Sarah Passick

Ed Hogan, the associate Vice President for academic affairs and chief information technology officer and his daughter, Erin Hogan Fouberg co-authored the third edition of “The Geography of South Dakota.”

Hogan described that working with his daughter on this project was great, and he said he learned a few new things from his daughter.

“I never realized how much we are alike. I have five children and they all are quite different, but with her, I could start a sentence and she could finish it,” he said. “I also learned that in some ways, she has a fresher view than I do.”

Hogan said that his daughter got interested in geography her senior year in college. She completed her undergraduate coursework and her master’s degree in geography.

“She just took a class to make her dad happy,” Hogan said, jokingly. “She found out that’s what she wanted, too.”

Hogan used an analogy to describe a geographer’s role much like that of a theater critic.

“A critic goes to the theater and looks at the stage and evaluated the stage, which is the physical environment. And on the stage is the set, which is the cultural environment and the people are the actors. I view the world the same way. We have the stage of physical environment and cultural environment. A geographers job is to look at the play and tell us if is good or bad,” Hogan said.

The book, “The Geography of South Dakota,” focuses on the cultural and physical aspects of geography.

“I tried to take symmetrical (topical) geography and regional geography and put them together,” Hogan said.

Hogan’s and Fouberg’s book will be used for SDSU’s Geography of South Dakota class.

“This is the third edition and SDSU has used the first two editions since 1995,” he said.

Hogan said that other colleges in South Dakota and high schools used his book. The book will not replace world geography, but as an advanced class for high school students.

The material in the third edition has been updated to include 2000 and 2001 material Hogan said. The book is divided into four sections: physical environment, cultural heritage, cultural environment, and regional geography.

“South Dakota used to be known as the land of infinite variety and even though there are different slogans people use to describe it, geographically, I think, the land of infinite variety is the best way to talk about South Dakota. No matter what part of the state you look at, you will always find an infinite variety of things,” he said.

Hogan, who has been at SDSU for 35 years, is currently working on another book about South Dakota house types.

As the editor of the Journal of Geography, Fouberg has also had three books published and has written several articles. She is a geography professor at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va.