Pratt, Geraldine 1955–

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Pratt, Geraldine 1955–

PERSONAL:

Born November 12, 1955. Education: University of Toronto, B.Sc., 1977; University of British Columbia, M.A., 1980, Ph.D., 1984.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 W. Mall, Vancouver V6T 1Z2, British Columbia, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Clark University, Worcester, MA, faculty member, 1984-86; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, professor of geography, 1986—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Award for Scholarly Distinction, Canadian Association of Geographers, 2006.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Editor, with Richard Harris) Housing Tenure and Social Class, National Swedish Institute for Building Research (Gävle, Sweden), 1987.

Gender, Work, and Space, Routledge (New York, NY), 1995.

Working Feminism, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2004.

(Editor, with others) Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th edition, Blackwell (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

Contributor to books, including Life's Work, edited by K. Mitchell, S. Marston, and C. Katz, Blackwell (Cambridge, MA), 2004; Emancipatory Cities, edited by Loretta Lees, Sage (Thousand Oaks, CA), 2004; and Feminisms in Geography: Space, Place and Environment, edited by Pamela Moss and Karen Falconer Al-Hindi, Sage (Thousand Oaks, CA), 2007. Editor of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. Contributor to professional journals, including Gender, Place and Culture, Antipode, BC Studies, and Urban Geography.

SIDELIGHTS:

Geraldine Pratt is known as a leader in the feminist geography field. Pratt studied psychology and art history as an undergraduate student, and was working on a master's degree in environmental psychology when she took a seminar in cultural geography. She found it "both intellectually stimulating and a huge amount of fun," she stated on her home page. "When I transferred from graduate studies in [p]sychology to [g]eography, a faculty member in [p]sychology said that I was unlikely to get anywhere if I read too widely. I have loved being in such an undisciplined discipline where most everyone reads too widely." In 2006, the Canadian Association of Geographers honored Pratt for her contributions to the field—including her research, scholarship, and work with graduate students. She has also been recognized for her work in developing feminist methodologies, which are designed to challenge power structures that skew research results in favor of the power elite.

In 1988, Pratt and her collaborator, Susan Hanson, began publishing journal articles exploring ideas and issues such as the connection between work and home, the way social class affects intra-urban geography, and many "containment stories," documenting the ways in which women's lives are held within rigid boundaries. The articles ultimately led to a book-length study, titled Gender, Work, and Space.

In Working Feminism, Pratt examines the main debates and ideas that define feminist theory and applies them to real-life issues in the lives of Filipina domestic workers in Canada. The author has a long-standing relationship with the Philippine Women's Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; this has given her an understanding of the lives of Filipina workers and an opportunity to put her feminist methodology into practice during her research. In the book, she shows that Filipinas, working mainly as live-in nannies, often face abuse and exploitation. They endure it, though, because they hope to eventually gain Canadian citizenship.

Reviewing Working Feminism for Economic Geography, Altha J. Cravey called it "an exhilarating book that seeks to put feminist theory ‘to work’ on complex difficulties encountered by marginalized women." Cravey found Pratt's personal reflections to be "hilarious," and commented that by bringing a "spatial sensibility" to her study, Pratt produces a new understanding of issues of privacy, sexual abuse, and immigration issues. Cravey concluded: "Although the argument is abstract, the prose is accessible and inviting. Students and scholars alike will find sections of this book that they will savor and puzzle over precisely because Pratt generously provides many theoretical openings throughout the text."