|
UK Geography and Leipzig Institute of Regional Geography sign partnership agreement
On October 17, 2002, the Institute of Regional Geography, Leipzig, formally inaugurated a partnership with the Department of Geography and the University of Kentucky. A cooperative agreement was read and signed by the Institute Director, Prof. Alois Mayr, UK's Leipzig liaison Professor Wolfgang Natter, and Institute Associate Director Ute Wardenga. The ceremony was witnessed and Institute employees, UK faculty who were in Leipzig to participate in a workshop, and the president of the University of Leipzig.
The Institute of Regional Geography (Institut fuer Laenderkunde) is the premier center of geographical research in Germany, whose activities are sustained by some 60 geographers and staff. The Institute published several journals, oversees the ongoing production of the 12-volume German National Atlas, maintains a unique archive containing the collected papers of prominent geographers, and is home to the most extensive geography library in Germany. UK is the first and sole U.S. partner of the Institute.
The partnership establishes a framework for fostering collaborative research and scholarly exchange in all areas of overlapping expertise and scholarly interest, including social and political geography, the theory and methodology of geography, the history of the discipline, and cartographic and GIS production techniques. Faculty, as well as advanced students and postdoctoral fellows, will find a supportive environment for their pursuits in Leipzig, while UK Geography will offer Leipzig colleagues comparable support while conducting work in Lexington.
In a parallel development, the University of Leipzig's Department of Geography is working closely with Wolfgang Natter and allied units in promoting a university partnership with the University of Kentucky. Leipzig's Department of Geography, like UK's, conducts research and offers classes at the graduate and undergraduate levels in both physical and human geography. The Department also hosted the most recent Geographentag, the German equivalent of the AAG national meeting, which occurs bi-annually.
A number of collaborative research projects are now underway, including: work on the trans-Atlantic disciplinary history of geography, the organization of an international centennial conference on the significance of the Friedrich Ratzel, planning for a workshop in the areas of theory and methodology, the conclusion of the pilot phase of a long term comparative study tracking the ongoing impacts of the decision by BMW to locate its newest plant site in Leipzig, and finally, the editing of a condensed and revised, 2 volume English-language edition of the German National Atlas.
For more information about the Cooperation, contact Wolfgang Natter or visit the UK department homepage. For more information about the Institute of Regional Geography or Leipzig University's Department of Geography, visit www.uni-leipzig.de/~geograph/ or www.ifl-leipzig.com
|
