The Society is looking forward to welcoming close to 2,000 geographers from across the world to this year’s Annual International Conference in London later this month.
The theme of this year’s conference, which takes place from 30 August to 2 September, is “Nexus thinking”. Nexus thinking draws attention to the urgent need to address the interconnected challenges of food, water and energy security, through integrated research that spans the social and environmental sciences, in ways that go beyond separate disciplinary, sectoral, and policy silos. Speakers will also extend the nexus further, showcasing the application of geographical thinking to a much wider range of issues.
The conference programme includes field visits and exhibitions, sessions for postgraduate students and early career researchers, collaborative work by geographers and artists, meet-the-author sessions, and lectures sponsored by some of the leading geography academic journals.
The conference opens on the Tuesday evening with a presentation by Andy Stirling from the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex, reflecting on the current ESRC Nexus Network initiative. Further plenary sessions will be held at lunchtimes throughout the week, with presentations by Julie Guthman, Ananya Roy and Tim Jackson. Each talk will be followed by two short responses from disciplinary experts with time for questions and general discussion. These sessions will provide a great opportunity to bring participants together and offer a counterpoint to the more specialised discussions that occur throughout the rest of the conference.