APCG Distinguished Service Award

The distinguished service award recognizes members who have made an extraordinary and sustained contribution to the APCG and the region through their service, the education of students, and to the discipline of geography. A committee of three selects the recipient. The committee decided to make one award to a highly deserving candidate. This year’s recipient is James Craine.

James received an MA from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and a PhD from the Joint Doctoral Program at San Diego State University and University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a professor of geography at CSUN, with research interests in media geography, cartographic design and information display, and developing new theories for the geographic engagement of visual information.

James Craine may not be one of the most visible members of the APCG. However, for more than a decade, he has been one of our most sustained, reliable, and important contributors. He was the editor of The Yearbook, the scholarly journal of the APCG, for the past ten years, each year delivering the journal on time and expertly edited. He also sets up and prints the program for the Annual Meeting. James’s other major contribution to the APCG was serving as the coordinator of the 2015 Annual Meeting held in Palm Springs, clearly one of the best APCG conferences.

James’s department chair stated that “he is an anchor in the department, a great colleague. We are all impressed by his productivity. He has a strong publication record, despite a heavy teaching load. He teaches 300 students a semester, and is always willing to take on more students, and help out whenever he can.”

Another colleague stated, “It has been my sincere pleasure to be a friend and colleague of Jim’s for over fifteen years. I can say with absolute certainty that he is one of the most prolific individuals I have ever encountered. His encyclopedic knowledge of geography, music, film, sports, advertising, and design is at once breathtaking and inspiring. This wisdom, combined with his perpetual upbeat nature, willingness to think outside the box and eagerness to share and collaborate with others, has had a most profound effect on the students, faculty and staff of our Department. Whether it be his impressive tenure as APCG Yearbook Editor, the development and nurturing of Aether, a pioneering online journal of Media Geography, or the implementation of cutting-edge online courses and graduate seminars, Jim’s contributions to the discipline in general, and our Department in particular, have been, and continue to be, immense.”

For all that he has done for our organization, for students, and for geography, the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers is pleased to present the 2016 Distinguished Service Award to James Craine.