News archive

(Listed most recent first.)

# Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Guardian University Guide

4th June, 2013

The Guardian University Guide has once again given top place to the Geography Degree at Cambridge for 2014.

Our online course guide has full details on the Geography Degree at Cambridge.

The Head of Department, Professor Susan Owens, said:

"We are delighted to have achieved first place in the Guardian list once again – a reflection of the enormous effort and enthusiasm which goes into the design and delivery of our undergraduate courses."

# Ron Martin gives the Annual Gregory Lecture

28th May, 2013

On 22 May, Ron Martin gave the 21st Annual Gregory Lecture at the University of Southampton. Every year an internationally leading geographer is selected to give this prestigious public lecture in the fields of physical, human or environmental geography. Ron's lecture was on "Resilience and the Economic Landscape".

# Open Days for prospective Undergraduates - Thursday 4th & Friday 5th July 2013

16th May, 2013

Thinking of applying to Cambridge as an Undergraduate in Geography? Check out our prospectus and come to our open days:

Open days - Thursday 4th & Friday 5th July 2013
Undergraduate course guide
Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Guardian University Guide and the Complete University Guide

# Professor Keith Richards awarded Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society

13th May, 2013

Professor Keith Richards has been awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. This is one of the two Royal Medals awarded by the Society each year, as approved by HM The Queen. The Medal has been awarded to Keith 'for the encouragement and development of physical geography and fluvial geomorphology', and will be presented at the AGM on 3rd June.

# Climate change: can nature help us?

8th May, 2013

Flooding, landslides, crop failure, water shortages. Across the globe, the frequency with which humans are suffering the ill effects of climatic variability and extreme weather events is on the increase. Can natural environments be used effectively to help people adapt to the effects of climate change? The first systematic review of this question – facilitated by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) Collaborative Fund for Conservation and involving three members of the Department of Geography – finds much evidence of their effectiveness.

# Kelby Hicks

25th April, 2013

Members of the Department of Geography have been saddened by the sudden and untimely death of Kelby Hicks, a volcanologist and PhD student in the Department. Our heartfelt sympathies go to his family and friends.

A memorial service was held in St Edmund's College chapel on Friday 26 April at 1.30pm.

# Archaeologists say that the 'Anthropocene' is here - but it began long ago

22nd April, 2013

Professor Phil Gibbard joined Bruce Smith from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, USA, for a Science Live web chat discussion entitled 'Archaeologists say that the 'Anthropocene' is here - but it began long ago'. It took place on Thursday 25 April 2013 and can be watched on the Science website.

# Masters in Conservation Leadership students shine alongside Sir David Attenborough at CCI Conservation Campus launch

12th April, 2013

Students from the Masters in Conservation Leadership were privileged to attend an inspiring and insightful lecture by Sir David Attenborough in the University of Cambridge Senate House on 2^nd April. The event was attended by over 400 guests from across the University and associated conservation organisations in and around Cambridge, to mark the official launch of the Cambridge Conservation Campus.

Four students gave short presentations about how the Masters will help shape their conservation careers, and what being a part of the Cambridge experience and CCI means to them. Following the lecture, all seventeen students attended a drinks reception at which they and invited guests, met Sir David in the company of the Vice-Chancellor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz and guest of honour HRH Duke of Edinburgh.

The Campus, due to be completed towards the end of 2015, will become the hub for the world's largest conservation cluster, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI). It will be an international centre of interdisciplinary collaboration and outreach that will transform research, learning and leadership, and policy and practice, for the benefit of biodiversity and humanity.

# Debating the right to food

8th April, 2013

Dr Bhaskar Vira and Dr David Nally have written a short piece for The Guardian Poverty Matters website, and for Al Jazeera, discussing the recent adoption of a National Food Security Bill by the Indian cabinet, and its implications for wider debates about the Right to Food, welfare and social security. These issues will be discussed at an event organised by Dr Vira and Dr Nally at King's Place in London, being held on Monday 8 April as part of the University Strategic Research Initiative on Global Food Security, at which particpants will debate issues relating to the Right to Food.

One of the participants in the London debate, Mr Harsh Mander, who is Special Commissioner on the Right to Food to the Indian Supreme Court, will be visiting the Department this week. He will participate in a research workshop on food security in India, on Tuesday, and deliver a public lecture in the Department entitled 'Inequality and Indifference: the Indian Story' at 11 am on Wednesday 10 April.

# Last letter of Captain Scott finally revealed in full - 101 years on

29th March, 2013

A letter written by the dying Captain Scott - one of only two remaining in private hands - can be revealed in full for the first time after being acquired by the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.

# Gang labour in the UK on Radio 4, Thinking Allowed

26th March, 2013

Dr Kendra Strauss from the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge and Professor Ben Rogaly from the Department of Geography, University of Sussex will discuss labour exploitation on Radio 4's Thinking Allowed program on Wednesday March 27th, 4pm. The programme will include a discussion of Dr. Strauss's 2012 Antipode paper 'Unfree Again: Social Reproduction, Flexible Labour Markets and the Resurgence of Gang Labour in the UK'.

# The Geographical Unconscious: mapping the supernatural in current research

25th March, 2013

Polar Social Science and Humanities Workshop, 10th April 2013. Scott Polar Research Institute, 1.30-5.30pm.

Recent decades have witnessed the release of a multitude of studies looking at imaginative and spiritual geographies, maps and monsters, and the psychical landscape of the supernatural. Taken together, this corpus has acted to problematise any reductionist "breaks" which theorise a "decline of magic" (Keith Thomas) or "disenchantment of the world" (Max Weber) in modernity. During this period human geography has undertaken "affectual" and "emotional" turns, while researchers in cultural and literary studies have been working with the "supernatural turn" of the "uncanny nineties". Maintaining a broad field of vision, the theme of this workshop is the geographical unconscious. This meeting brings together contributions ranging from early modern studies to the Arctic humanities to examine and compare the political and cultural agencies at work.

We invite our contributors to present 20-25 minute papers which would set out their current approaches and subjects in an area currently at the centre of several critical developments in the humanities and social sciences. What is the relationship between particular places and their supernatural inhabitants? Can we speak of spirits of place? How do scientific travellers and explorers appeal to the world of dreams, memories, and desires in their practices? What role does haunting play in narratives of life and death? Can otherness ever be accurately mapped?

For more info and to RSVP contact Dr Shane McCorristine.

# Arts of the Political: New Openings for the Left

14th March, 2013

A new book by Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift has been published: Arts of the Political: New Openings for the Left (Duke University Press, March 2013). A sample chapter can be accessed online.

"Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift provoke us to ask what are the new ways of being human in the twenty-first century and what are the new forms of political action to meet these challenges."—David Stark, author of The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life.

# Cost of Conservation debate at Science Festival

9th March, 2013

Dr Bhaskar Vira and Dr Chris Sandbrook are taking part in a panel discussion on 'The Cost of Conservation' on the first day of the 2013 University of Cambridge Science Festival. The discussion will be held on Monday 11 March, 8 pm - 9 pm in the Mill Lane Lecture Rooms. The event is co-organised and convened with collaborators from the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.

The event will focus on the potential role and risks of using market-led approaches to promote biodiversity conservation and the protection of natural resources. There is a growing mainstream consensus around the 'win-win' possibilities for economic growth and environmental protection offered by processes like environmental valuation and cost-benefit analysis, as well as Payments for Ecosystem Services. However, critics suggest that these approaches neglect the larger contradictions between current global production and consumption processes and the resource constraints of a finite planet; furthermore, there is a risk that market-driven processes will enhance the dispossession and displacement of vulnerable communities, and fail to address global inequality. Some of these issues are reviewed in a paper jointly authored by Dr Sandbrook and Dr Vira (with Dr Janet Fisher at the University of Exeter), which is soon to be published in Geoforum.

# Retribution and restoration: Bosnia on trial

19th February, 2013

Twenty years after Bosnia was devastated by civil war, ordinary people who witnessed, or were the targets of horrific war crimes, are still not getting the support they need from a process designed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Cambridge University reports on research by Dr. Alex Jeffrey.

# Icy debate on BBC’s ‘The Forum’

15th February, 2013

Poul Christoffersen can be heard on the BBC World Service after his recent return from Antarctica, to debate "Ice" with fellow scientist Mary Albert and visual artist Camille Seaman. The debate is a journey into the wilderness of polar regions and the panelists explain how they are confronted by impacts from climate change.

# Water under the ice

14th February, 2013

Craig Stewart, PhD student and recipient of the Scott Centenary Scholarship, talks to The New Zealand Herald about floating ice shelves in a warming climate. The interview took place in a remote camp on the Ross Ice Shelf, and during the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key's visit to Antarctica. Craig's PhD research at the Scott Polar Research Institute aims to understand how ocean currents affect the Ross Ice Shelf, a large (487,000 km²) floating part of the Antarctic ice sheet.

# The journals of William Hooper: Inuit ethnographer and evangelical

12th February, 2013

The Arctic humanities are a broad and developing field, encompassing subjects from the social impact of environmental change to the use of indigenous mapping techniques in western geographical knowledge. Taking a broad historical and circumpolar perspective, this seminar series explores the encounters and engagements between different actors, communities, and systems of knowledge in the Arctic. How do historical encounters and passages continue to shape issues of contemporary governance in the polar regions? This seminar series showcases the interdisciplinary strengths of the Scott Polar Research Institute while also engaging with the research of visiting and invited scholars.

# Our natural wave buffers

1st February, 2013

A storm surge in the North Sea caused catastrophic flooding on the coast of eastern England on 31 January 1953. The flood inundated more than 65,000 hectares of land, damaged 24,000 houses and around 200 important industrial premises, resulting in 307 deaths in the immediate flooding phase.

