Geography touches every facet of the world we live in. This can be a blessing and a curse. Although it allows geographers to diversify their research to suit a variety of interests, geography’s breadth can make it hard to “find your people.”
The American Association of Geographers’ solution to this dilemma is its many practice groups, known as Specialty Groups. As a professional association representing the wide range of practitioners, educators, and students in geography, the American Association of Geographers (AAG) seeks to sustain and serve its members in a way that helps them maintain the different facets of their professional identities while also reflecting the geography discipline as a whole.
This tension isn’t new. In October 1976, during a relatively innocuous internal governance audit, the AAG Council established the Long-Range Planning Committee. The group was tasked with assessing AAG’s organizational priorities, including member services, governance, and finances.
One of the committee’s major concerns was membership fragmentation, which persisted through the middle of the 20th century. The committee came up with a solution to attract members while recognizing their need for specialty peer groups—and this is where the Specialty Groups come in.
Creating Connections in a Broad Discipline
In the 50 years since that internal audit, the number of AAG Specialty Groups has ballooned to more than 70, including many related to GIS, cartography, and remote sensing. The AAG Community program serves these groups, as well as nine regional divisions in North America. It also provides information and connection to the chairs of countless geography departments and programs. In addition, AAG has eight Affinity Groups for members in different career stages—including undergraduates and graduate students—and who have particular interests, such as mental health in the academy and caregiving.
While the Specialty Groups are affiliated with AAG, they are also largely self-governed. Each group can set its own policies (while following AAG’s Code of Conduct), raise funds, issue calls for papers, plan sessions for AAG’s annual meeting, give grants to scholars, and recognize excellence via awards. AAG members have attested that they’ve made lifelong friends and formed strong networks through the Specialty Groups.
But the central question lingers: How can AAG ensure that its members feel valued for their contributions to the broader discipline, as well as within their more focused communities?
Strengthening Collaboration
The AAG Community team recently introduced new approaches to support Specialty Group leadership. These include creating management systems for the work the groups’ volunteer chairs do and helping communicate member services, opportunities, and group business such as elections. The team also helps Specialty Group leaders develop opportunities for their groups to meet and connect across their interests, since the cross-pollination of ideas is so important to geography practice.
For example, the GIS, spatial analysis, and remote sensing groups each have more than 300 members who often cross-collaborate. AAG’s online knowledge platforms are teeming with opportunities that members share within and across the Specialty Groups, including faculty openings, calls for papers, talks, and networking events. Additionally, the broader AAG membership gets a peek into Specialty Group activities at AAG’s annual meeting, where the Specialty Groups sponsor sessions, networking events, and social hours.
It is not uncommon for an AAG member to belong to half a dozen or more Specialty Groups. Membership in these groups is either free or very affordable (think $5–$10 per year), added to a base AAG membership. The AAG Specialty Groups are often the top reason people remain members of AAG for years and even decades—because they value the collegiality and information they get from these groups throughout the year.
Whether you’re a student just discovering GIS and geography, a researcher pushing the boundaries of current practice, or a practitioner applying spatial thinking in new contexts, there’s an AAG Specialty Group for you. Explore them all.
In Geography, the Big Picture Is a Mosaic
In a world of increased specialization, it’s a privilege to work in a field as broad as geography. Within that extent, of course, there are dozens of specialties and subspecialties. As with many matters of geography, it’s all about scale: Sometimes a big-picture view is needed, and other times it’s better to have the granular details. In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the field, AAG is looking to meet both needs simultaneously.
Working together, let’s ensure that geography remains a vibrant, inclusive, and multifaceted field—one that thrives by finding common ground and shared perspectives via its diversity.
