Thank you to all of you for casting your votes to decide the host of the 2013 RGS-IBG Mid-term conference. The final count put Birmingham ahead by just 16 votes, nevertheless giving us a clear winner. We would like to say a big thank you to both institutes for putting forward their time, resources, and for their enthusiasm. More details will be posted here later in the year by the organising committee. See you next year in Birmingham!
The polls are now open! For one week only, you get to decide the host venue for the 2013 Mid-term Conference. Both institutions offer excellent environments in which to continue the Mid-term Conference tradition of offering a supportive setting for Geography postgraduates to present their ideas and approaches.
To help you decide who to vote for, the two candidate institutions have set out their stalls below. All you need in order to vote (at the bottom of this page) is a user account on this website. Each person is limited to one vote only, and the poll closes on the 17th May 2012. Continue reading
*Deadline for abstract submission extended to 18th of May*
‘Current Issues and (Im)possible Solutions: an interdisciplinary dialogue in tourism and leisure’ Continue reading
We are pleased to announce this call for papers for a one-day symposium that will take place at the University of Birmingham’s School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences on the 6th of June 2012. The symposium is being organised under the auspices of the EPSRC-funded ADMIER (Accelerating and Disseminating Methodological Innovation in Energy Research) project (http://espru.wordpress.com/admier/). It is part-funded by the Midlands Energy Graduate School (http://www.megs.ac.uk/) and is supported by the Energy Geographies Working Group of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (http://energygeographiesworkinggroup.wordpress.com.)
The aim of the symposium is to build research capacity and provide a platform for interdisciplinary knowledge exchange, by bringing together postgraduate researchers with scholarly interests in energy demand and consumption, as well as interventions and technologies in the home.
Paper topics can include, but are not limited to:
Paper abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent to Dr Saska Petrova (s.petrova@bham.ac.uk) no later than the 1st of May 2012.
Limited travel bursaries will be available – please indicate your interest in them when sending your abstract.
The event will be followed by a one-day international workshop on the same topic, including presentations from several leading researchers in the domain of domestic energy efficiency, technology and consumption behaviours. Participants in the symposium will have the opportunity to stay on for the workshop.
Final call for papers – PopFest 2012, Loughborough University
21st-23rd June 2012 (Abstract deadline 20th March)
PopFest is an annual population studies conference for postgraduate students organised by fellow postgraduates. To celebrate the 20th annual PopFest, the conference in 2012 will reflect on the past 20 years of population studies and look forward to the challenges facing population studies in the next 20 years. PopFest welcomes representatives from various disciplines such as Social Sciences, Demography, Human Geography, Social Anthropology, Social Statistics, Health, Development, Social Policy, Energy and other related fields.
All research projects, completed or in progress, relating to population studies will be welcomed. Professor John Stillwell from the University of Leeds will be the keynote speaker for the event reflecting on increasing ethnic diversity of the UK population over the last 20 years. Professor John Stillwell’s research interests include internal and international population migration, geographical information systems (GIS), and regional development and planning.
Sir Jonathon Porritt, founder director of “Forum for the Future” and former chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission will deliver a plenary exploring the “next 20 years”, considering future challenges to populations. Sir Jonathon is anenvironmentalist and writer, dedicating his time to advising, campaigning, broadcasting and lecturing.
For further details on how to submit a paper or poster presentation please see our website: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/gy/popfest/index.html
Future Connections 2012
7th and 8th June, St Andrews.
The end of the world as we know it?
A conference for PhD students at Scottish universities in the field of Sustainable Development.Moving forward with postgraduate research in sustainable development
The conference aims to bring together PhD candidates from across Scotland and from a variety of disciplines to discuss integration, methods and solutions for research in Sustainable Development.
Registration and research profile submission now open.
Deadline for submission: 2nd April 2012
The 2 day workshop will be strongly interactive, with the emphasis on sharing experiences of working in an interdisciplinary context. The contributions from participants will be used to shape the programme of the workshop and the content of a resulting publication.
All participants will be given the chance to contribute through verbal presentations of their work (places limited) and/or written case-studies contributing to a published manual of integration in interdisciplinary research.
A poster session is available for doctoral students who are in the earlier stages of their research. This inaugural conference aims to create a dynamic network of sustainability researchers across Scotland, providing a space for knowledge exchange and research collaboration.
The workshop will take two main approaches:
Conference fee
The cost of attending the conference is £30 for those requiring accommodation in St Andrews. It includes refreshments, a dinner, wine and accommodation on the 7th June and breakfast, refreshments and lunch on the 8th June. For those not requiring bed and breakfast there is a reduced rate of £20.
Registration
The form below serves as registration for attendance at the workshop and submission of an ‘abstract’ detailing your research for either a poster or a paper. You will also be asked to answer some questions about your research to help us organise the programme and structure of the output publication. Please do take the time to fill this out, but be assured your data will be handled in line with the University of St Andrews data protection policy. Even if you do not wish to present a paper, we ask that you consider a poster – please indicate your choice (paper/poster/neither) on the registration form.
Please register for the conference and submit your research profile and abstracts using the following link:http://tiny.cc/8r3r4 – Registration and research profile submission form
The conference organisers will contact you to confirm your registration has been received and to advise you with regards to payment.
