Written by Claire Campbell, LACIS Communications and Social Media Intern
This has been a great year for LACIS faculty. We are proud to announce that our associate, Professor Lisa Naughton, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for her distinguished contribution to the field of geography. According to the UW-Madison News release, “The academy was formed in 1780 to honor exceptional individuals and engage them in advancing the public good. Members have included Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Margaret Mead and Martin Luther King Jr.”
In addition, our associate, Professor Paul Block, has been awarded the Distinguished Teaching award by the university. He was one of only 13 teachers on campus to receive this award, which indicates him as one of UW-Madison’s “finest educators.”
We are also excited to announce that our faculty affiliates, Professors Victor Goldgel Carballo and Holly Gibbs, have been named as two of only eleven UW-Madison faculty members to win the H. I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship. Steve Ackerman, the vice chancellor for research and graduate education said, “It is a pleasure to be able to recognize our outstanding faculty who, every day, support the research, teaching, outreach and public service missions of the university.”
Lisa Naughton is a Professor of Geography whose research drills down into the sociopolitical dimensions of biodiversity conservation, with a longtime focus in South America, particularly Ecuador, Chile, and Peru. She directed the UW’s Land Tenure Center from the years 2009-2013 and acted as a chair to both the Nelson Institute’s graduate program in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development from 2007-2010 and the Department of Geography from 2015-2018. You have done amazing things, Professor Naughton, and we are so proud of you!
Paul Block is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, focusing his work on water resource management challenges, both locally and around the world in places like Peru and Chile. Professor Block is specifically interested in risk, reliability, uncertainty, and sustainable approaches. He is member of the Center for Climatic Research as the Lead in the Water Systems and Society Research Group, which aims to devise a systems-based approach for managing water resources for societal benefit. Congratulations on your distinguished award, Professor Block!
Victor Goldgel Carballo is an Associate Professor of Spanish with a research focus on 19th century Latin America. He is a published author and co-founder of the workshop New Media and Mass/Popular Culture in the Global South. His interests lie in slavery, spectrality, snobbery, and the art of “making do.” He is editing a piece on piracy tentatively called Cultures of Copy: Alternative Economies and Intellectual Property in Latin/o America and he is currently on leave for this 2019-2020 academic year as an ACLS Frederick Burkhardt fellow in residence at the National Humanities Center. Congratulations on all that you have accomplished, Professor Goldgel Carballo!
Holly Gibbs is an Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies researching how and why people use land around the world. She focuses on human-environment interactions, globalization, environment, and policy, and she is the head of a group of researchers that approach problems dealing with Land Change Science. She and her team use their findings to tackle issues facing the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon and cropland expansion in the United States. She was previously lauded by the university in receiving both the Deans Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievement and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Congratulations on all your hard work, Professor Gibbs