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Department of Geography

 

Annual Report 1997: Introduction to The Department of Geography

The introduction to the Report for 1996 referred obliquely to the pressure on space in the Department of Geography; it is encouraging to report that 1997 has seen the emergence of an opportunity for alleviation of this pressure as we have wrestled with the possibility of occupying some additional accommodation in an adjacent building. The Department’s Teaching Quality Assessment had commented adversely on the scientific laboratories, which are so small as to be unsafe when we put a student in them; the spaces available for public access computing are so crowded that there is an increasing danger of system failure when operating temperatures are exceeded; and colleagues who are away on leave are apt to return only to discover their office occupied by someone else. There is now a chance that some of these problems can be resolved, and much time has been spent during 1997 planning for this possibility. If in 1998 it can be reported that this has come to fruition, it will mark a significant step forward for the Department.

Of course, the Department’s space problems have been recognised by the University for some time, and we have been occupying offices in Sidney Street to reduce some of the pressures. Inevitably, however, this is not a sustainable long-term arrangement, as the friction of distance dissipates intellectual energy, as the problems of remote management of satellite computer networks increase demands on staff, and as we experience the effects of having landlords who expect to be able to redevelop around us. The Cambridge Coastal Research Unit has nevertheless utilised this space effectively, although the Unit has undergone some significant changes during 1997. Having rapidly established itself as a source of expert advice in relation to coastal management problems, it was responsible for a sharp increase in the Department’s research funding, although primarily in the form of grants for generic research in short-term, case-specific projects. John Pethick was attracted to a Chair in Newcastle during the year, and Dr Tom Spencer took over as Director, supported by Dr Iris Moeller as his Deputy, and four research assistants and students. Dr Moeller was a graduate student in the Department whose previous post had been with Hydraulics Research in Wallingford, where she worked on coastal and estuarine management problems. Tom Spencer was appointed as a principal investigator on the Royal Society/Royal Geographical Society Shoals of Capricorn Programme which will run from 1997-2000, so the Coastal Research Unit may acquire a tropical focus in the future!

The Department’s involvement in research outside its immediate boundaries continues apace, and is entirely appropriate for a fundamentally inter-disciplinary subject such as Geography. It has close links with the Godwin Institute for Quaternary Research (Phil Gibbard, the new Vice President of the Quaternary Research Association, Tom Spencer, Neil Arnold, Clive Oppenheimer and Chronis Tzedakis), the Scott Polar Research Institute (Neil Arnold and Keith Richards, who now acts as the Director), the ESRC Centre for Business Research (David Keeble, one of the Assistant Directors, and Bob Bennett), the Committee for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (Keith Richards and Jo Smith), the Post-Soviet States Research Programme in Sidney Sussex (Graham Smith), the Cambridge Committee for Russian and East European Studies (Graham Smith), the Cambridge Unit for the History of Population and Social Structure (Gerry Kearns), and the Centres for African (Bill Adams), Latin American (Sarah Radcliffe) and South-East Asian Studies (Stuart Corbridge and Jim Duncan). In relation to the area studies Centres, which in the main are associated with other Faculties, the Department has sometimes felt isolated from their planning and development, and concerned about this given the obvious central importance of area studies in Geography. Thus we have watched the discussions about possible institutional changes in this context with interest. By contrast, of course, the Department has been centrally involved in the institutional developments that have occurred in SPRI, another kind of area studies institute where the defining feature is its environmental character rather than its history. Furthermore, several members of the Department also have links with the Committee for Aerial Photography, which is chaired by Alan Baker, and here again, and given the Department’s interests in remote sensing and geographical information systems, we are particularly interested in the potentially exciting institutional developments that might follow a General Board Review of the Committee which is currently in progress.

