Announcing Dissertation Prize 2020 winners

Eleanor Pendle – 2020 dissertation prize winner

Eleanor Pendle of Oxford University is our 2020 Winner for her dissertation entitled ‘The Poblenou Superblock: Rights, Responsibilities and Exclusions‘. An engaging and detailed study of rights to the city, social justice, and urban citizenship in a Barcelona ‘superblock’, the panel were impressed by the study’s rigorous scholarship, nuanced analysis, and rich, in-depth fieldwork conducted across languages. The committee felt that this was an outstanding example of social/cultural geographical work.

Bethan Jones of Edinburgh University is our runner-up this year for her dissertation entitled ‘Walking Utopia: How is Harlow New Town remembered through public sculpture walks? A case for transcorporeal geographies of memory‘. In a dissertation that took an innovative, creative approach to the geographical study of art and memory, the panel praised the study’s ambition and originality, its sensitive handling of the research process, and the creative flair it demonstrates in its writing.  

Bethan Jones – 2020 dissertation prize runner-up

The winner receives a prize of £100, and both have been given a one-year free subscription to the journal Social and Cultural Geography courtesy of Taylor & Francis. 

In total we received 23 submissions for the prize this year from universities up and down the country, with work spanning the breadth of social and cultural geography. Many thanks to all students who submitted to the prize – we wish you all the best in your onward steps. We look forward to continuing the prize next year and await your submissions!  

SCGRG Committee vacancies – posts still available

The 2020 AGM of the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group (SCGRG) took place online on Friday 4th September. Thank you to everyone who joined us!

We still have three committee vacancies available, which are as follows:

Dissertation Officer:

This post is a three-year term (in the first instance) and the role involves coordination of the dissertation prizes.  The role involves advertising the Group’s dissertation prize through appropriate media, arranging the judging, liaising with the Treasurer and any sponsors in arranging the prize, conducting interviews with winner(s) and liaising with the website officer to display examples of winning entries from previous years.  The role also involves sitting on the panel of the dissertation prize.  The dissertation prize coordinator will usually be involved in SCGRG’s wider committee activities.

Postgraduate Representative:

This post is a one-year term (in the first instance) and the role involves liaising with the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum, engaging with postgraduate issues through our SCGRG postgraduate blog and working with our other postgraduate representative(s) on related events and activities. The PG representative would usually be involved in SCGRG’s wider committee activities, i.e. part of the judging panel for our undergraduate dissertation prize.

Conference officer:

This post is a key and important role for the group. The conference officer leads the coordination the group’s sponsorship and organisation of sessions at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference each year and other events and activities. The role involves compiling call for sessions proposals, liaising with session proposers, and organising the vote on the proposals by the committee.  The conference officer would usually be involved in SCGRG’s wider committee activities i.e. part of the judging panel for our undergraduate dissertation prize.

Nominations for successors (who must normally be a Fellow or Postgraduate Fellow of the RGS-IBG) are now open. Nominations must be in writing to the Chair (Dr Tara Woodyer tara.woodyer@port.ac.uk) and Secretary (Dr Will Andrews w.andrews@bangor.ac.uk) with the name of two nominators (these need not be Fellows of the RGS-IBG or existing committee members).

If you have any questions about any of the above posts or about SCGRG more broadly, please email Tara and Will.

2020 Social and Cultural Geography Research Group AGM

The 2020 AGM of the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group (SCGRG) will take place online on Friday 4th Sept 1100-1300 (BST).  This year’s AGM will take place virtually, all are welcome to attend. Please encourage people who are not currently involved with the group to join us.

In accordance with RGS-IBG guidelines for digital security, anyone wishing to attend this year’s virtual AGM will need to register through Eventbrite prior to the event. The Zoom link for the AGM will be shared with you once you have registered. 

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virtual-scgrg-agm-tickets-117742586245

We have six vacancies for Committee positions as current post-holders complete their terms of office:

* Secretary: This post is a three-year term (in the first instance) and the role involves coordination of the group’s administration.  Each October the secretary prepares the annual report with the Chair and the Treasurer; the secretary also prepares agenda and notices for the AGM in July/August/September, and takes minutes of this (and any other) meeting(s).  The secretary may attend the RGS-IBG Research Groups Committee at the RGS, normally in October and March.  The secretary will usually be involved in SCGRG’s wider committee activities i.e. part of the judging panel for our undergraduate dissertation prize.

