Geography Faculty Awards

Department of Geography College of Liberal Arts 1250 Bellflower Boulevard California State University Long Beach, CA 90840-1101 USA

Award-Winning Faculty

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship: Dr. Deborah Thien and Dr. Bipasha Baruah

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship program supports the most promising new Canadian scholars in the social sciences and humanities and assists them in establishing a research base at an important early stage in their careers. Our Department now has two SSHRCC Fellows! Dr. Deborah Thien was awarded a Fellowship at the University of Northern British Columbia for a project on the emotional geographies of the Royal Canadian Legion and Dr. Bipasha Baruah received one at the University of Toronto to support her work on gender and entitlement, property ownership and tenancy relationships in South Asia. The Department is proud to welcome two SSHRCC scholars!

Commonwealth Scholar: Dr. Deborah Thien

Dr. Deborah Thien comes to us with a Ph.D. in Human Geography earned at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Her studies there were financed by a very substantial Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Award. The Commonwealth Scholar plan is "...a system of awards to men and women from all Commonwealth countries chosen for their high intellectual promise and their capacity to return to make a significant contribution to life in their home countries." Dr. Thien is a Canadian and returned to Canada as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Northern British Columbia, where she worked on the "New Rural Economy Project" there. We are honored to have a Commonwealth Scholar join our Department.

Fulbright Scholar: Dr. Thomas Blaschke

Dr. Thomas Blaschke, Professor of Geography and Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg and Director of the iSPACE research studio, Austrian Research Centers joined us in the fall of 2006 as a Fulbright Scholar. Several of our faculty have gone abroad as Fulbright Scholars, and we are honored to host a Fulbright Scholar this year! Wilkommen zu unserer Abteilung, Herr Doktor Blaschke!

Chevron-Texaco Prize at Geodaze: Dr. Camille Holmgren

In her last rôle as graduate student, our newest faculty member, Dr. Camille Holmgren, won the Chevron-Texaco Prize of $300 for the best paper in the palæoclimatology/climate/palæoecology area given at the Geodaze Symposium. Geodaze is a student-run symposium at the University of Arizona showcasing research by graduate students and undergraduate students there. Dr. Holmgren earned the Prize for a paper, entitled, "Reconstructing 31,000 years of vegetation dynamics in the northern Chihuahuan Desert: A packrat midden study from the Peloncillo Mountains."

Finalist for the J. Warren Nystrom Award: Dr. Christine L. Jocoy

The J. Warren Nystrom Award is a prize for the best paper(s) presented in the special Nystrom sessions at the Association of American Geographers annual meeing. A handful of finalists are selected each year to present their recent dissertation research in the Nystrom session. Finalists are invited to submit a paper to The Professional Geographer, one of the discipline's top journals. Dr. Jocoy has been selected as a finalist for the 2005 awards, based on her dissertation, Contrasts in Learning: The Social and Spatial Context of Learning in Innovative Firms (Pennsylvania State University, Department of Geography, dissertation chair: Dr. A.K. Glassmeier, 2004)

Glenda Laws Memorial Award: Dr. Vincent J. Del Casino, Jr.

Dr. Del Casino was selected as the first recipient of the Glenda Laws Award for activist-scholarship in geography. The Glenda Laws Award of the Association of American Geographers was bestowed at the 2004 AAG Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. This award is administered by the Association of American Geographers and endorsed by members of the Institute of Australian Geographers, the Canadian Association of Geographers, and the Institute of British Geographers. The annual award and honorarium recognize outstanding contributions to geographic research on social issues. This award is named in memory of Glenda Laws, a geographer who brought energy and enthusiasm to her work on issues of social justice and social policy. All scholars involved in geographic research on one or more social issues are eligible for this award, with preference given to researchers who have received their Ph.D. within the last five years. Dr. Del Casino was nominated by Drs. Chrys Rodrigue and Dennis Fisher (Department of Psychology and Director of the Center for Behavioral Research and Services) and Dr. Katherine Gibson of Australian National University and Dr. John Paul Jones III of the University of Arizona wrote letters of support.

Fulbright Awards: Dr. James R. Curtis, Dr. Franklin Gossette, and Dr. Christopher T. Lee

Fulbright Awards are highly competitive and prestigious awards, which support faculty research, teaching, and travel in foreign countries and foreign faculty coming here, with an eye toward increasing international understanding and ties among countries. The Fulbright Program of the U.S. Department of State promotes the exchange of scholars and professionals, while the Fulbright-Hays Program of the U.S. Department of Education promotes the acquisition of international experience for doctoral students and faculty. Dr. Curtis has received two Fulbright-Hays awards, one in 1993 for a six week study tour of Brazil and another in 1986 for a six week study tour Pakistan. Dr. Gossette also received a Fulbright award in 1993 to go to the University of Salzburg, Austria, and a Fulbright-Hays in 1976-77 to serve as a Doctoral Fellow at Taiheng University in Taichung, Taiwan. Dr. Lee received a Fulbright award in 1995 to conduct collaborative research in Egypt with Egyptian and Canadian colleagues. To have three Fulbright Scholars in one department with five awards among them is quite an honor for Geography, as is our hosting a Fulbright Scholar from Austria in Fall 2006.

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow: Dr. James R. Curtis

NEH Fellowships support individuals pursuing advanced research in the humanities. Their research is to contribute to scholarly knowledge or to the general public's understanding of the humanities. Dr. Curtis' Fellowship supported a project he carried out at UCLA in 1995 researching American immigration.

Who's Who in America: Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue

"For over 100 years, Marquis Who's Who in America^® has provided accurate, concise biographies of notable Americans" and is regarded as the leading biographical reference in the country. Dr. Rodrigue's biography appears in the 51st through 54th editions.

CSULB College of Liberal Arts Collaborative Research Grant: Dr. Dmitrii Sidorov and Vlatka Velcic of Comparative Literatures and Classics and Dr. Caitlin Murdock of History

The CLA Collaborative Research program is a new initiative, designed to promote interdepartmental collaboration involving three departments. The lead faculty design research projects that involve student researchers and draw on all three disciplines and then create a cross-disciplinary year-long course for participating students. Dr. Sidorov's and his colleagues' project is entitled, "Evolving Borderlands: Frontiers, Borders, and Boundaries in (post)- Soviet Eastern Europe." Only three awards were made for 2005-06.

Southwest Book Award: Daniel D. Arreola and Dr. James R. Curtis

The Southwest Book Award honors "literary excellence and enrichment of the cultural heritage of the Southwest." Drs. Arreola and Curtis won the Award in 1993 for The Mexican Border Cities: Landscape Anatomy and Place Personality.

URISA Board of Directors Service Award: Dr. Suzanne P. Wechsler, with Mr. Barry Waite (GIS Manager, City of Carson), Mr. David DiBiase (Director, Gould Center for Geography Education and Outreach, Pennsylvania State University), and Dr. Karen K. Kemp (Professor of GIS, University of Redlands)

The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) is a major GIS professional society. One of its projects is developing a framework for certifying GIS programs, and its Curriculum Committee, of which Dr. Wechsler is a member, received a Board of Directors Service Award.

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Last revised: 10/26/06