Social and Cultural Geography Research Group – Page 3 – of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Insititute of British Geographers)

Upcoming vacancies on the SCGRG Committee

The following roles will be available from September this year. Elections to
the Committee will be held at the Annual General Meeting. Nominations for
Committee membership will be accepted up to September the 8th, ahead of the AGM on Sept 13th 2023.

Nominations must be in writing and include the names of the proposer and
seconder, please send nominations to the SCGRG Secretary, Will Andrews at w.j.a.andrews@keele.ac.uk

If you have any questions about the roles listed below please do not hesitate to get in touch with the SCGRG Secretary.

Vacancies:
Chair (3 years)
In this leadership role you will guide and direct the activities of the Research Group. The work includes but is not limited to, Chairing Group meetings including the AGM, distributing workload for planned events and activities evenly across the committee, proposing and leading any discussions needed related to the Research Group.
Along with the Treasurer and Secretary this role makes up the Executive, this is the group to whom any official communication for the RGS-IBG is sent, to be distributed with the wider committee.
We invite applications for Chair from academics at any career stage, however please note that some leadership experience or experience as part of similar Groups/committees will be beneficial.

Secretary (3 years)
This role includes scheduling meetings and overseeing the links between different officer roles and the Chair, in particular helping to oversee the Committee’s participation in the decision-making processes for Dissertation Prize and Conference Session sponsorship. Along with the Treasurer and Chair this role makes up the Executive, this is the group to whom any official communication for the RGS-IBG is sent, to be distributed with the wider committee.

Dissertation Prize Officer (1 year)
This role involves advertising the SCGRG Dissertation Prize, organising the anonymisation of submitted dissertations and distributing these to members of the committee during the judging process. In this role you will organise and oversee this judging process, with support from the Chair and Secretary, and will act in the final decision-making process.

Conference Officer (1 year)
The Conference Officer is responsible for coordinating Research Group sponsored sessions at the Annual International Conference and acting as a central point of contact with the conference organisers; coordinating (with assistance from the rest of the Committee), any Research Group organised conferences and events.

Early Career & Mentoring Officer (3 years)
The ECM role affords the representation of the needs and interests of early-career academics and may include the potential to organise PG-focused events. Previously we have seen this the Officer in this role work closely with the PG Rep(s) with a shared interest in the transitional stages between PG and early career research and teaching. In previous years, the ECM Officer and PG Rep have run sessions at the RGS-IBG conference as space for a range of career-stage scholars to share their work and to facilitate early networking opportunities.

Postgraduate Representative (1 year)
This is one of two PG Rep roles, so you will work alongside another postgraduate. The aim of this role is primarily to offer guidance from a PG perspective within any decision-making or event organising. This role will also give you the opportunity to represent the needs and interests of current postgraduates and may include the potential to organise PG-focused events. In this role it is also a good idea to maintain links with the wider Geography postgraduate community through the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum.

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As noted above, nominations must be in writing and include the names of the proposer and seconder, please send nominations to the SCGRG Secretary, Will Andrews at w.j.a.andrews@keele.ac.uk by Sept 8th 2023.

Upcoming vacancies on the SCGRG committee

The following roles will be available from September this year. Elections to the Committee will be held at the Annual General Meeting. Nominations for Committee membership will be accepted up to the beginning of the AGM (August 24^th). Nominations must be in writing and include the names of the proposer and seconder.

Vacancies:
Dissertation Prize Officer (1 year) – see role description below

RGS-IBG SCGRG Role Description 2020

Month	Task	Action	Contact	Deadline	Status
January
February
March
April	In response to RHED (RGS-IBG), update call for nominations for dissertation award	Update call for nominations text (with deadline) and provide for RHED	RHED
Confirm continuation of Social & Cultural Geography subscription arrangement with Taylor Francis	Taylor Francis
May	Encourage submissions	Circulate call for nominations via membership list and appropriate mailing lists and social media	Membership secretary
Crit-geog-forum and other geography mailing lists; Web Officer; Social Media Officer
June
July	Coordinate assessment of submissions	Circulate sign-up for judging rounds to members
Collate submission entries and organise in Dropbox folder; collate contact details for entries
Send submissions & evaluation matrix to prize panel members, with target deadlines for assessing submissions (2 rounds)	Prize panel members (expected to be all committee members)
August	Agree on award of prize (winner and runner-up)	With Secretary and Chair	Before AGM
Report to SCGRG AGM: number of entries, submitting institutions, prize winner and runner-up, and any other commendations	Chair
September	Award prize	Inform successful individual and all submitting departments of outcome
Put prize winner in touch with RGS-IBG and Taylor Francis to receive prize	Treasurer Taylor Francis
Update website and tweet news; do profile of winner and runner-up for website (see previous examples); send link to RGS-IBG for information.	Web officer
October
November
December

