Brian Godfrey

Professor of Geography

office: Ely Hall 116
box: 482
phone: 845-437-5544

B.A., Pomona College, 1974.
M.A. (1979), Ph.D. (1984), University of California, Berkeley.

Brian Godfrey specializes in comparative urban and regional studies. Favoring a historical-geographical approach, he focuses especially on the social and spatial evolution of cities in the Americas. His interests also include global city-regions, community and neighborhood change, urban redevelopment, and sustainable development. He has carried out research in both the United States and Latin America, including extensive fieldwork in Brazil and the Amazon Basin. In addition to his work as a geographer, Professor Godfrey participates in Vassar’s multidisciplinary programs in Environmental Studies, Latin American Studies, and Urban Studies. He has received numerous awards and grants, including Fulbright and National Science Foundation grants. Professor Godfrey has served on the Council of the American Geographical Society, the editorial board of the Geographical Review, the Board of Directors of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, and the Executive Committee of the Brazilian Studies Association.

Books

2006 Cidades da Floresta: Urbanização, Desenvolvimento, eGlobalização da Amazônia Brasileira. Manaus: Editora da Universidade Federal do Amazonas, 384 p. (ISBN 85-7401-183-5, pbk.; co-authored with John O. Browder)
1997 Rainforest Cities: Urbanization, Development, and Globalization of the Brazilian Amazon. New York: Columbia University Press, 429 p. (Co-authored with John O. Browder; ISBN 0-231-10654-8 cloth; ISBN 0-231-10655-6 pbk.)
1988 Neighborhoods in Transition: The Making of San Francisco’s Ethnic and Nonconformist Communities. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 233 p. (ISBN 0-520-09718-1 soft)

Selected Scholarly Articles and Book Chapters

2007 “Favelas, Beaches, and Guanabara Bay: Water and the Sustainable Future of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.” Sustainability: A Global Urban Context, edited by Igor Vojnovic, Michigan State University Press (co-authored with Antoinette Winklerprins; currently at press)
2007 ”Cities of South America.” Contemporary World Urbanization (4th edition), edited by M. Hays-Mitchell, J.F. Williams, and D.J. Zeigler. Roman and Littlefield Publishers (co-authored with Maureen Hayes-Mitchell; currently at press).
2006 ”New Urban Ethnic Landscapes.” Contemporary Ethnic Geography, edited by Christopher Airries and Ines Miyares, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 331-354.
2003 ”Cities of South America.” Contemporary World Urbanization (3rd edition), pp. 123-168, edited by S.D. Brunn, J.F. Williams, and D.J. Zeigler. Roman and Littlefield Publishers. (Co-authored with Maureen Hayes-Mitchell).
2002 “Tragedy and Transformation in New York City.” Geographical Review 92 (at press).
2001 “Redeveloping the Manhattan Waterfront.” From the Hudson to the Hamptons: Snapshots of the New York Metropolitan Area, pp. 49-60, edited by I.M. Miyares, M. Pavlovskaya, and G.A. Pope. New York: Association of American Geographers.
1999 “Revisiting Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.” Geographical Review 89,1 (January): 94-121.
1999 “Brazil Brasil.” American Geographical Society’s Focus 45, 4 (Summer): 1-28.
1999 “Ranking World Cities: Multinational Corporations and the Global Urban Hierarchy.” Urban Geography 20, 3 (April 1-May 15): 268-281 (co-authored with Yu Zhou)
1997 “Urban Development and Redevelopment in San Francisco.” Geographical Review 87, 3 (July): 310-333.
1995 “Decentralization and Restructuring in a World City.” Geographical Review 85, 4 (October): 436-457.
1993 “Regional Depiction in Contemporary Film.” Geographical Review 83, 4 (October): 428-440.
1991 “Modernizing the Brazilian City.” The Geographical Review 81, 1 (January): 18-34.

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