Session Wish List, 2012 AAG Meetings, New York, NY

The AAG preliminary program has all kinds of gems in it this year.  Unfortunately, I'll likely miss a number of these, given the staggering number of sessions I've managed to become involved in (11, a new personal record!).

This is just a very cursory read of the program, and I'd enjoy learning about excellent sessions that I've undoubtedly overlooked (particularly in the areas/intersections of STS, urban-political geographies, critical GIS, and/or social/political theory or journal-sponsored lectures or author-meets-critics or cool panel discussions).

Friday, February 24th

1. 8:00-9:40  |  Concourse B, Hilton
• Theorizing the Geoweb I. I'm thrilled to work with Agnieszka Leszczynski in organizing this paper session, following up on a session we organized, "Situating Neogeography", in 2010 at the Washington DC meetings.  I'll be presenting my paper, "Continuous connectivity, handheld computers, and mobile spatial knowledge", along with papers by Christian Bittner and Cate Turk, Craig Dalton, Jim Thatcher, and Ryan Burns; chaired by Sarah Elwood.
2. 10:00-11:40  |  Concourse B, Hilton
• Theorizing the Geoweb II. This is a continuation, chaired by Dan Sui, with papers by Wen Lin, Nicholas Bauch, Alan McConchie, Monica Stephens and Antonella Rondinone.
3. 12:40-2:20  |  Conference Room D, Sheraton, Lower Level
• Qualitative GIS Symposium I: Opening Plenary.  Part of the QualGIS Symposium that I helped to organize, along with Mei-Po Kwan, Marianna Pavlovskaya, and Stephen Burgess, this plenary will be given by Mei-Po Kwan and Meghan Cope.
• Applications of the GeoWeb: utilizing user-generated content for geographic research. This looks to be a great session (in Concourse B, Hilton) following the more conceptual papers in the Theorizing the Geoweb sessions.  Organized by Monica Stephens and Antonella Rondinone, papers by Taylor Shelton, Matt Zook, Mark Graham, and Joe Eckert explore topics on VGI for urban monitoring, database ethnography, and religious cyberspaces. 
4. 2:40-4:20  |  Conference Room D, Sheraton, Lower Level
• Qualitative GIS Symposium II: Practice and Methods. This symposium continues with a paper session I'm chairing, with papers reporting on narrative mapping and spatial ethnographies, oral histories, needle exchange services, and urban mobility.  I'll be particularly interested in papers by Annette Kim (MIT Urban Planning) and Johnathan Rush (PhD student at Ohio State).
• Social Media, Research, and Pedagogy. Paul Adams has organized a session with topics on Facebook and fieldwork, Internet and politics, and social media in the classroom.
• BitCity: Data, Technology and Understanding the City. Sarah Williams and Seth Spielman have organized a couple sessions discussing social media and check-in data, in Conference Room F, Sheraton, Lower Level.
5. 4:40-6:20  |  Conference Room D, Sheraton, Lower Level
• Qualitative GIS Symposium III: Practice and Methods.  The symposium continues with paper sessions by my friend, Jin-Kyu Jung (UW Bothell), where he'll be revisiting the concept of 'grounded visualization' in qualitative GIS -- a conceptual footing that marked his earlier work in qualGIS.
• Antipode Lecture: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.  If I were to miss the concurrent paper session for qualGIS, I'd likely head here (Mercury Rotunda, Hilton, 3rd Flr).  Chaired by Nik Heynen and Vinay Gidwani.
• Elizabeth Grosz "Chaos, territory, art: Deleuze and the framing of the earth" - Author meets Critics. This is organized by Kathryn Yusoff, chaired by Jamie Lorimer, with panelists Nigel Clark, Arun Saldanha, and Catherine Nash, in New York Ballroom East, Sheraton, 3rd Flr.

Saturday, February 25th

1. 8:00-9:40  |  Conference Room D, Sheraton, Lower Level
• Qualitative GIS Symposium IV: Practice and Methods.  I'm looking forward to chairing this paper session, with papers by Trevor Harris and Frank LaFone (on the topic of tag clouds and the spatial humanities), Rina Ghose (who continues to think through the neoliberalization of PPGIS), with Barbara Poore (USGS, and fellow Washington grad) as a discussant.
• Map-Making and Visualization for Critical Research I.  (Concurrently, of course, in Liberty 5, Sheraton, 3rd Flr)  This looks to be a great paper session with topics on participatory viz, cellphones, and something called "dialectical remote sensing" (awesome!), with Dianne Rocheleau as a discussant.
• Information Geographies: Online Power, Representation and Voice.  A busy morning!  This session, organized by Mark Graham and Matt Zook, this session (held in Regent Parlor, Hilton, 2nd Flr) includes papers by Muki Haklay and Jeremy Crampton.
2. 10:00-11:40  |  Liberty 5, Sheraton, 3rd Flr
• Map-Making and Visualization for Critical Research II.  I'm quite pleased to be invited by Katherine Foo and Emily Gallagher (both at Clark U.) to serve as a panelist for this session, along with my colleague Jeremy Crampton and Wen Lin, Annette Kim, Kofi Boone, Craig Dalton, and Peter Kyem.
• Qualitative GIS Symposium V: Practice and Methods.  A causality of the AAG program, I'll not be able to attend this fifth session of the qualGIS symposium (held in Conference Room D, Sheraton, Lower Level), with papers on geo-narratives in Amsterdam and a postcolonial GIS of At Swim-Two-Birds (a 1939 novel), among others.  Sorry to miss this!
3. 12:40-2:20  |  Conference Room D, Sheraton, Lower Level
• Qualitative GIS Symposium VI: Dynamic mapping: Exploring urban history, identity, and social justice with GIS. This looks to be an exciting session on rent regulation, food justice, and police "stop and frisk" practices.
4. 2:40-4:20  |  Conference Room D, Sheraton, Lower Level
• Qualitative GIS Symposium VII: Practice and Methods. This paper session continues to discuss the use of geo-narrative and the mapping of interview transcripts, with papers by Stephen Burgess and Scott Orford, co-organizers of the Qualitative GIS conference at Cardiff University in summer of 2010.
5. 4:40-6:20  |  Conference Room D, Sheraton, Lower Level
• Qualitative GIS Symposium VIII: Closing roundtable: Future directions. After a jam-packed symposium, it will be excellent to reflect on this panel session, with co-panelists LaDona Knigge, Jeremy Crampton, Marianna Pavlovskaya, Mei-Po Kwan, and Stephen Burgess.
• Geographies of Media 5: New Media.  Throughout Saturday and Sunday (and a few sessions on Tuesday, in Murray Hill Suite B, Hilton, 2nd Flr), there are a great group of sessions on the geography of media organized by Christopher Lukinbeal.  During this session, Sam Kinsley and Jonathan Dovey present "The promise and problematic of pervasive media".

