We are thrilled to announce our esteemed Department Head Dr. Geraldine Pratt is the recipient of the 2024 Dean of Arts Award. This annual award recognizes exceptional faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to educational leadership, teaching and learning, research, and community engagement in the Faculty of Arts. This two-part award acknowledges both the awardee and a Professor Emeriti, selected by the nominee, who has been an inspiration to the recipient. Dr. Pratt (she/her) has named Dr. Dan Hiebert as her co-recipient.
“A compelling feature of this award is the opportunity to name an Emeriti Faculty as co-recipient of the award. I almost always do collaborative research so this is perfect. It is such a pleasure to share this award with Dan Hiebert. My own community-engaged research with the grassroots Philippine Women Centre began sprang from a research project with Dan on race/ethnicity and different sectors of Vancouver’s labour market. It was nurtured through The Metropolis Project, an immigration research network of academics, policy makers and civil society organizations, which Dan led for many years. Dan has been an exceptionally generous friend and colleague, quick to offer links to government data and insight into immigration policy from the perspective of government. A highlight was when he arranged for me to meet, for an extended face-to-face discussion, the policy makers responsible for the program I had studied and critiqued for years (the Live in Caregiver Program).”
With an extensive research career spanning four decades, Dr. Pratt is a significant figure in feminist geography. A celebrated interdisciplinary scholar, she has made significant contributions to other fields such as labour studies, economic geography, urban studies, and feminist studies. Her international acclaim has garnered her many accolades which include being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2011, awarded UBC’s premiere research award the Jacob Beily Prize in 2019, and holding a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair position since 2015. Most recently, Dr. Pratt received the 2023 American Association of Geographer’s Distinguished Scholarship Award.
In additional to her impressive scholarly activities, Dr. Pratt has served as a dedicated supervisor and committee member for more than 135 graduate students, the majority of which were women. Her tireless work as a mentor and facilitator has made an enormous impact on other scholars in her field and beyond. Her innovative approaches continue to inspire the next generation of geographers as Dr. Pratt’s interdisciplinary work extends beyond classical academic publications to playwriting, documentary filmmaking and community engaged research programs. Dr. Pratt’s influential works have transformed human geography and kindred interdisciplinary fields. Currently Dr. Pratt is working on a collaborative project to honour Dr. Karen Bakker, geography professor who was embarking on using science fiction to reach a wider audience with her research before she passed so suddenly last summer.
“A former graduate student of our department (Max Ritts) and I have invited 12 scholars to take Karen’s vision forward by writing a science fiction story based on their own research. And so, we are playing with that genre. My project is a story about a future of automated care for aging persons in the context of care labour shortages, austerity politics and state concerns about the economic costs of an aging population. A not so speculative future!”
Currently holding the position of Department Head in Geography at UBC, Dr. Pratt’s commitment to service and leadership is extraordinary and longstanding. She is a founding member of the Centre of Research in Women Studies and Gender Relations (now the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice). Dr. Pratt served as the Associate Dean for Faculty and Equity in Arts as well as on various committees. As Associate Dean, Dr. Pratt worked towards the much-needed transformation of faculty composition, promoting greater social and cultural diversity.
As a catalytic and transformative scholar and administrator within the Faculty of Arts, we extend our wholehearted congratulations to Dr. Pratt on this acknowledgement of her remarkable achievements and dedication.
