Tuesday 3rd July 2012

• Ludic Geographies (1)
• Ludic Geographies (2)
• Policing geographies: securities, insecurities and mobilities (1)
• Policing geographies: securities, insecurities and mobilities (2)
• Creating Geographical Legacies: The Red Road Legacy Project (1)
• Creating Geographical Legacies: The Red Road Legacy Project (2)
• More-than-human geographies: from coexistence to conflict and killing (1)
• More-than-human geographies: from coexistence to conflict and killing (2)

Wednesday 4th July 2012

• Chair’s plenary session: Geographies of Insecurity (3) – (In)secure peoples
• Chair’s plenary session: Geographies of Insecurity (4) – (In)secure spaces
• Social and Cultural Geographies in a Time of Crisis
• Home Unmaking (1)
• Home Unmaking (2)
• Writing and doing human geography research in Greece during a turbulent decade

Thursday 5th July 2012

• Licensing spaces, things and people (1)
• Licensing spaces, things and people (2)
• Social and Cultural Geographies of Impact (1): Impact Statements / Critical Pathways to Impact
• Social and Cultural Geographies of Impact (2): Answers on a Postcard?

The SCGRG AGM will be on Tuesday 3rd July at 7.30pm. All are welcome to attend.

Sarah Mills, Chris Bear, Amanda Rogers, Rebecca Sandover and Mia Hunt have put together two fantastic sessions which aim to unpack and expand understandings and conceptualizations of impact, generating discussion and debate. These will both run on the Thursday afternoon during the conference.

The first session will host very short, critical ‘impact statements’ (short papers or think pieces) from a range of academic and non-academic participants at AC2012.   We now have a final line up of contributors.  We are delighted to welcome the following people who will be helping us navigate the landscape of ‘impactful’ geographies in higher education and research institutions.

• Rachel Pain  Impact: a masterful blow or walking hand in hand?
• Anna Carlsson-Hyslop What is the impact of histories and geographies of science?
• Katriona Carmichael Outcomes: A view from Scottish Government
• Catherine Souch/Rita Gardner  Impact and the RGS
• Jonathan Mendel How bad research might achieve strong REF impact
• Richard Phillips A Place for Curiosity in the Age of Impact?
• James Kneale Accidental Impact
• Jennifer Turner Impact for postgraduates: in search of the Holy Grail?
• Lakhbir Jassal Deadly Impact: The Construction of Expertise and Responsibility
• Ruth Wolstenholme Brokering knowledge for a broad audience
• Penny Woolnough Policing Research and the Geographies of Missing People
• Hannah Macpherson The Work of Disabled Artists and its Potential ‘Impact’
• Jenny Pickerill Impacting who, when, and for whose gain?
• Deirdre Conlon Reflections on the politics of ‘retaking impact proposals’
• Lucy Veale The AHRC Landscape and Environment ProgrammeDirector’s Impact Fellowship
• Ian Cook, et al. Making is connecting: followthethings.com’s shopping bags

The second session will develop discussion from these statements, exploring the ‘impact of impact’ through a series of postcard prompt questions.  Small group discussions will tackle such questions as: What is ‘impact’?  How do we evidence ‘impact’?  How do those outside the academy understand ‘impact’?  What are the stakes of ‘impact’ for postgraduates? Please bring along your questions concerns and comments.

Thanks to those of you who were able to respond to my earlier request for information regarding the ESRC’s current ‘benchmarking review’ of UK human geography, chaired by Professor David Ley at UBC and being undertaken in partnership with the AHRC and RGS-IBG.

I was commissioned to provide an overview of social and cultural geography, covering the last ten years and seeking to answer the following three questions:

1. How has research in social and cultural geography in the UK developed over the last ten years, and what are the major strengths and weaknesses of the field?
2. How does UK research in social and cultural geography compare with research produced by colleagues in other countries?
3. Can you suggest some examples of key academic outputs by UK scholars (books and other publications) that have made an important contribution to scholarship and/or have helped to set or move intellectual agendas in the field?

My draft report is attached here, with an invitation to provide any further comment by Monday 12 March.  The final report has to be submitted on 19 March

Please send your comments and suggestions to: p.a.jackson@sheffield.ac.uk

Your help will be very much appreciated and will contribute directly to the review process.

Thanks and best wishes

Peter Jackson

More details are available at www.rgs.org/TransactionsEditor. Closing date for applications: 23 March 2012.

I want to start this news items with a note of thanks to everyone who has served on the SCGRG committee from 2006 to 2012, the six years for which I have been Secretary, then Chair of the group. I’d also like to thank all those SCGRG members, and others, who have ensured that doing these roles has been consistently interesting and enjoyable.  Many of the committee are also coming to the end either 3 or 6 years service.  So, summer 2012 is going to see significant changes for the group.

