Poppy Budworth, University of Manchester
It has been a couple of weeks since the RGS-IBG Annual Conference in London, where thousands of Geographers (and non-Geographers alike) came together to share new and exciting ideas and research within the discipline. Among various sessions, which expanded from animal geographies to the politics of hydrospaces, there was an abundance of gender and feminist geography to be explored. This blog uncovers some of my personal reflections from the week as the Gender and Feminist Geography Research Group’s (GFGRG) ‘Roving Reporter’.
After a leisurely stroll across Hyde Park on Wednesday morning, I arrived at the RGS and attended my first panel, a three-part GFGRG and Participatory Geographies Research Group (PYGYRG) sponsored session on the ‘Gendered resistances to violence: activism and research’, chaired by Dr Sonja Marzi. During the panel session we heard from a diverse group of scholars interested in forms of resistance and activism among women and marginalised communities. All of the papers effectively spoke to the theme, generating engaging conversations about feminist approaches, methods, and ethics of care. In the first session Sofia Beatriz Rivera, a Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) at Politecnico di Torino in Italy, presented on her ongoing research in San Salvador. Sofia care-fully discussed ‘The caregivers’ strike: caring resistances to extreme and chronic violence’, recounting participants experiences of trauma. Sofia’s research sparked interesting debate in the Q&A discussion leading to a thoughtful reflection, which positioned people who experience violence as “afraid, caring, and angry, all at the same time”.
After a small break between sessions, I found a seat in a café and logged onto the online conference platform, Fourwaves. The next session ‘Care and crises: reimagining 21stCentury challenges through a feminist lens’ was chaired by Dr Hanna Baumann. This session was ‘online only’, yet there was no designated space at The Society or Imperial College London for in-person attendees to sit and watch these presentations. Despite a brief panic over where to watch this session, I found myself a spot in a local café where I sat with a coffee and cake and listened to the presentations. Dr Baumann chaired the session in a thoughtful and generative way.
The lack of space to watch online presentations was a topic of discussion amongst people attending the conference in person; with some travelling back to their accommodation to access sessions. Furthermore, I imagine for online attendees it was frustrating that the majority of sessions were not accessible to watch live online, or recorded and uploaded to the conference platform retrospectively.
There were similar issues with ‘hybrid’ sessions (where in-person and online attendees contributed to the same panel), as there seemed to be minimal tech support helping session chairs manage audio, video, and chat functions on Zoom. For an event to be truly ‘hybrid’, greater efforts need to be made to ensure online and in-person attendees are connected and that there is equal opportunity to explore the conference whether you were at home or at The Society. At the RGS-IBG Conference 2022 in Newcastle, a generous number of students were employed to support the hybrid conference; taking the same approach next year would massively improve accessibility for hybrid attendees.
The rest of Wednesday, and the two days which followed, were jam-packed with presentations uncovering innovative ideas, research, and approaches. I really enjoyed attending the ‘New and Emerging’ sessions, particularly the Emerging Queer and Sexualities and the New and Emerging Gender and Feminist Geographies sessions. These spaces, which are designed primarily for Postgraduate and Early Career researchers, are supportive, encouraging, and exciting. When sitting in the audience in these sessions I really felt the potential of ‘Geography’ as a discipline. Hearing from people in the midst of their research, sharing initial findings, or new methodological approaches they are experimenting with was inspiring. During my time roving, reporting, and presenting, I heard from Postgraduate Taught (PGT) students as well as Professors who all shared a passion and enthusiasm for geographical inquiry, and this is something to be celebrated and nurtured for future events.
The GFGRG sponsored a host of sessions across the three days, including: Sketching out the contours of feminist political ecology; Decolonialism, knowledge production and GRRIPP funded efforts; Constellations of co-resistance: reorienting alternative forms of resistance; and Mapping feminist approaches to climate change education. As can be gathered through the titles of the aforementioned panels and presentations, the discussions were broad and intersectional in nature but at the same time, care-fully reflected the intimate lives of the people involved in the research.
As well as GFGRG sponsored sessions, I attended other presentations which encapsulated feminist theory and practice. I particularly enjoyed the ‘Emotional geographies and the digital’ sessions on the Thursday as the discussions about online practices of care and community spoke directly to my research with young people living with an ostomy.
I had the privilege of presenting in one of the new and emerging sessions on Friday, alongside Dr Sinead O’Connor, Dr Taneesha Mohan, and Saanchi Saxena. I felt encouraged and supported by the chair of the session, Dr Kate Maclean, who also chairs the GFGRG. Like most people, I feel nervous before presenting at conferences and events. For me, it is not necessarily the presentation itself but the Q&A which follows which causes worry. However, the end of my presentation was met with a care-full question from Dr Cordelia Freeman about my methodological approach and how to manage wellbeing when doing flexible research. From this question, I was able to share my thoughts around reciprocal practices of flexibility and care between researcher and participants, and touch upon the value of such approaches for everyone involved.
As well as paper sessions, I also attended the ‘Area as a journal for the geography community’ panel session which hosted the current Area (Wiley) editors, Professor Sarah Marie Hall and Professor Julian Leyland, alongside PGRs, guest editors, contributors, and Area’s ‘classics’ authors. As a PGR with only a small experience of academic publishing, I found the discussions during this session eye-opening and informative; it quickly became clear that the intention behind this panel was to create a safe and friendly space to discuss publishing, to improve transparency, and to humanise the process and the people involved.
It was really interesting to attend a range of talks at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference this year, as this was not something I had done previously. As well as the Area Journal panel on the Wednesday, I also attended the GFGRG Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday. During this meeting the GFGRG voted on the groups’ new members which included Dr Margot Rubin as Dissertation Prize Co-ordinator, and myself, Poppy Budworth, as Social Media Co-ordinator. We talked about exciting upcoming events and potential ideas for the next year, which included discussions about ways we can support Undergraduate and Postgraduate Feminist Geographers, as well as developing mentoring opportunities for people at different stages in their careers. For example, in September the GFGRG hosted an online event titled ‘Dealing with the knock-backs: challenging the scripts of ‘failure’ in academia’.
Overall, the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2023 was a great opportunity to share and learn more about brilliant research and practice within Geography at the moment. As a PGR coming to the end of my doctorate, the conference felt like an encouraging space which re-affirmed my excitement for the future of the discipline, and the future of gender and feminist geographies. During the conference, I proudly took my own advice from the previous GFGRG blog about scheduling time to rest during the conference, as this meant I had time to digest the new information from the presentations and panel discussions. All the people I encountered, particularly members of the GFGRG, were kind and collegial which really made a difference to my experience. On that note, I look forward to seeing what next year’s RGS-IBG Annual Conference brings.
About the author: Poppy Budworth (she/her) is a final year Postgraduate Researcher at The University of Manchester, undertaking doctoral research in Human Geography. Poppy worked as the GFGRG’s Roving Reporter during the RGS Annual Conference 2023, and has now been appointed GFGRG Social Media Co-ordinator.
All images used in this blog were captured by Poppy during her time at the conference.
To contact Poppy, follow her on Twitter/X: @BudworthPoppy, or email poppy.budworth@manchester.ac.uk.
