PolGRG

Would you like to get involved in the running of ? We're currently recruiting for four committee positions and would love to hear from you. Details on where to send nominations can be found here: https://t.co/HWrNM47Vix

2018 PolGRG AGM in Cardiff The 2018 PolGRG AGM takes place at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in Cardiff, on Wednesday 29 August , 13:10-14:25, in the Main Building – Small Chemistry Lecture Theatre. Please follo…

Would you like to be more involved in the running of ? We're currently recruiting for four committee positions and would love to hear from you. Details on where to send nominations can be found here: https://t.co/HWrNM47Vix

2018 PolGRG AGM in Cardiff The 2018 PolGRG AGM takes place at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in Cardiff, on Wednesday 29 August , 13:10-14:25, in the Main Building – Small Chemistry Lecture Theatre. Please follo…

The conference is getting ever closer! We'll be holding our in Cardiff on 29 Aug, 13:10-14:25, Main Building – Small Chemistry Lecture Theatre. Agenda and further details here:
https://t.co/HWrNM47Vix

2018 PolGRG AGM in Cardiff The 2018 PolGRG AGM takes place at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in Cardiff, on Wednesday 29 August , 13:10-14:25, in the Main Building – Small Chemistry Lecture Theatre. Please follo…

Not long until conference in Cardiff. You can browse our sponsored sessions here: https://t.co/mpFExc1bNm

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Another postgraduate blog post ahead of the PolGRG workshop at RHUL.

The Creativity of Contemporary Geographic Research: Reflections on the 2017 RGS-IBG Conference (Dominic Obeng) 12/06/17

Postgraduate Blog This section of the PolGRG website contains the postgraduate blog, which invites submissions of under 500 words that broadly relate to the post-graduate experience (e.g. conference reports, fieldwo…

PolGRG Workshop 2017

Call for Papers: Fieldwork in Political Geography

12-13 June 2017

Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London

The sub-discipline of political geography has undergone significant transformation since its inception in the early 20th century. The ‘God’s Eye view’ has been decentred by critical scholarship, and new approaches involving discourse, the representational, and more recently, the embodied, everyday, affective, material, and elemental to name but a few have been pursued by scholars. Political geography occupies a rich and diverse conceptual and methodological landscape.

One dimension that has perhaps received less critical attention, however, is the ‘doing’ of political geography ‘in the field’? How can we, as political geographers, best engage with and research the geopolitical world? What specific challenges does fieldwork—however we might choose to define this—pose for political geography research and teaching? To what extent can we learn from the creative approaches being developed elsewhere in human geography, the arts, social sciences and the “geo-humanities”?

The Political Geography Research Group is holding a two-day workshop on Monday 12–Tuesday 13 at RHUL, University of London to engage with some of these questions and to explore this understudied dimension of political geography. The overarching theme of the workshop is ‘Fieldwork in Political Geography’ and we invite abstracts for 15 minute papers and presentations on both the ‘doing’ of political geography research ‘in the field’, and the role of fieldwork in teaching. Alongside leading scholars from within political geography, we very much welcome and encourage contributions from postgraduates and early career scholars.

The workshop will include:

* Paper, panel and workshop sessions exploring fieldwork in political geography;

* Research presentations by postgraduates and early career scholars;

* Optional fieldtrip: A political geography walking tour, linking key political sites in and around Runnymede—including the site of the sealing of the Magna Carta, the John F Kennedy memorial and the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial. Along the way we ponder how the walking tour might be a productive method for political geography;

* The Political Geography Research Group will also hold its Annual General Meeting at the workshop, where you can have a say and get involved in the running of the group.

Costs and bursaries

Attendance at the workshop is free, and lunch and refreshments will be provided on both days. There will be a £10 charge for the optional workshop dinner on the evening of Monday 12 June. THREE of bursaries of £50 will be available for PhD students to help with travel and accommodation costs, with priority being given to unfunded students and those giving presentations.

Registration and key dates

The deadline for registration is 3 May 2017, but earlier registration for those who wish to present papers and share their research would be really helpful.

To register, please complete this online form: https://www.cognitoforms.com/RHUL1/FieldworkInPoliticalGeography

For more information, please contact the event organisers:

Dr Alasdair Pinkerton: [email protected]

Ms Rachael Squire: [email protected]

Check out the updates to the Postgraduate section of the PolGRG page. This includes a new blog with the first entry from Jonathan Harris: Reflections on the Political Geography of the fieldtrip.

If you would like to contribute future blog posts please get in touch with Jonathan at: [email protected]

Postgraduate Hello and welcome to the postgraduate section of the Political Geography Research Group (PolGRG) of the RGS-IBG. The current Postgraduate Representatives of PolGRG are: Jonathan Harris: Cambridge U…

Dear all,

The Political Geography Research Group (PolGRG) of the RGS-IBG is pleased to extend an invitation to sponsor sessions at the next RGS-IBG Annual International Conference.

