I can’t count the number of conversations I’ve had over the years about the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of AAG, and its discouraging reflection of the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Geography.  But the stable demographics of conference panels mask a notable increase in the number of women and people of color in our field. AAG sessions were probably never an accurate reflection of the make up of Geography, but the level of distortion is starting to shift the conversation from discouragement to outrage.

So here’s the thing I’ve finally realized as a result of that outrage: AAG is not a reflection of our field, it’s a key site for changing it.  Like the more obvious intervention points of grad school admissions, hiring, tenure and promotion, and citation practices, changing the composition of AAG panels changes our field.  It does so by making women and scholars of color and their work more visible, and by changing the intellectual debate to reflect a broader range of viewpoints.

The manifesto below was developed collectively over the summer as one starting point for encouraging collective change.  Since then, many more people have signed onto it.  All of us are committing to ourselves and to each other that we will change our AAG organizing practices to bring them into better alignment with our politics.

I am late to this party; many people have been fighting to change AAG for a good long time now, and my thinking has really changed thanks to conversations with some of them over the last few years. It’s past time I added my voice to theirs.  I hope you will consider adding yours as well.

P.S. A number of people have gotten in touch to ask if they can add their name to the Manifesto.  We’d be delighted to have more folks on here!  Just send me an email and I’ll add you.  I hope you will forgive me any typos on the list below. I am an unimpressive speller and a WordPress novice, which is a bad combination.

 

Manifesto on the gender and racial composition of AAG panels

Geography is still predominantly white and male, but there are far more women and people of color than in previous decades. This matters not only for the individuals involved – who geographers are – but for the content of geographic research and analysis – what Geography is and does. Yet this shift in the racial and gender composition of the field is often not fully reflected at key sites and moments, including the composition of and attendance at conference panels, inclusion in syllabi and special issues, citations, and the hiring, evaluation, and promotion of faculty.

All of these sites of ongoing discrimination are critical locations for intervention. In response to colleagues who for years have asked us to consider these issues, and reflecting critically on our own experiences and participation, we wish to focus on one: the composition of and attendance at panels and sessions at the annual AAG meeting. We think it’s time to make some commitments. With session organizing already underway, but the deadline still well off, we commit to making the lineup of presenters in our panels and sessions as inclusive as possible, and invite others to do the same. And when the meetings begin, we commit to broadening the sessions we attend. We think this is especially important for those of us who are senior scholars, and that doing so will make for a better discipline and for better scholarship.

Making this more than a rhetorical commitment will require collective work. Many of you are already organizing AAG panels more representative of the changing composition of the field. But if this is a new project for you, here are some ways we might collectively tackle it:

• If you are writing a CFP, consider explicitly encouraging alternative perspectives in your CFP, or adjusting the topical focus to broaden its appeal.
• If you are organizing a session and don’t know the excellent women and people of color who could contribute to it, advertise the session widely and ask around: we are advocating relevant and broadening intellectual fit, not tokenism. Consider inviting a woman or person of color to co-organize with you.
• If you are responding to a CFP, encourage topically-appropriate female and/or scholars of color to join you in submitting abstracts.
• And when you plan your conference itinerary, commit to attending sessions that include speakers and perspectives that may challenge your ideas and your professional practices.

We realize that if many of us begin following these suggestions it could potentially create an increased burden on women and people of color who often already do more than their share of service. Yet a major part of our argument is that there is already more diversity in Geography than many in the discipline realize, and many scholars would prefer to decline an invitation than be overlooked for a session for which they are an excellent fit. We also recognize that in some cases our efforts to create more inclusive sessions may fail. That does not excuse us from trying: if we change the composition of our panels, and think critically about those we attend, we will be one step closer to changing the power dynamics in our discipline.

Finally, we recognize that this proposal is only a very partial fix. Race and gender are just two of a number of pertinent axes of power and exclusion, including class, sexual orientation, disability, and language. And, as we note above, the composition of conference sessions is just one site among many at which these dynamics play out in academic disciplines. Our hope with this proposal is to jumpstart changes in our collective expectations for session organization that can form the basis of wider challenges to the operation of structural power in Geography, and in academia more broadly.

 

Authors

Bruce Braun, University of Minnesota

Sapana Doshi, University of Arizona

Julie Guthman, UC Santa Cruz

Rebecca Lave, Indiana University

Becky Mansfield, Ohio State

James McCarthy, Clark

Sharlene Mollett, University of Toronto

Tracey Osborne, University of Arizona

Scott Prudham, University of Toronto

Morgan Robertson, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Wendy Wolford, Cornell

 

Supporters

Majed Akhter, Indiana University

Ishan Ashutosh, Indiana University

Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Women’s Network

Teo Ballve, Colgate

Jessica Barnes, University of South Carolina

Oliver Belcher, Oulu University

Jess Bier, Erasmus University

Trevor Birkenholtz, University of Illinois-UC

Anne Bonds, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Rachel Brahinsky, University of San Francisco

