NESTVAL 2024 at Westfield State!

 First time in my memory, that Westfield State University hosts New England St Lawrence Valley Geographical Society!

For a link on the meeting see Upcoming Meeting – NESTVAL (aag.org).

And register here.

Noam Chomsky speaks at American Association of Geographers Meeting about Trump

 American Association of Geographers meeting, Boston. April 2017.

AAG-Recreation, Tourism and Sport Business Meeting on Tuesday, March 1st at 1pm EST

 If you are a member, check the zoom link details on the facebook page, or AAG website.  You will need to be a member of the American Association of Geographers for access.

Please note that in an effort to include as many members as possible, this time and link differs from the official AAG program. 

2022 AAG Annual Meeting

The 2022 AAG annual meeting will be held online from Friday, Feb. 25 – Tuesday, March 1, and will feature more than 4,500 presentations, posters, workshops, and field trips by leading scholars, experts, and researchers. Attendees including geographers, GIS specialists, environmental scientists, and other disciplinary experts will share and discuss the latest in research and applications in geography, sustainability, and GIScience. With thousands of different papers and presentations scheduled throughout the conference, you’ll find a broad range of offerings that reflect your specific interests within geography.

FEBRUARY 25, 2022, 12:00AM EASTERN TIME (US AND CANADA) – MARCH 1, 2022, 11:30PM EASTERN TIME (US AND CANADA)

One of the best things about these conferences is that publishers have great sales of books.  While the AAG in New York this is year is virtual. you can still save $$$.

Here is a shot from our Hotel room in a previous AAG meeting in Boston.

New England - St. Lawerence Valley Geographical Society

NESTVAL Conference: 2018

Hold the date:

Hosted by Keene State College!   

NESTVAL 2018, Friday & Saturday, October 12-13
Keene State College, Keene, NH

Contact: Dr. Christopher Cusack, ccusack@keene.edu

Conference Website Coming Soon!

American Association of Geographers

The annual meeting of the AAG  will be held from April 3-7, 2019, and will feature over 6,900 presentations, posters, workshops, and field trips by leading scholars, experts, and researchers. For more info, click here.  For details of the RTS Specialty Group, see the Facebook page.

Themed sessions in Recreation, Tourism and Sport so far

RTS Sponsored AAG 2018 Sessions:

1. Sports Geography
2. Tourism, Communities and Development
3.  Regional evolutionary economic geography approaches to destination evolution
4. Field School / Travel Dynamics
5. Periphery and Emerging Tourism Destinations: Challenges and Opportunities
6. Revisiting Tourism in Sustainable Development
7. Travel and Transportation in Parks and Protected Areas
8. The dynamics of anti-tourism
9. Tourism, Digital Technology and Geographies of Urban Inequality
10. Authenticity Discourses in Nature-Based Tourism
11. Tourism analytics: social media, spatially distributed data and data mining in tourism research
12. The tourist crowd
13. Accessible tourism
14. Urban parks & green spaces as a panacea? Challenges and opportunities for urban greening

AAG in Boston

Just check out some of the session titles sponsored by the Recreation, Tourism and Sport Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers this week:

Recreation, Tourism, and Sport Specialty Group
An exploration of dark(er) liminal spaces in tourism
Engagements with nature-based tourism
Geopolitics of Tourism I
Geopolitics of Tourism II
lifestyle mobilities and local communities
New moral natures in tourism 1
New moral natures in tourism 2
Our National Parks: 100 Years and Beyond
Recreation, Tourism, and Sport Specialty Group Business Meeting
Rural Geographies and Tourism
Sports Geography
Staging the Nation: Tourism and the Geopolitical Gaze
Sustainable Tourism - Resilient Destinations: Future Governance Strategies in Tourism Development?
The Call of the Wild: Writing and Walking in American Landscapes
Tourism and the Politics of Wilderness Management and Governance
Tourism Geographies and Evolutionary Economic Geographies: New Perspectives on Change in Tourism Regions
Tourism Geographies: Examining the Past and Charting the Future
Tourism Geographies: Systems, Space and Sustainability
Tourism Geographies: Urban Tourism
Transnational Cultural and Natural Heritage in Asia: Contours of Boundary-Transgressing Memoryscapes (I)
Transnational Cultural and Natural Heritage in Asia: Contours of Boundary-Transgressing Memoryscapes (II)
Urban parks and green space: Working for the city (2 of 3)
Visitors, Art, Food and Creativity on the edge: Overcoming Path Dependency and other Challenges

If you are in Boston, this week, check out one of these sessions!

An exploration of dark(er) liminal spaces in tourism

This is the name of the session we organized for the American Association Geographers meeting in Boston later this spring.

