Over 2,100 geographers gather at Annual International Conference

With more than 2,100 geographers from around the world joining us at the University of Birmingham and online last week, the 2025 Annual International Conference was the Society’s biggest-ever to be held outside of London. Across four days, delegates enjoyed over 400 sessions, discussions, panels, workshops, field visits and Research Group gatherings. 

Showcasing this year’s conference theme, Creative geographies/Geographies of creativity, Chair of Conference, Professor Patricia Noxolo, hosted a series of events celebrating the creative movements of the West Midlands. These featured local artists, musicians, filmmakers and writers including poet Juwairiyyah Wali, filmmaker Tyriq Baker, musician-filmmakers Lexi Bushell and Ryley Morton, and key figures from the pioneering Blk Art Group, as well as activists, storytellers and researchers, including Anita Shervington, Dr ‘H’ Patten, and Professor Parvati Raghuram. 

With the intersections between geography and creativity shaping discussions across many sessions, delegates at the conference explored topics as diverse as authoritarianism and geopolitics, food poverty, net zero and decarbonisation, housing precarity, foreign aid, digital technologies, health inequalities, and community building in the face of climate disaster. Research Groups and journals affiliated with the Society held many of their key annual gatherings, both on the University's campus and elsewhere in Birmingham; this included socials, plenary lectures and discussion sessions on topics ranging from emerging urban infrastructure and energy justice to field visits delving into the historical geographies of sport and recreation. 

Between sessions, attendees took advantage of the (intermittently) sunny weather to gather in the University’s Green Heart, taking the chance to strengthen new and old connections with colleagues from around the world. In keeping with this year’s theme, the Green Heart marquee hosted artistic presentations centred on the changing physical world and people’s diverse creative engagements with it.