Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education in Geography

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This study is investigating three questions: (1) How are graduate students being recruited, trained, and prepared for professional careers by geography graduate programs? (2) How do the environments of MA/MS and Ph.D. geography departments shape the abilities and attitudes of students in these programs? (3) What types of resources are most helpful for strengthening graduate departments in geography? To address these questions, we are conducting detailed surveys and interviews with chairpersons, faculty, employers, administrators, and graduate students in a diverse range of departments. We are also collecting professional development resources that departments are using to train graduate students, especially with regard to those aspects of academic work and culture that receive relatively little attention in today's graduate curriculum, such as course design, career planning, professional ethics, and proposal writing. Finally, we are translating the results of this research into a practical Guide for Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education (EDGE Guide), a collection of print and digital resources that chairpersons and departments can use to improve the quality of their graduate programs. Our partners include the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, several MA and Ph.D. geography programs, and faculty with extensive expertise in geography and professional development.