91原创

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, 91原创 professor Lindsay Naylor realized she wanted to write a book that would challenge the status quo in geography and academia at large.聽

While writing her book,聽, inspired by work by geographers at the margins, Naylor realized she was tired of hearing the phrase 鈥淎 change is coming鈥� in academia.聽

鈥淲hen you walk around your department, and you feel like you're the only one, and people keep saying, 鈥榊ou're helping be part of the change.鈥� It can feel a bit hollow because if the change is always coming, then when is it ever realized?鈥� said Naylor, associate professor in the聽Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences. 鈥淚 want to create a geography for now.鈥澛�

In her book, Naylor says that聽professors are currently evaluated predominantly on research and teaching, which leaves out many aspects, such as mentoring and the academic labor involved in service and care.聽

鈥淚 wrote about the Academy more generally, but, really, it's a love letter to geography and an invitation for geographers to be better and more attentive through care and through mentoring,鈥� said Naylor. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also a call to resist the grind of academic culture of produce, produce, produce.鈥澛�

Care is a critical part of everyday life, but it has remained on the margins in academia. Naylor argues that if caring practices could be instilled聽in everyday academic life, academics might be able to address some of the more pervasive problems鈥攆or example, the treatment of staff, how promotions are prioritized, or the way graduate students are paid鈥攚ithin the university.聽

Geography, specifically, is positioned to tackle these problems because it is all about valuing differences across space.聽聽

鈥淕eography is an interdisciplinary space, and I am suggesting that if we all had some training鈥攍ike my physical geography colleagues, my geographic information systems (GIS) colleagues鈥攊n feminist geography or feminist thinking, we could create these caring spaces across our discipline,鈥� said Naylor. 鈥淚 think geography is well placed to do this because we study difference and we try to understand and explain difference.鈥澛�

With regard to taking a feminist approach to geography, Naylor said that, for her, feminism is about creating equity.聽

鈥淭here are a lot of folks who equate feminism with this idea of only studying gender or only being interested in women's rights,鈥� said Naylor. 鈥淭hat's true for a lot of people, but for me, it is more expansive than just an understanding of gender. I think of it as how can we value people across the board.鈥澛�

Naylor points to a bumper sticker she has in her office that reads: feminism is the radical notion that women are people.聽

鈥淚 kind of expand on that to say, 鈥榝eminism is the radical notion that people are people,鈥欌�� said Naylor. 鈥淪o how do we then create spaces in which we value difference?鈥澛�

As for her hopes for the book, Naylor聽said, just because it focuses on geography doesn鈥檛 mean people from other fields in academia can鈥檛 benefit from it.聽

鈥淚t's a very conversational book, and in my wildest dreams, I hope that people will take it seriously and that it won't just be me writing to my bubble,鈥� said Naylor. 鈥淚 am writing about geography, but you could just as easily slot marine science in there.聽Anyone at the college, or anyone who's been in the academy, would find this book helpful. It鈥檚 a book about creating a careful academy, and anybody could find something useful to implement in their classroom, in their writing practice, in their lab spaces, in their field work, or in their approach to mentoring.鈥澛