Peter R. Gould
From Geography
Peter R. Gould (1932-2000) is an English geographer who was evacuated to the United States during World War II. He returned to England in 1945 but went back to the United Sates to become a geography graduate of Colgate University (summa cum laude) in 1956. He reveived a master's degree in 1957 and a doctorate in 1960. In 1963, he joined the faculty of the Department of Geography, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, at Penn State, working there for thirty-five years, and retiring in May 1998.
Gould was one of the geographers who criticized the individual approach of Human Geography. Gould addressed in the sentence below that the focus on human actions in this discipline was increasingly on individuals rather than on aggregates. At that time (1976) His question was a form of critique which points at the difficulty to analyse individuals. Geographers were mainly focus on groups of many people instead of individuals.
‘Why as geographers, are we interested in such individualistic details? And how much further do we push back – to psychoanalytic studies that tell us that some ‘Lolits’ (Little Old Ladies in Tennis Shoes) avoid certain stores because they have red shutters, and that as children they had a traumatic experience in a house with red windows?’ (Cloke, Philo & Sadler(1991) Approaching Human Geography. London: Paul Clapman. P. 84)
This phrase may be sarcastic, but it shows perfectly the struggle that geographers had at that time. Should the focus be on individuals or on whole groups?
Books and doctorates
During his career he wrote several books and received honorary doctorates and awards.
- The Geographer at Work (1985)
- Fire in the Rain: The Democratic Consequences of Chernobyl (1990)
- The Slow Plague: A Geography of the AIDS Pandemic (1993)
- Becoming a Geographer (1999)
Doctorate from the Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France (1981); the Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Research Achievement, Penn State University (1981); the Evan Pugh Professorship, Penn State University (1986); the Prix International de Géographie, St. Dié, France (1993); and the Retzius Gold Medal of the Svenska S ällskapet for Anthropologi och Geografi, Stockholm, Sweden (1997).
Literature
(Cloke, Philo & Sadler(1991) Approaching Human Geography. London: Paul Clapman. P. 84)
http://old.geog.psu.edu/gouldcenter/peter_gould.html
Contributors
- page created by Jesper Remmen --JesperRemmen 13:07, 12 October 2012 (CEST)
