Bowling Green, Ky. - Dr. David Keeling, head of the Department of Geography and Geology at Western Kentucky University, will participate in an American Geographical Society educational tour to Saharan Africa in November.

Dr. Keeling serves on the Board of Councilors of the American Geographical Society, North America’s oldest geographic society founded in 1851, and has lectured for the AGS on educational tours to such locations as Turkey, Azerbaijan, the Maldives, the Chilean Fjords, Easter Island, Angkor Wat, the Cape Verde Islands, Morocco, and the Falkland Islands.

The primary mission of the American Geographical Society’s educational travel programs is to focus attention on some of the planet’s most pressing problems, such as the resource impacts of globalization on the Saharan region, how inadequate transportation limits development in West African nations, and the consequences of ethnic struggle in the Darfur region of Sudan. A secondary mission is to demonstrate how geographers address these issues and to promote a broader geographic perspective on sustainable development issues.

“Learning about human development issues first-hand really helps people to understand the issues of sustainability and global change and puts the challenges we face as a global society into sharper focus,” Dr. Keeling said.

The Saharan Africa educational program will examine the legacy of European colonialism in West Africa, geopolitical challenges in the Sudan, small-economy vulnerabilities in the Saharan region, North Africa’s use of oil resources as a development tool, and the role of transportation in shaping modern Africa, among other topics. The program visits eight countries in the Saharan realm: Morocco, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Libya and Tunisia.

One of benefits for WKU, Dr. Keeling said, is that the university’s growing international reputation is further enhanced through his participation in these educational tours. Students also benefit from the knowledge gained from these experiences and subsequently shared in the classroom and through research projects and study abroad programs.

The department’s study abroad program to Tanzania in Winter 2006 was developed after a visit to that country by Dr. Keeling in January 2005. Future study abroad programs are in development for Tunisia and South Africa, and likely will be offered in the Winter and Summer terms of 2008.
For information about the AGS and its educational tours, visit www.amergeog.org.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact David Keeling at (270) 745-4555.

-WKU-
"A leading American university with international reach"

Office of Media Relations
Western Kentucky University
1906 College Heights Blvd., Bowling Green, Ky. 42101-3576
Phone: (270)745-4295 - Fax: (270)7455387 - E-Mail: western@wku.edu