Innes M. Keighren

On canonical geographies

Histories of geography are, by their very nature, selective enterprises. The apparent tendency of geographers to disparage particular periods of the discipline’s history, at the same time as exalting others, is characteristic of the way in which progress has been measured, relevance defined, and novelty identified. Yet, whilst other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences actively engage with their textual canons and founding figures, geographers have notoriously avoided doing so. In this paper, we consider why this has been the case and how different conceptions of canonicity have mattered to the ways in which the history of geography and its intellectual foundations have been narrated. In thinking through the significance of geography’s texts to the ways we imagine the discipline – its past, present, and future – we consider how processes of remembering and forgetting have been employed to serve certain intellectual and ideological agendas. We conclude by advocating a more serious engagement with geography’s textual legacy: one which might benefit not only disciplinary historiography but also disciplinary consciousness, and thus the future of geography itself.

The spectacular and the sacred: narrating landscape in works of travel

This article – drawing upon the archives of the London publisher John Murray – addresses the narration of landscape in 19th century printed accounts of travel and exploration. The geological work of the earth scientist Charles Lyell, and the textual and cartographic investigations of the scriptural geographer Edward Robinson, are used to examine the construction of narrative as a question of inscriptive practice, rhetorical desideratum, and interpretative strategy. We show how, with specific audiences and purposes in mind, and with Murray’s redactorial influence at heart, Lyell and Robinson cast their accounts in particular ways in order to satisfy expectations of scientific rigour, literary form, authorial credibility, and bodily encounter. The accounts – one by a scientist facing revelation in nature’s wonder, the other and by a theologian reading landscape scientifically in order to ‘prove’ scriptural truth – contribute to our understanding of the geographical dimensions of the relationships between science and religion in the 19th century. In addressing the complex connections linking author, publisher, and audience in the production of landscape narratives, the paper highlights the importance of epistemological matters in examining the making of geographical narrative, addresses the value of publisher’s archives in geographical research and illustrates how and why authors (and publishers) chose to put their written accounts to order in the ways they did.

Teaching the history of geography: Current challenges and future directions

Drawing upon the personal reflections of geographical educators in Brazil, Canada, the UK, and the US, this Forum provides a state-of-the-discipline review of teaching in the history of geography; identifies the practical and pedagogical challenges associated with that teaching; and offers suggestions and provocations as to future innovation. The Forum shows how teaching in the history of geography is valued – as a tool of identity making, as a device for cohort building and professionalization, and as a means of interrogating the disciplinary present – but also how it is challenged by neoliberal educational policies, competing priorities in curriculum design, and sub-disciplinary divisions.

Questions of Inscription and Epistemology in British Travelers’ Accounts of Early Nineteenth-Century South America

This article examines the problems of truth and of trust in travelers’ narratives. Following a review of work on travel writing and the place of printed travel narratives in the making of geographical enquiry, we discuss how issues of inscription and credibility are intrinsic to the material and epistemic transformation of narratives from their manuscript beginnings to their printed form. Particular attention is paid to the narratives of travel in early nineteenth-century South America issued by the London publisher John Murray. By interrogating the embodied practices of travel writing, this article investigates the ways in which Murrays authors sought to establish a correspondence between their lived experiences and the textual representations of those experiences. The article focuses on the epistemological bases to travelers’ claims to truth and how they evaluated differently the significance of direct observation and the oral and textual testimony of third parties in the production of travel accounts that sought to reveal a newly independent South America to the reading public. In its examination of the complex connections linking author, publisher, and audience, the work has implications for scholars interested in the relationship between writing and the printed word in geography.

