Guest Editorial

At a meeting of the University Court, the highest decision-making body in the University of Glasgow, on 14 January 1909,

[I]t was announced that Capt. Henry George Lyons, FRS, FRGS, (Hon.) DSc Oxford & Dublin, at present Director-General of the Survey Dept. of Egypt, had been appointed Uni. Lecturer in Geog. for a period of four years from 1^st Oct, 1909, at an annual salary of £250. (CM, 1908–09, C1/1/16, p. 46f)

While forms of ‘Geography’ had been taught previously in the University, at different times and as part of other courses of instruction – Ronald Miller (1972, 17) suggests that from at least 1577 it was present on Glasgow curricula – these words in January 1909 formally instituted Geography as an identifiable subject for teaching and, by implication, scholarly inquiry within the University. As noted at an earlier Court Meeting deliberating on the conclusions of a Committee set up to consider this matter, the appointment of a ‘Lecturer in Geography’ meant that Geography would now be taught ‘on a standard equal to a graduating course for Arts or Science’ (CM, 1907–08, C/1/1/15, p. 116f). A later Court meeting of 6 May 1909 also noted a proposal from the University General Council for ‘the addition of the subject of Geography under Depts. of Study’ (CM, 1908–09, C1/1/16, p. 98f). While the term ‘Department’ here does not quite mean what we now routinely understand by it (see Lorimer & Philo, 2009) the effect was still to put Geography on a relatively firm footing within the organisational structure of the University. There are hence sound reasons for deeming 1909 the year of our ‘birth’, which does indeed make 2009 our Centenary year.

This Centenary is an occasion for many potential reflections and reactions. There is undoubtedly much to celebrate, much of which we and our predecessor geographers in Glasgow can rightly be proud. We can point to long-standing strengths of research and scholarship: in Human Geography, a dedication to working in the ‘Global South’ on the complexities of environment, ‘development’ and ‘indigenous knowledge’, but also attending to scenes nearer home, particularly to the variegated social, economic and political spaces of Glasgow and its region; in Physical Geography, a concern for landscape evolution in upland, often glaciated terrains, coupled to the difficulties of accurately dating and quantifying the timing and spacing of landform-shaping events, and a long-standing engagement with policy makers and authorities over the conservation and management of the landscape and biosphere; in Topographic Science, later known as Geomatics,1 the huge conceptual and technical advances in the surveying (on the ground, in the air, from space) of topography and land-use, but also in the computer-aided visualisation, manipulation and application of geo-referenced data of all kinds. To itemise such themes risks omissions – our major work on historical, labour, cultural, comparative urban, population, theoretical and activist themes in Human Geography; our contributions to studies of fluvial processes, Quaternary environments, glaciated regions, coastal zones, and biogeography and ecosystem dynamics in Physical Geography; and our interests in expert cartographic systems, calibration of error within GIS and the more applied dimensions of cadastral survey in Geomatics. Several of the contributions that follow will explore facets of Glasgow Geography's intellectual contribution, either directly addressing ‘our’ past efforts, both analytically – see the papers by David Evans and Gordon Petrie – and more anecdotally, or demonstrating ‘our’ research directions in the present.

We can also register success in our teaching of so many generations of students, with it being clear that the courses run, at ‘Ordinary’ and ‘Honours’ undergraduate levels in both Geography and Topographic Science, have been both popular with very substantial numbers of students over many years – a popularity that has resulted in us gaining high approval ratings in recent national student surveys – and appearing to do more than merely pass muster when subject to external evaluation (by external examiners or by various levels of review from the wider University and beyond). Impressive levels of employment for our graduates in appropriate and, in many cases, Geography-related jobs (and indeed careers) have been noted, and it has also been pleasing how many of our graduates have elected, and continue to elect, to become Geography teachers (and thereby to diffuse aspects of Glasgow Geography to the next cohorts of student geographers). It is also especially gratifying that we have been able to build up the postgraduate community in the Department, with a constant stream of high-quality doctoral theses being produced and growing numbers of students on taught Masters courses. The sheer numbers of students at all levels now passing through our doors is putting strain on the built fabric of the Department, most of which is still located in the East Quadrangle of the Gilbert Scott Building2 (and we are one of the few academic departments to retain a toe-hold in the ‘oldest’ University accommodation, which is physically where we first started back in 1909). Some of the contributions that follow open windows on our teaching achievements, and indeed tell a little about the experiences of how teaching and students have changed during the later stages of our 100 years.

The stories to tell cannot be solely celebratory, however, and it is important to remember other dimensions, such as how the First and Second World Wars decimated our student cohorts, but also forced new, often unpalatable ‘geopolitical’ issues to the fore in our teaching. There are also unavoidable critical questions to be asked about some of the individuals involved in the deeper history of Geography at Glasgow, notably the imbrications of their ‘Geography’, to an extent too their very careers, in British colonialism and imperial designs, as well as the stains of racism, national chauvinisms and other lines of socio-cultural intolerance that – while perhaps understandable in the contexts of their own lives and times – cannot escape a measure of concern from the standpoint of a (hopefully) more ‘enlightened’ present. Thus, in what follows we have two papers – by John Briggs and Jo Sharp, and by Bernard Leake and Paul Bishop – that take personalities from our past, Henry Lyons on the one hand and J.W. Gregory on the other, as the inspiration for essays that subject these individuals, set in their ideological and social contexts, to careful critical scrutiny for both the quality of their scholarship and the dubiety of at least some of their ideas and practices.

