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Teaching a contextual and feminist history of geography through role play: Women's membership of the Royal Geographical Society (1892-1893)

Maddrell, Avril

Authors

Avril Maddrell



Abstract

Focusing on the debate around women's membership of the Royal Geographical Society (UK) 1892-1893, a role play was written using archive and secondary sources and is reproduced here as a resource. In the first instance the role play makes women visible in the late nineteenth-century geographical discourse. It also shows how institutional practices, grounded in prevailing views, excluded women from institutional recognition, but that this was both local and contested. Although place and time specific, the example provided demonstrates the value of using role plays to tackle historical issues within geography. Largely qualitative analysis of student and colleague feedback shows the importance of placing these historical issues, especially gender, in wider socioeconomic contexts and suggests that by taking this approach a time- and place-specific event allows discussion of much wider issues on the nature and practice of geography, including notions of how geographical discursive practices have been validated, policed and challenged. The use of contextualized historical material appears to have negated 'backlash' responses to questions of gender and female equality. The role play can be used to initiate discussion on the nature of geography, the gendering of geography and international comparison of the historical practices of geographical institutions.

Citation

Maddrell, A. (2007). Teaching a contextual and feminist history of geography through role play: Women's membership of the Royal Geographical Society (1892-1893). Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 31(3), 393-412. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260601082305

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Sep 1, 2007
Journal Journal of Geography in Higher Education
Print ISSN 0309-8265
Electronic ISSN 1466-1845
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 31
Issue 3
Pages 393-412
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260601082305
Keywords feminist history, contextual history, role play, gender, archive sources
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1025206
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03098260601082305
Additional Information Additional Information : This article was developed from a presentation at the 2005 RGS/IBG WGSG "Teaching Gender workshop and a panel presentation at "Gender Interventions in Research, Teaching and/or Practice" at the 2006 AAG conference. It is informed by research undertaken as part of a British Academy-funded project in 2004-5: (Small Grant 3505)


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