Lorraine Dowler, a professor of geography and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Pennsylvania State University, is the 2020 recipient Jan Monk Service Award from the American Association of Geographers. 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. This award is named in honor of Jan Monk, a past president of the association, 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.”
“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,” Professor Dowler said. “I am honored to receive this award.”
Dr. Dowler is a graduate of Manhattan College, where she majored in marketing. She holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the State University of New York and a Ph.D. in geography from Syracuse University in New York.