stormdog | Entries tagged with aag

The next step in my continuing journey toward acquisition of skillsets that most people have learned by now; how to meet people and network at conferences.

it's nice to finally be in a position where I'm socially confident enough to that, and to be enthusiastic about it. I wan't once. But I do have to both acquire the skills to do so easily and smoothly, and find work-arounds for my facial recognition deficit. Business cards and written notes on them are a big help.

Madison was a great experience, and AAG has been pretty spiffy so far, too. I'll write more when I have time again. For now, I'm going to email a couple people, get some dinner, figure out what sessions I'm seeing tomorrow (apart from my own presentation of course!), and try and get a little school work done. My semester is ending in a couple weeks and it feels very weird to not be paying much attention to my term projects. I feel like a stereotypical slacking senior. Except my slacking consists of professional career development work....

I'm so tired today. I'm glad I slept in this morning even though I missed the first time slot of panels. I was having a hard time staying awake at times as it was.

Current Mood: sleepy

I had a wonderful couple of days with Danae, spent playing board games, eating with family, and enjoying each other's company. I even got a little school work done somewhere in there. This coming week is going to be spent mostly in Chicago attending the Association of American Geographers annual meeting, so it's going to be a lot of time away from home again. Hopefully I can still get some work done in the evenings on my laptop.

For now, I need to get to bed so I can get to campus early tomorrow. I submitted my AAG posters for printing, but I need to get there early and provide updated versions with some errors corrected. There doesn't seem to be a way to update jobs online.

Before bed, I have one more picture to share with you that I found as Danae and I were going through a couple of sets of photos looking for something to use for another purpose. This wasn't right for that use, but I like it too much not to post it. I kind of get lost in all the lines and shapes and spaces here, looking up at the ceiling of the sanctuary of Gary, Indiana's City Methodist Church. One of these days, I'll get to posting the rest of this set.

G'night!

Current Mood: sleepy

I'm fuzzy on expectations for citation of sources on posters. But I'm essentially done!!

I'm treating myself to editing a picture before bed.

As I've mentioned, I love mid-century Brutalist work for some of the same reasons I love Art Deco and, especially, Streamline Moderne. I think this photo really shows the intersection of Deco/Moderne and Brutalism, even though it predates the latter by several decades. It's all about the repeating geometric forms, man!

Actually, this ( reminds me of... )

Current Mood: accomplished

Kenosha has 363 pages of zoning ordinances. I wonder how that compares to, say, Chicago.

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I just ate my last Cadbury Scream Egg of the batch that Lisa gave me as a birthday present. (Thank you!) Fortunately, two rounds of Easter closeout shopping plus a surprise gift from my dad have left my reserve in good shape, at about thirty. That will get me through to Halloween when the scream version returns!

They really need to make some that are themed for other holidays. Twice a year is not enough! Cadbury Kringle Eggs for Christmas? Cadbury Meme-orial Eggs for Veteran's Day? Cadbury Tree-m Eggs for Arbor Day? C'mon, the opportunities are endless!

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Work on my poster is coming along. I hope I can get it done in time to get printed at school before my conference. Otherwise, it will cost a lot more to get done at an Office Max or similar.

Current Mood: working

I'm managing better today. I called my grandmother and will be seeing her this coming Sunday for lunch. I'm looking forward to telling her all about the program at Syracuse and my visit to the campus.

I got my history mid-term, due today, done and uploaded. The next big things I have to think about this semester are my land use planning term project and my poster for the AAG (Association of American Geographers) conference in two weeks.

But my poster for the CSAS (Central States Anthropological Society) this weekend is done! In fact, I tracked down instructions for accessing my university webspace, so you can download it from here if you're interested:

http://homepages.uwp.edu/allen019/PikeCreek/callenpikecreekurapposter.ppt

If you look at it, I'd love to know what you think.

I'm leaving Thursday at 5:30 in the morning for the drive to Minneapolis. The conference runs through Saturday evening, so I should be home lat that day. I need to try to pack what I need to work on things while I'm there. Probably a lit review for my land use project.

I was originally going to compare a 1925 Kenosha city plan with a similar 1935 document, and maybe the current comprehensive plan too, but I changed my mind for a few reasons. Instead, I'm going to write about current thoughts on bicycle infrastructure in urban planning. I know there's a crapload of literature on that topic already 'cause I've read a little of it, and I can even do a case-study of Kenosha using the city's bike development plan from 2006, which I have a copy of here.

Lastly, I'm excited because a clothing order for Miriam and myself that we made via a Chinese reseller has arrived at her place and I'm looking forward to trying on a neat shirt that arrived for me next time I can see her!

