Post-colonial careering and the discipline of geography: British geographers in Nigeria and the UK, 1945–1990

Abstract

Few geographers wrote explicitly about decolonisation. Yet the ends of empires wrought substantial changes to the discipline of geography. It impacted the places studied, the approaches deemed appropriate, the sites of geographical knowledge production, the lecturing jobs available, and the shape and extent of transnational networks. Focusing on the 'post-colonial careering' of British geographers who worked at the university at Ibadan, Nigeria before returning to academic posts in UK geography departments, this paper explores the interconnections between academic careers, geographical knowledge and decolonisation. It argues that that we can understand these connections in three ways. First, geographers' careers were shaped in important ways by decolonisation; second, these experiences in turn shaped the discipline of geography in the (post)colonial world and the UK; and third, geographers' work at colonial universities and in Britain was not only influenced by, but was itself part of the process of decolonisation. The article contributes to understandings of decolonisation as registered, and actively produced, through academic research and careers, institutional development, and transnational networks. Uncovering the (post)colonial connections which shaped British geography in the postwar period broadens understandings of disciplinary history beyond those which focus on Anglo-American networks and offers opportunities to consider the lessons of these past disciplinary patterns and practices for contemporary geography.

New Zealand Geography and the International Geographical Union Part II: Audience to stage, 1956–1974

“…While this paper anticipates the IGU centennial in 2022 it does so in the context of new interest in academic mobilities (Craggs & Neate, ; Jöns, Mavroudi, & Heffernan, ), of de‐centering the Global North and English in academic geography (Craggs & Neate, ; van Meeteren, ), and on conferences and conferencing (Blumen & Bar‐Gal, ; Craggs & Mahony, ; Derudder & Liu, ). It is this latter strand of inquiry that is particularly drawn on and extended to include conference fieldtrips.…”

Materialities and mobilities in transnational capacity building projects: Uneven geographies of knowledge production

“…When the donor organisations initiated their support to development research in the 1960s, it was focused upon the establishment of research centres in the Global South, staffed by researchers from the Global North who also were the main receivers of individual research grants (Craggs & Neate, ). During the 1970s and 1980s, a new approach emerged, influenced by new thinking on development cooperation.…”

Decolonising The Geographical Tradition

“…Yet European geographers engaged with late colonial development and decolonisation (Clayton, ), their work shaped what was to become development geography (Power & Sidaway, ), and their labour influenced the shape and trajectories of many geography departments in the former European empires. Academics returning from positions in colonial universities brought back to Europe new regional expertise and personal and professional networks (Craggs & Neate, ). US geographers engaged increasingly with the post‐colonial world after 1945, driven by Cold‐War imperatives (Child & Barnes, ).…”

“…While some contemporary colonial legacies, for example geography's masculine and white expeditionary traditions (see Kobayashi, ) or its Western epistemological underpinnings, have been explored, others remain obscured. For example, colonialism and decolonisation had a marked, and lasting, impact on the more mundane practices, networks, and labour of geography departments (Craggs & Neate, ). Understanding these diverse legacies might be one way that we can begin the work of decolonising the discipline today.…”