The Association of American Geographers (AAG) will be honoring two faculty members in April at a special awards luncheon in Los Angeles, including the UCLA Luskin School's Urban Planning professor Edward Soja.

Soja will receive the organization's Lifetime Achievement Honors. Soja "has transformed human geography and the understanding of cities through his lifetime of work to connect space, society and urbanism. From his earlier work on modernization in Africa to his influential trilogy of books ... Soja’s work has been original, imaginative and influential, reshaping geographic theories and stimulating a critical 'spatial turn' in a wide range of disciplines," AAG officials said.Soja has excelled in bringing the insights of critical social theory including political economy, postmodernism, and cultural theory to create innovative analyses of space and society, especially struggles over control of space in the city and the emergence of new forms of urbanization, according to the AAG.

The AAG website says the organization "is especially pleased to make this award in Los Angeles, the city that has inspired Ed Soja’s research and teaching."

AAG continues that "Soja has motivated and provoked students and colleagues through his passion and enthusiasm for theory, criticism, cities, and social justice. His influence in reshaping human geography and urban studies is international, multidisciplinary and enduring through his students at UCLA, his guest lectures, and the translations of his work into many languages. He has been one of the great advocates for geographic ideas across the social sciences and the world."