News & Events
Spring 2012 Faculty and Student Awards
Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong, a Geography M.S. alum, who is working on a Ph.D. at Western University in Ontario, Canada, recently received funding from the Africa Initiative Graduate Research Program to confront critical issues facing Africa.
"The graduate research program offers bright, up-and-coming scholars on Africa an opportunity to take their research to the next level. Supported students deepen their on-the-ground experience and apply their research in new, cross-continental settings. With this second round of grants, we're building toward an increased capacity in Canada-Africa research collaboration by fostering important ties with leading researchers and experts in the field," said Erica Dybenko, Africa Initiative program manager.
His supported project is entitled, Food security and smallholder farmer adaptation to climate change in Ghana's Upper-West Region. The research applies a political ecology lens to food security and climate change adaptation in Ghana, and is grounded in development geography and human-environment interactions, rural livelihood security, global environmental and economic change and tropical agricultural systems.
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Dr. Ulrich Kamp has received an extension of his research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He will be working during summer 2012 at the Institute of Geographical Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, focusing on glacier monitoring in the Mongolian Altai Mountains.
GReaT Lab monitor, Matthew Schroeder has been nominated for Student Employee of the Year 2012! Congrats, Matthew!
The Geography Department is pleased to announce that Peter Bordokoff has been selected for a U.S. Graduate Student Fulbright Award for 2012-2013 to the Republic of Georgia. His research project, entitled "A Geographic Perspective of Climate Change Adaptation in Georgia," will explore perceptions of climate change, its associated impacts, and the development of adaptation strategies in the Caucasus Mountains. Along with his faculty advisor Sarah Halvorson, he will be collaborating with Associate Professor Dr. Ia Iashvili from the Department of Geography at Akaki Tsereteli State University in Kutaisi, one of UM's partner universities in the Caucasus region. Peter is the fourth geography student to receive a Fulbright award in the past four years. Congratulations Peter!
Nancy Forman-Ebel, Administrative Associate for the Department of Geography, will be recognized this year for reaching thirty years of continuous service at The University of Montana. Her significant achievement will be celebrated at the UM Employee Recognition Day Reception on Friday, April 20, 2012. Congrats Nancy!
Anthony Thompson, a junior in the Community and Environmental Planning Program in Geography, received a fellowship from the Montana Water Center to help support him as he studies the Columbia River Treaty review and negotiation process between the United States and Canada under the direction of Dr. David Shively. Anthony was the only undergraduate student to receive a fellowship award from the Center which made eight other awards to Montana graduate students. Big congratulations Anthony!
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Christiane von Reichert was selected to receive the 
2012 John Ruffato Memorial Award. The $3,500 award was established to encourage and recognize UM faculty who impart practical, applicable principles into their teaching and to solidify the interdependent relationship between local businesses and The University of Montana. Dr. von Reichert was chosen because of her work on socio-economic and demographic analysis, including research on return migration to rural communities, and her practical hands-on teaching which helps students gain the knowledge and skills needed to move into professional positions in the private and public sector. The John Ruffatto Memorial Award will be conferred at UM's Charter Day, 16 Feb 2012, which celebrates the University's founding and special faculty and community members who have contributed to UM's mission. Congratulations!!
Dr. Sarah Halvorson, Chair (left), and Dr. Christiane von Reichert (right) celebrate at the ceremony.
Winter 2012 News
In a joint effort by the University of Montana and Glasgow High School, a new book published by the University of Montana Press entitled "Glasgow and Valley County, Montana" celebrates the area through high school student essays and both professional and amateur photography. Senior Lecturer Rick Graetz and his wife Suzie spearheaded the book project starting in 2007, in an effort to bring the University out into the communities of Montana. Congrats, Rick!
Kevin Kent spent a semester studying Geography in Tasmania.
Here's the essay he sent home to us earlier this semester:
After only a six week summer break, I flew to Tasmania, Australia in early July to study on exchange for the Austral spring semester. For those who might not be familiar with Tasmania, it is a heart shaped island about the size of West Virginia that lies 150 miles south of the Australian mainland. About 500,000 people call it home, roughly half of whom, myself included, live in the capital city of Hobart. As opposed to much of the mainland, the island receives large amounts of rainfall and is quite hilly and mountainous. The island is a very picturesque place, with many national parks and over a third of the total area being protected land. In fact, the entire southwest quarter of the island is Wilderness and a UNESCO World Heritage Area. For all of these reasons, Tasmania enjoys a few nicknames such as Australia's National Park, Island of Inspiration, and the New Zealand of Australia. 
