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Geography ‘entrepreneurial’ field
Geography may possibly be the most interdisciplinary field in the academic world, says UB department chair Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen. Photo: DOUGLAS LEVERE
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“More and more, geographers are being sought out to collaborate on various problems.”
Now that the term “interdisciplinary” is practically a prerequisite for federal research funds, geographers are finding that their expertise is a sought-after commodity. That’s because geography just might be the most interdisciplinary field in the academic world, according to Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen, chair of the Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“Geographers have traditionally read literature from a lot of disciplines so we have a wide understanding of different fields,” Bagchi-Sen says. “I think it has made us more resilient in problem-solving; we tend to look at different perspectives in order to come up with solutions.”
That approach is becoming increasingly valuable, she says.
“If you look at what’s being funded, any research question is now so complicated that several disciplines are required to answer it,” she says. “More and more, geographers are being sought out to collaborate on various problems.”
The UB geography department’s historic emphasis on spatial methodologies and geographic information systems has been especially valuable on research applications in environmental, medical, social and economic fields.
Bagchi-Sen has used spatial methodologies in her own research as an urban-economic geographer. At the University of Georgia, where she earned her doctorate, her dissertation was on “Spatial and Temporal Models of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States.”
Bagchi-Sen came to UB in 1993 from Michigan State University because of the Department of Geography’s focus on international business and world trade—and it’s still one of just a few geography departments in the country that specialize in this area.
She served as the department’s director of graduate studies from 2001-04 and co-directed the UB Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender from 2009-10. She was named department chair last year.
Her administrative experience includes stints as a fellow in the UB Faculty in Leadership Program, working in the Office of the President (2005-06) and as fellow of the American Council on Education, working in the Chancellor’s Office at the University of California-Los Angeles (2006-07). In May 2009, she was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Goteborg University in Sweden.
Bagchi-Sen has studied how foreign companies from India, for example, have boosted their investment in the U.S., evolving from manufacturers of generic drugs to companies with research-and-development expertise through the acquisition of other firms. She also has studied how biotech firms innovate—it is very hard, she says, to define what makes them successful.
“Every state and every university tries to capture the biomedical research that is going on and to see if it can do translational research,” she says. “But it’s hard to measure success. What are the indicators of success for knowledge-based companies? How do you measure economic development effects of these companies? Biotech companies may have revenue, but they may be at the very early stages of product development, which limits economic development.”
Bagchi-Sen points out that more students are being drawn to geography because it offers a wide variety of quantitative and qualitative tools to address complicated questions.
That broad perspective comes from the nature of geography itself, she says, noting that the discipline is categorized as both a social and a physical science. While human geography—Bagchi-Sen’s focus—examines urban, economic, social and political geography, those who study physical geography focus on earth-systems science, water resources, hydrology, forest transition, conservation and other environmental issues.
And while the UB Department of Geography is among the smaller ones in the nation, with approximately 15 faculty members, Bagchi-Sen notes that it has one of the nation’s largest master’s-degree programs in geography, as well as a relatively large doctoral program. In addition, she says, the job outlook for geographers is good.
“Even during this economic downtown, there are positions,” she says, “especially academic positions and those in applied geography.”
UB’s geography faculty members represent numerous subfields and nationalities, and many are women. Of a total of about 15, including one who joined the department this semester, six have been hired since 2006, she notes, adding that the department maintains a highly productive research agenda.
“Geographers are entrepreneurial to begin with,” she says, “and nearly all of our faculty members currently have external research support.”
But it’s not just the discipline that fosters the collaborative nature of UB’s geographers; it’s the institution, too, Bagchi-Sen says, describing UB as “a very rich, intellectual environment.”
“The great thing about UB is it doesn’t have silos,” she says. “UB helps you seek out intellectual hot spots. That’s often not the case at other institutions.”
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