Conference Officer (1 year) – see role description below

RGS-IBG SCGRG Role Description 2020 – Conference Officer

Month	Task	Action	Contact	Deadline	Status
January	Decide on SCGRG sponsored sessions	Prepare and disseminate submitted expressions of interest for SCGRG sponsored sessions to committee members in a timely fashion for decision re sponsored sessions in accordance with RGS guidance	SCGRG committee
Communicate outcome with sessions proposers in a timely fashion	Contacts for EOIs
February	Liaise with session convenors	Liaise with session convenors if required	Session convenors of SCGRG sponsored sessions
March	Liaise with session convenors	Liaise with session convenors if required	Session convenors of SCGRG sponsored sessions
April	Inform RGS of sponsored sessions upon request		RGS
May	Check conference timetable	Check conference timetable for clashes	RGS
Session convenors of SCGRG sponsored sessions
June	Publicise SCGRG sponsored sessions	Liaise with session convenors, Web Officer, and Social Media officer	Session convenors of SCGRG sponsored sessions
Web Officer
Social Media Officer
July
August
September
October
November	Prepare call for SCGRG sponsored sessions for the RGS Annual Conference	Await announcement re RGS Annual Conference for following August. Discuss call for sponsored sessions with other officers and agree timeline (including meeting to decide . Prepare call for sponsored sessions based on agreed timeframe and instruction from RGS.	RGS, Chair, Secretary
December	Disseminate call for sponsored sessions.		CRITGEOG, Web Officer; Social Media Officer, SCGRG list.

Website & Social Media Officer (1 year)

Update the SCGRG website on a regular basis and share information via Twitter.

For more information on this role, please contact tracy.hayes@cumbria.ac.uk

Postgraduate Representative (1 year)

Information to be added.

SCGRG sponsored sessions at RGS-IBG 2022

This is a summary of the sessions sponsored by SCGRG at this year’s conference. For more information please see the conference programme available here https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/programme/

Session number	Session title	Session Organisers	Format
243, 251	Plural Environments and the Interdisciplinary Study of Disaster	Amy Johnson et al	In-person
82	The ‘Green Shoots’ of Recovery: Signposts from Everyday Life in a Global Pandemic	Rebecca Collins, Katharine Welsh	Online
181, 216	Geography’s Hidden Animals/Hidden Animal Geographies	Hannah Dickinson, Catherine Oliver	Hybrid
86	Cultural and Social Geographies of Infection Prevention and Protection within interspecies communities (viral, microbial, plant, animals)	Charlotte Veal, Emma Roe	Hybrid
214, 226	(Re)Imagining Crisis and Recovery: Social and Cultural Responses to Climate Change	Amy Robson, Charlotte Veal	In-person
287	Food for thought: The political potentiality of mutual aid networks of food provision	Oli Mould, Jenni Cole, Adam Badger	In-person
30, 308	To speak of love…	Paul Harrison, Anna Secor, Mikko Joronen	In-person

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Geographies of Disabilities/Geographies with Disabilities workshops in September 2022

Thirty years on from early work in geography on disability, in collaboration with the RGS-IBG, we are holding two online discussion sessions which aim to create space and time for open discussion about geographies of/with disabilities. The first of these discussions will be focused on Geographies of Disabilities for those who research disabilities. The second session will be on Geographies with Disabilities which is open to anyone across the breadth of human/physical geographies and allied disciplines. Whilst these conversations are split between two workshops these will inevitably intersect. For more information and to register please use the links below:

Geographies of Disabilities: Friday 9th September 2022, 2-3pm BST: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/372042608457
Geographies with Disabilities: Thursday 15th September 2022, 2-3pm BST: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/372049549217

Organised by Bethan Evans, Morag Rose, Amita Bhakta, John Horton, Faith Tucker, Catherine Waite, in collaboration with the RGS-IBG.