Sunday, February 26th

1. 8:00-9:40  |  Murray Hill Suite A, Hilton, 2nd Flr
• Baroque Geographies. This paper session is organized by Harriet Hawkins and Deborah Dixon, chaired by JP Jones. 
2. 10:00-11:40  |  Midtown Suite, Hilton, 4th Flr
• Critical Physical Geography I.  This panel session, co-organized by Rebecca Lave and myself, will examine transdisciplinary reintegrations of physical and human geography, in two parts.  Panelists shall include Chris Duvall, Nathan McClintock, Darla Munroe, Rachel Pain, Jamie Lorimer, Martin Doyle, Leigh Johnson, Gregory Simon, Nadine Schuurman, and Chris Van Dyke.
• Baroque Geographies. This looks to be a great panel session (Murray Hill Suite A, Hilton, 2nd Flr), organized by Harriet Hawkins and JP Jones, chaired by Deborah Dixon, with Francis Harvey, Ben Anderson, Sue Ruddick, and John Allen as panelists.
3. 12:40-2:20  |  Midtown Suite, Hilton, 4th Flr
• Critical Physical Geography II.  This is a continuation of the discussion from the previous panel session.
• Urban Geography Plenary Lecture: Topological City. My colleague Anna Secor will be giving the urban geography plenary lecture with Jennifer Fluri and Lynn Staeheli as discussants, in Morgan Suite, Hilton, 2nd Flr.
4. 4:40-6:20  |  Gramercy Suite A, Hilton, 2nd Flr
• Tobler Lecture 2012: Are there fundamental concepts in GIScience?  This looks to be an interesting debate between Nick Chrisman and Andrew Frank, with closing commentary by Dan Sui.
5. 8:00-?  |  Providence, 311 West 57th St
• Kentucky-Arizona Wildcat Party

Monday, February 27th

1. 10:00-11:40  |  Clinton Suite, Hilton, 2nd Flr
• Political Geographies of the Everyday 2. Jason Dittmer is the discussant for this paper session with papers by Joanne Sharp and Rachel Pain, chaired by Peter Hopkins.
2. 12:40-2:20  |  Beekman Parlor, Hilton, 2nd Flr
• Planetary Urbanization (part 1). Chaired by Neil Brenner, who also will present his "Theses on the urbanization question", this session looks to be a nice overview of work in urban theory at NYU.
3. 4:40-6:20  |  Murray Hill Suite B, Hilton, 2nd Flr
• Reflections on Geographic Information Science: Panel Session in Honor of Michael Goodchild. This panel session recognizes Goodchild's retirement and is organized by May Yuan and Tom Cova, with an introduction by Doug Richardson, and panelists including Dawn Wright, Karen Kemp, Alan Glennon, Don Janelle, Mei-Po Kwan, David Mark, and Keith Clarke.
4. 8:00-9:00  |  Central Park East, Sheraton, 2nd Flr
• Urban Geography Specialty Group Business Meeting. 

Tuesday, February 28th

1. 8:00-9:40  |  Conference Room E, Sheraton, Lower Level
• Iron Sheep: An open session dedicated to lightning mapping and understanding VGI in the "wild". Organized by my colleagues Matt Zook and Mark Graham, this panel discussion will report on the mapping workshop that will be held on Sunday evening, including myself, Monica Stephens, Taylor Shelton, Jeremy Crampton, and Candice Wallace.
2. 10:00-11:40  |  Harlem Suite, Hilton, 4th Flr
• "The Autonomous Animal": Author meets Interlocutors. I'm looking forward to discussing this book by Claire Rasmussen (a Washington graduate, currently associate professor at University of Delaware).  I'll be doing so along with an illustrious crew!  Jasbir Puar, Bob Lake, Lynn Staeheli and Michael Brown
• Border Matters (2).  I'm sorry that I'll miss Ryan Cooper, one of my advisees, present his work "Redrawing the lines: using qualitative GIS to visualize European bordering practices" in Concourse B, Hilton.
3. 2:00-3:40  |  Conference Room E, Sheraton, Lower Level
• Volunteered Geographic Information: Does it have a future?  Organized by Sarah Elwood and Dan Sui, chaired by Mike Goodchild, this panel session includes panelists Paul Longley, Nadine Schuurman, and Matt Zook.
• Growing (in) the city: critical perspectives on urban gardening (session 3). Another advisee, Bryan Preston, will be presenting his thesis research on urban gardening, brilliantly titled "The Military-Industrial-Tomato Complex: political economy and urban gardening in Muncie, Indiana", in Rendezvous Trianon, Hilton, 3rd Flr.