Cultural Geography Blog

Spending a few days barn & dog-sitting in a rather fine barn in the Dartmoor National Park . It's stocked with shelves full of books, WiFi for Spotify and a wine cellar... So it's got pretty much all I need. One of the books is Ian Mercer's 'Dartmoor' , which is published as part of the Collins New Naturalist Library with a lovely cover by Robert Gillmor. I liked the description of Ian Mercer as "a geographer and naturalist at heart, never happier than when revealing the secrets of a landscape". The author's foreword begins: "This book is about my perception of a landscape, and what knowledge is needed as a foundation to that perception..." which is an interesting statement, as it links with some of the ideas in the GA's current  CURRICULUM consultation. He goes on to say "the attraction of true local geography is that it depends upon the wielding of a broad brush much of the time, but allows the display of intricate det...

Thanks to Russel Tarr for tipoff to this resource  - warning: some other sections might be a bit risque... It's an A-Z of Tourist Misinformation... Might make an interesting cultural geography task... Would be useful to try to write them for other locations too...

This is another one of those blog posts aimed at uncovering a 'hidden' resource on the GA website that is freely available to anyone.... Geography of Disease was a project that was led by John Lyon , and was funded by the Wellcome Trust Wycombe High School shared the resources that they produced as a result of their participation on their excellent website (on the Moodle platform...) The resources are excellent ! You need to check them out if you are proposing to teach something about disease. There are resources on Disease in Society - with a focus on Myxomatosis, the Black Death, HIV/AIDS, Cholera, Malaria, Bilharzia and Avian Influenza. Check out Durham University's disease spread simulations too... Great resources if you are teaching IB Geography, particularly the FOOD and HEALTH module of which more to come later in the year !

The flyers for the latest GA CPD events have been published on Scribd . I am leading two NQT Conferences in November 2011 NQT Conference: Making a difference in the classroom If you are going to be an NQT Geographer or you are going to have an NQT in your department, and you'd like to book a place , contact Lucy Oxley on 01142960088

I was contacted by Josh from Places Online Journal today. "Places" is an online journal of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. "I'm pleased to share the news that we've just republished J.B. Jackson's classic essay "The Westward-Moving House," originally published in  Landscape  in 1953, which traces the evolution of the American house over three centuries and across the continent. It's a big text -- 10,000 words -- and a big moment, as we have the pleasure of introducing a new generation of readers to Jackson.  Geographer Paul F. Starrs and photographer Peter Goin at the University of Nevada, Reno, have purchased the archive of  Landscape  and plan to digitize the archive and make it fully accessible. Fewer than a dozen libraries have a full set of the magazine, so this is great news for scholars.  "The Westward-Moving House" was last anthologized 15 years ago and is now out of print, so we are very pleased to partner with Pa...