The Cambridge Coastal Research Unit in the Department of Geography is part of the Natural Environment Research Council's CBESS project, investigating the role of saltmarshes and coastal ecosystems in reducing flood damage. The project features in an article by BBC Science editor David Shukman on 31st January 2013 and in a Cambridge University feature on the research. See also a BBC News piece on iPlayer.

# The future of smallholder farming

31st January, 2013

In an blog published in The Guardian David Nally and Bhaskar Vira argue that smallholder farmers are too often ignored in schemes designed to improve food security. A longer version of the article was posted online at Al Jazeera.

The issues raised both articles were debated at the second of three public debates on Global Food Security organised by members of Cambridge's Strategic Initiative on Global Food Security. The final debate on food distribution and waste will take place in King's Place London on April 8th.

# Dr Iris Möller calls for new priorities in coastal management policy

20th January, 2013

Dr Iris Möller calls for new priorities in coastal management policy in the October issue of Public Service Review.

# The Magic of Mud

18th January, 2013

Cambridge coastal scientists are heading to the unlikely locations of Essex and Morecambe Bay to prove that coastal salt marshes and mud flats protect from storms.

The Cambridge Coastal Research Unit (CCRU) of the Department of Geography in Cambridge has been part of a large team of coastal specialists carrying out a detailed investigation into the benefits humans derive from our muddy coast. From the storage of greenhouse gases, to the benefit as a natural buffer between stormy seas and the people that live near them, the CBESS project aims to discover the true value of this coastal wilderness.

Dr Möller, Lecturer in Physical Geography at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, and co-investigator on the project, says "The measurement of waves in these environments is an immense challenge. To avoid the damage to sophisticated measuring equipment, highly resilient pressure sensors have to be mounted on the muddy surface. When the tide comes in and waves travel over them, pressure on a diaphragm varies very quickly. These pressure variations can be converted into records of high-frequency water level variations (i.e. waves) and waves can be tracked as they move across the mud and the plants. We already know that some of the Essex marshes regularly reduce the energy of waves by up to 90% over a distance of 80 metres or so."

The CCRU's research is part of a six year NERC-funded programme involving 14 research institutions and led by the University of St Andrews.

The realisation that coastal ecosystems fulfil important functions that benefit society does not come before its time. Dr Spencer, Director of the CCRU, says "the risk of coastal flooding in many areas is likely to increase due to sea-level rise and possible near-future increases in storminess and extensive residential, industrial and infrastructural development in vulnerable areas. A more nuanced approach to coastal engineering is now needed, which not only considers hard structures but also investigates the role of coastal ecosystems in coastal risk reduction and how, through 'hybrid engineering', both types of approach to coastal defence can be brought together to reduce risks at the coast and provide a long-term and robust response to the threat of catastrophic coastal flooding."

A total of 42 wave recording devices have been installed at three marshes on the Essex coast and two marshes in Morecambe Bay, continuously streaming data back to Cambridge via mobile phone telemetry.

# Snow Lab

17th January, 2013

Snow Lab is a scientific project to study snow, which needs lots of volunteers to help take measurements. It is being run by Dr Gareth Rees, who is based at the Scott Polar Research Institute. At present, Snow Lab is only looking for volunteers from schools in Cambridgeshire although in future we hope to run it for the whole of the UK. So if you are at a school in Cambridgeshire, and there's snow on the ground (or might be), and you think you might like to get involved, please have a look at the Snow Lab website.

# Reducing deforestation in the Amazon

10th January, 2013

A Conservation Leadership alumnus, Francisco Oliveira Filho, is heading the efforts of the Brazilian Government to reduce deforestation and land clearance in the Amazon.

His work involves detecting and deterring illegal clearances of forest using helicopters and satellite imagery, and confiscations and arrests, as recently featured in the Guardian newspaper.

# "Highest Camp in Antarctica" rediscovered atop active volcano after 100 years

19th December, 2012

Precisely one century after members of Captain Scott's Terra Nova Expedition climbed Mount Erebus, Clive Oppenheimer has located their highest campsite, and retraced their ascent of Antarctica's most active volcano.

# Subaltern agents of colonialism in Solomon Islands

16th December, 2012

Tim Bayliss-Smith has published a book with Judy Bennett, Professor of History at University of Otago, New Zealand. The book is entitled An Otago Storeman in Solomon Islands: the Diary of William Crossan, Copra Trader, 1885-86. It is based on a recently discovered manuscript diary kept by a young New Zealander who traded on the violent frontier of early European contact in Island Melanesia. Crossan managed to survive and even trade successfully by establishing close relations with Sono, a Makira chief, who became effectively the middleman in a range of transactions. The diary reveals the complementary roles of two subaltern agents of colonialism, Crossan and Sono, in this remote corner of Queen Victoria's expanding Pacific empire.

Published in Canberra by ANU E Press, the entire book can be downloaded free as a PDF from the publisher's website. It was officially launched at the Pacific History Association Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, in early December.

# International Workshop Examines War Crimes Trials in Bosnia and Herzegovina

13th December, 2012

An international workshop led by Dr Alex Jeffrey and held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has emphasised the disadvantaged position of victims and witnesses within war crimes trials in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The event was co-organised by the ESRC-funded Localising International Law research project (RES-061-25-0479) at the University of Cambridge and the Bosnian programme of the Swiss NGO TRIAL. The event included presentations by Dr. Jeffrey, Dr. Michaelina Jakala (Newcastle University), Selma Korjenić (TRIAL), Edin Ramulić (Izvor, Prijedor), Anisa Suceska-Vekić (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network) and Almir Alić (ICTY Sarajevo). Attendees included representatives from United States Department of Justice, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United Nations Development Programme, Victims Associations and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A representative International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) remarked "the event offered a clear message that victims of crime have to come back to the centre of social attention and that they should be provided with legal support teams and representatives who would work for their own good, because in the current social reality perpetrators enjoy many more benefits offered by the judicial system then the victims." A representative of the US Department of Justice saw the research project and the workshop as a crucial intervention in debates concerning transitional justice in Bosnia: "the research should benefit anyone interested in working to develop and sustain effective criminal justice institutions and to promote the fair administration of justice for victims of war crimes. I came away with a much better understanding of how the public and victims perceive the court system in BiH. The attendees were true stakeholders; to hear about their specific experiences and views was extremely useful."

# QPG joins GSI3D as a Consortium Member

10th December, 2012

GSI3D (Geological surveying and investigation in three dimensions) is a methodology and associated software tool for 3D geological modelling which enables quick and intuitive construction of 3D solid models of the subsurface for a wide range of applications. The methodology and software have been developed jointly by the British Geological Survey (BGS) and INSIGHT GmbH and are being applied by the BGS, where they are the modelling tools of choice. They are now available on general release as part of the not–for–profit GSI3D Research Consortium. The QPG, led by Professor Phil Gibbard, has been invited to join the consortium as a full member to assist with the evaluation and development of the three-dimensional mapping of superficial deposits in the British Isles and beyond.

# Atlas of the Great Irish Famine wins book award

4th December, 2012

The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (Cork University Press 2012), in which Geography Department member Dr. David Nally has a chapter on the colonial dimensions of the Irish experience, has been awarded the International Education Services Best Irish-published Book of the Year. Through its 50 chapters (including contributions from over 60 scholars from the arts, geography, history, archaeology and folklore studies), The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine seeks to achieve a greater understanding of one of the world's worst subsistence crises. Including 400 images, 200 maps, and over 700 pages of text, The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine has already been reprinted three times since its publication in September 2012.

# Pamela Anderson visits Department project in Honduras

26th November, 2012

The TV actress, animal rights campaigner and environmentalist Pamela Anderson has visited Honduras to see for herself the work of The Inga Foundation (TIF). TIF is a UK charity founded by Mike Hands, a Research Associate of the Department, to promote sustainable agroforestry based on the rainforest tree Inga. TIF's work builds upon the results from several EU-funded projects that investigated nutrient cycling and agroforestry in tropical rainforest environments (Tim Bayliss-Smith, Bryon Bache and Michael Hands, principal investigators).

Pamela Anderson was accompanied by her brother and they spent several days in Honduras. They were based at the TIF demonstration farm and travelled with Mike Hands and his staff to sites of Inga agroforestry in the Cuero and Cangregal valleys. This is an area of degraded rainforest that is the focus of TIF projects that help poor farmers to establish Inga-based alley cropping to provide a sustainable alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture.

# Physical Principles of Remote Sensing

22nd November, 2012

The third edition of Gareth Rees's book Physical Principles of Remote Sensing has been published by Cambridge University Press. The first edition appeared in 1990, when the field of Remote Sensing was much younger. This new and enlarged edition brings the book up to date and introduces a number of new elements including online materials.

# Race and the 'Pink Tide': Race relations in left-leaning Latin American countries

22nd November, 2012

Sarah Radcliffe, from the Department, took part in a panel discussion on 'Race and the Pink Tide' in the Institute of the Americas, University College London, on 21 November. She talked about her current research around indigenous rights, citizenship and postcolonial racial hierarchies in Ecuador.

# Feeding Seven Billion: Global Food Security debates

22nd November, 2012

Should genetically modified crops be seen as a solution to the challenges of global food security? How should we deal with concerns about the transparency of food labelling, the regulation and control of biotechnologies, and the right to make informed choices about consumption choices? These issues inform a broader debate about the challenges of feeding the world through the 21^st century. In a blog post on The Guardian website, Bhaskar Vira and David Nally argue that proponents of biotechnlogy need to recognise that its deployment has political, social and economic consequences which go beyond techno-centric debates about efficiency and effectiveness.

