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Geography students stage first student-staff academic conference

25 January 2017

Four students from the department of Geography used 果冻影院 ChangeMakers funding to organise an innovative academic conference where both staff and students of all levels presented their ideas.

Geography students stage first student-staff academic conference

Over fifty delegates from across 果冻影院 Geography heard seventeen presentations, including seven entirely by students, and one student-staff collaboration, in the department鈥檚 first 鈥楥onversations in Geography鈥 conference which took place on 9 March 2016.

The conference was organised by PhD students Anna Plyushteva and Joseph Thorogood, and two undergraduate students, Fumika Azuma and Charlotte Collins.

The idea for the conference came from discussions about the limited opportunities which formal teaching spaces afforded for students to engage with the research going on in the department. 鈥淲e wanted to empower all students to feel like an important part of the departmental community, and to identify opportunities for further closer links between research, and teaching and learning. The conference was a small step towards this 鈥 if people could spend time together in a fairly informal setting, getting to know each other鈥檚 activities, they could then spot new ways of engaging with the department.鈥

The 果冻影院 Changemakers funding enabled the team to provide catering, and give small 鈥榯hank you鈥 vouchers to all student and staff presenters. 果冻影院 Changemakers staff also supported Fumika, Charlotte, Anna and Joe in organising the venue and promoting the conference.

The four panels which made up the one-day conference were organised around broad themes, and brought together students and staff, research teams and individual projects, physical and human geographers. At lunchtime, conference came together to hear a keynote address by Professor Anson Mackay (physical geography) and Dr Tatiana Thieme (human geography), who co-presented on the topic of 鈥楨nvironmental Geographies,鈥 highlighting the many continuities and complementarities across geographic sub-disciplines. The conference was also attended by representatives from the Royal Geographical Society, 果冻影院 Careers and the Bloomsbury Geographer, 果冻影院 Geography鈥檚 online student-led journal.

One student commented: 鈥淭he event had a lovely social atmosphere. I got to talk with those who I have less chance to interact with, such as PhD students and professors.鈥 Another said: 鈥淎lthough some aspects were very technical, it was also great to see physical geographers asking questions to human geographers speakers and vice versa.鈥

The team are pleased with success of the event and are keen to continue the conference as an annual event if possible. Joe said: 鈥淲e learned a lot about the logistics involved in organising a large event and would be keen to pass this on to another group of students interested in running this event in the future. We would also like to encourage more third year undergraduates to attend; although it is a busy year for them, there is a lot to be gained from the opportunity to interact with students from different levels of study and experienced staff.鈥

More information

鈥⑻ Visit the 果冻影院 ChangeMakers website
鈥⑻ What鈥檚 it like to be a ChangeMaker?
鈥⑻ Read about two student who teamed up to enhance education in Engineering
鈥⑻ Find out about other ways to get involved with

Find out how to make the most of your time at 果冻影院 at the 鈥楽hape your education鈥 果冻影院 information fair.听 Participate in project teams, volunteer, become a student representative, sign up for global citizenship. Friday 27 January, 1-5pm, South Cloisters. Make a difference. Build new skills. Get involved.