Below you can find teaching materials intended to support students and teachers in their learning journeys. If you have a resource you’d like to share here (such as guidelines on writing, reading or method, links to databases, websites, archives, documentaries, movies, songs etc.) please get in touch with Nina.Williams@unsw.edu.au
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How to write a dissertation on the Histories and Philosophies of Geography by Emily Hayes and Angela Last
As people who teach modules on the Histories and Philosophies of Geography (HPG), we share one common experience: every year, we have conversations with students who enjoy these modules, but find it too daunting to write a related dissertation. Often, students do not even talk to us, but simply decide not to ‘go there’. The reasons are usually explained as follows:
- Human geography dissertations are associated with surveys and interviews
- Archival or theoretical work feels too abstract or too uncertain in terms of access or findings
- Nervousness about doing a different dissertation style from peers
These reasons are understandable, but in the following paragraphs, we hope to show that
- HPG dissertations can involve interviews, though they don’t have to
- Archival and theoretical documents can, in some ways, be more accessible than people
- You can also work with things like buildings or everyday objects that embody certain histories or philosophies
- HPG dissertations are not necessarily that different – they still follow the dissertation format
Let’s begin with the definition of Histories and Philosophies of Geography. On the HPGRG dissertation prize website, you can find the following definition:
‘We welcome [dissertations] that examine geographical knowledge, discourses and practices in academia, but also within schools and the public sphere.’
What does this mean?
Geographical knowledge – not just what we teach you as the ‘histories of Geography’, but also what other peoples, in other places or even times, might consider ‘geographical knowledge’ – is made up of many things and expressed in a variety of ways. You could even say that Geography is Philosophy in disguise and expressed in different forms. Philosophies of geography, like the discipline’s histories, vary, change and are multiple. Yet, they lie behind and shape every broad geographical theme you can think of and every course you will have studied.
1. Noticing
The first step is to notice that you are already surrounded by histories and philosophies, not just in your university coursework, but everywhere. Take a minute to look around you, to the left, to the right, above you, and below, and in front of you and behind. Wherever you happen to be as you read this, everything, in the immediate short to middle and long distance range is shaped by ideas. These ideas have geographical connections and are influenced by power structures (you can get a sense of this expansiveness in the list of example topics below). For example, you may live in a planned city such as Milton Keynes, or a housing estate, which have been shaped by modernist or postmodernist ideas about geography. These places may even have been sites of ideological struggles, for example, residents and planners may have had different views on local histories, on wider geographical connections or on particular groups of people within the community. Interesting stories may surround the building or removal of memorials, the history of twin towns, the celebration of particular festivals, people or animals etc.
Not interested in physical manifestations? Instead, you could write about ideas in song lyrics, fiction, poems or stand-up comedy. What does it mean if artists have made songs or artworks about the ‘Anthropocene’? Why is there not more attention to hip hop artists’ descriptions of space? Why does an imagined geography in a science fiction novel, or its movie adaptation, resonate with you? How have video games shaped geographical or political practices? What are the historical and philosophical affordances of the geographies of running? How have social media influencers reshaped the power dynamics of the fashion world? You may even notice something odd in Geography literature itself: is there something you object to or would like to explore further?
If you are considering becoming a geography teacher, a HPG dissertation may also be a useful way of reflecting on teaching practice. Like many of us, you may also have mixed experiences with geography teaching at school or university level and would like to make an intervention. Here, you may argue for the inclusion of particular theories or histories, or against current government proposals.
2. Questioning
As you can see, there are many paths that can lead towards a HPG dissertation. The next step is to turn this ‘noticing’ into a question.
Many dissertations begin by asking how a particular way of doing or thinking about Geography came into being: why was this method, theorist, movement or worldview privileged? What available alternatives were there and with whom were they popular? Another option may be to propose a new approach and interview people how they might feel about it. Do your interviewees have incisive experiences that could inform, for example, future education policy, and how geography is taught, and the geographies of geography teaching?
You may also become interested in a particular set of theories. These may be about power, the nonhuman, emotions, economics, race, gender, sexuality, disability or even physical geography. Here, you could experiment with applying a theory to a novel context, comparing theoretical approaches, or proposing theories from another discipline as part of Geography.
Here are some example topics that students have worked on:
- ‘Difficult memory’ of East Prussian migrants in Germany
- Geographies of power and sports
- Geographical concepts in drill music
- Artistic activism against the extractive industry’s abuses in Nigeria
- The problematic portrayal of ‘development’ in school Geography
- Affect vs emotion in Geography
- The distortion of critical race theory in education debates
- Decolonising geography teaching in Scottish secondary schools and Higher Education
- The indigenous Australian Karrabing Collective’s film making political activism
- Affective affordances of spaces in the management of river landscapes
- The potential of ancient archaeological heritage to foster dialogue and future cooperation in the Balkans
- Gender imbalances in conservation studies journals
- Experiences of sonic geographies in historical music venues
- Attitudes to, and experiences of, race in a Geography department (Using interviews)
- Utopian movements and Soviet architecture and planning
- Historical archival documents and photographs associated with female explorers
- Scandinavian heavy metal communities in the light of 20th-century Western European philosophy
- Empire, orientalism and decolonisation in Lord Byron’s literary works
3. Translating your question into a project
How long have you got? To design a project that is doable in your allocated time is probably the most difficult part of writing a dissertation. This is no different from other types of dissertation, although HPG dissertations, especially when dealing with some ‘big’ fundamental questions, can be especially prone to over-reaching. However, there are factors that can quite easily help you limit (or expand) the scope of your project.
The biggest factor is probably access: can you talk to a particular group of people, can you get to a particular place or archive, can you get hold of all the data you need, might you experience difficulties with the style of the discourse you have chosen to engage with (e.g. old writing, jargon, slang)? How many people or texts would you need to consult to get good data?
Another factor is time: what can you realistically do over the next few months alongside all your other activities? (This is why dissertation proposals generally ask for a time plan, to help you assess the scope of your project.) Method is also a useful factor: will this method give you the data you need? This question might sound simple, but many commonplace methods may not necessarily generate the best results, nor might they be the most economic ones. Can you do the project without overstretching youself?
It is also possible to look at the question or project outline itself and ask the following questions: Do you feel confident that you can answer your question? How many different literatures do you need to draw on to communicate a good sense of the topic? Who and how many sources (people, objects, places) will you need to consider during your research? Can you envision a rough structure or key points that you want to make? Please bear in mind that dissertations are about as long as a standard academic article, so try to think of your dissertation as a story that can get a limited amount of messages across. Reading academic articles, to see how they raise questions and advance an argument, can help you at this stage.
Lastly, a dissertation is your project. Choosing to study something that really excites and motivates you is the best way to produce good work. It is good to assess your different ideas and questions for dissertations, and then start planning, as far ahead in advance as possible. Your supervisors or we can help you do this.
We hope these guidelines have been helpful. If you have any further questions, please get in touch with Dr Emily Hayes (ehayes@brookes.ac.uk) or Dr Angela Last (lala2024@uni-bonn.de)
Check out the Histories and Philosophies of Geography Research Group’s website for useful information about the group’s undergraduate dissertation prize and other awards, activities and resources: https://historyphilosophyofgeographyrg.co.uk/dissertation-prize/
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