Tech's Knox, Robertson receive 1998 Scholars Awards
By Sally Harris
Spectrum Volume 20 Issue 30 - April 30, 1998
Two Virginia Tech professors have received 1998 Scholars Awards from the Virginia Social Sciences Association "for expanding the horizons of knowledge."
Paul Knox, university distinguished professor and dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, received the award for geography; and James I. Robertson Jr., alumni distinguished professor of history, received the award for history. The awards, which are given for outstanding achievement over a long period of time, were presented Saturday, March 21, at the association's meeting at Bridgewater College.
Robertson is a noted Civil War historian. He has won two other awards recently for his critically acclaimed biography Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend : the 1997 Vandiver Award of Merit from the Houston Civil War Round Table, an award presented annually "to an individual or organization who has made a substantial and lasting contribution to Civil War history and its preservation," and the 1997 Douglas Southall Freeman Award for the best book published in Southern history over the past year. Stonewall Jackson was a main selection by both the Book-of-the-Month Club and the History Book Club.
Robertson has produced a weekly public-radio spot, has been in several segments of the Civil War Journal on the A&E network, and did a Discovery special on the Battle of Gettysburg. Winner of numerous historical and teaching awards (the Virginia Tech Certificate of Teaching Excellence eight times), he also runs an intensive week-long summer Civil War seminar and presents a popular on-campus Civil War weekend with the Alumni Association.
Robertson has written half a dozen books and edited about 20 more. His books have been nominated for a Pulitzer, named a main selection in the History Book Club, and chosen the Best Book for Young Readers by the American Library Association.
Knox received the College of Architecture and Urban Studies Award for Teaching Excellence in 1989. He is the author, co-author, or editor of seven books, including, most recently, World Cities in a World-System and The Restless Urban Landscape , and five textbooks, including Places and Regions in Global Context, The Geography of the World-Economy , and Urban Social Geography . He also is co-editor of several journals, including Environment and Planning A .
Knox's research ranges from the global to the local. He researches economic and cultural globalization and the role of major world cities in re-organizing the world economy. He studies regional economic inequality and its implications for government policy making. At the city level, he works to understand better the geographic patterns of accessibility to primary medical care. More recently, he has been looking at urbanization trends and their implications for urban and community development, in particular how planned, private communities affect the planning and development of the cities to which they are attached.
Knox has received numerous grants for his research, including two awards from the National Science Foundation, and twice he has been listed among scholars whose works have been cited extensively in their fields of research. In 1995, he received the Erskine Fellowship to the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.