The issues raised in this blog will be debated at a debate on 'Biotechnology, Intellectual Property and Twenty First Century Crops', which will be held at King's Place in London on November 26. The debate is the first in a series of three events being organised by Vira and Nally as part of the University's strategic research initiative on Global Food Security. Tickets for the event are available via the King's Place box office (020 7520 1490), and online.

# A Geographical Perspective on the Great Irish Famine

29th October, 2012

Dr. David Nally, from the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge, gave an extended interview with Kathy Weston and Shane Lynch at Radio Verulam (Thursday October 4th), on the subject of his recent book, Human Encumbrances: Political Violence and the Great Irish Famine.

# Professor Sarah Whatmore, Departmental Seminar, October 18, 4.15pm

18th October, 2012

Where natural and social science meet: Reflections on an experiment in geographical practice

Professor Sarah Whatmore (Oxford) will be kicking off a tremendous new series of speakers for the academic year with a seminar about the nature of interdisciplinarity in geography and the critical question concerning the relationship between the natural and social sciences.

The seminar will take place on October 18 at 4.15pm in the Seminar room of the Department of Geography. Visitors are welcome.

# Understanding the relationship between biodiversity, carbon, forests and people

15th October, 2012

At the Eleventh Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad, India on 16 October 2012, Dr Bhaskar Vira will be presenting findings from a new assessment carried out by a Global Forest Expert Panel on Biodiversity, Forest Management and REDD+, coordinated by the Vienna-based International Union of Forest Research Organizations.

Ongoing conversion of forests to agriculture is still a major cause of global biodiversity loss on Earth. Furthermore, deforestation is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions induced by humans, after fossil fuel emissions. The UN initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD+) can bring positive impacts for biodiversity and carbon, but Dr Vira's work for the assessment highlights the need to prioritise social and economic objectives alongside environmental concerns to increase the likelihood of more equitable and efficient outcomes. Inadequate recognition of tenure and management rights often excludes the poor and most vulnerable groups from access, benefits and decision-making authority in forests. Ultimately, outcomes will largely depend upon how well new initiatives under REDD+ are able to learn from past institutional and governance lessons in the forestry sector. The challenge should not be underestimated; it is far from straightforward to genuinely alter the political and economic asymmetries that have so far sustained inequities and exclusion from important livelihood assets in REDD+ target countries.

# Modelling impacts of a warming world across sectors

4th October, 2012

A major new community-driven modelling effort aims to quantify one of the gravest of global uncertainties: the impact of climate change on the world's food, health, vegetation, and water. An international group of researchers is working on the joint fast-track project, 'ISI-MIP', to attempt the first systematic quantification of uncertainties surrounding climate change impacts on these sectors.

Dr Andrew Friend, from the Department of Geography, is coordinating the analysis of results concerning changes to the world's biomes. As the results of each group's simulations become available over the coming months, the data will be assembled and compared in Cambridge. The impacts models use output from the latest global climate simulations and the results will feed into the next IPCC report, due out in 2014. A particular focus of the project is the relative impact of warming across the range of Representative Concentration Pathways used in the IPCC process, with impacts analysed to enable quantification of the benefits of keeping warming below 2 degrees by the end of this century, to aid policy makers.

Dr Andrew Friend is on the Editorial Committee of an upcoming Special Issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which will be dedicated to the ISI-MIP project, and is on the Scientific Steering Committee of the World Climate Impacts Conference, IMPACTS WORLD 2013, to be held in Berlin next summer. This conference will bring together climate-change impacts scientists, decision makers, stakeholders, and NGOs who rely on topical research, and will lay the foundations for a more integrated impacts community.

# Cambridge Conservation Seminars

3rd October, 2012

The series is designed to provide a weekly social focus for all University conservation researchers from departments including Zoology, Plant Sciences, Geography, Land Economy, Judge Business School and Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Members of conservation organisations based in Cambridge are also most welcome to attend.

The series runs every Wednesday during Michaelmas and Lent terms. All seminars begin at 5pm in Geography's Large Lecture Theatre, and everyone is welcome..

# Professor Neil Smith, 1954-2012

1st October, 2012

It is with great sadness that the Department has learnt of the untimely death of Neil Smith, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and one of the leading Geographers of his generation. Faculty, staff and students in the Department of Geography wish to express our condolences to his family and to those closest to him.

# Multidisciplinary research maps human migration out of Africa

18th September, 2012

A major new study has significantly advanced our understanding of the timing and direction of human migration out of Africa. By combining data on the genetics of modern populations, climate change, and vegetation productivity the authors were able to build the most detailed reconstruction of human history to date. According to Dr Andrew Friend, one of the authors of the study, "it is extremely exciting that the picture of human history derived by bringing together models of genetics, climate, and vegetation is largely consistent with the one derived from archaeological evidence". One key finding was that climate prevented humans from exiting Africa until a favourable window appeared in North-East Africa approximately 70-55 thousand years ago. Most movement occurred through the so-called Southern Route, exiting Africa via the Bab-el-Mandeb strait into the Arabian Peninsula. The work is published today, 17 September, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

# Geologists drive golden spike toward Anthropocene's base

18th September, 2012

Twelve years ago, Paul Crutzen, a Nobel laureate and atmospheric chemist, coined the term 'Anthropocene' as shorthand, an argument wrapped in a word. Geology had long relegated humanity to the sidelines, but in recent history, the human fingerprint on the Earth had grown too deep to be ignored, he said. We had created our own geological time. The world had left the Holocene behind and entered an epoch of humanity, writes Paul Voosen, E&E reporter.

Professor Phil Gibbard, in his role as the chair of the International Commission on Stratigraphy's Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, is playing a lead role in the discussions concerning the possibility of the term 'Anthropocene' being formally defined and therefore forming the youngest division in the Geological Time Scale.

# The Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in Dayton Bosnia

12th September, 2012

A new book, The Improvised State, by Dr. Alex Jeffrey analyses attempts to establish the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina since the end of the conflict in 1995. Rather than viewing the state as a structure or institution, the book examines how different performances of sovereignty have co-existed in Bosnia, each struggling to attract legitimacy and convey authority. At a time of increasing attempts to construct sovereign states after violent conflict, The Improvised State points to the limitations of international intervention and the forms of fragmented politics that it can foster.

The Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in Dayton Bosnia

Over the past 15 years, Bosnia and Herzegovina has served as a laboratory of techniques to re-establish state sovereignty and promote democracy. The post-conflict intervention in Bosnia has justifiably received great interest from political theorists and scholars of international relations who have explored the limitations of the institutions and policies of international intervention. This book begins from an alternative premise: rather than examining institutions or charting limitations, Jeffrey argues for a focus on the performance of state sovereignty in Bosnia as it has been practiced by a range of actors both within and beyond the Bosnian state. In focusing on the state as a process, he argues that Bosnian sovereignty is best understood as a series of improvisations that have attempted to produce and reproduce a stable and unified state. The Improvised State advances state theory through an illumination of the fragile and contingent nature of sovereignty in contemporary Bosnia and its grounding in the everyday lives of the Bosnian citizen.

The Improvised State provides a highly developed account of the nature and outcomes of Bosnian state practices since the Dayton Peace Agreement. Jeffrey presents new and significant theories, based on extensive fieldwork in Bosnia, which advance understanding of state building.

Provides a major contribution to recent academic debates as to the nature of the state after violent conflict, and offers invaluable insights into state building
Introduces the idea of state improvisation, where improvisation refers to a process of both performance and resourcefulness
Uses the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu to explore how powerful agencies have attempted to present a coherent vision of Bosnia and Herzegovina following the conflict 1992-5
Advances our understanding of the Bosnian state by focusing on the practices of statecraft fostered in the post-Dayton era
Research based on four periods of residential fieldwork in Bosnia, which allowed a detailed analysis of political practices in the country

Reviews:

In this persuasive book, Alex Jeffrey illuminates the central role of performance in the production of state power and demonstrates in fascinating detail why and how this is so—and with what effects. The argument is thoroughly researched, contextually sensitive, and crisply written. The Improvised State is a compelling study for scholars, students, and practitioners working on state power, international organizations, and post-conflict societies, in Europe and elsewhere.—Merje Kuus, University of British Columbia

Consistently strong throughout its sections and chapters, Jeffrey has cemented his arguments with a good conceptual understanding, impressive fieldwork and primary research. The Improvised State is an original contribution to both the theoretical and research fields of political geography and critical international relations scholarship.— David Campbell, Honorary Professor, Durham University/University of Queensland

# Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Guardian University Guide

13th August, 2012

The Guardian University Guide has once again given top place to the Geography Degree at Cambridge for 2013.

Our online course guide has full details on the Geography Degree at Cambridge.

The Head of Department, Professor Susan Owens, said:

"We are delighted to have achieved first place in the Guardian list once again – a reflection of the enormous effort and enthusiasm which goes into the design and delivery of our undergraduate courses."

# Alumni weekend 2012

25th July, 2012

Dr David Nally, University Lecturer in Geography, will be giving a talk, as part of the Alumni Weekend 2012, on the subject of 'Colonial Improvement: Rethinking the Great Irish Famine' on Saturday 22nd September.

Also, a panel of five Cambridge Conservation Initiative experts, including Dr Bhaskar Vira, will come together for a roundtable discussion to offer their perspectives on how and why we should put a value on nature.

# A hopeful sign of further democratic change in Burma

23rd July, 2012

Dr Janice Stargardt has accepted an invitation as first Visiting Professor in the Archaeology of Burma and South East Asia in the Department of Archaeology, University of Yangon [Rangoon].

The post is endowed by the Open Society Foundations (funded by George Soros), who have previously supported the development of democratic institutions in Eastern Europe and now, in response to current openings, in Burma.