If you have any enquiries please do not hesitate to contact the conference organisers at fc2012@st-andrews.ac.uk
Date: Wednesday 11 – Friday 13 April 2012
Location: Lancaster University
A full conference programme is now available which includes plenary sessions from our invited keynote speakers Mei-Po Kwan, Tyler Mitchell and Pete Atkinson plus themed parallel sessions on topics including Open GIS, Qualitative GIS, Mining Social Media, Location-Based Services, Spatial Ecology and Landscape Visualization. This year we are also pleased to host a special session on the afternoon of Friday 13 April to celebrate the work of Stan Openshaw.
Full conference programme: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/gisruk2012/programme.php
The conference is preceded by an Open Source Geospatial Software workshop delivered by Lutra Consulting which runs from 2pm on Tuesday 10 April to noon on Wednesday 11 April. A Young Researcher’s Forum will also run in parallel with this pre-conference workshop.
A full social programme is also included in the conference with an evening reception with hot buffet and live music at the Midland Hotel, Morecambe on Wednesday 11 April (transport provided) and a conference dinner at Lancaster House Hotel on Thursday 12 April.
Conference registration is now open: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/gisruk2012/registration.php
Please register by the 2 March 2012 to make the most of Early Bird rates.
The GISRUK 2012 local organizing committee (gisruk2012@lancaster.ac.uk)
This free one day workshop is designed for postgraduate students and other non-permanent academic staff / associates who are involved in teaching and supporting student learning specifically in the Geography Earth and Environmental Science (GEES) disciplines (teaching, demonstrating, fieldwork assistants, guest lecturing, marking, etc). There will be a range of sessions for example, making field and laboratory work effective, making GEES teaching interactive, research led teaching, assessment and feedback in GEES disciplines, career planning and integrating sustainability. There will also be an opportunity to bring your own teaching related problems to a question and answer session. A superb opportunity to network and develop contacts across the GEES disciplines and beyond your own institution. Contact Dr Helen Walkington GEES discipline Lead at the Higher Education Academy to book your place. Helen.walkington@heacademy.ac.uk
The final call for sessions sponsored by the Postgraduate Forum at the Annual Conference this year has been extended to Tuesday 31st January.
This extension applies to both the New and Emerging Themes in Postgraduate Geography sessions as well as the new ‘Challenges & Connections’ session. This year postgraduates and early career researchers have the opportunity to contribute to the annual conference in two different ways. Details for both opportunities and how to submit your abstract are as follows;
Option 1: Call for papers: Sessions sponsored by the Postgraduate Forum
New and Emerging Themes in Postgraduate Geography
RGS-IBG Annual Conference, Edinburgh. 3-5th July, 2012.
Submissions are invited for paper presentations that cover new and emerging themes in postgraduate geography. Presentations that address the conference theme of Security of Geography / Geography of Security are particularly welcomed, but not restricted to, and those that make use of different media are especially encouraged. The format for the sessions is a series of 15-minute presentations summarising either a completed research project or research in progress followed by the opportunity for questions and a general discussion of new and emerging themes coming from the sessions. Presenters are particularly encouraged to raise theoretical or methodological challenges associated with their research as these sessions provide an unique opportunity for new researchers to present work-in-progress in an open and supportive environment and to gain individual feedback on their research from those with similar experiences. They also provide participants with a rapid and intensive update and overview of emerging postgraduate research.
Please send a title and short abstract (max. 250 words) by Tuesday 31st January 2012 to the session organisers, Keri Jenner (kaj204@exeter.ac.uk) and Sophie Yarker (s.k.yarker@newcastle.ac.uk)
Option 2: Call for papers: Postgraduates and Early Career Researchers ‘Challenges & Connections’
Session sponsored by the Postgraduate ForumNew and Emerging Themes in Postgraduate Geography
RGS-IBG Annual Conference, Edinburgh. 3-5th July, 2012.
New to this year’s Annual Conference and in order to encourage an open and supportive research community at the conference, the postgraduate forum are proposing to run a “Challenges & Connections” session incorporating new and emerging themes within postgraduate geography. This type of session allows many postgraduates and early career researchers to come together in an innovative and exciting forum to discuss their research interests and to find others with similar interests, ideas and experience they can draw on.
How the session will run
Participants will initially be given the opportunity to raise a question or outline a challenge they are facing, via a post-it note board. Issues can be anything from a methodological issue to questions relating to theory or the PhD process. This will provide the basis for group discussion in the second part of the session. The convenor will open as many questions as possible to the floor to gain feedback and insight from the group as a whole.
Participants will then break into small groups with common research interests for an opportunity to introduce research and to raise any practical and methodological concerns. These groups will be pre-determined based on abstracts submitted. Please base your abstracts around a set of particular themes you would like to discuss in relation to your research so that common themes and crossovers can be identified with other participants.
It is hoped that this session will provide a space for research connectionsto be made between participants as well as reflexive thought and a broaderdiscussion of some of the challenges and connections within the postgraduate research community. It presents the opportunity to engage with and learn from the experience and interests of others in the community in a relaxed and supportive environment. Brief details about participants’ research interests and a contact email address will also be provided during this session to enable easy follow-up.
Please send a title and short outline of research interests and any theoretical, methodological and writing-up challenges you wish to raise (c200 words) by Tuesday 31st 2012 to the session organisers, Keri Jenner (kaj204@exeter.ac.uk) and Sophie Yarker (s.k.yarker@newcastle.ac.uk).
Geographical Reflections
Registration is now open 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 3rd February 2012.
ALL DELEGATES MUST REGISTER BEFORE SUBMITTING AN ABSTRACT: please see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/geography/research/rgs-ibg-postgraduate-conf… for registration forms and further details.