It must also be acknowledged that, in a more local sense, what becomes the Department has certainly witnessed its ups and downs: a periodic battle for resources, anticipated perhaps by the chronic under-endowment of the so-called ‘Livingstone Lectureship or Professorship’ from 1914 (meaning that the position has never been straightforwardly filled); a regular struggle to find enough bodies to teach all that is needing to be taught, anticipated perhaps by J. Falconer's extended leave of absence from the ‘Lectureship in Geography’ from 1916–21, leaving the University annually having to find a suitable substitute to teach the Geography courses; and the inevitable tensions that have arisen in a department as it grows, or occasionally contracts, and as its different components have periodically varied in their success, status and influence relative to one another. In this latter respect, it is noteworthy that, starting with the two earliest ‘Lecturers in Geography’, Henry Lyons and J. Falconer, Geography at Glasgow has always possessed a marked bent towards surveying, cartography and, more generally, what is now termed Geomatics. From the 1960s a Topographic Science degree was offered alongside the Geography degree, and the Department was explicitly named as ‘Geography and Topographic Science’ in 1986 and then ‘Geography and Geomatics’ in 2002. There has been a complex relationship between these two parts of our overall enterprise,3 one that has inevitably had its fraught moments, while also producing remarkable synergies (see Evans, 2009 and Petrie, 2009). And then there have been the heavily-felt and competing pressures of national evaluation exercises such as the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and different generations of Teaching Quality Assessment (TQA), which – as with any department of Geography – have undoubtedly inflected agendas, inflated some activities and curtailed others, and provoked anxieties but also offered moments of affirmation.

We could of course say much, much more about Glasgow Geography – it is after all one of our ‘homes’– and we could certainly put much more flesh on the bones of what has actually happened over the last 100 years than we have endeavoured to do here. To that end, though, see the table appended to our editorial, a highly selective listing of key dates and events in this history; while the paper by Hayden Lorimer and Chris Philo also does some work in this direction, albeit through the device of describing (and reflecting upon) the Centenary ‘archive’ of Glasgow Geography that we have assembled over the past year or so. Most of the other contributions in this issue, some more that others, add depth, richness, clarity and clarification to the history, becoming themselves significant pillars of our Centenary archive.

There have been various events during 2009 that have marked our Centenary, most notably our Academic and Alumni Centenary Days on 21 and 22 August, but it is particularly pleasing to have the opportunity to occupy, hopefully in an interesting and edifying fashion, a Glasgow Geography Centenary double-theme issue of the Scottish Geographical Journal. The SGJ– and its predecessor, the Scottish Geographical Magazine– is actually older that the Department, its first issue appearing in 1885, but in various ways we have ‘grown up’ together, with Glasgow geographers being prominent as editors, authors, referees, book reviewers and, of course, readers of the journal. It is therefore a pleasure to introduce this double-theme issue, which contains the following: five substantial papers, all circling around our history, what are its sources, what it entails, its changes and continuities, and how it might be judged; an overall ‘Recollections and Reflections’ essay, itself composed of four shorter pieces invited from staff members long associated with the Department, each drawing upon their experiences of Geography at Glasgow as well as amplifying particular substantive themes hinging around the scales of department, university, city and ‘the globe’; four medium-length papers, solicited from a selection of different academics with fewer years of service in the Department, which are reports from their own respective research frontiers; and then two edited interview transcripts, one between two staff members and Drew Mulholland, our Composer-in-Residence,4 and the other between members and friends of the Department's Human Geography Research Group and Professor Doreen Massey, the highly-esteemed critical human geographer.5

