GA President for 2024-5 announced as Hina Robinson

The GA Conference 2023 was a great success and I am blogging my experiences over at LivingGeography.

One of the events that happens at the GA Conference is the big reveal of who will be the GA President in two years time, and begin as Vice President in September of that year.

So this happened today...excited but daunting!! @The_GA #GAConf23 pic.twitter.com/zEtORtsiw3

— Hina Robinson 🌍 (@RobboGeog) April 13, 2023

This year, the person revealed was Hina Robinson. 

Hina is already an elected trustee and has also been involved with several GA events in the past. She has also presented at the GA Conference a number of times, and last year brought her students to an event at my conference in Guildford. She is the Chair of Governors of a Primary school and co-chair of the GA's working group which has been exploring inclusion and diversity.

She teaches at Southend High School for Girls, where she is also Diversity Lead.

You can see her in action on this GERECO page where she was part of an event exploring teaching about the anthropocene along with a range of speakers and contributors. If you haven't seen this before it's well worth a watch by the way.

Hina is on Twitter and is worth a follow so that you can follow her progress through the next three years.

Hina's appointment is a significant moment for the GA.

GA Conference 2023: Sheffield Hallam University

Another GA Conference is about to start - less than a week to go now.

This will be the 130th Anniversary conference of the GA.

This year's event takes place at Sheffield Hallam University between 13th and 15th of April.

Professor Alastair Owens is the GA President this year, and his theme is Collaborative Geographies.

A full programme can be downloaded from here. Click the link for a PDF download.

Next year's theme has also been revealed by Denise Freeman: GA President for 2023-24.

Geography for Everyone

We will be adding a biography of Denise on the 1st of September. 

We will also be revealing the name of the President for 2024-25 at the event as well.

I hope to see you (and several other former GA Presidents) in Sheffield next week...

GA Conference Bookclub - The Edge of the Plain

 The first of what may become an annual book club event is going to take place on the first day of the GA Conference in a month's time. This is part of the changes to the format of the first day, which includes the fact that the conference dinner is included in the delegate fees.

I have been asked to lead a discussion around a book and provide some thoughts on how it could be used in the classroom. There will also be an opportunity for you to swap books once again as we repeat the book swap which was originally the idea of Kate Stockings and seemed to work well last year, with many people going away with a new read for the journey home.

The book that has been chosen for this first session is:

 'The Edge of the Plain' by James Crawford.

You can follow James on Twitter here.

On a day when Suella Braverman is in Rwanda touring the places where asylum seekers may be housed, when we have a growing rhetoric of exclusion, and a week after the furore over Gary Lineker's comments which led to the BBC being put under pressure, it shows the borders are just as topical as ever. Next month will also see the launch of the new Tim Marshall book. There are over 100 million displaced people globally, and the coming decades will see millions on the move...

You can read the first 50+ pages of the book on Google Books using the link here.

The book is also available to purchase (no obligation to do that) - currently in hardback, but with a paperback version later this year. 

There is also an Audible version of the book, read by James himself, which you may find a useful departmental resource as well. I have a copy for that purpose.

The book has a number of case studies which would be of relevance for many different school contexts and different key stages. They include: 

- Sápmi - the territory of the Sámi people, and the threats of HEP schemes and climate change, and the fight for the cultural identity of the people

- the development of 'no-man's land' during conflicts including World War One.

- Historical walls including those marking the edge of Empires such as the Roman

- The Mason-Dixon line

- how melting glaciers have changed some borders, and also revealed the body of Ötzi the Ice Man, who I have a particular connection with (some good second hand prices to be had)

- the issues facing people crossing from Mexico into the USA, and the project which maps the belongings they leave behind when they often tragically fail to complete the crossing of the desert

- the West Bank and Israel and Palestinian walls behind which lies Banksy's Walled Off Hotel, which James visits - this connects with a unit I used to teach on Israel & Palestine

- the Moroccan border territory of Melilla, which is an entry point into the EU potentially, but is guarded by razor wire, which the Haragas are desperate to cross

- the movement of viruses across borders... 

- the African Great Green Wall to stop desertification

James has also recorded a number of podcasts and interviews which you could watch ahead of the session and they are referenced in the talk as well.

The session will run from 12.30 - 1.30 on the opening day of the conference. I will provide a short input with some ideas for how to use the book, and share some thoughts on other border options. There will then be prompts for discussions and sharing.

There will also be a small input from James himself.

