Honors of the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group
CAPE Distinguished Career Award
(Formerly The Robert McC Netting Award)
On 4 February 1995, cultural ecologists lost one of their most distinguished colleagues. Dr. Robert McCorkle Netting, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, succumbed to bone cancer and complications resulting from valley fever. Netting’s professional career spanned more than 30 years. It was characterized not only by research and publications of the highest quality, but also by a deep appreciation for geography and geographers. Focusing on human-environment interactions, especially subsistence and development issues, his activities were, and his writings are, as much geographical as anthropological. He bridged the two disciplines perhaps as well as anyone else — particularly from the anthropological side.
In honor of Dr Netting, his life’s work, and his interdisciplinary spirit, the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers has established an award made to individuals whose professional activities best embody those of Robert McC. Netting.
The award is named “The (year) Cultural and Political Ecology Distinguished Career Award in recognition of long-standing and notable research and professional activities.”
The award is not necessarily made for any one piece of work or single activity. Rather, the award is issued for significant and substantial interdisciplinary work. It is not a “book award,” although the author of a particularly influential book would not be excluded. The intent is to recognize scholars who have: distinguished themselves through involvement with interdisciplinary geographical and anthropological projects, published extensively in both anthropological and geographical journals, produced work that is read and appreciated by practitioners in both fields, or conducted service to both disciplines that is meritorious. The Netting award is typically given to an established scholar, rather than an early career scholar.
The award is offered annually, though one need not be granted if a deserving candidate cannot be identified in a given year. Under no circumstances shall the award be issued to more than one candidate in a given year.
Awardees are selected by the officers of the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group. Awardees do not have to be a member of the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group, a member the Association of American Geographers, or a geographer.
The award, in the form of a plaque or framed certificate, is presented by the Chair of the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group, or her or his designate, at the awards ceremonies at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers.
AWARDEES BY YEAR
2023, Dr. Julie Guthman
2022, Dr. Nancy Peluso
2021, Dr. Jaque (Jody) Emel
2020, Dr. Kendra McSweeney
2019, Wendy Wolford
2018, Thomas J. Bassett
2017, Trevor Birkenholtz
2016, Richard Schroeder
2015, Nicholas Dunning
2014, Paul Robbins
2013, Karl Zimmerer
2012, Judy Carney
2011, Daniel W. Gade, testimonial by William M. Denevan
2010, Tony Bebbington, testimonial by Brad Jokisch and Billie Lee Turner II
2009, Piers M. Blaikie, testimonial by Joshua Muldavin
2008, Michael Mortimore, testimonial by Simon Batterbury
2007, Michael J. Watts, testimonial by William E. Doolittle and Simon Batterbury
2006, William I. Woods, testimonial by Antoinette Winklerprins
2005, Christine Padoch, testimonial by Harold Brookfield
2004, Lawrence Grossman, testimonial by Phil E. Porter
2003, William E. Doolittle, testimonial by Andrew Sluyter
2002, Emilio F. Moran, testimonial by Eric Keys
2001, Billie Lee Turner II, testimonial by Tom Whitmore
2000, Barney Nietschmann, testimonial by William Denevan
1999, Karl Butzer, testimonial by William E. Doolittle
1998, William M. Denevan, testimonial by Gregory Knapp
1997, Harold C. Brookfield, testimonial by Eric Waddell
1996, Philip W. Porter, testimonial by Nick Dunning
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The Outstanding Publication Award
(The James M. Blaut Award)
On 11 November 2000, cultural and political ecologists lost one of their most committed colleagues, Dr. James M. Blaut, Professor of Geography and Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His professional career spans half a century and is characterized by, among other qualities, innovative research on tropical agriculture, development, and colonialism.
In honor and memory of his seminal contributions, the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers has established an award made to an individual who publishes a book or journal article that best embodies the creativity and rigor of Jim Blaut’s own publications.
The award is named “The (year) Cultural and Political Ecology Outstanding Publication Award in recognition of innovative scholarship in cultural and political ecology, as demonstrated by publication of (article or book title).”
