as an actual field, then…I love geography because [it] trespasses across a lot of hedges and fences and borders in its vast encompassing of so many crucial things.”   Watch the recording

Now more than ever, as we contemplate the rapid change wrought on the Earth by human-caused activities, and as human settlements cover roughly half of Earth’s land surface, and as we confront the pressing need to embed habitat, plant, and animal life in our notions of place, we must examine our connections and our shared responsibility to care for places together. Understanding geography is a crucial part of fulfilling our responsibility to places.

Take part in National Geography Awareness Week: The Power of Place, November 13-17, 2023. Help AAG tell the world about how vital the field of geography is to understanding where we are right now, and where we can go. Use our map to find out about GeoWeek events and happenings where you are, and all over the world.

 

Get Involved!

This year, help AAG celebrate the impact that geographers have on the world. We invite you to take part in Geography Awareness Week. Here are a few ways to get involved right now: 

• Become a GeoAdvocate. Get GeoWeek information and see your name listed below. Sign up now
• Be a Promotional Partner. Promotional Partners are organizations interested in helping spread the word about GeoWeek. We provide you with information and public acknowledgment of your partnership. Sign up now 
• Help Us Publicize Your Events. Add your work to our map. From mapathons to mentoring events, from webinars to community meet-ups, we want to know how geography is showing up where you are. Share your work with us

Connect with our Core Partners

AAG is pleased to collaborate with the following organizations and institutions to create information resources for Geography Awareness Week.