There are other border related books of course including Cal Flyn's book on abandoned places, and Klaus Dodds' 'Border Wars', which is excellent. Tim Marshall's books have also touched on the notion of borders.

Klaus in fact tweeted earlier this morning about the growing relevance of borders...

All of this seems to have taken on added salience in recent days. In my book Border Wars I reflected on four strategies of many governments. Construction, expansion, deflection and expulsion. #borders pic.twitter.com/rYkJs9MMIC

— Klaus Dodds (@klausdodds) March 19, 2023

There's also a relevant piece in today's Observer about the language of stopping the boats...

 

I will also be mentioning an article in 'Teaching Geography' written by my friend and colleague Claire Kyndt, published in 2015, describing our work on a unit on Borders for Year 8 and 9 students. This includes a useful framework for exploring borders which I will be sharing.

It would be lovely to see plenty of people there to start off what I'm sure will be a wonderful conference.

GA Conference 2023 - Geo Live

Preparations are now in the final changes for the forthcoming GA Conference 2023.

The Geo LIVE event for students is also available once again.

This year's event is called PLACE Stories and has been curated by Denise Freeman and Alastair Owens.

2023 Programme: Place stories

9.30 - 10.00 - Registration

10.10 - Keynote lecture: Shabna Begum

11.30 - 12.15 - Introduction to the day and the Voices Project

Focusing on space, place and identity, students explore where groups have felt in place/out of place, exploring similarities and differences; as well as critically questioning why these patterns exist.

12.15 - 12.45 - Lunch on site (students bring their own lunch).

12.45 - 2.00 - Fieldwork with Duncan Hawley - Stories in Urban Stonework

Going outside, students join Duncan to look at the rock cycle in an urban environment and consider dynamic changes in the landscape and a changing world.

2.00 - Part two of the voices project

Engaging with recordings from the Voices Project, students explore how to collect their own oral geographies and how they could be used in the NEA, at school, or in the future.

3.30 pm End

Geography Book Club at the GA Conference 2023

New for 2023, and incorporating Kate Stockings' idea of having a Book Swap which we introduced at Guildford in 2022.

What books should we discuss?

Please suggest some below.

We'll let you know the results about a month before the conference to give you time to buy, borrow or loan the book and read it.

GA Conference 2023 Early Bird Tickets

These are now available for booking from the GA website.

Hopefully see some of you there in April 2023 for Alastair Owens' Collaborative Geographies.

Discounted early-bird tickets to #GAConf23 are now available for purchase!

The 2023 conference is due to take place from 13–15 April 2023 at Sheffield Hallam University.

Book your tickets now at https://t.co/4cZpMyXD0G #geographyteacher #geography #education #conference pic.twitter.com/Sypyzbus6u

— Geographical Association (@The_GA) September 22, 2022

GA Conference 2023 - booking now open

The 2023 Conference will be held at Sheffield Hallam University and have an updated structure from previous years.

Day one will begin at 12.00 on Thursday 13 April with a welcome from our President Alastair Owens and include your choice of a range of field visits, a place at one of our networking events, and the Conference Dinner, as well as the annual GA awards ceremony, Public Lecture and drinks reception.

Days two and three will feature the usual diverse range of lectures, workshops, Teacher-to-Teacher and research paper sessions, as well as our usual exhibition and social events.

The conference will draw to a close at 16.00 on Saturday 15 April.

We are continuing to offer a hybrid conference, with full face-to-face Conference supplemented by a slimmed-down online version streamed via our dedicated platform.

The face to face Conference at Sheffield Hallam University will include a programme of over 100 lectures, workshops, teacher-to-teacher sessions, research papers and field visits with social events in the evening and the opportunity to network with other delegates and exhibitors.

It's a highlight of the academic year.

The online version will include a combination of lectures and workshops but the programme will be smaller than the face to face version with roughly half the sessions available.

Visit this page here to find out more or book your place.

If you have put in a proposal for a session as the lead presenter you may want to delay a little to see whether it has been accepted as you will get free day's delegates fees on the day that you are presenting.

A booking portal will open shortly, but there are many hotel options in the city of Sheffield and the venue is very close to the train station.

Free registration is available to students who are members of the GA. 

Student registration does not include lunch, however there are several outlets where you can purchase food. Students who are not members of the GA should join to recieve free entry or book as a student non-member.

More details will emerge over the coming months as the programme begins to take shape. Thanks to all those who took the time to propose a lecture or workshop, or field visit.