Venue: University of Exeter (Streatham Campus – map), Queen’s Building, Lecture Room 6.
Dates: 2-3 October 2008.
Format: a small, invitation-only Exnography, ugh… symposium (like an AAG ‘author meets critics’ session, but more like ‘reader meets author meets editor meets potential authors’). As much as is possible, the room will be set out like the UN Assembly, with authors, editors and quizzers in the front row and others more in the background.
Background
The germ of this event came out of discussions in our ‘Exnography, ugh…’ reading group about the possibilities and practicalities of ‘writing’ geographies in, to put it crudely, more ‘creative’ ways. The group – comprising staff and postgraduates based at (and connected to) the Geography Department at Exeter University – has read and discussed a number of articles which advocate and illustrate such ‘alternative’ approaches. However, the apparent risks of presenting work in these ways (and maybe doing something in place of / addition to writing) are stumbling points preventing many from having a go. So, we wanted to invite people who had successfully had a go, and who had enabled that going. What could we learn from their experiences, the pressures they have to work under, what they wanted to do and why, the way that academic publication works, etc..?
Confirmed authors: Hayden Lorimer (Glasgow, Geography); Caitlin DeSilvey (Exeter Tremough, Geography); Kathryn Yusoff (Exeter Tremough, Geography); James Evans (Manchester, Geography), Phil Jones (Birmingham, Geography); Ian Cook et al (Exeter Streatham, Geography); and John Wylie (Exeter Streatham, Geography).
Confirmed (ex/current/future) journal editors publishing their work: Phil Crang (Cultural Geographies); Ian Cook (Geography Compass); & Wendy Larner (Antipode).
Organisation:
The afternoon of day one will be devoted to postgrad Exnography, ugh… group members quizzing the authors about their papers/film, asking questions about the research it was based upon, the decisions made about how ‘findings’ would/could/should be conveyed to others through publication, why a certain journal (maybe more) was targeted for such work, the experience of the refereeing and editorial process, and readers’ feedback on the paper after publication. Discussion pages have been created on this site to get balls rolling (e.g., for quizzer advice, check here for starters).
The morning of day two will then involve editors being questioned about their perspectives on receiving more ‘creative’ papers (including but not limited to those under discussion) assigning referees, assessing their reports, dealing with unusual formatting requests (perhaps), and fielding questions from the audience about possibilities for the publication of their possible writing experiments.
Timetable:
Thursday 2nd October:
12.00-1.15: Lunch
1.15-1.30: Introduction: Ian Cook & Harriet Hawkins.
1.30-3.00: Authors session 1: Hayden Lorimer, Caitlin DeSilvey, Kathryn Yusoff.
3.00-3.30: Coffee
3.30-5.00: Authors session 2: James Evans/Phil Jones, Ian Cook et al, John Wylie.
5.00-5.15: Nibbles
5.15-6.00: Summary session.
7.00- Evening event.
Friday 3rd October:
9.00-9.30: Coffee
9.30-11.00: Editors session: Q&As arising from day one themes/issues/concerns.
11.00-11.30: Break.
11.30-1.00: Concluding discussion: what’s happened here / what’s next?
1.00-: Lunch and close.
Publications and quizzers:
Hayden Lorimer (2003) The geographical field course as active archive. Cultural geographies 10(3), 278-308 [link / comments & questions] quizzed by Lynne Sealey & Louise Rutt.
Caitlin DeSilvey (2007) Salvage memory: constellating material histories on a hardscrabble homestead. Cultural geographies 14(3) 401-424 [link / comments & questions] quizzed by Agatha Herman & Helen Scott-Daniels
Kathryn Yusoff (2007) Antarctic exposure: archives of the feeling body. Cultural geographies 14(2), 211-233 [link / comments & questions] quizzed by Justin Pollard & Liz Roberts
James Evans & Phil Jones (2007) Towards a Lefebvrian socio-nature? A film about rhythm, nature and science. Geography compass 3 [link / film & commentary plus comments & questions] quizzed by Huw Vasey & Emma Whittingham
Ian Cook et al (2004) Follow the thing: papaya. Antipode 36(4), 642-664 [free access link / comments & questions] quizzed by Richard Wells & Matt Grace
John Wylie (2006) Smoothlands: fragments/landscapes/fragments. Cultural geographies 13(3), 458-65 [link / comments & questions] quizzed by Leila Dawney & Kim Ward.
