By Way of Background: A Biographical Sketch of William M. Denevan Introducer: Kent Mathewson

Abstract

This biographical sketch of the life and career of William M. Denevan traces his family history and his formative years and schooling in Southern California, his move to the University of California, Berkeley to complete his undergraduate training in geography, and his time spent in graduate school, punctuated by several exits for travel to South America and to Washington, D.C. for employment, only to return to complete and produce a highly regarded doctoral dissertation on ancient raised field complexes in eastern Bolivia. It follows him after graduate school to his first and only academic appointment – in the Geography Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he taught for 30 years before retiring in 1994. During these three decades, Denevan became recognized as a major figure in a several of research arenas, including New World historical demography, the landscape archaeology of pre-European forms of intensive agriculture, and New World tropical cultural and historical ecology. He also oversaw several dozen dissertations and master’s theses, all but a few on related Latin American topics. His publication record was equally robust, authoring a number of books and edited collections, as well as dozens of articles and book chapters. Highlights of his retirement years witness a continued commitment to research and publication, proceeding at a pace equal to, if not surpassing his university years.