Geographer Janice Monk to be awarded an honorary doctorate

Janice Jones Monk, Australian lecturer at the University of Arizona (USA) and one of the main promoters of gender geography, has been nominated to receive an honorary doctorate by the UAB after being proposed for the nomination by the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts. Monk will be awarded the doctorate during the ceremony which will take place on 16 October to inaugurate the academic year at the faculty. Maria Dolors García Ramon, professor of the Department of Geography, will be the sponsor of the honorary degree, and Ferran Sancho, Rector of the UAB, will be presiding over the event, which will take place at 11:30 am at the Auditorium of the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts.

10/09/2013

For over 40 years, Janice Monk has been one of the most outspoken figures in the development and institutionalisation of gender geography, both in the United States and internationally. She was also one of the first to work on the cultural and social aspect of geography and has made significant contributions to the research into teaching geography at university level. Of particular importance is her contribution to the advances made in gender geography and qualitative techniques in Spain through the relationship she has maintained for more than 25 years with the Department of Geography of the UAB.

An International Activity

Janice Monk was born in Sidney, where she obtained a degree in Geography and presented her thesis on the aboriginal people of Australia. Her professional career started in the United States, first at the University of Illinois and continued onto the University of Arizona, where for 25 years she was director of the Southwest Institute for Research on Women. Her activities have spread to over twenty universities all over the world, where she has participated as visiting lecturer and speaker.

She co-founded the International Geographical Union, where she led the Gender and Geography Commission and played an important role in fostering research into gender studies at an international level. She was also the second woman to become the President of the Association of American Geographers. Throughout her career, Monk has mentored several geographers from academic institutions in the United States and in other countries.

She has authored over 120 articles and book chapters and some 15 monographs on gender geography, teaching geography and cultural aspects of geography. She also co-directed the most popular collection of books on gender geography, the International Studies of Women and Place (Rouletge).

Among the many awards she has received there are the Lauréat d'honneur from the International Geographical Union and the Lifetime Achievement Honors from the Association of American Geographers.

A Strong Tie with the UAB

Janice Monk's collaborations with the UAB began in 1986, when she began to promote gender geography in Spain alongside lecturers from the Department of Geography. She has been visiting lecturer at the UAB twice and has offered a variety of conferences, as well as worked on several joint research projects. She has also made it possible for UAB researchers to visit and work at the University of Arizona.

More information: Faculty of Arts and Humanities