Even as I enter the second year of my master’s degree in geography, I shy away from the prospect of commenting on my field or its meaning to me. In many ways, I feel like a bit of a fake - I’m a human masquerading as a social scientist masquerading as a future ‘Master of Geography.’ This is a common feeling in grad school, so I hear, and I am nothing if not on the same road of academic transfiguration as my peers.
My connection to geography feels circumstantial in that I initially followed my interests to my advisor and my academic focus with little regard for what field I might then be a part of. However, the more I acquaint myself with what geography encompasses (everything!), the more I feel the label represents me. For one, I’m terrible with maps and capitals, which is the number one prerequisite for being a geographer…
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The field of geography is not as clearly defined as, say, physics or as easily explainable as computer science. This lends it, and similar fields, a sort of diaphanous nature which has not been wholly favorable. Since 2012, academic programs in the social sciences and humanities have experienced uneven or declining growth rates in the United States. This trend is stronger at the undergraduate level, but it affects program funding and faculty positions on a broader scale, as well as the perceived cultural importance of non-STEM degrees (Revell and Benefield, 2022). Among these affected fields is geography. Geography is both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, which makes it a unique field among its counterparts, but this aspect might also aid its lagging performance (Choi and Pak, 2006). Because geography contains both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary aspects, it can easily be filed into other departments- for example, “cartography” or “conservation,” rather than “geography” (Revell and Benfield, 2022).
But, despite its ability to split into other programs, geography’s success as a graduate degree is worth noting. While the discipline has followed declining trends at the undergraduate level, the graduate level has experienced steady growth until very recently (Revell and Benfield, 2022). This is an interesting comparison, as it implies that undergraduates are somehow turned off by a geography degree (or don’t have the option to major in it, as only 7% of liberal arts colleges offer it (Revell and Benfield, 2022)). I am an example of this undergraduate versus graduate trend. I’m currently earning my master’s degree in geography, but I have an undergraduate degree in sustainability science, and my university didn’t even have classes designated as “geography.” This reflects the wide reach and applicability of geography to other social sciences- I took a GIS course, a course about place, and conservation courses without ever explicitly connecting it to the field I would ultimately pursue in my secondary degree.
But rather than think about this issue in such a straightforward way- how many graduates have the word “geography” typed on their diploma- I’d like to consider the future of geography as how successful its diaspora of ideas has, and will, become. The 2008 recession, combined with employment shifts towards tech industries and systemic support for women in STEM, has created an educational pipeline which places high value on scientific and technical degrees. This catches and uplifts physical and technical geography, creating social value for GIS skills and biospheric research. However, what about other aspects of geography? There seems to be little room for critical system assessments and social reimaginings in a mainstream job market (and culture) based so firmly on linear, positivist, and economically grounded values. This isn’t to say that there is no space at all- that would discount the many academics, business owners, thinkers, and activists who have dedicated their entire careers to what can be broadly included in human geography. I simply lament first, the blatant function of higher education as a funnel into boom-and-bust industries like tech, and second, the decreasing undergraduate interest in social sciences and humanities degrees as students feel pressure to pursue “recession proof” vocations.
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I think people who become geographers, especially now that there are very few undergraduate degrees in it or entire departments devoted to it, have a series of experiences where they say to themselves, “Oh, so this is geography!” The novel presentation of an idea they learned elsewhere, or that always resonated with them, falls into its place in a discipline which seems to suddenly encompass and inform everything.
I am projecting this series of experiences onto all geographers, but of course I can only speak for myself. My personal essay for undergraduate college applications was about taking long wandering walks, or dérives. I can’t find the document anywhere now, but I remember that I described long wanders through neighborhoods, along roads and over streams and hills and across private and public land. Practicing this wandering led me not only to develop a relationship with the landscape, but to reflect on the ways it was subdivided and cut in a seemingly nonsensical fashion. At the time, I placed this interest in a bohemian, historical compartment- after all, I had my heart set on majoring in art at the time. However, six years later, I think back on my walks as a growing interest in human-environmental interactions, the nonsensical divisions as distributions of power and control. The things I loved to do and think about resolved themselves into aspects of geography- a field I had never closely considered before but that I had been practicing for years.
Even when I was applying to master’s programs, I thought it was an interesting coincidence that most of the advisors who caught my attention worked in geography departments. Again, I was focused on my own interests without seeking to understand the broader label under which they were housed. It was only upon beginning my first semester at NAU that I started to reckon with what it might mean to be a geographer, and how I might have been one all along.
Perhaps this is what every student feels as they gain knowledge and experience in their respective field. Perhaps if I were in an anthropology program instead of a geography one, I would reflect on myself through that lens instead. But I doubt it. Even without a bachelor’s degree in geography, even without prior cognizance of my geographical interests, even without knowing US state capitals off the top of my head (ha ha), I have been a geographer the whole time.
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