Janice Stargardt has published six books and monographs on South East Asian Archaeology, among them The Ancient Pyu of Burma. Volume 1, Early Pyu Cities in a Man-Made Landscape. Cambridge and Singapore, and is currently completing Volume 2, The Buddhist Archaeology of Sri Ksetra, due 2013. Twenty-five of her fifty peer-reviewed research articles are on the archaeology of Burma, mainly the Pyu. Four were adopted as background papers for the UNESCO/Myanmar intiative to add the Pyu cities to the World Heritage List. Her publications on the Pyu are used as teaching texts in the University of Yangon and the Department of Archaeology Field Training School at Sri Ksetra [Prome].

Other research includes excavations in Thailand, 1971-96, on ancient settlements, rice cultivation and irrigation, and the spread of Buddhism from South-East India, to Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand along with maritime trade. She has previously held Visiting Professorships in sixteen European and Asian universities, and her work has been translated into Burmese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Italian.

# From Recipients to Donors: Emerging Powers and the Changing Development Landscape

23rd July, 2012

A new book, From Recipients to Donors, by Dr Emma Mawdsley examines the emergence, or re-emergence, of a large number of nations as partners and donors in international development, from global powers such as Brazil, China and India, to Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, to former socialist states such as Poland and Russia. The impact of these countries in international development has grown sharply, and as a result they have become a subject of intense interest and analysis.

# Volcano expert comes in from cold for TV special

11th July, 2012

Dr Clive Oppenheimer from Cambridge University's Department of Geography is taking part in Volcano Live, a four-night series on BBC television focusing on the power of volcanoes, broadcast from Kilauea on Hawaii, the world's most active peak.

# Open Days for prospective Undergraduates - Thursday 5th & Friday 6th July 2012

3rd July, 2012

Thinking of applying to Cambridge as an Undergraduate in Geography? Check out our prospectus and come to our open days:

Open days - Thursday 5th & Friday 6th July 2012
Undergraduate course guide
Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Guardian University Guide and the Complete University Guide

# Chris Jeans awarded the Collins Medal

28th June, 2012

Longstanding member of the Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group, Chris Jeans has been awarded the Collins Medal for 2013 by the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He was already made an Honorary Fellow of the Society in 2011.

'The Collins Medal is awarded annually to a scientist who, during a long and active career, has made an outstanding contribution to pure or applied aspects of Mineral Sciences and associated studies. Publications, teaching, outreach and other activities leading to the promotion of mineral sciences, in the broadest sense, will be taken into account in making the award. Nominees do not have to be Members of the Mineralogical Society or nationals of Great Britain and Ireland.'

# ESRC-NERC PhD Studentship

27th June, 2012

ESRC-NERC PhD studentship available. Project title 'Understanding and Policy Framing of Coastal Conservation under Sea Level Rise'. UK or EU applicants are eligible.

# Philippa Williams appointed to three year fixed-term lectureship in Human Geography at Queen Mary, University of London

9th May, 2012

Philippa Williams has been appointed to a three year fixed-term lectureship in Human Geography at Queen Mary, University of London.

# Agroforestry and sustainability in the humid tropics

2nd May, 2012

Research in the Cambridge Geography Department on the nutrient dynamics of agroforestry in the humid tropics began more than twenty years ago. Recent work has led to the establishment of an organisation called The Inga Foundation, various impacts in Honduras, and a new documentary film, 'Up in Smoke'.

# Land of Strangers - new book by Ash Amin

30th April, 2012

A new book, Land of Strangers, by Professor Ash Amin, examines the challenges of living with difference in western multicultural societies that perceive the future as uncertain and turbulent. Rejecting the uses of xenophobia that have arisen in response, but also proposals for closer inter-personal ties between minorities and majorities, the book turns instead to a politics of the commons. Focusing on encounters of race, imagined community, everyday living, collaborative work, and urban public space, the book claims primacy for the culture of the commons - its intensity and its plurality - in regulating dispositions towards the unknown. See more about the book, or listen to the podcast.

# The Scott Polar Research Institute and the Times World Atlas (13th ed.) Map of Greenland

19th April, 2012

SPRI scientists have been involved in discussions with HarperCollins during the production and review of a new insert to the Atlas, made public on 25th January 2012. We are pleased to have been able to contribute positively to this process, and that the end result of this controversy has been ultimately productive, leading to the publication by HarperCollins of a much improved map of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

# History of Chambers of Commerce

10th April, 2012

A new book by Bob Bennett on the History of Chambers of Commerce was published in October. It is already exciting new debate about the integration of the Atlantic economy in the 18^th century, and the challenges of business organisations working as partners with government in the 21^st century.

A major seminar at the British Academy on 15 February discussed the findings of the book. The event focused on the modern and historic dynamics of business associations, exploring the tensions between member or government demands, national or local action, services to individual businesses or collective voice, and noisy campaigns or quiet lobbying. A podcast of the event is available.

Local chambers of commerce were born in the 1760s-70s as protest bodies, driven by threats from government policies. They began in the large port cities in Britain, Ireland and the American colonies, diffusing to all smaller towns by the 1920s, their roles gradually transformed into advisors to government and partners in promoting local economies. Now chambers are one of the lead partners in the UK Coalition Government's Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) around England.

Bob Bennett's view on LEPs is that they offer a genuine hope for a bottom-up, business-led approach, compared to previous target-driven government-led initiatives typified by RDAs. However, LEPS are also experiencing challenges

The main activities are bidding for government funds.
There are very small core resources.
They have limited policy 'stretch', with little role in local planning decisions, transport strategy and other concerns that business view as priorities.

Bob has found that many business leaders are questioning whether LEPs are too much effort, for too little return.

Local Business Voice: The History of Chambers of Commerce in Britain, Ireland and Revolutionary America, 1760-2011, (OUP, 2011).

Bob has also put up a database of chamber statistical material, 1790-2005.

# Volcano exhibitions

10th April, 2012

Volcanoes: beauty and menace, an exhibition of photographs of volcanoes and major volcanic eruptions, their hazards and consequences, is running weekdays until 5th April 2012. Venue: PandIS, New Museums Site.

Another exhibition, Frozen Volcano, ran from January 1st - February 4th 2012.

Dr Clive Oppenheimer also gave a talk on 3rd February, 'Monitoring volcanic gas emissions: from innovation to operational application'.

# Liz Watson awarded Pilkington Teaching Prize

10th April, 2012

Liz Watson has been awarded one of this year's Pilkington Teaching Prizes. The awards are made by the Cambridge Foundation in recognition of excellence in teaching; they will be presented at a ceremony in June.

# David Harvey elected Honorary Fellow of St John's College

10th April, 2012

It was announced on 23 January 2012 that David Harvey has been elected an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. David Harvey is currently Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York (CUNY), but his first degree was from Cambridge.

He matriculated in 1954 at St John's College and continued to a Ph.D degree in 1961 – an historical geography of the Kentish hop industry. From Cambridge he moved to Bristol and then, in 1969, to Johns Hopkins University in USA. He was Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at Oxford from 1973-87.

His most recent book The Enigma of Capital (2010) places the current financial crisis into the wider context of the history of capitalism, which Harvey regards as having achieved world domination through intrinsically amoral and lawless practices.

His various books, which include Limits to Capital (1982), The Condition of Postmodernity (1989) and The New Imperialism (2003), have been translated into at least fifteen languages.

# Whose fault is famine? Starvation in the face of plenty

9th April, 2012

On March 5 Cambridge lecturer Dr David Nally spoke at 'Cafe Diplo', a weekly event hosted by Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique, on the historical causes of famine, with a particular focus on the similarities between the Irish Famine and those of the present day. The talk is now available on YouTube.

Nally's book, Human Encumbrances: Political Violence and the Great Irish Famine, was published by the University of Notre Dame Press (2011).

# Assessing protected area effectiveness

30th March, 2012

A new study, led by Dr David Gaveau of Stanford University, co-authored by Professor Nigel Leader-Williams of the Department of Geography, and published in Conservation Letters, aims to measure whether parks and reserves in the tropics succeed in protecting forests. The new study disentangled the effects of regulations governing access in unprotected lands surrounding the 110,000 sq km protected area network on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Its results showed that measures of the effectiveness of protection differed according to the different land use regulations governing unprotected lands outside protected area boundaries.

# Year 12 Geography and Land Economy Masterclass - Saturday 31st March 2012

30th March, 2012

Come and experience undergraduate teaching at Cambridge…

For the first time, the Year 12 Subject Masterclass series, run by the Cambridge Admissions Office, are offering a Masterclass in Geography and Land Economy. A chance for you to experience undergraduate teaching, speak to current Cambridge students, and hear about how to apply to two of the leading university courses in the world.

Further details and booking information

# Talking Green Economy

15th March, 2012

Bhaskar Vira was recently interviewed by the Green Economy Coalition. He explains how the current distribution of resources is skewed and an understanding of power structures is critical to achieve a more equitable resource distribution. Our political system must guarantee access to those who live closest to nature but often lack a strong voice.

# Strengthening the bond between policy and science

15th March, 2012

The importance of scientific advice to public policy has long been recognised, however there is growing debate over how this relationship should be understood and managed. To address this, a study group chaired by Prof William Sutherland with four members of the Department of Geography (Dr Bravo, Dr Doubleday, Prof Owens and Prof Richards) brought together over fifty academics and policy makers to agree a new research agenda on the role of science in public policy.

The findings appeared in the leading interdisciplinary open-access journal, PLoS ONE, on Friday 9 March. The aim of this project was to identify key questions which, if addressed through focused research, could tackle important theoretical challenges and improve the mutual understanding and effectiveness of those who work at the interface of science and policy.

