Interested in learning more about how to respond to peer reviews and other feedback on your work?
Join us for our upcoming Postgraduate Insights Webinar:
⏰ Tuesday 28 April, 1.00-2.00pm
Register and find out more 👇
www.rgs.org/events/upcoming-events/r...
Cover of book - text in dark red boxes, over a black and white photograph. Photograph is possibly a bird's eye view of a crowd.
Julian Brigstocke, Nonauthoritarian Authority: Cities, Materiality, and the Aesthetics of Power - LSE Press, March 2026 (print and open access)
press.lse.ac.uk/books/m/10.3...
@jbrigstocke.bsky.social @lsepress.bsky.social
Cover image for 'Power Plants: Bioenergy, vegetal labour and the politics of productivity' – to be published by Manchester University Press in June 2026.
Very exciting to have received final cover proofs for 'Power Plants' from @manchesterup.bsky.social.
I'm hugely grateful to Jenn Baka, Gavin Bridge and Cara Daggett for their very kind and generous endorsements.
The book is due out in June: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526192127/
Every year, the Editors of the RGS-IBG Area journal award the Area Prize for the best paper written by an early-career scholar, in recognition of excellent geographical scholarship.
Our congratulations to the 2025 winner, Madelaine Joyce 👏
Find out more and read the full paper ⬇️
Screenshot of the 2025 Area Prize-winner announcement: Madelaine Joyce (Royal Holloway University of London, UK) “Sensing the sky’s edge: Atmospheric insights into the Korean demilitarised zone” With this innovative article, Madelaine Joyce pushes cultural and political geographers to attend closely and creatively to both affective and material atmospheres. Taking the anticipation of an encounter with the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea as both prompt and problematic for rethinking borders across fog, radio signals, and no-go zones, Joyce’s article is a deserving Area Prize winner.
🏆Area Prize Announcement!🏆
This year's Area Prize for the best paper written by an ECR has been awarded to 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐲𝐜𝐞 for her paper 'Sensing the sky's edge: Atmospheric insights into the Korean demilitarised zone' ⬇️
doi.org/10.1111/area...
@maddiejoyce.bsky.social @rhulgeography.bsky.social
Full-funded (home or international) collaborative PhD studentship (Kew and Royal Holloway, University of London) available. Deadline 8 May.
Topic: ‘Just acquisitions? Law and ethics over time in Kew’s overseas plant collecting history’ #Skystorians
Bright orange circular sign on a brick wall reading 'Welcome' with Royal Geographical Society branding partially obscured by green foliage.
Welcome to our research and higher education Bluesky! 👋
Follow us to stay up to date with our work in geographical research, including events, funding opportunities, new publications and more.
Learn more about how we promote geography in higher education and beyond: https://ow.ly/CMgN50YI795
Screenshot of a paper abstract in The Geographical Journal by Nathan Clay (2026) entitled: 'Vegetal Infrastructure: Rwanda's Eucalyptus Boom and the Material Politics of Tree Planting as a ‘Nature-Based Solution’' with a blue banner at the top. Planting trees has become a global obsession. Forest restoration and afforestation have been rebranded as ‘nature-based solutions’ to climate change. Nations, corporations and non-profits together aim to plant trillions of trees, roughly equivalent to a new Amazon. This article considers the local implications of this terrestrial transformation. It reports on empirical findings from Rwanda, where over fifty million trees—mostly eucalyptus species—have been planted during the past fifteen years. Based on fieldwork with four rural communities, I demonstrate how the material properties of eucalyptus intersect with state and market rationales to make tree planting profitable, scalable and legible. Building from geographic thinking on infrastructure and human-plant relations, I develop the concept of vegetal infrastructure to analyse how trees are enrolled in political projects, producing durable inequalities that become a palpable fixture on the landscape. The article emphasises the urgent need to diversify global reforestation mandates and offers vegetal infrastructure as a lens to assess their local implications.
New in The GJ:
'Vegetal infrastructure: Rwanda's eucalyptus boom and the material politics of tree planting as a "nature-based solution"' by Nathan Clay
This paper critically evaluates local implications of global tree-planting mandates, drawing on fieldwork in Rwanda.
doi.org/10.1111/geoj...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Geo: Geography and Environment by Paul Schweizer, Bibiana Pereira da Silva, Boris Michel & Cristina Thorstenberg Ribas (2026) entitled: 'Hydrocartography in Times of Menacing Waters: Xokleng Mapping and the Politics of Floods in Southern Brazil' with an orange banner at the top. Maps have long been used to deal with menacing waters, to make them comprehensible and governable. Cartography and governing water are both deeply entangled in modernist rationalities and modes of control. This paper takes as its starting point the floods that have affected southern Brazil in recent years and the scientific and journalistic maps that have emerged around them. Following hydrofeminist and political ecology debates, it argues for a hydrocartographic approach in relation to the examination of social water relations that affect both the way we understand cartography and the mapping of waters. It aims to rethink relationships with the more-than-human water bodies we inhabit, precisely in the light of the threats they pose. The paper draws on years of collaborative research with the indigenous communities in the southern Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul and their relations to water. While colonial water politics continue to threaten the Ibirama-Laklãnõ indigenous land, the affected Xokleng communities have endorsed a movement for territorial reappropriation that also connects to ancestral relationships to the territory's waters. Building on our mapping experience with this movement, we propose hydrocartography as a dual shift: watering cartography and mapping bodies of water.