Overall I am having an awesome experience. Seeing the different landscapes is amazing. I have been climbing on sea and alpine cliffs, seen fairy penguins sleeping in the forest, petted wallabies and kangaroos, and even gone caving with a few friends! I'm definitely learning a lot about the culture, and making lots of friends. If I had one wish to change the experience it would be for a stronger dollar! In addition to a poor exchange rate, things just cost a lot more here! I think amount of time spent studying has direct correlation to the price of alcohol here. With a case of “cheap” beer costing $40USD, its hard for poor college students to be partying as much! Its a little easier on the locals though, because the minimum wage here is over $15!
The “Uni” here has a much different feel to it than Montana. First of all, most programs are only 3 years long. This is mainly due to the fact that they don't really have general education requirements. Each semester students only take 3 or 4 classes which usually consist of a 2 hour  lecture and a hour long small group or lab session each week. Most classes have no regular homework, with the final grade usually consisting of just one 2000-3000 word paper and the final exam. The character of campus is quite different too. Fewer than 5% of students live on campus, there are no stadiums or arenas, and due to the fact that there are fewer lectures per week campus is usually a ghost town by 5 pm. The rate of University enrollment after high school is quite good here, because it is easy to get government loans for tuition. Amazingly, students don't have to start paying back their loans until they meet a certain income threshold and if they never make that threshold, they never have to repay their loans!
The geography department is quite different too because it is almost entirely focused on GIS, surveying, and physical geography. In addition to three other classes, I'm taking an advanced spatial analysis/GIS course that is one of the most rigorous courses I've ever been in. In the beginning of the semester we took a field trip to a landslide to collect tons of data using kinematic GPS, total station surveys, and UAV collected spatially referenced aerial photos. Since then we've been using that data to explore a variety of different analysis techniques. Furthermore, a deep understanding of the software tools is stressed, including learning python for scripting! 
Tassie is truly an awesome place to see and live. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone thinking about studying abroad! If you can't do that, definitely come down to check out the amazing, hiking, surfing, climbing, caving, kayaking, rafting, biking, and landscapes and culture (they have a little skiing too but you'd be better off staying in Montana for that!). The Austral summer is a great time to visit and escape the cold, dark Montana winter too!
-Kevin Kent is a senior majoring in geography, attempting the GIS certificate, and minoring in mountain studies.
Fall 2011 Events
The Department of Geography is thrilled to announce that we have been given permission to conduct two national searches for faculty to support and enhance our GIS programs. The first is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Cartography and GIS following Dr. Wilson's retirement in 2010. The second is a new Cartography and GIS Lecturer, jointly offered with the College of Forestry but housed in Geography, which will strengthen our successful GIS Sciences and Technologies Certificate, which is offered in collaboration with Forestry as well. The Lecturer will also serve as Coordinator for the Certificate program, which has been graduating about 20 students each year. We look forward to reviewing applications beginning late this fall!
Congratulations to Dr. Ganapathy Narayanaraj, GIS Lecturer, who successfully definded his doctoratoral dissertation in Geospatial Science and Engineering this fall at South Dakota State University! Way to go!!
Fall 2011 Faculty and Student Conferences
Graduate student Molly Smith presented her poster, "An Assessment of Drought Climatology, Vulnerability, and Mitigation in the Clark Fork River Basin of Montana" at the 2011 Annual Montana Water Conference "Montana's Water Resources: Adapting to Changes in Supply and Demand," October 6-7, in Great Falls, Montana. It was hosted by the Montana Chapter of the American Water Resources Association and the Montana Water Center.
Dr. Christiane von Reichert and graduate student Joseph Husar gave research presentations at the joint 2011 meeting of the Rural Sociological Society (RSS) and the Community Development Society (CDS) in Boise, Idaho, July 28-31. Dr. von Reichert's talk focused on "Return Migrants and Their Impact on Rural Communities." Joe Husar presented findings from his thesis "Rural Community Vitality: The Cases of Fort Benton, Montana and Watford City, North Dakota."
Dr. von Reichert spent part of September and October 2011 as a Visiting Scholar at the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the USDA in Washington, DC. While in DC, she participated at the October 3-5 Conference on Rural Wealth Creation and Livelihoods, sponsored and organized by the ERS, the Ford Foundation, and the Aspen Institute. She was one of the inivited speakers and presented her research findings on "How Return Migration Helps in Building Rural Wealth." She also participated at the "Idea Market," and attended the White House Rural Council Session.
November 1st, the Water Year 2011 Summary and Water Year 2012 Climate and Water Supply Outlook meeting is being convened by the Clark Fork Task Force. For more information see their Brochure.
