Tuan, Yi-Fu, 1930- J. K. Wright and Vilas Professor of Geography Emeritus University of Wisconsin, Madison
Education:
A. B., Oxford, 1951
M.A., Oxford, 1955
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1957Honors:
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) 2002
The Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar for 2002-2003 (see also below)
Homepage at Central Washington University (see also below)
Webpage at UC Berkeley (see also below)
The Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar for 2002-2003YI-FU TUAN, University of Wisconsin-Madison
AVAILABLE: In accordance with requests, 2002-2003.In 1983 Yi-Fu Tuan left the University of Minnesota after fourteen years as a member of the faculty and became professor of geography at Wisconsin. Two years later he was named J. K. Wright Professor and Vilas Research Professor, and since 1998 has been professor emeritus. While at Madison he was voted "Best Professor" by the Student Association and received an Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Inter-Fraternity Council. He has received honors from the Association of American Geographers, the National Council for Geographic Education, and the American Geographical Society, and was elected a Lauréat d'Honneur of the International Geographical Congress, a corresponding fellow of the British Academy, and a fellow of the AAAS.
His research interests include nature and culture, aesthetics and sense of place, moral geography, individuality and human communication, and geographical epistemology. He is the author of Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values; Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience; Segmented Worlds and Self: Group Life and Individual Consciousness; Landscapes of Fear; Dominance and Affection: The Making of Pets; The Good Life; Morality and Imagination: The Paradox of Progress; Passing Strange and Wonderful: Aesthetics, Nature, Culture; Cosmos and Hearth; Escapism; and Who Am I? An Autobiography of Emotion, Mind, and Spirit.
"I think the expression "I am a camera" fits me, because I'm always looking"
-Yi-Fu Tuan, shortly after his arrival to UWMBiography
Yi-Fu Tuan was born in Tientsin, China on December 5, 1930. He was the son of a diplomat and moved to this country in 1951. Yi-Fu Tuan was educated in China, Australia and the Phillipines before attending Oxford University where he received his Bachelors degree in 1951 and his Masters degree in 1955. In 1957 Tuan received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkley. Immediatley after getting his Ph.D. Tuan took a position as an instructor of geography at Indiana University at Bloomington. He moved on to the University of Chicago in 1958 before settling at the University of New Mexico in 1959. It was here at the U of NM that Tuan experienced the landscapes of the southwest that would influence his early writings. In 1965 Tuan moved again, this time to become an associate professor of geography at the University of Toronto, in Ontario, Canada. This was a position that he would hold until his departure for the University of Minnesota two years later. He worked at the U of M longer than he had worked anywhere previously, 16 years (1968-1984). The same year that he moved to U of M Tuan was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. This was the first of numerous honors to be bestowed upon Yi-Fu Tuan throughout his career. In 1973 Tuan was given the "meritous contribution to geography" award by the Association of American Geographers. In 1984 Tuan left the University of Minnesota for a position as a professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1987, while working at the Uof WM Tuan was given the Cullum Geographical Medal by the American Geographical Association. Yi-fu Tuan is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,and a respected member of the Association of American Geographers, the Association for Asian Studies, the American Geographical Society, and the Association for the Study of Man-Environment Relations. Tuan was also elected the 'Best Professor' by the Wisconsin Student Association, which means that he connected to his students as well as other scholars. Yi-Fu Tuan retired from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1998 to begin writing his autobiography.
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Critical Assessment
Yi-Fu Tuan is as much a psychologist as he is a geographer, concerning himself above all with the way that human beings respond to their physical environment. Tuan's work often transcends and ties together ideas from the seemingly unrelated scholastic worlds of philosophy, psychology, urban planning landscape architecture and anthropology. He has spent his career researching how humans fashion personal and cultural realities, and how those processes reflect our collective and personal ideas of what a good life is. The topics of his writings range from the cultural role of pets to the moral implications of urban design to pondering what the 'good life' is. One conclusion that Tuan has come to after years of study is that societies moral code has the potential to help unify the culture. He thinks that including moral studies in college cirriculum might provide similar unity for higher education.
