UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Lorraine Dowler, Penn State professor of geography and women's, gender and sexuality studies, is the 2020 recipient of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Feminist Geographies specialty group’s Jan Monk Service Award.
This award is named in honor of Jan Monk, a past president of AAG, and “recognizes a geographer who has made an outstanding service contribution to women in geography and/or feminist geography."
“The award typically goes to a feminist geographer with a distinguished track record of service work throughout their career, which is certainly true of Lorraine,” said Carrie Mott, assistant professor of geography at the University of Louisville and member of the selection committee. “She's someone who has built her career around service to others through her research, writing, teaching and service.”
Typically, Dowler would have been presented with the award at the AAG annual meeting in April, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic she received it online.
Dowler, who also serves as the associate head of undergraduate programs for Penn State’s Department of Geography, has been a member of AAG for more than 23 years, organizing several workshops and conferences. She is a longtime member of the AAG Feminist Geographies specialty group, formerly named Perspectives on Women, and serves on the editorial boards of the journals Geography Compass and Geopolitics.
“My scholarship is rooted in a feminist approach to geopolitics that enables more fluid conceptualizations of compassion, identity, and individuality as related to understanding everyday life, private spaces and the lives of women and other marginalized groups,” Dowler said. “I am honored to receive this award.”
The AAG is a nonprofit scientific and educational society founded in 1904. Currently, the association has more than 10,000 members from more than 60 countries. AAG members are geographers and related professionals who work in the public, private and academic sectors.