6B
Friday, May 4, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
NATURAL WAY
Natural Fibre Clothing and Body Care
820-822 Mass. St.
Downtown
841-0100
it's your PARTY
Southern Hills 749-3455 Mall
Free Steak
Dinner on
Your Birthday
You must be 16 years or older and come in after 4 pm on your birthday.
3. 50 Lunch Special Mon-Sat 11-4
--a field problem for my dissertation in Puerto Rico and began to develop an interest in Latin America," he says.
Tru-Colors
- 1 HR
PROCESSING'
• ENLARGEMENTS
• E-6 SLIDES
• B & W
• COPY PHOTOS
• PRINTS FROM
SLIDES
• PORTEOLIOS
1414 W. 6th St.
843-8004
O
PICTURE THIS
11 E. 8th St.
843-8015
LAWRENCE'S BEST PICTURES
• No Contracts
• No Shooting Fees
• No Hassles
NEW STUDIO
• Portraits
• Advertements
• Portfolios
• Weddings
Picture This...
PICTURE THIS PARTY PICTURES
11 East 8th St.
834-8015
Look For Coupon Book
Geographer maps out vivid lessons
By Andres Cavelier Special to the Kansan
For John P. Augelli, professor of geography at the University of Kansas, life has been a trip.
John Augell, professor of geography, lectures during his Latin American geography class in Lindley Hall.
He has traveled the world, teaching, consulting and research. His students say it reflects the way he lectures.
"I have seen it all," the 69-year-old professor tells his students.
Augell arrives early in his classroom, hangs a map of the Americas on the blackboard, puts his glasses on and glances at his notes. When the teacher ready, families and sakes in her voice, "Where has she were we?"
He starts a non-stop soilloquy,
pacing back and forth and gesturing
with every step.
The class is Geography 591, geography of Latin America. Students taking it get an overview of the region's geography from a professor who has traveled throughout Latin America, from Northern Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of Argentina.
Christopher Brown, Crete, Neb.
graduate student in Latin American studies, is taking Augelli's course this semester. He says, "His lectures are so vivid and captivating. Who would like to miss one of them? Everything he says seems valid in America because he's traveled and he's been in contact with the people down there."
Brown also says he always will consider Augelli someone who shows excitement, love and desire for Latin America.
Sam Sommerville, Lawrence graduate student in Latin American studies, says Augelt is so passionate that "he's showed us a totally different way of thinking about the history and anthropology of the area to teach geography.
Bob Adams, associate dean of liberal arts and sciences who has known Augelli for 25 years, says, "John is always on the go. If he is not teaching a course or having an interaction with his cow is attending his cows or working in the department. That takes a lot more energy than the rest of us have."
Academic Excellence at KU
Augelli (pronounced J-Jelly) has had several posts at KU, including director of the Center of Latin American Studies, dean of international programs and chairman of the department of geography. He was hired as a professor of geography in 1961.
Augell was born in a small Italian village east of Rome. When he was 8, his family moved to Waterbury, Conn., where he completed his primary and secondary education. In 1943, he finished undergraduate studies in geography and history at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.
He volunteered for the Army Air Corps and served from 1943 to 1945 in the Pacific. After the war, he became an Air Force Reserve lieutenant.
"My interest in Latin America came much later," says Augelli, who calls himself a geographer-Latin Americanist. "I barely finished my undergraduate work, and then I went to World War II."
He earned a doctorate in geography and anthropology at Harvard University in 1951.
"I never had a course having to do with Latin America. But I went to do
Forestry years later, he has written three books, five monographs, 41 major articles and more than 50 other scholarly items, most of them about Latin America. Some are written in Spanish.
His background in Puerto Rico meant that he knew firsthand a great many things."
Augelli was appointed to the Board of Foreign Scholarships by President Lyndon Johnson. He has received the Master Teacher Award of the National Council for Geographic Education and an award for out-
'Everything he (Augelli) says sounds vital in understanding Latin America because he's traveled and he's been in contact with the people down there.'
graduate student in Latin American studies
Christopher Brown
Among his works is "Middle America: Its Lands and Peoples," a 494-page college textbook he co-wrote that traces the development of economics, politics and institutions in the formation of the modern geography of the United States and the West Indies. He uses this text for one of his courses.