Find out more about SCGRG

Ahead of our AGM, the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society will be hosting an informal online session for anyone who would like to find out more about what being part of our research group entails and the opportunities it may offer. All are welcome, particularly postgraduates, early career researchers and researchers from under-represented groups within the discipline, who have an interest in social and cultural geography.

The session will be hosted on Zoom 1300-1400 BST on Monday 22nd August 2022. You can register for this online session using the following Eventbrite link:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/find-out-about-us-rgs-social-and-cultural-geography-research-group-tickets-392970243577

Registered attendees will be emailed a link to the Zoom meeting prior to the event.

There is no obligation to join our research group following this event. The event is simply designed as an informal opportunity to find out more about us ahead of our AGM. We know that the formal setting of an AGM can be intimidating, with people feeling they need to step forward and take on roles/tasks if attending. This informal session hopes to be the opposite of that.

Come and chat with the Chair of our research group – Tara Woodyer – about what the group has been doing in recent years, the support it offers to its members, and opportunities for getting involved, either in a formal role on the committee, or through more informal means.

As a first step, you can find out more about being part of a Royal Geographical Society Research Group here.

Please feel free to share this widely amongst your networks.

SCGRG AGM online

Our online AGM will be held on Wednesday 24th August.

Anyone interested in social and cultural geography is welcome, but will need to register in advance via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/royal-geographical-societys-social-and-cultural-research-group-agm-tickets-388110919207?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

The event will be held on Zoom. A link to the online meeting will be emailed to all registered attendees prior to the event.

From 09.00-10.00 we’ll have an informal coffee and chat session for anyone interested in meeting others working within social and cultural geography.

From 10.00-12.00 will conduct our usual AGM business. An agenda and list of committee vacancies will follow.

People are welcome to attend both the informal and formal sessions, or just one.

Call for RGS-IBG 2022 sponsored sessions

The RGS-IBG Social and Cultural Geography Research Group (SCGRG) would like to invite expressions of interest for sponsored sessions for the RGS-IBG 2022 Annual Conference, which will take place in Newcastle from Tuesday 30 August to Friday 2 September 2022.

RGS-IBG recognises that: ‘This year’s conference will not be ‘business as usual’ given everything that has happened over the last two years, from COVID-19 to Black Lives Matter, and from COP26 to concerns about cultures and behaviour within disciplinary spaces. So before we open the call for sessions and papers, we want to encourage everyone to pause and think about the conference, what it means, and what it offers to those attending. We too will be thinking widely and expansively about sustainability, inclusivity and accessibility in and around the conference and our broader activities with Research Groups and the geographical community. Please see our chair’s statement on inclusivity and safety.’

You can find out more about the conference at: https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/#

The conference will consist of a strong in-person element, and with hybrid and online ways to participate.

The theme for the 2022 Annual Conference, chaired by Professor Rachel Pain, is Geographies Beyond Recovery.

SCGRG is keen to sponsor sessions that directly relate to the conference theme, as well as make room for a wide range of other issues and topics. We welcome sessions which will be of wide significance and interest to social and cultural geographers, will meaningfully contribute to ongoing debates in social and cultural geography, and demonstrate substantive, methodological or theoretical novelty.

Please take note the guidelines for session proposals and conference participation: https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/call/

Please take time to familiarise yourselves with the guidelines and to design your session proposals accordingly.

Please submit your expressions of interest for SCGRG sponsorship by 17:00GMT on Friday 28^th January through: https://forms.office.com/r/xmjc0Lbd8a

We will endeavour to inform applicants of the outcome by the 4^th February.

Call for workshops and nominations for Book Prize…

Workshops – We invite applications to the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group workshop funding scheme. The scheme is designed to support and promote research in social and cultural geography by providing financial resource for an event (or set of events) of wide and lasting significance to work within the subdiscipline (and, if relevant, linked areas in and outside of geography). For more information see https://scgrg.co.uk/workshops

Book Prize – We invite nominations for the inaugural Social and Cultural Geography Research Group (with Social and Cultural Geography) book prize. The book prize will run every three years, and is designed to recognise and celebrate a book that makes an original contribution to the field of social and cultural geography, broadly understood. For more information see https://scgrg.co.uk/book-prize

The SCGRG dissertation prize 2021. We have a winner!

