1st Edition
Dissertating Geography An Inquiry into the Making of Student Geographical Knowledge, 1950-2020
This book examines the history of geography (1950-2020) from a bottom-up perspective.
Disciplinary histories often emphasise the pronouncements of established academics, yet student-geographers make up the majority of the overall ‘geographical community’ at any one time. Exploring these efforts of geography students over the past 70 years places the known history of the discipline in a new perspective. A disciplinary history ‘from below’ recognises and acknowledges student dissertations and advances three core propositions: first, they are produced by an overlooked but nonetheless central grouping in the geographical community; second, the rich archival collection of dissertations specifically consulted here contains many excellent geographical knowledge productions that have remained barely read until now; and third, there is a wish to encourage others to explore similar collections of student knowledge productions held elsewhere.
This book will be an important resource for scholars and postgraduate students in Geography, Education, and the History and Theory of Geography.
Chapter 1 Who actually makes the history of geography?
Chapter 2 The history of geography and educational practices
Chapter 3 Spatial contexts of student knowledge production: the expanded geographical field
Chapter 4 Becoming a geographer: dissertations as intellectual source material
Chapter 5 Geographical traditions versus innovations: students as drivers of disciplinary change
Chapter 6 Exploring the skills of geographers-in-the-making
Chapter 7 Reflections on student journeys into geography
Biography
Mette Bruinsma is an Assistant Professor in the Cultural History research group at Utrecht University, focusing on history of knowledge and university history.
