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News and Events

GEO seniors attend and present research at the 2024 West Lakes AAG Divisional Meeting
In mid October, the 2024 Geography Capstone students attended the fall combined meeting of the West Lakes and East Lakes AAG Divisions, hosted by Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI. The eight students each presented original research to an audience of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and geography and planning professionals.

2024 Capstone
GEO capstone students (L-R): Nicole Kuzniar, Alonso Bueno, Lacy Wright, Adrian Frontera-Villanueva, Maya Holmes, Ryan Glen, Marcela Erickson, and Brigid Flannery. In front of the WMU Bronco statue.

hague cla

Dr. Euan Hague receives college's highest award.
Dr. Hague, Professor of Geography and Director of the School of Public Service, is the 2024 recipient of Cortelyou-Lowery Award. On the recommendation of the College Awards Committee, this award is given annually to an outstanding faculty colleague who has achieved sustained excellence in the College and University.






GEO Majors Attend and Present at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers
Geography and GIS majors Lily Baird, Erin Koster, Chris Impellizeri, and Lacy Wright attended the 2024 annual AAG Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii in mid-April. They were joined by GEO alum and current SUD graduate student, Dajoin Williams. At the meeting, Lily, Erin, and Dajoin each presented original research.

  • Lily Baird: 'Beyond Barbie: Feminist Geography and the Evolution of American Dollhouses
  • Erin Koster: 'Amplifying Disparities: The Unequal Burden of Transportation Noise in Rural and Minority Communities'
  • Dajoin Williams: '“Data is great, but . . .” Co-producing knowledge for environmental justice' (with Dr. Winifred Curran)
  • Chris Impellizeri was co-author on research papers presented by Drs. Curran and Michelle Stuhlmacher
2024 AAG Students
Stuhlmacher & Quinn

Dr. Michelle Stuhlmacher (co-PI with Dr. Kimberly Quinn, Department of Psychology) receives $750,000 NSF grant to study emotions, equity, and access to urban greenspaces in Chicago. The community-based study will use a variety of geospatial and other technologies to examine and assess differences in user-interactions with public greenspaces in the city. Congratulations Michelle! Read more about the project and watch an accompanying video here!

Curran book

Congratulations to Dr. Winifred Curran on the publication of her latest book (co-edited with Dr. Leslie Kern, Mount Allison University) entitled A Research Agenda for Gentrification (Edward-Elgar Publishing).








WLAAG 2023

The Department of Geography & GIS hosted the 2023 Annual Conference of the West Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers at the Loop Conference Center, October 19-21st, 2023. The conference welcomed 125 Geography faculty, students, graduate students, and professionals from across the Midwest, and included seven presentations by DePaul GEO seniors. Thanks to everyone who made the conference a great success!!










sioh book

Dr. Maureen Sioh co-authors Global Libidinal Economy, a psychoanalytic examination of the global economy. Reviewers describe the book as a "game changer" and "groundbreaking"; one whose results are "illuminating, unsettling, irresistible."







Cassie Follett (GIS Coordinator) and Dr. Julie Hwang are recipients of a 2023 Urban Community Collaborative Research Initiative (UCCRI) research grant for their proposed project, Investigating False Alerts Related to At-Home Electronic GPS Monitoring. The study will design GPS algorithms to examine and assess false alerts from ankle monitors worn by at-home detainees in the judicial system. These ‘false alerts’ can lead to unwarranted and unjust penalties, including incarceration. Congratulations Julie and Cassie!!

aag students

DePaul GEO majors attend national AAG meeting. Junior and senior Geography majors - (L-R) Alexey Chekanov, Lily Baird, Sage Katwala, Nils Berglund, and Owen Bomba - attend the 2023 annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Denver, Colorado (March 23-March 27, 2023).





owen bomba

DePaul Geography major presents research at Big East conference in Madison Square Garden Senior GEO major, Owen Bomba, presented his research on Zombie Urbanism at the annual Big East Research Conference, held March 11th in New York City's Madison Square Garden. The conference invites students from across the Big East collegiate division to present their work. Owen was one of five DePaul students selected to present at this year's conference. Congratulations Owen!

GEO Alumni Event

Careers in Planning - a GEO alumni panel. On February 17th, 2023 the DePaul Geography Student Association (DGSA) hosted alumni working in planning fields (urban, regional, community, environmental) across the country to meet with and discuss their post-DePaul journeys with current students with similar career interests. The event was co-sponsored by the Department of Geography, the Sustainable Urban Development Graduate Program, and the Geographical Society of Chicago.

  • DGSA Student Moderators Chris Impellizeri, Lily Baird, and Alejandro Arakelian
  • Alumni on screen (L-R, top-bottom): Grant Gartska, Alex Temes, Dominique Edwards, Adam Beaver, Mohamed Ali, Malcolm Mossman, Noah Boggess, and Allison Williams

Congratulations to Dr. Julie Hwang for her successful research proposal, with colleagues in Computer Sciences and at Rosalind Franklin Medical University, entitled: Improving Gait Activity Detection from GPS and IMUs with Machine Learning. Julie and her colleagues were award $30,450 to examine gait/walking habits and activity among patients using GPS technologies. Kudos Julie!

Update: Read more about Dr. Hwang's mobility research in DePaul Newsline (27 January 2023)

Dr. Winifred Curran

Dr. Winifred Curran is the recipient of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences’ 2022 Cortelyou-Lowery Award. On the recommendation of the College Awards Committee, this award is given annually to an outstanding faculty colleague who has demonstrated sustained excellence in the College and University. Congratulations Win!



Geography & Computer Science join for combined Bachelor of Science degree. The CS+GEO BS brings together the two distinct fields of Computer Science and Geography in a multi-disciplinary degree program that reflects the wide use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies and the application of computational methods in geography and other social sciences. More information and details can be found the DePaul Catalog.

Professors Curran and Stuhlmacher

Dr. Winifred Curran and Dr. Michelle Stuhlmacher (2022). College of LAS faculty in geography—Dr.Curran and Dr. Stuhlmacher—lead a team recently awarded a $250,000 NASA grant to collaborate with a Chicago community on online dashboard that uses satellite data to bring disparities in tree canopy coverage, plant diversity and air quality into focus, providing community leaders accurate and accessible data for use in their fight for environmental justice. Read more in DePaul Newsline.

Alex Papadopoulos

Dr. Alex Papadopoulos (2022). The Ionian University in Corfu, Greece, has invited Dr. Papadopoulos to teach and carry out collaborative research on Anthropocene threats to tangible and intangible cultural heritage(s). A Fulbright Senior Scholar award will support his work there in Winter-Spring 2023.

Alex's project contributes to Ionian's partnership with the UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage(s). His work includes curriculum design, the development and teaching of coursework on spatial methods of threat assessment, research on a threats/risk mitigation spatial model and rubric, and scientific expertise to standing committees that manage the Ionian U - UNESCO 'threats' project.


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