The Association of American Geographers



Dr. Cary Komoto, Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Barron County, was a session presenter at the 103rd Annual Meeting of The Association of American Geographers (AAG).

The five-day international conference, which was held April 15-19 in Boston, is a professional and scholarly meeting with n early 3,000 attendees from the U.S. and foreign countries presenting their research in over 700 sessions scheduled throughout the meeting.

The Association of American Geographers is a scientific and educational society founded in 1904. For over 100 years the AAG has contributed to the advancement of geography. Its more than 7,500 members from 62 countries share interests in the theory, methods, and practice of geography, which they cultivate through the AAG's Annual Meeting, two scholarly journals (Annals of the Association of American Geographers and The Professional Geographer), and the monthly AAG Newsletter.

At the conference Dr. Komoto was a panelist for the “Career Planning for Graduate Students” session. Other panelists were Antoinette WinklerPrins from Michigan State University, Douglas W. Gamble from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, Thomas J. Baerwald of the National Science Foundation, Eric J. Fournier from Samford University, and Stanley D. Brunn from the University of Kentucky.

The session addressed various aspects of career planning for graduate students from the perspective of geographers in professions both inside and outside of academia. Some of the topics included teaching, publishing, grant proposals, professional development and preparing for both academic and non-academic positions.

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Dr. Cary Komoto, Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Barron County, was a contributing author to the book “Teaching College Geography: A Practical Guide for Graduate Students and Early Career Faculty.”

The publication was published by the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and Pearson Education with a copyright of 2009.

Dr. Komoto worked with the book’s editors Michael Solem and Kenneth Foote to write “Section II: Promoting a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in Geography.” This section is a preview of the upcoming four chapters which were designed to provide practical advice on pedagogical topics of enduring interest to geography educators and to illustrate some of the ways that geographers are researching the effectiveness of their teaching and sharing that knowledge with their colleagues.

He also wrote sidebars for each of the four chapters: “GIS and Mapping Technologies,” “Looking Beyond the Lecture,” “Teaching in the Field,” and “Evaluating the AAG Center for Global Geography Education.” These sidebars are inserted into an appropriate part of each chapter and are used to add information about SoTL that pertains to the chapter’s topic and gives a recommended readings list for further study.

Dr. Komoto joined the UW-BC faculty in 1991. He is currently the chair of the University of Wisconsin Colleges Department of Geography and Geology, and the chair of all academic department chairs in the University of Wisconsin Colleges. He has been involved in SoTL for quite some time and has collaborated on a number of SoTL projects. With Dr. Tracy White (UW-Barron County) and three geography colleagues, Dr. Doug Faulkner, Dr. Harry Jol, and Dr. Garry Running, IV (all UW-Eau Claire), he is developing a lesson to help correct student confusion over global warming and ozone layer depletion. He is also working on a collaborative project on virtual field trips in physical geography with Dr. Bronwyn Owen ( Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, Nevada) and Dr. Nancy Pullen (Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia).