Background

Declaration preparation


The declaration was prepared by the Geographers Declare Working Group; a volunteer group of 14 geographers from around Australia who wish to see our discipline take further action.

The working group was formed following the Geographers Declare? Symposium held in October 2020. The symposium brought together geographers from around Australia to discuss how and if the discipline should declare a climate emergency.

Members of the working group included: Susannah Clement, Carrie Wilkinson, Richie Howitt, Robyn Bartel, Caitlin Buckle, Clare Mouat, Francis Markham, Kaya Barry, Linda Wilson, Md Abdullah Al Mamun, Michael Hewson, Michelle Duffy, Scott Mooney and Teneil Musfud.

Drafts of the declaration were shared with societies and groups over the first half of 2021.   

Geographers Declare? Symposium

An online symposium was held on 13 October 2020 via Zoom. The aim of the symposium was to begin developing a framework for a climate and biodiversity emergency declaration or manifesto to be endorsed by geographers in Australia and the societies, employers or collectives that represent them.

The invitation to attend was extended to anyone trained in, researching and/or teaching geography in Australia. This included HDRs, ECRs, geography teachers, and others outside of the traditional academy, alongside casual and tenured academics, support staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students. Attendance at the event was free.

The symposium was developed from a panel session planned for the IAG Annual Conference postponed in 2020. The event was funded by a Geographical Society of New South Wales Symposium Funding Award and the Australian Centre for Culture, Environment, Society and Space (ACCESS), University of Wollongong. 

Symposium outcomes

We had a total of 90 people register for the free online event; 55 people joined the panel session in the morning and 30 people participated in the workshop in the afternoon. A recording of the panel session is available as a bonus episode of the 'There's no place like...' podcast. 

Following the symposium a short survey was circulated amongst participants and the wider geographical community to seek further feedback on the development of a declaration. Overall, the participants and survey respondents were in agreement that geographers should make a declaration. The survey also found that the way forward would be for a working group of self nominating people to draft the declaration and then consult on this with key parts of the discipline.

The working group began drafting the declaration in January 2021 and shared a draft for consultation during the month of May. 

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