Ruth Wilson Gilmore Named First Eugene Grant Distinguished Scholar by Purchase College

Purchase College-SUNY is pleased to announce that Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore has been chosen from a competitive field of nominated scholars as the inaugural Eugene Grant Distinguished Scholar. Eugene and Emily Grant created the prize to promote academic excellence and student success at Purchase College.

Gilmore, a professor of geography at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, will contribute to the college’s mission of social activism and community engagement through her innovative work on the environment. Inspired by Gilmore’s work, Purchase students in areas such as environmental studies, sociology, visual arts, and new media will use water as a lens to investigate the price of food, medical conditions, housing quality, land displacement, and other contemporary issues related to differential access to resources.

Her first public lecture will take place on October 15 at 4:30 p.m. in the Student Services Building. The event is free to the public.

Ruth Wilson Gilmore said, “I am deeply honored to be the first recipient of this prize and look forward to working with the college to turn my year-long theme into a set of challenges and opportunities for involvement, research, and reflection. From the new Social Justice Fellows program, to a consideration of New Orleans ten years after Katrina, to films and lectures, to a capstone international symposium, it is my hope that the events and engagements will produce critical thinking and new insights.”

“We congratulate Ruth Wilson Gilmore and look forward to benefiting from her groundbreaking research and her life-long dedication to social activism. Dr. Gilmore will serve as an inspiration to our community of artists, scholars, and scientists, many of whom are budding activists themselves, ” said Purchase College President Thomas J. Schwarz.

Ruth Wilson Gilmore serves as a professor of geography in the doctoral program in earth and environmental sciences and as director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the Graduate Center. Her wide-ranging research interests include revolution and reform, environments and movements, prisons, urban–rural continuities, and the African diaspora. From 2010 to 2011, she was president of the American Studies Association (ASA), the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history.

In 2012, the ASA honored Gilmore with its Angela Davis Award for Public Scholarship, an award that recognizes scholars who have applied or used their scholarship for the “public good.” Her first book, Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California, has won many awards. Gilmore lectures widely, works regularly with grassroots organizations, and is known for the broad accessibility of her research. She holds a Ph.D. in economic geography and social theory from Rutgers University.

About Purchase College–SUNY

Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspiration for Purchase was to create a dynamic campus that combined conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences, in order to inspire an appreciation for both intellectual and artistic talents in all students. Today, Purchase College–SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu