We look forward to seeing you in Detroit or virtually at this year’s Annual Meeting!
The American Association of Geographers 2025 Annual Meeting will take place March 24-28 in Detroit, Michigan. The Cultural Geography Specialty Group is eager to continue building a curious, creative, and diverse community of geographers. Please join us in Detroit, where we are sponsoring 21 paper sessions, seven panel discussions, two cultural heritage field visits, a poster session, and our annual keynote address.
2025 Cultural Geography Specialty Group Keynote Session
We are honored to have Jamon Jordan (Historian of the City of Detroit) as our 2025 Keynote Speaker!
More Than Motown: Detroit’s Black Historic Music & Its People & Places
As home of Motown Records, Detroit’s influence on American music has been enormous. But Motown is only part of its musical legacy. Jamon Jordan — the official Historian of the City of Detroit — traces Detroit’s sonic history from the Great Migration to the recent past. He demonstrates how the city’s blues, jazz, big band, bebop, and gospel music — contributed to the Motown sound, and played a profound role in the development of funk, techno, and hip-hop music. Listen as he shares significant Detroit music tracks and reveals connections among people, places, and events in Detroit that were pivotal in the evolution of popular music genres from mid-century to the present.
Thursday March 27th from 12:50PM – 2:10PM. Room 410A, Level 4, Huntington Place.
Jamon Jordan connects people with Detroit’s cultural history and reveals its impact on Detroiters and their neighborhoods today. After sixteen years as a Detroit social studies teacher, Jordan founded the Black Scroll Network, History & Tours in 2013. Since being appointed the Historian of the City of Detroit four years ago, Jordan has worked tirelessly to share the city’s story with an even wider audience — from its Anishinaabe heritage and the Underground Railroad, to its profound influence on American music and the Black civil rights movement. Jordan is an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan and an advisor to the Preservation Studies program at Eastern Michigan University and its ongoing National Park Service African American Civil Rights survey of Detroit.
Join us at the Cultural Geography Specialty Group 2025 Business Meeting!
Thursday March 27th, 11:40PM – 12:40PM
Room 410A, Level 4, Huntington Place
(immediately prior to our Keynote Session in the same room!)
Come by to learn about how to get involved with the Cultural Geography Specialty Group, build connections within our community, and celebrate recent accomplishments and awardees!
Cultural Geography Specialty Group – Sponsored Field Visits
Monday March 24th
FV 1-3: Black Detroit Civil Rights, 1920-1970
Primary Organizers: Dan Bonenberger, Eastern Michigan University and Jamon Jordan, Black Scroll Network.
Time: 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Meeting Place: Porte Cochere Bus Area, Huntington Place
The Black Detroit Civil Rights Tour begins in Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, the heart of Detroit’s African-American community. Though largely demolished during urban renewal, important landmarks and traces remain along its edges. We visit several nationally-significant places associated with the struggle for equality in housing, public accommodations, employment, and education spanning from the 1910s to the 1960s. Among the highlights are the houses of Ossian and Gladys Sweet and those of Robert X and Malcolm X, whose rise as a global leader of Black Nationalism and the Black Freedom movement began here. Along the way we will see countless reflections of the city’s rich Black cultural heritage and its profound influence on the arts and music that continue today. Includes lunch at the original Buddy’s Pizza, home of Detroit-style pizza since 1946 in the traditional black neighborhood of Conant’s Gardens.
FV 1-2: Mariners’ Church of Detroit: Visit the Historic Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral (9AM)
FV 1-4: Mariners’ Church of Detroit: Visit the Historic Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral (10AM)
FV 1-5: Mariners’ Church of Detroit: Visit the Historic Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral (11AM)
Primary Organizer: Matthew Cook, Eastern Michigan University
Date: 3/24/2025
Time: 9:00 AM-10:00 AM ; 10:00-11:00; and 11:00-noon
Meeting Place: Porte Cochere Bus Area, Huntington Place
This excursion takes AAG participants on a tour of historic Mariners’ Church of Detroit. Founded in 1842 in the will of Julia Anderson at a time when Michigan had only been a state for five years, the church was created as a nondenominational, independent parish with a focus on providing a free place of worship for sailors. Originally closer to Woodward Avenue, the building was moved to its current location in 1955 where it now sits next to the Renaissance Center. Each tour will last approximately an hour and be led by a group of church members and staff.