Chris Philo, Hayden Lorimer & Trevor Hoey

Glasgow, July 2009

Table 1  . Key dates and events in the history of geography at Glasgow

1908	Motion passed that University Court should consider establishing a ‘Lectureship in Geography’
1909	Appointment by University Court of Captain (Sir) Henry Lyons as ‘Lecturer in Geography’
1909–10	First academic session when a Geography ‘class’ is formally taught
1911	Lyons leaves; appointment of J.D. Falconer as ‘Lecturer in Geography’
1913	Appointment of first ‘Student Demonstrators’ and then first ‘Assistant’ in Geography
1914	Endowment of ‘Livingstone Lectureship or Professorship in Geography’ (never straightforwardly filled owing to financial shortfall)
1916	Falconer requests leave of absence; appointment of Dr Marion Newbigin as ‘Temporary Lecturer in Geography’
1917	Falconer continues leave of absence; appointment of Dr James Cossar as ‘Temporary Lecturer in Geography’
1918	Falconer continues leave of absence; appointment of Dr Alexander Stevens as ‘Temporary Lecturer in Geography’
1921	Falconer resigns; appointment of Stevens as ‘Lecturer(-Examiner) in Geography’ on rolling one year basis
1921	Geography accepted as a Single Honours degree (BSc) in the Faculty of Science, but first graduate with an Honours Geography degree is seemingly not until 1926
1925	Stevens formally admitted to Senate, indicating that he was now seen as the established ‘Lecturer in Geography’
1931	‘Department’ staff now numbered Stevens and six teaching staff (including one other ‘Lecturer and five ‘Assistants’)
1947	Institution of a formal ‘Chair of Geography’ (not the ‘Livingstone Chair’)
Late-40s	Geography accepted as partner in some Combined Honours degrees (MA) in the Faculty of Arts
1953	Stevens retires; appointment of Dr Ronald Miller as ‘Professor of Geography’ and Head of Department
1955	First edition of (The) Drumlin, student-led departmental geographical magazine (has appeared annually most years since)
1955–61	‘The Crofting Survey’, led by lecturers Drs James Caird and Allan Moisley (see Lorimer & Philo, 2009)
1958	British Association meets in Glasgow; Department was active in production of associated Handbook (Miller & Tivy,1958)
1963	Institution of two Postgraduate Diplomas in Cartography and Photogrammetry, subsequently enlarged to taught MSc status, but eventually discontinued
1964	Foundation of an Honours degree in Topographic Science (BSc [then MA] in Applied Science), and first graduate with a Topographic Science Honours degree is in 1969
1964	Reorganisation of Geography Honours programme: from single common course to mix of core and option courses (in ‘regional geography’ and ‘systematic geography’)
1976	Miller retires; appointment of Dr Ian Thompson as ‘Professor of Geography’ and Head of Department
1978–94	Establishment of the Departmental Occasional Paper Series (see Lorimer & Philo, 2009)
1986	Thompson stands down; appointment of Dr Joy Tivy as Head of Department
1986	Department officially renamed Department of Geography and Topographic Science
1989	Tivy retires; re-appointment of Thompson as Head of Department
1990	Department hosts IBG Annual Conference, coinciding with Glasgow as European City of Culture
1992	Thompson stands down; appointment of Dr John Briggs as Head of Department
1998	Briggs completes term of office; appointment of Professor Ronan Paddison as Head of Department
2002	Paddison completes term of office; appointment of Professor Chris Philo as Head of Department
2002	Department officially renamed Department of Geography and Geomatics (with Earth Sciences technically as a constituent ‘Division’)
2002	Institution of MRes in Human Geography, subsequently secures ESRC and AHRC recognition
2004	Department plays prominent role in 30^th Congress of the IGU, held in Glasgow
2005	Philo completes term of office; appointment of Professor Trevor Hoey as Head of Department
2005	Department merges with Earth Science and officially renamed Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences
2007	Institution of taught MSc in Geospatial and Mapping Sciences
2008	Final closure of the Honours degree in Topographic Science (or Geographical Information and Mapping Science, as it had been renamed in 2001)
2009	Centenary of teaching and researching Geography at the University of Glasgow
Source: Various, but see Philo with Lafferty (2009) for further details on the earlier years.
Notes: AHRC = Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK); ESRC = Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
IBG = Institute of British Geographers (now united with the RGS [Royal Geographical Society]); IGU = International.
Geographical Union.

Acknowledgements

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped in the production of this theme double-issue, notably the authors for their enthusiastic participation and cooperation, but also Andrew Riley from Taylor & Francis for commitment and contribution to the final stages of the project (well beyond what might normally be expected). We would also wish to acknowledge all of the people who have helped to make such a success of the Centenary as a whole, with a special thanks to Yvonne Finlayson and Les Hill.

Notes

¹Topographic Science is a uniquely Glasgow phrase, coined to make clear the sophisticated theoretical and technical aspects of the surveying process; the more modern, and widely understood, name of Geomatics is now preferred.

²The Department of Geography and Geomatics, as we were called from 2002 to 2005, formally merged with the ‘Division’ of Earth Sciences in 2005 to create a new composite Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences. Unlike some other mergers of this kind elsewhere in the UK, this was a grassroots-led initiative, reflecting the linkages developed over several years between our physical geographers and the earth scientists and also with the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) at East Kilbride (managed and part-funded through the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh). Despite the inevitable teething problems, this merger has worked remarkably well (and amicably), but one downside is that we are currently located in two buildings, with departmental activities split between the East Quadrangle and the Gregory Building.

³In many departments, the story might be more one about the shifting relations between Human Geography and Physical Geography; for us, this story has in effect been displaced to one about how Geography and Topographic Science have intersected.

⁴He has composed a piece of music, Geographia Mundi, to commemorate our Centenary, which was performed in the University Chapel to close our Alumni Day.

⁵Professor Massey received an Honorary Degree at the Graduation ceremony in July 2009, when our ‘Centenary Geography Honours class’ also graduated. Honorary degrees in recognition of the Centenary were also awarded to Sir Kenneth Collins, Professor Jane Soons and Professor Ian MacDougall.