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Bibliography:
BOOKS:
Pediments in Southeasten Arizona, University of California Berkley Press, 1959
The Hydrologic Cycle and the Wisdom of God: A Theme in Geoteleology, University of Toronto Press, 1968
China, Adline Publishing Co., 1969
Landscapes of Fear, Pantheon Books, 1979
Dominance and Affection: The Making of Pets, Yale University Press, 1984
The Good Life, University of Wisconsin Press, 1986
Morality and Imagination: Paradoxes of Progress, University of Wisconsin Press, 1989
Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes and Values, Columbia University Press, 1990
Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, University of Minnesota Press, 1990
Passing Strange and Wonderful: Aesthetics, Nature and Culture, Island Press, 1993
Geography and the Human Spirit, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993
Segmented Worlds and Self: A Study of Group Life and Individual Conciouness, University of Minnesota Press, 1994
Cosmos and Hearth: A Cosmopolite's Viewpoint, University of Minnesota Press, 1996
Escapism, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998
Who Am I?: An Autobiography of Emotion, Mind and Spirit, University of Wisconsin Press, 1999
Journal Articles: a selected list
"Types of pediment in Arizona." Yearbook, Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 16:17-24, 1954
"Topophilia." Landscape, 11:29-32, Fall 1961
"A coastal reconnaissance of central Panama." The California Geographer, 3:77-96, 1962
"'Environment' and 'world.'" Professional Geographer, 17(5):6-8, 1965
"Our treatment of environment in ideal and actuality." Geographical Review, 58:570-573, 1968
"Environmental psycology: a review." Geographical Review, 62(2):245-256, 1972
"Images and mental maps." Annals, Association of American Geographers, 65(2):205-213, 1975
"The city: it's distance from nature." Geographical Review, 68(1):1-12, 1978
"Rootedness versus sense of place." Landscape, 24(1):3-8, 1980
"Materials and peoples." New Jersey Folklore, 2(3):17-21, 1981
"Orientation: an approach to human geography." Journal of Geography, 82(1): 11-14, 1983
Foreword to Landscape, Nature, and the Body Politic: From Britain's Renaissance to America's New World by Kenneth Olwig (Univ. of Wisconsin Press)
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Web Resources
Escapism , excerpt from Yi-Fu Tuan's book
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This website was created as part of Central Washington University's Environmental Studies program. Visit our environmental literature class' homepage @ http://www.cwu.edu/~geograph/enst455.html
YI-FU TUAN (Ph.D., 1957)
"Pediments in southeastern Arizona." (Kesseli)b. 5 December 1930, Tientsin, China.
A.B. Oxford Univ. 1951; M.A. Oxford Univ.
Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison (1984-) Professor of Geography.
Univ. of Minnesota (1968-1983) Professor of Geography.
Indiana Univ. 1956-58; Univ. of Chicago 1958-59; Univ. of New Mexico 195965; Oxford Univ. (visiting) 1966; Univ. of Toronto 1966-68; Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa (visiting) 1973; Univ of Calif., Davis (visiting) 1975-76.
Post-doctoral fellow in Statistics, Univ. of Chicago, 1958-59; John Simon Guggenheim Fellow 1968-69; AAG Award for Meritorious Contribution 1973; AAG Council; Fulbright-Hays, Australia, 1975.
Books and Monographs:
"Pediments in Southeastern Arizona." Univ. of Calif. Publ. Geogr., 13, 140 pp., 1959.
"The Hydrological Cycle and the Wisdom of God." Univ. of Toronto Department of Geography Research Publications, No. 1. 160 pp., 1968.
The Climate of New Mexico. (with Cyril Everard and J.G. Widdison) Santa Fe: State Planning Office,169 pp., 1969.
China. London: Longmans.,Chicago: Aldine, 255 pp., 1970.
"Man and Nature." Resource Paper No. 10. Commission on College Geography, Assoc. Amer. Geogr. 49 pp., 1971.
Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. New York: Prentice-Hall. 260 pp., l974. (Portuguese edition, Sao Paulo, Rio: Difel, 1980.)
Space and Place: the Perspectives of Experience. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press; London: Edward Arnold's, 227 pp., 1977. Paperback edition, University of Minnesota Press, 1979. (Portuguese transl., Sao Paulo: Difel, 1983.)
Landscapes of Fear. New York: Pantheon; Oxford: Blackwell's, 262 pp., 1980.
Segmented Worlds and Self: Group Life and Self-consciousness. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press. ca. 227 pp., 1982.
Articles:
"Types of pediment in Arizona." Yearbook, Assoc. Pac. Coast Geogr., 16:17-24, 1954.
"Use of simile and metaphor in geographical description." Professional Geographer, 9(5):8-11, 1957.
"The misleading antithesis of Penckian and Davisian concepts of slope retreat in waning development." Proceedings, Indiana Academy of Science, 67:212-214, 1958.
"Topophilia." Landscape, 11:29-32, Fall 1961.
"Structure, climate, and basin land forms in Arizona and New Mexico." Annals, Assoc. Amer. Geogr., 52:51-68, 1962.
"A coastal reconnaissance of central Panama." The California Geographer (Kesseli Festschrift) 3:77-96, 1962.
"Latitude and Alfred Russel Wallace." Journal of Geography, 62:258-261, 1963.
"Architecture and human nature." Landscape, 13(1):16-19, 1963.
"The desert and the sea: a humanistic interpretation." New Mexico Quarterly, pp. 329-331, Autumn 1963.
"Mountains, ruins, and the sentiment of melancholy." Landscape, 14(1):27-30, 1964.
"New Mexico's climate: the appreciation of a resource." (with Cyril Everard) Natural Resources Journal, 4:268-308, 1964.
"Notes on computer architecture." Landscape 14(2):12-14, 1965.
"'Environment' and 'world.'" Professional Geographer, 17(5):6-8, 1965.
"Man and nature: an eclectic reading." Landscape, 15(3):30-36, 1966.
"New Mexico's gullies: critical re-examination and new observations." Annals, Assoc. Amer. Geogr., 56:573-597, 1966.
"Attitudes toward environment: themes and approaches." In David Lowenthal (ed.), Environmental Perception and Behavior. Univ. of Chicago, Dept. of Geography, Research Series No. 109, pp. 4-17, 1967.
"Discrepancies between environmental attitude and behavior: examples from Europe and China." The Canadian Geographer, 12:176-191, 1968.
"A preface to Chinese cities." In R.P. Beckinsale and J.M. Houston (eds.), Urbanization and Its Problems, pp. 218-253, 1968.
"Lewis Mumford and the quality of life." Geographical Review, 58:570-573, 1968.
"Our treatment of environment in ideal and actuality." American Scientist, 58:244-249, 1970. (Reprinted in Robert M. Chute (ed.), Environmental Insight, 1971; also in Frederick F. Fost (ed.), Dimensions of the Environmental Crisis).
"The sub-field of humane geography." Assoc. Amer. Geogr. Symposium on New Departures in Theoretical Cultural Geography. August, 1970. (Mimeo)
"Environmental attitudes." Science Studies, 1(2):215-224, 1971.
"Geography, phenomenology and the study of human nature." The Canadian Geographer, 15:181-192, 1971.
"Environmental psychology: a review." Geographical Review, 62(2):245-256, 1972.
"Structuralism, existentialism, and environmental perception." Environment and Behavior, 4:319-331, 1972.
"Dialectics, the social sciences, and geography: a review." Annals, Assoc. Amer. Geogr., 62:507-509, 1972.
"Perceiving and structuring the world: three standpoints." In D.A. Lanegran and Risa Palm (eds.), Invitation to Geography. McGraw-Hill, 1973.
"Visual blight: exercises in interpretation." In Peirce Lewis (ed.), Visual Blight, Resource Paper 23, Assoc. Amer. Geogr. pp. 23-27, 1973.
