James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti for Atlas of the Invisible (W.W. Norton & Company, 2021) for creating a stunning collection of maps and visualizations that tells the stories of our past, present, and future – turning massive datasets into inviting, intriguing, and sometimes disturbing presentations for both geographers and a broader audience.

2020 Alison Mountz, The Death of Asylum: Hidden Geographies of the Enforcement Archipelago, University of Minnesota Press, 2020

2019 Adam Moore, Empire’s Labor: The Global Army that Supports U.S. Wars, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2019

2018 Tara Patricia Cookson, Unjust Conditions: Women’s Work and the Hidden Cost of Cash Transfer Programs, University of California Press, 2018

The late Clyde Woods for developing a one-of-a-kind research program engaging social and public policy issues by examining the cultural practices of those oppressed by such policies. His book, Development Arrested, was highly acclaimed and a model of interdisciplinary research. Woods will be remembered as an important mentor to many, and as a public intellectual challenging how we understand race and human geographic knowledge production.

2016 Nicole Nguyen, A Curriculum of Fear, University of Minnesota Press

2015 Stephen J. Hornsby and Richard W. Judd, Eds; Michael J. Hermann (Cartographic Designer), Historical Atlas of Maine, University of Maine Press

2014 Paul Knox, Atlas of Cities, Princeton University Press

2013 Michael Dear, Why Walls Won’t Work: Repairing the US-Mexico Divide, Oxford University Press

2012 Laura Pulido, Laura Barraclough and Wendy Cheng, A People’s Guide to Los Angeles, University of California Press.

2011 Jim Kimmel and Jerry Touchstone Kimmel (photographs), Exloring the Brazos River from Beginning to End, Texas A&M University.

2010 Esther Jacobson-Tepfer and James E. Meacham, Archeology and Landscape in the Mongolian Altai (Gary Tepfer, Photography), Esri Press

2009 Stuart Elden, Terror and Territory, The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty, University of Minnesota Press.

2008 Owen J. Dwyer and Derek H. Alderman, Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory, Center for American Places.

2007 Trudy A. Suchan, Marc J. Perry, James D. Fitzsimmons, Anika E. Juhn, Alexander M. Tait and Cynthia A. Brewer, Census Atlas of the United States, Washington, DC: US Census Bureau Press.

2006 Bruce D’Arcus, Boudaries of Dissent: Protest and State Power in the Media Age, New York, NY. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

2005 Dydia DeLyser, Ramona Memories: Tourism and the Shaping of Southern California, University of Minnesota Press.

2004 James R. “Pete” Shortridge, Cities on the Plains: The Evolution of Urban Kansas, University of Kansas Press.

2003 Neil Smith, American Empire, Roosevelt’s Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization, University of California Press.

2002 Mark Monmonier, Spying with Maps: Surveillance Technologies and Future of Privacy, University of Chicago Press.

2001 William G. Loy, Atlas of Oregon, University of Oregon Press

2004 James R. “Pete” Shortridge, Cities on the Plains: The Evolution of Urban Kansas, University of Kansas Press.