The conference will take place in London at the Society from Wednesday 30 August to Friday 1 September 2017 with workshops and opening events on Tuesday 29 August. The chair of the 2017 conference is Professor Sarah Radcliffe (University of Cambridge).The conference theme is ‘Decolonizing geographical knowledges: opening geography out to the world’.

Full call for sessions can be found here:

http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Call+for+sessions+papers+and+posters/Call+for+sessions+papers+and+posters.htm

The deadline for session proposals submissions to PolGRG is Thursday 22 December 2016.

Please email submissions to Diana Martin ([email protected]), including session title and abstract (max 400 words), name(s) and affiliation(s) of the session convenor(s), and the anticipated format of the session.

Session convenors will be notified in due course as to whether or not PolGRG will be able to provide sponsorship for your session. We can sponsor up to 12 session slots. Please bear in mind that sessions cannot occupy more than two slots in the whole programme.

If sponsorship can be provided, then you have until Friday 17 February 2017 to provide the full session details (with all proposed papers and presenters) for final submission to the RGS-IBG.

The full guidelines for organizing sessions can be found at:

http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Call+for+sessions+papers+and+posters/How+to+organise+a+session.htm

Please note that a list of key deadlines is available at

http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Timeline.htm

We look forward to hearing from you. If you have any specific queries regarding session proposal submissions, please contact Diana Martin ([email protected])

Best wishes,
Diana

About the Political Geography Research Group

The Political Geography Research Group (PolGRG) brings together geographers and others interested in a wide variety of phenomena connected with relationships between space and power.

Research by group members reflects the diversity of the field, addressing topics such as: territoriality, states and the state system, nationalism, geopolitics, sovereignty, social movements, citizenship, political economy, political ecology, diaspora, elections, boundaries, globalization, imperialism, governance, peace, conflict and security. The mutual geographical construction of these phenomena with gender, race, class, sexuality and religion is a particular focus of interest. Research by members of the Group is informed by a range of theoretical and methodological positions and by engagement with wider debates. Much recent work has sought to uncover the historical dimensions to political geography, and the history of the subdiscipline itself has been an active area for research. The Group seeks collaborations and conversations with other areas of geography and other disciplines as we continue our work on these and other topics. PolGRG aims to promote research, to provide a forum, to create opportunities for early career scholars in the field and to support the teaching of political geography at universities in the UK. Its activities include organizing sessions at conferences of the RGS-IBG and arranging workshops. The Group also seeks international collaborations to broaden its links.

Call for sessions papers and posters Members of the geographical and related communities are invited to propose sessions, papers and posters for the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2017.

Two Postdoctoral Fellowship Positions in “Borders, Mobility and New Infrastructures” at the
National University of Singapore

Newly established by the Max Weber Foundation’s (MWS) German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ)
and a team of researchers (Lin Weiqiang and James D Sidaway from the Department of Geography and
Vatthana Pholsena from the Department of Southeast Asian Studies) in the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences (FASS), National University of Singapore, the Max Weber Foundation Research Group is
seeking to appoint two postdoctoral fellows to contribute to the Research Group’s activities on Borders,
Mobility and New Infrastructures.

Motivated by an increase in border disputes across a variety of territories in Southeast Asia, quickened
mobilities and interactions among peoples, and an acceleration of trade in (legal and illegal) goods across
the region, the Group is seeking candidates whose research demonstrates a focus on either:

‐ Changing borderscapes in Southeast Asia: air, land, and sea.

‐ Cross-border infrastructures in Asia and new scales and spaces of interaction.

The Group's understanding of borders and mobility is not limited to traditional geopolitical borders, but
includes also multi-dimensional (re)imaginations of territories (including maritime and vertical ones), as
well as an array of social, economic, and cultural spaces. Similarly, the definition of infrastructure
encompasses both physical and non-physical networks (social, business, and cultural) that have a bearing
on the uneven (im)mobilities of people, goods, knowledge and capital. Our focus is contemporary, but not
at the exclusion of historical perspectives.

For full details and application procedures, please see:
http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/geog/pdf_doc/2016/MWS%20Postdocs%2010%20December%202016%20pdf.pdf

www.fas.nus.edu.sg

https://www.change.org/p/chris-brink-say-no-to-coercive-performance-management-at-newcastle-university Please sign and support colleagues at Newcastle University as they strive to retain a civic and non-coercive university

Chris Brink: Say no to coercive performance management at Newcastle University The staff of Newcastle University are in dispute with the management over performance targets that have unleashed a culture of bullying across the institution. We call on the Vice Chancellor, Chris Brink, to withdraw these targets and agree instead to enter into a collegial and supportive process to...