All group members, authors and editors are being invited to contribute to on online discussions to get balls rolling in advance of the meeting, allow those who can’t attend to raise issues and questions at the event, and continue the discussions after the event. The ‘comments & questions’ links above have been put together on a ‘discussions’ page, along with space for question & answer traffic involving all editors, all the authors and the event organisers. This will hopefully work for all as a warm-up and provide quizzers with a wider pool of questions to raise.
Attendance
This is limited to postgraduates and members of staff in the Geography Departments at the University of Exeter, Streatham and Tremough. Attendance forms have been circulated by email. For this event to work in the way that we envisage, please note that attendance assumes preparation.
General preparation
All participants should have read all of the papers.
Author/editor preparation:
This event does not require the writing of a paper or even a presentation. Authors will be asked specific questions about specific work they have had published in a specific journal (each will have one ‘paper’ which discussion will be focused around, although other related work will, no doubt, also end up being discussed) and/or editors will be asked about work they published as an editor (or could have published, and might in the future). All each will need to do is refresh their memory about the process through which this work came to light in the way that it did, their (potential) role in its publication, and the future for ‘creative geographies’ along these and other lines.
Postgraduate preparation:
Postgraduate quizzers will ideally have a) read the paper / watched their film carefully; b) undertaken some background work to tentatively place this work into a wider academic/career context; and c) prepare a very brief summary (assuming that everyone else will have read the paper) and opening questions for the author. See the discussion page for more on this (here, in particular, where the Q&A has already started).
Virtual participation
Videoconferencing facilities will be made available for Exnography, ugh… group members who cannot easily get to Exeter. Please let us know well in advance if you want to participate in this way.
Outcomes?
We’re keen to explore the possibilities and limitations of creative geographies as means both to convey research findings through ‘official’ channels such as mainstream journals, as well as wider issues about the effects such publications might have on people’s CVs and career possibilities/development. We believe that this is an important, emergent issue in human geography, is a crucial aspect of postgraduate ‘training’, and that the proposed combination of format, papers/film and authors/editors will make for a fascinating couple of days from which we could all learn a great deal.
Part of the funding is for the recording and transcription of the discussions on both days. These will serve both as a record of our conversations and, possibly, as a resource for a co-authored paper that we may agree to work on. This aspect of the event will be guided by the Chatham House Rule.
Feedback / discussion…
– Please email Ian (i.j.cook@ex.ac.uk) and Hatti (h.hawkins@ex.ac.uk) re. the finer points of the event (e.g. food, rooms, expenses, etc).
The Exnography, ugh… group…
meets regularly in person, involves others who can’t through a blog and was largely cobbled together from responses to a general Exeter staff and postgrad email invitation early in 2008. At the moment, we are (in no particular order): Lynne Sealey, Sean Carter, Kerry Burton, Helen Griffiths, Emily Quinton, Helen Scott-Daniels, Jules Channer, Becky Morris, Simon Naylor, Emma Whittingham, Leila Dawney, Heather Putnam, Caitlin DeSilvey, Louise Rutt, Jo Little, Keith Woodward, Victoria Hurth, Liz Roberts, Kim Ward, Agatha Herman, David Harvey, Huw Vasey, Deborah Knight, Mark Paterson, Vanessa Stevens, Ian Cook, Hatti Hawkins, Sarah Wrathmell, Justin Pollard, Richard Wells and Matt Grace.
Sponsors:
This event has been jointly funded by Exeter Geography Department’s Historical-Cultural, Society-Nature, and Governance, Ethics & Social Justice Research Groups.
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Updated 29/8/08
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