Embodying global Black geographies: Living, thinking and writing in today's world

This panel session will be part of the RGS-IGB  Annual conference and has been developed by Black scholars who are researching and writing critically around themes of ‘Global Black geographies’. It will follow on from the work of some recent critical geography discussions on race:

a) RGS-IBG 2019 panels titled, ‘Resistance in the master’s house: Researching race in troubling times’ chaired by Azeezat Johnson and,

b) AAG 2020 panel titled, ‘Global Black geographies: Racialised spaces, Black space-making and theorising’ chaired by Victoria Okoye and William Jamal Richardson.

These panels considered the challenges Black scholars experience whilst navigating the borders of white supremacy inside the academy (Johnson 2019) and the perils outside the campus walls as we attempt to undertake our work in unbearable hostile environments (McKittrick 2013). In the midst of this, Black scholars are crossing the borders of nation, gender and class by ‘embodying global Black geographies’, and embracing Wynter’s call to ‘marry our thoughts to the concerns facing Black life’ (1994).

This panel has been organised by Rita Gayle (University of Birmingham) and Agostinho Pinnock (University of Loughborough).