College of Arts and Letters
Department of Geography Environment, Society, and Technology Fiscal Year 2025-2026
Message from Leadership
Dear Donor, The Department of Geography at San Diego State University advances research and teaching that help students understand the complex relationships among people, places, and environments. Faculty and students are engaged in impactful projects examining the effects of climate change and fires in Botswana, using GeoAI and big data to identify homelessness hotspots in San Diego, and studying heat exposure among farmworkers in California’s Imperial and Coachella Valleys. The department also leads the Transnational Approaches to Sustainable Food Systems project, which explores Indigenous and immigrant farming practices in the United States and Mexico through interdisciplinary courses, binational internships, and mentoring. The initiative aims to prepare future leaders to address food security and sustainability challenges. Students remain highly engaged through organizations such as ASPRS, the Geography Club, and GGSA. Donor support made it possible to award 31 scholarships totaling $53,000 to 25 students, helping fund research, fieldwork, travel, and professional development.
Fernando J. Bosco, Ph.D. Chair and Professor
Philanthropy
Propelling the SDSU Community Forward Geography Annual Awards for Student Excellence This fund was created to support annual awards for students who demonstrate considerable achievement in areas such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, environmental GIS, social and environmental justice, human geography, citizenship, and overall academic excellence. The Department of Geography received a donation to this fund to provide undergraduate and graduate students with monetary support to attend conferences, participate in field experiences, and pursue other learning enrichment opportunities. As a result of this donation, eight students participated in an educational excursion to Catalina Island, and five students were able to attend academic conferences, including the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers in San Francisco, California.
Winners of the Geography Annual Awards for Student Excellence and donor and geography alumnus Timo L. (gray polo)
Student Spotlight
Thriving in the Aztec Experience Osvaldo Napoles Robledo, Class of 2029 Class Level: Ph.D. Candidate College: College of Arts and Letters Major: Geography Being awarded the Vivian Finch Travel Award and the Social Geography Award this year has been incredibly meaningful and has supported my first year as a Ph.D. student in geography at San Diego State University. These awards are helping me attend and present my research at the Royal Geographical Society conference in London, where I will engage with scholars and expand my professional network. Attending this conference will help create opportunities for my future career. As a first-generation college student from a Mexican workingclass migrant family and the first person in my family to pursue higher education, this opportunity carries personal significance. My parents were unable to continue their education beyond middle school because they had to work to support their families. Through these scholarships, my family can see the impact of their sacrifices as I present my work internationally— an opportunity that otherwise would have been financially out of reach. I am deeply grateful to the Department of Geography and the donors for investing in my education and goals. Their generosity has created opportunities that will have a lasting impact on my academic and personal journey.
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I am deeply grateful to the geography department and the donors for investing in my education and goals. Their generosity has created opportunities that will have a lasting impact on my academic and personal journey.
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Student Spotlight
My Thu Tran, Class of 2027 Class Level: Ph.D. Candidate College: College of Arts and Letters Major: Geography I was honored to receive the Quartic Solutions Educational Excursions Award, which allowed me to organize a field trip to Catalina Island for eight geography students. One of the most rewarding parts was seeing everyone’s excitement and how much we learned together. Before the trip, we built a strong foundation through hands-on UAV training and learned to use tools like ArcGIS Field Maps and iNaturalist for real-world data collection, making the experience both practical and engaging. On Catalina Island, we explored the landscapes around Avalon while collecting geospatial and ecological data. After returning, we shared our findings in a public presentation and a Google Earth StoryMap. This experience helped me grow academically and as a leader, showing me that learning is about creating opportunities, sharing knowledge, and building lasting connections.
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This experience helped me grow academically and as a leader, showing me that learning is about creating opportunities, sharing knowledge, and building lasting connections.
