Geography Education Networking Initiative for Underrepresented Scholars

The Geography Education Networking Initiative for Underrepresented Scholars (GENIUS) is a three-day workshop for rising third- and fourth-year students who identify as part of a racially underrepresented group to receive support and mentoring in preparing to apply to graduate programs in geography. During the workshop, participants will be mentored in preparing application materials that they can use to apply to graduate programs.

Applications for GENIUS 2025 are now open

May 28-30, 2025, University Park, Pa.
Inbound Travel: May 27
Outbound Travel: May 30
Mentors: Madelaine Cahuas - University of Minnesota, Solange Muñoz at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Funding

Students will receive travel support, hotel rooms in State College, and some meals while attending.

Qualifications

Successful applicants to GENIUS will demonstrate that they

Identify as a member of a traditionally underrepresented racial group (including but not limited to African American, Chicano/a and Latino/a, Native American, and Asian American)
Intend to apply to graduate school in geography
Are available to come to State College, Pennsylvania, on May 27-30

Applications (Will close on Feb. 15, 2025)

Undergraduate scholars interested in attending GENIUS, should use the form below to submit the following application materials at the bottom of this page.

Name
Institution email (abc123@psu.edu)
A statement of 500 or fewer words explaining why they would like to pursue graduate studies in geography

About Genius

The workshop will help students begin to form networks that they can use to navigate their professional careers. Attendees will have the opportunity to network with peers and scholars from across the United States and Canada. At the end of the workshop, participants will have created an email introduction to send to potential advisers, a curriculum vitae that documents their achievements, and a personal statement for graduate school applications. Students also will have identified up to five programs that they are interested in applying to. Finally, a portion of the workshop will focus on identifying funding to help defray the costs of graduate applications.

Students will work closely with mentors, Penn State Geography faculty, and current graduate students to understand how to apply to graduate school and what grad school is all about. The workshop will include opportunities for both group and individual mentoring as well as the option for students to work together on graduate application materials.

Read about the 2023 inaugural GENIUS workshop >>

Co-organizers

Emily Rosenman

Emily Rosenman is an urban and economic geographer who researches the connections between finance, urbanization, and inequality. Her work is motivated by the aim of understanding relationships that produce both wealth and impoverishment, with particular attention to the uneven geographies of financialization and racialization that characterize contemporary urban life.

Joshua Inwood

Joshua Inwood is a professor of geography and holds a joint appointment with the Rock Ethics Institute. His work is focused on race, processes of racialization, racial capital, and the Civil Rights Movement and the U.S. South.

Ida Djenontin

Ida Djenontin is a human-environment geographer with empirical research interests at the intersection of environmental governance and sustainable development. Her primary regional expertise in the field of Environment and Development Geography is sub-Saharan Africa.

Questions?

If you have questions about the workshop or applying, please contact Josh Inwood (jfi6@psu.edu) or Emily Rosenman (ekr5260@psu.edu).

Past Workshops

GENIUS 2024 Workshop

May 13-15, 2024, University Park, Pa.

Mentors: Ida Djenontin- Penn State, Belen Norona- Penn State, & Rachel Bok- University of Toronto

GENIUS 2023 Workshop

May 10-12, 2023, University Park, Pa.

Mentors: Beverley Mullings- University of Toronto & Akira Drake Rodriguez- University of Pennsylvania

Department of Geography