All pictures courtesy of Mike Sublett
On Friday, April 4, 2008, The Department of Geography-Geology was proud to host Dr. Jay R. Harman as the 2008 Distinguished Geographer Lecturer. One of his visit activities included a presentation to the faculty and students entitled “Reflections on Globalization: Lessons from Geography, Environmental Ethics, and Bee-Keeping”.
Dr. Harman began teaching at Michigan State University as an Assistant Professor in 1968, fresh from his doctoral work at the University of Illinois, and reached the rank of Professor in only 12 years. A native of the southern Chicago suburb of Lansing, Jay took both his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Geography at Illinois State. His master’s thesis, completed in 1964 under the direction of Professor Thomas Searight, assisted by Professor Stanley Shuman, is entitled “Microclimate as a Factor in Stream Valley Asymmetry.”
Professor Harman established himself early in his career as a physical geographer. Among the courses in this realm that he has taught are introductory and advanced physical geography, synoptic climatology, plant geography, and landforms of eastern North America. His publication record, related to the physical side of the discipline, includes articles (some as co-author) in The Professional Geographer, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Water Resources Bulletin, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Monthly Weather Review, Physical Geography, Michigan Botanist, East Lakes Geographer, International Journal of Climatology, and Journal of Biogeography. His total of eight articles in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, perhaps the leading geographical journal in the world, is especially impressive. He also has authored a number of reports, chapters, books, and other publications in physical geography, broadly defined.
More recently his career has taken a taken a turn in the direction of environmental ethics. He teaches a course with that title and has begun to offer his ideas to a wider audience in publications such as his 2004 co-authored Annals article entitled “Environmental Ethics and Coastal Dunes in Western Lower Michigan: Developing a Rationale for Ecosystem Preservation.”
Other interests of Dr. Harman’s include keeping bees and generating power at home. He has published a couple of items related to bee-keeping and may do some writing about his experiences with solar and wind power at the micro level.
The Distinguished Geographer lecture series was made possible by Professor E. Joan Miller, Geography Emerita.
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