William E. Doolittle
Encyclopedia
William E. Doolittle is an American geographer
who is prominent among the fourth generation of the Berkeley School of Latin Americanist Geography
. He is currently the Erich W. Zimmermann Regents Professor in Geography at the Department of Geography and the Environment at University of Texas at Austin
. He specializes in landscapes and agricultural technology in the American Southwest and Mexico.
. He taught at Mississippi State University
. He joining the UT
faculty in 1981. he has served as an undergraduate advisor, graduate advisor (receiving UT's Outstanding Graduate Advisor Award in 2004), and department chair.
He was a visiting professor at Brown University
in 1997, and a Fulbright Senior Specialist at Stockholm University
in 2007. He is a Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
, and has received distinguish scholarship awards from the Association of American Geographers
and the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers.
He has graduated a number of doctoral students: Dean P. Lambert (1992), Andrew Sluyter
(1995), Emily H. Young (1995), Norman D. Johns (1996), Michael D. Myers (1998), Eric P. Perramond (1999), Phil L. Crossley (1999); Claudia L. Oakes (2000), Michael D. Pool (2002), Bella Bychokova Jordan (2002), Jerry O. (Joby) Bass (2003), Maria G. Fadiman (2003), W. Stuart Kirkham (2005), and Matthew Fry (2008).
Geographer
A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
who is prominent among the fourth generation of the Berkeley School of Latin Americanist Geography
Berkeley School of Latin Americanist Geography
The Berkeley School of Latin Americanist Geography was founded by the American geographer Carl O. Sauer. Sauer was a professor of geography at the University of California at Berkeley from 1923 until becoming professor emeritus in 1957 and was instrumental in the early development of the geography...
. He is currently the Erich W. Zimmermann Regents Professor in Geography at the Department of Geography and the Environment at University of Texas at Austin
Department of Geography and the Environment at University of Texas at Austin
The Department of Geography and The Environment at The University of Texas at Austin is a division unit of the College of Liberal Arts. The Department was founded in 1949 and is a research focused institution with a well-developed graduate program...
. He specializes in landscapes and agricultural technology in the American Southwest and Mexico.
Background
Professor Doolittle received his Ph.D. in 1979 from the University of OklahomaUniversity of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
. He taught at Mississippi State University
Mississippi State University
The Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science commonly known as Mississippi State University is a land-grant university located in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States, partially in the town of Starkville and partially in an unincorporated area...
. He joining the UT
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
faculty in 1981. he has served as an undergraduate advisor, graduate advisor (receiving UT's Outstanding Graduate Advisor Award in 2004), and department chair.
He was a visiting professor at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in 1997, and a Fulbright Senior Specialist at Stockholm University
Stockholm University
Stockholm University is a state university in Stockholm, Sweden. It has over 28,000 students at four faculties, making it one of the largest universities in Scandinavia. The institution is also frequently regarded as one of the top 100 universities in the world...
in 2007. He is a Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
, and has received distinguish scholarship awards from the Association of American Geographers
Association of American Geographers
The Association of American Geographers is a non-profit scientific and educational society founded in 1904 and aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields...
and the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers.
He has graduated a number of doctoral students: Dean P. Lambert (1992), Andrew Sluyter
Andrew Sluyter
Andrew Sluyter is an American social scientist and professor in the Geography and Anthropology Department of the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. His interests are the environmental history and historical ecology of the colonization of the Americas...
(1995), Emily H. Young (1995), Norman D. Johns (1996), Michael D. Myers (1998), Eric P. Perramond (1999), Phil L. Crossley (1999); Claudia L. Oakes (2000), Michael D. Pool (2002), Bella Bychokova Jordan (2002), Jerry O. (Joby) Bass (2003), Maria G. Fadiman (2003), W. Stuart Kirkham (2005), and Matthew Fry (2008).
Research Interests
Doolittle's research interests include landscapes, histories, and agricultural technologies in arid lands, particularly the American Southwest and Mexico. His research focuses on technologies associated with landscape transformations for food production in dry lands.Books
- Pre-Hispanic Occupance in the Valley of Sonora, Mexico: Archaeological Confirmation of Early Spanish Reports. Tucson: Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona 48 (1988).
- Canal Irrigation in Prehistoric Mexico: The Sequence of Technological Change. Austin:The University of Texas Press (1990).
- Cultivated Landscapes of Native North America. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2000).
- The Safford Valley Grids: Prehistoric Cultivation in the Southern Arizona Desert. Tucson: Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona 70 (2004).
Journal Articles
- Canal Irrigation at Casas Grandes: A Technological and Developmental Assessment of its Origins.In Culture and Contact: Charles C. DiPeso's Gran Chichimeca, Anne I. Woosley John C. Ravesloot, eds. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993):133-151.
- A Method for Distinguishing Between Prehistoric and Recent Water and Soil Control Features. Co-authored with James A. Neely and Michael D. Pool. Kiva 59:7-25 (1993).
- The San Saba-Menard Irrigation System: Lessons Learned by Unraveling Its Origin. In Soil, Water, Biology, and Belief in Prehistoric and Traditional Southwestern Agriculture. H. Wolcott Toll, ed. Albuquerque: New Mexico Archaeological Council, Special Publication 2,pp. 263-277 (1995).
- Indigenous Development of Mesoamerican Irrigation. Geographical Review 85:301-323 (1995).
- Innovation and Diffusion of Sand- and Gravel-Mulch Agriculture in the American Southwest:A Product of the Eruption of Sunset Crater. Quaternaire 9:61-69 (1998).
- Noria Technology in Mexico: Against the Current and Against the Odds. International Molinology 59:8-13 (1999).
- Learning to See the Impacts of Individuals. Geographical Review 91:423-429 (2001).
- Channel Changes and Living Fencerows in Eastern Sonora, Mexico: Myopia in Traditional Resource Management? Geografiska Annaler 85A:247-261 (2003).
- Permanent vs. Shifting Cultivation in the Eastern Woodlands of North America Prior to European Contact. Agriculture and Human Values 21:181-189 (2004).