🗺️New in Geo🗺️
'Hydrocartography in times of menacing waters: Xokleng mapping and the politics of floods in Southern Brazil' by Paul Schweizer et al.
This paper is part of an ongoing Special Section: 'Mapping Climate Change Perceptions'.
doi.org/10.1002/geo2... #geosky
Photo of the book Nonauthoritarian Authority.
"An exciting and compelling contribution to how we think about the nature and potential of authority in urban research."
— @colinmcfarlane.bsky.social Department of Geography, Durham University
🔗Nonauthoritarian Authority is out now: doi.org/10.31389/lse...
@jbrigstocke.bsky.social @rgs.org
Cover of the book Nonauthoritarian Authority
ICYMI Nonauthoritarian Authority: Cities, Materiality, and the Aesthetics of Power by @jbrigstocke.bsky.social is out now! 🎉
From LSE Press and @rgs.org Nonauthoritarian Authority is free to read and download via #OpenAccess publishing: https://doi.org/10.31389/lsepress.noa
New in The GJ:
'Petropower in law-enforcement advertising at Super Bowl LIX' by Daniel Finch-Race & @pancholewis.bsky.social
This commentary examines a recruitment ad from the 2025 Super Bowl in the context of contemporary geopolitics & low-carbon energy transitions.
doi.org/10.1111/geoj...
A short piece we wrote about fantasies of oil power in the US!
TLDR: Oil saturates US cultural imaginations, and US elites (& others) are deeply attached to oil. But fantasies of oil power exhibit insecurities in a context where the green transition is beginning to happen (albeit far too slowly).
Hot off the press - Viral Debt: The Production and Reproduction of Economic Vulnerability
This book shows how debt – like a contagion – works systematically across economic and social structures and geographies
This is a free, Open Access, book:
www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...
My new book is out!🍾Nonauthoritarian Authority: Cities, Materiality, and the Aesthetics of Power. press.lse.ac.uk/books/m/10.3...
II argue that in shattered times, a radical, speculative reinvention of authority is needed. Open-access with @lsepress.bsky.social @rgs.org #geosky #socialtheory
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Geo: Geography and Environment by Clara Craviotti (2026) entitled: 'Beyond animal-based diets? Alternative food networks and vegetarianism in the city of Buenos Aires' with an orange banner at the top. This article aims to advance on a little-known topic, the relationship between participation in alternative food supply networks (AFN) and the vegetarian condition of consumers in the city of Buenos Aires. To this end, we conducted an exploratory study analysing the features and practices of the clients who join these networks through qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques (20 semi-structured interviews and a survey of 196 cases). Qualitative analysis highlighted the importance of certain moments of rupture in consumers' biographies, such as the transition to veganism or the reduction of meat consumption. The quantitative phase indicated that vegans and vegetarians represent an important group of customers in alternative food networks. Compared to other consumers, they show a greater interest in the systemic aspects of the food system. Likewise, the incidence of their refusal to buy food in supermarkets, their frequent purchase of agroecological and organic food and a high proportion of expenditure in them points to their greater degree of politicisation. These findings allow us to reflect on the implications of the convergence of AFN and plant-based diets for the sustainability of the food system.
🥬New in Geo🥬
'Beyond animal-based diets? Alternative food networks and vegetarianism in the city of Buenos Aires' by Clara Craviotti
This paper is part of an ongoing Special Section: 'Transformative pathways to sustainable, equitable, and health-conscious food systems'.
doi.org/10.1002/geo2...
"Absolutely captivating, an inspirational message in a bottle for troubled times."
— Chris Philo, author of Adorno and the Antifascist Geographical Imagination @edinburghup.bsky.social
💬Nonauthoritarian Authority is out now - free to read/download doi.org/10.31389/lse... @rgs.org #openaccess
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Geo: Geography and Environment by Pratik Mishra & Laurie Parsons (2026) entitled: 'Rest in a Warming Workplace: Resituating the Science and Policy of Non-Work Under Climate Change' with an orange banner at the top.
