Professor
receives award for research on social issues
By
Nicole Lavaud
On-line Forty-Niner
Vincent
Del Casino, Jr., an assistant professor
in the geography and liberal studies departments
at Cal State Long Beach, was the first recipient
of the Glenda Laws Award. Casino received
the award from the Association of American
Geographers at the 2004 AAG Annual Meeting
in Philadelphia.
The
award focuses on researchers who have received
their Ph.D. within the last five years and
contributed to geographic research in the
area of social issues.
Members
of the Institute of Australian Geographers,
the Canadian Association of Geographers
and the Institute of British Geographers
all endorsed the award. The award was named
after Glenda Laws, a geographer who was
know for her energy and enthusiasm in her
work on social justice and social policy.
Laws died suddenly in 1996 at the age of
37.
Del
Casino explained how Law focused on the
importance of health care and creating solutions
for equality. She was most concerned about
how to deal with and improve changes.
"Research
is out there day-to-day, but people are
out there [looking] to make changes,"
Del Casino said.
Del
Casino studies the areas of social justice
and social policy, specifically, the social
and medical geography of HIV/AIDS in Thailand
and Southern California, the social geography
of sex tourism, feminist geography and the
social construction and impacts of mental
maps.
Del
Casino's associates described him as a "prolific
researcher" and "passionately
committed." Christine Rodrigue, professor
and chairwoman of the CSULB geography department,
and Dennis Fisher, psychology professor
and director of the CSULB Center for Behavioral
Research and Services nominated Del Casino
for the award.
"More
than simply researching these social issues
as an academic pursuit, he is passionately
committed to action in the world to ease
the suffering of people with AIDS and HIV
and help in the prevention of these diseases,
especially in the marginalized and vulnerable
communities in which they are making the
most rapid headway," Rodrigue and Fisher
wrote in their nomination letter.
Del
Casino currently teaches a class for future
elementary school teachers in the liberal
studies program, as well as a social geography
class and a Learning Alliance class focusing
on home life. He earned his bachelor's degree
from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Penn.,
and his master's degree from the University
of Wisconsin at Madison, in addition to
his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky.
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