Coffee Con 2026

Please mark your calendar and join us on Monday, April 27, 2026
2:00 - 3:00 PM DMF 279/283
for the Twentieth Annual Coffee Tasting.

Students in our department's Second Year Seminar The Secret Life of Coffee have been welcoming the campus community to share specialty coffees and coffee knowledge since the very first SYS course was offered in 2007. 

Image: Thea Jackson

We welcome everyone to join us from 2-3 pm in DMF 279 and 283 (adjoining classrooms). The coffee lineup this year includes:

BRAZIL

Cerrado 17/18 from Coffee Corral

Dermott Amorim / Morgan Smith

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Ramirez Red Honey from Coffee Corral

Thea Jackson / Ellie Ward / Bryce Bishop

HAITI

Blue Pine from Coffee Corral

Larah Letelier / Fog Pokrovskiy 

PANAMA

 

Janson Farms Geisha from Coffee Corral

Fiona Duke / Daniel Gostin

PERU

Pacha Glow from Sunrise Trading
Sarah Ahern / Emma Larose / Wendy Goetz-

VENEZUELA

La Curva donated by Red Rooster Coffee
Thal Nogueira / Molly Cleary / Mint Jindawit

Bring your own mug if you can!

Teamwork

 

In geography, the real world is a big part of what we do!

The Old State Farm Trail project is an excellent example of collaboration among academic, non-profit, government, and for-profit partners. It is also an example of the value of both vision and patience. 

The project is not complete, but it has recently reached an important milestone. Small parking lots are now in place at the north and south ends of a trail that will provide public access to permanently-protected open space adjacent to the National Wild & Scenic Taunton River. 

We will edit this entry to include more detail soon, but for now suffice it to say that this project has involved the Massachusetts Legislature, the Town of Bridgewater, the Natural Resources Trust of Bridgewater, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, and many faculty members and students in the Bridgewater State University Department of Geography. 

And speaking of teamwork, the best way to locate and envision this trail and to learn about its background and latest information is to visit the Old State Farm Story Map on ArcGIS. This is the joint effort of Dr. Boah Kim and five (so far) BSU geography interns.

Think Global, Think Local

GEOG 470: Advanced Global Thinking
Spring 2026 MW 3:20-4:35
Dr. James Hayes-Bohanan

Image: Logan International Airport

Course Description: Advanced Global Thinking gives students in geography and related disciplines the opportunity to develop and apply their understanding of geographic principles at a global scale. Students will investigate connections that migration, commerce, and cultural exchange continue to create between the gateway communities of Massachusetts and other places throughout the world. They will apply critical perspectives from cultural, economic, political, and environmental geography to current questions of international policy, especially as related to migration, climate change, trade, and human development. Students will also gain an understanding of global institutions in which these perspectives may be applied, including intergovernmental agencies, military alliances, trading blocs and non-governmental organizations. 

Prerequisite: Any upper-level regional geography course (GEOG 374, 375, 376, 381, 383, 386, or 388) or consent of instructor. Students pursuing minors in area studies (such as Cape Verde, Africa, Latin America, or MENA) are encouraged to reach out via jhayesboh@bridgew.edu with GEOG 470 in the subject line.

See more about Massachusetts Gateway Communities.

Lagniappe: See HBA Archipelago for an airport-related post (and map) about global/local connections. 

Coffee CON 25

Honors Students in The Secret Life of Coffee

invite you to their classroom for

Coffee Samples & Coffee Knowledge

COFFEE CON 25

Wednesday April 29 / 2-3pm DMF Science Center Room 279

Brazil: Brazil Mogiana Guaxupé 15/16 FC SS

Colombia: Colombian Antioquia Amaga Supremo

Ethiopia: Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Natural Gr. 3 FTO – Dumerso

Kenya: Kenya Premium Nyeri – Ndurutu AA

Puerto Rico: Café Lareño 

Mentored by Dr. James Hayes-Bohanan, Geographer & Coffee Maven

Some version of this event has been part of The Secret Life of Coffee since it was first offered as a pilot course in the then-new Second-Year Seminar program in 2007. A student named Ketna suggested this event while on our Nicaragua travel course that year, and it has been offered in some form ever since.

For the first several years, we posted updates about the event on Hayes-Boh's faculty website. That server is now frozen, so there are no recent updates, but the page still captures some of the flavor of the event.

Students and posters during the 2012 tasting event.

BSU @ Detroit -- AAG March 2025

BSU undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty in geography will be well represented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Detroit, which is taking place March 24-28, 2025. 