The SCGRG will be looking to elect a new Chair and Secretary at the AGM held during the RGS/IBG Conference in Edinburgh 3-5^th July 2012.  We will also have vacancies for a Dissertation Co-ordinator and a Communications Officer (web editing and twitter is currently done by me, with other media maintained by the wider committee).  We will also be welcoming new committee members who want to take on a more informal role in the first instance.

The RGS Handbook has more details on the roles for committee members and the election process.  According to the RGS, those looking for election to Chair and Secretary should be RGS members, and the majority of the Committee must be members of the RGS-IBG.

New officers and committee members will be elected by those present at the AGM.  The RGS handbook explains that nominations for Committee membership will be accepted up to the beginning of the AGM. Nominations must be in writing (email is fine) and include the names of the proposer and seconder.  You don’t have to pay to register for the conference to attend the AGM.  If you are interested in any of these roles but are not able to attend the AGM, you can be nominated in your absence.

If you are interested in any of these roles, please do get in touch with me, or with any other members of the committee. You can find their details here.  Many of us will be at the AAG conference in New York, so feel free to talk to us informally there.  We very much look forward to hearing from you.

With best wishes

Gail Davies (Chair SCGRG)

Papers from the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group sponsored conference, organised by Darren Smith, Kath Browne and David Bissell held in Brighton in 2009, are now published in the journal of Social and Cultural Geography.

The forum includes the following papers.  Many of these will need an institutional subscription to the journal for access (via journal link above), but a few are available through author links (links below).

• ‘Reinvigorating social geographies? A ‘social re/turn’ for a changing social world: (re)opening a debate’ By Darren P. Smith, Kath Browne & David Bissell
• ‘Redundant? Resurgent? Relevant? Social Geography in Social & Cultural Geography’ by Phil Hubbard
• ‘Multiple, marginalised, passé or politically engaged? Some reflections on the current place of social geographies’ by Peter Hopkins
• ‘US Social Geography, alive and well?’ by Vincent Del Casino
• ‘Navigating a non-representational research landscape and representing ‘under-represented groups’: from complexity to strategic essentialism (and back)’ by Hannah Macpherson
• ‘Geography, race and emotions: social and cultural intersections’ by Anoop Nayak

RGS-IBG medals and awards recognise excellence in geographical research and fieldwork, teaching and public engagement. Any Fellow or member of the Society may make a nomination, and Research Groups are also encouraged to support nominations.

Nominations should consist of a completed nomination form with a statement of 200-300 words outlining why the candidate should receive the award, a CV of the candidate and written support of approximately 200-300 words from two additional Fellows or members of the Society.

To download the nomination form, read the nomination criteria, or find out more about the medals and awards, please visit: http://www.rgs.org/AboutUs/Medals+and+Awards/Nominate+your+choice.htm

The deadline for making a nomination is 28 February 2012.

If you have any questions, please contact the Director’s Office, E: director@rgs.org.

Nominations for vacant positions on RGS-IBG Council

Positions on Council are nominated and elected by the Fellowship and bring with them the responsibilities of a Trustee of the Society. It is normally expected that Council members will also serve on (and chair in the case of Vice-Presidents and Honorary Treasurer) the Committee of Council relevant to the position to which they have been elected. Only Fellows of the Society may stand for positions on Council and only Fellows may propose candidates for election (this includes Postgraduate Fellows).

The deadline for making a nomination is 25 March 2012.

A list of vacant positions for election and more information about the responsibilities of Council members, can be found here: http://www.rgs.org/AboutUs/Governance/Nominations+for+Council.htm.  

Candidates may only stand for one position.  They must provide a short biographical note and the names of five Fellows of the Society supporting of their application (Proposing Fellows).  Proposing Fellows may only support one candidate for any single position and must provide a brief summary of why the candidate is suitable for the Council position along with their Fellowship number.

If you have any questions, please contact the Director’s Office, E: director@rgs.org.

Geographical Reflections

This is a call for papers for the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum Mid-term Conference, to be hosted over the weekend of 20th – 22nd April 2012 at the School of Geography, Nottingham University. The aim of the conference is to provide a welcoming, relaxed and supportive environment for postgraduates to present any aspect of their research to their peers.

Papers with any theme on any topic within geography or a related discipline are invited, and postgraduates should feel comfortable presenting their work at any stage of its development. We would also welcome any papers or posters which deal with this year’s conference theme: ‘Geographical Reflections’. This could include:

- How has postgraduate work furthered debates in geography?
- How have postgraduates developed new and innovative methodologies?
- How has postgraduate research challenged previous geographical work?
- How can reflecting on past debates inform our understanding of present and future geographies?

