Brian J. Godfrey

Brian J. Godfrey is Professor of Geography at Vassar College, where he participates in the multidisciplinary programs in Environmental Studies, Latin American and Latinx Studies, and Urban Studies. Brian teaches courses on global geography, urban geography, global urbanization, public space, neighborhood change, and historic preservation and memory. He received his BA in history from Pomona College, and his MA and Ph.D. in geography from the University of California at Berkeley. Favoring the analytical lens of historical geography, he has carried out research on urban and regional change in both the United States and Latin America, resulting in the books Neighborhoods in Transition (Univ. of California Press, 1988), Rainforest Cities: Urbanization, Development, and Globalization of the Brazilian Amazon (with John Browder, Columbia Univ. Press, 1997), and Cidades da Floresta (with John Browder, Ed. Universidade Federal do Amazonas, 2006). Brian has contributed recent book chapters to Cities of the World: Regional Patterns and Urban Environments (2020); The City as Power: Urban Space, Place, and National Identity (2018); Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America (2016), and Sustainability: A Global Urban Context (2013). His articles and reviews have appeared in such journals as the Annals of the AAG, Geographical Review, Journal of Cultural Geography, Journal of Latin American Geography, and Urban Geography.