Dissertating Geography: An Inquiry into the Making of Student Geographical Knowledge, 1950-2020

In Dissertating Geography: An Inquiry into the Making of Student Geographical Knowledge, 1950-2020, Assistant Professor of Cultural History Mette Bruinsma examines the history of geography (1950-2020) from a bottom-up perspective.

Disciplinary history from below

Disciplinary histories often emphasise the pronouncements of established academics, yet student-geographers make up the majority of the overall ‘geographical community’ at any one time. Exploring these efforts of geography students over the past seventy years places the known history of the discipline in a new perspective.

A disciplinary history ‘from below’ recognises and acknowledges student dissertations and advances three core propositions: first, they are produced by an overlooked but nonetheless central grouping in the geographical community; second, the rich archival collection of dissertations specifically consulted here contains many excellent geographical knowledge productions that have remained barely read until now; and third, there is a wish to encourage others to explore similar collections of student knowledge productions held elsewhere.