# Science Festival 2012 events

10th March, 2012

We have various events from 12th - 25th March 2012 for this year's Science Festival. Read more, or follow these links to each event:

Are trees invading the Arctic?
Lake Ellsworth Mission
Extreme science: Scott's British Antarctic Expedition (Thursday 22nd March)

# The Eruption after tomorrow

7th March, 2012

Imagine the perfect storm. A series of severe volcanic eruptions engulf the globe, spewing ash and sulphur into the atmosphere, causing widespread chaos on our intricate global economy, impacting our ability to grow food and grounding trans-continental air travel. This fantastic scenario was the subject of Dr Clive Oppenheimer's lecture Eruptions that shook the world on March 13 at this year's Cambridge Science Festival.

# CUCAP - Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photography

1st March, 2012

The Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photography (CUCAP) is the result of airborne survey campaigns which were started in 1947 by the pioneering JK St Joseph. Since then the collection has grown to almost 500,000 images of obliques and verticals in black and white, colour and infra-red. Virtually the whole of Britain has been covered, with the obliques depicting a wide variety of landscapes and features and the verticals being of survey quality, can be used in mapping projects.

Our new Online Catalogue lets you browse and search the collection.

# Studentship: Emerging disease transmission in Western Uganda

1st March, 2012

New PhD Studentship: Emerging disease transmission in Western Uganda.

# Can digital games and virtual worlds help us save nature?

24th February, 2012

Can digital games and virtual worlds help us save nature? Conservation scientists Bruno Monteferri, Chris Sandbrook and Bill Adams explore whether computer gaming is a new frontier for conservation.

Deep in the rainforest, a monkey runs down a river, leaping from log to log over the mouths of the waiting crocs. So begins Congo Jones and the Loggers of Doom, a computer game that challenges players to work alongside local communities to protect the Congo rainforest from loggers. Offered free by a UK charity that supports indigenous peoples, the game is just one example of a new trend in the gaming industry towards games relevant for biodiversity conservation.

# Studentship: Nippon Foundation Nereus Fellowship

7th February, 2012

New studentship: Nippon Foundation Nereus Fellowship

# John Pilkington - talk: "A Stroll through the 'Axis of Evil'"

7th February, 2012

John is an explorer, author, broadcaster and geography alumnus who went on a six-month Middle East journey, taking some stunning photos. Starting in Beirut, he unravelled a picture quite different from the news stories of the region, as he followed a winding route via the Euphrates and the Valleys of the Assassins to finish on the Persian Gulf. He met a spectacular variety of people - Druze, Maronites, Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, Azeris and both Shi'ite and Sunni Iranians - and to his surprise found families and whole communities working together to survive the harsh climate and political strife.

John has been called 'one of Britain's greatest tellers of travellers' tales'. His Radio 4 adventure travel programmes have won him wide acclaim, but it's probably for his thought-provoking talks and spellbinding photos that people know him best. Full details of this event ...

# MPhil courses

1st January, 2012

The Department offers a range of MPhil courses, including our newest MPhil, MPhil in Conservation Leadership. The full list of MPhils we offer are:

# Physical Geography / Environmental Science PhD Opportunities

1st January, 2012

Physical Geography / Environmental Science PhD Opportunities

# Austerity: we are not all in it together

21st November, 2011

Michael Kitson, Ron Martin (both of the Department), and Peter Tyler write about the impact of austerity, in a new blog post entitled "Austerity: we are not all in it together" on the OUPblog.

# Confronting homophobia in South Africa

31st October, 2011

Member of the Department, Dr Andrew Tucker is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Gender Studies in the Department of Geography. His research focuses on understanding the diverse ways in which same-sex desire can become visible in different communities in Africa and explores ways of servicing often marginalised groups with health services.

Dr Tucker champions a direct approach to challenging the homophobia that destroys so many lives in South Africa. He has helped to set up a hard-hitting healthcare campaign that encourages a radical change in attitudes within the country's most deprived communities.

# Scientists raise concerns regarding erroneous reporting of Greenland ice cover

31st October, 2011

Scientists from the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), part of the Department of Geography, have raised concerns regarding what they believe are erroneous claims of a 15% decrease in the permanent ice cover of Greenland in just 12 years.

# Whose fault is famine? What the world failed to learn from 1840s Ireland

31st October, 2011

A new book by a Cambridge University academic revisits one of the worst famines in recorded history. The Irish Famine of the 1840s had terrible consequences: 1 million people died and several million left Ireland. Today the world is watching as millions in Africa face a similar fate: starvation in the midst of plenty. Dr David Nally's analysis of what happened in his native Ireland less than two centuries ago reveals some shocking parallels with what is happening in Africa.

The book was also picked up by the Huffington Post, where David has written a piece looking at the parallels between historical and contemporary famines.

Dr Nally appeared on 'Everyday Ethics', BBC Radio Ulster, Sunday 7 Aug 2011 [Listen (MP3 file)]. He was also interviewed by The Clare Champion, in an article Parallels in famine-stricken societies.

# Professor Susan Owens elected a Fellow of the British Academy

31st October, 2011

Professor Susan Owens has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy at its Annual General Meeting on 21 July 2011. Professor Owens is Professor of Environment and Policy, Head of the Department of Geography, and a Professorial Fellow of Newnham College. Her research lies in the field of environmental governance, with particular interests in land use, environment and sustainability, and in the role of knowledge, ideas and expertise in policy formation and change. She is currently a member of the Research Committee of ESRC, the Council of the Royal Geographical Society and the Advisory Group for the Royal Society's Science Policy Centre; previously, she has served on the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and a number of other public bodies. She was appointed an OBE in 1998.

# Dr Laurent Frideres wins Economic Geography Research Group (EGRG) prize

31st October, 2011

Dr Laurent Frideres has won the Economic Geography Research Group (EGRG) prize for the best PhD thesis in economic geography, Spatial Industrial Clustering and Competitive Advantage: Comparing Firms Inside and Outside Industry Clusters.

# David Duhig wins First Prize in the RGS Climate Change Research Group dissertation award

31st October, 2011

Recent undergraduate student, David Duhig of St Catharine's College, has won First Prize in the RGS Climate Change Research Group dissertation award. The title of David's winning dissertation is The response of Haut Glacier d'Arolla, Switzerland to climate change computed using a coupled mass balance ice flow model.

# A Closer Look at Famine - Why do famines still plague us?

31st October, 2011

David Nally and Gerry Kearns have published an article in the latest Chronicle of Higher Education on the geopolitics and history of subsistence crises. Read more (access available until 23rd October).

# Talk: Is the future of food GM?

31st October, 2011

As part of the Festival of Ideas, the Faculty of Law played host to a fascinating talk on the future of GM crops.

Guest speakers Dr. David Nally (University of Cambridge, Geography), Professor Sir David Baulcombe (University of Cambridge, Botany), and Dr. Jack Stilgoe (University of Exeter, Science Policy) shared their different perspectives on this highly complicated, multi-disciplinary issue. The session was ably chaired by Dr Robert Doubleday (also from the Department of Geography).

# MPhil in Conservation Leadership

1st October, 2011

Information is now online about the new MPhil in Conservation Leadership. The full list of MPhils we offer are:

# Professor Julian Dowdeswell awarded Louis Agassiz Meda

13th June, 2011

Professor Julian Dowdeswell has been awarded the Louis Agassiz Medal of the European Geosciences Union. The medal was established to honour outstanding scientists whose work is related to Cryospheric Sciences. The medal will be presented during the General Assembly of the Union in Vienna in April 2011.

# Fiona McConnell elected to Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College

13th June, 2011

Fiona McConnell, who was an undergraduate in the Department and then completed her PhD at Queen Mary, has just been elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College.

# Peter Dyson wins Undergraduate Dissertation Prize of the Geography of Leisure and Tourism Research Group

13th June, 2011

Peter Dyson of Emmanuel College, has won the 2010 Undergraduate Dissertation Prize awarded by the Geography of Leisure and Tourism Research Group for his dissertation entitled 'Slum Tourism: Representing and Interpreting 'Reality' in Dharavi, Mumbai'.

# Andrew Tedstone awarded runner-up prize in the British Hydrological Society Student Award

13th June, 2011

Andrew Tedstone of Fitzwilliam College has been awarded the runner-up prize in the British Hydrological Society Student Award for his work entitled: 'The subglacial drainage system of the Hagafellsjokull-Eystri'.

# Chetan Kumar elected to non-stipendiary Research Fellowship at Hughes Hall

13th June, 2011

Chetan Kumar (until recently PhD student at the Department) has been elected to a non-stipendiary Research Fellowship at Hughes Hall, concurrent with his work at the Department as Research Associate on a project on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in India.

# Greenland's glaciers double in speed

13th June, 2011

The contribution of Greenland to global sea level change and the mapping of previously unknown basins and mountains beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet are highlighted in a new film released by Cambridge University this morning.

Cambridge University glaciologist Professor Julian Dowdeswell has spent three years of his life in the polar regions.

As Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute (part of the Department of Geography) at the University of Cambridge, this film follows him to Greenland and the Antarctic as his research reveals the challenges we all face from climate change.

# Icelandic eruption

13th June, 2011

Clive Oppenheimer, Reader in Volcanology and Remote Sensing in the Department, was on the BBC Today programme on 25th May 2011 talking about the Icelandic eruption. You can listen to the programme online. He also writes in the Guardian on the subject.

Georgina Sawyer and Evgenia Ilyinskaya, also from the Department, are currently making their way to Iceland to monitor the ash plume.

Clive will be at the forthcoming Hay Festival to talk about his new book Eruptions That Shook The World.

# Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Guardian University Guide and the Complete University Guide

13th June, 2011

The Guardian University Guide has once again given top place to the Geography Degree at Cambridge for 2012. The Complete University Guide also placed Cambridge Geography top.

Our online course guide has full details on the Geography Degree at Cambridge.

