Gottdiener Awarded Lady Davis Fellowship to Hebrew University

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Lady Davis Fellowship Trust has awarded Mark Gottdiener, Ph.D., of Buffalo, professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, an endowed fellowship to support his residency at the Institute for Urban and Regional Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, during the Spring 2007 semester.

While in Israel, Gottdiener, an expert on urban culture and policy, will study spatial and housing issues. He also plans research into what he calls the "globalization of anti-Israelism," which he says is "a diversionary strategy of Islamic fundamentalism and failed left-wing politics."

The Lady Davis Fellowship Trust, named for a noted Canadian philanthropist, was established 33 years ago to provide the opportunity for leading scientists and scholars, doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers from around the world -- regardless of nationality, gender or field of scholarship -- to teach, study and participate in research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa. 

Gottdiener is an internationally regarded scholar in the field of urban sociology and cultural studies. He specializes in cultural semiotics and popular culture and how cultural issues are related to social problems. His work in socio-spatial analysis has been an important contribution to the theory of urban sociology. In February he was recognized by his peers with a special session devoted to his work at the 2006 meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.

He is the award-winning author of numerous journal articles and of 16 notable books on such issues as the culture of air travel, the sociology of travel and tourism, the social development of Las Vegas and the origins, nature and future of themed environments in our information-overloaded world. Among the best-known are "The Theming of America: Dreams, Visions and Commercial Spaces" and the textbook, "The New Urban Sociology," now in its third edition.