"Ambiguity in attitudes toward environment." Annals, Assoc. Amer. Geogr., 63(4):411-423, 1973.
"Space and place: humanistic perspective." In C. Board, R.J. Chorley, P. Haggett and D.R. Stoddart (eds.), Progress in Geography, 6:211-252, 1974.
"Place: an experiential perspective." Geogr. Review, 65(2):151-165, 1975.
"Images and mental maps." Annals, Assoc. Amer. Geogr., 65(2):205-213, 1975.
"Environment and the quality of life." In G. Macinko, K. Hammond, and W. Fairchild (eds.), Sourcebook on the Environment, 1:25-61, 1975. (Mimeo)
"Geopiety: a theme in man's attachment to nature and to place." In D. Lowenthal and Martyn Bowden (eds.), Geographies of the Mind. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 11-39, 1976.
"Literature, experience, and environmental knowing." In R.G. Golledge and
G.T. Moore (eds.), Environmental Knowing. Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden & Ross, pp. 260-272, 1976
"Humanistic geography." Annals, Assoc. Amer. Geogr., 66(2):266-276, 1976. (Portuguese transl. in Perspectivas de Geografia, Sao Paulo, 1982.)
"Experience and appreciation: the child's attitude to environment." In David Linton (ed.), Children, Nature, and the Urban Environment. Washington, D.C.: U.S.D.A., Proceedings, 1977.
"Nature imitates art: a theme in experiential geography." In Donald R. Deskins, Jr., et al. (eds.), Geographic Humanism, Analysis and Social Action. Michigan Geographical Publication No. 17, pp. 27-46, 1977.
"The city: its distance from nature." Geogr. Review, 68(1):1-12, 1978. (Reprinted, Ekistics, 46:313-319, 1979.)
"Sacred space: exploration of an idea." In Karl W. Butzer (ed.), Dimensions of Human Geography. University of Chicago Department of Geography Research Paper 186, pp. 84-99, 1978,
"Environment and the quality of life." In Kenneth A. Hammond, George Macinko, and Wilma B. Fairchild, Sourcebook on the Environment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 21-40, 1978.
"Literature and geography: implications for geographical research." In David Ley and Marwyn Samuels (eds.), Humanistic Geography: Prospects and Problems. Chicago: Maaroufa Press, pp. 194-206, 1978.
"Sign and metaphor." Annals, Assoc. Amer. Geogr., 68(3):363-372, 1978.
"Children and the natural environment." In Irwin Altman and Joachim F. Wohwill (eds.), Children and the Environment. New York: Plenum Press, Vol. 3:5-32, 1978.
"Space, time, place: a humanistic perspective." In Tommy Carlstein, Don Parkes and Nigel Thrift (eds.), Timing Space and Spacing Time. Vol. 1 (Making Sense of Time), pp. 7-16, 1978.
"Thought and landscape: the eye and the mind's eye." In D.W. Meinig (ed.), The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 89-102, 1979.
"Sight and Pictures." Geogr. Review, 69(4):413-422, 1979. (Japanese transl., 1981.)
"Rootedness versus sense of place." Landscape, 24(1):3-8, 1980.
Comment on Georges Mounin. "The semiology of orientation in urban space." Current Anthropology, 21(4):500, 1980.
"The significance of the artifact." Geogr. Review, 70(4):462-472, 1980.
"Materials and peoples." New Jersey Folklore, 2(3):17-21, 1981.
"Landscape as text." The Paradigm Exchange, CLA, Univ. of Minnesota, pp. 1-9, 1982.
"The role of nature and of man." (Transl. from English into Chinese by Wen-shang Chen) Sinological Monthly, no. 122, part I, pp. 33-49, and part II, no. 123, pp. 50-59, 1982.
"Geographical theory: queries from a cultural geographer." Geogr. Analysis, 15(1):69-72, 1983.
"Orientation: an approach to human geography." Journal of Geography, 82(1): 11-14, 1983.