*crossesionally, he has a stronger reputation off campus than I do on campus," he says. "I have received recognition here, but most of my academic honors have come from off campus. An internship at our university is not quite the same as someone in the sciences or business."
wilam Griffith, retired professor of history and former director of Latin American studies at Tulane University, agrees.
"I think that's true. John had a chance at that time to get himself very well-known by a group of people who were the leaders of this movement all over the United States," Griffith says.
Griffith mit Augelli more than 25 years ago at a series of meetings to try to set up area studies programs in the United States.
Nationally, Augell has been president of the Latin American Studies Association and secretary of the Association of American Geographers.
standing contributions to research, teaching and service in Latin American geography. He also has served as a consultant to the White House, the Department of State and the National Geographic Society and Magazine.
"I have a lot of respect for his knowledge and his ability," Griffith says. "At the meetings he had some advantages that not everyone had."
Energetic Lecturer
when he lectures, he is active,
often cracks a joke and moves his
tanned hands to express his knowledge
and experience.
He says, "I get enthusiastic about lecturing. I have always had the feeling that unless a lecturer could be enthusiastic about his subject, he could not convey the sense of excitement to the students.
"The energy is a matter of chemistry and heritage. I just dipped into the right gene pool."
Griffith says, "John has a very forcible way of speaking, and he also has a bunch of gestures that are typical of him."
typical university. Adams, associate dean of the college, with whom Augelli and other professors have played poker the first Monday of every month for the past 25 years, says, "He is a very
funny guy. He's been the star storyteller at that group for all that time, and nobody can compete with him."
During lectures, Augelli does not hesitate to add Latino flavor with Spanish phrases echoing the Caribbean accent he picked up in Puerto Rico.
Furthermore, Sommerville says,
"He knows what he is talking about.
He is extremely interested in burning
down stereotypes, and he is always
comparing the Latinos with the
Anglos."
Augelli says, "I do not hesitate to make comparisons and be critical about the Anglo culture."
ouat the same time, he says, he has to be tolerant and have cultural sensibility.
"I have an entree from the lowest classes to the highest classes." Augell says of his trips to Latin America. "Sometimes I have mingled with people in lower-class neighborhoods."
During lectures, there also is time to joke around. He often uses the word "schmatas," a Yiddish word that means rags, to make students laugh.
"I was playing cards with a friend, and he used the word schmats," he says. "And I just subconsciously incorporated it into my own vocabulary."
Brown says, "He and his schmatas. That's very typical of him."
Easterner or farmer?
Augelli, who still considers himself an Eastern big-city形样, lives on a 150-acre farm in the Baldwin area, about 16 miles south of Lawrence. When he first arrived at KU, he lived in Lawrence, but soon felt hemmed in by the town.
"I wanted to get away from the city altogether and live in a rural setting." Augellie says.
ing. Augen says.
Augelli lives on a farm not as just a hobbyor for making money but for
"pychic income," he says. Farming, which is different from his academic pursuits, keeps him occupied at home.
"What I did initially was to buy a farm as a hedge against inflation, and then I became interested in the raising of cattle." Augliella says.
Though he does not have a cow-calf operation anymore, he buys, feeds and sells 20 to 30 staters a season.
Augelli, who says he is kept awake by traffic noises when he stays in a city, says. "I have become accustomed to hearing the noises of the countryside, like the yip of a coyote."
He prefers to wake up every morning at 5:30, drive his jeep to school about 7:30 a.m. and drive back in the afternoon.
His life is a trip
When Angela is not taking care of his farm or teaching, he travels to Latin America to lecture and to research.
He has been in every Latin American country. But his primary research has been conducted in Central America and Brazil, where he researched and learned some Portuguese.
- Because Anguelli still enjoys traveling, he will spend Summer 1990 on a Mediterranean cruise lecturing about Latin America or the Mediterranean. He was invited by the American Geographical Society.
"The thing that really turns me on," he says, "is being able to see what's on the other side of the horizon."
Augelli will retire after Spring 1991, but has no future plans. He says in Spanish, "El hombre propone, Dios dispone," or "Man proposes, God disposes."
COLONY WOODS
2 Bedroom
2 Bath
$410
842-5111
Come Home To Us!
• Exercise Room • On Bus Route
• Microwaves • Walk To Campus
• Great Maintenance. We Care!
1301 W.24th