April 24, 2024

Around the Globe in a Semester

More than 100 students are discovering geography as Professor Donald Rallis experiences it.

Stephen Hanna Publishes Article about Former Slave’s Map

Dr. Stephen Hanna, professor and chair of the Geography Department at the University of Mary Washington published “Cartographic Memories of Slavery and Freedom” in Cartographica, a leading journal in the fields of cartography and geovisualization.  This piece examines a map drawn by John Washington, a Fredericksburg slave who escaped bondage in April 1862 as the Union Army approached the town.  As a part of Washington’s memoir, Memorys of the Past (written in 1873 but not published until 2007), this map represents the Fredericksburg Washington experienced as a slave and remembered as a free man.

Winter Break Study Abroad Program in Cambodia Offered for the First Time at UMW

While winter break sent scores of college students scrambling for the comforts of home, UMW geography major Brian Brown spent his winter break out of the country for the very first time.  He was one of seven UMW seniors in Cambodia as part of a three-and-a-half week study abroad program with Associate Professor of Geography Donald Rallis and Assistant Dean of Academic Services Amber Huffman, who is a geography graduate of UMW. The students chronicled their journeys through blog posts and social media.

The winter break program, offered for the first time at Mary Washington, is one of only a few of its kind in the country, according to Rallis. Students on the trip will earn credit for a Geographic Study Abroad course toward the requirements for the geography major.

For the full story, read the Jan. 11 web feature.

Dawn Bowen

Dawn Bowen, associate professor of geography, had a paper, “Resistance, Acquiescence, and Accommodation: The Establishment of Public Schools in a Conservative Old Colony Community,” published in the Mennonite Quarterly Review in October, as well as two entries published in the Encyclopedia of Geography. In November, at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers, she presented a paper, “Experiential Learning in the Field: Short-Term Study Abroad Programs,” and was elected to the organization’s Honors Committee.