Sept. 6, 2002
Changing Spaces
Department of Geography Mapping a Move to E Street;
Multidisciplinary Program Continues Its Growth
By Greg
Licamele
On the second floor of the old Quigley’s Pharmacy, Dorn McGrath
sits amid maps, boxes, and books in his elongated office. As a professor
of geography and practitioner of precision for 34 years, he’s preparing
to move his department to a new location. As he unfolds the blueprints
for the fifth floor of the new academic building at 1957 E St., neatly
trimmed yellow squares of construction paper are noticeable as McGrath
and his colleagues have mapped their new home down to the size of auxiliary
desks.
Encompassing 5,000 square feet, the Department of Geography’s new
location will accommodate its growing program — from its spatial
analysis laboratory to a formal map library to 1,000 students a year
enrolling in geography classes. The first floor lobby of the new building
will contain the department’s popular 4Winds Weather Station (in
association with NBC affiliate WRC-TV), with the actual measuring device
moving to a better location on the roof of Mitchell Hall.
With a physical move on the horizon for the department, personnel movement
already has been a reality. McGrath says in the last four years, the
department has recruited four tenure-track geography faculty members
to meet the demand for more classes.
“There’s a better public understanding of the importance of
geography in just the past few years,” McGrath says. “As the
country is more and more involved in other parts of the world, people
keep asking, ‘Where is that? What’s going on over there?’
We’re the people who know about that.”
As McGrath and his five full-time faculty colleagues prepare to move
later this semester, they continue a 58-year GW journey of teaching
one of the more multidisciplinary and technologically-transformed fields.
A significant advancements has been the use of Geographic Information
Systems (GIS). Marie Price, associate professor of geography and international
affairs, says GIS serves as an interactive map with databases containing
layers of information. Old cartography, Price says, simply meant taking
a set of data and mapping it.
“Now, you can see layers and how something grew, contracted, or
shifted in time,” Price says. “GIS can be linked to live feeds
from satellites and you can track things like loss of forest cover due
to fires.”
The new E Street building will include an even more sophisticated GIS
system, McGrath says, adding that GW’s program stands among the
best in the region.
“Some programs teach the technical end and tricks of GIS,”
McGrath says. “We teach the philosophy, how to apply it, and how
to interpret things. Students are taught, ‘Here’s the program,
learn it.’”
GIS data are instructive and interdisciplinary. For example, the Elliott
School of International Affairs uses geographic data to analyze a variety
of patterns and relationships. Also, McGrath says, the geography department
has a close working relationship with the US State Department.
“Senior officials understand the need for geography,” McGrath
says. “The junior ones arrive at the State Department with a glazed
look and they don’t know whether the river flows this way or that
way, why, when, and how much.”
Price notes the move to the new building, which also houses the Elliott
School of International Affairs, stands as a strong statement about
the value of geography.
“It’s impossible to imagine how you could teach international
affairs without a geographic understanding,” Price says.
Other GW departments find the geography department’s work a benefit.
The Department of Sociology, using GIS data, worked with Price and Ivan
Cheung, assistant professor of geography, to map recent migration patterns
in the Washington metropolitan area. The study, called “World in
a Zip Code,” determined that Washington is the fifth-most common
destination for immigrants, with one in six people (850,000) hailing
from foreign countries.
Through the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, the
department is teaming up with the National Geographic Society to help
teachers teach geography.
“Teachers like to know what GIS is,” McGrath says. “They
are scared of it. We can demystify GIS for them and help them teach
it more cogently so that young people can study it more carefully.”
Students who have learned the craft of cartography and other skills
at the collegiate level enter a wide variety of careers. Many graduates
choose to become consultants for governments, agencies, and municipalities,
including the State Department and the Department of Defense’s
National Imaging and Mapping Agency. These employers want employees
well-versed in GIS.
“This ability to think spatially is critical not just in discovering
patterns, but also in thinking about how places are linked by trade,
investments, and geopolitical relations,” Price says.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
