1.Hafsah Siddiqui
PhD Candidate | Gates-Cambridge Scholar
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at this year’s mid-term conference. It was my first in-person conference and my first time at the lovely RGS venue in Kensington. The schedule was packed with exciting sessions, and I took this opportunity to listen to talks on a variety of topics which were not necessarily related to my doctoral research. On the first day, I attended talks on feminist geographies (work, precarity, and social reproduction) and housing and home (land and activism). I found the session on publishing to be very useful. I presented my paper on the second day in a session entitled Futures for Geography: Conceptual and Methodological Advances. This presentation was based on a recently published article in Area and highlighted the importance of research brokers for third-culture researchers during fieldwork. The conference ended with a screening of a film on grassroots activism in Bolivia, which was very interesting. Overall, I had a wonderful time at the conference and got the chance to meet geographers from across the UK. I am grateful to the UGRG for offering this bursary to support attendance at the conference.
2. Sri Suryani
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
The University of Sheffield
The Mid Term Conference 2023 gathered passionate early –career researchers at RGS London, summed up 75 presentations under the theme of Shifting Geographies. I participated on first day of the conference on 20th April within stream A ‘Shifting Geographies I: Human Dimensions of Environmental Change’, at Education Centre, chaired by Kasia Kaprocki. My presentation title ‘River shifts in history of kali mati in Jakarta’ narrated a geographical history of ‘kalimati/dead river’ to understand a continuous shifting wet and dry river landscape in heterogeneous urban settlements. Together with three presenters, Banki, Mariska, and Berglind (who have become friends and we are connected in LinkedIn), the discussion in the stream was exciting and energizing. Our focus on seeing the ways human life reify environmental change invited critical questions from the audience on the way we carry the methodology, perceive impact, and envision the future research. The responses created a fertile ground to a better understanding of geography and a continuous journey in becoming a researcher!
3. Yi Fan Liu
School of Geography and the Environment
The University of Oxford
My experience at the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Mid-Term Conference 2023 was one that helped to expand my academic horizons tremendously, from the brilliant keynote speech delivered by Professor Kasia Paprocki, to the trailblazing work led and shared by other doctoral researchers. Where my own doctoral research remains a work in progress, peers with whom I had the privilege of sharing my work asked really thought-provoking questions relating to agency and power – themes that also emerged throughout the other sessions. These are questions that emerged out of a uniquely supportive space made possible by the hard work of the RGS committees, and as I move forward with the fieldwork phase of my research, I will remember these questions in pursuit of reflexivity. I am very thankful for the generosity of spirit embodied by everybody at the conference, and I truly look forward to the next iteration. My biggest gratitude goes to the Urban Geography Research Group for the support that they have so kindly given to make my participation possible!