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Points of Pride
Celebrating Shared Success Statistics of Interest The department supports approximately 100 undergraduate students, 50 master’s students, and 25 doctoral students. Recent Highlights During 2025-2026, faculty and students conducted research on homelessness, public health, wildfire risk, sustainability, and environmental justice. Highlights included an NSF-funded GeoAI project on homelessness in the U.S.–Mexico border region and the National City Brownfields Project. The department also welcomed Assistant Professor Haley Ciborowski.
Student Body
175 Geography students: 100 undergrads, 50 master’s, and 25 doctoral candidates
Real-World Research
Faculty tackled homelessness, public health, wildfire risk, sustainability, and environmental justice in 2025-26.
Faculty and Staff Achievements
Leandra Merz, Ph.D. Title: Assistant Professor College: College of Arts and Letters Achievement: Published “Elusive Effects of Legalized Wolf Hunting on Human-Wolf Interactions” in Science Advances, examining the effects of legalized wolf hunting on human-wolf interactions. She shared the following about her current research: This year, I collaborated with an international team to tackle human-elephant conflict around the newly created BurigiChato National Park in Tanzania. Over the past five years, elephant populations have grown in this region, and agriculture has expanded to cover much of the land elephants historically relied on. This has led to elephants raiding crops, damaging property, injuring humans, and contaminating water sources, among other direct and indirect impacts on humans. In response, locals may resort to illegally killing elephants out of desperation. We aim to identify local, regional, and national-level solutions that allow elephants and humans to thrive in this region. We have conducted baseline data collection in 12 communities to assess current challenges as well as potential solutions. Our first two manuscripts are now in preparation. With the CAL community engagement grant, I was able to initiate a pilot community support program in two communities. We trained and equipped local security teams to patrol their communities and safely chase elephants away when possible. This included providing phones to alert authorities when additional help is needed and to record and report all incidents of human-elephant conflict. This data will help us identify seasonal and regional conflict hotspots for future preventative efforts. Over the summer, I experimentally tested the effectiveness of two elephant deterrents, checked in with local communities, and installed camera traps to learn more about elephant behavior and movement patterns. An incoming JDP student used mobility data from elephant collars, as well as remote sensing with satellite imagery, to further our understanding of elephant movement, resource needs, and conflict hotspots. I love being able to combine my passion for wildlife conservation and scientific research with practical solutions and support for local communities in need.
Faculty and Staff Achievements
Haley Ciborowski, Ph.D., MNA Title: Assistant Professor College: College of Arts and Letters Achievement: This year, I was selected as a winner of the inaugural College of Arts and Letters R-Next proposal competition. My project, the Global Border Nexus Institute, will connect and expand border research across SDSU, bringing together scholars to examine borders through migration, culture, identity, policy, and belonging. My work focuses on health, migration, climate change, and structural inequality in Indigenous and border communities throughout Latin America and the U.S.-Mexico border region. For more than 20 years, I have conducted field-based research and community health projects in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Mexico, and the United States through my nonprofit organization, Global Healthcare Project. This work has included health care partnerships, environmental health initiatives, health care access assessments, emergency medical systems development, and student field education programs. My research examines how migration, environmental change, labor systems, and historical inequality shape health outcomes in vulnerable communities. Earlier work focused on migration and mental health among Indigenous Maya communities in Guatemala. Current projects examine climate change, occupational health, and environmental vulnerability among farmworkers in California’s Imperial and Coachella Valleys. As part of a multidisciplinary Geography and Public Health research team, I use remote sensing, GIS, heat exposure modeling, physiological monitoring, and qualitative methods to better understand the impacts of extreme heat on farmworkers and border communities. Teaching and mentorship are central to my work. I co-direct VIIDAI, a cross-border field course connecting SDSU, UC San Diego, and the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. Through VIIDAI, Geography students apply GIS, mapping, and qualitative field methods in migrant Indigenous farming communities in Baja California while learning culturally responsive, community-engaged approaches that emphasize humility, reciprocity, and long-term partnership.
Thank you for your generous support.
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