BATON ROUGE, La. (Feb. 1, 2022) – Dr. Craig Colten, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Geography at LSU, has been awarded the 2022 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Gilbert White Distinguished Public Service Honors.
Colten, a senior advisor at The Water Institute, was honored for his many contributions as a government employee during his early career and as an academic. For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as the public sought to understand the shocking devastation of one of America’s iconic cities, he demonstrated through many media appearances and newspaper essays just how essential historical geography is for understanding people and places.
“All of Craig’s colleagues at The Water Institute are thrilled that the AAG has rightly recognized his decades of scholarship and countless contributions with this prestigious award,” said Justin Ehrenwerth, The Water Institute president and CEO. “Craig’s deep commitment to giving voice to the most vulnerable people across our coastal communities is inspiring and no one has done more in Louisiana to highlight the critical role of historical geography in preparing communities for an uncertain future.”
Colten, The Water Institute’s founding director of human dimensions from 2013 to 2015, has studied the historical geography of hazards for more than 35 years. Since 2000, Colten’s research has focused on community resilience, adaptation to environmental change and how marginalized communities survived in Louisiana’s perilous coastal region.
In addition, Colten spearheaded the Human Coast Initiative at LSU and participated in research funded by the Corps of Engineers, the National Academy of Sciences and the Robert Wood Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers and earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. He is also the author of the award-winning An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature (2005), Southern Waters (2014) and Perilous Place, Powerful Storms (2009). He and his many Ph.D. graduates continue to apply their research to support communities threatened by flooding and coastal land loss.
“It is such an honor to be recognized by my peers in the AAG for my efforts to connect the places and people in hazard-prone areas,” Colten said. “The history of a place, particularly coastal Louisiana, is so closely tied to our culture, our sense of identity and our ways of dealing with hazards and risks such as hurricanes and floods. I must acknowledge the considerable assistance of my colleagues and students in achieving this recognition. None of us work alone.”
Since 1951, AAG Honors, the highest honors bestowed on its members, have been offered annually to recognize outstanding accomplishments by members in research and scholarship, teaching, education, service to the discipline, public service outside academe and for lifetime achievement. The AAG Honors Committee is elected by the AAG membership and charged with making award recommendations for each category, with no more than two awards given in any one category.
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