David Harvey, one of the most influential figures in geography and urban studies, and among the most cited intellectuals of all time across the humanities and social sciences, will deliver a featured lecture, “Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason,” on April 8, 2017, at the AAG annual meeting in Boston.

For geographers and non-geographers across many disciplines and languages, David Harvey has established the importance of space and uneven geographical development to the survival of capitalist accumulation, the perpetuation of inequality, and the rise of neoliberalism. His body of work demonstrates the highly creative and consequential place that geographers can have in engaging in and shaping broader transdisciplinary discussions and debates.

After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1961, Harvey’s research focused on social science trends using quantitative methods towards spatial science and philosophical theory. In the early 1970s, Harvey moved to Johns Hopkins University concentrating on radical and Marxist geography. At that time, injustice, racism, and exploitation were evident and activism around those issues was front-and-center, especially in Baltimore. In 2001, he became a distinguished professor at the City University of New York where he still resides.

His books, including Explanation in Geography, Social Justice and the City; Limits to Capital; The Condition of Postmodernity; Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference; Spaces of Hope; The New Imperialism; A Brief History of Neoliberalism and The Enigma of Capital are some of the most widely-cited, best-selling and controversial writings across many disciplines. Harvey was also one of the first contributors to the journal Antipode.

Among his many international honors are his fellowships with the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. David Harvey will also receive the AAG Brunn Award for Creativity in Geography during the AAG awards luncheon on April 9, 2017. This annual AAG award recognizes a geographer who has demonstrated originality, creativity, and significant intellectual breakthroughs in geography.