2014-12-12



Susan Hanson, former director of the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University

Susan Hanson, Distinguished University Professor Emerita, former Director of the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University, and member of the National Academy of Sciences has been awarded the Association of American Geographers 2015 AAG Stanley Brunn Award for Creativity in Geography for her intellectual breakthroughs in geography.

The AAG recognizes Hanson for scholarship that “challenged the field of transportation geography by bringing to the fore how difference – understood as gendered, classed and racialized – matters in people’s mobility, job opportunities, and access to services. By so doing, her research literally re-wrote the textbook on urban transportation geography. She has deepened these insights by extending her research into the gendered character of local labor markets, women’s entrepreneurship and the role of networks in enabling and constraining women.”

Professor Hanson is among five GSG faculty members named to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences while appointed at Clark. Others include: Robert Kates, Roger Kasperson, B.L. Turner and Anthony Bebbington. Professor Hanson received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University, and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya before attending graduate school. She has edited four geography journals – Urban Geography, Economic Geography, the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, and The Professional Geographer – and has been the geography editor for the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, first and second editions. She serves on the editorial boards of several journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Professor Hanson is a past president of the Association of American Geographers and has served as Director of Clark’s School of Geography (1988-1995; 2002-2004). She serves as Division Chair of the Transportation Research Board (one of the six divisions of the NRC of the National Academies) and as a member of the Advisory Boards of the NRC’s Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education and of the National Academies’ Koshland Museum of Science.

Established in 1921, the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University is internationally renowned for innovative scholarship and is an acknowledged leader in the field. Consistently ranked as one of the top-ten graduate programs by the National Research Council, Clark Geography enables graduate students to train with top professionals and participate in a world-class research community.  Having awarded more Ph.D.s than any other geography program in the United States, Clark University Geography has a reputation for training future leaders in the field.

Related Links:
Clark U. geographer receives prestigious residency from The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center
NRC assessment places geography doctorate program with tops in U.S.
Clark University geography program earns prestigious Sussman Foundation support for Ph.D. student researchers
Clark geographer Bebbington inducted into American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Clark geographer awarded NASA grants to study carbon release, uptake in U.S. forests
Clark U. geographer awarded NSF grant to study governance in community land trusts

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