# Clive Oppenheimer speaks at Hay Festival

1st June, 2011

Speaking at Hay Cambridge volcanologist, Clive Oppenheimer, warns of volcano threat.

# The national census

28th March, 2011

Members of The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, part of the Department, have been undertaking research on the census over the last 200 years:

The national census of 2011 and 1801: a world of difference and this Anglia News report
What is your job title? Cabbage gelder, cut throat of pigs, man trap? and this Radio 4: Today programme

# Rex Walford

28th March, 2011

Staff in the Department were shocked and saddened to learn of the tragic death of Rex Walford OBE, in a boating accident on the River Thames on January 2nd 2011. Rex was well known to many staff through his work as a University Lecturer in Geography and Education (in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge), as a past Vice President and council member of the Royal Geographical Society, and as past President of the Geographical Association, including his long-standing association with local branch of the GA. He will be remembered for his wit, wisdom and endless curiosity for all things geographical; his loss to education geography is incomparable. A full appreciation of Rex's contributions to geography, and more widely to the arts, can be found at

# Centre for Gender Studies - Public Forum in association with The Guardian Newspaper and kindly supported by Cambridge University Press

1st November, 2010

The Centre for Gender Studies in association with The Guardian Newspaper, kindly supported by Cambridge University Press, hosts 3 major international events in London. World class experts engage directly with the public on topics of gender and radical bio-medical advances of the 21st Century. What can the latest scientific advances tell us about gender, what will be possible in the future and why does it matter?

# Karenjit Clare wins 3-year Junior Research Fellowship at Oxford

24th August, 2010

Former PhD student and now Lecturer and Bye-Fellow of Girton College, Karenjit Clare has won a 3-year Junior Research Fellowship at Green Templeton College, Oxford.

# Alan Baker elected Fellow of the British Academy

24th August, 2010

Alan Baker was elected a Fellow of the British Academy on 22 July.

# Adrian Hayes

24th August, 2010

The Department regrets to report the death of Adrian Hayes on 13 August 2010. Adrian's funeral will take place on Thursday 26 August at 1.00pm at the Arbory Trust Woodland Burial Ground at Barton Glebe, near Cambridge. Adrian's family requests that no flowers are sent for the funeral. Adrian's family wishes it to be known that his friends and colleagues are very welcome to attend the funeral.

# Professor Philip Gibbard awarded honorary doctorate degree

21st June, 2010

On 28 May 2010 Professor Philip Gibbard of the Department of Geography was awarded an honorary doctorate degree (PhD honoris causa) by the University of Helsinki. This is the highest honour the University can bestow.

Phil was one of twelve distinguished persons from science, culture and society who received the degree of honorary doctor at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Philosophy conferment ceremony.

The citation read: "Philip L. Gibbard (b. 1949) from the University of Cambridge is one of the most widely known researchers of ice-age geology, and in recent years he has had particular success in developing a geological timescale. Professor Gibbard has exceptionally wide professional networks and a profound command of his field. He has been involved in close co-operation with the University of Helsinki, and has been a significant background figure in the Finnish community of Quaternary researchers for over thirty years".

# Franz Huber accepts an ESRC-funded research fellowship at OU Business School

21st June, 2010

PhD student, Franz Huber, has accepted an ESRC-funded research fellowship for two years at the Open University Business School.

# Dr Jim Duncan is awarded AAG Distinguished Scholarship Honors

12th April, 2010

Dr Jim Duncan is awarded the AAG Distinguished Scholarship Honors in Washington, April 2010.

# Jenny Gold awarded Andrew Hill Clark Award

12th April, 2010

PhD student Jenny Gold has been awarded the Andrew Hill Clark Award by the AAG Historical Geography Group for the best PhD paper.

# Evelyn Landerer awarded Frederick Soddy Award

12th April, 2010

This year's Frederick Soddy Award, administered by the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers, has been awarded to Evelyn Landerer of the Scott Polar Research Institute (part of the Department of Geography), to fund her PhD fieldwork on changing experiences of space and movement in Siberia.

# The Anthropocene: a new Epoch of geological time caused by humans?

12th April, 2010

In 2002 the chemist Paul Crutzen suggested that we are now living in a new geological interval of time that is dominated by human activities. He termed this the Anthropocene. Since then the term has been widely but informally quoted by a range of earth and environmental scientists, has attracted much public attention, and has been the focus of suggestions that it be formally incorporated into the Geological Time Scale. A recent article (Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Will Steffen & Paul Crutzen 2010 The New World of the Anthropocene Environ. Sci. Technol., 44, 2228–2231) examining the nature, scale and status of the Anthropocene as a potential new geological epoch has appeared highlighting key themes such as the effects of anthropogenic influence on global change (e.g. sea level rise, ice sheet stability, ocean acidification, biodiversity) and how this will be reflected in a distinctive geological record. The proposal of the term Anthropocene is controversial has and has triggered comment in various places, including National Geographic News on 6th April 2010, which includes a quote from Professor Phil Gibbard of the Department.

The New World of the Anthropocene
Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Will Steffen, Paul Crutzen
Environ. Sci. Technol., 2010, 44 (7), pp 2228–2231
Publication Date (Web): February 25, 2010 (Viewpoint)

# Steven Bland awarded Participatory Geographies Research Group Dissertation Prize

25th January, 2010

Recent Undergraduate, Steven Bland of St Catherine's College has been awarded the Participatory Geographies Research Group Dissertation Prize for his dissertation entitled: 'The Challenges and opportunities facing the movement for radical climate action in the UK'.

# Britain's island heritage: reconstructing half a million years of history

25th January, 2010

The latest instalment of a 20-year study to understand how Britain became an island completes a tale of megafloods and super-rivers.

Deep below the Bay of Biscay, where the English Channel meets the Atlantic Ocean, layers of sediment hold precious information about how Britain came to be separated from mainland Europe. Until recently, the clues had remained hidden, off limits owing to the impracticalities and cost of obtaining long-piston core samples and high-resolution acoustic data in this area. However, thanks to an Anglo-French collaboration between Professor Phil Gibbard, who leads the Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group in the Department, and PhD student Sam Toucanne and his colleagues from the University of Bordeaux, the seabed has now yielded its secrets. In doing so, it provides the final instalment in a story that has been unfolding for two decades, since Professor Gibbard first began his detailed palaeogeographic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the southern North Sea.

This work has recently been featured in The Independent, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, and others.

# Indigenous Development in the Andes: Culture, Power, and Transnationalism

25th January, 2010

Sarah Radcliffe's new book, Indigenous Development in the Andes: Culture, Power, and Transnationalism has now been published by Duke University Press.

The book is a nuanced examination of the complexities involved in designing and executing "culturally appropriate" development agendas, and it illuminate a web of relations among indigenous villagers, social movement leaders, government officials, NGO workers, and staff of multilateral agencies such as the World Bank. Indigenous Development in the Andes offers a comprehensive analysis of the diverse consequences of neoliberal development, and it underscores crucial questions about globalization, governance, cultural identity, and social movements.

The book can be ordered from Duke University Press.

# All poor, but no paupers: a Japanese perspective on the Great Divergence

6th January, 2010

A set of Leverhulme lectures to be held at the Law Faculty on 5pm on 1st, 3rd, 8th and 10th February 2010, to be given by a Visitor to the Department, Professor Osamu Saito, Cambridge Group and Hitotsubashi University.

# Apply to Cambridge!

26th October, 2009

Thinking of applying to Cambridge as an Undergraduate in Geography? Check out our prospectus.

Undergraduate course guide
Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Guardian University Guide and the Complete University Guide

# The Politics of Presence in Latin America

26th October, 2009

The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities is hosting an interdisciplinary conference, The Politics of Presence in Latin America on 23-24rd October 2009.

# Franz Huber receives the 2009 Early Career Regional Studies Association Award

19th October, 2009

Phd student Franz Huber has received the 2009 Early Career Regional Studies Association Award.

# Katya Shipigina awarded Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society Student Prize

19th October, 2009

Katya Shipigina, PhD student at the Scott Polar Research Institute, has been awarded the Student Prize of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society for her MPhil thesis

# Christopher Fitzsimmons wins British Hydrological Society Undergraduate Dissertation Award

19th October, 2009

Christopher Fitzsimmons, who graduated from St Catherine's College this summer, has won the British Hydrological Society Undergraduate Dissertation Award.

# End of an era: new ruling decides the boundaries of Earth's history

19th October, 2009

After decades of debate and four years of investigation an international body of earth scientists, led by Cambridge Professor Phil Gibbard, has formally agreed to move the boundary dates for the prehistoric Quaternary Period by 800,000 years.

# Alumni Weekend 2009 events

24th September, 2009

We are running talks and an exhibition for our alumni this weekend, 25th - 26th September 2009.

# Research Clusters

16th June, 2009

The Department's Research Clusters investigate a range of issues in both the environmental sciences and social sciences.

# Open Days for prospective Undergraduates - Thursday 2nd & Friday 3rd July 2009

8th June, 2009

Geography Open Days for prospective students will this year be on 2nd & 3rd July 2009.

Undergraduate prospectus
Cambridge Geography has been ranked best degree by The Independent and the Education Guardian

# Conor Farrington wins Harold Blakemore prize

8th June, 2009

Conor Farrington has won the Harold Blakemore prize, awarded by the Society for Latin American Studies, for the best essay by a UK based PhD student in the field of Latin American Studies.

# Quaternary definition led by Cambridge Geography Professor

8th June, 2009

The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) has elected to formally define the base of the Quaternary at 2.6 million years before present, and also to lower the base of the Pleistocene — an epoch that encompasses the most recent glaciations — from its historical position at 1.8 million years to 2.6 million years ago. The decision, finalised on 21 May, will now be passed to the executive committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) for ratification, which is expected shortly.

