American Association of Geographers
The American Association of Geographers (AAG; until 2016 Association of American Geographers ) is a non-profit organization for geography and geographers in the United States. They are active in science and education and have around 10,000 members (2013) from over 60 countries and from the private sector, government organizations and the academic sector. It was founded in Philadelphia in 1904 on the proposal of William Morris Davis , who was also the first president, and is based in Washington, DC
In addition, there is the American Geographical Society (AGS) in New York City, founded in 1851 (with high scientific standards, but also audience-oriented and known for promoting expeditions) and the National Geographic Society (NGS), founded in 1888 , publisher of the popular National Geographic Magazine. In contrast to these organizations, the AAG was founded in 1904 as a professional association by professional geographers and was not open to laypeople, but only to scientists, so that in 1941 they had only 167 members. That changed with the entry of the United States into World War II, which resulted in many new jobs for geographers, particularly in the military and government agencies. There were also many school teachers. Since the AAG only accepted academic members, they founded the American Society of Professional Geographers (ASPG) in Washington, DC , which soon had considerably more members , but which merged with the AAG in 1948. It had 1,300 members at the time, and 7,000 in the mid-1970s. It is the primary national professional organization for geographers.
The Society publishes several journals: Annals of the Association of American Geographers (the AAG's original highly academic and scientific journal), The Professional Geographer (originally from the ASPG), both peer-reviewed, the AAG Review of Books, and the Online membership magazine AAG Newsletter. It also hosts conventions, regional meetings and an annual meeting in February, March or April with thousands of participants and awards grants and prizes. The society has around 60 subgroups, regionally and according to subject area (for example climate, geomorphology, biogeography, cryosphere, mountain geography, cultural and economic geography, environment, population).
It cooperates with the National Council for Geographic Education, the United States Geological Survey and the National Institutes of Health .
List of presidents
† died during the tenure
literature
- Gary Gaile, Cort Willmott (Eds.), Geography in America, Oxford UP, 1989, 2003
- Preston E. James, Geoffrey J. Martin: The Association of American Geographers: The first seventy-five years, 1904-1979 , Easton: AAG, 1978