B.L. Turner II, Ph.D.

Research Professor of Geography
Graduate School of Geography
Clark University
Worcester, MA 01610-1477

Professor B. L. Turner II received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1974 and joined Clark University in 1980, subsequently serving as Director of the Graduate School of Geography (1983-88, 1997-98, and 2004-2008) and the George Perkins Marsh Institute (1991-1997). He currently is the Gilbert F. White Professor of Environment and Society, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University (Billie.L.Turner@asu.edu)He continues to serve as the principal advisor and committee member for graduate students in the geography program at Clark.

Current Research

LCLUC-SYPR Project

Land-cover and land-use change in the southern Yucatán peninsular region—spatially explicit probability approaches for modeling and projecting deforestation and land cover linked to remotely sensed imagery: a project in cooperation with the University of Virginia and ECOSUR-Unidad Chetumal (Mexico); the project seeks to explain the dynamics of land-use/cover change in the region over the past 25 years and explores ways to wed remote sensing- and social science-based models of this change; funded by the NASA-LCLUC initiative. The project has also worked with Harvard Forest and currently has ties to Rutgers University.

Awards and Honors

Guggenheim Fellowship
Fellow of Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences
Distinguished Scholarship Award—Conference of Latin Americanists Geographers
Honors—Association of American Geographers
Centennial Medal (Research)—Royal Scottish Geographical Society
National Academy of Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Robert Netting Award, Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group

Selected Publications

Cultural & Political Ecology/Nature-Society Issues

1996 B. L. Turner II. "Spirals, Bridges, and Tunnels: Engaging Human Environment Perspectives in Geography?" Ecumene Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 196-217.

2002 "Contested Identities: Human-Environment Geography and Disciplinary Implications in a Restructuring Academy." Annals of the Association of American Geographers Vol. 92, No. 1, pp. 52-74.

2006 R. Roy Chowdhury and B. L. Turner II. "Reconciling Agency and Structure in Empirical Analysis: Smallholder Land Use in Southern Yucatan, Mexico." Annals, Association of American Geographers Vol. 96, No. 2, pp. 302-322.

Smallholder Agriculture and Change/Tropics

1993 B. L. Turner II, G. Hyden and R.W. Kates, eds. Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa Carter Lecture Series, Center for African Studies, University of Florida (Gainesville: University Press of Florida).

1995 B. L. Turner II and A. M. S. Ali. "Induced Intensification: Agricultural Change in Bangladesh with Implications for Malthus and Boserup." Proceedings, National Academy of Sciences Vol. 93, pp. 14984-14991.

Global Environmental Change/Land Use and Cover

1995 J. X. Kasperson, R. E. Kasperson, and B. L. Turner II, eds. Regions at Risk: Comparisons of Threatened Environments (Tokyo: United Nations University).

2004 B.L. Turner II, J. Geoghegan, and D.R. Foster, eds. Integrated Land Change Science and Tropical Deforestation in Southern Yucatan: Final Frontiers. (Oxford: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press), forthcoming.

2004 W. Steffen et al. Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Stress. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

2004 G. Gutman et al., eds. Land Change Science: Observing, Monitoring, and Understanding Trajectories of Change on the Earth's Surface. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic Publ.

Human-Environment Relationships/Latin America and Maya

1992 B. L. Turner II and K. W. Butzer. "The Columbian Encounter and Land-Use Change". Environment Vol. 43, No. 8, pp. 16-20.

2001 T.M. Whitmore and B.L. Turner II. Cultivated Landscapes of Native Middle America on the Eve of Conquest. Oxford Geographical and Environmental Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.