Sauer’s Descent?: Or Berkeley Roots Forever?

Sauer’s Descent? Or Berkeley Roots Forever? S cott S. B rown Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, History, and Geography Francis Marion University, Florence, SC and K en t M athew son Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Anthropology Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA Editor’s Note: This paper began as a much longer effort by Scott Brown, but at my request was considerably reworked by Brown and Mathewson —on very short notice and under trying conditions—for inclusion in this volume of the Yearbook, to act as a counterpoint to the previous article by Wallach. W it h THE TURN OF BOTH THIS CENTURY and the millenium fast approaching, the temptation to take stock— and perhaps even weigh in with assessments— of the impacts and import of the past century’s prominent figures in geography is difficult to resist. Al­ though clearer vision, no doubt, will be gained by greater distance, some grounds for prognostication are available now. With this in mind, the tables presented here, though part of a larger study, thus partial and preliminary, offer one component of one scholar’s legacy. 137 138 APCG YEARBOOK • VOLUME 61 • 1999 This look at how Carl O. Sauer’s Latin Americanist “academic ge­ nealogical” line is unfolding, may raise more questions than it answers, but it does suggest that work on his favored region, Latin America, is being carried forward into successive generations by seg­ ments of his progeny. Of course, by offering tables and dissertation titles without abstracts, or the more elusive contextual understand­ ings of just how closely the founder’s approaches and perspectives are being replicated or reproduced, we are providing little more than the bare bones. In a pair of subsequent papers, we hope to flesh out this skeletal presentation. One will provide an accounting and con­ textual interpretation of the work of Latin Americanist geographers within the Sauer line, with emphasis on the past 2 decades. For the other, we envision a more inclusive mapping of all of Sauer’s doc­ toral descendents, with com parative analysis of regional foci, topical-thematic emphases, and subdisciplinary affiliations. The inspiration for the exercise presented here, and for any sub­ sequent work, has been Robert C. West’s opening address to the Tenth Anniversary Meeting of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geog­ raphers (CLAG) at M uncie, Indiana, in April of 1980.1 In the published version of this address, he provided a table depicting “Re­ cipients of the Ph.D. Degree with Dissertations on Latin America, Descendant through the Sauer Line, 1930-1979” (West 1981). Our contribution here, then, is little more than to bring W est’s “SauerLatin Americanist Family Tree” up to date. O f course, we also hope this will contribute to the project of promoting both collective senses and reconstructions of disciplinary history within American geogra­ phy. For members of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, there is probably little argument that Carl Sauer and his legatees have been central figures in the development and history of the Associa­ tion. As for the next century? Well, that is something that a SWAAGer and a SEDAAGer will leave to the W est Coasters to debate among themselves. We do hope that subsequent work will gain us honorary entrée to ongoing discussions. BROWN and MATHEWSON: Sauer’s Descent? 139 More than the usual disclaimers apply to this, and future work. We apologize in advance for any errors or omissions. We would ap­ preciate any corrections or comments. Notes 'At the same time that West was preparing his paper, Allen Bushong (n.d.) prepared a more inclusive paper, “Latin America as Laboratory: Seven Decades of Doctoral Research on Latin America by Geographers in the United States.” Though his scope was wider, Bushong’s genealogical approached closely paralleled W est’s work. Bushong’s paper was published in revised form in 1984. We have drawn on both West and Bushong’s material in preparing our tables. Literature Cited Bushong, Allen D. 1984. Latin America as Laboratory: Seventy-Five Years of Doctoral Research on Latin America by Geographers in the United States. In Latin America: Case Studies, eds. Richard G. Boehm and Sent Visser...