Cultural Geography Specialty Group – Sponsored Sessions
The Cultural Geography Specialty Group invites you to our sponsored sessions. Thanks to all of the sponsored session organizers and chairs for their continued commitment and support of our community of cultural geographers! (Paper sessions unless otherwise noted)
Tuesday March 25th
Memory as a Catalyst for Change I: Preserving Stories, Inspiring Action
Primary Organizer: Matthew Cook, Eastern Michigan University
Time: 12:50 PM – 2:10 PM
Room: 414B, Level 4, Huntington Place
The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Cultural and Social Geography: Reflections on the Volume (Panel)
Primary Organizer: Ishan Ashutosh, Indiana University
Time: 12:50 PM – 2:10 PM
Room: 332, Level 3, Huntington Place
Author Meets Critics: Somatic States On Cartography, Geobodies, Bodily Integrity by Franck Billé (Panel)
Primary Organizer: Mary Mostafanezhad, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Time: 2:30 PM – 3:50 PM
Room: 332, Level 3, Huntington Place
Primary Organizer: Dydia DeLyser, California State University, Fullerton
Time: 2:30 PM – 3:50 PM
Room: 420A, Level 4, Huntington Place
Memory as a Catalyst for Change II: Exploring Power, Place, and Preservation
Primary Organizer: Katrina Stack, University of Tennessee – Knoxville
Time: 2:30 PM – 3:50 PM
Room: 414B, Level 4, Huntington Place
Settlements on the edge: U.S. hamlets, their transformation and future
Primary Organizer: Paul Frederic, University of Maine
Time: 4:10 PM – 5:30 PM
Room: 413A, Level 4, Huntington Place
Author Meets Critics: Stephen Legg’s Spaces of Anticolonialism (Panel)
Primary Organizer: Ishan Ashutosh, Indiana University
Time: 4:10 PM – 5:30 PM
Room: 332, Level 3, Huntington Place
Memory as a Catalyst for Change III: Resilience, Remembrance, and Reckoning
Primary Organizer: Katrina Stack, University of Tennessee – Knoxville
Time: 4:10 PM – 5:30 PM
Room: 414B, Level 4, Huntington Place
Wednesday, March 26
Music Geographies 1: New updates in the geographies of music
Primary Organizer: Michael Solem, Texas State University
Time: 8:30 AM – 9:50 AM
Room: 410B, Level 4, Huntington Place
Author Meets Critics: Dreams of Presence: A Geographical Theory of Culture, by Mitch Rose (Panel)
Primary Organizer: Jessica Dubow,
Time: 8:30 AM – 9:50 AM
Room: 330B, Level 3, Huntington Place
Primary Organizer: Colleen Myles, Texas State University
Time: 10:10 AM – 11:30 AM
Room: 353, Level 3, Huntington Place
Dialogues in Human Geography Conversation Forum: Cultures of Debate in Human Geography (Panel)
Primary Organizer: Matthew Hannah,
Time: 4:10 PM – 5:30 PM
Room: 320, Level 3, Huntington Place
Thursday, March 27th
Geographies of Childhoods I: Historical Perspectives
Primary Organizer: Meghan Cope, University of Vermont
Time: 8:30 AM – 9:50 AM
Room: 251B, Level 2, Huntington Place
Geographies of Childhoods II: 21st century Perspectives
Primary Organizer: Meghan Cope, University of Vermont
Time: 10:10 AM – 11:30 AM
Room: 251B, Level 2, Huntington Place
Cultural and Historical Geographies Poster Session
Primary Organizer: Mark Rhodes, Michigan Technological University
Time: 10:10 AM – 11:30 AM
Room: Hall E, Level 1, Huntington Place
Cultural Geography Specialty Group Business Meeting
Primary Organizer: Mark Rhodes, Michigan Technological University
Time: 11:40 AM – 12:40 PM
Room: 410A, Level 4, Huntington Place
Invoking, imagining, and investigating the civic 1
Primary Organizer: Michael Howcroft, University of Glasgow
Time: 12:50 PM – 2:10 PM
Room: 335, Level 3, Huntington Place
Material Culture and Geography 1
Primary Organizer: Sara Keough, Saginaw Valley State University
Time: 12:50 PM – 2:10 PM
Room: 358, Level 3, Huntington Place
More Than Motown: Detroit’s Black Historic Music & Its People & Places
Plenary/Keynote by Jamon Jordan, Historian of the City of Detroit
Primary Organizer: Dan Bonenberger, Eastern Michigan University
Time: 12:50 PM – 2:10 PM
Room: 410A, Level 4, Huntington Place
Material Culture and Geography II
Primary Organizer: Sara Keough, Saginaw Valley State University
Time: 2:30 PM – 3:50 PM
Room: 358, Level 3, Huntington Place
Invoking, imagining, and investigating the Civic 2
Primary Organizer: Michael Howcroft, University of Glasgow
Time: 2:30 PM – 3:50 PM
Room: 335, Level 3, Huntington Place
Unpacking the Politics of Fear and Identity: Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration in Peripheral America (Panel)
Primary Organizer: Christabel Devadoss, Middle Tennessee State University
Time: 4:10 PM – 5:30 PM
Room: 414B, Level 4, Huntington Place
Material Culture and Geography III
Primary Organizer: Sara Keough, Saginaw Valley State University
Time: 4:10 PM – 5:30 PM
Room: 358, Level 3, Huntington Place
Invoking, imagining, and investigating the civic 3
Primary Organizer: Michael Howcroft, University of Glasgow
Time: 4:10 PM – 5:30 PM
Room: 335, Level 3, Huntington Place
Friday, March 28th
Navigating Asian Migration: Gender, Culture, and Identity 1
Primary Organizer: YALI HE-SCHAEFER, University of California – Los Angeles
Time: 8:30 AM – 9:50 AM
Room: 330A, Level 3, Huntington Place
Knowing Place: Violence as Epistemological and Temporal Encounters
Primary Organizer: Jake Atienza, University of California – Irvine
Time: 8:30 AM – 9:50 AM
Room: 251C, Level 2, Huntington Place
Navigating Asian Migration: Gender, Culture, and Identity 2
Primary Organizer: Kylie Yuet Ning Poon, UCLA
Time: 10:10 AM – 11:30 AM
Room: 330A, Level 3, Huntington Place
Historical and Cultural Geographies of Heritage I: Scales and Institutions
Primary Organizer: Mark Rhodes, Michigan Technological University
Time: 12:50 PM – 2:10 PM
Room: 313B, Level 3, Huntington Place
Place Naming, Mapping, and the Power of Storyscapes
Primary Organizer: Reuben Rose-Redwood,
Time: 2:30 PM – 3:50 PM
Room: 251C, Level 2, Huntington Place
Historical and Cultural Geographies of Heritage II: Storying Extractive Industries
Primary Organizer: Mark Rhodes, Michigan Technological University
Time: 2:30 PM – 3:50 PM
Room: 313B, Level 3, Huntington Place
Primary Organizer: Mark Rhodes, Michigan Technological University
Time: 4:10 PM – 5:30 PM
Room: 251C, Level 2, Huntington Place
Cultural Geography Specialty Group 