* Dissertation Officer: This post is a three-year term (in the first instance) and the role involves coordination of the dissertation prizes.  The role involves advertising the Group’s dissertation prize through appropriate media, arranging the judging, liaising with the Treasurer and any sponsors in arranging the prize, conducting interviews with winner(s) and liaising with the website officer to display examples of winning entries from previous years.  The role also involves sitting on the panel of the dissertation prize.  The dissertation prize coordinator will usually be involved in SCGRG’s wider committee activities.

* Early career and Mentoring Officer: This post is a three-year term (in the first instance) and the role involves leading the research group’s mentoring and early-career related activities.  The early career and mentoring officer will liaise with the education officer, the RHED officer of the RGS-IBG, and other research groups where appropriate, to coordinate the development of events and resources to support members.  The early career and mentoring officer would usually be involved in SCGRG’s wider committee activities i.e. part of the judging panel for our undergraduate dissertation prize.   

* Ordinary Committee Member (x 1): This post is a three-year term (in the first instance).  Ordinary committee members would usually be involved in the SCGRG’s wider committee activities i.e. contribution to committee meetings and AGMs, being part of the judging panel for our undergraduate dissertation prize, reviewing conference session proposals, and contribution to research grant applications, medals and awards nominations, and research group events. Ordinary committee members may also be asked to provide support for named committee roles.

* Postgraduate Representatives (x 2): This post is a one-year term (in the first instance) and the role involves liaising with the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum, engaging with postgraduate issues through our SCGRG postgraduate blog and working with our other postgraduate representative(s) on related events and activities. The PG representative would usually be involved in SCGRG’s wider committee activities, i.e. part of the judging panel for our undergraduate dissertation prize.

Nominations for successors (who must normally be a Fellow or Postgraduate Fellow of the RGS-IBG) are now open. Nominations must be in writing to the Chair (Dr Tara Woodyer tara.woodyer@port.ac.uk) and Secretary (Dr Richard Scriven – r.scriven@umail.ucc.ie) with the name of two nominators (these need not be Fellows of the RGS-IBG or existing committee members).  The deadline for nominations is Friday 28th August 2020.  The elections will be conducted at the AGM itself, where details of nominations will be shared.

Further opportunities to be elected to a named role or as an ordinary committee member may become available during the AGM itself. We’ll also be discussing different ways that our wider membership can get involved with SCGRG.

If you have any questions about any of the above posts or about SCGRG more broadly, please email Tara and Richard.

Resources for remote research in Human Geography – crowd-sourced document

Antonio Ferraz-de-Oliveira, from Cambridge University, has curated a document that was originally designed to support second year undergraduates, who are rapidly reformulating their dissertation plans for the summer. This project evolved into something quite substantial, and has been welcomed by PhD students and academics, who are also finding the need to revise and revisit research plans.

Antonio and other contributors have now released a version for general circulation, in the spirit of collective solidarity towards students, colleagues and researchers in these difficult times. You can find it following the link below:

Ferraz de Oliveira, A., ed. (2020). Resources for remote research in Human Geography. (crowd-sourced document). Available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Oe-y9mA2ERrs0xzxSx64znMNEcMepp6Mu3ooCk4jbfc/

Mapping resources

EDINA Digimap

Digimap is an online map and data delivery service which offers a number of data collections, including Ordnance Survey, historical, geological, LiDAR and marine maps and spatial data.

You can create or interrogate a map online by selecting an appropriate base map, adding annotations and customising the content, and use measurement and query tools to learn more about a study area. It is also possible to download the raw spatial data in a wide range of formats for use in GIS, CAD or image processing software.

So long as your institution subscribes (and over 166 universities do), users simply need to register for an individual account and then they get instant access to data for online mapping or to download. There is a very good helpdesk should you need it at edina@ed.ac.uk.

Website https://digimap.edina.ac.uk/

OS OpenData

OS Open Data is a source of more generalised data, often at a smaller scale. It is available under the Open Government Licence so all forms or onward use are permissible as long as the origin of the data is acknowledged.

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/products?Licence%20or%20agreement=0/154/168/171

Don’t forget to always acknowledge the copyright and source of your data.

Postgraduate Forum Twitter Conference – apply to present

The Postgraduate Forum Twitter Conference will be taking place from Tuesday 25 to Thursday 27 August.

