Message from the Chair Spring 2026
This semester we held our second annual CU ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Mapathon by opening this competition up to Geography Departments in Colorado as a co-sponsored event with the Colorado Geographic Alliance (COGA). Cartographies of Hope was the theme for this year’s Mapathon. Winners, included in this issue, included the Best Overall Map, The People’s Choice Award, and best maps in the following categories: Life Affirming Geographies, Geographies of Resistance and Repairs, Geographies of Care, and Geographies of Sustainability and Environmental Justice.
In coordination with the Mapathon we celebrated the Grand Opening, of Dr. Isaac Rivera’s new lab, The Rita Martinez Spatial Justice Lab for Life Affirming Geographies.Ìý
CU ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß faculty and graduate students on behalf of The Colorado Geography Alliance are hosting a Geography Designathon with 9th grade Students in Mr. Stephen Paulson’s Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography course. Students from this class will join us on CU ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß’s campus on May 8, 2026, for a Geography Designathon to apply the Geographic skills they learned in Mr. Paulson’s class to real world problems for individual in Colorado and around the world. We will feature the projects for this class on the COGA website and the fall newsletter.
As you will see in this semester’s newsletter, several Geography faculty, graduate and undergraduate students received major awards and recognition, illustrating our department’s strength and our commitment to excellence, which we continually strive to achieve both individually and as a department.