So that's where my brain's at. How are you?

Current Mood: busy

Oh wow. From my confirmation email: "Congratulations on a successful submission of your abstract to the 2015 Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois. Please remember that the AAG accepts all submissions, and that you will be expected to present."

There it is. I'm in!

Wish me luck on getting this thing put together!

*bounces*

Current Mood: excited

Ok, I think this is it; I'm submitting it now. Wish me luck! I kind of feel like I'm taking a $200 gamble. To be fair though, I'm also rather looking forward to the conference for its own sake. I'm not as familiar with the field of geography as I'd like to be, and though my applications will all be done by then, I'd really like to see what kind of work is being done and presented on.

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This poster examines the historical geography of Pike Creek, a buried urban river in the post-industrial Great Lakes town of Kenosha, Wisconsin. This research highlights the significance of this nearly-forgotten river to the city in both the past and the present. Urban Streams and rivers are receiving increasing attention around the world. Restorations of existing streams, or “daylighting” of streams rerouted underground have taken place in cities as varied as San Luis Obispo, California; Detroit, Michigan; and Seoul, South Korea.

My mixed-methods research into the historic geography of Pike Creek involves archival research with plat maps and tax records, early written histories of the city, noted planner Harland Bartholomew’s 1925 comprehensive city plan, newspaper archives, municipal board of health records, and academic theses. Research on the present context includes oral history interviews with people who have lived experience of the creek, as well as first-hand exploration and photography of remaining portions of the waterway. Finally, I performed GIS-facilitated spatial analysis of the creek by comparing census data and city zoning information with the creek route to highlight the number of people living within the watershed and the wide array of cityscapes that it connects.

The urban development that reshaped Pike Creek from the center of Kenosha’s major industries into a fragmented series of streams and drainage channels offers insight into understandings of, and relationships with, waterways on scales from individual to regional. I trace the historical geography of the river’s transformation from critical resource, to development nuisance, to forgotten relic.

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There's going to be a four foot by eight foot poster board for me? That's huge! I wonder if I can fill it. I do have plenty of visual material that's germane to this project. Many years of historic plat maps, photographs, my own digitization and analysis work....

Current Mood: hopeful

My parents took me out for all-you-can-eat sushi yesterday, and had red velvet cake at home afterward, as a belated birthday celebration. They are wonderful, and I feel loved. I also feel like my birthday lasted almost a week!

Now, though, it's back to work as the end of the semester approaches. I'm going to submit a poster presentation to the American Association of Geographers conference. The deadline is tomorrow, so I'm working on my abstract. I also joined the organization today. That, plus conference registration will set me back about $200. And you folks think fan cons are expensive, huh?
I'm going to register for a volunteer program that offers some compensation for the fee; hopefully I'll be accepted and get some shifts. Of course, that means I actually have to plan out what I want to see while I'm there way early and ask for shifts that won't take me away from neat presentations!

I have a number of things I need to do this weekend. Interviewing for a short paper on public space in Kenosha and more work with ArcGIS are the big ones. I have a paper on the Tunguska event due in December, but I can write that over Thanksgiving break. Things feel mostly under control.

Here's what I'm submitting for AAG. It's one facet of my larger Pike Creek project, which I'll also be submitting presentations on for an undergrad research symposium and an anthropology conference in Minneapolus. What do you think? I think the last paragraph still needs a little tweaking....

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This poster examines the historical geography of Pike Creek, a buried urban river in the post-industrial Great Lakes town of Kenosha, Wisconsin. This research highlights the significance of this nearly-forgotten river to the city in both the past and the present. Urban Streams and rivers are receiving increasing attention around the world. Restorations of existing streams, or “daylighting” of streams rerouted underground have taken place in cities as varied as San Luis Obispo, California, Detroit, Michigan, and Seoul, South Korea.

My mixed-methods research into the historic geography of Pike Creek involves archival research with plat maps and tax records, early written histories of the city, newspaper archives, municipal board of health records, and academic theses. Research on the present context includes oral history interviews with people who have lived memory of the creek as well as first-hand exploration and photography of remaining portions of the waterway. Finally, I performed GIS-facilitated spatial analysis of the creek by comparing census data and city zoning information with the creek route to highlight the number of people living within the watershed and the wide array of cityscapes that it connects.

In light of the growing body of work concerning the restoration of urban riparian zones and the transitioning economy of the Rust Belt, the status of culverted rivers such as Kenosha’s Pike Creek are seen to have economic, environmental, and social ramifications. The transformation the river has undergone has implications for understandings of, and relationships with, waterways on both an individual and municipal scale.