What is the PGF Twitter Conference?

This conference is an opportunity for PhD students in geography and related disciplines to share their research with the wider geography community on Twitter.

The PGF recognise that many people will have been preparing materials for conferences that have now been postponed or cancelled, and so they decided to run this event in the absence of such conferences (for example, the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference). If you have work you’d like to share which you had planned to present at any conference, or indeed any new findings you’d like to share with the academic world, please consider applying to present!

How does it work?

Participants will be grouped into sessions with others carrying out research in a similar field. You’ll be given 15 minutes to share 5 tweets which showcase your work, and 15 minutes to respond to any comments in a ‘live’ Q&A. With just 280 characters per Tweet, you’ll need to think about creative ways of demonstrating your findings, for example by creating a short video or GIF to accompany your text. If your application is successful, you will be sent a detailed presenters’ guide to ensure you’re well prepared to share and discuss your research with as wide an audience as possible!

The deadline for submissions is Friday 24 July.

For more details, please visit the PGF website at https://rgspostgradforum.org/rgs-ibg-postgraduate-forum-twitter-conference-2020.

Call for nominations – Undergraduate dissertation prize

We are pleased to open the call for nominations to our annual SCGRG Undergraduate Dissertation Prize.

Details on eligibility and the submission procedure can be found on our dissertation pages; where you can also find previous prize winning dissertations.

The deadline for nominations is Tuesday 21st July 2020. Good luck!

Examples of methods in prize winning dissertations

We’ve looked through the full back catalogue of SCGRG prize winning undergraduate dissertations and found useful examples of methods that can be used during lockdown.

  • Thomas Paulsen, University of Exeter – Runner Up 2017

Doing your dissertation during the Covid-19 pandemic

The global pandemic has created a radically changed landscape for the practice of research. As we all face these challenges and look to rethink our research projects and approaches in line with this new situation, we wanted to gather together some resources that might provide some useful guidance, information, and support. These resources are thought particularly for undergraduate social and cultural geography students, but will of course be useful more widely too. We hope that you find them helpful. This is a live resource, and we will be adding things as and when they come up in the coming months. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to get in touch with the group’s Dissertation Officer, Dr. Sofie Narbed: sofie.narbed@rhul.ac.uk.

Online research methods

If you’re thinking of taking your methods online – whether that’s interviews, questionnaires of analysing online media – we’ve found some great resources about online research methods to help you get started.

Secondary data sources

Due to the difficulties of doing ‘fieldwork’ during a pandemic, you might find yourself working predominantly with secondary rather than primary data for your dissertation. Here’s a list of secondary data sources which are freely available online, that could be used as a basis for a social/cultural geographical dissertation study.

Secondary data analysis

So you’ve chosen to use secondary data in your dissertation – what next? We’ve put together a list of readings which provide guidance on secondary data analysis of visual materials, texts, adverts, films and more.

Webinars, conferences and podcasts

Looking for further inspiration? We’ve collated lists of webinars, conferences and podcasts, all about accessing and using secondary data sets and adapting research methods to the new situation we are in.

Methods used in SCGRG prize winning dissertations

We’ve looked through the full back catalogue of SCGRG prize winning undergraduate dissertations and found useful examples using lockdown-appropriate methods.

Secondary data analysis for research during a pandemic

Due to the pandemic and the difficulties of doing ‘fieldwork’, you might find yourself working predominantly with secondary rather than primary data for your dissertation – visual materials, texts, adverts, films, etc. The below readings provide some guidance on or examples of this kind of analysis. 

Aitken, S. C. (2013). Textual analysis: reading culture and context. Methods in Human Geography: A guide for students doing a research project, pp. 233.

Bartram, R. (2010) Geography and the Interpretation of Visual Imagery, In Clifford et al., Key Methods in Geography, London: Sage.

Bhattacharyya, D. P. (1997). Mediating India: An analysis of a guidebook. Annals of Tourism Research, 24(2), pp. 371-389. DOI: 10.1016/S0160-7383(97)80007-2

Bishop, L. (2007). A reflexive account of reusing qualitative data: Beyond primary/secondary dualism. Sociological Research Online, 12(3), pp. 43-56. DOI: 10.5153/sro.1553

Cosgrove, D., & Daniels, S. (Eds.). 1988. The iconography of landscape: essays on the symbolic representation, design and use of past environments (Vol. 9). Cambridge University Press.

