Dear students, colleagues, and friends of Geography:

Welcome back to Hunter Geography for the 2012/2013 academic year. We have an exciting year ahead, with a number of new initiatives, at least one new full-time Assistant Professor joining the department in the spring, some curriculum changes in the works, and several faculty members in new positions. This fall Prof. Frank Buonaiuto is the Environmental Studies adviser and Prof. Wenge Ni-Meister has joined Prof. Tom Walter as a second Undergraduate Geography adviser. Their office hours are posted on the department’s homepage. Prof. Marianna Pavlovskaya will spend this academic year in Russia doing research but she is answering her email.

Welcome to the following new Adjunct Lecturers and Professors: Adjunct Lecturer Peter Matt (Brooklyn College, GEOL 101 labs), Adjunct Lecturer Lydia Pelot-Hobbs (CUNY Graduate Center, GEOG 101), Adjunct Lecturer Michael Dorsch (CUNY Graduate Center, GEOG 226), Adjunct Assistant Professor Emily Fogarty (GTECH 201 lab), Adjunct Assistant Professor Giovani Graziosi (GTECH 361/710), Adjunct Lecturer Christian Siener (CUNY Graduate Center, GEOG 701) and Hunter Geography’s own Adjunct Lecturer Erin Friedman (PGEOG 130 labs).

I was elected Chair of the department for a three year term in the spring of this year. Many thanks to Prof. Miyares who served as Interim Chair for the previous two years. She is now the Graduate Geography Adviser and, among other responsibilities, will be leading those very important curriculum changes I mentioned earlier. Stop by and say hello (HN 1005) when you’re in my Hunter neighborhood—I don’t have formal walk-in hours. And you can email me at afrei@hunter.cuny.edu.

The current state of international affairs, with political, social, and environmental transformations all occurring simultaneously, can be extremely unsettling and hazardous for many of our neighbors, those quite near and far away. This is a time when a grounding in modern geographic principles, which link human and physical systems in a spatial framework, can help shed light on the meaning and causes of many of these events; and, if geography serves its purported purpose, can contribute to solutions as well. It is my hope that the education provided here will help you attain an in depth understanding of these issues so that you can contribute in a positive way. I wish you the best of luck in your studies for the coming year, and look forward to meeting and working with all of you.

Sincerely,
Allan Frei,
Chair, Department of Geography
Hunter College of the City University of New York