The award is made for a single publication that is clearly innovative and has the potential to be seminal in areas of research that are important to members of the Group. The intent is to recognize authors at any stage in their careers who demonstrate leadership through broadly influential, critical, innovative thinking. Jim Blaut’s publications on diffusionism and the colonizer’s model of the world provide models for judging such accomplishment. The publication can be a journal article or a book but must be sole-authored.
The award is offered annually, though one need not be granted if a deserving candidate cannot be identified in a given year. Under no circumstances is more than one award made annually, but Honorable Mention may be given to one or more nominees, when the review committee deems appropriate. The book or article must have been published within the two calendar years preceding the year of award.
On the basis of nominations by the general membership of the Group, members of its Board will agree upon a process to select the awardee. Nominations must be accompanied by full publication details and a rationale for making the award on the basis of that publication. Nominees need not be academics, geographers, members of the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group, or members of the Association of American Geographers.
The award, in the form of a plaque or certificate, is presented by the Chair of the Group or her or his designate at the awards ceremonies at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers.
AWARDEES BY YEAR
2023 (book), Dr. Kai Bosworth. 2022. Pipeline Populism: Grassroots Environmentalism in the Twenty-First Century. U Minnesota Press.
2023 (article), Dr. Katherine Clifford. “Natural Exceptions or Exceptional Natures?: Regulatory Science and the Production of Rarity.” 2022. Annals of the American Association of Geographers.
2022, Dr. Adam Romero. 2021. Economic Poisoning: Industrial Waste and the Chemicalization of American Agriculture. University of California Press.
2022 Honorable Mention, Dr. Abigail Neely. 2021. Reimagining Social Medicine from the South. Duke University Press.
2021, Dr. Madeleine Fairbairn. 2020. Fields of Gold. Cornell University Press.
2020, Dr. Ethan Miller. 2019. Reimagining Livelihoods: Life Beyond Economy, Society, and Environment. University of Minnesota Press.
2019, Megan Ybarra. 2017. Green Wars: Conservation and Decolonization in the Maya Forest. University of California Press.
2018, Jessica Dempsey. 2016. Enterprising Nature: Economics, Markets, and Finance in Global Biodiversity Politics. Wiley Blackwell.
2018 Honorable Mentions: Gregory Simon. 2016. Flame and Fortune in the American West: Urban Development, Environmental Change and the Great Oakland Hills Fire. University of California Press. Nikhil Anand. 2017. Hydraulic City: Water and the Infrastructures of Citizenship in Mumbai. Duke University Press.
2017, Jeremy Campbell. 2015. Conjuring Property: Speculation and Environmental Futures in the Brazilian. University of Washington Press.
2016, Jessica Barnes. 2014. Cultivating the Nile: The Everyday Politics of Water in Egypt. Durham: Duke University Press.
2015, Seth Holmes. 2013. Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States. University of California Press.
2014, Matthew Huber. 2013. Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital. University of Minnesota Press.
2013, Laura Ogden. 2011. Swamplife: People, Gators, and Mangroves Entangled in the Everglades. University of Minnesota Press.
2012, Julie Guthman. 2011. Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism. University of California Press.
2011, Tom Bassett and Alex Winter-Nelson. 2010. The Atlas of World Hunger. University of Chicago Press.
2010, Joel Wainwright, testimonial by Paul Robbins 2008. Decolonizing Development: Colonial Power and the Maya. Blackwell Publishing.
2009, Paul Robbins, testimonial by Kevin St. Martin 2007. Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are. Temple University Press.
2008, Diana Davis, testimonial by Paul Robbins 2007. Resurrecting the Granary of Rome: Environmental History and French Colonial Expansion in North Africa. Ohio University Press.
2005, Christian Kull 2004. Isle of Fire: The Political Ecology of Landscape Burning in Madagascar. University of Chicago Press.
2004, Andrew Sluyter, testimonial by William E. Doolittle 2002. Colonialism and Landscape: Postcolonial Theory and Applications. Lanham: Roman and Littlefield.
2003, Judith Carney, testimonial by Paul Robbins 2001. Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
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