This broad theme is designed to appeal to postgraduates at any stage of their degree working in or on geographical topics, from both the physical and human domains of geography, and to all related disciplines.

As well as the paper sessions we will also run several interactive workshops covering a range of topics such as publishing during your PhD, practical tips for teaching and demonstrating, common methodological approaches and issues and securing post-PhD grant funding.

We are delighted to announce that Nick Clifford (Professor of Physical Geography, King’s College London) will present the pre-conference plenary to the conference theme of ‘Geographical Reflections’ on the evening of Friday 20th April.

The RGS-IBG Mid Term Conference event has been kindly sponsored by the University of Nottingham Graduate School, the School of Geography and the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum.

The guidelines for abstract submission are as follows:

Papers: Papers should be no more than 10 minutes in length with 5 additional minutes allocated for discussion afterwards. Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be submitted to RGSmidterm2012@nottingham.ac.uk

Posters: Posters should be A0 in size. They will be mounted on display boards throughout the day and presenters will be allocated a 15 minute slot in which to answer questions. Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be submitted to RGSmidterm2012@nottingham.ac.uk

The deadline for paper and poster abstract submissions is 5pm 3rd February 2012.

ALL DELEGATES MUST REGISTER BEFORE SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT: please see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/geography/research/rgs-ibg-postgraduate-conference/rgs-ibg-postgraduate-mid-term-conference-2012.aspx for registration forms and further details.

Doctoral research programme

• Funding to support seven PhD studentships with a focus on learning and teaching research:  http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/doctoral-programme

International scholarship scheme

• Funding to facilitate scholarship of learning and teaching abroad, with a view to developing practice in the UK:  http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/international-scholarship-scheme

Seminar and workshop series

• Open call for psychology workshops.  £1000 grant available plus additional £500 to cover speaker travel:   http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding#seminar

Academic associates

• Your opportunity to work for HEA on a consultancy basis, to make a difference to learning and teaching in UK Universities:  http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/academic-associates

UK travel grants

• Funding available for individuals and teams to attend learning and teaching development events:   http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/travel-fund

Teaching Development Grants

• Individual bids: call opens 3 January 2012. Up to £7k for successful bids: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding#tdg
• Collaborative grants: call opens 27 February 2012. Up to £60k for successful bids:   http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding#tdg

HEA conferences

• HEA STEM conference 12-13 April 2012, Imperial College, London. Online booking available at:  http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2012/academyevents/STEM_annual_conf
• HEA annual conference 3-4 July 2012, University of Manchester The call for sessions will open at the end of November and close on 13 January 2012. Online bookings will open 17 February 2012:  http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/annual-conference

HEA Geography and Earth Sciences events

• Education for sustainable development workshop 16th February 2012, Bath Spa.  http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2012/16_Feb_HEA_STEM_Bath_Spa

Keep in touch

• Email: helen.walkington@heacademy.ac.uk 
• Subscribe to receive updates: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/my_academy

As you may already know, the ESRC is currently undertaking a ‘benchmarking review’ of UK human geography in partnership with the AHRC and the RGS-IBG.  This is intended to gauge the strength of the subject in terms of its international standing and provides an opportunity to make the case for additional support for the subject.  The review is being chaired by Professor David Ley from UBC and is completely independent from the Higher Education Funding Councils’ Research Excellence Framework.

As part of the review, Professor Peter Jackson has been commissioned to undertake a review of research quality and impact in the field of Social and Cultural Geography (with reviews of other sub-disciplinary areas also being commissioned).  As part of the review, which is working with very tight deadlines, he has been asked to liaise with study group members, to confer with senior academics in the field and to produce a report of c.2000 words by 27 February.  This is to seek your assistance with this process.

Please make your suggestions under some (or ideally all) of the following headings:

1. How has research in social and cultural geography in the UK developed over the last ten years, and what are the major strengths and weaknesses of the field?
2. Give examples of key academic outputs (books and other publications) that have made an important contribution to scholarship and/or have helped to set or move intellectual agendas in the field.
3. Give examples of key non-academic impacts (including engagement with research users in policy and practice), noting any changes that have arisen as a result of research in social and cultural geography.

This last question is particularly challenging given the lack of any single group of research ‘users’ in our field so suggestions of particular people to contact who might be able to verify the non-academic impact of research in social and cultural geography would be particularly helpful as this is also part of my brief.

If time permits, I hope to be able to circulate a copy of my draft report (at the end of February), providing an opportunity for further comments and suggestions before the final version is submitted in mid-March.

Please send your replies to p.a.jackson@sheffield.ac.uk by Friday 27 January at the latest.  Your help with be very much appreciated and will contribute directly to the benchmarking review process.

Thanks and best wishes

Peter Jackson