biology

William G. Moseley

William G. Moseley is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand William G. Moseley rather than just read about it. In short: William G. Moseley (born 1965) is an American geographer.

Key takeaways

William G. Moseley belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect William G. Moseley to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of William G. Moseley from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

William G. Moseley (born 1965) is an American geographer. He works as DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography at Macalester College, where he directs the Food, Agriculture, and Society program. He has also previously served as the president of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and president of the Mande Studies Association (MANSA). His research and teaching interests include tropical agriculture, political ecology, and development geography.

Background Moseley was born in 1965. He graduated from Carleton College in 1987 with a B.A. degree in history before working with the Peace Corps in Ouelessebougou, Mali, from 1987 to 1989. He then went to the University of Michigan until 1993, where he attended the Ford School of Public Policy for his M.P.P. degree and the School of Natural Resources and Environment for an M.S. in environmental policy. For the next four years, he worked for Save the Children Fund in the issue area of food security. Following his career in development, in 2001, Moseley received a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Georgia with a dissertation entitled Sahelian 'White Gold' and Rural Poverty-Environment Interactions: The Political Ecology of Cotton Production, Environmental Change, and Household Food Economy in Mali.

Career Moseley was an assistant professor at Northern Illinois University from 2001 to 2002 before being named assistant professor at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He was an associate professor from 2007 to 2011, professor from 2011 to 2019, and was named to his endowed professorship in 2020. Moseley also directs the Food, Agriculture and Society program at Macalester. In 2013, the American Association of Geographers awarded Moseley their Media Achievement Award. In 2016, the Africa specialty group of the AAG awarded him the Kwadwo Konadu-Agyemang Distinguished Scholar Award. From 2019 to 2023, Moseley served on the steering committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition for the Committee on World Food Security, one of 15 recognized international experts. He served as vice president, president and past president of the Mande Studies Association from 2021 to 2028 and vice president, president and past president of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) from 2025-2027. He is the first AAG president from a non-R1 liberal arts college (rather than a research university). Beginning his term at the AAG, Moseley said that "the policy-making world in the Anglo-American context is dominated by political scientists and economists. ... Geography has a different angle to offer on issues. We need to speak up ..." He is also an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Society at the University of Minnesota.

Research Moseley is a development and human-environment geographer with particular expertise in political ecology and tropical agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is the author of 12 books and over 70 refereed research articles, as well as numerous op-eds in popular media such as The Conversation. He was previously an opinion contributor for Al Jazeera English, and he served as editor of the African Geographical Review from 2008 to 2010.

Selected books Moseley, William G. (2024). Decolonizing African Agriculture: Food Security, Agroecology and the Need for Radical Transformation. Agenda Publishing. ISBN 9781788215893. Fouberg, Erin H.; Moseley, William G. (2017). Understanding World Regional Geography (2nd ed.). Wiley. ISBN 9781119393900. Moseley, William G.; Schnurr, Matthew A.; Bezner-Kerr, Rachel (2016). Africa’s Green Revolution: Critical Perspectives on New Agricultural Technologies and Systems. Routledge. ISBN 9781138185951. McCusker, Brent; Moseley, William G.; Ramutsindela, Maano (2015). Land Reform in South Africa: An Uneven Transformation. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442207165. Moseley, William G.; Perramond, Eric; Hapke, Holly M.; Laris, Paul (2013). An Introduction to Human-Environment Geography: Local Dynamics and Global Processes. Wiley. ISBN 9781405189316.

References

External links Faculty profile William G. Moseley publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William G. Moseley

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William G. Moseley claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to William G. Moseley before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about William G. Moseley ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of William G. Moseley

In research: William G. Moseley appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses William G. Moseley in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: William G. Moseley is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1965 births, 21st-century American geographers, American agriculturalists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for William G. Moseley outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study William G. Moseley in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what William G. Moseley means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain William G. Moseley out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is William G. Moseley in simple terms?

William G. Moseley (born 1965) is an American geographer.

Why does William G. Moseley matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study William G. Moseley?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on William G. Moseley.