Daniels, S. (1993). Fields of vision: landscape imagery and national identity in England and the United States (pp. 112-45). Cambridge: Polity Press.

Dittmer, J. (2005). Captain America’s empire: Reflections on identity, popular culture, and post-9/11 geopolitics. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 95(3), pp. 626-643. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8306.2005.00478.x

Dittmer, J. (2011). Captain Britain and the narration of nation. Geographical Review, 101(1), pp. 71-87. DOI: 10.1111/j.1931-0846.2011.00073.x

Dodd, K. & Dodd, P. (2004) From the East End to EastEnders: representations of the working class 1890-1990, In D. Strinati & S. Wagg (Eds.) Come on down? Popular Media Culture in Post-War Britain, Routledge, pp. 125-141.

Dodds, K. (1996). The 1982 Falklands War and a critical geopolitical eye: Steve Bell and the if… cartoons. Political Geography, 15(6-7), pp. 571-592. DOI: 10.1016/0962-6298(96)00002-9

Domosh, M. (2003). Selling America: advertising, national identity and economic empire in the late nineteenth century, In Blunt et al. (Eds.) Cultural Geography in Practice, Oxford: Hodder Arnold, pp. 141-153

Dwyer, C., & Davies, G. (2010). Qualitative methods III: animating archives, artful interventions and online environments. Progress in Human Geography, 34(1), pp. 88-97. DOI: 10.1177/0309132508105005

Gallwey, A. (2013). The rewards of using archived oral histories in research: The case of the Millennium Memory Bank. Oral History, 41(1), pp. 37-50. www.jstor.org/stable/41806380

Goldman, R. (1992; 2005). Reading ads socially. Routledge.

Hones, S. (2008). Text as it happens: Literary geography. Geography Compass, 2(5), pp. 1301-1317. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00143.x

Hones, S. (2010). Teaching and learning guide for: Text as it happens–literary geography. Geography Compass, 4(1), pp. 61-66. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2009.00291.x

Lyon, D., & Crow, G. (2012). The challenges and opportunities of re-studying community on Sheppey: young people’s imagined futures. The Sociological Review, 60(3), pp. 498-517. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02096.x

Lyon, D., Morgan Brett, B., & Crow, G. (2012). Working with material from the Sheppey archive. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 15(4), pp. 301-309. DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2012.688314

Lutz, C. A., & Collins, J. L. (1993). Reading National Geographic (Vol. 59). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kinsman, P. (1995). Landscape, race and national identity: the photography of Ingrid Pollard. Area, pp. 300-310. www.jstor.org/stable/20003600

May, J. (2003).The view from the streets: Geographies of homelessness in the British newspaper press, In Blunt el al (Eds.) Cultural Geography in Practice, Oxford: Hodder Arnold, pp. 23-38.

Mills, S. (2012) Young ghosts: ethical and methodological issues of historical research in children’s geographies, Children’s Geographies, 10(3), pp. 357-363, DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2012.693838

Mills, S. (2013). Cultural–historical geographies of the archive: fragments, objects and ghosts. Geography Compass, 7(10), pp. 701-713. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12071

Monaco, J. (2009). How to read a film: The art, technology, language, history, and theory of film and media. New York: Oxford University Press.

Pinder, D. (2003). Mapping Worlds: cartography and the politics of representation, in Blunt et al. (Eds) Cultural Geography in Practice, Oxford: Hodder Arnold, pp. 172-190.

Rose, G. (1996). Teaching visualised geographies: towards a methodology for the interpretation of visual materials. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 20(3), pp. 281-294. DOI: 10.1080/03098269608709373

Rose, G. (2000). Practising photography: an archive, a study, some photographs and a researcher. Journal of historical geography, 26(4), pp. 555-571. DOI: 10.1006/jhge.2000.0247

Rose, G. (2001; 2016). Visual methodologies: An introduction to researching with visual materials. London: Sage.

Sharp, J. P. (2000). Towards a critical analysis of fictive geographies. Area, 32(3), pp. 327-334. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2000.tb00145.x

Watters, E. C., Cumming, S., & Caragata, L. (2018). The Lone Mother Resilience Project: A Qualitative Secondary Analysis. In Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 19(2). DOI: 10.17169/fqs-19.2.2863