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WKU Department Head Attends May 24, 2004 Dr. Keeling also completed a two-year term as president of the organization and a two-year term as joint editor of the Journal of Latin American Geography. The conference convened in Antigua, Guatemala, the historic capital of the country that was destroyed in an earthquake in 1776 and rebuilt in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Each year, geographers from around the Western Hemisphere who specialize in Latin America gather either in the United States or in a Latin American country to present research on issues affecting the region. Presentations at this year's conference ranged from research on migrant remittances, ancient water systems of indigenous peoples, to the local impacts of global climate change. Dr. Keeling presented a paper titled "Pinochet's Folly: Development and Change in Patagonian Chile," the result of field work in Chile in November 2002, which addressed the consequences of rural road construction in an isolated and pristine region of central Patagonia. According to Dr Keeling, "one of the main themes of each CLAG conference is to focus attention on the development of Latin American society and to demonstrate how a geographical perspective on growth and change is critical to solving many of the problems faced by Latin Americans in the 21st century." A chapter on transport development in Latin America written by Dr. Keeling is in a recent CLAG book, "Latin America in the 21st Century: Challenges and Solutions," published by the University of Texas Press, and assigned by Dr. Keeling in WKU's Introduction to Latin America course, team-taught with the History, Political Science, Spanish, and Geography and Geology departments.
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