Although the Department continues to be under-supplied with ad hominem promotions – to a degree highlighted by an entirely independent contribution to a Discussion reported in the University Reporter of 8 May 1997 (pp 681-2) – it was heartened by the award of a Personal Professorship, in Theoretical Geography, to Andy Cliff from 1 October 1997. In addition, a number of external honours and awards were received by colleagues in the Department. Dr Alan Baker heard in December 1997 that he was to be created a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académique by the French Government for his work on the historical geography of Loir-et-Cher. Dr Ron Martin took up a British Academy “Thank-Offering to Britain” Senior Research Fellowship (the first time this has been awarded to a geographer), and is spending part of the leave while working for this Fellowship based as a Visiting Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Ancona. A slightly different but equally prestigious honour for Dr Susan Owens was that she was appointed to the Deputy Prime Minister’s Expert Group created to consider an integrated transport policy. Both Emeritus Professor Richard Chorley and Dr Stuart Lane were honoured at the quadrennial conference of the International Association of Geomorphologists, the former as an Honorary Fellow and the latter as the recipient of the 1997 Jan de Ploey Award. A third-year Ph.D. student, Bronwyn Parry, was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship in Human Geography at King’s College, joining Stuart McLelland at Fitzwilliam, Robert Mayhew at Corpus Christi and Chronis Tzedakis at Robinson to give us the largest number of College Research Fellows for some time – albeit still a small number.

There has been rather less fluidity in the Departmental personnel in 1997 than that reported in 1996, although Stuart Lane, Clive Oppenheimer, Philip Howell and Ian Willis were all reappointed from 1 October 1997 to University Lectureships or Assistant Lectureships. One new member of the academic staff in the Department in 1997 has been Patricia (Mia) Gray, an economic geographer with interests in the locational preferences of high technology industries (particularly biotechnology), and their impact on regional development, who joined us from Rutgers University and who will strengthen and broaden the Department’s traditional concern with this general field. Mia was also elected to a Fellowship at Girton, and during the year, Neil Arnold was elected to a Teaching Fellowship at St John’s, and Nancy Duncan to a College Fellowship and Lectureship at Fitzwilliam. After the departure of one of the Department’s part-time laboratory technicians, some minor restructuring and additional funding allowed us to appoint Guy Harris to a full-time post, with the benefit of ensuring that the “wet” laboratories are overseen more continuously. Perhaps the most notable change in the Department’s personnel, however, is that which came towards the end of 1997 when, after committing a career of 31 years to the Department, Mike Young took slightly early retirement from his Senior Technical Officership from which he had run the Cartographic Unit. Mike has been a stalwart member of the Department, like so many contributing beyond the call in so many ways; from almost single-handedly taking on the running of a Departmental field class to providing a stable point of social contact for all categories of members of the Department, while also maintaining the high standard of cartographic output that characterises the Department, and being a fount of knowledge about the map collection … and the Ely Museum.

As is evident from the Report of the Director of the Undergaduate School, we have finally completed a set of reforms to the Tripos. These replace a Part IB unseen examination with an open-book examination, and alter the requirements at Part II. One issue which will inevitably exercise geographers in the next year or two is the classification by HEFCE of the subject for teaching and research purposes. Initially in 1997, HEFCE defined Geography as a “classroom” discipline for the purpose of determining funding levels for teaching, and it was only after representations co-ordinated by the RGS-IBG and the Conference of Heads of Geography Departments, that it agreed to a re-classification as a “part-laboratory subject”. However, HEFCE is still exploring the proportions of courses within Geography degrees that involve sophisticated computing, fieldwork and laboratory work, and this issue is therefore likely to have a significant bearing on any further changes to the Tripos. It is unfortunate both that such considerations loom large in any discussion that should be primarily academic; and that one has to wage a continual campaign to prevent bureaucracies from constructing policies that could destroy subjects. How typical that one can find aspects of geography identified as subjects in which the U.K. is considered to have world class strength in the Office of Science and Technology Review of the Science Budget Portfolio as recently as 1995. At least I can be confident, given the material gathered for this Report, that the Department continues to match up to that assessment.

Professor Keith Richards
Head of Department