American Association of Geographers

American Association of Geographers
FormationDecember 29, 1904; 119 years ago (1904-12-29)
Founded atPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
TypeNonprofit
HeadquartersWashington, D.C., United States
Membership (2020)
10,000
President
Marilyn Raphael
Executive Director
Gary Langham
Websitewww.aag.org
Formerly called
Association of American Geographers
The exhibit hall at an AAG annual meeting
Field trip at one of the AAG annual meetings, to the USGS Rock Core Research Center.
Sign at the AAG annual meeting illustrating a few of the partnerships that AAG has had over its long history.

The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a non-profit scientific and educational society aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields. Its headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. The organization was founded on December 29, 1904, in Philadelphia, as the Association of American Geographers,[1] with the American Society of Professional Geographers later amalgamating into it in December 1948 in Madison, Wisconsin.[2] As of 2020, the association has more than 10,000 members,[3] from nearly 100 countries.[4] AAG members are geographers and related professionals who work in the public, private, and academic sectors.

In 2016, AAG president Dr. Sarah Witham Bednarz announced in the AAG Newsletter: "Effective January 1, 2016, the AAG will begin to operate under the name "American Association of Geographers", rather than "Association of American Geographers... in an effort to re-think our systems of representation to acknowledge our growing internationalism."[5] Spearheaded under the presidency of geography professor Eric Sheppard, the name change reflects the US-based organization's diversity and inclusion of non-American members and participants.[6]

  1. ^ Preston Everett James; Geoffrey J. Martin (1978). The Association of American Geographers, the first seventy-five years, 1904-1979. The Association. ISBN 9780892911349.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Martin2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Corporate Membership Overview". American Association of Geographers. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  4. ^ "About AAG". American Association of Geographers. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  5. ^ "New Year, New Name, New Proposal". 7 January 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  6. ^ Sheppard, Eric (2013). "An American Association of Geographers?". AAG Newsletter. doi:10.14433/2013.0008. Retrieved 2 October 2018.