Teaching Geography to Non-geographers at Glasgow Caledonian University

This paper discusses the teaching of geography to 'non-geographers' at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU). GCU is one of the so-called 'new' universities in the UK and it shares with many of these institutions a mission to facilitate access to groups that have traditionally been under-represented in higher education. Human geography is one of the six subject area streams within the interdisciplinary social sciences degree programme, although geographical subject matter is taught in many other degree programmes, in each of GCU's three faculties. The arrangements for teaching human geography at GCU present pedagogical challenges for staff. Means to address these problems have been implemented. In this case study, it is argued that the experience of teaching human geography to 'non-geographers' at GCU may be of more general significance to the discipline, to the teaching of geography in both 'old' and 'new' universities and to those responsible for the delivery of mainstream geography degree programmes.     

The institutionalisation of ‘colonial geography’ in France, 1880-1940

Between 1880 and 1900, the conjunction of the development of higher education in France with the renewal of colonial expansion resulted in the creation of the ‘colonial sciences’. ‘Colonial geography’ played a key role in the development of these new disciplines, alongside ‘colonial history’, ‘ethnology’, ‘colonial economics and legislation’ and ‘colonial psychology’. This paper considers the social history of this field and of the institutions in which colonial geography was formed. This involves examination of the study of the teaching of ‘colonial geography’ in the universities and French grandes écoles, the gradual professionalisation of scholarship, and the increase in the number of doctoral theses and book publications, which all serve to demonstrate the vigour of the subdiscipline, leading to the emergence of a veritable research community. Under the Third Republic, ‘colonial geography’ in the universities was characterised by great diversity, irreducible to a single or homogenous ‘colonial discourse’.     

Archaeology Programs at the Palestinian Universities: Reality and Challenges

Over the past three centuries, Palestine, a country rich in historic and archaeological sites, has drawn many archaeologists, historians, scholars, clergymen, adventurers and treasure seekers, all wishing to study or, at times, to exploit the cultural heritage of the land. Historically, these Westerners have enjoyed the intellectual and financial fruits of their explorations, while the native population was traditionally relegated to the role of simple laborers in the field-work. Until 1977, when the President of Birzeit University, with the support of the Director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, founded the archaeology program at Birzeit University, there was no indigenous institution dedicated to the preservation, protection and study of Palestine’s cultural heritage. Since then, four additional Palestinian universities—al-Quds University, an-Najah National University, Hebron University and the Islamic University of Gaza—have developed archaeological programs designed to train qualified professionals committed to the management, preservation, restoration and conservation of cultural resources throughout Palestine. Yet, despite the tireless efforts of countless dedicated men and women at these institutions, there exist numerous political, economic, social and bureaucratic obstacles that greatly diminish the operational effectiveness of these programs and, as a consequence, further jeopardize the future of Palestinian cultural heritage resources. The purpose of this analysis is to diagnose the actual efficacy of these programs so that Palestinian stakeholders and policymakers may develop legislative and bureaucratic remedies which will ensure the continued protection and preservation of the Palestinian cultural heritage.     

Italian universities,Fascism and the promotion of corporative studies

This article deals with a specific aspect of the development of corporativism as ‘unofficial’ doctrine of Fascist Italy: its presence in Italian universities. It argues that corporatist schools followed the fortune of the ideals they were called to represent, which were definitely eclipsed by the mid-1930s, when the economic crisis called for more direct and effective forms of state intervention in economic life. In the universities, the rise of corporativism as a specific field of study, and the broader project of creating an ideologically educated future ruling class, challenged the domination exercised by the powerful faculties of law in particular, which traditionally were the key paths for access to the legal profession and the civil service. The resistance of the conservative university establishment meant that the plans to promote corporatist curricula had failed well before the fall of the regime, but many of those appointed to teach Corporative Studies under Fascism maintained their academic positions in Italy's ‘de-Fascistized’ post-war law faculties, and made innovative contributions to Italian social and economic thought.     

The evolution of the high plateau of brazil

Abstract

It has been claimed that geography journals located in so-called ‘small nations’ face special challenges. This paper suggests that three processes have demanded rapid responses from all geographical journals: globalisation of research-publishing, changing professional practices and the restructuring of the institutional context within which research is undertaken. These processes have been powerful in re-shaping geographical research. Examining the case of Scottish Geography over the last 20 years, the paper concludes there is much to be optimistic about, even though some might regret that ‘Geography’, as we once knew it, no longer exists. Recognising the challenges of the current research environment provides a useful starting point for the Scottish Geographical Journal to chart a new future for itself and for Scottish geographical endeavours.     

Wandering scholars? Academic mobility and the British World, 1850–1940

At the Allied Colonial Universities Conference, held in London in 1903, delegates from across the universities of Britain's settler empire professed the existence of a British academic community, defined not by location, but by shared culture, shared values and shared ethnicity. This article examines the extent to which these claims reflected actual patterns of academic mobility in the settler empire between 1850 and 1940. By mapping the careers of the 350 professors who served at the Universities of Sydney, Toronto, and Manchester during this period, it concludes that, between 1900 and 1930 especially, there existed a distinctly British academic world within which scholars moved frequently along different migratory axes. Though not as united, extensive and uncomplicated as that in which the 1903 Conference delegates believed, this world nonetheless shared more in common with their vision of an expansive British academic community than it did with the image of an unconnected and isolated periphery that has characterised portrayals by subsequent university historians.     

Three Ideas of the University

What is a university? In the nineteenth century John Henry Newman famously spoke of “the idea of a university.” This phrase has dominated all discussions of the nature of the university since. Most contemporary writers are against any attempt to theorise the university in terms of a single idea. But against the now standard view that universities should only be characterised empirically as institutions that perform many different activities, I attempt to defend the idea of the university, not by reviving a single idea of the university but by suggesting that there are, at root, three ideas of the university. These are rival ideas, and strictly incommensurable, though they often exist together in a state of tension in actual universities. I call them the eternal, the immortal, and the immediate ideas of the university.     

Engagement,estrangement or divorce? The new universities and their communities in the 1960s

The new universities of the 1960s were innovatory, in their curricula, architecture, independence and academic ambitions. They also marked a different relationship between universities and their localities. For a century, new universities had been predicated on local demand, whereas the 1960s universities were conceived of as national institutions meeting a national demand. This new approach to university–civic connections was sudden, novel and contributed to a sense of remoteness attached to the new universities. This paper examines how the different policy was formulated, predominantly by the UGC, and considers some examples of how the policy played out in practice.     

South African University history: a historiographical overview

University history has traditionally been the domain of the commemorative publication which presented institutions in a very favourable light, full of the boasts of growth and achievement. In considering university histories, it is useful to examine this traditional approach as well as more recent scholarly developments in the study of the history of institutions of higher learning internationally. In South Africa, most universities have some form of published history, although these vary greatly in scope, depth and critical approach. This article briefly considers volumes produced on South African universities and their past in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Trends and approaches evident in this wide variety of publications are highlighted. Questions such as the choice of moments of origin and commemoration, the effect of Apartheid on the retelling of the past and the use of either an autobiographical or a collaborative approach are considered. The comparative lack of histories of former ‘non-white’ universities is also explored, while the predominance of interest in matters of institutional identity in the post-Apartheid context is highlighted.