Anthony Bebbington, director of Clark University’s Graduate School of Geography, has been awarded a fellowship on “Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America” by the Free University of Berlin/Lateinamerika-Institut (LAI) for 2011-12.

Prof. Bebbington is the Higgins Professor of Environment and Society. In April 2009, he was elected as a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS), which is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist. Members are elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Prof. Bebbington’s work addresses the political ecology of rural change with a particular focus on the factors that drive the relationships between humans and the environment under conditions of inequality and poverty. His recent research has explored how social movements, indigenous organizations, and socio-environmental conflicts influence these relationships in contexts affected by the expansion of extractive industries. He studied geography and land economy at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with distinction. He completed a master’s and Ph.D. at Clark in 1988 and 1990.

Founded in 1970, the Latin America Institute of the Freie Universität Berlin is an interdisciplinary central institute for research and teaching. The Institute is composed of six social science disciplines offering discipline-specific, regional, and intercultural knowledge and expertise. The Free University of Berlin offers students and researchers additional external resources, including the Ibero-American Institute and the large special collection in the Prussian Heritage Foundation on Ibero-American culture, and relevant collection in a variety of other museums and archives.