IAG Annual Conference 2024

I just got back from the annual IAG conference based out of Adelaide this year. IAG was the first conference I attended when I was looking into starting my PhD (when it was based out of Hobart). It was also the first major conference I presented my thesis work (which was online that year due to COVID-19). Now, a few years later, I am feeling more at home in geography as a discipline and with the people whom I am regularly seeing at conferences. This year, I presented two papers that cross all of my current projects and work.

The first paper was based on my freshwater eel collaboration with Where Water Meets. The presentation included a more formulated description of the theory and methods underpinning the research as well as some allegories (as I like to call them) from the project. This was also a major opportunity to connect with a few other keen eel researchers to begin to lay the foundation for a more substantial project about eels. Maybe a book or a long ocean voyage…?

Example poetic carpentry allegory from my IAG 2024 presentation about eels in lutruwita.

My second paper was based on a combination of both my PhD research on local perceptions of climate change risk and my experiences working at Huon Valley Council and seeing how those very perceptions were playing out. I was presenting both as a PhD candidate at UTAS and an employee at Council, which was a unique opportunity to recommend getting into the practice of geography rather than just existing in academia. I noted that there was a significant opportunity for me to change policy on climate change for Huon Valley, which will hopefully form the basis for research into the future.