Building Consensus for an Idea Lab


I spend a considerable amount of class time each semester advocating “geography is a holistic discipline, infused in all things and in almost every action or choice made, and not merely by people but by all organisms. Geography is inescapable.” The problem with my perspective is many other disciplines could be argued to have the…

Here’s Your Box: The Dismal Nature of Higher Education


How often have we begged, pleaded, or cajoled our students, “You have to think OUTSIDE the BOX!” I know I have. But, a couple of years ago, I got tired of using this aphorism (link: “Destroy the Box”). More contemplation led me to believe this is really a weak proposition. Last week, I came to…

Book Review: An Appetite For Wonder, by Richard Dawkins


An Appetite For Wonder. Richard Dawkins. Ecco Press. 2013. $25 Had I been the publisher, I might have suggested the title, “A Career in Science was a Foregone Conclusion.” Or, perhaps, “How My Genes Forced Me Into Evolutionary Biology.” Either would have been a more appropriate title and truer to the author’s own admissions. “I’m…