On the left, chair of Friday's plenary panel session, Helen Jarvis (Newcastle University). On the right, the Tyne Bridge taken by Professor Gavin Parker from Twitter.
The final day of the conference saw another full programme of events.
The day started in the Curtis Auditorium with the first Annual Geographical Journal Symposium. The topic for this year’s symposium, chosen by journal editor Darren Smith, was The ‘recovery’ or ‘remission’ of the post-pandemic countryside? and contained responses from Mike Shucksmith (Newcastle University), Keith Halfacree (Swansea University), Michael Woods (Aberystwyth University) and Moya Kneafsey (Coventry University).
Following this, two further journal-sponsored lectures took place. The Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie (TESG) lecture, Beyond Exclusion?: The everyday geographies of those who are concerned about changes in sexual and gender legislation and cultures, was given by Kath Browne (University College Dublin) and co-authored with Catherine Jean Nash (Brock University, Canada). And the Gender, Place and Culture lecture, Sexual harassment as a men’s problem: interrogating the paradoxes of urban masculinity, was given by Raksha Pande (Newcastle University).
The chair’s plenary session today was another panel, chaired by Helen Jarvis (Newcastle University), addressing the topic of Place-based community organising for local recovery: university partnerships. Panellists came from within and beyond academia and included James Asfa (Citizens UK); Deborah Hann (Cardiff University); Amina Razak (Newcastle University); Claire Rodgerson (Tyne and Wear Citizens) and Eleasha Haslam (Newcastle University). The discussion that followed contained both personal reflections and practical ideas for how universities might play a bigger role in making the communities in which they are embedded better places to live.
Today also saw one final fieldtrip, with Ian Cook (Northumbria University) leading A guided tour of pedestrian underpasses in Newcastle: embodied experiences, intersectionality and the governance of subterranean public spaces.
With conference now closed for this year, we would like to extend a huge thanks to all who have attended, our conference chair, Rachel Pain, and to the organising team, particularly Stuart Dawley for his work behind the scenes, who have pulled the whole event together at Newcastle University. We look forward to seeing everyone in London next year for Annual Conference 2023, which will be chaired by Harriet Bulkeley (Durham University) and we will leave you with just a handful of the wonderful moments shared on social media this afternoon using the conference hashtag #RGSIBG22.