The vote shifts an 800,000-year slice, formerly part of the Pliocene Epoch, into the Pleistocene. "It's kind of a land grab," says Philip Gibbard, a geologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, who has fought for the redefinition since 2001. "But we see it as just putting straight a mistake that was made 25–30 years ago. "In 1985, the beginning of the Pleistocene was defined at 1.8 million years ago, calibrated to an outcropping of marine strata in southern Italy. But some geologists have long felt that was a localised, arbitrary boundary that did not reflect worldwide changes — and argued instead for the 2.6-million-year mark, when the entire planet cooled".

The term Quaternary was adopted in the early 1800s, when geologists divvied up fossil records of Earth's history into four periods: the Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Quaternary. The first two terms were discarded long ago, and although Tertiary is still sometimes used, in recent decades some geologists came to consider the Quaternary an outmoded relic. In 2004, a major publication left the Quaternary out of the ICS timescale altogether, making it vulnerable to extinction from scientific nomenclature. In place of the Quaternary, it extended the prior 'Neogene', which began 23 million years ago, up to the present. The Quaternary community went into open revolt but now peace reigns, as the term is safely defined for the first time in its history.

# Workshop: Community-based Action and NRM in an era of Neoliberalism

4th June, 2009

Workshop: Community-based Action and NRM in an era of Neoliberalism (June 19)

# Colloquium: The Inhabited Arctic

4th June, 2009

Colloquium: The Inhabited Arctic at SPRI (17th June)

# Workshop: Trading Across Scales: Current Perspectives on Managing Wildlife Use

4th June, 2009

Workshop: Trading Across Scales: Current Perspectives on Managing Wildlife Use (15th June)

# Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by The Independent and the Education Guardian

20th May, 2009

The Education Guardian University Guide 2010 has once again given top place to the Geography Degree at Cambridge. The Independent's Complete University guide also placed Cambridge Geography top.

EducationGuardian.co.uk's guide to universities and colleges claims to be the most comprehensive source of information on UK higher education. The tables use a range of criteria.

Professor Richard Smith, Head of Department, said:

We are pleased to report that we have once again appeared as the top UK university Department of Geography in the Independent's Complete University Guide published on 30 April 2009 and the Guardian's list of top Universities for teaching Geography published 12 May 2009.

Our online course guide has full details on the Geography Degree at Cambridge.

# Kim Beazley's AAG paper awarded 2009 Development Geographies Specialty Group Paper Award

6th April, 2009

Kim Beazley's AAG paper "Who Directs the Destinies of the Displaced? Interrogating Notions of the Powerless Oustee" has been awarded the 2009 Development Geographies Specialty Group Paper Award at the upcoming AAG meeting in Las Vegas.

# Franz Huber wins RGS-IBG EGRG prize

6th April, 2009

Franz Huber, one of the Department's economic geography PhD students, has won the prize of the RGS-IBG EGRG, for the Working Paper Prize (new for 2009): Social capital of economic clusters: towards a network-based conception of social resources

# Physical Geography / Environmental Science PhD Opportunities 2009

28th March, 2009

Physical Geography / Environmental Science PhD Opportunities

# Graduate studentships

28th March, 2009

Graduate studentships

# Freeze Frame - historic polar images at SPRI

28th March, 2009

Freeze Frame - historic polar images at SPRI

# Annual Report 2007-8

4th February, 2009

Annual Report 2007-8

# Comparative Colonialisms

8th January, 2009

Comparative Colonialisms: An Interdisciplinary Workshop

# Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 result

6th January, 2009

The Cambridge University Department of Geography was ranked first jointly with the Departments of Geography at the Universities of Bristol, Durham and Oxford in the 2008 RAE Assessment Exercise. The percentages of research assessed were 30% at 4*, 40% at 3*, 25% at 2* and 5% at 1*. There were 49 Units of Assessment submitted in Geography and Environmental Studies across UK institutions.

# Princes visit University of Cambridge to meet experts on global trends

10th December, 2008

Their Royal Highnesses Prince William and Prince Harry were in Cambridge on 28th-29th October 2008 to attend a two-day seminar on the social and ecological challenges facing society.

Amongst the University presenters was Professor Bill Adams of the Department of Geography.

The seminar was hosted by the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry (CPI) and focused on a number of global trends: poverty, environmental limits, climate change and security.

# Heart of the Sahara

21st October, 2008

John Pilkington: 'Heart of the Sahara' - 22nd October

# Alumni weekend: 26th-27th September

15th September, 2008

Alumni weekend: 26th-27th September

# Geography welcomes the Cambridge University Centre for Gender Studies

8th September, 2008

The Centre for Gender Studies is an international locus for cutting-edge gender research and a wide community of academics from across the disciplines interested in gender. The Centre is now part of the Department of Geography.

A seminar day will take place on 29th September.

# Seminar presentation by Ingo Kirchner

12th June, 2008

Seminar presentation by Ingo Kirchner

# Zeldovich Medal

19th May, 2008

The Committee for Space Research (COSPAR) has awarded Dr. Kauzar Saleh with the Zeldovich Medal for 2008 in Space Studies of the Earth's Surface, Meteorology and Climate. This award is given jointly by COSPAR and the Russian Academy of Sciences to recognize excellence and achievements of early career scientists.

# 2007 Ashby Prize

19th May, 2008

The Scott Polar Research Institute and Dept. of Geography are pleased to announce that Dr. Richard Powell, a former Ph.D. student (supervised by Dr. M. T. Bravo and Prof. K. S. Richards) and ESRC Research Fellow at the Scott Polar Research Institute/Geography, has been awarded the 2007 Ashby Prize by the editors of Environment and Planning 'A' in recognition of the exceptional quality of his paper on the geography of experimental field practices in the Arctic. The research for the paper was carried out as part of his doctoral work and subsequently submitted for publication. The full reference for the paper is Richard C. Powell (2007) 'The rigours of an Arctic experiment': the precarious authority of field practices in the Canadian High Arctic, 1958-1970 Environment and Planning A 39(8) 1794-1811.

# 25 years of Family Forms and beyond

13th May, 2008

Conference: 25 years of Family Forms and beyond

# Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Education Guardian University Guide 2009

13th May, 2008

The Education Guardian University Guide 2009 gave top place to the Geography Degree at Cambridge.

EducationGuardian.co.uk's guide to universities and colleges claims to be the most comprehensive source of information on UK higher education. The tables use a range of criteria.

Professor Richard Smith, Head of Department, said:

We are delighted that we have sustained leading position in the provision of a Geography Degree course that is so highly rated. We seek to provide an educational environment that will continue to satisfy the aspirations of the extremely high quality of those who apply to read Geography in Cambridge.

Our online course guide has full details on the Geography Degree at Cambridge.

# Open Days for prospective Undergraduates - Thursday 3rd July & Friday 4th July 2008

29th April, 2008

The Department is running Open Days on Thursday 3rd July & Friday 4th July 2008.

# Julian Dowdeswell awarded Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society

29th April, 2008

Professor Julian Dowdeswell has been awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for 2008. This is one of the two most prestigious medals awarded by the RGS.

# The Anthropocene

29th April, 2008

Humans have altered Earth so much that scientists say that we may be witnessing a transformation of the World as profound as the end of the age of the dinosaurs, and entering a distinctive new geological period.

Writing in the February issue of the Geological Society of America, GSA Today, Britain's leading stratigraphers (experts in marking geological time, including Phil Gibbard, Professor in the Department) the Geological Society of London's Stratigraphy Commission argue that industrialisation has wrought changes so substantial that usher in a new epoch - the Anthropocene.

# Networks in Society and the Economy

12th April, 2008

Networks in Society and the Economy

# Will Harvey wins prestigious post-doc research fellowship at the University of British Columbia

24th March, 2008

PhD student Will Harvey, who has just submitted his thesis has won a prestigious post-doc research fellowship at the University of British Columbia.

# University Scholar broadcasts live from the bottom of the ocean

24th March, 2008

A former University student is taking part in a series of unique underwater classroom tutorials off the coast of the Florida Keys. Read more ...

# Alumni Talk: From Cambridge Geography to the Olympics

9th March, 2008

The first in a series of our Alumni talks - careers talks by former students of the department - will be on Monday 10th March, at 5pm in the Large Lecture Theatre.

# Physical Geography / Environmental Science PhD opportunities - October 2008

11th February, 2008

Physical Geography / Environmental Science PhD opportunities - October 2008

# Ecosystem services and human well-being: Interrogating the evidence

11th February, 2008

Seminar series, 15th January: Ecosystem services and human well-being: Interrogating the evidence

# Former students abroad featured in the media

14th January, 2008

Joe Powell, a student who graduated from the Department last year and has gone to Makerere University in Uganda to do a Masters degree. He has written about his experiences in the Guardian.

Additionally, former student Tim Bromfield has also been involved in the Katine development project being featured/supported by the Guardian.

# Workshop: Experiencing the state: marginalised people and the politics of development in India

31st October, 2007

This workshop will be held on 23rd January 2008 in the Department.

# Research seminars - Michaelmas term 2007

3rd October, 2007

Research seminars for this term

# Second Life virtual world lecture from Cambridge Geography professor

25th September, 2007

Professor Philip Gibbard, from the Department of Geography, will speak for half an hour to an audience he himself cannot see using the 3D internet world, 'Second Life'.

The lecture will take place in Second Life at 7pm on Thursday, September 26th and will last for about 30 minutes, including the question and answer session.

See more details and the Lecture venue in Second Life.

The slides from Phil's talk are now available online.

# QPG members featured on BBC's 'Countryfile'

22nd September, 2007

Members of the Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group joined BBC presenter John Craven to present the vegetational history of the famous Hockham Mere site for the programme Countryfile.

