Today, we welcomed Katie Brown, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Katie is a health geographer interested in how the places we interact with impact our health. While pursuing her PhD, her work has focused on how urban transformations may affect residents' mental health in the city of Detroit, Michigan, which is presently undergoing significant investment and transformation. For her dissertation, she used both qualitative and quantitative measures to identify the mediating factors between neighborhood change and mental health outcomes. Additionally, her work aims to recognize resources that may protect residents' mental health in the face of neighborhood change. Based on this case, she hopes to provide insights that can inform policy and planning decisions in other urban environments facing similar transformations. Beyond the academic frontier, Katie is committed to making a meaningful impact on the lives of those affected by urban transformations and promoting health equity in urban communities.

Katie discussed her research as well as the founding of the American Association of Geographers on December 29, 1904, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

If you would like to learn more about Katie’s research, please visit the Space, Health, And Community (SHAC) Lab at https://www.spacehealthandcommunitylab.org/

If you would like to learn more about the American Association of Geographers, visit https://www.aag.org.

Our sponsor for this episode is the MSU onGEO Professional GIS Certificate Program. If you are looking to revamp your current career, earn continuing-education credits, or simply learn new and marketable geospatial skills, visit today to learn how to earn a professional certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or Geospatial Data Analytics & Visualization. Learn more at https://ongeo.msu.edu/.

Today we welcome Sandhya Sharma, a dual-major Ph.D. candidate in the ⁠Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences⁠ and the Environmental Science and Policy Program at Michigan State University. She earned her master's degree in forestry from the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, India, and her bachelor's degree in forestry from Kathmandu Forestry College in Nepal. Her research focuses on forest and disturbance ecology, particularly forest fire dynamics and their assessment using remote sensing. She is studying how plant water stress can predict burn severity in Nepal while developing methods to map forest fires and recurring disturbances, and estimate aboveground biomass loss by integrating remote sensing with field data.

Sandhya discussed the 26th Anniversary of the launch of ArcGIS on December 27, 1999. ArcGIS is a comprehensive geospatial platform for professionals and organizations. It is the leading geographic information system (GIS) technology. Built by Esri, ArcGIS integrates and connects data through the context of geography.

If you would like to learn more about Sandhya’s research, visit the ERSAM Lab website.

Our sponsor for this episode in the MSU onGEO on-demand course offering of Interpreting Wetlands & Deepwater Habitats from Aerial Imagery. This online professional course teaches participants how to successfully interpret and classify wetlands from aerial imagery and high-resolution satellite imagery. While there are many ways to extract wetland features from imagery, all of them require the user to know how to interpret them first. For instance, automated classification requires training sites, which are features with a known classification. To learn more and register today, visit https://ongeo.msu.edu/ondemand/index.html.

Today we welcomed Stephen Przybylinski, a professor of urban and political geography in the ⁠Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Dr. Przybylinski is broadly interested in the ways in which liberal democracies both enable injustices and how such political systems mediate responses to injustices within their frameworks. Before arriving at MSU, he had a two-year post-doctoral position at Uppsala University, where he was a researcher on the JustNorth project, a Horizon 2020 project examining the ethical implications of Arctic development. Dr. Przybylinski holds a Ph.D. in geography from Syracuse University, an MA in geography from Portland State University, and a BA in urban studies and geography from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Przybylinski discussed his research as well as National Homeless Persons Memorial Day, an event on or near the winter solstice (December 21st) coordinated by national organizations, including the National Coalition for the Homeless, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, and the National Consumer Advisory Board, which remembers those who died homeless in the past year.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Przybylinski’s research, please see his book The Injustice of Property: Homeless Encampments and the Limits of Liberalism, available from University of Georgia Press.

Our sponsor for this episode is the Undergraduate Degree Program for the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Choose from Bachelor of Science concentrations in Earth Observation & Geospatial Analytics, Physical Environment & Climate, or Human-Environment & Economic Geography. Or tailor your path through human, physical, and regional geography courses with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Ready to map your future? Visit geo.msu.edu and talk with an academic advisor today.

Note: This episode was recorded on November 14, 2025.

In this episode, we welcome Angie Sanchez, a PhD student in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Angie’s research focuses on health and medical geography with an emphasis on Indigenous communities and access to breastfeeding support resources and other health disparities.

