LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- For several years Dr. James Dickinson, professor of sociology at Rider University, has examined the way contemporary artists use the landscape.

Dr. Dickinson is on paid research leave for the spring semester to focus on what he calls open-space art -- art made for and placed in a variety of real-world landscapes which lie beyond the conventional studio, gallery, or museum space.

His research has four parts. The first part considers sociological and cultural conceptions of postmodernism and postmodern art. The second part investigates the intellectual and artistic origins of open-space art within the American avant-garde style of the 1960s. The third part will classify the types of open-space art such as: land projects or earthworks; ephemeral or short-lived landscape; dialectical landscape; and urban site-specific public sculpture. The fourth part will be the writing of separate chapters which describe and illustrate each type of open-space art.

"The purpose of this work is to ground often abstract and unfocused discussions of postmodernism in a concrete study of an important contemporary art movement," said Dr. Dickinson, a resident of Philadelphia. He plans to bring together ongoing and completed work into a book-length manuscript, Journey into Space, which will make a contribution by offering a sociological interpretation of the new landscape art.

He has two forthcoming articles on landscape art and also writes reviews for the New Art Examiner, a national fine arts magazine. In addition, he has curated and prepared the show catalogs for two exhibitions at Rider's art gallery -- a show titled "Entropic Zones: Buildings and Structures of the Contemporary City" in 1995 and another titled "A State of Bliss: The Art and Illustration of Rachel Bliss in 1997."

A member of the sociology faculty since 1982, Dr. Dickinson has published several articles and is the author of the book, Family, Economy and State: The Social Reproduction Process Under Capitalism. He has also presented numerous papers at conferences throughout the United States and in other countries.

He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, a M.A. from American University in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. sociology from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.