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The Bloomsbury Geographer relaunched
18 August 2020
Revival of on-line student journal
The long-established UCL Geography student journal, The Bloomsbury Geographer, was given a modernized update and relaunched in May this year.
Tomi Haffety, its Editor-in-chief, explains:
"A team of eight editors and a group of illustrators worked hard to build a new and attractive website with accompanying social media platforms. Since then, eleven articles have been published on a weekly basis, focusing on human and environmental themes seen through a geographical lens, attracting thousands of readers.
"The journal creates a platform for students to write more creatively about their geographical interests, and portray them to the wider geography community as well as interested members of the public
"The scope for articles is as diverse as geography itself, so far including topics ranging from the geography of Elton John’s Rocketman, to the racial hierarchies of Marvel’s Black Panther.
"A popular recent item, Portraits of Protest, is a photo-essay on the Black Lives Matter protests in London and Berlin, including original photography and commentary from UCL students.
"Three articles also examine the influences of racism from a geographical standpoint, part of a wider series on anti-racism in light of the current global movement highlighting racial injustice.
"These items have attracted much interest on social media, and even started a discussion on twitter between two UCL BAME students with contrasting views on the denaming of UCL buildings. Encouraging discussions and starting dialogues with readers is an aim of the journal, acknowledging that exploring contrasting viewpoints is vital to geography.
"This series of articles has been the most popular so far, reflecting general interest created by the quality of the journalism. The Bloomsbury Geographer team are keen to expand its group of writers and artists to make the journal an increasingly popular outlet for creative geographical writing.
"Where possible, illustrators can also use their creativity to interpret topics and design artwork for articles, and a keen group of photographers has allowed the use of their original photos.
"Relaunching the journal has allowed more voices to be heard from students within the Geography Department. With UCL’s international outlook, our readership is also spread across the world, with high interest in the USA and Australia, as well as many European countries.
"As 2020 continues, and beyond, The Bloomsbury Geographer hopes to publish more articles addressing any issues that can be included under the broad umbrella of geography."