Every year, National Geographic sponsors Geography Awareness Week, encouraging geography departments across the country to promote awareness.

The event took place from Nov. 16 to 20, and featured the national theme “Discover a World of Opportunity.” But the week represented more than awareness for the NAU geography department, who were also celebrating 40 years of geography on the NAU campus.

The week began with a presentation by geography professor Tina Kennedy, in which she discussed her seven weeks of volunteering in northwest India.

Her seminar, “Re-presenting India,” focused on how and why people take pictures, using her own photography as an example.

“Increasingly, our world is more visual than literate,” Kennedy said. “In other words, we get so much of our information through images, whether it’s on TVs or what have you. Increasingly, people are getting much of their information that way. ”

Other events included a kayaking film and a geography quiz created by all the geography professors. Prizes were awarded at a brunch on the morning of Nov. 20 to those who finished high in the rankings.
The event presented the department with the opportunity to not only raise geography awareness, but to change the perception of geography that so many seem to carry.

Geography professor Jim Sell emphasized that geography spans a broad spectrum, ranging from sustainability to Earth science and nearly everything in between.

“Geography isn’t on most people’s radar,” Sell said. “They don’t know much about it. They think all it is is dealing with maps, and if you take a class on geography you’re going to have to memorize capitol cities…geographers can do just about anything they want to and call it geography.”

Geography grad student Matthew Bennett said the study of geography is about much more than most people’s basic perceptions.

“Geography is the ultimate renaissance person’s field of study,” Bennett said. “It’s essentially social science with maps.”