Jennifer Brewer, University of New Hampshire

Elizabeth Brown, San Francisco State University

Ryan Burns, Temple University

Bram Buscher, Wageningen University

Lisa Campbell, Duke University

Ed Carr, Clark

Jennifer Casolo, Universidad Rafael Landivar

Tina Catania, Syracuse University

John Paul Catungal, UBC

Fletcher Chmara-Huff, Temple University

Jessie Clark, University of Nevada-Reno

Dan Cockayne, University of Kentucky

Chris Coggins, Bard College

Mat Coleman, Ohio State

Rosemary Collard, Concordia

Ian Cook, University of Exeter

Nick Crane, Ohio Wesleyan University

Julie Cupples, University of Edinburgh

Martin Danyluk, University of Toronto

Hugh Deaner, University of Kentucky

Jessica Dempsey, University of Victoria

Sara Diamond, University of Texas

Jose Diaz-Garyua, University of Louisville

Lindsey Dillon, UC Davis

Mona Domosh, Dartmouth

Lorraine Dowler, Penn State

Amelia Duffy-Tumasz, Rutgers University

Patricia Ehrkamp, University of Kentucky

Jody Emel, Clark

Salvatore Engel-DiMauro, SUNY New Palz

Caroline Faria, UT Austin

Matthew Farish, University of Toronto

Michael Finewood, Pace University

John Finn, Christopher Newport University

Carolyn Finney, University of Kentucky

Levi Gahman, University of the West Indies

Emily Gilbert, University of Toronto

Lauren Gifford, University of Colorado-Boulder

Banu Gokariksel, University of North Carolina

Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, American University

Graduate Student Affinity Group of the AAG

Noella Gray, University of Guelph

Kirsten Greer, Nipissing University

Trina Hamilton, SUNY University at Buffalo

Allison Hayes-Conroy, Temple University

Rich Heyman, UT Austin

Nik Heynen, University of Georgia

Eric Huntley, University of Kentucky

Josh Inwood, University of Tennessee

Adam Jadhav, Panchabhuta Conservation Foundation

Mark Kear, University of Arizona

Eje Kim, Gyeongin National University of Education, S. Korea

Brian King, Penn State

Sarah Knuth, University of Michigan

Mary Lawhon, Florida State University

Diana Liverman, University of Arizona

Jessa Loomis, University of Kentucky

Elizabeth Cedar Louis, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Jenna Loyd, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Nerve Macaspac, UCLA

Geoff Mann, Simon Fraser

Deborah Martin, Clark

Kathleen McAfee, San Francisco State University

Katie Meehan, University of Oregon

Emily Mitchell-Eaton, Syracuse University

Sarah Moore, University of Wisconsin

Carrie Mott, University of Kentucky

Emma Gaalaas Mullaney, Bucknell University

Dustin Mulvaney, San Jose State University

Lisa Naughton, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Abigail Neely, Dartmouth

Ingrid Nelson, University of Vermont

Leonie Newhouse, Max Planck Institute

Richard Nisa, Fairleigh Dickinson University

Elsa Noterman, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Patricia Noxolo, University of Birmingham

Kris Olds, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Elizabeth Olson, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Arnisson Andre Ortega, University of the Phillipines

Natalie Oswin, McGill University

David O’Sullivan, UC Berkeley

Stefan Ouma, Goethe University, Frankfurt

Aparna Parikh, Penn State

Kate Parizeau, University of Guelph

Eric Perramond, Colorado College

Curtis Pomilia, University of Kentucky

Carolyn Prouse, UBC

Anne Ranek, University of Arizona

Malini Ranganathan, American University

Douglas Richardson, Association of American Geographers

Paul Robbins, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Ben Rogaly, University of Sussex

Heather Rosenfeld, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Simon Runkel, University of Heidelberg

Scott Salmon, New School

Graciela Sandoval, Texas State University

Richard Schein, University of Kentucky

Anna Secor, University of Kentucky

Eric Sheppard, UCLA

Jamie Shinn, Texas A&M University

Rachel Silvey, University of Toronto

Gregory Simon, University of Denver

Rachel Slocum, School for International Training

Sara Smith, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Matthew Sparke, University of Washington

Ang Subulwa, University of Wisconsin-Osh Kosh

Farhana Sultana, Syracuse University

Juanita Sundberg, UBC

Kaitlin Tasker, University of Texas-Austin

Jim Thatcher, University of Washington-Tacoma

Deborah Thien, California State University Long Beach

Sarah Turner, McGill University

Margath (Maggie) Walker, University of Louisville

Margaret Walton-Roberts, Wilfred Laurier University

Case Watkins, Louisiana State University

Marion Werner, SUNY University at Buffalo

Michael Widener, University of Toronto-St George

Peter Wilshusen, Bucknell University

Matt Wilson, University of Kentucky

Keith Woodward, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Richard Wright, Dartmouth

Lauren Wustenberg, McGill University

Melissa Yang Rock, SUNY New Palz