Don Mitchell was born in 1961. He is a Distinguished Professor of Geography at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. From an academic household in California, he is a graduate of San Diego State University, Pennsylvania State University and received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1992, working with Neil Smith. He taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder before joining Syracuse in the late 1990s. Considered an influential and radical scholar, he is best known for his work on cultural theory, and the People's Geography Project. He works on labor struggles, human rights and justice. In 1998, he became a MacArthur Fellow, and in 2008 a Guggenheim Fellow. He was awarded the… Anders Retzius Medal from the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography in 2012. His titles include The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space, The People's Property? Power, Politics and the Public, and The Freedom Summer Murders.