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The Department
Since its inception in the late 1920s, the LSU Department
of Geography and Anthropology has been one of the world's premier
centers for teaching and research in select subfields of geography
and anthropology. It is housed in the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex
in the heart of LSU's more than 2,000-acre campus.
Located at the gateway between the Mississippi Valley
and Latin America, the department offers a wide array of field
and regional expertise in each of these regions. Current faculty
and students conduct field research in the Mississippi Valley and
American South, Central America, the Caribbean, and Ecuador, as
well as China, Japan, Korea, and Europe.
Geography at LSU explores the ecological and locational
relations of nature and culture through field, archival, and
quantitative research, while anthropology studies people and
their cultures - both past and present.
As a bidisciplinary department of geography and anthropology,
the LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology offers eight
degree programs. In fact, it is the only joint department in
the United States to offer graduate programs in geography and
anthropology.
Bachelor's programs provide the full range of instruction
appropriate to a liberal education and master's programs accent
breadth of professional geographical and anthropological training.
The doctoral program in geography emphasizes specialized research
and scholarship in four concentrations - physical geography,
human geography, mapping sciences, and anthropogeography.
History
The department was founded in 1928 and the
graduate program began in 1933. The original members of the department,
sometimes known as the "founders," consisted of Professors Fred Kniffen
and Richard J. Russell. Both received their doctorates from the Department
of Geography at the University of California at Berkeley where they
were influenced by geographers Carl Sauer, Alfred Kroeber, and others.
Their ideas remain a lively source of intellectual influence at LSU. The
first anthropologist, William G. Haag, was added to the staff in 1952.
The Founders' Room, the department's major seminar and meeting room, commemorates
their contributions.
Graduate Degrees
The first master's degree in geography was granted in 1935
and in anthropology in 1941. The first doctorate in geography was awarded
in 1938. Between the founding and 2003, the department has awarded more
than 150 doctorates and more than 350 master's degrees in geography and
anthropology combined.
Quality of the Faculty and the Program
The department has consistently been ranked as a top doctoral
geography department in the country. Faculty have made distinguished
contributions at all levels of academic life. Eleven faculty members
have held titled professorships including four Boyd Professors—LSU's
most prestigious designation—and two Alumni Professors. Five distinguished
professorships are currently occupied by faculty members, and several
department faculty have served in numerous positions of leadership within
the disciplines of geography and anthropology, including the presidency
of the Association of American Geographers and the editorship of the Annals of the Association
of American Geographers.
Department of Geography
& Anthropology Mission Statement
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