Regenerating Political Geography

The Political Geography Research Group is holding a two-day workshop on Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 June 2015 at the University of Birmingham. The theme is 'Regenerating Political Geography', and will hold a dual focus on new and emerging research directions that regenerate the sub-discipline, and career progression for postgraduate and early career scholars who will be the next generation of political geographers.

The event is open to all those with an interest in political geography. Alongside leading scholars in the field, we especially hope that many postgraduates and early career scholars will attend. The workshop will include:

- A roundtable on emerging research directions;

- Research presentations by postgraduates and early career scholars;

- Short presentations and discussion on political geography teaching;

- Expert-led sessions on publishing, funding and the job market

We would welcome contributions to any of these sessions. In particular, we invite abstracts for research presentations (20 mins) by postgraduate and early career researchers. These can be on any topic relevant to political geography. Short presentations related to teaching political geography are also welcomed.

The research group will also hold its annual general meeting at the workshop, where you can have a say and get involved in the running of the group.

Attendance at the workshop is free, and lunch and refreshments will be provided on both days. There will be a £10 charge for the optional workshop dinner on the evening of 24th. As in our previous workshops, a number of bursaries will be available for PhD students to help with travel and accommodation costs. Priority here will be given to unfunded students and those giving presentations.

The deadline for registration is 31 May 2015, but early registration would be really helpful.

To register, please email [email protected] and [email protected] with:
1. Your name, academic position and university affiliation (if any);
2. Confirm attendance at workshop dinner (£10 charge);
3. If applicable, a proposed paper title and abstract (or just flag up that one will follow);
4. If applicable, request consideration for a travel bursary.

Domesticating geopolitics

RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, Exeter, 2-4 September 2015

Convened by Dr. Tara Woodyer, Dr. Diana Martin (University of Portsmouth); Dr. Sean Carter, Dr. Philip Kirby (University of Exeter)

Co-sponsored by the Political Geography Research Group and the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group

From the outset, critical geopolitics has emphasised approaches that question spatial distinctions between foreign/domestic politics and political distinctions between formal/popular geopolitics. More recently, feminist contributions to critical geopolitical debates have re-articulated the necessity of including the ‘everyday’ and the ‘ordinary’ into our accounts of the geopolitical, in part to work towards the dissolution of clear-cut distinctions between public and private, and towards the increasing realisation that different scales are not separate but intertwined.

This session then will focus both on what Pain & Staeheli (2014) describe as ‘the intimate outwards’ as well as ‘the geopolitical inwards’. We therefore take ‘domesticating geopolitics’ to capture a broad range of practices, objects, performativities and discourses that contribute to how geopolitics is rendered familiar and sanitised, and the ways in which the home and bodies become a terrain of the geopolitical. Bodies, personal decisions, religious beliefs and feelings thus become sites for reproduction and contestation of geopolitical imaginaries and possibilities. They ‘areterritory but also make territory’ as intimacy becomes a ‘site of geopolitical practices’ (Smith 2012, 2009). This session seeks then to explore the potential of notions of domesticating and the intimate for expanding our understanding of the geopolitical.

We invite conceptual and empirical papers that may address (but are not exclusive to):

• The role of objects and technologies in the translation of geopolitics between domestic and other spaces
• Visibility and invisibility of intimate geopolitics
• Material geopolitical cultures and ‘the domestic'
• Geopolitical boundaries in/of the home
• The intimate as resistance
• Non-violent and intimate geopolitics of peace

Proposals for papers, including title, name, contact details and an abstract of no more than 250 words, should be emailed to Diana Martin ([email protected]) by Wednesday 11th February 2015.

References

Pain, R. & Staeheli, L. (2014) Introduction: intimacy-geopolitics and violence. Area, 46 (4): 344-347.

Smith, S. (2012) Intimate geopolitics: religion, marriage, and reproductive bodies in Leh, Ladakh, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 102(6): 1511-1528.

Smith, S. (2009) The domestication of geopolitics: Buddhist-Muslim conflict and the policing of marriage and the body in Ladakh, India, Geopolitics, 14 (2): 197-218.

Our 2014 dissertation prize has been awarded to Sam Nariani (University of Nottingham) for his dissertation ‘In defence of the community their world had got bigger: Women’s Activism in Barnsley’s Communities during the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike’. Many congratulations!

Call for PolGRG sponsored session proposals - RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2015 Dear all, The Political Geography Research Group (PolGRG) of the RGS-IBG is pleased to extend an invitation to sponsor sessions at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in Exeter (2 to 4 Sept...