The report can be watched online and was screened on BBC1 TV at 11am on Sunday 23rd September.

# Catastrophic floods in the English Channel

1st August, 2007

There has been much interest in research on Catastrophic floods in the English Channel published in Nature, 19th July 2007.

# Undergraduate open days 2007

23rd June, 2007

Undergraduate open days

# Annual Report 2005

9th June, 2007

Annual Report 2005

# Jie Ding one of two winners of this year's RGS-IBG Hong Kong Research Grant

8th June, 2007

Jie Ding (PhD student) has been selected as one of two shared winners of this year's RGS-IBG Hong Kong Research Grant.

# Andrew Currah awarded EGRG (Economic Geography Research Group) annual prize

8th June, 2007

Recent former PhD student, Andrew Currah, has just been awarded the EGRG's (Economic Geography Research Group) annual prize for the best PhD dissertation.

# Research seminars - Easter term 2007

21st May, 2007

Research seminars this term

# Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Guardian University Guide 2008

21st May, 2007

The Guardian University Guide 2008 gave equal first place to the Geography Degree at Cambridge.

EducationGuardian.co.uk's guide to universities and colleges claims to be the most comprehensive source of information on UK higher education. The tables use a range of criteria.

Professor Bob Haining, Head of Department, said:

"I am very pleased to see that we continue to score highly in these national comparisons. My colleagues and I will continue to make every effort to offer a first class education to the outstanding students who study here."

Our online course guide has full details on the Geography Degree at Cambridge.

# Ron Martin elected to three-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship

1st May, 2007

Ron Martin has been elected to a three-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, from October 2007 to September 2010 to research evolutionary economics and economic geography.

# Lectureships in Physical Geography and in Economic Geography

21st April, 2007

Lectureships in Physical Geography and in Economic Geography

# Human Geography PhD opportunities - ESRC studentships

5th February, 2007

Human Geography PhD opportunities - ESRC studentships

# Professor Sir Alan Wilson

29th January, 2007

The General Board has conferred the title of Honorary Professor of Urban and Regional Geography on Sir Alan Wilson, Master of Corpus Christi.

The seminar scheduled for 10th May (entitled 'Boltzmann, Lotka and Volterra and the evolution of geographical structures') has been postponed.

# Research seminars for Lent Term

26th January, 2007

Research seminars for Lent Term

# Symposium on Geopolitics

4th January, 2007

Symposium on Geopolitics - Friday January 12 2007

# Graduate Studentships

1st January, 2007

Graduate studentships

# Christopher Rimmer awarded British Hydrological Society prize

29th November, 2006

Christopher Rimmer has been awarded second prize (cash and certificate as 'runner up') by the British Hydrological Society for his dissertation on 'The changing climate of Swiss hydroelectric power production: An analysis of the Haut Glacier D'Arolla meltwater discharge characteristics'.

# Will Harvey awarded EGRG (Economic Geography Research Group) prize

7th September, 2006

Will Harvey, Ph.D. student, has been awarded the EGRG (Economic Geography Research Group) prize for the best Masters Thesis. Will's thesis was entitled "Highly-skilled migration: An analysis of immigrant networks in biotechnology" and has formed the basis of his PhD work.

# Joseph Fisher has been awarded Joanna Stillwell Prize

7th September, 2006

Part II student Joseph Fisher has been awarded Third Prize for the Joanna Stillwell Prize for Population Geography Dissertations.

# Undergraduate open days 2006

13th May, 2006

Undergraduate open days

# Human Geography PhD. Opportunities - October 2006

11th May, 2006

Human Geography PhD. Opportunities - October 2006

# Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Education Guardian 2006

11th May, 2006

Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Education Guardian 2006

# EGRG Annual Symposium 2006

11th May, 2006

EGRG Annual Symposium 2006

# Chloe de Pencier wins Landscape Research Group Dissertation Prize 2005

24th April, 2006

Chloe de Pencier of Sidney Sussex College has won the Landscape Research Group Dissertation Prize 2005. Her first class dissertation was entitled "Landscapes of the Mind: An Artist and his Public, Questions of Communication". The work was judged as "the best undergraduate dissertation or project based on original academic research and showing conceptual sophistication in the study of landscape".

# European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop on Evolutionary Economic Geography

24th April, 2006

Cambridge hosted a European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop on Evolutionary Economic Geography, convened by Prof Ron Martin (Cambridge) and Prof Ron Boschma (Utrecht) on April 3-5. Some 24 leading evolutionary economists and economic geographers from across Europe met to explore the construction of a new evolutionary perspective for studying the economic landscape.

# Robin Donkin

24th April, 2006

The Department received, with great sadness, news that Dr Robin Donkin, Fellow of Jesus College and a former member of the Department, died on 1 February 2006. Text of the eulogy spoken at the memorial service can be read online.

# Geography and ethics

1st February, 2006

'Geography and ethics': this term's research seminars

# NERC studentships

1st February, 2006

NERC studentships available for MPhil degree in GIS and Remote Sensing

# Physical Geography PhD. Opportunities - October 2006

1st February, 2006

Physical Geography PhD. Opportunities - October 2006

# Sarah Radcliffe made Editor of Progress in Human Geography

23rd November, 2005

Dr Sarah Radcliffe has recently been made Editor of Progress in Human Geography (one of five editors)

# Simon Reid Henry awarded best PhD thesis in Economic Geography

23rd November, 2005

Dr Simon Reid Henry: AAG Economic Geography Speciality Group: best PhD thesis in Economic Geography for 2004.

# Rory Gallagher awarded prize in AAG's Sexuality and Space Speciality Group's student paper competition

23rd November, 2005

Rory Gallagher: Second Prize in the AAG's Sexuality and Space Speciality Group's student paper competition

# Al James awarded best UK PhD thesis in Economic Geography for 2003

23rd November, 2005

Dr Al James: RGS-IBG Economic Geography Research Group: best UK PhD thesis in Economic Geography for 2003

# Will Harvey awarded Millennium Scholarship

23rd November, 2005

MPhil student Will Harvey, who has received the highly prestigious Millennium Scholarship from the University.

# Mia Gray appointed secretary of the Economic Geography Research Group at the RGS

23rd November, 2005

Dr Mia Gray has become secretary of the Economic Geography Research Group at the Royal Geographical Society.

# Andrew Currah accepts lectureship in Geography at Oxford University

23rd November, 2005

Andrew Currah, PhD student in economic geography, has just accepted a lectureship in Geography at Oxford University.

# Will Harvey made Editor of Contour

23rd November, 2005

Will Harvey has been made Editor of the RGS-IBG E-Journal Contour

# Dr Clive Oppenheimer awarded the Murchison Award

23rd November, 2005

The Royal Geographical Society with IBG have awarded Dr Clive Oppenheimer the Murchison Award ('for publications enhancing the understanding of volcanic processes and impacts')

# Research seminars for Michaelmas term 2005

10th October, 2005

Research seminars for Michaelmas term

# Cambridge Geography ranked best degree by the Education Guardian

10th October, 2005

The Education Guardian 2005 University Rankings gave first place to the Geography Degree at Cambridge, with 83% (6% clear of the next ranked University). A total of 84 Degrees were analysed in the survey.

EducationGuardian.co.uk's guide to universities and colleges claims to be the most comprehensive source of information on UK higher education. The tables use a range of criteria. A staff score (based on the teaching staff in each subject); entry qualification : (what it takes to get in); spend per student (how much money is put into teaching); staff/student:staff ratio; value added score (conversion of A-levels into a degree class), student destinations (postgraduate employment)j, and inclusiveness (recruitment of ethnic, disabled and mature students).

Professor Bob Haining, Head of Department, said:

"I am delighted at this recognition of the tremendous amount of hard work that colleagues put into teaching undergraduates in Cambridge. We are fortunate to have outstanding students, and we make every effort to offer teaching of the highest standard."

Our online course guide has full details on the Geography Degree at Cambridge.

# Cambridge Geography ranked top by The Times Good University Guide

10th October, 2005

The Department has come out top for Geography in the 'The Times Good University Guide'. The rankings are based on official assessments of teaching quality, research, average Ucas scores and percentage of graduates who go on to graduate-type jobs or further study.

The rankings for Geography are available at
http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/gooduniversityguide2005/20geography.pdf [PDF format].

Cambridge Geography was also recently ranked best degree by the Education Guardian.

# Annual Report 2004

1st October, 2005

The Department's Annual Report 2004 is now online.

# Ron Martin elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

31st July, 2005

In July 2005, Ron Martin was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

# Open Day for prospective Undergraduates - 7th July

1st July, 2005

Open Day for prospective Undergraduates - 7th July

# Environmental Policy: Change and Continuity, North and South

1st May, 2005

Environmental Policy: Change and Continuity, North and South - one day conference on 13th May

# ESRC studentships and Physical Geography PhD opportunities for UK students

23rd February, 2005

ESRC studentships and Physical Geography PhD. Opportunities for UK students - October 2005

# Geomed 2005: Conference on public health

1st February, 2005

Geomed 2005: Conference on public health to be held in September bringing together geographers, statisticians, epidemiologists, computer scientists and public health professionals.

# Producing Rigorous and Relevant Graduate Research in Social and Economic Geography

1st February, 2005

Producing Rigorous and Relevant Graduate Research in Social and Economic Geography

# CCRU and Khaled Bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation to assess tsunami impact on Western Indian Ocean coral reefs

24th January, 2005

An international coral reef assessment group, jointly co-ordinated by Dr Tom Spencer and Capt Phil Renaud, Executive Director of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and led in the field by Annelise Hagan of the Department of Geography's Coastal Research Unit, leaves for the Seychelles on 7 January to assess tsunami impacts on the coral reefs and shallow banks of the southern Seychelles (5-10 deg S).