Fairmont State named National Geography Awareness Week partner

Nov. 14—FAIRMONT — This week, geography hubs across the country are celebrating National Geography Awareness Week, a campaign spearheaded by the American Association of Geographers.

However, only one university in the nation has been invited to participate in the week as an official partner — Fairmont State University.

Following the Fairmont State community's outpouring of participation and enthusiasm for National Geography Awareness Week in previous years, the AAG invited the university to join as a partner for 2023, furthering its mission of increasing awareness about geography and geospatial science.

From Nov. 13-17, Fairmont State will host events in conjunction with national geography programming to commemorate the important week, led by Barbara MacLennan, assistant professor of geography.

This year's theme for National Geography Awareness Week is "The Power of Place," which MacLennan said is especially apt for a field of study embedded in many other disciplines and industries.

"Geography is more than location. It's how we feel about a place. It's what we know about a place. It's the history that happened there," MacLennan said.

From planning climate emergency responses to bolstering the state's tourism industry, state-level administration requires engaging with geography.

To help members of the local community connect with the field of geography, Fairmont State is hosting two virtual events this week that will introduce attendees to geospatial software.

The first, scheduled for Nov. 15 from 2 to 5 p.m., is a panel discussion entitled "GIS in the Movies," which will trace the presence of geographic information systems — or, in other words, computerized mapmaking — in the film industry.

The second, on Nov. 16 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., will feature a talk from Fairmont State alum Jessica Mathai, a geospatial specialist and GIS subject matter expert. Mathai will discuss her research on deep mapping in West Virginia.

Also during this week, Fairmont State will host smaller-scale events like GPS hide-and-seek, which will teach students and community members how to use GPS software to find specific locations around campus marked with flags.

Through events like these, MacLennan hopes that attendees can better understand the applications of geography in various industries and other fields of study.

"A lot of times we think of geography as just, 'I'm going to memorize my states and countries,'" she said. "Geography is a lot more than that. Part of geography literacy is to get out there and tell people what geographers do and how we all do geography every day."

Through the work of geographers nationwide, more and more attention has been provided to a field at the core of how people represent and perceive the world around them. This year, Gov. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., even signed a proclamation officially naming Nov. 13-17 a statewide Geography Education Week.

For MacLennan, increasing attention about geography is important because it helps people better understand the relationship between location, science and society, which can then help chart out a better world for all.

"Everything has a location. We're generating so much spatial data off our phones, and we know so much more about where we live," she said. "We can use that to make the world a better place, and that's what geospatial [science] is about."

Likewise, MacLennan hopes participants in this year's events come away with a better sense of how they can apply geography to their own lives and careers, and the ways in which geographical science can enable positive change.

"I hope that what people will take away from it is how much they already know about where they live," she said. "They might not realize," but they use geography "every day in their lives."

But making a difference or better understanding industries is not the only reason MacLennan encourages others to come to National Geography Awareness Week events and better acquaint themselves with geospatial science.

"Of course, it's also just really interesting," she said.

Reach Jack Walker by email at jwalker@timeswv.com.