DIY education publications & archives.

 

My doctoral research focused on the recovery of the journal issues, correspondence archives, oral histories & biographies of an anticipatory intersectional anti-racist, anti-sexist DIY geography education journal series Contemporary Issues in Geography (CIGE) and Education (1983 – 1991) and the people and movement who gave it publishing life (PhD, University of Glasgow). I have published from this research in the Journal of Historical Geography (Norcup 2015), an article that was shortlisted for that year’s essay prize. I have also written about it in a chapter of Trevor Barnes and Eric Sheppard’s edited book Spatial Histories of Radical Geography: North America and beyond. (Antipode Book Series).

I continue working with the archive and bringing forward some of the anticipatory intersectional ambitions of the publication.  I have spoken about the journal series at a number of international and national academic conferences, as well as at public lectures. For example, I was an invited speaker at a day of public lectures entitled ‘Ways of Working: Alternative and radical education in schools’ * that formed part of the Alternative School of Economic’s art work / exhibition The Rich as a Minority Group. The title was taken from Anne Simpson’s essay found in issue 1.2 of CIGE.

[* the second photograph on this webpage has Dawn Gill at the back of the room listening to me speaking about her endeavour to a full house at the Rabbits Road Institute, Old Manor Park Library, Romford Road, East London, 30th April 2016].

 

In 2018, I PDF digitised the back catalogue of the entire series of CIGE.  This can be accessed for free download on the Geography Workshop website here.

 

This archive has been accessed and referenced by scholars across academia and educational sectors, most recently being included in Sarah Radcliffe’s (2022) book Decolonising Geography: An Introduction (pages 84 – 86) and has been cited in journal articles in the UK and the USA. Since 2017, I have been the nominated custodian of the image/ rights to the journal series archives and hold the licencing and copyright permissions for the journal series and the archive gathered as part of my doctoral work. How it has been used and cited – or not – is indicative of the state of establishment geography education’s own fears, nervousness and wariness in discussing its complicities in creating and perpetuating racist geography education.

For example:

We did not give permission for images from this archive to be used in the 2023 book on Race and Geography Education by John Morgan and David M Lambert, and note that their use of this material without consent – when they were quite capable of making a direct request (given they cite Sarah Radcliffe’s aforementioned 2022 book which states who holds the copyright to the images of CIGE) – illustrates not simply poor academic practice, but the lengths at which those in powerful positions in geography education (powerful geographies if you will) are willing to go to deflect critical attention away from their own work and what they have and have not brought into focus for deeper and necessary critical interrogation of geography educations complicit role in perpetuating racism through textbook and teacher training materials in the recent past. We are currently seeking legal advice and liaising with Bloomsbury academic to remove CIGE images from the e-book and any possible future reprints of this publication.

 

A book inspired by my thesis Awkward Geographies? The historical and cultural geographies of Contemporary Issues in Geography and Education 1983 – 1991 is currently in production.

 

My work on this archive was facilitated via my honorary research fellow status in the Department of Geography, University of Glasgow, (2015 – 2018) and dovetails with broader research interest into the cultural histories and geographies of anti-racist / decolonising education projects of the 19th and 20th centuries. Threads of this work can be seen in my current British Academy (small grant funded research DLS: Photos and Phantasms  working as honorary research fellow at the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies (YPCCS), University of Warwick.