Giving voice to geography: Popular lectures and the diffusion of knowledge

Abstract In the winter of 1912, the American geographer Ellen Churchill Semple delivered a short series of lectures to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society on the subject of anthropogeography. Her lectures closely followed the publication in 1911 of her book Influences of Geographic Environment, and were an important venue for the promotion of the ideas it contained. With reference to recent work in the history of science concerned with the communication of knowledge, this paper describes how the reception of Semples ideas on environmental influence was facilitated and conditioned by her popular lectures to the Society. More generally, this paper considers how text and talk functioned differently in the diffusion of scientific ideas, and how, in each medium, standards of trust and credibility were established and assessed.

History and philosophy of geography I The slow, the turbulent, and the dissenting

This report takes as its prompt John K. Wright’s 1925 ‘plea for the history of geography’ – an early call for an inclusive account of geographical thought and practice, embracing both professional and amateur ways of knowing. In reflecting on the extent to which contemporary histories of geography realize the scope of Wright’s ambition, the paper considers how external pressures, such as neoliberalism and academia’s audit culture, function to shape and constrain the writing of those histories. The paper argues for the value of ‘slow’ scholarship as an act of political resistance and as a sine qua non of nuanced and comprehensive historiography. The report concludes by examining how biographical and genealogical approaches to narrating geography’s histories have important implications for the decisions made about inclusion and exclusion, about what and who counts in geography.

Of poles, pressmen, and the newspaper public: Reporting the Scottish national Antarctic expedition, 1902–1904

Abstract Between 1902 and 1904, the Scots naturalist William Speirs Bruce (1867–1921) led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition on a voyage of oceanographical discovery. Unlike other British expeditions undertaken during the ‘Heroic Age’ of polar exploration, Bruces Expedition placed undivided attention upon scientific accumulation, and dismissed the value of territorial acquisition. As a consequence, Bruce and his Expedition were subject to a distinct interpretation by the press. With reference to contemporary newspaper reports, this paper traces the unique mediation of Bruce, and reveals how geographies of reporting served to communicate locally particular representations of him, and of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition.

“A Royal Geographical Society for Ladies”: The Lyceum Club and Women's Geographical Frontiers in Edwardian London

This article reconstructs the history, organization, and campaigning function of the Geographical Circle of the Lyceum Club—a membership group that, under the leadership of Bessie Pullen-Burry (1858–1937), sought to promote and legitimize womens geographical work in early twentieth-century Britain. Through an examination of archival material and contemporary press coverage, I document the Geographical Circles efforts to establish itself as a professional body for women geographers and to lobby for their admission to the Royal Geographical Society. Although considerable scholarly attention has been paid to women geographers’ individual contributions to the discipline, their cooperative, professionalizing endeavors have been comparatively neglected. In tracing the parallel history of the Circle as an example of womens self-organization, and of Pullen-Burry as an independent campaigner, I argue that a nuanced account of womens professionalization in geography demands attention to both individual and collective endeavors.

Introduction: Toward More Inclusive and Comparative Perspectives in the Histories of Geographical Knowledge

Over the past three decades, feminist historiography of geography has begun to situate womens contribution to the production of geographical knowledge within the histories of geography, at times against the conviction of skeptical colleagues. In this Focus Section introduction, we renew Domoshs (1991a, 1991b) call for creating more inclusive feminist histories of geography by situating the three focus section articles on the careers and contributions of women in twentieth-century geographical practice and knowledge production in the United Kingdom and the United States within wider debates about diverse, unfamiliar, and previously hidden aspects of geographical knowledge production. We argue that feminist historiography of geography and feminist historical geography could benefit from continuously diversifying inclusive and comparative research perspectives, and from unlocking diverse archives, to enhance understanding of why and how some male and some female gatekeepers have been more supportive of women than others.

We have never been canonical

In responding to the commentaries on Keighren et al. (2012), we discuss in this paper the nature of memory and forgetfulness in geography and examine what the implications of active forgetting are for the stories we tell about geography and geographers. We explore the role which fashion plays in directing the course of the discipline and what this means for our engagement with the work of past geographers. Finally, we consider how notions of inheritance and bequest can inform the ways in which we value the texts through which the discipline has defined and represented itself.