Material Culture/Visual Culture
Co-Director Mary Corbin Sies Awarded National Planning History
Prize
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Park, MD
-- The Society of American City and Regional and History (SACPRH)
has named CRGE's Dr. Mary Corbin Sies the 2005 winner of the
Lawrence C. Gerckens Prize. This award recognizes a scholar-teacher
who, "has
demonstrated sustained excellence in the teaching of planning history." Dr.
Sies is only the second winner of the prize, and the first
woman.
This year, the awards committee was led
by Professor Eugenie Birch of University of Pennsylvania who wrote
movingly of Dr. Sies' dedicated commitment to teaching and professionalization
for junior scholars and graduate students.
"Dr. Sies is tireless; she co-directs
a research program area in the Consortium, mentors our CrISP Scholars,
and leads colloquia. Her contributions to the Consortium
in the areas of material culture studies and urban planning have
been exceptional," said Dr. Bonnie Thornton Dill, director of CRGE. "We
are so proud of her and thrilled about this national recognition
of her superior work."
Dr. Sies is currently the Co-Director of
CRGE's Material Culture/Visual
Culture (MC/VC) Research Program Area and Research Interest
Group. In addition, she is an associate professor and director
of graduate studies in the Department
of American Studies at the University
of Maryland.
"It has been
such a pleasure working alongside Dr. Sies with the
Material Culture/Visual Culture Research Program Area at CRGE,"
said MC/VC Co-Director and Assistant Professor of Historic
Preservation Dr. Angel David Nieves. "The
Gerckens Prize is a well-deserved testament to her long held commitment
to interdisciplinary scholarship in planning history and its related
fields. This is one of the highest honors bestowed on a planning
historian. Recognition of her many innovations as a scholar,
teacher
and mentor have been long overdue."
For more information, please contact Patrick
Grzanka, Communications Coordinator by email (pgrzanka@umd.edu)
or phone at 301.405.5223.
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