News & Events

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY Colloquium

Global Capitalism: A Love Story, a Tragedy, an Enigma

Jim Glassman
Associate Professor of Geography
University of British Columbia

1080 Derby Hall, 3:30‐5:00pm
Thursday, November 12

The sprawling processes referred to as capitalism have been
credited and blamed for many things, from improvement of living
standards to destruction of the environment, from alleviation of poverty to
the generation of new forms of poverty, from promoting development to
generating maldevelopment. Basing my claims on both theoretical
considerations and comparative global data that have become available in
the last few decades I argue for three "qualitative" claims and one
"qualitative" proposal: global capitalism has been consistent with the
(uneven) production of substantial improvements in material standards of
living; global capitalism has generated historically unprecedented levels of
income inequality, the geographic forms of which have shifted slightly in
the era of neo‐liberal globalization; global capitalism has so consistently
and unevenly transformed livelihoods and consumption that it undermines
attempts to make meaningful statements about its effects on poverty; the
most politically significant result of all of the above is that global capitalism
generates struggles over the distribution of wealth which pose serious
challenges to the maintenance of democracy
Colloquium Poster

Ellen Mosley-Thompson, has been named the next director of Ohio State Byrd Polar Research Center

Mosley-Thompson was recently elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. She will assume her new post on Thursday, October 1, 2009. Read the Ohio State press release: Ohio State Research News

Hurricane Expert Speaks to local GED Program

by Randy Baker

Columbus, OH August 29, 2008 - As the remnants of Hurricane Fay were coming down outside the classroom, and the South was bracing for Hurricane Gustav, Dr. Jay Hobgood explained the hurricane process to a group of ex-offenders working to gain their GED.

Hobgood, an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the Ohio State University and Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at OSU, donated his time and expertise to the GED program at Community Connection on the near eastside of Columbus.

Hurricane study is part of a multi-disciplinary approach that Community Connection takes with their GED students. According to class instructor Rick Baker, this approach helps keep the interest level high. "We teach math skills by having them plot the path of hurricanes, give writing assignments on what they would do if they were in the after-math of a big storm, as well as look at the social and historical impact of storms like Katrina," Baker said. "We really appreciated someone of Dr. HobgoodÕs status talking to our students."

Nationwide, 40% of all inmates released from prison do not have their GED or High School Diploma. The GED program at Community Connection is designed to target the educational needs of this population and ultimately reduce recidivism or repeat offenders.

For more information on the GED program or any ex-offender program at Community Connection call (614) 252-0660 ext 5523.