Geography and Environment @ UH-Manoa

Photo of UHM Geo run club - a group of faculty and students

🏃🌎 Interested in exploring places, connecting with peers, and getting some exercise? Join the UHM Geography Run Club! All paces and experience levels welcome.

If you want to join the next run, reach out to get details on upcoming meetups!

Photo of Yuko Stender

📣 TODAY 🎓
Join us for UH GEO PhD candidate Yuko Stender’s dissertation defense!
“Potential for Coral Reef Recovery under Historical Runoff and Land-derived Sedimentation in Hawaiian Watersheds” 🪸
🕤 9:30 AM–12:30 PM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Yuko Stender

🎓 Coming up next week! 🎓
UH GEO PhD candidate Yuko Stender will defend her dissertation:
“Potential for Coral Reef Recovery under Historical Runoff and Land-derived Sedimentation in Hawaiian Watersheds” 🪸
📅 Mon, Oct 27 | 🕤 9:30 AM–12:30 PM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Yuko Stender

🎓 Save the Date! 🎓
Join us for UH GEO PhD candidate Yuko Stender’s dissertation defense next week!

Title: Potential for Coral Reef Recovery under Historical Runoff and Land-derived Sedimentation in Hawaiian Watersheds 🪸
📅 Mon, Oct 27 | 🕤 9:30 AM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Leah Bremer

📣 TODAY!
Fall Seminar Series with Leah Bremer (Assoc. Dir. Institute for Sustainability & Resilience | UHERO | WRRC)

Topic: Toward more equitable and durable ecosystem investments: lessons from Andean water funds with implications for Hawaiʻi 💧

🕛 12 PM |📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Leah Bremer

🌿 This week's Fall Seminar Series!

Leah Bremer (Inst. for Sustainability & Resilience | UHERO | WRRC) presents 'Toward more equitable and durable ecosystem investments: lessons from Andean water funds with implications for Hawaiʻi'💧

📅 Oct 16 | 🕛 12 PM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Joan Pan

📣 TODAY 🎓 Join us for UH GEO PhD candidate Joan Pan’s dissertation defense!
“Meanings of Tea: Nature, Well-Being, and Digital Culture” 🍵
🕘 9–11 AM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Joan Pan

🎓 This week! 🎓
UH GEO PhD candidate Joan Pan will defend her dissertation:
“Meanings of Tea: Nature, Well-Being, and Digital Culture” 🍵
📅 Wed, Oct 8 | 🕘 9–11 AM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Hunter Heaivilin

🌱 UH GEO PhD student Hunter Heaivilin spoke with #CivilBeat about #Honolulu’s push to grow more food in public spaces.
Read the full story 👉 www.civilbeat.org/2025/09/chan...

Photo of Prof. Giambelluca

TODAY 📣 Our Fall Seminar Series speaker is Prof. Emeritus Thomas Giambelluca (UH Geography & Environment).
Topic: How Fast is Hawaiʻi’s Climate Changing? 🏝️ 🌦️
🕛 12 PM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Joan Pan

🎓 Save the Date! 🎓
Join us for UH GEO PhD candidate Joan Pan's Dissertation defense next week!

Title: Meanings of Tea: Nature, Well-Being, and Digital Culture 🍵
📅 Wed, Oct 8 | 🕛 9-11 AM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Prof. Giambelluca

🏝️ 🌦️ Don’t miss the second talk in our Fall Seminar Series THIS WEEK!
Prof. Thomas Giambelluca (Prof. Emeritus Geography & Environment, UH) will speak on: How Fast is Hawaiʻi’s Climate Changing?
📅 Thurs, Oct 2nd | 🕛 12 PM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Andrew Lewis

📃 UH GEO PhD candidate Andrew Lewis has published an article in Annals of the American Association of Geographers!
Read "Hydro-Ethnographic Applied Research (HEAR): An Approach to Support the Stewardship of Culturally Important Water Resources" 👉https://buff.ly/LkmM2zX
Congrats, Andrew!

Photo of Prof. Thomas Giambelluca

📣 UH GEO Prof. Emeritus Thomas Giambelluca will be the next presenter in our Fall Seminar Series!
Join us: 📅 Thurs, Oct 2nd | 🕛 12 PM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 (Zoom link on request)
Topic: "How Fast is Hawaiʻi’s Climate Changing?" 🌦️🌴

Photo of Tatsuki Kohatsu

Photo of a military helicopter in a snowy hangar (provided by T. Kohatsu)

📖 UH GEO PhD candidate Tatsuki Kohatsu has published his work "Militarized Territoriality: Water Contamination and Military Operations in the Pacific" as chapter in Relational Geographies of Islands in the Indo-Pacific: Environment, Society, and Politics. Congratulations! 🎉
🔗 buff.ly/NFhZxKl