Abstracts of the 12 works we are presented are among the 3,954 entries in the searchable Abstract Gallery. Links to each BSU contribution are available below (alphabetical by first author; BSU affiliates unless noted otherwise) or by using this Bridgewater search link in the database. 

Meanwhile, please also see the BSU to Detroit post on the help BSU Honors Colloquium students are providing to help prepare for travel to the Motor (and Arts) City.

Detroit flag image by James Hayes-Bohanan

Regina Christen and Thilina Surasinghe: Mammalian community motifs as a driver of tick-borne disease hazard in urban environments

Keeley Cote: Assessing the Accuracy of Spectral Indices for Wetland Habitat Differentiation Using Open-Source Satellite Data

Luke Davies and Jenalyn Warcup: Bridging Climate Justice and Research through Film: Elevation-Dependent Warming in the Cordillera Blanca and Global Engagement for Vulnerable Mountain Communities

Ashleigh Hartsfield and Callie Milliard: How Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Targets Climate Anxieties in Peru and New England

James Hayes-Bohanan and Harvey Hayes (BSU and University of Rhode Island): From Liquidation to Little Village: The Arts in Detroit 

Robert Hellström, Bryan G Mark  (Ohio State), Edwin Julio Palomino Cadenas  (Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo), Abigail E Bulman, Luke Davies, Marlene Coral Granados  (Universidad Nacional Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo), Ashleigh Hartsfield, Jenalyn Warcup, Callie Milliard, Ethan Medeiros: Collaborative Research on Elevation-Dependent Climate Change in the Peruvian Andes 

Emily Mazan (Ohio State), Bryan Mark (Ohio State), Robert Hellström, and Alfonso Fernández  (Universidad de Concepción): Dynamical downscaling to assess climate change impacts on diurnal winds in the Tropical Andes 

Elise Ober, Luke Davies, and Samuel Costa: Environmental Literacy and Research 

Matthew Potvin, Darcy Boellstorff, and Thilina Surasinghe: A Cost-Effective Standardized Framework for Post-Restoration Monitoring Using Point Extractions of Remotely Sensed Spectral Indices 

Eric Stockwell: Reducing Environmental Impact in Next-Gen Microchip Manufacturing

 

Erik Sundell: Unveiling Environmental Racism in Greater Boston: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Copious Pollution in Marginalized Communities 

Jenalyn Warcup and Luke Davies: Bridging Climate Justice and Research through Strategic Communication: Video-work on Elevation-Dependent Warming in the Cordillera Blanca and Global Engagement for Vulnerable Mountain Communities

BSU to Detroit for AAG -- March 2025

BSU will be well represented at one of the world's greatest geography meetings in March of 2025, when the American Association of Geographers holds its annual meeting in Detroit. See the BSU @ Detroit AAG post for details about the research we are presenting. 

Professors and students will be presenting on a variety of topics, from community change in Detroit itself to climate change in Peru. 

Image: Belle Isle, Downtown, and Detroit River

Fortunately, students from many majors who are participating in our second-year honors colloquium on Detroit are helping to prepare the travelers. The course is entitled Detroit: Arts City, exploring the role of the arts in the redevelopment of a city that had famously been in decline over the past half-century.

Commonwealth Honors students have begun to identify places that the geographers might wish to visit during the conference. The emphasis is on arts, food, and locally-owned businesses. The students are, of course, making a map!

This map will be the focus of a joint meeting of the traveling students (mostly majors) and the honors students (mostly not majors, at least not yet!).

Secret Life of Coffee: April 22 Event

 

April 22, 2024  @ 2-3 P.M.
DMF Science Building 279

The Secret Life of Coffee is a BSU Honors Seminar in Geography. It is also the next big coffee event on the BSU campus.

Students will be sharing knowledge from a semester of asking the age-old question: 

Where does your favorite beverage come from? 

They will also be sharing five of the many coffees we have been tasting throughout the course (click each for farm and flavor details):

• Burundi Kayanza SWP Decaf 
• Brazil Honey Process Pedra Branca
• Honduras Honey Process Comunidad Cabañas
• Costa Rica Zarcero Monte Brisas
• Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe Halo Beriti

The course map shows all of the coffees the class tried (in blue) plus a few places we discussed as part of the geography story (yellow).

Please join these students in DMF 279 on Monday, April 22 between 2 and 3 p.m. Bring a mug if you have one handy!

Please share this link or click here for a printable flyer.