Geographers Presentations at a Glance

More than 11 University of Cincinnati faculty and students presented research at the East Lakes Division meeting of the Association of American Geographers, hosted by UC's geography department Oct. 26-28.

Claire Gomersall of UC won the $100 first prize for a paper written by a master's student. Her research focused on whites-only immigration policies and their effect on migration to Australia. Kevin Raleigh of UC shared second prize for the best paper written by an undergraduate.

Other presenters from UC included:

• Connie King Bruins, graduate student. She suggests that academics be willing to acknowledge the limitations of using household surveys in China. In order to get surveys done during a research trip to China this summer, she found that relationships were important. But that kind of sample is not usually acceptable in Western academics. With the only other research data on the world's most populous nation coming from the Chinese government, she urges scholars to pursue these surveys, even though they may contain some error.
• Liz Wolfe, graduate student. Wolfe is part of a team led by assistant professor of geography Wendy Eisner that is developing models in order to understand and monitor changes in Arctic thaw lake basins using radiocarbon dating, pollen analysis, ground-penetrating radar and remote sensing. Thaw lake basins cover a majority of the Arctic coastal plain and they contain a lot of peat. Climate models indicate the Arctic is particularly sensitive to global climate change. If global warming occurs, this peat could release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
• Kenneth Hinkel, professor of geography. A snow fence installed in a community east of Barrow, Alaska, in 1997, was intended to prevent large snow drifts in the community. It has done that, but has created a mound of ice and snow adjacent to the fence that is taking longer to melt each summer.