The Graduate School of Geography celebrates its centennial weekend with a series of talks and panels that are open to all.

The celebration will kick off on April 13 with the Atwood Lecture, presented by Kendra McSweeney, professor and distinguished scholar of geography at The Ohio State University. McSweeney, whose research is centered on human-environment interactions and cultural and political ecology, has made influential analytical contributions to understanding the socio-ecological dynamics and impacts of drug trafficking through Central America.

Professor Sweeney will speak at 7 p.m. in Razzo Hall in the Traina Center for the Arts. Her talk will explore the geographies that arise from the global prohibitionary regime targeting cocaine.

On Friday, April 14, and Saturday, April 15, panelists will discuss a wide range of issues, including the study of Black geographies, an area pioneered by Clark alum Bobby Wilson, Ph.D. ’74, and GSG’s long and influential history in understanding human-environment interactions, including field-defining contributions to the analysis of environmental risks and hazards, human transformations of the Earth, and the connections between development and the environment central to the field now known as political ecology.

Other panels will delve into the GSG’s signal contributions, leadership, and ongoing work in the areas of feminist geography, urban geography, research in and for Worcester, the contributions of GSG faculty, students, and alumni to public policy, and GIScience and earth systems science, particularly in an era of accelerating climate change.

A tribute to the legacy of the late Roger Kasperson, longtime professor and researcher with the Graduate School of Geography and the George Perkins Marsh Institute, will be held on April 15 as part of the centennial program.

View the full schedule of events