Geraldine Pratt
In recognition of her consistent and sustained
intellectual contribution to geography in general and feminist
geography in particular through a variety of activities including
publishing, work with graduate students, and editorship, Dr.
Geraldine Pratt is the recipient of this year's Award for
Scholarly Distinction in Geography.
Gerry Pratt has defined, and redefined, the
contours of academic western feminist geography in North America.
She has had an enormous impact on the discipline. For
example, despite the fact that the Web of Science does not list
many feminist journals, Gerry's work is cited hundreds of times.
Feminist geography has flourished in large part through her
careful, wide-ranging, accessible, and insightful scholarship.
Many of Gerry's articles have been placed into readers and
anthologies on social, cultural and human geography; others have
been translated into other languages. Her collaborative
work on the Dictionary of Human Geography has been a reference
for researchers at all stages of their academic careers. She has
worked as primary supervisor and committee member for more than
75 graduate students, who are now leading new substantive fields
of knowledge related to social, cultural, and political
geographies.
Beginning in 1988, Gerry worked with Susan
Hanson to publish a series of journal articles concerned with
such issues as the geography of occupational segregation, the
connections between home and work, and the intra-urban geography
of social class, based on the rich survey evidence collected in
Worcester, Massachusetts. Evidence from this series enabled Gerry
and Susan to make important theoretical contributions to a wide
range of debates in urban and feminist geography. The book
written from this work, Gender, work and space, made its own
unique contribution. While it documented what they termed
'containment stories' - evidence that illustrated ways women's
lives were contained within tightly drawn spatial boundaries -
they also emphasised how place differentiates such
generalisations. The book remains an important text on gender and
work, a decade after publication.
Beyond her leadership in feminist theory in
geography and other social sciences and humanities, Gerry has
been foremost in developing and practising feminist
methodologies. Feminist methodologies are defined by a
commitment to challenge conventional power relations associated
with scholarly research and to enable more equitable outcomes for
research participants. This commitment is especially
visible in Gerry's work with the Philippine Women Centre, where
she has, since 1995, engaged with domestic workers coming to the
centre to help them to tell their stories in their own terms,
with intimacy, complexity and force. Gerry has co-authored
academic and policy papers with the Centre, and their experience
with her research has helped them to generate funds for and carry
out community-based research projects of their own. Gerry's
recent book Working Feminism, which looks at key concepts and
debates within feminist theory in relation to the real problems
faced by Filipina domestic workers, resulted in part from this
work.
Since 1993, Gerry has been editor of Environment
and Planning D: Society and Space. Under her careful
hand, this journal has become a leading geographic journal.
Gerry's editorial style is thoughtful and insightful, encouraging
constructive and provocative discussion. Gerry has also
nurtured the emergence of a new journal, Gender, Place and
Culture. At its inauguration in 1994, we did not know that
this journal would become the flagship journal for feminist
geography in North America. But Gerry's contributions - to
its first issue, to subsequent issues, and as a member of its
editorial board - have helped assure its success.
Gerry's open door was sometimes a revolving door
for students and faculty, who sought a mix of professional and
personal advice to guide them through a sometimes unfriendly
academic maze of bureaucracy, uncertainty, and anxiety. Without
fanfare or acknowledgement, Gerry offered ways for all these
people to speak in their own voices and to find a place for
themselves at the university. Furthermore, she spoke up for women
students and fellow colleagues in private meetings with other
colleagues, in departmental and university forums, and through
her written work. By her support, her expertise, and the
strategic use of her position, Gerry has ensured that geography
(and the academy) has become a more diverse, inclusive, and
accepting community of scholars.
Through all of these activities Gerry has helped
create a space, no, a place, an intellectual home, and a
collegial community for all women in the discipline.
Arguably, this is her most lasting and important contribution to
the scholarship of geography. In recognition of that
contribution, we nominate her for this award.
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