🌏New in Geo🌏
'Rest in a warming workplace: Resituating the science and policy of non-work under climate change' by Pratik Mishra & @laurieparsons.bsky.social
This paper presents a critical review of rest under heat stress and rest as mitigation strategy.
doi.org/10.1002/geo2... #geosky
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Olivia Mason (2026) entitled: 'Doing geography amidst precarity' with a black banner at the top. Neoliberal agendas are increasingly shaping both what it means to do geography but also who can do geography. This is especially true for early career academics. In this intervention I suggest the question of why we do geography is increasingly being buried as we simply survive in the neoliberal academy. What I argue is that the experiences of what it means to enter, get a job in, and then stay in the neoliberal academy are defining mine and others' experiences of being an academic. The number of job interviews undertaken, grants applied for or stories of precarity now dominate discussions rather than our research itself. These challenges in turn alter the ability to do geography research, especially research that involves long-term ethnography and/or else overseas fieldwork. Yet, I also argue that there are ways we can create more caring and careful research environments. Drawing on examples and experiences, this paper will end by exploring the acts of collective care, solidarity and resistance that can speak to the questions of what geography is for and why we do geography.
New in Area:
'Doing geography amidst precarity' by @oliviamason.bsky.social
This short piece is part of the ongoing Special Section: 'Dialogues in Radical Geography'.
doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky
Cover of the book Climate Hegemony.
"A powerful and necessary intervention in the politics of climate knowledge."
— Giorgos Kallis, ICREA Professor and Author of Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care
Climate Hegemony will be free to read and download May 2026: https://bit.ly/4lBH0qc
Decorative cover image of Plant Perspectives 3.1, showing a tree laden with pink flowers.
Issue 3.1 of ‘Plant Perspectives’ is now live online. This journal is #openaccess again in 2026 through #subscribetoopen – with warm thanks to all of our subscriber-supporters! Read it here: www.whp-journals.co.uk/PP/index
#plantstudies #envhum @plantperspectives.bsky.social
Page proof screenshot from MIT Press "A Historian's Handbook for Saving the World: Responding to the Global Climate Emergency"
Friends, @alixhui.bsky.social and I and 70+ historians have been working on this gigantic project for three years and it finally feels like it's going to be real.
📷 Looking for photo essays in the humanities
Before I scour every journal archive ever - would people be willing to share/name any photo essays published in academic journals they had published or really like? I'd like to have a look at some examples :)
Full article: Connective Tissues: Everyday Engagements with Urban Yards share.google/6QxFaHLAvYzl...
Fully funded PhD studentship: ‘Recording nature and writing the self: time, entomology and the archive in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’. Closes 3 May.
With Ruth Abbott, Staffan Müller-Wille, Ed Turner & me. @theul.bsky.social @zoologymuseum.bsky.social
www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/initiatives/...
2023 - one in four UK universities was reported to be operating a food bank for their students.
Paper exploring the geographies of food poverty in UK HE out now in Area ⬇️ @rgs.org #OpenAccess
New study finds that plant biodiversity collapsed in landscapes where arable production was abandoned during and after the Black Death era.
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Caitlin Jones, Eliza Breder & Tyler McCreary (2026) entitled: 'Alligator Alcatraz and the Production of Environmental Carcerality in the Everglades' with a black banner at the top. In June 2025, the state of Florida opened 'Alligator Alcatraz', a federal immigration detention centre, in the Florida Everglades, weaponising animals and landscapes to construct racialised geographies of fear and rationalise multispecies environmental injustice. In this paper, we examine the symbolic and material conditions of Alligator Alcatraz, pulling apart how what appears to be a novel use of landscape and species for immigration enforcement, is in fact, a deeply historical logic that draws on long-standing settler colonial tropes of emptiness, danger and disposability. We illustrate how both the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), and the Everglades itself, are conscripted into carceral geographies that reflect both ecological degradation and racialised state violence. The alligator becomes conscripted as a federal immigration officer, touted by federal and state officials as a mascot of environmental carcerality. Meanwhile, the Everglades is deployed as an empty, deterrent landscape, reviving a settler imaginary that has long justified its destruction and casts Indigenous land, life and knowledge and the more-than-human beings living within it as expendable. Alligator Alcatraz pushes us to consider what carceral geographies of US immigration policy reveal about the disposability of certain bodies—human, ecological and more than human. Ultimately, existing in this spectacle of the racialised past and present are the real human costs of detention development in the Everglades, which is damaging local ecologies and Indigenous and migrant lives.
New in Area - 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟑 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬
'Alligator Alcatraz and the production of environmental carcerality in the Everglades' by Caitlin Jones et al.
This paper explores the weaponising of animals & landscapes to construct racialised geographies of fear in the U.S.
doi.org/10.1111/area...
An historic black and white illustration of a paper nautilus floating on the ocean. There are boats, a city and hills in the background.
🎉 Huge news for BHL: The Field Museum is taking over the hosting of BHL’s website, servers & infrastructure, ensuring long-term stability and access for its 63+ million pages of open biodiversity literature. Learn more:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/tran...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL 🌍 📚 🧪
This issue of @routesjournal.bsky.social features an editorial from my colleague Jasmine Roberts, introducing the fantastic work she is doing building networks for underrepresented geography students in the 'Geography for All' programme at @rgs.org - well worth a read ⬇️