CLAG HONORS, 1989


CLAG is pleased to present the 1989 Preston E. James Eminent Latin Americanist Career Award to Dan Stanislawski for his outstanding contributions to historical and regional geography, especially of Mexico and Portugal.

Dan Stanislawski, born in 1903, is one of the few living Latin Americanist geographers whose careers began before World War II. And he is one of the few among us who have distinguished themselves with major research and publication on both Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.

Dan was part of the early group of students working at the University of California, Berkeley, with Carl Sauer. His Ph.D. dissertation was on The Historical Geography of Michoacán, subsequently published by the University of Texas Press; it is still cited frequently. His articles on the historical geography of Latin America include two well-known studies on early Spanish town planning in the New World.

Dan's second research career was on Portugal and the Mediterranean and includes three books. Best known is The Individuality of Portugal in 1959. The quality of Dan's writing is indicated by the following statement by Douglas Pocock in an article on geography as literature in Progress in Human Geography in 1988: "Certainly the most memorable regional geography-and that most deserving the appellation literature--are works which rise above the prison house of catalogue and fly on the wing of figurative language to present a portrait or personality." The examples given are The Personality of Ireland by Estyn Evans and The Individuality of Portugal.

Since retirement, Dan .has shifted to a new region, Central America, with a monograph in 1983 in the Ibero-Americana series oni> The Transformation of Nicaragua: 1519-1548; other work is in progress.

Dan's teaching career was primarily at the University of Texas (1949-1962) and the University of Arizona (1963-1975). He is currently a Research Associate at the University of California, Berkeley. He has received Honors from the Association of American Geographers and two Guggenheim Foundation fellowships, one of only three geographers to receive two such awards.


Peter M. Ward

The 1989 Carl Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers is given to Dr. Peter M. Ward for the quality and breadth of scholarship in his three recent books: Welfare Politics in Mexico, Papering over the Cracks (Allen and Unwin), Housing, the State and the Poor: Policy and Practice in Three Latin American Cities (co-authored ) with Alan Gilbert, Cambridge University Press, and Community Leadership and Self-Help Housing (co-authored with Sylvia Chant)

Peter Ward is especially commended for his commitment to urban research in Mexico, for the [end p. 111] impact his work has had on the broad community of Latin Americanist social scientists and policy-makers, and for his ability to inter-link detailed empirical research with major theoretical issues. He has made important contributions to theoretical and policy debates relating to low-income housing, intra-urban migration service provision and income-generation in Third World cities. His work provides a worthy example for a new generation of Latin Americanist urban geographers. [end p. 112]