2016 AAG Rose Award for Anti-Racism Research and Practice: Joe T. Darden
The AAG Rose Award for Anti-Racism Research and Practice was created in 2012 to honor Harold M. Rose, who was a pioneer in conducting research on the conditions faced by African Americans. The award honors geographers who have demonstrated a record of this type of research which has both advanced the discipline and made an impact on anti-racist practice.
Joe T. Darden is a Professor of Geography and a core member of the Canadian Studies Center at Michigan State University. He has received numerous awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship, the Distinguished Scholar of Ethnic Geography Award (AAG), and the AAG Enhancing Diversity Award. Dr. Darden has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles, dozens of book chapters, and numerous authored and edited books.
Dr. Darden’s research offers a broad perspective on the many racialized groups that live in North American cities, and the ways in which their spatial insertion in the city is related to poverty, health, housing, and access to civic participation.
Dr. Darden’s work as a public advocate for anti-racism is extensive. He worked for the Chicago Board of Education, as a member of the State of Michigan Task Force on Minority Health Affairs, as a demographic consultant for the NAACP and the Detroit Police Force, as an expert witness in many legal defenses, and as a frequent media commentator, among many other roles.
Joe has made many important contributions to the discipline of Geography, including serving on numerous committees of the AAG, and especially as Chair of the Enhancing Diversity committee.
Joe Darden is a committed anti-racist whose research, teaching, and civic contributions mark him as someone dedicated to change. For these many reasons the AAG is pleased to recognize Joe T. Darden with the Harold Rose Award.