About this book

About this book

World Geographies: A Critical Introduction was designed to serve as a foundational resource for students taking World Regional Geography courses. It is a peer-reviewed textbook that was curated and authored by diverse geography educators, as part of the efforts of the Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI) of the Academic Senate of California Community Colleges (ASCCC). This book uses ASCCC’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Antiracism framework and a critical geography lens and utilizes a thematic approach to world regional geography. This focus enables readers to understand processes driving global inequities and develop a better understanding of contemporary global issues. All efforts were made to ensure the material covered in this resource is consistent, relevant, accurate, and accessible.

Given the dynamic nature of our world, and the breadth of world geography courses, this textbook will require constant revision and improvement. We encourage educators using this textbook to submit recommendations to be considered by the writing team for its improvement. We hope that wide collaboration allows for the ongoing refinement of this open resource. Please note that we do not have an editing team or any staff to maintain ongoing revisions. All the work to improve and update this resource will be an effort of a community of educators that we hope only continues to expand.

About the writing team

The following geography educators authored and curated separate textbook pages included in this text, indicated at the bottom of each page in Libretext. The creation of these chapters was a collaborative effort, and our team is presented in alphabetic order:

• Aline Gregorio (lead author) is a tenured Professor & Co-Chair in the Department of Geography & the Environment, Fullerton College. She earned her master’s degree in Geography from Cal State Fullerton and has taught geography courses at various colleges and universities since 2011. In her classes, she exposes students to core geographical principles and analysis to help students make connections to better understand spatial inequities. She is especially interested in exploring topics in environmental justice and sustainability. Born and raised in Brazil, Aline maximizes her experiences to broaden perspectives in her classrooms. In 2020, she was recognized for her teaching excellence by the Orange County Department of Education.
• Nazanin Naraghi (co-author)
• Waverly Ray (co-author) is a professor of geography at San Diego Mesa College. Waverly has doctorate and master’s degrees from Texas State University-San Marcos, where she worked as the research assistant for the Center for Global Geography Education. As the faculty advisor to the student environmental sustainability and conservation club called TerraMesa, she oversees the campus vegetable garden and supports climate and food justice projects. In 2015, she received the Associated Student Government professor appreciation award for excellence in teaching. She currently serves as an advisory board member for the California Global Education Project. 
• Jason Scott (co-author) is an adjunct instructor of geography at Fullerton College and various other institutions throughout the Los Angeles and Orange County area.  He has interests in urban development trends and exposing students to diverse ways of livelihood and resilience throughout the world.  Born and raised in Los Angeles primarily, his life experiences and exposure to various backgrounds and ways of life, aids his approach to creating a comprehensive learning environment for students.  

About the cartographers

This textbook contains original maps included at the opening page of each regional chapter. These were created by:

• Kristin Sellers is a Portland-based cartographer and analyst, with a Bachelor of Science in Geography and GIS from Portland State University. During her time in academia, she focused on human geography, developing a keen interest in participatory mapping and community development. She co-organized a student-led conference that discussed how geospatial technologies, open data, and data visualization can empower communities and support social movements. Kristin was a contributing cartographer for Upper Left: A Cultural Atlas of San Francisco, Portland and Seattle and enjoys blending both the technical and creative aspects of cartography to communicate complex narratives through visually compelling maps.
• Andrew Wallace is a Cal State Fullerton alumnus, holding a master’s degree in Geography as well as undergraduate degrees in Geography and Anthropology. As a GIS practitioner based in Orange County, California, he works to facilitate land stewardship and conservation efforts through the development of paper and digital cartographic tools. Andrew’s biome maps were designed with the hope to encourage a love of maps in the next generation of geographers, and act as an informative supplement to World Regional Geography open educational resources.

Acknowledgments

Copyright & Intellectual Property

Unless otherwise noted within each chapter of the textbook, this body of work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. We encourage educators to adopt and adapt this book as permitted by this license.

Within each chapter page, the authors/curators have reviewed all materials used to assure integrity of intellectual property, offering references and attributions in each page. We will promptly remove any material determined as a violation of copyright or terms of use. If you believe that any of the material included is in violation of copyright, please contact the lead author at agregorio@fullcoll.edu.

To file a formal notification, you must be either the copyright owner of the work or an individual authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner. Your notification must include:

· Identification of the copyrighted work, or, in the case of multiple works at the same location, a representative list of such works at that site.

· Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity. You must include sufficient information, such as a specific URL or other specific identification, for us to locate the material.

· Information for us to be able to contact the claimant (e.g., email address, phone number).

· A statement that the claimant believes that the use of the material has not been authorized by the copyright owner or an authorized agent.

· A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and that the claimant is, or is authorized to act on behalf of, the copyright owner.

(This notification process and language were adapted from Lumen Learning and the MIT OpenCourseWare Terms of Use, licensed CC BY NC SA).

Accessibility Note

This textbook makes use of complex images and maps that may not be accessible. Please work with your instructor and local campus resources to identify accommodations for images that are not accessible.