Paper Session:

4112 An exploration of dark(er) liminal spaces in tourism

is scheduled on Saturday, 4/8/2017, from 8:00 AM - 9:40 AM in Room 201, Hynes, Second Level

Sponsorship(s):
Recreation, Tourism, and Sport Specialty Group

Organizer(s):
Robert S. Bristow - Westfield State University

Chair(s):
Robert S. Bristow - Westfield State University

Abstract(s):

8:00 AM   Author(s): *Nitasha Sharma - Indiana University Bloomington

 Abstract Title: Liminality, ethics and perceptions towards death

8:20 AM   Author(s): *Robert S. Bristow - Westfield State University
Ian S. Jenkins, Ph.D. - University of Iceland, Háskóli Íslands

 Abstract Title: Dark liminal spaces in fright tourism

8:40 AM   Author(s): Marion Karl - LMU Munich

 Abstract Title: The role of risk perception in travel decision-making and destination choice

9:00 AM   Author(s): *Maggie Christine Miller - University of Waterloo

 Abstract Title: Exploring Climbing Sherpas' stories of death and disaster as moments of liminality

9:20 AM   Author(s): *Velvet Nelson - Sam Houston State University

 Abstract Title: Objectivity or Empathy? Representing the Enslaved at Heritage Museums



Session Description: This session seeks papers that explore the liminal nature of tourism travel behavior.  Dark(er) tourist attractions may range from the lighter end (e.g., Fright Tourism for entertainment) to the darker side (e.g., sites of genocide). Further some sites may have "darker" reputation due to one's perception of fear and safety. So people can be expected to have different motivations or reasons to visit (educational, pilgrimage, entertainment).  Studies should pertain to the transition in liminal space from one's ordinary life into a spatial and temporal one found at the destination, from either the tourist's viewpoint and/or the site's management.  International destinations are encouraged.

The International Journal of Tourism Cities has invited manuscripts from this session.

Current Call for papers for RTS sponsored Session in AAG Boston

Yep,
here is the current list.  Likely to increase to 30 paper sessions.

Spring means Tornadoes

and then tourists chasing them. I call this "risk tourism" since getting caught in a F5 storm ain't fun. To get some (dated) information about the Storm Chasing industry, see this link.

BTW: Western Mass had a tornado last 1 June 2011 that folks are still cleaning up from. My colleague Dr. Karl Leiker gave a paper at the AAG meeting in NYC in February this year and you can see his abstract at this link.

CFP for AAG 2012!

Call for Papers Begins May 15

The 2012 Annual Meeting will be held much earlier than previous meetings; therefore, presenters will need to submit their abstracts and proposals earlier. Presenters can register for the AAG Annual Meeting and submit abstracts for presentations and sessions as early as May 15. The Call for Papers will end on September 28, 2011.

The AAG Annual Meeting is an interdisciplinary forum open to anyone with an interest in geography and related disciplines. All scholars, researchers, and students are welcome to submit abstracts for papers and presentations. The Call for Papers and abstract guidelines are available at www.aag.org/annualmeeting/call_for_papers.

Recreation Geography at the AAG in Seattle

Ok, enuff about the weather.

The Seattle meeting of the AAG will be in a few months and you can search for the presentations by author, title, topic and so on at:

http://meridian.aag.org/callforpapers/program/index.cfm?mtgID=56

There are multiple sessions at the meeting and something for every recreation or tourism geographer. (and I suspect if you are reading this, you fall into one of those categories).

Anyway, if you find yourself in Seattle, 12-16 April 2011, stop on by the Washington State Convention Center and the Sheraton Hotel.

For more information about the meeting and the Association of American Geographers see:

http://www.aag.org/.

Meghann Ormond's work on Medical Tourism

Got an email today from Meghann Ormond who shared a bibliography on the subject. Seems her research is on Medical Tourism:

Abstract:

This thesis examines the shifting relationship between the state and its subjects with regard to responsibility for and entitlement to care. Using Malaysia as a case study the research engages with international medical travel (IMT) as an outcome of the neoliberal retrenchment of the welfare state. I offer a critical reading of postcolonial development strategies that negotiate the benefits and challenges of extending care to non-national subjects. Read More

Professor Ormond is also presenting at the AAG in Seattle next Spring.

Got your cloth bag for shopping?

It started about a decade ago. I was attending the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Pittsburgh, PA and after paying a couple of hundred bucks for registration six months earlier, I arrived at the conference to pick up my registration supplies. Instead a a nice shoulder bag made of nylon, we all got a canvas tote bag with the book of abstracts and miscellaneous materials about the conference.

Ten years later I am using that bag and others on a daily basis. The "nicer" should bags carry my school notes for a class while the cheaper cloth bags are kept in the cars to use when I shop at the grocery, pharmacy, hardware, farmers market and so on.

I can put the bags in the laundry to clean them and they are just great!

Do you carry cloth bags for shopping?