Meet the geographers

geography too). She will be discussing the ethics and rights of animals in the city. Dr Carolyn Finney will also join the conference — Carolyn has considerable experience in researching visitor experiences in national parks, including how people’s racial and ethnic backgrounds can shape their access to natural areas and their benefits. Carolyn has served on the United States National Parks advisory board.

Our own esteemed scholars Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick and Professor Jeff Malpas will be discussing matters both philosophical and practical. And we will be joined by Tasmanian Aboriginal scholar Dr Greg Lehman and economic geographer Dr Sangeetha Chandrashekeran (University of Melbourne), who will discuss energy futures.

As someone who is passionate about geography, I am really excited about the new ideas that will be discussed. Geography was my favourite subject at school, and I always knew I wanted to be a geographer. I remember learning about palm oil plantations in Malaysia and their impacts on the habitat of orang-utans; water scarcity in Australia and how we need to design our cities differently to cope with drought; and how the land management practices of Aboriginal Australians shaped the plants and animals of our amazing continent.

My degree in geography has taken me to places around the world to live, work and study, including the US and China. As I have grown older, I have realised how vitally important it is that we teach children geography at school, from grade 1 to 12. Today’s globally interconnected societies and their impacts on the Earth mean geography is more important than ever. Planetary scale issues such as climate change, rapid urbanisation, food and water security, pollution and waste, and biodiversity loss require geographical knowledge about interconnected human-natural systems and placebased responses.

More details are at www.iagc2019.com. And if you come to the conference dinner, you might even have a chance to get Djibouti on the dance floor!