Interior of a London Underground railway carriage

We are finally in a position to announce our winner of the undergraduate 2021 SCGRG dissertation prize. We had 21 entries in total from Geography departments across the UK. Committee members of the SCGRG RGS-IBG review the entries across three rounds.

After a rigorous process, the winner is Abi Smith from the University of Cambridge. with her dissertation entitled:

Making sense of sonic affect: the automated voices of the London Underground

It was found that Abi’s dissertation was considered the overall winner given:

A clear and unique intellectual contribution to aural spaces and sonic geographies, demonstrating conceptual excellence and methodological originality. It was deemed by reviewers of publishable standard.
SCGRG dissertation prize committee

The winner receives £100 for the best undergraduate dissertation while the runner-up and winner both receive a year’s personal subscription to the journal Social and Cultural Geography, published by Taylor & Francis.

The news of winning this award was equally as surprising as lovely to hear! I am hugely grateful to the SCGRG committee and to everyone- from the voiceover artists and LUUs (London Underground Users) to my Director of Studies supervisors, and accessibility team- who both inspired and made completing this dissertation possible.
Abi Smith

We are delighted that Abi has taken out the time to write a blog post for us, where she highlights her motivations for doing the research, her passion for sonic geographies and her reaction to being our winner.

Influences and motivations for the research

The broad and exciting nature of Geography quickly became clear, and this only made the process of narrowing down a dissertation topic more difficult. Whilst I found the many dimensions of sensory geographies particularly intriguing, it wasn’t until after several discussions with my Director of Studies, and a sensory methods lecture, that I began to realise that these ideas could form the basis for my dissertation.

During the process of exploring these themes for my research proposal, I came across an article by Nina Power examining the prolific use of female-sounding voices in urban space. The article not only raised many important questions but led me to realise that there were several empirical gaps relating to the study of automated voices, and sound, within Geography. To build on these questions, I decided to centre my focus on the London Underground, both due to my own familiarity with the network and its geographical significance.

The Sounds of the Underground: Research methods

By focusing specifically on the carriage space, my dissertation attempts to respond to calls within sonic geography to better conceptualise the relationship between sound and affect. Combining interviews with the voices of the well-known ‘Mind the Gap’ announcements, sound recordists, and London Underground users (LUU) with phonographic methods, it considers the sonic design, and reception of, automated announcements through the lens of affect. To do so it employs an ‘expanded euphonics’ to overcome the limitations of previous methodological, empirical and theoretical approaches, which typically emphasise sight and overlook the intricate processes of sound-making. Primarily drawing on the work of Gernot Böhme and Michael Gallagher, this expanded euphonics sought to (i) centre the sonic, (ii) understand how sonic atmospheres are designed and perceived and (iii) counteract the ocular-centrism which often persists in studies of affects and atmospheres. Methodologically, this involved collecting several audio recordings (remotely), incorporating these recordings within the interviews, and then utilising interview recordings within the text itself to invite the reader/listener to reflect on their own embodied reactions.

Contributions to sonic geographies

Moving beyond the visible components of the carriage previously researched, attending to the sonic revealed that these voices have a unique capacity to affect LUUs. Yet, it similarly demonstrated that this capacity is impinged upon by numerous external influences. Such influences ensured that whilst attempts to alter and/or design sonic affects (through the control of voice’s gender, tone, accent) are to some extent successful, unpredictable affective encounters persist- many of which were not possible to explore within the dissertation.

Reflections and future research

Whilst I was initially hesitant about how this process would work, considering the covid restrictions, I enjoyed finding alternative ways to examine these voices remotely (and found the SCGRG website particularly useful for this!). Although I had always planned to use audio recordings, the travel restrictions meant that they proved vital for evoking memories and a sense of place. Even though Zoom interviews took some getting used to, the virtual context also had many benefits, such as being able to contact a much wider range of people. Ultimately, this process demonstrated to me that there is huge potential for further research not only into automated voices, but within sonic geography more broadly.

SCGRG RGS-IBG 2021 Sponsored Sessions

We’re very much looking forward to the upcoming RGS-IBG 2021 conference and our sponsored sessions. Information with links to our sponsored sessions can be found below:

Wednesday 1st September

9.00 – 10.40 BST