This year’s conference back in August 2019 was rather special; it was the first work event that I attended with my new affiliation at Durham University, having just moved from Singapore less than 2 weeks before that. The last time when I attended the RGS-IBG Conference was 2 years ago. It was lovely meeting up with old friends again and conversations also took on different meanings, knowing that it would be easier to meet people and work on collaborations in the UK and Europe even just in terms of travel and time zones. I think of the years of walking along Exhibition Road during conference weeks, and the friendships with people since postgraduate days, while organising mid-term conferences and EGRG events, and it felt a bit like a homecoming of sorts.
This was the first year that RGS did away with bottled water. So I was armed with my trusty #geographer thermos, which could be used for tea or water. The rather cyptic letters above my name indicated days of attendance (Wednesday, Thursday & Friday). It took me a few seconds to realise that it did not say WTF.
Other some some very thought-provoking keynote lectures (e.g. from Les Back on ‘Pessimism and Worldly Hopes‘ and from Ben Anderson on ‘Capitalism and Affective Change: A Geohistory of Boredom‘), what really stood out for me were the two retirement panels for Linda McDowell and Ron Martin. Two very prominent figures in economic (feminist) geography and in economic and regional development, whose work have influenced my thinking ever since undergraduate days.
Linda hosted me at UCL when I was based there as a Visiting Scholar while doing my Master fieldwork in London. That was my very first trip to the UK and also gave me the opportunity to travel and visit various universities and meet many senior economic geographers in finding out about PhD opportunities. Ron was a big influence on my early foray into financial geography, and a key figure in shaping wider scholarship on regional outcomes of industrial & economic change. Other than their intellectual contributions, I was also struck by the enormous impact of their mentorship and collegial relationships, which has shaped the professional and personal journeys of so many people along the way. Very inspiring as I embark on a new chapter myself, to think about what kind of scholarship and impact do I really want to spend my time and energy on.
The conference finished on a solid note for me with a series of three paper sessions on ‘Re-presenting Economic Geography’ I, II and III, for which I was discussant at the end. Kudos to Nicholas Phelps, Michiel van Meeteren and Jana Kleibert for a very stimulating collection of papers and presentations to end the day.
Karen P.Y. Lai 