🌱 UH GEO Prof. Qi Chen’s AgriWatch project developed high-resolution satellite imagery to track shifts in Hawaiʻi’s crop production — and offers potential to assess and predict wildfire risk. Recently featured in the news:
📰 Read buff.ly/2mDH6JU
🎧 Listen buff.ly/H7LJDPJ

Photo of Dr. Barbara Quimby

TODAY 📣 Our Fall Seminar Series kicks off at noon with Dr. Barbara Quimby (Assistant Prof. Marine Science & Policy, HPU).
Topic: Participatory Approaches to Adaptive Water Governance in Arizona & Hawaiʻi 🌊
🕛 12 PM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

🎤 UH GEO Prof. Reece Jones will deliver the keynote at the 2025 SEAC Conference (Villanova Univ.) next month!
His talk “Nobody is Protected: The Geography of the Border Patrol’s 100-mile Zone” connects to the theme “The Challenges of Migration in the 21st Century.”
🔗 www.seac-online.org/conferences/

Photo of Dr. Barbara Quimby

🌊 Don’t miss the first talk in our Fall Seminar Series THIS WEEK!
Dr. Barbara Quimby (Assistant Prof. Marine Science & Policy, HPU) will speak on: Participatory Approaches to Adaptive Water Governance: Arizona & Hawaiʻi
📅 Thurs, Sept 18 | 🕛 12 PM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of John Nightingale

✨ TODAY!
UH GEO PhD student John Nightingale presents his dissertation proposal:
“The Paradox of Impeded Support: An Analysis of Migrant Healthcare Inaccessibility”
🕐 1 PM HST | 🔗 Zoom link on request

Photo of Dr. Barbara Quimby

Kicking off our Fall Seminar Series is Dr. Barbara Quimby, Assistant Prof. of Marine Science & Policy at HPU.
Join us: 📅 Thurs, Sept 18 | 🕛 12 PM | 📍 Saunders Hall 443 (Zoom link on request)
Topic: “Participatory Approaches to Adaptive Water Governance: Arizona & Hawaiʻi” 🌊

Photo of John Nightingale

TOMORROW 📣 Friday, September 12, UH GEO PhD Student John Nightingale will present his dissertation proposal presentation at 1 pm HST on Zoom (link available on request).

Title: The Paradox of Impeded Support: An Analysis of Migrant Healthcare Inaccessibility

Photo of Prof. Reece Jones

UH GEO Prof. Reece Jones was interviewed for the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series.
Hear him discuss the politics of immigration under the second Trump administration here 👉 better-tomorrow-speaker-series.simplecast.com/episodes/ree...

Saunders Hall

UH GEO is hosting a Seminar Series this fall, featuring local, national & international speakers on a broad range of exciting geography-related topics. 🌐
Talks will be held Thursdays at noon (unless noted) in Saunders Hall 443 or via Zoom (link on request).
Stay tuned for detailed topics & dates! 📆

Participants of the training workshop at Texas A&M University

UH GEO Assistant Professor Yuqin Jiang was an invited speaker at an NSF sponsored summer school for CyberTraining for Disaster Management at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. 👏 An important representation of GEO expertise on the national stage!

Photo of Kawena Elkington

🎉 Congratulations to GEO PhD candidate Kawena Elkington, who received the Hawaii Pacific Foundation Doctoral Research Award of $16,000 from the East West Center to support her dissertation "Imagining Futures: Investigating Pathways for Transforming Economic Development in Hawaiʻi" 🎉

Photo of Olivia Mayer

📝 ✨ New publication: UH GEO PhD candidate Olivia Meyer has published 'Turning waste into capital: revaluing plastics in Thailand’s circular economy' in the journal Globalizations.

Read it here 👉 www.tandfonline.com/eprint/C6R86...

A rock surface with Hawaiian Petroglyphs

📣 GEO MA graduate Laura Gilda was featured in a Honolulu Civil Beat Article 'Hawaiian Petroglyphs Reemerge Thanks To Changing Tides And Shifting Sands' last month.

Read the article here: www.civilbeat.org/2025/07/hawa...

Prof. David Beilman

As the fall semester begins, we are excited to share that Prof. David Beilman will succeed Prof. Reece Jones as our UH Geography Department Chair! We are grateful to Prof. Jones for his dedicated service and look forward to Prof. Beilman's leadership in the years ahead.

Saunders Hall on UH Manoa Campus

We are looking forward to Fall 2025 at Saunders Hall! 🎓 🗺️ Stay tuned for summer highlights and fall semester updates from our UH Geography students, faculty, and alumni.