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Social Sciences Division

ECONOMICS & GEOSCIENCES

Providing structures, principles, frameworks, and techniques to assess the world and relationships within it.

About Us

The Department of Economics and Geosciences (DFEG) at the U.S. Air Force Academy empowers leaders with skills and perspective to assess, understand, and influence the world around them.

DFEG directly manages the Economics and Geospatial Science degree programs, and collaborates with the Political Science, History, Foreign Language, Military & Strategic Studies, Political Science, Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, and Management departments to deliver additional academic programs, including Foreign Area Studies and Operations Research.

To prepare leaders for our nation’s Air and Space Forces, DFEG encourages cadets to engage with the world around them, study diverse cultures and organizations, physical or institutional landscapes, economic and geographic relationships, and specialize in state-of-the-art economic or geospatial data processing tools and techniques.

Our demanding and flexible curriculum consists of rigorous foundational classes with a variety of optional foci within each major. Geospatial Science majors may specialize in key subfields including physical, human, and regional geography, or techniques such as digital image processing and geographic information systems (GIS). After foundational courses including rigorous two-course sequences in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, Economics majors broaden their studies through a menu of field courses, including game theory, sports and labor economics, development and conflict, and money and banking.

Graduates from DFEG use the scientific method to:

  • Formulate questions and analyze problems
  • Consider issues within a scientific framework
  • Collect and analyze data to test hypotheses, recognize and interpret patterns and trends, and evaluate arguments
  • Effectively communicate essential concepts and defend their interpretations

Current Geospatial Science majors may also pursue a Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Certificate through a program constructed in coordination with the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF).

DFEG also hosts the Office of Labor and Economic Analysis (OLEA), which is dedicated to providing labor economic analysis with the rigor necessary to define, develop, shape, sustain, and deliver an Air Force and Space Force workforce with efficiency. Faculty and cadets from DFEG and other disciplines create products to advise senior leaders responsible for managing the Department of the Air Force’s human capital portfolio while developing skills necessary for future Air Force and Space Force leaders to address over-the-horizon personnel policy challenges.

DFEG faculty possess a diverse set of backgrounds, interests and skills. With a roughly 50%/50% split between military and civilian instructors, DFEG excels in preparing cadets to apply theoretical academic subjects to military leadership issues and to continue their education in world-class graduate programs. Current faculty earned graduate degrees from world-leading institutions, including: Princeton, Georgetown, Cornell, Purdue, and others. Previous graduates from DFEG include multiple National Scholarship recipients, and many have gone on to outstanding institutions, such as Oxford University, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT to complete graduate studies.

Economics and Geosciences Faculty and Staff

Department News News From Around The Department


October 15, 2019

5 research projects AF Academy cadets are working on today

By Janine Dreger, Oct. 15, 2019 U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- Ever wonder what cadet researchers are doing these days at the Air Force Academy? Here’s five projects we think are very interesting. Falcon Satellite Program All systems are “go” for FalconSat-6, a 400-pound satellite designed and built by cadets. It’s been in orbit for 10-months, receiving and transmitting information allowing cadets to track the progress of several space-technology projects. New Dimensions Cadets are developing technology to give pilots mission information during their “debriefs” in three dimensions. If cadets have their way, our pilots will eventually wear 3-D glasses to...

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July 17, 2019

Feature story: AF Academy cadets take educational journey to Normandy, pay tribute to D-Day

(Courtesy photo) By Ray Bowden, July 17, 2019 U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- Cadets from the Air Force Academy spent two weeks of their summer break near the beach, but it probably wasn’t the shoreline you’d expect. They went to Normandy, France, to pay their respects to the 160,000 allied troops who crossed the English Channel on D-Day, June 6, 1944, to begin clawing-back Europe from Nazi control. The two-week academic journey took the cadets and some of their faculty to Normandy where the allied campaign, Operation Overlord, occurred. The group also participated in the D-Day 75th Anniversary memorial...

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April 22, 2019

Cultural Immersion Program trips make ‘the world a bit smaller’

U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet 1st Class Brianna Murray (middle left) sits with Ugandans during a Cultural Information Program trip to East Africa during spring break, 2019. (Courtesy photo) By Jennifer Spradlin U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- Cadet 1st Class Brianna Murray came to the Air Force Academy looking for a chance to be part of something bigger than herself, and recently realized part of that goal with a Cultural Immersion Program trip to East Africa. Murray and three other cadets joined Dr. John Riley, an associate professor in political science, on a 10-day trip during spring break to Rwanda...

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HQ USAFA/DFEG
2354 Fairchild Drive, Suite 6K-110
United States Air Force Academy, CO 80840
(719) 333-8317 | DSN 333-8317