We also discuss the evolution of Native American Heritage Month, the observance during November to celebrate the history, culture, and contributions of American Indian and Alaska Native peoples. The month-long recognition, established in 1990, is an opportunity to learn about indigenous communities, their traditions, and the challenges they face.

If you would like to learn more about Angie’s work and research, visit the Noon Project (https://nooniproject.com/) and the Sacred Waters Collective (https://sacredwaterscollective.co/). You can email Angie at asanchez@msu.edu and the Sacred Waters Collective at sacredwaterscollective@outlook.com.

Our sponsor for this episode is the MSU onGEO Professional GIS Certificate Program. If you are looking to revamp your current career, earn continuing-education credits, or simply learn new and marketable geospatial skills, visit today to learn how to earn a professional certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or Geospatial Data Analytics & Visualization. Learn more at https://ongeo.msu.edu/.

This week in Today in Geography, host Nathan Moore sits down with Alan Arbogast, professor and geomorphologist in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. He is best known for his research on the geomorphic history of coastal sand dunes along Lake Michigan. This work has demonstrated that the dunes are much younger than originally thought and that they have grown episodically through time. Activation cycles are likely related to lake level fluctuations and, perhaps, drought episodes. Alan has also conducted research on dune fields within the interior of Michigan, as well as the evolution of the upper Muskegon River valley. Stay tuned for the publication of his forthcoming book on Great Lakes coastal sand dunes.

Moore and Arbogast also discuss Geography Awareness Week, an annual public awareness program, typically celebrated in the third week of November, that encourages people to learn about the significance of place and how we impact and are impacted by our environment. It was established by presidential proclamation more than 35 years ago to promote geographical understanding through a variety of events, activities, and outreach programs.

Our sponsor for this episode is the Undergraduate Program in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at MSU. To learn more about exciting degree options, visit geo.msu.edu/undergraduate.

In this episode, we welcome Ethan Theuerkauf, a coastal geomorphologist in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Dr. Theuerkauf’s research focuses on how and why coastal landscapes, such as beaches, barrier islands, and wetlands, change across timescales ranging from storms to millennia.

We also discuss the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a cargo ship that sank in Lake Superior during a violent storm on November 10, 1975, near Whitefish Point, Michigan. The wreck resulted in the deaths of all 29 crew members on board.

If you would like to learn more about the research that Dr. Theuerkauf and his team conduct in the Great Lakes, visit his lab website at www.coastalgeomorphology.com.

Our sponsor for this episode is the MSU onGEO Professional GIS Certificate Program. If you are looking to revamp your current career, earn continuing-education credits, or simply learn new and marketable geospatial skills, visit ⁠ongeo.msu.edu⁠ today to learn how to earn a professionalcertificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or Geospatial Data Analytics & Visualization.

Today we welcome Mehmet Eroğlu, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Mehmet is a human geographer with a research focus on power struggles in the production of landscapes, particularly in relation to workers and working-class communities. His work seeks to understand how, to what extent, and under what structural constraints and opportunities workers exercise their agency in shaping their own geographies. While his broader research interests center on the intersections of labor, place, and power rather than specific regional contexts, his current research examines the struggles of informal coal miners in Turkey.

Mehmet discussed the work of David Harvey, a British-American academic best known for Marxist analyses that focus on urban geography as well as the economy more broadly. Harvey is a Distinguished Professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and the Director of Research at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, and the author of numerous books. He has been teaching Karl Marx’s Capital for over 50 years. Harvey was born on October 31, 1935, and on this episode we celebrate his 90th birthday.

If you would like to learn more about David Harvey’s research, Mehmet suggests reading Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography.

Our sponsor for this episode is the MSU onGEO Professional GIS Certificate Program. If you are looking to revamp your current career, earn continuing-education credits, or simply learn new and marketable geospatial skills, visit ongeo.msu.edu today to learn how to earn a professional certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or Geospatial Data Analytics & Visualization.

Hello and welcome to Today in Geography—a podcast produced by the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Each episode, we talk with members of our community about their research and interests, and then we spend some time spotlighting events and celebrations that have shaped the field of geography.

Join host Nathan Moore, an Associate Professor in the Department, for an engaging exploration of people, places, and stories that shape our world.

To learn more about the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University, visit geo.msu.edu.