Spring 2011 Faculty and Student Conferences
A record number of students and former students presented at the Association of American Geographer’s Annual Meeting in Seattle this April. Ryan Arthun, Kevin Barnett, Thor Burbach, Michael J. Ewald, Kevin McManigal, Ann Piersall, Shane Thurlo, Chris Walter, and Dusty Waltner, along with faculty Dr. Jeffrey Gritzner, Dr. Sarah Halvorson, Dr. Ulrich Kamp, Dr. Anna Klene, Dr. Christiane von Reichert, Dr. David Shively, and Dr. Thomas Sullivan all participated. Former students presenting included Brandon Krumwiede - currently teaching for us at UM, Michael Church - Fulbright Foundation, Jacob Petersen-Perlman - Oregon State University, Russell Fielding* - UNC, Chapel Hill, Jessie Reynolds - Northwestern Energy, and Tamara Wall - Desert Research Institute. In total, UM gave at least 17 presentations and posters. Dr. Halvorson organized a panel on “Teaching about High Asia." Dr. Kamp’s students won the Mountain Geography Specialty Group award for the second year in a row! Kevin McManigal won the 2011 Mauna Kea Student Presentation Award for his presentation on “Retracing the 1910 Carruthers Royal Geographical Society Expedition to the Turgen Mountains of Mongolia: Reconstruction of a Century of Glacial Change." The award includes $100. Congratulations Kevin!
Geography had a variety of students involved with UM’s 10th annual Graduate Student and Faculty Research Conference. Shah Faisal Khan, Dusty Waltner, and Molly Smith presented talks, while Ryan Arthun, Mary Buford, Fuad Bukhari, Josh Hazard, and Charles Hoadley, presented posters. Ryan Arthun and Mary Buford’s poster on “Exploring the Potential for Geographic Transportation Modeling to Improve Food Bank Resource Distribution in Montana” and Charles Hoadley’s poster “Creating an Image, Shaping a Destination in Northern Peru” both won an Outstanding Graduate Student Poster award and prizes of $100. Dr. Thomas Sullivan participated by chairing a session and Dr. Christiane von Reichert served as session chair, judge of abstracts, presentations, and posters. Thanks to all for participating and congratulations!
Dr. Anna Klene and a number of co-authors presented a poster on temperature measurements inside Inupiat ice cellars in Barrow, AK, at the North Slope Science Initiative Workshop in Barrow and at the Climate Change: Indigenous Peoples and Adaptation Symposium here at UM.
Spring 2011 Faculty Awards
Dr. Anna Klene and Dr. Christiane von Reichert have both been awarded a year-long sabbatical for the 2011-2012 school year. Dr. von Reichert will spend much of the fall in Washington DC for her research. Dr. Klene is refusing to disclose her location but says she will be curled up somewhere with her laptop when she isn’t in the Arctic doing fieldwork. Congratulations!
Dr. von Reichert received a 2011-2012 University Small Grant Award to support fieldwork on the migration experience of Georgians (from the Southern Caucasus) to Germany. This work is in collaboration with Dr. Ia Iashvili from Tbilisi and Kutaisi State Universities, who has been a Visiting Scholar here at UM several times.
Spring 2011 Student Awards
The international geography honorary society Gamma Theta Upsilon held their annual induction ceremony this spring and inducted 10 new UM students into GTU. These folks have maintained at least a 3.3 and are eligible for a variety of scholarships and have their own peer-reviewed journal, The Geographical Bulletin.
The Geography Department gives out several awards and scholarships each spring. This year, Harry Brennan was awarded the Kain/McKay Scholarship. Allison Pak was awarded the Geography Faculty Award, and Skye Faulkner was awarded the Harold W. Bockemuehl Scholarship. For more information on Geography’s scholarships and awards click here. Congratulations to you all!
Our Mortar Board Outstanding Seniors from this graduating year’s class include Jodell Lepley in Community & Environmental Planning, Jamie Anderson in the B.A. in General Geography, Cody Harris in the B.S. in General Geography, and Frederick Snyder-Manetti in Gamma Theta Upsilon. Congratulations to all of our Graduates!
Molly Smith won the $1000 Donald Willems Scholarship for research in water resources from the MSAWWA and MWEA towards educational expenses. She also received the Montana Water Center Student Research Fellowship. Way to go Molly!
Joe Milbrath was awarded the $1000 Montana Association of Geographic Information Professionals (MAGIP) Higher Education Scholarship for next year to work on his thesis looking at environmental change in fens along the Rocky Mountain Front over the last 80 years. In addition, he will get free registration to the Intermountain GIS Conference in Kalispell next spring to present his results. Great job!
