Pinpointing the New Way of Thinking About Geography
Sitting in an elementary or even middle school geography class of yesteryear meant learning capitals, locating countries and identifying continents.
That was the geography from granddad’s time. Today’s geography is, well, cool.
“You become an economic location theorist or a transportation analysis specialist. You can do a million different things,” said Dr. Jeff Allender, chair of the Department of Geography.
The ideology that geography is “sheer memorization” is not only outdated, but it has always been inaccurate.
“Geographers study location,” Allender said, adding that location is more than just a placement on a map. “Geographers study why things are where they are. How did they get there? Where are they going? How do they impact what’s around them? How are they impacted by what’s around them?”
Geographers are the literal “jack-of-all-trade,” working in the political, economic, cultural, government, military and environmental sectors.
“Someone looking at the flow of capital, someone studying the transport of coal by train, they are all geographers,” Allender said.
The modern face of geography is slick, modernized and hip with geographers working to pinpoint the next best location for a fast food restaurant or identifying the most likely areas for highway crashes.
North Little Rock native Hans Haustein ’94, ’13 still smiles as he recalls the bewildered looks he received anytime he mentioned his college major.
“When I mentioned I was majoring in geography, ‘What are you going to do, teach?’ is what I always got,” Haustein said. “Then it would go to, ‘Do you know all the capitals?'”
Haustein would explain that geography is a “holistic view” that allows solid, spatially based decision-making. He would sometimes use the example of plotting a map between cities like Little Rock and Memphis. Geography allows more than just knowing the distance.
“What’s the number of intersections of roads that present opportunity for businesses to locate there,” he said. “It’s good economics to know these kinds of things in geography. When you put it into economic sense, that makes it very easy for folks to understand.”
Presently, Haustein is a geographic information systems (GIS) planner/analyst at Metroplan, a Little Rock-based organization that works to ensure responsible growth for the metropolitan region. Metroplan focuses on Pulaski, Faulkner, Saline and Lonoke counties.
The University of Central Arkansas boasts the oldest stand-alone geography department in the state. As such, the University has graduates who live and work around the globe, including Mark Austin ’95, who spent a major portion of his career working for one of the most well-known brands on Earth — Starbucks.
“Starbucks hired me initially as a GIS analyst,” Austin said.
In this role, he created GIS models based on market potential, least cost path analysis and hot spots in the retail market landscape. During his career, he worked to develop retail locations across the continental United States, Puerto Rico and Hawaii, as well as Australia, Thailand and several other countries.
The Little Rock native also played a primary role in locating the first store in his home state.
“The development team actually flew me out for a real estate tour, and together we picked the first location based on their experience in the analytics that I had produced to help us understand where the greatest potential was,” he said.
Since leaving Starbucks, Austin started his own firm, True North Advisors, based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The company has worked with brands such as The Fresh Market, Papa Murphy’s, Redbox, Roti Mediterranean Grill, SusieCakes and many others.
The successful careers of Haustein and Austin are almost commonplace, as Allender can point to many more alumni who are charting new paths with their geography education, including Sharon Hawkins ’99.
Hawkins comes back to campus at least once a year to speak to students in Allender’s urban planning class.
“I like to go and show the exciting things that happen in the world of GIS and transportation to students,” she said. “As a first and second year student, it’s a big open book about what they can do. I’m sure it is a mystery for them. I think it’s important to show the different disciplinary areas where GIS is utilized.”
Hawkins is a section chief in mapping and graphics at the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. Her department consists of 11 individuals and eight are UCA graduates.
As increasing numbers of individuals begin to appreciate and understand the breadth of the field of geography, the phones in the University’s geography department ring sometimes nonstop. Fueling interest in geography is the return of the subject to Arkansas middle school classrooms. The 2015-16 academic year was the first in about a decade during which geography was taught in schools. Allender was instrumental in bringing the subject back to classrooms.
Marci Starkey ’93 worked with Allender on developing curriculum for the class. As a 7th grade teacher at Carl Stuart Middle School in Conway, Starkey said Arkansas students are studying four main strands within the curriculum: the world in spatial terms, places and regions, human systems and environment and society.
“The students have loved learning about other countries,” she said. “They find the story of other cultures very fascinating. Many of the cultures are so different from our own, so analyzing them provides an opportunity to teach tolerance and acceptance.
“By better knowing the world around us, we can better understand ourselves and our role in the global community.”