Progressive Geographies

I don’t exactly dream of a day when all academic outlets agree on one referencing format, but I certainly wish we might get there. I know there are academics who use referencing software – you well-organized (smug?) types – who probably find immense (geeky?) pleasure in quickly putting together a bibliography or tweaking citations. But there is certainly a case to be made for just scrapping all of the variation (the Harvard, Chicago, etc etc styles) and agreeing on one (new) format. I’m exhausted by the whole process. In the bibliography, do I put a period after an author’s initial? When I cite, is a page number preceded by a colon or comma or what? Honestly, can’t we just agree on one style and be done with it? Can’t geographers, at the very least, agree on a Geography style and can’t journal editors sign up to it? [I…

I visited the wonderful Department of Geography at Maynooth University a couple of weeks ago, and I was kindly invited by the Supporting Women in Geography Ireland group there to a discussion session about developing a career as an academic. I was sent a bunch of questions beforehand, which clearly articulated some of the key issues for this group: how to manage multiple demands to do different kinds of academic work, how to manage caring responsibilities with academic work, how to get on…

I don’t usually post about this sort of thing, though I do retweet about women’s experiences of academic life, on occasion. But the invitation and the questions gave me an opportunity to pull together a few thoughts around these topics, and also to reflect on how lucky I’ve been in my career: I’ve (almost) always had supportive line managers, I’ve never been asked to teach to the exclusion…

It’s a funny experience, publishing a book – something that one has lived and worked with for perhaps years and invested all sorts of energies into finally comes out, and there is an odd sense of anti-climax (it’s a lot like finishing a PhD). But it’s also odd to actually read one’s own book in proper book form, bound and beautiful, even though The Priority of Injustice is pretty much the only thing I have been reading since at least the summer of 2015. There is a kind of terror involved (what does it read like?), but also a nice experience of affirmation, as you notice that there is maybe something coherent running through the whole thing (although maybe you have to have been reading, writing and editing it for more than two years to actually notice this). So, I have now read my own book, again, cover to cover…

Antonio Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks – exhibition in London

Exhibition curated by Silvio Pons and Francesco Giasi

Italian Cultural Institute
39 Belgrave Square
London SW1X 8NX

30 October – 10 November 2017
Monday to Friday 10am – 6pm
(closed on Wednesday 1 November)

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Antonio Gramsci’s death (1891-1937), the Italian Cultural Institute hosts an exhibition featuring the originals of the 33 Prison Notebooks – that is, the texts written by Antonio Gramsci from 8th February 1929 during his imprisonment – one of the most significant works of Italian and international political, philosophical and literary thinking.

The originals of the Notebooks are exhibited for the first time in the United Kingdom and, more generally, out of Italy. This exhibition aims to renew the link between Gramsci’s thought and British culture, inaugurated by the “dialogue” with Ludwig Wittgenstein through Piero Sraffa, Professor at Cambridge in…

Published today, The Priority of Injustice: Locating Democracy in Critical Theory. You can read more about the book here.

My book is available from most booksellers. If your local store doesn’t have a copy in stock, please ask them to special order it for you. If you don’t have a preferred local store here are a few other ways to buy a copy.

To find an independent bookseller in your area, visit these sites:

UK: https://www.booksellers.org.uk/Home

North America: http://www.indiebound.org/

Shop at these online booksellers:

Book Depository

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Powell’s City of Books

Exclusive Books

Buy a copy direct from the University of Georgia Press by visiting my book’s page on the website and clicking the buy link:

http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/index/priority_of_injustice