Geography Lectures

Yi-Fu Tuan was a towering intellectual figure and Professor Emeritus of Geography at UW-Madison. Tuan was a prolific writer and deep thinker who was known as the father of humanistic geography. See: UW–Madison mourns influential, beloved geography professor Yi-Fu Tuan.

Yi-Fu Tuan
Yi-Fu Tuan

The Yi-Fu Lecture Series features a wide variety of U.S. and international guest lecturers from all geographic disciplines. Lecturers at these Friday seminars also often speak at brown-bag lunches, one-on-one student sessions, and breakfast meetings with student interest groups as part of their visit. Doctoral students are invited to present their final research. The lecture series was initiated by Dr. Tuan (pictured at left) and receives enthusiastic support as a department and campus tradition.

All lectures are presented in room 180 of Science Hall every Friday at 3:30 PM. For those unable to attend in person, the meeting can be joined via Livestream https://go.wisc.edu/l880yf except when otherwise indicated. Alumni, friends and the public are always invited to attend.

April 25, 2025 - 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

The arrival of Hurricane Helene in September 2024 had a catastrophic impact on southern Appalachia, challenging the discursive formation of the region as a climate haven.  The storm, the deadliest continental U.S. event since Hurricane Katrina (2005), caused significant environmental and community devastation, the full extent of which is still unfolding. As federal and state […]


May 2, 2025 - 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Child labor. Orphanages. One-room schoolhouses. Childhood diseases and infant mortality. Crowded cities and remote rural spaces. Children’s spaces of the early 20th century can illuminate broader social trends of a place and time through examining the cultural and material production of spaces, as well as children’s experiences of such spaces. The project shared here explores […]