Friday 21 December 2012

Approaching the final year

Now that Christmas is so near (and it's really quiet at work) - I should be heading home soon. There is, however, some time left for a cup of tea and rounding up the autumn term. So, what has happened the past few months?

Well, the second article has undergone minor revisions and is submitted to a journal about a week ago. The third article has been revised and resubmitted halfway into November. The fourth article is sent for review together with the other chapters (by other authors) to be combined into an anthology on "Place and Identity".

We have moved to Forumhuset at Örebro University and two of us who started their PhD studies in september 2007 have finalised their project: November set the scene for Sanna's and Marcus' Dissertation parties. Moreover, Peter has had his final seminar and will be defending his Dissertation in April. Also, the organisation of CUReS is being revised and next year will bring some changes: from an institutionalised research centre, we will become a more loosely organised network.

Next year will probably also bring a trip to Los Angeles, where the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers will be held. Some weeks later, in May, I'm supposed to have my Kappa finished for a final seminar. So, that's what I should start with right after the Christmas break: writing a Kappa (synthesis)!

But first, Merry Christmas and a Mobile New Year!

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Lifestyle Migration Hub

Today, a blog post about my research has been published on a newly established Blog on Lifestyle Migration. Go on and have look!

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Almost a year...

Almost a year has passed since the latest item was published on this blog. I have been meaning to write, but "time flies", as the spatio-temporal saying goes...

Those 12 months in retrospect:
In November 2011, a manuscript on international rural placemarketing was finalised and submitted. In that month and the next, I was teaching on a course on population, mobility and urbanisation. In January, a conference on Place Branding was organised, in Utrecht, on which I gained many interesting insights in (mainly) city branding, and how it may or may not be translated into rural areas. I also presented a paper on rural place branding, which may be published in an e-book on the organisors website.

Since 1 August 2012, I am back at work after 8 months of paternity leave. Besides much administrative efforts, some reading and writing has been done during the past weeks.
  • For a course on Classical Geographical Texts, in which I have been enrolled since 2008, I finally found time and inspiration to write the final paper. I decided to focus on senses of place (Tuan) and affect (Thrift).
  • Simultaneously, I have been working on an article about Lifestyle migration to the North, for which I received comments in July. This article was the subject of a short seminar at Aspa Mansion south of Örebro, as part of the annual internal meeting with CUReS in August.
  • At that meeting, plans were discussed for the publication of a reader on place and identity, which may be on it's way before the end of the year. Ten texts/chapters are written. Contacts with the publisher will hopefully result in more information and perhaps more concrete planning.
  • A schedule is planned for a course on population, mobility and urbanisation, to be taught in November and December 2012.
  • Preparations are made for a final Seminar (Slutseminarium) for one of my colleague PhD Candidates, on Thursday 12 September.
  • A lot of reading rather theoretical texts needs to be done, in order to prepare for writing a synthesis (Kappa) for my upcoming dissertation.
This gives rise to looking forward. Also in this case, one can speak of almost a year. Either in June, September or October 2013, I will probably defend my dissertation. But first, around March next year, my final Seminar is due. Untill that time, so much work is to be done; finalising two articles and a chapter, writing a Kappa, finding an opponent for the final Seminar, etc.

Also next year, two interesting events are organised, in which some of our Human Geography department may participate; the biannual Nordic Geographer's Meeting (NGM), in June 2013 in Reykjavík (IS) and a conference on Emotional Geographies in Groningen (NL) a month later.

Hopefully, the next item on this blog will not take another year to be published!